Thoughts on effectiveness

[Yng]

A fast and effective work flow is obviously important and can save you from many sleepless nights. Lately I've been thinking a lot about how different artists achieve this.

At first I thought maybe there's this optimal drawing/painting process one can go through to keep a fast work flow, but it quickly occurred to me that there probably isn't one process that works for everyone. A process that is perfect for one artist may have several unnecessary steps for another artist. Some people may, for instance, need a lot of time to work on the initial sketches for a piece, while others are good at imagining compositions in their head, and saves time by requiring a smaller number of sketches to get a decent result.

What are your thoughts on this? Are there some time saving methods that work for all artists (beside the obvious "don't be lazy" ones)?

How much of a difference is there between artists? Can you name good artists who have very different and contrasting ways of working effectively (possibly with links to examples)?

Can you list the things you do to work effectively? Or perhaps what you avoid doing?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. :]

[John Corvid]

One step that saves me a lot of time in PS is to adjust brightness and contrast after I have created the highlighted areas in an image (usually with dodge and burn), instead of trying to get the right values by hand.

[Qitsune]

Save often, and save iteratively (work on a file for a bit, then save it as number 2, work on it for a bit more, save with a diff number, rince, repeat.) Not only you can go back if you merged some layers or if the file goes corrupt, one day you will want to make steps-by-steps and tutorials and it will be much easier.

If you plan on working on something for a long time, name and classify your layers, that's what layer folders are for in PS. Save your files in places that make sense. Be generally tidy and develop good habits.

[J Wilson]

The only real process that I think most good artists follow is working from the general to the specific. Basic shapes and large blocks of color that are increasingly refined.

I suppose most commercial artists probably go though some sort of thumbnail sketch stage to work out general compositions, often followed by a tighter sketch done larger. There may be a color study, or only a value study done quickly to get the plan worked out. In many ways, the more steps you have, the more predictable the outcome (to a point). If you skip a stage, you'll only need to solve that problem later, which may be more difficult when you are also juggling other problems at the same time.