How To Get Started With Illustration
Xuất bản:
Now that you’ve learned a few tips on how to draw from Part 1, you’re ready to start practicing your illustration skills. But sometimes you can’t start illustrating because you don’t know what to draw. You rack your brain for ideas, but your mind remains a blank canvas. Sound familiar?
Creative blocks happen when we can’t find the inspiration to fuel our creative work. They can happen to anyone — amateurs, professionals, and even illustration enthusiasts like you. While creative blocks may leave you feeling discouraged, there are ways you can overcome this.
In this article, I’ll be sharing some insights on how you, as an aspiring illustrator, can overcome creative blocks and eventually figure out what you’d like to draw.
Creative blocks happen when we can’t find the inspiration to fuel our creative work. They can happen to anyone — amateurs, professionals, and even illustration enthusiasts like you. While creative blocks may leave you feeling discouraged, there are ways you can overcome this.
In this article, I’ll be sharing some insights on how you, as an aspiring illustrator, can overcome creative blocks and eventually figure out what you’d like to draw.
1. Study works of various artists and designers
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it. They just saw something.
Steve Jobs
Many tend to think that people who generate groundbreaking ideas out of thin air are naturally creative. In reality, what makes these people creative is that they’ve gathered a ton of inspiration, which allows them to relate one idea to another.
How is this achieved? For illustrators, one of the best ways to gather inspiration is to constantly study works of artists and designers from various time periods, genres, and styles. Don’t limit yourself to studying one field alone; it’s better to find inspiration from multiple fields, such as graphic design, architecture, fine art, and the like.
By being exposed to multiple fields and styles, you gain a broader perspective of how differently people interpret the world or find solutions to problems. Moreover, you compile an inexhaustible list of ideas to use.
Here are three things I’d recommend when studying works of artists and designers:
How is this achieved? For illustrators, one of the best ways to gather inspiration is to constantly study works of artists and designers from various time periods, genres, and styles. Don’t limit yourself to studying one field alone; it’s better to find inspiration from multiple fields, such as graphic design, architecture, fine art, and the like.
By being exposed to multiple fields and styles, you gain a broader perspective of how differently people interpret the world or find solutions to problems. Moreover, you compile an inexhaustible list of ideas to use.
Here are three things I’d recommend when studying works of artists and designers:
Read up on both art and design history
This will help you get ideas on how you can mix and match different styles and art movements into your illustrations.
A useful website to check out is The Art Story. If you’re running on a busy schedule, The Art Story is the perfect place to learn on-the-go because it lists the key ideas of each art movement in history, as well as notable works from each time period.
For offline reading, an excellent series is Taschen Basic Art, a collection of art books each with a biography of an artist and illustrations of his or her work. My favorites from the collection include books about Matisse, Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec. I also recommend Meggs’ History of Graphic Design because it explains concepts in a visual format.