The Ominous Page 1
You know it’s there, looming. You feel the twist in your gut when you know it shouldn’t be this difficult, but it is. You push it away, for longer and longer intervals, but you know the longer you leave it, the bigger it grows, and the longer it will be before your proper plans can actually start.
What am I talking about? The agony of the blank page. For some, this creative literal blank slate can be inspiring- the thought of all the amazing new work you’re about to draw is exhilarating. But for many others, it can be the opposite. Perhaps you’ve experienced that particular dread that comes from not know what to put as your first page? Wanting to do something GOOD to get the sketchbook stared with a bang, then being scared that you’ll ruin a good sketchbook and have to go buy another one because obviously if you do something you don’t like on page 1, the entire sketchbook is dead now. Obviously. But you spent good money on getting the right size, heft and paper, let alone brand or style of book, so you don’t want to buy another one- you just want this one to be PERFECT.
But hey.
It isn’t going to be perfect. But it needs to at least be there. There’s no way around this one, you’ve just got to put pen to paper and START. Otherwise you’re running into artist-block territory.
So how do you do it? How do you start a new book, release the pressure and get the first page out of the way so the really good work can start to flow?
Here are my three top tips for starting a new project and beating the initial blocked feelings:
Destroy the whiteness. That clean white page, the first page of your sketchbook, or notebook, or procreate layer- this is it, your biggest barrier. It’s not the only one, but it’s a biggie. You can’t overthink this, you’ve just got to ruin in. Other illustrators I know used to literally scribble up that first page to kill the blank-ness. It can be left as a scribble or you might even come back to it later and turn that scribble into something else. Or if you like to doodle, don’t scribble, doodle. Note- if you doodle your way into just creating a title page though, you’ve not really destroyed the whites, you’ve pushed it back a page. The next page will loom. So destroy that one- and destroy it better.
Spill ink on it. Tear it a little bit, then illustrate the tear. Make a hole, and turn it into a window. Rub charcoal or graphite on it, and draw with your eraser. It’s already a mess now, so whatever you do is now fiiiine. Spray-paint it, or use regular paint, for texture. Carve into the paint and draw with an implement, like an old credit card to a stick. Anything, to destroy the white page and not be precious.
Mind map. Write, doodle or collage what’s on your mind. Don’t out too much thought I not making it good, it doesn’t have to be an anchor you tie yourself to for the rest of the sketchbook, but it’s just a snapshot of what’s on your mind right now, in this moment that you’re begun in. (Hoping that makes grammatical sense.) If it gets artistic or aesthetically pleasing, great, but don’t worry if it doesn’t. It’s just a first page.
Count down. Pick up your pencil, or mark-making tool of choice, get ready, and count down. Close your eyes, pick a thing to draw that you can already draw quickly, whether it’s a cat face, a lightbulb, your nose or that graffiti ’S’ we all felt so cool about in the 90s- you pick. Count down, from nothing greater than 5, and then open your eyes and draw it. Hell, you don’t even need to open your eyes. That’s another top tip, right there, for free.
How did it go? I hope your first pages are suitably marked now, and now you’re on your way! The boat has left the port! Let me know about your journey so far in the comments below.
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