I hate what I love part 1: frustration of a wanna be designer
This is the story of a drawing. If you like the final version, it can be purchased on Redbubble.
A little problem
I am not a designer, I am not an artist, I am a scientist. My thing is the exact sciences. Biology, chemistry, geology, ... as long as it stays away from math, I'm happy.
But, since the first episode of Dragon Ball that I saw, I want to draw. I want to transpose these imaginary universes that only exist in my head into the real world. The problem? I have no talent and nature has endowed me with two left hands. Yeah, it's not won.
So, even if all these positive messages that we find on the internet ("don't give up on your dreams", "if you work, you will get there", ...) are controversial because, in a simplistic way they imply that if you fail in a project it is entirely your fault because you did not invest enough yourself, and that we know very well that this is not really how it works, throughout in my life I have seen that with a good dose of effort we could achieve our goals.
And so here I am spending hours on Affinity Designer trying to lay something drinkable, like for example:
Is that cubism?
And yes. It's ugly. It's really very, very, great, ugly. So just to contextualize things (and show how well it messed up, at least initially), the idea behind that filthy yellow patte was to make a hippie / hipster sun that was going to convey joy and serve as an illustration. to a message of optimism. Do I need to say more?
Now comes the frustrating part of the story. We wouldn't say but before accepting ~~ the defeat ~~ that I was not going to get out of it, I spent 1 to 2 hours tweaking the knots to try to get something drinkable. Believe me, when after 2 hours spent in front of the computer trying to make a drawing (which seems) relatively simple you come out with such a shit, the only thing you have in mind is to throw everything by window and never touch a pencil or drawing software again!
But hey, if in my life I had given up on the first or second or third attempts, I wouldn't have gone very far. Anyway, I'm sure I wouldn't be where I am today. For once, change of strategy: I change the arms and I add a little texture and after 30 min more:
Is it cubism ... textured? ...
Yeah, it's not much better. But now there is a texture ... life is made of little joy, eh? ...
At this point I had wasted enough time on this design so I decided to stop and go back to the beginning to review my strategy.
1. What was my original idea? * Make a cheerful design that supports an motivational quote.
2. Why a hippie / hypster style sun? * because I found it cool and I think the audience for this design will like, identify with this style
3. And, what the hell then? Why is it not coming out? * oh, smart guy, you don't have the impression that if I had the answer to this question I would have already laid the drawing ??? ... Yeah, thinking about it a little, it's clearly because that I can not visualize the finished drawing. Even if I like the style, it's not really my trip and all of a sudden I lack reference and I wonder if this is what the public will like or not. Even though I draw for myself, I also draw for those who are going to see the drawing.
4. Ok, but then, we abandon the idea or are there things that you do / visualize more easily that could be framed in 1.? * KAWAII !!!
And that's how an hour later came out the final version (which I like):
That's all folks
So yes, I could have insisted, looked for more reference image, took my little sketchbook and spent a few hours in pencil (it's easier than on iPad for me) to make a drawing that corresponds to the original idea. But, there is a moment when it must be recognized that the time / results ratio is not too great.
If it was for my Magnus Opus, ok, but in the case of a design that is going to be seen by almost no one and probably have less than 10 sales on
Redbubble
...
In conclusion, I like to draw. I like to create things. But at the same time, I hate this learning process, I hate spending hours doing something and eventually don't get what I wanted. I know that someday it will be easier, but in the meantime, it's frustrating.
