Sunday, February 03, 2008

Flip Horizontal

Want to know a trick? Want to get a fresh view of your work and see your awful 'hidden' mistakes with immediate results? Scan your sketch into photoshop and choose 'flip horizontal,' and it will give you a mirror image. Believe 'you-me', your weaknesses will jump out at you like an old 3-d movie. You may scream in anguish and frustration, but hey, you're still in sketch phase right? Better now than after you've spent time painting it. So get those 3-d glasses on.

If you were a fly on the wall during the seconds before I flip my sketch, it'd be similar to someone waiting on their chosen answer in "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire." Will it work? Will I hit the jackpot and go right to the painting stage? Or will I have to go back to the drawing board and start over?

Completely unrelated, but just one of those strange things that happen in every day life--I injured myself with a chewable tylonal. Now, how on earth could someone manage that, you may ask. Well they come in blister packs made of some very sharp plastic, and I had it in my pocket ---and when I sat down, it scratched my leg--almost a foot long. Looked like I had met with the wrong end of a cat! Reminds me of someone I knew back in school who had to get their toe stitched after a run-in with a stale rice crispy that had gotten stuck in the carpet. I think I'll keep my tylonal injury...

'Scuse the (probably) numerous grammar, spelling and structural mistakes. It's late--3 am. And there's a reason why I never became an editor.

4 comments:

Roberta said...

I've always found this to be a great help. It's an immediate self critique. I also try to live with a finished illustration for a day or two. Sometimes you can be too close to see some of the errors.

Hope your leg heals soon.

Ginger*:) said...

I do this too, but sometimes I will leave the work as is and pretend I didn't know all about this. I have had my work flipped a few times for editorial pieces, so the horror of it all comes back to haunt me from time to time.

Jennifer Thermes said...

Great tip, Paige! One of those that I know, but always forget I know.

Sorry about your leg. That tylenol can be dangerous... :-)

John Nez said...

Yes, I remember when I discovered that trick back in art school. I still flip my drawings over on velum...

I've heard that those irregularities in form might be caused by astigmatism in one's eyes... which I have.

But of course I can scarcely draw anyhow, so what would I know?

Beware those chewable Tylenol packages!!!

lol!