I attended a lecture last night. The speakers were from a prominent design studio in Salt Lake City. A comment was made about the necessity of immersing your head into a problem long enough to have the solution present itself. Another analogy was along the lines of the need to fill the well before you could draw from it. I think there is truth in these ideas.

I find that when I do research for an assignment, that often it will seem like I'm just wasting hour after hour staring at pictures that are only vaguely related to the subject matter I'm researching. I may feel that I have not found one single image that really gives me the reference that I am seeking. However, I am always amazed that if I spend long enough, I start to get my head wrapped around the subject. Once I saturate my senses enough, I can draw from scratch and still have the authenticity needed. For example, once I was asked to render some building designs that had a Tuscan flair. At the time, I really didn't know anything about what made Tuscany Tuscan. Initially I was hoping for one specific picture out of my books and internet search that I could use to draw directly from. I never found that one snapshot. But after several hours of looking I had seen so many depictions of the tuscan landscape and houses and buildings, that I could feel intuitively what was tuscan and what was not. The result was better in that I was able create something original that had genuine tuscan style without merely copying a particular photograph.

I learned the value of research and reference while at Disney. The thing I regret most is that so often, the time and budget constraints don't allow for much time in study. It's hard to convince some clients that there are no short cuts to quality.