Rough Sketches – Working Out The Details

Rough Sketches – Working Out The Details

by | Mar 8, 2018 | Illustration

Okay so you’ve taken the time to find some really good background reference. What next? Well it’s time to crank out some rough sketches.

When working with an Art Director on an illustration project it’s appropriate to provide them with at least three rough sketches. It helps to get a dialogue going concerning the details of the scene. This in turn will help when working with a model during the photoshoot.

The model you are photographing for your illustration project will really appreciate seeing a rough sketch. It will most definitely help them visualize how they should be acting out the pose.

Working on rough sketches is a great time to plan and think. You can certainly use a multitude of techniques when composing your scene. I like using a grid, I also like to use big compositional shapes. Compositional shapes are big areas of light and shade.

You can also use compositional shapes to help organize very complicated areas of your image. Grouping things or people together in similar values is a great way to think about compositional shapes.

There should be a method to the madness of creating quality illustrations time and time again.

So far my method is inspiration, thumbnail sketches, background reference and now rough sketches.

 

 

Remember every artist’s process should be unique and different. There is no one size fits all to process. The point of this Illustration Process course at Drawing Tutorials Online is to get you thinking about how you go about creating images.

Are you flying by the seat of your pants? If so you need to start thinking about a process that gets you consistently good results. The main difference between a professional artist and an amateur is consistency.

That’s why I’ve created this course for you. I want you to understand and master your personal process for creating great art.

Thanks for watching.

 

Your Work Process

Your Work Process

by | Feb 8, 2018 | Illustration, The Blog | 1 comment

Sometimes I completely forget all about my past life. I once was a full time freelance illustrator working on several book projects at one time. My life was all about creating high quality artwork under the pressure of deadlines.

Sitting down to paint for eight to ten hours in a row, then working on sketches for another project at night was commonplace. The pressure was certainly there.

I definitely had to preform, I had to keep up my quality control. If I didn’t I would loose clients. The market was flooded with many talented illustrators just waiting to take my place.

After eighteen years I had enough of deadlines. My body just couldn’t take the pressure of creating detailed paintings for extremely long periods of time. Not to mention I had completely lost interest in the subject matter that I was painting.

That is when I decided to put my talents elsewhere. That elsewhere was Drawing Tutorials Online. In essence I created my own publishing company. I created my own softer deadlines. I also worked on a subject matter that I become obsessed with, the figure.

This year will mark Drawing Tutorials Online’s tenth year anniversary. During the past nine plus years I have certainly critiqued a lot of member art in our critique gallery.

I have been critiquing some individual members for well over five years. I have seen much growth and I have seen much disappointment. Some members just have such a hard time improving. They take two steps forward then three steps back.

 

 

What I’ve discovered is that the members who struggle with creating finished art have absolutely no process for creating high quality artwork time and time again.

Now I do not mean creating a gesture drawing in life class, I mean creating a finished product. That could be a finished portrait, a portfolio piece for a gallery show or any image that takes time to complete. Not a rough sketch.

So I decided to finally teach my illustration process from start to finish. I never gave much thought to teaching my process for illustration. However I’ve noticed over the last couple of years it’s really needed.

Even if you are not looking to become a professional illustrator it’s really important to recognize that you need a process or system to create consistently good artwork time and time again.

Let’s face it our time is limited. Who wants to waste their Saturday working on a piece of art only to realize on Sunday that it totally does not work. That’s where frustration comes into play. We all know that frustration kills momentum.

If you are looking to end any frustration you have been experiencing with creating your art, I encourage you to start thinking about your process.

Currently I’m in the midst of creating a thirteen part “Process” course over in the members area of Drawing Tutorials Online.

In this new “Process” course I will create a finished illustration detailing my entire process from start to finsh. I mean everything from thumbnail sketches to review notes.

Now of course I do not expect every member to use my exact work process. That’s not the point of the course. I’m just trying to show members that creating consistently good artwork do not happen by accident.

If this sounds interesting to you definitely consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. My main goal for the website is to help members create better art, period. A system will certainly help you with that.

Thanks for reading! Now get started immediately with improving your work process.