Expert advice | Your questions answered
Step-by-step: Stay simple and experiment
1
Using the human figure as a starting
point, try playing around with various
poses cropped off in different ways. Draw
small so you don’t get tied down in details.
The goal is to crank out a lot of thumbnails
in a short amount of
time. You can get
pose inspiration
from reference
image sites, photo
shoots with friends
and of course the
trusty old mirror.
2
Draw shapes on different layers so
you can move and scale them. Save
a JPG every time you make a noticeable
change, then look at all your images to see
what stands out. Pay attention to where
shapes point, what’s
at the centre of your
circles, and what the
placement of your
shapes emphasises.
Direct the eye. Keep
experimenting. Make
lots of pots!3
Like the figures and shapes, keep your
colour palette simple. You don’t have
to use white for the skin (emulating Nagel),
but try making things as compositionally
exciting as possible with seven colours or
less. Use contrast
to draw attention
where you want it.
Matching hues on
the figure to those
on the background
can help make the
two feel harmonious.Don’t stress about
it, just have fun and
create something
you like. It may
sound crazy, but the
more fun you have,
the more you’ll learn.Below is a drawing
where I’m using fewer
elements. I suggest at
least trying a few where
your goal is to use as
few shapes as possible.Question
I think my basic drawing is
not too bad, but what can I do
to work on my design skills?
Anders Merson, US
Answer
Tony replies
I recently read an anecdote
about a pottery group that may
or may not be true, but I think
the message is. A pottery
teacher split her students into two groups.
One half would spend the entire semester
designing their perfect pot, the other half
would be graded on the number of finished
pots they produced. Once the final lesson
was over, a competition was held to choose
the best results. Half the students turned in
their extensively researched pot designs,
while the other half chose their favourite
from the many they had made over the
semester. After voting was over, it turned
out that most of the pieces chosen were
from the side that had made lots of pots.
The message is that experience trumps
research when you’re learning a new skill.
Assuming that’s true, I think a good
strategy for honing your designer’s eye is
to make lots of compositions – nothing too
complicated, just something where you can
experiment with two-dimensional shapes
and explore what you like.
You may not know who Patrick Nagel
is, but he painted the album cover for Rio
by ’80s-supergroup Duran Duran. I think
that his style of f lat colours, clean lines
and simple shapes makes for a fun kind
of student exercise. That, and it gives me
a reason to draw the Nagel-style image of
British T V celebrity Sue Perkins that this
world so desperately needs. Fair warning,
a Google search for Nagel’s art may get a
little saucy.
THUMBS IN A FOLDER
With this exercise and pretty much all
illustrations, I find it helps to keep all of my
thumbnails in their own folder. Being able to
scale and scroll through them is the easiest way
for me to know which ones I prefer.Artist’s secret
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