In order to realize our visions, decisions must be made, designs and strategies implemented. In order to master our creative process, we must balance our systems of order with our temperamental states of chaos. The battle between inspiration and perspiration, calculation and feeling, precision and impulse. Are we constructing or expressing? The push and pull of such dichotomies is ever-changing, each side at risk of swallowing or ignoring the other.

As comfortable as I am relying on instinct and intuition to guide me, these alone cannot build strong, complex structures. There must be a goal, and planning is essential to getting there. This doesn’t mean we can’t let inspiration enter our creative process. Style guides, thumbnail sketches, value and color studies: we need a playground to explore possibilities. Have other artists’ work in front of you for reminders of what you appreciate and would like to see in your own work.

Keep a sketchbook or a place where you can take notes and record ideas. A journal used for color palettes can be pulled out during the color planning stage of any given project or when something substantial grows out of an unplanned sketch and is suddenly thirsty for color. Get cozy with the color wheel and learn to think of it as a web of relativity, each hue also providing a value, a temperature, and a chroma. Know the alternatives and options offered by your tools, the many ways to achieve or enhance an effect. Consider luminosity and atmosphere provided by a thicker or thinner application of pigment. You are not limited by titanium white when you can also use lead or zinc, or layer a color thinly over another.

Some projects begin with an end point and leave little room for deviation. If your vision is clear enough, it won’t take orders from changing feelings, only suggestions. If an emotion seduces you away from your focus, pour it into a separate work or use it to make a variation on the theme. It can be risky to let emotion enter your meticulous workflow; trusting it to take the wheel is not an easy choice, but an act of faith. When it takes over and steers you in an unknown direction, your skills and knowledge are all you have to get you through with the artwork unscathed. Passion does not grant us ability; it is merely a jolt of adrenaline, a source of energy, a catalyst. To sustain any work, we must put consistent effort into finalizing our dreams and developing our skills. This is why it is never a waste of time to draw just for practice.

Try not to pressure yourself to adopt anyone else’s planning style or working method. Each artist has his or her own unique style. Find a balance that works for your temperament and vision. How rigid should your process be? How strictly should you adhere to a structure? Do your ideas align with your approach? Which aspects allow for looser interpretation? I like to leave mental room for changes to occur, trying not to cement a vision. I try to embrace whatever process the subject needs in order for me to hear it. At times, the brush acts more like a flashlight, tickling a mirage. It’s important not to let your eyes talk more than they listen, lest you misread the unuttered thoughts of your subject. A painting is an honorable agreement, allowing those thoughts to be shared without revealing their content.

Just as it is easy to under-plan, it is possible to over-calculate or be too obedient. Clinging to the security we feel from tight calculations may restrict our movement - literally. Enroll in a new course and branch out. That comforting sense of control when sighting angles and measuring distances can suddenly dominate a workflow and interfere with an artwork’s organic evolution. Measuring can be resumed after exploring gesture; it’s ok to live a little. Know when to let go and let your arm do the talking. Otherwise, we stifle the freedom in our expression. Good artists don’t avoid rules or assume they know better. They work twice as hard to understand them, until they become malleable in their hands. This is not to rebel against logic but to honestly capture a subject’s form when psychological, emotional, or mystical in nature. Mimetic representation is where we begin - it doesn’t have to be where we end up.

Don’t abandon a value study without good reason. But don’t let yourself feel lost without it. You can meander throughout your process, but eventually pick a direction. This can be done at any point with a little thumbnail at the corner of your page. Planning is armor against the chaotic nature of reality, a source of clarity when spiraling in spontaneous invention.

Perfection requires patience. Projects have a better chance of reaching a finish if there is a plan that sees it through. Just don’t let fear of failure or fear of losing control take over or stop you.