Step Back

Leonardo Da Vinci said this:

...it is good to retire to a distance because the work looks smaller and your eye takes in more of it at a glance and sees more easily the lack of harmony and proportion in the limbs and colours of the objects.
(Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks)

It's good to step back and view your creation from a distance, and it's especially easy if you're creating in the visual arts. You can reduce the size of the photo on your computer or you can physically step back from a painting. I do this often when I'm working on a photograph (CTRL/-, in Photoshop). It helps to see the "whole" and not just the magnified parts.

I have also done this with other creative works, most recently a theater script that my wife and I wrote. As I thought about how to maximize our rehearsals. I decided to look at the relative length of each scene and plot that on a histogram. This not only let me see the flow of the play, but also let me plan each rehearsal so we covered all of the scenes by dress rehearsals. It looks like this:

So remember to step back and get perspective as you create.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

We took a mini-vacation this week and stopped at Hot Rod City in New Philadelphia, OH. It's part museum, part restaurant, part gift shop and part ice cream parlor.

 

More on plan the work; work the plan

I talked about the approach I take to accomplish complex creative projects in my 8/19/11 post. There are essentially 4 steps:

1. WHAT has to be done? Identify every piece of the project no matter how small.
2. HOW LONG will each piece take? Keep track of your estimated and actual time spent.
3. WHEN will each piece be done? Schedule a start and finish date.
4. WHO will deliver each of the pieces?

Tonight we have a theater show that has a cast of 13 and will utilize a lot of different elements:

     - 17 sound cues

     - 6 videos

     - 2 backdrop graphics

     - 6 original comedy sketches

     - 5 original video “commercials”

     - 14 “knock, knock” jokes

     - 1 magic show

     - 20 minute music package

All this was done by a relatively small team working together for about 2 months, which could only be done because of planning the work and then working the plan.

If you’re a creative that is also responsible for delivering, there is a strange combination of hats you wear. One is a multi-colored, frumpy, bouncy, audacious hat that lets you dream and create and explore. The other is a black, stiff, non-descript hat that lets you organize, plan and stay focused on completing each task. Wear them with pride. Wear them and deliver.

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK

It was made to be driven, but it's now still and forgotten.