Workflow: A Practical Guide to the Creative Process

A clear and concise guide for anyone who wishes to engage in a creative endeavour. Full of really great techniques, methods and ways of thinking about the creative process. It offers ways of coming up with ideas and actually getting them done. Ways of planning projects, big and small. Ways of staying original and sharp. Ways of staying in focus. Its all about being practical and creative and getting those two to work together. Great for creative professionals and for non professionals alike!Written very clearly, not condescending and not too 'tutory'. This book feels as if an extremely experienced workflow professional is having a straightforward conversation with you.

I was hesitant to purchase this book because of the price point, but it contains some seriously great advice for working creatively that I had not been exposed to before. As a teacher doing creative projects on the side, this will help me in my side work and will also be useful in helping my students reach higher levels of creativity.

Geared mostly toward visual artists, this book tries (and succeeds for the most part) to help you push past some common pitfalls and find ways to tame the somewhat elusive creative process and produce good work when you need it.As a bonus, the illustrations are gorgeous.

Every creative person must have this on the shelf!

Well written!!

This is an excellent book about creative process, profusely and skillfully illustrated by the author (nearly every page has illustrations, many of them in full color), that will quickly take its place among other classic books on creativity for professionals such as: advertising executive Alex F. Osborn's  Applied Imagination  (1953), mechanical engineer James L. Adams's  Conceptual Blockbusting  (1974), toymaker Roger Von Oech's  A Whack on the Side of the Head  (1983), choreographer Twyla Tharp's  The Creative Habit  (2003), writer Todd Henry's  The Accidental Creative  (2011), psychologist Keith Sawyer's  Zig Zag  (2013), and so on (not to mention many books about specific artistic media). This book is not just an inspirational/motivational book (such as Steven Pressfield's  Turning Pro ) but is the kind of hands-on instruction that you would get in an art-school studio class.All books about creativity (such as the ones I mentioned above) seem to be "flavored" by the special expertise of their author—for example, Twyla Tharp's book can be profitably read by anyone but is clearly the work of a choreographer—and this book is clearly the work of an animator; the book's easy-to-read conversational style has the flavor of visual art instruction and not, for example, engineering or business literature.This book is focused on the creative process of professional representational artists. People such as illustrators, animators, graphic designers, and game designers will find it especially relevant. Designers of commercial products and services can already consult a bounty of other books on "design thinking" and design methods that may be more relevant to their work. People such as scientists, engineers, doctors, journalists, and lawyers who need to solve problems that require more analytical techniques will need to look elsewhere for relevant books on problem solving.Five elements form the core of this book's explanation of "creative workflow": Capture, Concept, Vision, Production, and Plan. The middle three—Concept, Vision, Production—are the typical stages of a creative production process. The last, Plan, is a kind of "manager" role that you play whenever needed. The first, Capture, is a kind of master skill or "superskill" that is the basic activity of the whole creative workflow.Five of the book's sections are devoted to each of the five elements in chapters that cover topics such as: different kinds of capturing techniques (called wet captures and dry captures, getting personal, exaggeration, condensing and expanding, etc.); safety rules for capturing well (focus on communication not craft, don't invest too much effort, don't limit yourself to your comfort medium); "pattern breaking" techniques (take a break, change your tools, get silly, harness more brains, etc.); forming concepts; safety rules for forming concepts well (start from within, don't overdo it, choose—don't mix); making "the study" (dry study and wet study) and "the premake" (testing the vision early in a way that is simpler, briefer, cheaper); safety rules for forming visions well (set a time frame, "maybe we'll use it" if it works, juice up the mundane, challenge it); separating the roles of artist and critic; producing in passes; "asking the right question" as critic; safety rules for producing well (let your mind lead the way, stick to your vision); and "managerial" skills (linear chunking for small projects, scaling up to large projects with layers and slices and placeholders, and always working with the larger context in mind). Another section covers a case study, and the last section presents key principles of creative workflow (structured chaos, short bursts of work, big-picture awareness, accepting mistakes as essential features of the process, and fractal-like self-similarity of the process at different scales).Doron Mayer, animation artist and author of this book, said in the preface to this book that one of the things that inspired him to write this book was the insight that he gained from reading a book about screenwriting, which helped dispel some of his anxieties about his creative process and also improved his animation art. The fact that a book about writing helped Doron become a better visual artist suggested to him that there is a general creative process that applies to all art forms, and he wrote this book to explain that process.Incidentally, it is not surprising to me that Doron was helped so much by reading a screenwriting book; like him, I have found that books about writing have some of the clearest explanations of creative process (Hillary Rettig's book  The Seven Secrets of the Prolific  comes to mind, but there are many others too). Screenwriters may have some of the most universally relevant ideas since they are thinking about multiple media simultaneously: the structure and language of the written script, the actors performing the story, and many other aspects of the final audiovisual product. The idea that artists can learn from people working in other media and even in other very different fields was no surprise to me, since many years ago I had an art teacher who taught exactly that, and who showed us the connection between visual art and the ideas in books like English professor William Strunk's  The Elements of Style  (1918) and popular science writer Simon Singh's  Fermat's Enigma  (1997).I like how one of Doron's goals in this book was to help readers overcome any fear of failure by giving them the detailed "process knowledge" needed to trust their creative process in the midst of what often seems like chaos. If you feel you need more of that kind of knowledge, don't hesitate to pick up this book. Indeed, I think almost all artists who are at the beginning of their career today would be foolish not to study this book.

