Tuesday Tips: Planning Art?

Hey, Doodler here with another Tuesday Tips (yeah I know its Wednesday but we can let that one go can't we )

So Let's face it, other than a few gifted people, planning is a dread for most of. Especially when it comes to creativity. After all you inner muse doesn't want to plan, he/she just wants to create. Moreover, with all that work that goes into a painting how are you suppose to know what to plan and what should just flow. I am here to help you with a few things that you must do before you paint so you can get straight to the fun bits.  

(Note: Some of these are more painting or Digital art specific but I feel it can be adapted to anything )

• Know your colors:
This is important especially when it comes to Digital Art. Knowing what colors and mood you want to use before you start can save your hours of work from ending in trash a few moments later. I am not saying you are not allowed to change any colors. But having a general pallet for guidelines can save you a lot of trouble and might in fact help your artistic juices.
• Have an outline:
If you are anything like me you love to get to the beautiful details, the strokes of the feather or the fluff in the clouds as soon as you start. DON'T! If you don't have an outline of what you want where none of the details will matter as they will have to be adjusted later anyway. Instead, do yourself a favor and get the outline ready.
• Know your medium:
This is not as obvious as it seems. Yeah sure, you know if you are going to be on a computer or doing acrylics or stitching but there is not more to a medium than just that. For instance, what software are you going to use, or what thickness are going to use for the colors, what paper or what style? Dry painting or wet painting? Knowing a good idea about these things will help you concentrate on the more important things in the painting and gets a lot of stress out of the way.
• Decide on Size:
Like before this is not as simple as it sounds, knowing not what size your paper or canvas is not enough, it goes deeper. You should have a good idea of things like how much paper do you plan to occupy, how big is the background compared to the subject, is it a landscape or a portrait? Do you need space for the frame, or do you want to go border less? You don't have to answer all of them but starting from a good ground can get your running at a good speed.
• Look into the future
No I am not asking you to be psychic. Just have an image of what you want the end result to look like. This is will not only help you plan all things above but will also motivate you through the process as you look forward to that end masterpiece

In the end I feel planning your next work is an artistic process itself and there is no one way to do it. Listen to your heart  and know what you want from it.

So what do you think? Is planning the most essential part of an art piece, or a hindrance to the process? Comment below and let us all know.