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PART III SHARING YOUR WORK
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Very few grown-ups decide to get good at something and then methodically school themselves. Instead, most of us gain expertise by letting it evolve naturally. We find ourselves grabbed by an idea or a project. We get started because we want to make something. A short-term goal drives us, not a long-term goal. We learn slowly, over time.
something you find here into your own personal media.
Rogues’ gallery: ordinary snapshots that create a happening and a community.
This chapter will try to feed into that organic, self-directed process by offering ten project ideas to help you get going in a new direction. These projects use many of the terms and techniques you have re- viewed in the preceding chapters. You will find step-by-step workflows, but the direc- tions I prescribe are general enough to be adapted to many situations or interests.
Binding Relationships: picture books good enough for the coffee table.
I am indebted to my friends who came up with these projects and allowed me to share them here. The write-ups, although compressed, try to capture each individual’s perspective and passion. I hope you will be inspired to integrate
Webisodes: your own melodrama based on snapshots of posing friends.
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CHAPTER 7: PROJECT IDEAS
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chapter 7: PROJECT IDEAS
Elsewhere I’ve talked about the value of trying out your skills with small projects. Each of the previous chapters ends with an activity that involves playing around with one or more of the techniques and creative options met in that chapter. The “Playing Around” sections are like sketches. Here I’m encouraging you to try larger projects. However the ideas here are motivational and directional, not prescriptive.
There is no particular order to the ten projects that follow, except that I tried to put the simpler and quicker ones at the beginning. Skim over them all quickly and then return to places that pull you back. Creative minds work best when they fol- low their own interests. Here’s the lineup:
SKETCHING VS. PAINTING
Design a Font: just a few minutes and nine bucks turns your handwriting into a digital font.
Let’s think about the difference between a painting and a sketch. A sketch is a learning opportunity. Even artists who are well established will spend time sketch- ing, because it gives them a powerful way to study composition and work out an approach to something. With a painting, on the other hand, the finished work is everything. Paintings are more ambitious undertakings that require more time and resources—and more ego, too.
WHERE IDEAS COME FROM
All the project ideas that follow are paintings, not sketches. Each one has already passed through the process of trial and error. Certainly those who have provided these projects had their false starts and dead ends. That is part of the creative process. But the individuals you will meet had the vision, drive, and tenacity it takes to see a project through
Blogging: a way to track and share life’s journeys.
to completion. They paid attention to each detail and, in the end, that is what always makes the difference.
and encouraged his eye to wander with purpose.
Nourish your creative radar. Prowl the air- waves and the Web in search for inspiring works. My partner for many years was Eli Noyes—one of the most creative souls I have ever met. Eli always worked beside a huge bulletin board, and he’d use push- pins to post things that caught his eye: an invitation, a doodle, a clipping, a postcard. He’d move these around and switch them out from time to time. Eli said that the board edited itself: Stuff that held his in- terest would tend to move toward the top. Eli wasn’t collecting good ideas, per se. He was simply responding to what caught his interest. I once asked him which ideas had made it into his work as an animator and director. He couldn’t remember any specific use but was quite sure that the bulletin board kept his imagination limber
Gone but Not Forgotten: preserving and celebrating old photographs.
Pattern in Space: creating a pattern that’s targeted for a specific object or space.
Landscape Tweaks: the art of enlargements and show- ing off your best work.
Collaborative Cookbook: sharing recipes via the Internet.
Digital Storytelling: how oft-told stories become polished short movies.