Visual Design

[Nina]

Visual Design​

Welcome to the class thread for all professors and students of Visual Design!
Below will be a post from the introductory professor explaing more about this particular class/medium and what you can expect to learn. Have fun guys!

(This class was perviously a one professor class, but now will be converted to the community class so as to keep intact all resources previously posted.)

Original Professor Material by Nina

Current Professors: N/A

Welcome to Visual Development!

If you've signed up, great! If you're just interested and want to see what I say before participating, also great! You can start on these projects at any point in time, you've just got to do the projects in order. You can always PM me if you want to finish the projects without your peers seeing. Remember to add me on Skype! miss.nina.r

TUTOR: Nina
COURSE: Visual Development​

WHAT IS VISUAL DEVELOPMENT?​

I made it up. Sorta. I've given the name Visual Development to encompass the way I was taught in my school to create preliminary work for illustrations. We never had a specific class dedicated to this topic as it just became a required aspect of ALL classes. We can't show up to class with a finished painting that a professor has never seen before, and even if we did it would be terrible because we'd already be done when the professor has so much for us to fix! For this reason, you always show preliminary work of what you are planning to do in a format that helps you communicate your thought process.

The smallest pipeline a class would require would be this, with critique between each step.
​

Thumbnails —> Composition Sketches —> Final

However, a complete pipeline works a little like this:​

[Brainstorm/Reference Building —> Thumbnails —> Research] —> Composition Sketches —> [Value Comps —> Color Comps] —> Draft —> Final


​

Visual Development: Lesson 1
Thumbnails | Research | Reference


Three topics for the first lesson? Well you see, they all get intertwined so we've got to cover them all to start!

WHAT ARE THUMBNAILS?

Thumbnails are very quick sketches that are meant to catalog different ideas and compositions visually for a work of art. You should not spend long on these. In the beginning it will be fine, but just remember your goal is to explore ideas quickly so you can spend less time struggling later on. You can draw out borders yourself, or you can print out a sheet of boxes to draw your thumbnails. If your project has specific final dimensions, remember to have your thumbnails proportional to the final dimensions. Your thumbnails should be refined enough that you personally should know what's going on, but they aren't mean to paint a complete picture. Give yourself a sheet of rectangles/squares and just draw until you run out of ideas, research, draw, research, etc. I often do mine in front of a computer and easily switch back and forth. Don't forget you can write an idea map with your thumbnails, but for this course I don't need to see it, and your thumbnails need to mostly speak for themselves without captions.​

WHAT IS RESEARCH?

"Nina I know what research is!" I know you know how to do an english paper, but just listen, ok? Research is building your personal understanding of what it is your are going to draw. You can easily find a picture of something you don't know how to draw, but it goes a mile if you understand your subject matter. Unlike english class, you don't need to source anything. Wikipedia is your friend! Research is looking at and gathering picture or written information on your subject. While doing research, your gather reference material.​

WHAT IS REFERENCE?

Reference is visual images you are looking at to either inform or inspire you for you project. Gathering a collection of realistic photos of you object you are drawing from various angles is informative reference. Then, thinking about expanding your idea about the object, find the ways that the object has been represented through art or design. Find images that show how people see and understand your object. You can also find style reference. You see an artist use a technique for an unrelated subject matter, but want to apply it to your current image. Also reference.​

When do I credit reference?​

Real talk. If you are relying on a reference heavily enough that you feel you have to source it, that's a no-no in the professional art world. There's a lot of talk and guides on visual plagiarism, and it's a pretty grey area. I feel that if you draw from a pose, not trace it, and aren't trying to capture the likeness of the model, then that's far enough from the image. As such, you do not need to credit links or urls for the reference you turn in this class. It's not necessary to cite all of your influences, because they are not directly informing you.

What about in graphic design tags that credit artwork? Well, if you were a graphic designer professional you can not do that. You would have to obtain the rights to what ever image you use or make your own. I know that everyone on the internet just nabs japanese art and uses it in their graphics here and elsewhere, but in the art world this is highly not ok. Understanding that this is a hobby class, you may use other's works and credit it for learning purposes only. I just wanted to make you all aware of how it works professionally.​

WHERE DO I START?

