Self-introduction:
I am a visual designer. I graduated from university last year and have been engaged in the design industry for more than one year. What I learned in university is not art, of course, there is no art foundation, and I did not learn hand-drawing.
A few days ago, I sent several tutorials. Some UI Chinese friends asked me whether I could learn illustration well because I had no art foundation and was not trained in a major.
In my opinion, it is also possible to learn illustration well without art foundation and hand painting.
Although I think my current illustration level is much lower than that of Daishen, I can share my experience of learning illustration in the past year with everyone.
I hope this article will be of value to those who are interested in illustration and have no foundation in art, even if only a little inspiration.
Learning Experience:
Early: search some good hand-painted works on the Internet to copy with a pencil on the paper, no matter whether the painting is good or not, first find the feeling, the following is when I just work to practice the figure, there is no slag, when encouraging friends.
Medium term: Later I started to use hand-drawn board in ps drawing, see a lot of hand-painted video tutorial on the net, with practice, a tutorial can sometimes listen to several hours, often can only copy a picture a day, though can also copy, original ability is insufficient, but at that time I also realized finally, want to learn the illustration light will use tool does not have much effect, The key is the idea, the skill, to figure composition, proportion, color, light and shadow to have enough understanding, if you can draw on paper, using PHOTOSHOP is not difficult. Due to the need of work, I drew a lot of flash screens during this period of time, with various styles, hand-painted and vector. I also made some head prints for my classmates by hand.
Now: I often browse all kinds of illustrations on Dribble, and collect the beautiful ones. I will take them out for copying when I have time.
We all know that if only copying, may progress will be relatively slow, in the end when can we go to the original? Here is my method to share with you.
For example, RECENTLY I want to learn texture illustration, I will find some good works to analyze, find their common elements, why good-looking? How is the texture drawn? If the color match is good, I will extract the color and use it in my illustration. Then try all kinds of brushes that can draw texture and choose one suitable for your own style. If the illustration is drawn on paper in advance, you can take a picture with your mobile phone and put it in PS, so that it will be much easier to draw.
Here are my recent illustrations for the company for 12 months to share with you.
In addition: Because I always feel that I lack the art foundation, so I recently went to learn sketch, post several pictures, sketch a little white. Learning sketch is a long process, but from my recent experience, learning sketch can make me have a deeper understanding of composition, light and shadow relationship.
Dry goods incoming
First, about hand painting
Should UI designers learn to draw by hand? How to learn hand-drawing without art foundation?
I’m sure many people have asked these questions, including myself. In my opinion, it’s ok to do UI without drawing, but UI designers who can draw are a plus.
Art foundation is not born, if you feel that you lack this aspect, you can learn through various channels. How did I learn to draw by hand?
1, in the website to find a favorite map for copying, pay attention to find high-quality map.
2, want to learn hand-painted board painting to practice, hand-painted board is the need to feel.
3. If you are interested, you can learn some sketching and sketching.
2. Websites about learning
1. At the beginning of my study, I found some good works to copy on UI China and Petals. There are many excellent designers on UI China, such as my favorite rabbit seven_H in emerald green and bear cake in @Gordon. UI China’s weekly copy is also very good. Below is my copy of @ emerald green rabbit seven_H a piece of work, as well as UI China’s weekly copy.
2. Later, I learned how to draw illustrations with hand-painted boards on Qinxue.com, and There are many good courses on Xuehui.com. You can also follow @Xiaoxin Illustration on Weibo. (Personal experience, not advertising)
3, now often used website is mainly Dribble, Pinterest, the collection of various styles of illustration, analysis of the characteristics, have time to copy, summarize the characteristics of various styles of illustration, try to be original. Because I often have to draw characters in my work, I bought a wooden figurine, so I can do more research on the structure of the human body when I am free.
Three, about software
I use PHOTOSHOP, AI and Sketch, but I have some special emphasis on them. If I can use a sketch board, I will choose PHOTOSHOP. Ai is more suitable for drawing vectors, and sometimes I will draw directly in Sketch.
About books
This year I bought a lot of books, both simple and difficult. In fact, it doesn’t matter what books I buy. What matters is that WHEN I buy a book, I don’t let it lie there, but I pick up my pen and practice it. I mainly learn some methods and skills of drawing in these books.
My reading list:
“Sketch practical Course”
Watercolor Private Lesson
Berryman Body Structure Painting Tutorial
10,000 Cases of hand-drawn stick Figure Drawings
Complete Introduction to Sketching
“Go on, the introduction to compulsory course for comic masters”
Five, about color matching
In fact, my color matching is also very bad, so I adopted a method, USING MD color specification, which is the following one, choose a main color, one or two colors, not too many colors.
It’s all about one color. I put the source file in the download, you can download it if you want.
In the months of illustration I drew with the MD color specification, you can observe that I chose one color as the main color, but changed the shades, and then selected one or two secondary colors.
Conclusion:
These are probably my more than a year to learn illustration experience, I hope to help you.
It is necessary to look at good works, copy and learn some basic art knowledge, and work hard with everyone.
I have a dream to hang my illustrations all over my room.