Do you practice Retrospectives in art?

[LCT_m_a_d]

For those who aren't familiar, a retrospective is an agile scrum development practice where teams of documenting at least 1 new thing that was done well and 1 new thing that didn't go well. It's a blameless but specific process that accounts for things within control.
Usually this is done after a 2-4 week sprint/deadline period, and before planning ANY work for the next sprint period. This helps highlight personal strengths and highlights specific things that are roadblocks for personal improvement.

Example
what went well - thumbnail had a dynamic form that worked
what didn't - didn't plan out background, so I spent most of the time adjusting the composition

It's a surprisingly effective technique to help teams (who practice it). I've accidently done it as a programmer and discovered it was a thing big companies do. I've never done this as an artist and I want to incorporate it into my weekly art flow.

Have you tried it or an alternative?

[krissyhalo]

I've done something like this in art class but that's about it.

[LCT_m_a_d]

Cool what was it like for you?

[krissyhalo]

It worked pretty well. What we did was that my class did individual art projects on a particular theme and on the day that it was due, we hung them up on the classroom wall and critique it: one thing that worked well with the piece and one thing that could be improved. It was a neat experience and brought to mind what other people see about the piece because the artist can look at the piece and say that it looks good, but having other people look at it can help improve the art piece.

[rajillustration]

Yes. It's really important. I go into an art piece with a goal in mind--and at the end I do sit back and say "OK, what went well? What will I do better next time?" It helps me know that I'm learning as I go. Like I can't do every piece perfectly--but I can meet my goals. Sometimes my goals are about rendering. Other times my goals are about speed. Then there's times where my goals are about meeting client needs, which is a balance between speed and rendering.

But overall, you do have to step back and make these types of goals when you're looking at doing a longer term art project ( I don't call em sprints, but if I'm doing a comic or a series of matching illustrations) to prepare yourself for the work ahead. It helps you know your strengths and weaknesses, youknow?

[krissyhalo]

Yup, it definitely does!

[Caro]

I dunno if this is exactly the same application but I do something like this for basically every aspect of my life. Since I work from home and quarantine it’s been more important to keep a regimented system that lets me see clearly what I could be doing more efficiently!!

Right now I’m on a tight schedule with a graphic novel deadline that, honestly, I kinda goofed up early on in the project because I was letting other things take priority that I shouldn’t have. I’m currently penciling and inking 12 pages a week which now takes me from Monday to Wednesday and then I take the rest of the week and some of Saturday to work on my side projects that I’m hoping to send off after I hit this deadline.

Everyday I write out exactly what I need to do without any room for vagueness (instead of ‘work on comic’ my list now says ‘pencil/ink next four pages’) and segment my day into three hour chunks that I’ve kind of turned into a little game with myself to see how efficiently I can do a chunk of work so that the load doesn’t bleed into the next chunk.

I keep a log of how long it takes me to do everything and then at the end of the day I make a List of Things to Improve that includes from how quickly I get to lettering the comic to drinking more water and running more miles. And that list ends up also being part of the to-do list the next day and I cross those off if I’ve achieved them.

Part of this for me also involves not using the internet for more than an hour a day and it turns out I was not nearly as focused on my work as I thought I was before I started this!! I was working everyday through the weekends trying to get this stuff done in time and now I do it all over the course of three days between 9am and 5pm so I have lots of spare time for other projects.

[thecrystalrook]

Not really. I always find the retrospective aspect of agile to be a waste of time. Everyone says, "ya thats good, lets focus on this next time" and then nothing ever changes. So I'm not really willing to bring it into my art life

[nostalgicroxas]

I've done it and .... in short, I had to stop.

The cynic in me kept focusing on the negative and couldn't stop at one. Not good for my mental state.

Instead, I constantly reframe it to "how can I word this better?" "Is this clear enough?" "Does this need to be said this way, in this exact order?"

[LCT_m_a_d]

Well, normally when you have something in your negative column, you plan your very next sprint around the negatives with action items so you have to address it in the next sprint (even if it introduces new problems). Most commonly it's added to a workflow checklist or documented work-instruction.

I've worked in teams that does what your talking about versus teams who plan around retrospectives. The difference is pretty much one team does it to do it, while the other does it to improve performance.

I never want to go back now unless it's to incorporate it.