Ugh, another shinyperfect.

For those of us just joining us, a shinyperfect is that fabulous, perfect idea for a painting or a song or a novel that just, you know, pops into your head and you just know that it’s the best idea ever for a painting or a song or a novel.

Only when you start to work on it — it sucks. It’s hopeless, nothing like that fabulous perfect idea your brain had and then just handed off to you without any more idea how to finish it than you do.

(You can read about the entire concept here.)

Why am I bringing the concept up? Because I can give you an object lesson on how the whole scam works and what to do about it.

First of all, I am the editor of the Backstreet Arts &… Zine, encouraging writers and artists to submit their work, then editing the submissions and laying them out in a 20-page zine. We started last fall, and we’re about to publish volume 2, number 2: PROGRESS.

But we can’t publish PROGRESS without a cover, and that has fallen to me to provide.

Here’s the cover of volume 2, number 1: FAMILY:

The main thing to know is that in the page layout program (Affinity Publisher), each item you see on the cover is its own object that I can move around, change, bring to the front or send to the back, etc. For example, the photograph of the Good & Deserving Assistive Feline™Abigail is its own layer, and everything else floats on top of it.

So I had this idea: For the theme of PROGRESS, I thought I would sketch a Saul-Bass-style cover of construction workers in the midst of building… something… within the confines of the cover’s structure.

If you’re not familiar with Saul Bass, yes you are. You may not be familiar with his film Why Man Creates, though, and you should be. Here’s the whole video, and here’s the sequence that has inspired me:

Got it? So with that shinyperfect in mind (!), let’s look at what I’m facing.

First I printed out a rectangle the size of the cover block (faint in this image) and just scribbled some ideas down.

Easy enough, right? Simple idea, just a lot of pen and ink drawing. Eventually.

Next step, print out an actual blank cover to extend those ideas.

Now some planning has to take place. Remember how all those elements float independently on the page? I have to give some thought about this line drawing is going to interact with those elements. For example the “& STUFF” row at the bottom is easy, but what about all the ropes and pulleys threaded through the giant ampersand, and the “…ZINE” box that has become a crate for a construction worker to sit on? How will I lay out the drawing and keep those elements in the right perspective?

Here’s my plan so far:

Since the ampersand is the most complicated bit of interaction between the cover elements and the illustration, I will include it in the sketch — and then when I place the illustration I can simply hide or delete the original ampersand. Likewise, with the “…ZINE” block, I’ve outlined it so I can accurately sketch the crate in, and then I can select and delete the “paper” inside the block, revealing the “ZINE” behind it. Et voila!

And here’s where the magic stops and the blood and cursing begins.

Now I have to make the drawing, don’t I? Shinyperfects are great as long as they’re in your head, but once you yourself are in charge… So. Much. Work. Ugh.

And that, boys and girls, is today’s lesson in creativity: It sucks. (Yes, I promised to show you what to do about it. That’s the next lesson, assuming I actually work on the ABORTIVE ATTEMPT and get the thing done.)