Debra Keirce

The Engineering of Realism - 2. Quality / Cost / Time Triangle of Optimization

Our artistic process is only as fast, good, or affordable as its weakest step. In engineering, individual steps in a manufacturing process are called unit operations. To optimize your studio workflow, it helps to look at these operations through the lens of efficiency.

Imagine each step of your creative process as a link in a chain. The time, money, or quality of each step determines its strength.

Let's focus on Time. The speed of your entire process is dictated by your slowest step - your bottleneck. If your longest delay is waiting for an oil underpainting to dry, that is the link holding back your momentum. To optimize, you brainstorm questions:

Can I use acrylic paint for the underpainting instead?

 Can I introduce an alkyd medium to speed up dry time?

Then, research whether any of your ideas can be implemented. If you make that change, that step is no longer your bottleneck. The title of "longest step" now moves to something else, like planning the composition. You then tackle that link: 

Can I read composition books or use digital thumbnails to speed this up?

Eventually, you will hit a baseline where you cannot shorten the steps any further. But by doing this exercise, you now know exactly which operations hold the most leverage. You can keep an eye on them, and when new technology or better supplies become available, you re-evaluate.

The Three Attributes of the Triangle of the Optimization Triangle 

While you want to shrink the time and cost of individual steps, you want to do the exact opposite for quality. This brings us to the classic engineering trade - off called the project management triangle.

Whenever you adjust one side of the triangle, the others must react. It is rare to improve all three at once. Typically:

• Increasing Quality requires an investment of more time, more money, or both.

• Decreasing Cost usually sacrifices speed and overall quality.

• Decreasing Time almost always reduces quality or requires a higher budget.

To master your personal triangle, look at these three attributes with nuance:

• Time: This isn't just raw minutes; it’s about friction. Differentiate between time spent doing what you love versus tedious tasks. For instance, a rock tumbler takes days to run, but because it operates passively in the background, it doesn't drain your personal time or energy.

• Quality: Measure this by the metrics that matter to you - archival properties, technical prowess, storytelling impact, or the elegance of your materials.

• Cost: Cost isn't just currency. Think of cost in terms of all your limited resources, including studio space, physical stamina, and the impact of materials on your health.

Operating at Your Best
The goal is to finish with a well-defined triangle and a studio process where every single step is as optimized as it can be for right now. Because your life and goals change, it’s worth revisiting this framework regularly to see if new circumstances warrant a thorough re-optimization.

If you treat your art process with the same strategic care an engineer brings to a manufacturing line, you will always operate at your peak. It doesn’t guarantee an automatic masterpiece. But, it ensures that far more amazing things have the room to happen.