Do you have a procedure when drawing something?

This was my idea for the next Fluther T-shirt.

Do you honestly think my process involves anything but large quantities of alcohol?

Two ways: I either think about the concept forever and get it nailed down before drawing, or I just start drawing and see what happens.

I just draw, erase, draw, erase ad nauseam until I’m either satisfied with it or give up.

@JP: Ha

Many many doodles, then pick the best one.

JP: I’d buy that.

I start off with a doodle (no silly, not in the bathroom lol) and I start off thinking in terms of building a structure. Basically I build the framework. Then I contruct the inner to outer layers. Then I think about where the light is coming from so I can use shadow to give the piece weight and depth.

It depends on the style. usually I just play play play. sketch sketch sketch.

Thanks for the replies, I should’ve put what is your workflow like (not just drawing, but for the whole process) but thanks all

I look at everything every great artist has ever done, then I push it out of my head. I hate it when little entourages hover around the kid with the Canon Rebel and jerk each other off because he got a close up of his girlfriend’s finger pressed against a rose thorn.

That picture becomes their myspace icon for two months straight before joining the pile of other closeups of eyes, high angle emo poses, or pictures of light coming in through blinds.

Once that’s out of the way, I can get started.

I will think about things for a long time. To long actually.

Then I will sketch in a sketch book but only for a brief time. like a few min. just for mental organization.

then I go into illustrator. i enjoy the looks I achieve in there.

I manage my versions with in the file as well as with the files.

@ lovelock – I hate the way every one adapted the CS3 look Adobe had.

The CS3 look? Not sure I get that one…

Pencil, paper, gum eraser. Labor at it, scan it, pull it up in Photoshop and Illustrator, and tweak it till it’s groovy.

That whispy willowy branchy lillte leafy look they had on their stuff.

I sketch. On anything and anywhere. I’ve found most of my REALLY good ideas come to me when I don’t have pen and paper available. So now I keep folded up paper in my pocket that way when I’m on the throne doin’ some paperwork, I still got somethin’ to doodle on. I’ve found the bathroom (any bathroom) is a very creative place. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m getting rid of all the shit I had in me so I’m left with the good stuff!

The shower is a bit problematic, but my wife loses a bit of hair in the shower and sticks it to the wall so I make little characters out of that. It’s usually only 4 or 5 strands so it looks pretty lame, but it keeps me creative!

As far as process, I start out with LOADS of lines and shapes. I then erase and create little doodles from that. If I’m doing like a still life, then the process shifts a bit, but it’s about the same.

I keep a moleskine book on my person about 90% of the time. Into this I always draw/write little snippets of inspiration that bubble up from God knows where. Then when I really get serious, it’s straight to Illustrator. With my wacom, I haven’t done anything on paper in years. I’ll do maybe three drafts of the same thing, and name the files xxx_draft1, xxx_draft2, etc. For grins, sometimes I’ll overlay each of the initial drafts just to see where my mind was going. Then it’s pick and choose various elements, combine them, and finish it out. Then hope they like it…

@Bri: THANK YOU!! Finally someone else who hates that branchy crap!

I always carry a elephant poo book in my purse and use that I use to draw crazy abstract stuff. none of it is real good, but I like to draw anyway :)

@ generalspecific – lurve to you for elephant poo and making me laugh after 50 and counting hours of photoshopping photos without sleep. I was giggling so loud they closed the door at the library.

thank you.

Whoa… I just googled that elephant poo book and that’s hilarious! I’m thinkin’ about getting one now to compliment my new moleskine (that I should get on Saturday!).

haha you’re very welcome :)
it is a wonderful conversation peice and people think I’m absolutely insane but it’s all good.

wait its real? i thought it was a joke playing off of mole skin. I have to check this out.

Very cool!!!

How do you go about making a book? I can’t figure it out.

You buy it! Poo Poo Paper Books!
Showed my wife and grossed her out! I’m gettin’ one fer sure now!
And here’s how they make the poo poo paper

@tWrex – THANK YOU!! and Poo Poo to you

Depends on what I’m working on. If its a still life, or a portrait, or landscape, I tend to draw very faint outlines until I get it just right. As I go around the second time, I draw a bit bolder to define the parameters a bit better, then knead erase the extraeneous to clean it up. Once that’s done, I get to the shading aspects, and tend to go from dark to light, leaving the highligheted areas for last.
Sometimes I will cheat and use a white colored pencil to accentuate the highlights.
However if I’m doing a schematic of a spaceship, most always a 2 dimensional lay out, I doodle, doodle, doodle after I get a basic shape in my brain bone. From there, I choose aspects of each and any of these, and composite more dooddles, narrowing it down selectively. Once I hit on what I like, I do a ‘hand’ sized sketch, about 8 to 12 inches (ok, that’s more of a foot sized sketch). From there I go full out, grab my ream of ‘space paper’ (because its a space ship I’m drawing, yes?) and roll out anywhere from 24 to 48 inches, tape it down to my drawing table, get out all my rulers, templets, triangles and T Square, and go to town, drawing VERY lightly in pencil. Once I get the basics down, I trade my pencil in for my technical pens, outline, and then get to the real fun part: filling in all the millimeter sized details.