How to Start Your Art Project the Right Way

Starting a creative project feels exhilarating. The possibilities seem endless and creative energy flows freely. But most art projects never reach completion. The difference between projects that finish and those that fade into abandoned folders often comes down to how they begin.

Creative projects take many forms: a comic book, a series of illustrations, a tabletop game, an art book, or a portfolio piece. Whatever the form, the strategies for starting well remain consistent. Understanding these principles transforms project management from a creativity killer into a framework that enables deeper artistic expression.

Build Your Project Skeleton

Before diving into the creative work, define exactly what you are making. In professional contexts, these are called deliverables: the specific assets that constitute the finished product. For an illustration, that might be a JPEG at particular dimensions and resolution. For a comic book, it means 46 finished pages, a cover, interior title pages, and specific formatting requirements. This technical clarity might feel antithetical to creative energy, but it forms the foundation for completion.

The skeleton approach involves creating blank versions of everything the project requires. For a comic, this means 46 blank pages at the correct resolution with proper bleed margins. For a card game, this might be blank cards with just titles written on them. This wireframing or mockup stage makes the project tangible before any art exists. When trudging through the messy middle of production, seeing half the files completed versus half still blank provides concrete evidence of progress. Visual people need to see where they are in a project. Without this structure, you are working in darkness without a map.

Expect the Friction

There is a predictable moment in every project where ideas collide with reality. During development and planning, everything lives in idea space where optimism reigns. The concept feels perfect, the potential unlimited. Then assets start getting created. Pages that people will actually see. And suddenly even work that is objectively good can feel disappointing because it differs from the idealized vision.

This friction between conception and execution is not a sign of failure. It is a fundamental part of the creative process that every professional encounters. The difference between projects that survive this phase and those that die comes down to expectations and preparation. Professional deadlines often push through this friction because the work must continue regardless of feelings. Personal projects lack this external pressure, making it easier to abandon ship when reality fails to match imagination. Understanding that friction is normal, expected, and survivable changes the entire emotional relationship with project execution.

Define What Success Means

Projects fail when success remains undefined. Competing priorities create paralysis: Should this be perfect quality? Commercially viable? Just completed? An experiment in process? Each goal demands different approaches, and trying to achieve all of them simultaneously guarantees frustration. Before starting, establish clear priorities for what this specific project needs to accomplish.

Completion as success makes sense for early projects. Learning to finish teaches skills that no amount of abandoned experiments can provide. Experimentation as success works when exploring new processes or styles. Commercial success requires considering audience needs over personal artistic preferences. Quality as success applies to portfolio-building work where time is less constrained than excellence. Writing down these priorities before beginning guides thousands of small decisions throughout production. When the messy middle arrives and motivation fades, knowing why this project matters becomes the difference between pushing forward and walking away.