I think a sketchy style can totally be an illustration! If it fits a brief and does what is needed visually. I love your digital screenprint too though! I think the thing I miss in your screen prints are your beautiful lines that are so lovely in the pencil. But I love it all - they’re just so different. ❤️
You’re very kind and I agree that I miss the lines. I’ve tried a mashup of the two and it’s really horrible. I think I need to really be brave and sketch a whole book. Publishers: are you listening!?! XxX
I wonder if it's a kind of editing thing? When I do rough observational drawing I seem to know what the important parts of the image are, but when I do finals I lose focus, and suddenly everything seems important and I have to get it all 'right'. I'm trying to work towards losing the sense that someone's looking over my shoulder when I do finals!
Indeed. Yet I can do countless versions of thumbnails and roughs, actually enjoy refining the image - and then I get to the final and I seem to forget who I am!
Hi Ruby! I agree with all the other commenters here, your sketches are totally transferable to illustration, it’s just finding the magic formula of *how*! Have you tried doing line, like your sketches, and using as an overlay of digital colour? I also love your sketches where you use paint pens or some washes, and maybe that would help lift the sketches a bit, i to illustrations? It’s probably just a subtle tweak! When I first tried to translate my observational sketching techniques to illustrations, I had to play around a bit to find something that felt right. So excited for you, I’m sure it’s just round the corner for you!
P.S. I miss mixtapes too! I had a boyfriend who wrote I WANT YOUR SOUL on the spine of the tape, which freaked me out a bit (intense much?) until I realised it was a lyric!! I think, Underworld! X
Oh Ella this is so helpful and encouraging, thank you. I think I’m going to keep trying this image in different media, maybe I’ll post the results in the notes and ask your advice again!
I think your drawings are magnificent. I look forward to every insta post and defy the idea that they don’t illustrate. They are packed full of narrative. I think the energy in your sketches is very special.
To preserve your sketches, I wonder if drawing on large sheets of paper might work. Lucinda Rogers illustrates this way: http://lucindarogers.co.uk/ You could also draw on a giant roll of paper without worrying about size or format, though the toothiness of the paper might be an issue.
I LOVE Lucinda Rogers! That’s a good idea, you mean work large to get more detail in? I think it’s just about getting the balance right between accuracy and spontaneity. Perhaps it’s just a case of practising!
It really is the age-old problem isn’t it! For me it’s using pencil rather than pen, as I go completely tight and wrong with pen. It feels like a day-to-day thing, somehow holding onto the looseness while redrawing it as a final image - works some days, fails on others! I love your pencil sketches and your screen prints, and I agree with other posters here that if you want to use the loose sketch look for a finished illustration, why not!
Less about going large and instead being able to take your sketches made on sheets of paper straight to publication. Working on sheets of paper means you don't have to worry about the gutter of the book. Hope that makes sense.
One of the things I love doing is scanning traditional media (usually watercolour, but I think pencils would work just as well) and then bringing it into Adobe Illustrator and using image trace on it to turn it into vectors. The results vary wildly depending on the settings you choose, but the results are also pretty cool! Also I think your sketchbook work/style would totally work as illustration. After all, isn’t illustration just art with a brief?
Ooo! I have never used illustrator, but I love the sound of this. I wonder where I could experiment. I love the way we all have very specific ways of working digitally that feel utterly unique! And I wonder if I actually know what the definition of illustration is! Thanks so much for your suggestion Melissa
I do everything by hand. Then I scan and use Photoshop to correct contrast, levels etc. (because my very old scanner thinks he should participate in the artistic process and gives me altered colours). Nevertheless, I do struggle with the issue of freshness - quick sketches full of expression, movement, folly become calm, smartly combed, frozen as in a pose for a 19th century photo!
So my solution lately (I still must see if it works) is to sketch directly on watercolour paper. Before completely finishing pencil part and before completely fixing the idea I start painting over, so practically I continue to sketch with watercolours wich transitions in final painting without me noticing. Last but not least I stop before the end, when I still have 1000 thaugts "oh I must add this, I must darken that...".
The result is more messy and expressive, which is what I want.
But why in the first place do you want to transfer your beautiful sketches in vector art? As everyone has already said sketchy style can be an illustration. For example your drawings from Bologna! They ARE accomplished illustrations.
