A Cleaner World

A New World - From Sketches to Final Illustration

I started with the sketching exercise, trying to follow the advice of drawing freely and without judging the ideas that came out. But I soon realised that the theme “A New World” was much more difficult for me than I had expected.

Some of the ideas that emerged during the sketching process were interesting to me, but they simply did not seem to respond to the theme I was supposed to explore. I found myself struggling to move beyond my own experience and to translate the rather abstract idea of a “new world” into something that could become a meaningful image.

At some point, I put the exercise aside. It took me quite a while to come back to it and try again. The main challenge was to overcome my resistance to the subject: to imagine something beyond what I already know, and to push my imagination far enough to create an image that could express the idea in a simple but meaningful way.
In total, I produced 26 sketches. From these, I selected two ideas that seemed to have some potential. But I was still not completely convinced, so I went back to the drawing board and created a third one.

In the end, the third sketch was the one that interested me the most. It led me to the idea of looking at our world from a different point of view - imagining what the world might look like if some of the things we take for granted, such as war and greed, could simply be switched off.

Small pencil sketches on paper for the initial ideas, which I then scanned and developed digitally in Adobe Photoshop, using layers and digital drawing tools.

Here is the final illustration, first presented on its own and then in its final editorial context, with the magazine title added to the cover.

I wanted to keep the image simple and let the idea speak for itself: looking at our world from a different point of view, imagining a cleaner world where war and greed could simply be switched off.

The first image shows the illustration on its own, while the second shows how it works as a magazine cover. Most importantly, I tried to follow James Yang’s advice and have fun with the process, even when finding the right idea was not easy.

One of the biggest challenges for me was learning to manage the different layers and channels in Photoshop. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but I am committed to improving and becoming more confident with the tools. Any suggestions or feedback would be very welcome!

Many thanks, James, for your guidance, encouragement, and generosity in sharing your creative process! I would highly recommend your course to anyone interested in illustration. I particularly appreciated the openness with which you share your working process, your ability to distil an idea down to its essence, and the many practical insights you offer throughout the course!