How to improve illustration skills

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How to improve illustration skills

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One of the most important values in my life is curiosity. A curiosity of the undiscovered, of the world, of the new things which I can learn. And because learning from others is so important to me, I want to share my knowledge with you also. Hopefully, it will be good for you in some way!

So, Let's get started!

Daily routines
I love my morning routines. It's like a mindfulness session which helps me start my day in a good way.

Usually, I'm waking up at 5:30, I'm drinking water, making a tea/bulletproof coffee and open my laptop. I avoid all communicators and social pages. Over the last few months, I have been focusing on learning Spanish, so I'm starting with Duolingo for 15 minutes to keep its practice and later I'm switching to writing. But writing is a new routine for me. Some time ago I was practicing daily drawing and in the next paragraph, I'll tell you more how to keep this habit every day.

When you are setting your goal — daily routine is the perfect way to stay in your journey.

When I'm starting the day in a productive way and also when it supports my goals — I feel I achieved something even before I'll start my everyday work.
I love that feeling!

Drawing in the mornings
When I was working as a graphical artist in a game company I focused very much on my drawing skills. I discovered that when I was responsible for a lot of steps in the production like concepts, backgrounds, characters, and animations, I didn't focus so much on my main goal — be better in drawing from imagination. So I decided to add this to my daily routine in the morning. Every day, after waking up, I was drinking water with lemon, making a bed, meditating for 10 minutes and drawing for 15 minutes. Every single day. After one month I had so many sketches, that I started collecting them in the boxes. Also — it shows me my progress and I decided to spread this idea.

Group drawings
The idea of drawing in the group wasn't fresh at all. I was organizing the event like this when I was a student, but I didn't think that it will be possible at my workplace. Surprise!

We started in the small group, every day, at 9:30 we met in the one room with a big screen and we were streaming one youtube channel with drawing poses — https://www.youtube.com/user/onairvideo

It was a huge step, not only for artists at the company but also for other people who joined us. It was their morning routine for the creativity boost. So we kept this going for a long time and our skills improved. Also, I believe it was a good start for some of us to keep our skills practice not only in poses drawings but in other topics also.

Tutorials
Learning with others is fun when you have a common goal. Learning from others it's also a great way to improve your illustrator's skills. Pick one topic, one person who will be your mentor (internet is full of great artists! — youtube, patreon, schoolism, gumroad...) and take your time with the tutorial. Watch it, try it, do exercises from the movie/note. Just watching/reading can't teach as much as practicing. And when you'll finish the course start the new one. But remember — finish the previous one! There are so many options that it's hard to choose just one tutorial, so better to keep in mind only one thing. And I suggest to add this to your routine, maybe not morning, but choose a time for that and stuck to the plan, it really works!


Collecting references and ideas for the next illustrations
You have an idea and you are starting to search the internet for pictures. You're scrolling, scrolling... and here it is, or maybe not, maybe another one, or maybe another... Oh, you have your references? Great! Time for drawing. Uhm, no way, it's time for sleep or just time when you don't have enough energy to draw. Damn.

How to avoid this situation?

Good idea for keeping your workflow is collecting images before. You are taking pictures? Great. So start collecting those pictures in catalogs. Maybe you like using Pinterest — start with boards and pin images which you like, or you can imagine them in your future illustrations. use them as your references and also like an idea for your artworks.

Also when you have an idea for illustration — write it down! I love to collect my notes in Notion, and when I have some time I'm checking which idea I want to continue, it's a great way to keep you productive and focusing on creating illustrations!

Building a visual library
When you are collecting your references — you are building your visual library. But it's not just one way to extend it. One of the most significant things for me was traveling, and still, it is. I'm taking pictures, extending my knowledge, learning new cultures and watching how things look like in real life. It's nothing wrong to feel like a child who is discovering the world like a new place. But even if you can't travel so far, you can take a camera or even your phone and go somewhere in your city — discover your surrounding. Or if the weather is terrible — open google maps and go somewhere there. Have you ever heard about virtual plain air? No? So — it can be a nice exercise also!


Stories
Remember that storytelling is an important part of creating illustrations, even a product one. I remember that feeling when my teacher opened my mind and showed me how powerful it can be! (The link to his TED, mindblowing)

So it is nice to collect stories. You can just note some ideas in your sketchbook, you can write stories (writing is expanding this part of creativity, really recommend it) and even publish them with your illustrations. talk to people (yeah, I wrote about it HERE), go on an interesting meetup and listen about interesting lives. Collect those moments and I promise you, you'll never think one more time, that you haven't got an idea for the new artwork!

Feedback
I remember that time when I was scared about others opinion about my illustrations. When I started my carrier and my parents always said to me that my pictures are the best (i really love them!) I was totally sure that I'm a genius. Today I know that it wasn't true, but it gave me the confidence to start asking for feedback.

Be constructive and ask for the constructive feedback. Only this kind of help can teach you something.
Feedback is one of my favorite things in the world. When you are asking for that you can learn so much and make your designs or illustrations or even your habits much better. If you are working with other designers — ask them for help. Maybe create a channel, group or even feedback meeting sessions. When you are working as a freelancer or you're studying — find your group on facebook where you will be able to post your illustrations for the feedback.


I have tested all these techniques on myself and I know that they have had long-term and positive effects. I am currently developing my time management technique and, above all, what I use my time for. I'm not just looking for a goal, but a strategy to achieve results that will be covered by them. If I'll discover in my experiments some new and interesting solutions — I will certainly come with them to you. In the meantime, I hope that the above advice will be useful to somebody!

And what are your techniques for improving your skills?

Source: Medium Daily Digest