The scary thing about a blank canvas
By: Cosmin Serban
Tags: Design Process, Fear Of Failure, Designer, Overcoming Obstacles, Creative Process

Whether you’re a designer, a painter, or a writer, a blank page at the beginning of a project, a stupid, intimidating, blank void staring right at you is one of the worse things about being a creative. It’s one of the main reasons procrastination came to be, why most of us wait days before finally starting that new project that’s been on our minds, that collaboration we’ve been dreaming of for so long. Yet, now that they’re here, right in from of us, that blank page is like a giant stop sign.

Why is that and what can we do to change the situation?

After years of working as a designer, I still struggle with it. It’s like a wall I see coming with every new project I receive. Although it’s getting better, although I have dozens of designs in my portfolio that clearly state a blank page has never stopped me before, I still have to face it with every time and time again.

Sure, some of you will say a blank page is nothing but potential. Free rein to do whatever you please, to go whichever way your heart desires. But have you heard about that saying “Our danger is not too few, but too many options… to be puzzled by innumerable alternatives.”?

And here is exactly where my problem lies. Where do I begin when the sky’s the limit? Where do I put my pen down?

Exploring ideas through thumbnails

I’ll tell you where. After years of working in the field, I’m happy to say I did come up with a couple of answers to this common problem. Answers, exercises, ways to change the way you look at the problem — however you want to call it.

Although seldom, I can honestly say sometimes the blank page is a freeing thing to have. Sometimes I enjoy the feeling, sometimes I welcome it. But other times… other times you’re just too exhausted to see the possibilities. Sometimes, less options would be just perfect. Actually, one option would be perfect. To look at that blank page and just see the design taking form, the same way it does in your mind. Those days, the last thing you want to do is go through the whole process and put in the work required to make that blank page into something you can be proud of. Because on those days, a series of thoughts come back over and over again in your mind: what if the best I have in me today is not enough? What if I don’t have what it takes to get it done? To express and execute the idea I have in my mind at the same level? What if I’m tapped out?

You know what? That’s called being human. We all have days like these and, no matter what you do, they’ll keep happening from time to time. What’s important here is the way you decide to react to them. Will you roll over and play dead or will you take that blank page and create something? Or at least try?

Start with something small. A line. A word. A brush of color. Even if it turns out to be one of your worst creations, it doesn’t matter. Your blank page is not there anymore.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change — Brené Brown

Story time. A few days ago, before deciding to write this article, I spent forty minutes pacing around my living room, just trying to hype myself up to the idea of starting an illustration I was actually excited about the day I got the project. It wasn’t the idea of the project itself, but the idea of starting that kept me from sitting down at my computer. It’s so easy to let yourself get crippled by anticipation and invasive thoughts, to walk around the apartment or watch YouTube videos of others doing what you should be doing right now. Until it hit me. Instead of walking aimlessly for 30 minutes and allowing myself to waste so much time on a feeling that doesn’t go away until you do something about it, I could have explored ideas and “ruined” a dozen different blank pages. With anything. Doodles, dots, pointless scrawls. Doesn’t even matter. Just anything that could have, maybe, possibly, turned into something.

Applying colors to the refined sketch

Sometimes I get swept up in designs I had no intention of drawing. I start with that first line and end up with an illustration that doesn’t even fit the project. Other times, I insist with the direction I initially started with, even though it’s getting clearer and clearer it’s not the one I want anymore. But that stubborn part of my brain that believes the first “gut feeling” has to be the right one, keeps dragging me with it.

You know what the best part of a blank page is? It’s never the last one. There will always be another blank page waiting for you, another exhausting day, another “human moment”.

You find yourself disappointed with what you’ve created? Delete everything and stat again. A blank page can be your enemy, but it can also be your friend. Just don’t be afraid of it. It already has some power over us, let’s not give it more.