Hello Artsy Peeps, today I will be sharing with you how I plan my art to create the image that I have in my head. This will result in creating maximum results, clarity, and direction while creating your art. The example that I will be using is a painting I did in 2022 called “The Toad Has Spoken.” For the full time-lapse video and story on that click here! Also, if you stay till the end of the article, I’ll be sharing a sneak peek of a children’s book that I’m currently working on. I’ll be sharing the process on that as well. The Vlog version of this (if you choose to watch instead) will be at the bottom of this article. As always take what I say with a grain of salt. Because in the end you need to do what’s right for you and works for you! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

First and for most, everything starts with an idea. Doesn’t have to be a big idea. It can be just as simple as wanting to paint a night scene. Or the clouds looked beautiful and inspired you to create. In those moments, quickly sketch or jot down the idea. But here’s the key factor. Write down how you want your art piece to feel. If someone was to look at your art, how do you want them to feel? If you’re painting clouds, are they bight and fluffy as the sun rises bringing in hope and ambition for the day? Or is a storm about to come in bringing in challenges and anxiousness?

To enhance the feeling, what are the elements too? Does your piece convey that it’s dry and hot out or is it wet and cold? what’s the environment like and color pallet you choose? Down below, you can see how I jot down and did a couple rough sketches of my painting “The Toad Has Spoken.” It says frog but changed it to toad later. Also, more than likely, you will probably end up doing about two to three rough sketches and thumbnails to get the final look and feeling of your art. Please ignore the misspelled words haha I wanted to quickly get all my ideas down. And also has a lot of love to it hence the water stains and tars.

key words here, magical, fun, glowing, wet, etc. I also wrote down possible ideas and elements too like koi fish in water, cosmic frog with horns, alien and frog on lily pad, etc. I know how sketches can get kind of sloppy so writing helps in describing the elements and key factors in your art.

Like I promised, I’ll show you a sneak peek of a children’s book I am currently working on. Here I did timelines and sketched scenes out. I did about two rough draft timelines until I came up with the final scenes, story lines, and characters. Again, many times this does happen to where the first draft or sketches get changed a couple of times.

So next time you start a painting or what ever art endeavor you embark on, keep in mind what feeling do you want to convey your audience. What type of elements or colors do you choose to enhance this emotion. In doing so, you will be able to not only create beautiful works of art but being able to tell a story where someone will be able to connect deeply to your art.

Thanks for stopping by artsy peeps! See you next time!