Thoughts on the Artistic Design Process
Talking about something is rather different than actually doing it. I wouldn’t consider myself to be a strong writer, nor someone good at describing the artistic design process. I am far better at the design process. I can show initial sketches, concept art, and my work up to the finished product, but when asked to explain my process, I often find it difficult to explain why I made specific choices.
As a former art student, if a piece has meaning, it is far easier to explain. I’m currently working on repainting a loot box from the video game Borderlands 2. This box holds a special meaning, as I am making it for a good friend I’ve played through the entire series with. If asked why I designed this, my response would be desiring to create a thoughtful gift to make my friend smile.
I purchased an official Borderlands loot box online, but was dissatisfied with the overall quality. The store-bought box lacked the freehand, comic style the Borderlands franchise became famous for. My intent in designing the new loot box was to make it appear more similar to the one in the game.
I can easily describe why I chose specific colors, brushes, or paints for the box. I chose golds, browns, whites and blacks as they best represented the true colors of the box. I chose four paint brushes, one flat and large for covering big areas, one mid-sized and rounded for general use, and two small, fine-tip brushes for the detail work. I specifically chose a multipurpose acrylic paint capable of sticking to plastic to ensure the piece wouldn’t tarnish as easily.
Explaining the “why” is easy. Explaining the “how” is difficult. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, if asked how I did something, I truly struggle to find a satisfactory answer. Generally, the process of making anything is constant trial and error before finally discovering the best method to achieve the desired appearance.
My experience in painting the loot box has been a never-ending cycle of trial and error. I’ll mix a color and it’s not quite right, so I’ll re-mix it, adding more colors I feel will better match what I’m looking for. Once this far into a design, decisions become more technical than meaningful, and in my opinion, it’s less enjoyable to analyze the technical process of the artistic design.
For me, the process of creating a physical piece is relatively the same as creating a digital one. Both start with an initial general idea before going through the same trial and error process until the achieved look matches the desired finished product. I usually take more risks on digital pieces as one can simply “undo” any unwanted designs with the click of a button. I would actually recommend trying out more unusual designs on a digital platform rather than a physical one for this reason.
Although trial and error can be an effective method in creating an artistic design, it’s best to have a basic understanding of what the finished product should be and how you will get there. If editing a music video, you should have a general idea of what themes resonate with the music, create a plan of how to achieve said idea, and finally use trial and error to aid in your creative process. Beginning with trial and error would take far more time to complete the project.
This is just an opinion, and I don’t believe the same for non-artistic designs. If you have different opinions on the matter, please let me know. I’m always happy to receive insights from other individuals. Come see me at the Digital Media Tutor desk in the Digital Scholarship Lab on Monday and Thursdays from 4–8pm!
