10 Steps to Revision
Nobody likes revision.
Revision is often viewed in negative terms. We often think of revision as an indicator of failure, because we have to start over or make adjustments to our work.
Revision isn’t bad, it’s a natural part of the creative process.
Over a year ago I started working on illustrations for a children’s book that my brother, Ashley Sollenber, wrote, and at this point, I’ve lost count of how many times, I’ve started over, or revised my work.
Revision demonstrates learning and a better understanding of how you want to communicate your ideas.
Reflect on your creative process, so that you can learn how revision works best for you.
To get you started, I’m going to share my revision process for creating illustrations for the book, How the Bear met the Bee.
- Write and sketch basic ideas in a sketchbook
- Create basic drawings of the main characters in varying sizes, and cut them out.
- Place the cutouts and explore composition ideas
- Create full-page spreads, and paint
- Scan spreads and makes digital corrections
- Explore adding text
- Determine which illustrations I don’t like, and begin making adjustments… aka.. start over
- Scan new paintings
- Cut all paintings apart
- Put paintings back together digitally, making corrects in scale and duplicating for consistency.
- Use the final digital illustrations as inspiration, and collage the cut images together into final compositions.
That might seem like a long and winding path to you because it is. There are times where I allow the process to frustrate me, because I think that I should be faster, or make fewer errors. This mindset and approach aren’t helpful.
When I acknowledge that the above is a clear representation of my creative process, and switch from frustration to gratitude I end up having fun and creating interesting work.
What does revision look like in your work?