Exercise : What’s your working process?

The aim with this exercise is to reflect on projects I’ve been involved with up to this point and recap on my working processes.

At a high level, I usually follow this process (at least since I started Illustration level 1!)

Visual research and reference

After creating a spider diagram, I’ll start by gathering any reference which is pertinent to the intended image. For this, I prefer to use Pure ref, a free digital program which allows me to collate reference images from online into collections which I can tag with text, rescale and organise and export to print if needed. It’s basically the digital equivalent of an analogue mood board and forms part of what the ancient illustration world would refer to rather gruesomely as a Morgue.  I often split the board into two or more, depending on what’s needed, so costume references, figure references, location references etc. I often add in a colour mood as well. Although I tend to lean heavily into the digital side for this, It’s not exclusive, as I have a large collection of books for reference on all sorts of subjects and I still rely on these all the time.

High level sketches and ideas

Once I believe I’ve reached a stage where I have enough reference for the task, I’ll move onto thumbnail sketches. I often make compositional sketches using grayscale markers to define fields of visual readability or depth cues. These are really helpful for helping to establish composition early on and define how an image might be divided up, especially if there’s text involved. Sometimes the reliable aids such as rule of thirds and ratios can come in useful.

At this stage it’s broad strokes and not getting bogged down too much with detail, a temptation I am sometimes guilty of, but one which I purposely try resisting. After initial sketches, I move onto adding in colour themes. I use pro markers for this, just for the range of colours mostly and that they’re a really nice and accessible medium to work with when generating ideas.

At this stage I would be questioning whether the ideas criteria has been met and looking to make sure everything from the idea refinement has been included if needed.

Refinement and granularity

This would be the stage where I make decisions about discarding the weaker ideas in favour of the stronger ones : visually short listing which ideas are the strongest in terms of fulfilling the brief, and also have the most visual impact. From here I’d be refining the choice(s) which are left into more fleshed out ideas. I would be trying out or have a solid idea about which mediums I would be moving onto the final image with. The style would be dialled in more here too.

Final illustration

The last stage would be creating the final illustration. In the case of analogue artwork, I would be using composites or tracings created from final ideas, I would have a prepared surface to work on and in the case of wet media, a test piece of the same surface to work out colours on before applying them to the artwork. Digital is 100% forgiving, everything is only a ctrl+z away but it lacks the tactile facet of physically creating something.

Critiquing

I often do self critiquing based on selection versus intention. So for example if I were creating a poster where the visual aspect is the first thing which draws interest from a distance, I would be making choices from sketches early on based on the strongest colour and shape choices perhaps.

Conversely, if I were creating something such as an editorial illustration based on a personality, I would be looking at a different set of compositional criteria based on print (type layout perhaps) and this would affect the outcome.

I think it’s fair to say that the self critiquing changes slightly based on the final use of the illustration. Family and friends come in handy for the process, family perhaps less so as they can be biased in some cases! friends (particularly if they’re artists or illustrators themselves) can be the best critics as they’re on the same thought process train as myself and can often see what you’re trying to achieve : a fresh pair of eyes often saves the day, especially if you’re trying to create something more painterly, when the facing the wall and upside down viewing tricks don`t seem to work either.

Time management

I’m the first person to admit that I’m not the best at managing my time, there are often too many mundane everyday things to contend with which I may not have factored in. In the case of illustration work, I tend to fair better with short concentrated bursts of a few hours, than a long extended period of time (the exception is oil painting, I lose myself in the zone too easily with that and time suspends itself magically). I work in the garden shed as a fortress of solitude as it’s the only place I can get away from two demanding daughters..

Sticking points

I have an annoying tendency to procrastinate which I beat myself up about regularly. The thought of a large percentage of time spent thinking about doing something rather then actually getting on and doing it sometimes hampers me getting on with creating, but I would say I was a deep thinker and I like the time to reflect which it affords me, as this can sometimes feed into the art in unexpected ways.

An example of this might be going in the shed to work on something, and rather than diving straight in, I sit and scribble for a while and just listen to music. It could be warming up, it could be also discerned as avoiding the task. Still irritating when it happens.

Strengths and developing further

I like to think my strengths lie in drawing skills, I invested most of my time in that pursuit. I’m a big people watcher and I like mentally dissecting strangers in everyday situations, as many others often do. I think I can tell a good story visually using narrative. I need to overcome the imposter syndrome which seems to have always plagued me all my life, just getting some work out there and gauging the reception is the only way so I would seriously need to get into the publicity and marketing side of things. I like running with themes as ideas for personal projects, I sometimes manage to tap into things which are rich seams of material for such projects and as I’ve mentioned previously these form a decent body of unfinished work to tap back into.

Finishing work

With regard to finishing work, this is often the most challenging and rewarding aspect of undertaking an illustration. If it’s analogue work, some mediums are more forgiving than others when it comes to adjustments or covering flaws. Generally the more opaque it is, then the better it is for touching things up. These days many tweaks can be made digitally before print and flaws can be edited out. There’s a certain amount of pride however in being fastidious with the final outcome of analogue work and it always pays to be prepared for the worst. I’ve not actually created anything for a long time which has made it into print so I haven’t needed to go through the pre-press process of CMYK for many years, although I do have a background in print so I understand much of the pre-press side of things from then.

When it comes to knowing when a certain artwork is finished, it’s a bit of a multiplex decision, mostly derived from instinct. I usually determine as I go along, whether a particular piece needs something more : this isn’t a great comparison, but the more literal or objective an illustration is, the less it relies on ‘feeling’ your way around it, as for example an alla prima artist might with a portrait. It depends somewhat on the style approach and the medium.

Example exercise

Much of the Key steps Illustration 1 level introduced working processes and practices, which I have adopted wholeheartedly (this first practical level gave me a solid conveyor belt approach to every exercise and assignment thereafter).

This designing a museum poster exercise shows the process in action, with reference gathered from a series of photos from a visit to Leeds museum.

Conclusion

This was a valuable retrospective insight to where I’m at now at this stage in the journey, and as always it’s very useful to take stock and look at how I think I’ve developed in terms of processes and self evaluation. I really need the time to actually get out there more and let people see what I’m creating and what I can offer as an illustrator.