What is an Illustration?
An illustration is about explaining or clarifying something through drawing, painting, or printed work. It is a visual interpretation of a text or a concept. The power of an illustration is in its unique way of telling a story. This is why most brands use this art form to convey their stories to the target audience. Catering Food Menu Design
Starting any new project, whether commissioned or personal, is always very exciting. But sometimes it’s hard to know what to create or where to even begin. If you're new to design, it is important to understand the design process and practice it with every brief you receive. The more you practice your process, it will become second nature enabling you to increase your project flow and grow or start a design business.
Some meaningful concepts to take you through the full step-by-step of the illustration process:
STEP 1: BRAINSTORMING & IDEAS
Before you start drawing, you need to figure out your concept. Whether it be for a client or a personal project, understanding it is key to creating a successful illustration.
STEP 2: ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS
As an illustrator, make it a habit to keep track of your ideas. You might have many of them that you accumulated over the past many days. Sometimes, looking back at those ideas is useful in getting something to work on when starting a new illustration. Western Grill Menu Design
STEP 3: SKETCH
Before starting to create illustrations, it would help if you go through the sketching phase. ew of the illustrators skip the sketching part of it and straight away start working on their drawings on design software. With your ideas in mind and references on hand (or phone), it is time to start sketching in your favorite sketchbook or drawing app.
STEP 4: COLOR SCHEME
Colors are important since they help elicit emotion and enhance the message of the illustration.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with opacity and tones. When you have the freedom to pick out the color palette, you create multiple thumbnails containing different variations of colors. Remember that this step is all about finding the right combination of complementary colors so be flexible and have fun with it.
There are hundreds of color palette generators to help you get started. My personal favorites are Colormind, ColorSpace, Coolors and Paletton.
STEP 5: BLOCK IT OUT
It’s time to start building the illustration by blocking out the shapes. Whether you use Adobe Illustrator, Procreate or even a traditional medium like watercolor, this tends to be the most time-consuming step.
With the sketch as a guideline, just start drawing the different elements on separate layers to keep things nice and organized.
STEP 6: REFINEMENTS
Focus on the overall refinements and details. From fine lines to textures to gradients, details help bring the illustration to life! It’s all about stepping back and looking at the big picture to see how all the elements come together cohesively in the final illustration.
FINAL STEP: PRESENTATION
Presentation is key. Sometimes the illustration will fill the entire page, other times it is dominated by white space, or includes text. Only add text when necessary. When in doubt, go back to the beginning, as presentation is ultimately determined by an illustration’s original intent.
Graphic designers can create amazing illustrations if they take the right steps. Right from researching the audience and getting the right inspirational illustration idea to using design software, there are several key steps to do the job with a purpose and help you to learn how to create illustrations.