Conceptual Illustration: Big Ideas in a Single Image

Big Ideas in a Single Image

“This brings us to the end of the course. Thank you so much for participating! I really hope you have come to understand the immense impact that your art can have when you give your thought and your creativity enough space in your projects. Again, there might be thousands or millions of people out there drawing better than you. But no one thinks like you. Your experience, your character, and your creativity are unique. Use this as a kind of superpower and show the world your art. There will be days when things won’t work the way you want them to. Embrace that. It’s what makes you better next time. To quote Walt Stanchfield: 'We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.' Before we say goodbye now, let’s go over the most important steps in a short recap. Find your voice by choosing topics that matter to you. Find your topic by examining your everyday thoughts: Is there something that got your attention? Something you were happy, excited, sad, or angry about? Why so? Try to figure this out. It might have the potential to create an exciting illustration! If you still have no idea, take a look at your favorite website or the front page of your newspaper and pick the first topic that you see.

Keep in mind: Every artist begins by copying other artists. Even the Beatles were a cover band in their early days. But you will see that creating your own work, coming from your own mind, is not only more fulfilling, it also is the basis to becoming an artist. Try to create your own work as soon as possible. Embrace the weirdness and even your lousiest drawings. You will like them once you are a great artist because they are part of your journey. Once you found your topic, form it into a sentence and write it down. Put your phone away and turn the TV off to let your mind wander around the topic you chose. Make sure to create an atmosphere in which you can work. I, for example, have a tough time brainstorming when my kids are running around and climbing on my lap. Sometimes, I need to go to my art studio or the coffee shop next door. Find out where you can work best. Find as many symbols as possible for your topic―you can use the corresponding video lesson as a guide to what kind of symbols are out there. Roughly scribble down everything that comes to mind. Once in a while, take a look at your page. Do you see possible connections? Have you tried to look at your topic from a different angle? If you are stuck, try to imagine how one of your favorite artists would approach the topic. It’s good to create ideas that are as diverse as possible. Which of your ideas do you like best? Mark them as 1), 2), and 3). Then go ahead and form these three ideas into an idea sketch. It can be analogue or digital―whatever works best for you. Keep in mind though that in order to send your illustration to someone or post it in the forum, your idea sketches should be digitized. In case you sketched on paper, make a clean scan before exporting your sketches in PDF or JPEG format. Sometimes, you might see that some things don’t work out the way you had in mind. Don’t worry, instead just move on to the next idea. Once you have three rough idea sketches, feel free to share them with me and everyone else in the forum. Type in your topic and present your idea sketch underneath―one sketch on each page so every idea stands for itself. Sometimes you already know which one you would like to finalize. Sometimes the community and feedback of others can help you make a decision. If you want, you can let the community act as an art director. Set yourself a deadline and try to meet this deadline. Work out your idea in any way you want to. Analogue or digital, 2D or 3D―it does not matter at this point. Feel free to experiment, but don't forget your deadline. Share your work every step of the way in the forum. I am very excited to take a look at your ideas, being there for you if you need any sort of advice. I had great teachers, but I learned just as much from my classmates in art school. So go ahead and give advice to others in the forum. Ask them to criticize your work. When you comment on other people's work, please be kind to each other. First, comment on what you like about the artwork. Then mention your thoughts on improvement. Being criticized can hurt in the beginning. But at the end of the day, you will be thankful that someone has taken the time to give you an honest opinion. Trust me, you will learn from every feedback―good or bad. We all get better by receiving feedback and looking at other people's work. You will always have projects that you are happier with than with others. But with time your work, your brainstorming, and your drawing skills will improve immensely. Start forming a habit that works for you. You could create a new illustration every Friday. After only three months, you would have an art portfolio of twelve pieces that you could present to clients, friends, and family. And to us! I am very much looking forward to seeing your art. I will try to support you in every way that I can! Again, thank you so much for choosing my course. I had lots of fun and I hope you did, too. Now let’s be creative and keep in touch!”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project Hi, it's the end of our course and I wanted to take some time to summarize the lessons we've covered and the new skills we've learned. First, I shared my admiration with you of some of the artists that have shaped my work and inspired me to illustrate in new and exciting ways. Then we took a look at the basics of illustration and what we need in order to get our message across. We started with one of the most fundamental aspects of illustration: the power of symbols. We talked about different kinds of symbols, geo symbols, political symbols, sport symbols, all kinds of symbols...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Conceptual Illustration: Big Ideas in a Single Image

• Level: Beginner
• 95% positive reviews (82)
• 1917 students
• 4 units
• 16 lessons (3h 59m)
• 6 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Software

  Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Designer

• Areas

  Digital Drawing, Digital Illustration, Drawing, Editorial Illustration, Traditional illustration