Dunja this is so interesting, thank you for sharing your process. I find it so interesting how we trick ourselves into keeping the artwork fresh. I also have a scanner with ideas above its station! The process I’ve landed on for the book I’m currently working on is to draw by hand onto screen printed layers. I make about six screen prints so there is too for some error but not infinite room. Then I might add some final elements later in photoshop. It’s working but it’s not as sketchy as I would like, but a degree of finish is demanded so I think it’s quite a good solution!
Dear Ruby, I think your drawings are so beautiful and unique! I think that they absolutely are ‘illustrations’! Don’t make more work for yourself, make less! I think the problem to work around, for instance across the pages of a full book, is how to edit and direct the eye of the viewer? So it’s not too many pencil lines for the eye to digest? This is literally what I would do: scan the drawings and pick out the lines (in photoshop using magic wand). I would keep the exact sensitive lines you’ve used to draw you son’s face (for instance). Then for the rubber ring I would think ‘compress that detail’. I would cut out a circle from paper with scissors, or collage into photoshop a giant letter ‘O’ from and old annual, or a paint a big loose circle. Whatever your solution is. So then the rubber ring has the texture and edges and ‘authority’ of one pencil line and creates a contrast with the beautiful face-lines and puts those marks centre stage? I would just let the white of the paper show through for the light areas like the skin on the face. Disclaimer: I am completely in AWE of your work, I’m only brave enough to say my tuppence-worth because I’m looking down the opposite end of the binoculars right now! I’m getting back into drawing (thank you Good Ship Illo) after working as an illustrator and getting too stuck in reverse engineering work so that it looks papery/printed/handmade when it isn’t! Thanks for reading and I hope this makes sense!
Anna this is such a great idea, thank you, I will try it! I guess I need to find my voice working this way but would love to keep the lines and use another technique to block in the colour as you suggest. I'll do some experiments and post them on here!
The best of luck with the opposite end of the binoculars. I think the exciting this is that there's an opportunity to play and experiment whatever point you are in your career.
Thanks so much for reading such a long explanation Ruby and if it doesn't help, please chuck the idea in the bin! I love seeing all the work you post, it has honestly helped make me want to draw again. Yes it's such a joy (& a relief) to have permission to keep playing and experimenting
I adore your sketchbook drawings Ruby but also love the screen prints too. It's. tricky one as I 100% think a book full of your drawn sketchy illustrations (and they totally are illustrations) would be brilliant, but I also think the screen printed example above works really well, just in a different way. I actually think your interpretations of your location sketches into screen/riso prints work brilliantly (I have the Trafalgar square one on my wall). So yeah...not really sure of what I'm trying to say here other than I love it all! Maybe both styles can exist in their own right?
Ah Rebecca you're very lovely to say that! It's delightful to hear that both ways could work. Maybe I need to take it on a book-by-book basis and see what fits best with the story...
Both styles you work in are absolutely beautiful - both the digital screenprinting and your sketches. A whole book in your colour pencil sketches would be gorgeous!
I fully understand about struggling to keep drawings spontaneous for final work. When there’s a digital process it’s like there’s a safety gap where you can be a bit more free, take more of a risk with your lines because there’s a safety mat of digital tweaking. Trying to get a drawing right, especially when you have to do it again and again really makes you tense up (well, I do anyway!)
Ah Nanette, thank you for your kind words! I think you've nailed it re the digital safety net. you can draw things again and again without caring and there's a spontaneity in that. But I always love a new challenge too. I guess it's a good problem to have now I look at it this way!
Ooh draw the book! Your limited palette would be fantastic! Re mix tapes I have an old M&S biscuit tin full of them and nothing to play them on but the handmade covers and wobbly track listings makes them precious 🤩
Sam, thank you! I feel so encouraged by you and everyone. I do recommend making your mixtapes into playlists, you can even add photos of the original inlay cards. It’s a revelation!
