Finish the Frog First
If you are anything like me, one creative idea quickly becomes several more.
You start making one thing, then realise it could become a sticker. Perhaps it could also be an art print, a card, a t-shirt or a pattern. Before long, you are planning an entire product range while the original piece remains unfinished.
That is why I currently need to finish the frog first.
One idea can become many things
I’m creating a 2027 calendar based on my adventures in Far North Queensland. The January illustration features a cassowary, and I can already see several ways I could repurpose it.
The cassowary could become a sticker or an art print. It might work on clothing or become part of a pattern. The individual elements from the calendar could eventually become products of their own.
Those possibilities are worth noticing. Repurposing artwork makes sense because it allows one finished illustration to work harder.
The important word, however, is finished.
Possibilities can become distractions
Seeing several possibilities inside one piece of work is not the problem. The problem begins when you start creating all those additional products before completing the project in front of you.
My February calendar page features a frog. I could spend my time planning products for the finished January cassowary, but then February would still be sitting there waiting for me.
The calendar is the current project, so the frog comes first.
Capture the idea without chasing it
You don’t need to ignore every new possibility that appears while you work. Write it down somewhere you can find it later.
The cassowary can still become a sticker. The calendar elements can still become patterns, prints or other products. Recording those ideas means I don’t have to hold them in my head or act on them immediately.
It doesn’t mean that I make them disappear and go ‘poof’ into the night, but that they are waiting their turn.
This creates space for me to return to the work that needs finishing now.
Finishing creates something you can build from
An unfinished illustration gives you possibilities. A finished illustration gives you something you can actually use.
Once the calendar page is complete, I can decide which other products make sense. I will have the finished artwork, the colour palette and the story behind the piece ready to work with.
Jumping ahead too early would leave me with lots of scattered beginnings and very little ready to publish or sell.
What is your frog?
Your frog may not be an actual frog. It might be the book you keep planning around, the course you keep adding to or the product that needs one final decision before it can be released.
You can keep all the related ideas. You don’t need to create them today.
Finish the frog first.
What is the one thing you need to finish before moving on to everything it could become?
