Nuki News #14 - The 2 Minute Rule Applied to letting go

I watched a video recently about the 2 minute rule! With last week’s  conclusion that I need to let go of my expectations with art to be more loose and free and true to myself...it just takes something as simple as being ok with a terrible drawing. So every day I’ll spend a minimum of 2 minutes in photoshop, just doing a scribble. A Squiggle. Save it, and move on. Some days I might continue more, some days I might just stop there. Eventually though the goal is to not be intimidated by the prospect of drawing ever again. It’s just something I *do,* like breathing, tweeting, typing. Being so precious with every picture I make has been robbing me from pursuing my ideas for too long after realizing it last week, and discussing with you and others on Twitter and Patreon.

You can find the video here - honestly it’s really good, if there’s been anything you’ve wanted to get in the habit of doing, make a 2-minute version of it! And we’ll work on it together!

https://youtu.be/-3QJke9_Z4o

Speaking of work though, I also decided to apply a similar sort of minimalist thinking to a new project I’ll embark on - making character designs! It’s something as a teen I’d wanted to do, but for XYZ reason I just didn’t really pursue it. As a result, I’ve had these characters in my head for a decade now, and haven’t ever drawn them once! I also want to see if I can form my own process/method of designing a character in a professional sense, to build an artist portfolio. There is a strong part of me that has endured over the years of wanting to be a part of cool projects, and someday I might be involved in video game production to make art for it, so I want to be ready for that! 

So I’ve broken down a process of character design into 90 minute chunks. And during this week I’ll spend a day or two during my streams to work on these. I don’t want to be too precious, I want to always be thinking about what I am prioritizing for every step of the way. Here’s how it works out: 

1 hour of research - 1 Mood Board Created

30 minutes of Gesture Drawing - 3 selected

-Break 1-

30 minutes of Silhouette generation - have 3D form created.

1 hour of outfit design - 3 outfits(10 min) and then Value keys.

-Break 2-

30 minutes of Lighting Set up - screenshot taken

1 hour of Grayscale painting

-Break 3-

45 minutes of Color Application - color gradient folder made

45 minutes of Material and Edge refinement - set up for lighting

-Break 4-

45 minutes of Lighting - only needed areas of contrast and material selling

45 minutes of Refining - face, hands, effects of contrast, finisher values.

Of course, I don’t expect to do these in one day(which is what I’d do previously). I’m also going to firmly remind myself that it’s totally okay to have to scrap everything I draw, and re-do it. I will do this for 4 characters in this story I have, and then see how I feel about it. I’ll also adjust my process after each one and see how I feel. Since I’m not giving myself oodles of time(90 minutes can fly by so quickly after all) it’s totally fine to recognize the designs I do come up with won’t probably be final, either. I don’t even expect myself to get to the coloring phase! 

So that’s the plan, folks. Thanks for giving me your feedback last week, especially to Sunny and Shotking, and other kind folks on twitter helping me get more clear on this whole thing. I’ve got a plan of action, you get to see me execute it!! 

What sort of things are you guys going to do this week? Do you want to get into a habit you want to try making a ‘2-minute’ version of?