Surrealistic Fineliner Illustration

Surrealistic Fineliner Drawing Techniques

“We have reached the end of this course Domestika course. I hope you have learned the skills necessary to create your own surreal illustration. Before I say goodbye, I'd like to share a few tips to help you complete your final project. First, we learned how to use the fineliners and wear them off by hatching. It's good to have different levels of wear because that way you can create a dedicated grayscale. Remember to always use wipe paper so you do not stain your paper. Try looking for a few pictures of the same object from different angles to get a 3D image in your mind. It can also help to take an object and place a single light source on it. For textures, it's important to find an image that you can really zoom in on so you understand the details. There are no wrong ideas in this trade, just let your mind go wild when looking for the right one. As you could see throughout the course, my idea was a hippo bathing in a wheelbarrow carried by a heron. I highly encourage you to choose your own idea for your final project. That is the whole point of the course: to give you tools and a framework for your imagination to reign free. Having said that, it goes without saying that I can not wait to see what associations you come up with! So, back you to the nitty-gritty: once you have the idea you want to develop, you need to create the foundation of the actual drawing. Remember to constantly glance at your reference material and do your pencil strokes lightly, so lines are easier to erase. In my view, it is best to start with the larger shapes and work your way down to the details. Try not to rush your tracing and strokes at this stage, as any mistakes you can catch here will save you a lot of time down the road.

Do not apply paint until you have all the information you need about the finer details, light, and textures (which I recommend you write them down on paper). Remember to start with the most important and difficult parts, because if you make a mistake or mess them up early, it's less painful to start over. The crucial parts are generally the eyes, the face, and all the parts you are unsure how to draw. Now the hardest and most important parts are done, and the rest is just filling out the blanks. However, this takes time, so do not rush it and try to create an environment you feel comfortable with. I would advise you not to work more than 2 hours straight. Take some time off to refresh and even look at things from a different point of view. Knowing when you are done sometimes happens when you take some distance and nothing bothers you anymore. It is a gray area, though. The sweet spot is feeling that everything looks as three-dimensional as possible. You can tell by looking at the balance of the contrasts (they neither underdone nor overdone). Beware of going too far, such as making the drawing too dark in certain areas. This can have a negative impact on the light of the drawing. This, in turn, will severely affect the life of your drawing. Its life will be lost in the darkness. So be careful with this. This wonderful and quirky surrealistic drawing is completed. The only thing left is to sign it, scan it, and share it with the world. I am really curious to see what your unique mind has come up with. You now have all the information you need to get to work. Once you have it ready, click on "Create Your Project" to submit your project. I really hope you enjoyed the whole process of drawing a fantastic world with fineliners and that it helped you unleash your skills and creativity! Thank you again for taking my class. I look forward to seeing all the steps you took to create your final project! Feel free to reach out to me in the forum, where I will be pleased to give feedback and assist you to the best of my abilities. Also, I encourage you to engage in conversations with the rest of the students. Many greats things come from interacting with other creative minds! Bye!”

Partial transcription of the video

“We have reached the end of this Domestika course. I hope you learned the necessary skills to create your own surreal drawing. Before we say goodbye, I would like to give you some tips on how to achieve your final project. First, we learned how to use the fineliners and wear down the tip with hatching. It's useful to have different grades of wear because it will help you create different gray tones. Remember to always use a smudge paper so you don't stain your drawing. With the reference materials, try to get several images from different angles of your object, so you can make a good 3D imag...”

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

Course summary for: Surrealistic Fineliner Illustration

• Level: Beginner
• 99% positive reviews (754)
• 16459 students
• 4 units
• 15 lessons (1h 58m)
• 9 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Areas

  Artistic Drawing, Drawing, Ink Illustration, Pencil Drawing, Realistic Drawing, Traditional illustration