Well, that's the thing, you can start at any point! I was collecting reference of swords for no particular project, and I got inspired, so I gathered reference more for rapiers and final fantasy characters. I started in reference, and then moved on to a few thumbnails, pictured above.

At this point, I haven't done any research on rapiers, fighting stances, or historical usages of rapiers and fencers. I also haven't done specific visual research on rapiers that had pasts, I just scrolled through pinterest. So I've started on thumbnails and reference, but next I need to do targeted research, which will help me gather more reference, and inform my next round of thumbnails.
​

Project 0 | Part 1

In my lesson plan I wrote the first project will be responding to an article. However, I think maybe that was moving too fast that you now have to respond to text, so we'll be doing a mini self-directed prompt. We will end up only doing 10 - 20 thumbnails with some reference, and 1 - 2 comps.

So! I want three things from you:

1) Think of an idea that goes like this:
_____ with _____.

You can describe the project example above as bunny with sword, specifically viera with rapier. The point is that I want you to focus on two subjects so you can focus on a simpler idea.

2) Pick a ratio.

The final size is not of concern right now, but you want to start developing your images with a specific format in mind. For now you're not going to be locked in, but just pick between landscape, or portrait.

3) Research/Reference/Thumbnails

Research does not need to be documented, but I will ask you specifics about things in your thumbnails. Reference will not be turned in yet, however keep saving it for later. You can either save images, put them in a tumblr tag, or create a pinterest board.​

What I want to see from you is 5 - 10 thumbnails! No color, no values, lines only! They must all be in the ratio you have chosen, and that's it. You've got to try it first for me to see! Take as long as you like, but don't worry this first part shouldn't take long. They don't even have to be "good" thumbnails, as you can see I've already x-ed out one of mine.​

​

 

[Flushed]

First of all, really interesting materials so far! And I really can't phrase this so it doesn't come off as questioning/pretentious haha (which I definitely don't intend) but trying to make the connection with graphic design, I'm wondering about the use of thumbnails when you're moving forward with non-scratch work and a set of "predetermined" resources. Of course the idea seems valuable in generating ideas, however it seems like it'd be harder to replicate these ideas with a limited pool of resources.

 

[Nina]

First of all, really interesting materials so far! And I really can't phrase this so it doesn't come off as questioning/pretentious haha (which I definitely don't intend) but trying to make the connection with graphic design, I'm wondering about the use of thumbnails when you're moving forward with non-scratch work and a set of "predetermined" resources. Of course the idea seems valuable in generating ideas, however it seems like it'd be harder to replicate these ideas with a limited pool of resources.

The best part of this workline is when you have to generate ideas, but sometimes when you do have predetermined resources, thumnails are less imaginative and more utility based. It's just boxes/outlines of "what goes where". Quick drawings of the picture in the left right, bottom, small big, noise lines coming from this way or that way, where the text is and what it will say.




In reality though, when doing graphic design work in a professional field it's never going to work like it does in these threads where someone hands you a picture and asks you to make something out of it. You're going to have to find your own theme and design, and then those will inform what resources you are going to find. So maybe in the hobby sense the thumnail stage isn't the most useful, but comps will definitely be.

If you mean predetermined in that you have a specific picture picked out I mean. Even if someone were to say "I want a to man hold a phone with call us written on it", that's not predetermined resources. You would still thumbnail different positions and ideas, what would contribute to the mood of the message and how it's going to be perceived, and then you would find art or stock images that match as close as to what you want. You can let reference and research guide you, but you still need to explore all possible avenues.

