Henrik Karlsson on Substack

Let’s say we create a sketch. It’s really exciting, and then we think, “OK, this is going to make a great oil painting.” And now we spend months working on the painting. Many people find it hard, after putting months into a painting, to look back and say, “You know what? That first five-minute sketch is actually better than the painting. That’s the

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Sketches show us how messy the creative process really is. You need to explore. You need to goof around. You need to postpone the self-criticism. The worst thing you can do as a creator is compare your initial draft to somebody's final one. https://t.co/vfABz1sLGz

Some of my favorite artists make “to-draw” lists. David Shrigley will make a huge list of fifty things to draw a week in advance. Having the list means he doesn’t have to waste studio time worrying about what to make. “The simple thing I’ve learned over the years is just to have a starting point and once you have a starting point the work seems to ... See more