CTRL+Z

The age of the undo is upon us. Computer generated and computer aided art has been and continues to be both a blessing and a curse for me, primarily because of the undo. The blessing: there are no consequences to the mark or decision you make, as there is always CTRL+Z. The curse: there are no consequences to the mark or decision you make. On one hand, the undo allows you to seek perfection in the exact process you wish to find it. On the other hand, who's to say that the route you choose in seeking your version of perfection is the right one? One of the most beautiful things about almost any traditional art form is the "mistakes" which very often turn into something entirely unexpected and better than what you had anticipated. Again, on the other hand, the undo does speed up the work flow which in turn leaves more time for experiments in other areas, pushing the work further.

A work within the 3d realm like Toy Story was experimental and is still very influential. There must have been thousands of mistakes along the way to finishing it; imagine how grateful each person must have been when they could just press CTRL+Z. The same goes for me when I'm working on the computer and unfortunately it's the same for when I'm not working on the computer. I can't tell you how many times that while I have been drawing something, I have literally reached for CTRL+Z. Obviously I was forced to work without it and in doing so I have discovered so many things that I otherwise would have missed. That's one of the things that I find most frustrating about a lot of computer artwork: many people seem to take for granted that there are no consequences to their decisions and that they don't need to search out mistakes in other areas of their work. That's my first thought when I get too content with my work on the computer; there are no consequences to what I'm working on and I need to search out mistakes to make each piece better than it is. If I do go too far, there is always CTRL+Z, but the point is that, for me, I need to search out mistakes, otherwise my work can't be complete.

 

Thanks,
Chad