It’s Friday. I suppose I have work to do but…you know…it’s Friday.

So I posted about my interview with Ape on the Moon earlier in the week and there was a lot of lovely feedback! A consistent point of discussion was regarding my thoughts on how results of your efforts relate to each other. I wasn’t expecting such a response but hey, internets.

Because of this I figured I’d share it here as well (with new and improved visuals! Procrastinating from real work oh ho ho). Before I get into it I would like to stress that this is not gospel. This is simply what I, Andrew Kolb, have experienced upon getting into doing what it is that I do.

So let’s do this.

I don’t claim to know all that much about the world, but early on I did think that as you put in effort, results would follow (the above chart). Now I don’t want to dwell on what really defines “effort” or even “results”. What I do want to communicate is that my motto is that you really only get out what you put in. I think Newton’s law of physics is kinda on my side on this.

Anyways, I figured that as you continued to put in effort, you would consistently (albeit slowly and steadily) see the results of what you’re doing.

To me, this is wrong.

Here me out.

Instead I offer this revised graphic. What I’ve come to see (and again, completely personal…allow for variation), is that the results don’t change at a steady pace but instead have blips and jumps. I’ve realized that you continue to put in effort and you may see results, but not necessarily proportionate to what you’re trying to do.

Very important. I want to stress this: DON’T GIVE UP! The reality is that the true jump in results is somewhat out of your control.

I say it’s magic and it’s out of your control but in reality, I’m kinda lying. The only reason this jump happened is still because of you. Maybe you were featured on a website or an image/song/photo (I think this applies to all creatives) caught on social media! Whatever it is, it’s broken you from that slow incline and taken you to another level. So in a way it’s out of your control (with whomever features you and so on) but it was still because of what YOU did that brought them to you.

Just keep in mind that the job is not done.

Now that you’ve made that leap to the next stage of where ever you’re heading, you’ll still have to keep putting in work. Now you will have to do as much as you did before if you want to keep going.

Remember when I stressed that you shouldn’t give up? (It was like 2 minutes ago, stay with me.) Here’s another reason why. The hardest part of this creative gig you’re in will come right before the next jump. You’ve been putting in all this effort and seen a little increase (and be sure to appreciate this, great and small) but it feels like spinning wheels in the mud. You may think that this is as far as you’ll get and that there’s no more magic.

Well when you stop believing in fairies they surely die.

What I’ve learned is that you have to keep going because if you stop putting in effort you won’t see results. If you stop creating work then there’s nothing to feature on a blog or there’s nothing to be shared around online or off. And if you DO stop, there won’t be anything to hook on to and take you to that next stage.

KEEP AT IT AND THE MAGIC WILL HAPPEN. BELIEVE.

To recap (because this bit helps me make sure I covered everything I wanted to say):
• Results are rarely (if ever) a steady incline
• Results may be slow, but are still happening
• Keep doing what you love and magic will happen
• That magic will push you to the next level
• The last two steps keep repeating so long as you don’t give up
• The hardest part of it all is right before the magic - push through this
• I think you’re super rad

And that’s it (I think). Yeah.

Oh hey. So I’ve been getting a bunch of emails and questions regarding my process. While I’m all about the personal replies (and you’ll still get them, don’t worry), I figured I’d prepare this post for easy reference in the future. Time travel was soooooooo tomorrow.

While this is by no means the only method to my madness, it will (hopefully) cover some of the consistencies across much of my work. Today, class, we’ll be going over how I made The Neverland.

I usually start with scribbles on scraps of paper. With this image I had a pretty clear vision in my head so after a couple of sketches I was comfortable moving on to the next stage.

I find working at a VERY small size early on ensures that the purpose of the image is communicating. Without any extra details or distractions I can usually determine if it’s strong enough to move on to the next step. Think big and draw small. I’m sure someone, somewhere, said that before now.

At this point I’m happy with the very rough layout, so I’ve moved on to working at a larger size. Details can now be introduced. For a while I tried working through this stage on the computer but found I was wasting a lot of time. Apparently computers are good for this. I’m not the first (nor will I be the last) to swear by putting pencil to paper, but dang if it isn’t just the best! There’s a sort of alchemy to it that I can’t explain.

If you notice the blue lead, that’s me redrawing the basic forms from the small sketch. My favourite pencils are those mechanical ones (and the cheap ones, they’re just the right size). They never dull and that is awesome. Time for pencil sharpening is a luxury I don’t have.

Computer time! After scanning in the tight sketch I’ll use the dark arts of Photoshop to work with colour. Again, I had a pretty clear idea before getting into it but sometimes hiccups are worked out at this point.

Now that I’m happy with the colours, it’s time to get down to business (and by “business” I mean “draw Captain Hook’s head to look like an island”). Much of my past was spent in Illustrator before I purchased a tablet and I think it’s really shaped my workflow. I tend to work in multiple layers based on the objects. I try not to have overlapping elements on the same layer (and you’ll see why later). For example, the brown rocks and red part of the sun are on one layer. The purple land and the pink part of the sun are on the layer above. I build up my layers until I’ve completed all the basic shapes.

Now that the simple objects have been drawn, it’s time for texture! Since each shape is on its own layer, this allows me to lock the transparent pixels (in Photoshop’s layers palette there is a little checker board beside the word “Lock”). Doing this allows me to paint only where there are already objects. Now I can start using a few brushes I’ve made (in the above image there are two: a scatter brush on the clouds and a gouache brush used on the land) and not worry about keeping inside the lines.

There are times where I don’t want to keep to the solid forms. Sometimes the image calls for texture that just can’t be contained. The “foliage” is on another layer (maybe I’m overly neurotic with my layers, but hey, I do what I want). And again, you can see the rocks as a good example of locking the layer and then painting freely to introduce texture (it’s kind of like using a stencil to contain everything).

And after all the big texture stuff is done I go back in and add the details and small elements (again, another layer…so sue me).

And that’s it! So to recap (because frig this was a long post for me):

• Rough sketch at a very small size
• Tight sketch at a larger size
• Computer time with colour blocking
• Create shapes in flat colour
• Texture it up!
• Write blog post and worry it’s all incoherent

That wasn’t so bad, eh? If I’ve skipped over something that you want discussed further, use that hand ask feature.

Oh and there are still a handful of prints of this left over hurrrrrr.