Back to basics

I was feeling a bit frustrated last night, like I was just winging all my illustration work with no plan, and I felt like I needed to develop a more methodical approach to my work, so I purchased two more videos from SVSlearn.com today: How to Draw Everything, and 10 Step Digital Painting… sooooo worth it! I’ve already watched How to Draw Everything a couple times today; the basic principles aren’t new to me, but it’s presented in a way that is different from what I’ve seen before and it was kind of a relief to be reminded to focus on drawing fundamentals (sometimes, in my rush to complete an illustration, I forget how much I love to draw, and this helped me remember).

I’ve only watched part of the 10 Step Digital Painting video, but I was so glad to hear Will Terry say his finished illustration took about 25 hours and the preliminary drawing took several hours as well. I was feeling like I was way too slow and just hearing him say that made me feel so much better!

Anyway, the end result is that I’m going back to making this illustration by drawing the fundamental shapes, and when I’m happy with the drawing, I’ll dive into painting it in Photoshop – and I won’t worry so much about how long it’s taking me!