Observational Sketches for Illustration
Collecting visual information
“Drawing is at the core of every art and that includes illustration” - Tom Froese
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A Few years after doing the course I was invited to be the first guest on Tom’s excellent podcast called thoughts on illustration
Sketchwork
How sketchbook drawings become illustrations
In the following video I share how I used to do observational drawings before learning tom’s drawing towards illustration practice, essentially it’s the same process but less intentional and efficient, The video is a sketchbook tour and I’ll follow by the illustrations that came out as a result.
This illustration became a key piece in getting me so much of my work, and here you will get to see the weeks of incremental sketch work that went into them.
When doing observational drawings for illustration, my recommendation is to draw the way you draw as a way of taking visual notes, you are not creating art, you are collecting visual information.
The next step is remixing this information into a final form based on pre-set requirements.
These are the resulting illustrations:
TenMinuteArtist Prompt:
Collect Visual Information
Draw observational drawings of an animal or historical figure. Only draw what you see or more specifically selected details of what you see.
Share this with someone who loves drawing and wants to illustrate
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You are reading part four in a series called Drawing for Illustration.
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Thanks for opening your sketchbook to us! Enjoyed seeing your sketches and how they evolved.
Thank you for sharing this.