If in doubt ...

When I worked in publishing one of my touchstone mantras was 'If in doubt, cut it out.' and this has stood me in good stead in other areas too. It is so easy to complicate, and then to over complicate, so I usually benefit from standing back, squinting my eyes and then taking out the scalpel.
Recently I have been concentrating on trying to loosen up my design thinking. This is both helped and hindered by the trying. Diverting attention to thinking about printmaking has been one really good solution which has allowed room for 'left field' ideas to start popping in (like my recent obsession with the notion of repeats). But my brain keeps trying to come up with themes or specific ideas. One such was the notion of women finding the limit or edge. I decided to try to make a four directional work with figures finding an inner edge rather than more conventionally breaking for the border. The above is my first rough on-screen drawing.

I had recently scanned a soft pastel exercise which had consisted of collaged paper which reminded me of islands, and which had inner torn edges which I liked. It might work, I thought. Hmm. There are many aspects of the above which I think are OK, but it was just not doing it for me. Well, if in doubt, ... so I stuck with the elements I liked, and suddenly a whole new dynamic developed.

The whole design has now gelled for me and it is at present resting on the back burner until I am ready to finish it. I prefer to leave designs-in-progress to one side for a wee while once they have reached a certain stage - even if I can see one or two elements which I want to tweak immediately. Fresh eyes can be most informative and can do away with tentative fiddling.