I think a sketchy style can totally be an illustration! If it fits a brief and does what is needed visually. I love your digital screenprint too though! I think the thing I miss in your screen prints are your beautiful lines that are so lovely in the pencil. But I love it all - they’re just so different. ❤️
You’re very kind and I agree that I miss the lines. I’ve tried a mashup of the two and it’s really horrible. I think I need to really be brave and sketch a whole book. Publishers: are you listening!?! XxX
Haha. Yes! Sketch a whole book! I think it’d be brilliant. Xx
I wonder if it's a kind of editing thing? When I do rough observational drawing I seem to know what the important parts of the image are, but when I do finals I lose focus, and suddenly everything seems important and I have to get it all 'right'. I'm trying to work towards losing the sense that someone's looking over my shoulder when I do finals!
Yes, I think it’s something we all struggle with. Also doing the same thing repeatedly is bound to squash the life out of it a bit?
Indeed. Yet I can do countless versions of thumbnails and roughs, actually enjoy refining the image - and then I get to the final and I seem to forget who I am!
You are not alone!
Hi Ruby! I agree with all the other commenters here, your sketches are totally transferable to illustration, it’s just finding the magic formula of *how*! Have you tried doing line, like your sketches, and using as an overlay of digital colour? I also love your sketches where you use paint pens or some washes, and maybe that would help lift the sketches a bit, i to illustrations? It’s probably just a subtle tweak! When I first tried to translate my observational sketching techniques to illustrations, I had to play around a bit to find something that felt right. So excited for you, I’m sure it’s just round the corner for you!
P.S. I miss mixtapes too! I had a boyfriend who wrote I WANT YOUR SOUL on the spine of the tape, which freaked me out a bit (intense much?) until I realised it was a lyric!! I think, Underworld! X
Oh Ella this is so helpful and encouraging, thank you. I think I’m going to keep trying this image in different media, maybe I’ll post the results in the notes and ask your advice again!
I'd love to see some more in Notes! Can't wait to see! xx
Also...I Want Your Soul?! That is totally creepy!!!
haha! I know 😱
I think your drawings are magnificent. I look forward to every insta post and defy the idea that they don’t illustrate. They are packed full of narrative. I think the energy in your sketches is very special.
Oh Karen what a lovely thing to say, thank you. I feel really encouraged to try and write a “sketch” book story.
To preserve your sketches, I wonder if drawing on large sheets of paper might work. Lucinda Rogers illustrates this way: http://lucindarogers.co.uk/ You could also draw on a giant roll of paper without worrying about size or format, though the toothiness of the paper might be an issue.
I LOVE Lucinda Rogers! That’s a good idea, you mean work large to get more detail in? I think it’s just about getting the balance right between accuracy and spontaneity. Perhaps it’s just a case of practising!
It really is the age-old problem isn’t it! For me it’s using pencil rather than pen, as I go completely tight and wrong with pen. It feels like a day-to-day thing, somehow holding onto the looseness while redrawing it as a final image - works some days, fails on others! I love your pencil sketches and your screen prints, and I agree with other posters here that if you want to use the loose sketch look for a finished illustration, why not!
Thanks so much Tor. You’re right, there’s often a bit of luck or whatever. But you’re giving me courage to try and do something with the pencils!
Less about going large and instead being able to take your sketches made on sheets of paper straight to publication. Working on sheets of paper means you don't have to worry about the gutter of the book. Hope that makes sense.
Crystal clear, thank you!
One of the things I love doing is scanning traditional media (usually watercolour, but I think pencils would work just as well) and then bringing it into Adobe Illustrator and using image trace on it to turn it into vectors. The results vary wildly depending on the settings you choose, but the results are also pretty cool! Also I think your sketchbook work/style would totally work as illustration. After all, isn’t illustration just art with a brief?
Ooo! I have never used illustrator, but I love the sound of this. I wonder where I could experiment. I love the way we all have very specific ways of working digitally that feel utterly unique! And I wonder if I actually know what the definition of illustration is! Thanks so much for your suggestion Melissa
You could try it with Inkscape, which is free, and has the best vector tracing, at least in my inexperienced opinion
I do everything by hand. Then I scan and use Photoshop to correct contrast, levels etc. (because my very old scanner thinks he should participate in the artistic process and gives me altered colours). Nevertheless, I do struggle with the issue of freshness - quick sketches full of expression, movement, folly become calm, smartly combed, frozen as in a pose for a 19th century photo!
So my solution lately (I still must see if it works) is to sketch directly on watercolour paper. Before completely finishing pencil part and before completely fixing the idea I start painting over, so practically I continue to sketch with watercolours wich transitions in final painting without me noticing. Last but not least I stop before the end, when I still have 1000 thaugts "oh I must add this, I must darken that...".
