How illustrations are born
Posted: April 14th, 2010 | Author: Rick | Filed under: Blog | Comments OffI always start with a sketch – ALWAYS!
Even if its a few lines on the back of a napkin
It is very much a planning stage – It allows me to think beyond the scope of the tools in front of me – if I need to source an image, If I need to find an object, if I need to build something in a 3d application. I can have it all planned in advance just because I have it sketched somewhere.
If I know that I will have to commit time and resources to a illustrative project then I need everyone to be “on the same page”. The only way to do that is to produce a drawing that we can all look at and approve to get to the next stage. I’ve found through trial and error that (for me anyway) the best way to do this is to do it on tracing paper – this means I get “physical photoshop layers” that I can shift around.
We often go to meetings and rearrange stuff and draw stuff in on the boardroom table. Once everyone is happy we can move on.
And this explains why I have so many bits of paper everywhere!

