Hog Hammock -- Planning & Simplifying

     This may not be true for everyone, but I find that if I want to make anything I can be proud of I need quite a bit of planning to go into it. In relief printing, certainly, you need to consider exactly how you are going to portray you subject. I've found that linocuts have made me a better artist because they require me to plan and to simplify. My subject needs to be broken down into dark and light at the very least, and only a few colors at most. It requires me to examine my subject very closely and to chose how I am going to depict it with a very limited pallet. 

     "Posterized" images of the Beatles are a good example of this simplification (unfortunately, I couldn't find the artist or company that created this image, it's listed on a  wall paper site, but still a good example). Of course, it is easy to achieve this effect using software to modify photos, but it is valuable to be able to see things this way -- to boil them down to their essential values and lines. This skill is essential to a good artist. I find that it is very helpful to practice rendering scenes, or landscapes, or anything I'm planning as small value thumbnails before I begin a more detailed study. 

    Just because it's basic doesn't mean it is easy. I've just spent the last two hours sketching for my piece on Hog Hammock, and I'm still not completely satisfied. But, I think I've got a strong enough composition to press on, even if my sketch isn't as polished as I'd like it too be. Planning is important, yet I can say as a recovering perfectionist that if you get bogged down in perfectionism you will never finish anything, much less be satisfied with it.