What Would THEY Say?

decade and a half ago, I attended an art academy. A new teacher was on a mission to teach us one thing: to step back from our work regularly.

We only see sharp in the center of our field of view, and if we step back, we see the work as a whole in that center and see what’s wrong with it. We might have gotten a proportion wrong, or the image might be off-balance compositionally.

The problem is that you get up close and lose yourself so much in the details that you forget the bigger picture. You need to take a step back.

And that is when this teacher would come up behind you and whisper, “Step back.”

For months, even years, after his lessons, I could hear him whisper, “Step back,” in my imagination. And then I did.

I recently stumbled upon a thread by a copywriter offering coaching, which interests me as I write articles like this one. I thought about it for a while, considering what they would say and advise, and I started implementing that advice!

You’ve probably already had a lot of instruction. This is my little corner, but there is a massive amount of free educational content online.

Play this little game while you look critically at your work: what would this teacher say? What would that artist advise?

We often already know! We’re just not applying this knowledge.

Try it out!

This Week

Another 3D model:

Casual Ear Model by Solidhumans

By solidhumans on Sketchfab.

Yours sincerely,