The result is more messy and expressive, which is what I want.
But why in the first place do you want to transfer your beautiful sketches in vector art? As everyone has already said sketchy style can be an illustration. For example your drawings from Bologna! They ARE accomplished illustrations.
Dunja this is so interesting, thank you for sharing your process. I find it so interesting how we trick ourselves into keeping the artwork fresh. I also have a scanner with ideas above its station! The process I’ve landed on for the book I’m currently working on is to draw by hand onto screen printed layers. I make about six screen prints so there is too for some error but not infinite room. Then I might add some final elements later in photoshop. It’s working but it’s not as sketchy as I would like, but a degree of finish is demanded so I think it’s quite a good solution!
Dear Ruby, I think your drawings are so beautiful and unique! I think that they absolutely are ‘illustrations’! Don’t make more work for yourself, make less! I think the problem to work around, for instance across the pages of a full book, is how to edit and direct the eye of the viewer? So it’s not too many pencil lines for the eye to digest? This is literally what I would do: scan the drawings and pick out the lines (in photoshop using magic wand). I would keep the exact sensitive lines you’ve used to draw you son’s face (for instance). Then for the rubber ring I would think ‘compress that detail’. I would cut out a circle from paper with scissors, or collage into photoshop a giant letter ‘O’ from and old annual, or a paint a big loose circle. Whatever your solution is. So then the rubber ring has the texture and edges and ‘authority’ of one pencil line and creates a contrast with the beautiful face-lines and puts those marks centre stage? I would just let the white of the paper show through for the light areas like the skin on the face. Disclaimer: I am completely in AWE of your work, I’m only brave enough to say my tuppence-worth because I’m looking down the opposite end of the binoculars right now! I’m getting back into drawing (thank you Good Ship Illo) after working as an illustrator and getting too stuck in reverse engineering work so that it looks papery/printed/handmade when it isn’t! Thanks for reading and I hope this makes sense!
Anna this is such a great idea, thank you, I will try it! I guess I need to find my voice working this way but would love to keep the lines and use another technique to block in the colour as you suggest. I'll do some experiments and post them on here!
The best of luck with the opposite end of the binoculars. I think the exciting this is that there's an opportunity to play and experiment whatever point you are in your career.
Thanks so much for reading such a long explanation Ruby and if it doesn't help, please chuck the idea in the bin! I love seeing all the work you post, it has honestly helped make me want to draw again. Yes it's such a joy (& a relief) to have permission to keep playing and experimenting
I adore your sketchbook drawings Ruby but also love the screen prints too. It's. tricky one as I 100% think a book full of your drawn sketchy illustrations (and they totally are illustrations) would be brilliant, but I also think the screen printed example above works really well, just in a different way. I actually think your interpretations of your location sketches into screen/riso prints work brilliantly (I have the Trafalgar square one on my wall). So yeah...not really sure of what I'm trying to say here other than I love it all! Maybe both styles can exist in their own right?
Ah Rebecca you're very lovely to say that! It's delightful to hear that both ways could work. Maybe I need to take it on a book-by-book basis and see what fits best with the story...
Both styles you work in are absolutely beautiful - both the digital screenprinting and your sketches. A whole book in your colour pencil sketches would be gorgeous!
I fully understand about struggling to keep drawings spontaneous for final work. When there’s a digital process it’s like there’s a safety gap where you can be a bit more free, take more of a risk with your lines because there’s a safety mat of digital tweaking. Trying to get a drawing right, especially when you have to do it again and again really makes you tense up (well, I do anyway!)
Ah Nanette, thank you for your kind words! I think you've nailed it re the digital safety net. you can draw things again and again without caring and there's a spontaneity in that. But I always love a new challenge too. I guess it's a good problem to have now I look at it this way!
Ooh draw the book! Your limited palette would be fantastic! Re mix tapes I have an old M&S biscuit tin full of them and nothing to play them on but the handmade covers and wobbly track listings makes them precious 🤩
Sam, thank you! I feel so encouraged by you and everyone. I do recommend making your mixtapes into playlists, you can even add photos of the original inlay cards. It’s a revelation!