I was on a time when my abilities to come up with this good concept were always blocked. So I wandered off to seek some guidance. This book had helped me see clearer how to take the right directions for the creative process - allowing the winds to blow wildly on certain times, and give a guidance upon in what timing to hold the positions and not scatter too far off.Dear Doron, Thanks for bringing this way of solid representation in such an abstract topic

I feel blessed that I got this book, it was like a creative therapy I dint know I needed even after being in a creative field for a decade. I recommended it to a lot of friends in fashion / animation industry as I feel its applicable to many realms. I read 100 pages in the first go cos I couldn't keep it down. Yet to start chapter 13 but il take a break before I dive in again.1. It spoke to me at so many levels and re-affirmed some of the good practices I was doing sub consciously2. It highlighted so many mistakes that I have in my current workflow which I was always tip toeing around3. It took me to so many previous incidents where I have had these road blocks and STRUGGLED4. I am part dyslexic so reading was always a challenge for me as a student. The way this book is structured, with notes/ drawings/ easy to remember tone and excellent anchoring examples, it makes it so easy for me to assimilate, which means its even easier for a regular reader.

A fantastic guide for artists and creatives looking to create a healthier cycle of productivity and mindset within any medium. Went through the whole thing and took some great concepts away from it, like how to counter “art-block/writer’s block”, how to separate the battle between the inner artist vs. inner critic, and how to clarify what you want to accomplish and anchor it as best as you can to avoid messiness & confusion down the line - just to name a few. Artistic creation and independant management of getting ideas and emotions across can be a grind and even scary at times, but this book really aims to inspire confidence and clarity when approaching the creative process. I highly recommend for artists or creatives of any medium!

This book is written in a very clear way, breaking down the "complicated" and often messy creative process to a very logical and simple one that's easy to follow and understand.What makes this book extra special is all the practical tips and methods to deal with different stages and challenges that any creative person faces during the creation process (for example, how to deal with being "un-inspired" or not knowing how to start when facing a blank page).As an animator this book helped me tweak the way I work and even though I only implement few of the workflow tips it suggests, I can already see a big difference in how much more confident and organized I am in my work.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who considers himself as a creative person, and even if you just take a couple of things out of it, it's already worth it.

This well-written book meticulously packs in a LOT of essential tools and guidelines, while still managing to keep it accessible and digestible. Highly recommended for any industry professional, teacher or student!