If you want to create or like to understand why something just really speaks to you it's because of the craftsman behind the work. We artists claim that we don't like logic and hate details but the more I blog the more I'm learning that I actually obsess and strive to achieve these very things I can't seem to live with day-to-day.

Interesting huh?

That in itself is a near tangency. I get too close to my denial or get too into my obsessive nature and either way I can risk "certification"!

So back to this image and where I am. If you look closely the two flames at the top of the head are kissing the nexus of the barbs and the stars. They're all converging on the same point, flattening out the composition. I want the barbs to be under the star, which in turn should be under the flames. The burning brain should be above everything floating there. Well, the first three elements aren't quite right because of the convergence.

I was moving the flames down one pixel at a time and then two things occurred: first they started to look like horns. I want edge, not evil. Second the flame shots that shoot below the ears landed right on the red lines that mark the center of the star's legs.

What do I do? Well now I'm going to play with scale and moving smaller elements until I get what I want. I like the relationship between all of the elements and their sizes so scaling is going to be at the pixel level too. It's tight, but it will work.

Every professional illustration or logo I've done has had this problem. They can be overcome you just have to be more clever than your mouse!

Hope this helps.

| patrick |