 

[Aquacorde]

So I wasn't really sure what this class was going to be before but now looking at the way you're presenting it I think it might be something I could do that would benefit me? I'm not really much of anything besides a sketch artist and even then have trouble drawing from life or references. But I think laying out concepts in this way seems like a good way to focus and practise for me. I DUNNO I DID THE THING IS IT OK

Spoiler:

 

[Nina]

So I wasn't really sure what this class was going to be before but now looking at the way you're presenting it I think it might be something I could do that would benefit me? I'm not really much of anything besides a sketch artist and even then have trouble drawing from life or references. But I think laying out concepts in this way seems like a good way to focus and practise for me. I DUNNO I DID THE THING IS IT OK

Spoiler:

It is okay! It's honestly too ok, you could spend even less time on them! Things like the details on the mic, hair, stage, background, are all not necessary at the thumbnail stage. Focus more on quantity of ideas, and less on refining the sketches. You're starting to add value and we're not going to need those until the composition sketches. More like your first thumbnail and less like your last thumbnail. About how big are these sketches and how long would you say they took you? They look like they're rather large, but you can't always gauge scale.

So you're going with a portrait format, with the subject being a singer with mic? With 7 thumbnails, I'd say you're done with part 1! But don't be afraid to do some more quick ones if you have even the smallest idea! You could always try more with a varied size of the singer. They could be even further back, or they could be super close, just give them a quick sketch to see if something sparks your interest.

These look like good sketches don't get me wrong, but the purpose of this class is to explore more ideas efficiently and you can do more with less! You can get more detailed in the next step. :)

ADDITION

I realize that I didn't clarify the size of thumbnails. While I'll leave it up to you guys, in general, they should be pretty small! I'm guilty of making mine larger than they should be, but your thumbnails can literally be the the size of your thumb.​

I'm going to give everyone a chance to change around/do more thumbnails after the first attempt, and then after that we're going to pick which ones should be pursued for a composition sketch. Don't worry about it too much, just letting you know there's going to be a second round of talking about the thumbnails. I'm just going to talk about the approach to them right now.​

 

[Aquacorde]

It is okay! It's honestly too ok, you could spend even less time on them! Things like the details on the mic, hair, stage, background, are all not necessary at the thumbnail stage. Focus more on quantity of ideas, and less on refining the sketches. You're starting to add value and we're not going to need those until the composition sketches. More like your first thumbnail and less like your last thumbnail. About how big are these sketches and how long would you say they took you? They look like they're rather large, but you can't always gauge scale.

So you're going with a portrait format, with the subject being a singer with mic? With 7 thumbnails, I'd say you're done with part 1! But don't be afraid to do some more quick ones if you have even the smallest idea! You could always try more with a varied size of the singer. They could be even further back, or they could be super close, just give them a quick sketch to see if something sparks your interest.

These look like good sketches don't get me wrong, but the purpose of this class is to explore more ideas efficiently and you can do more with less! You can get more detailed in the next step. :)

I'm kind of a perfectionist and I've always struggled with doing things in steps tbh haha. I tend to hyperfocus and want to be very meticulous about a project until I get bored. So breaking things down is a struggle lmao but it's good for me. :)
I wanted to play with Glam Rock style of thing and went with 1.5"x2" rectangles because that's about the size I'm used to sketching in. Each one probably took maybe two to four minutes? I dunno. But after taking your post into account I went back and did eight more at 1.5cm x 2cm- less detailed; each taking maybe less than minute? I still kept erasing and starting over when I didn't like where the sketch was going, which I've had others say not to do in the past because it's such a rough stage but. Perfectionist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Are these more like what you're looking for?

Spoiler:

 

[Nina]

I'm kind of a perfectionist and I've always struggled with doing things in steps tbh haha. I tend to hyperfocus and want to be very meticulous about a project until I get bored. So breaking things down is a struggle lmao but it's good for me. :)
I wanted to play with Glam Rock style of thing and went with 1.5"x2" rectangles because that's about the size I'm used to sketching in. Each one probably took maybe two to four minutes? I dunno. But after taking your post into account I went back and did eight more at 1.5cm x 2cm- less detailed; each taking maybe less than minute? I still kept erasing and starting over when I didn't like where the sketch was going, which I've had others say not to do in the past because it's such a rough stage but. Perfectionist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Are these more like what you're looking for?

Spoiler:

Yes these are good! Under 1 minute per thumbnail is what you're shooting for! These look to be a good size too. You don't need to erase them, just move on, but all in all I think you've got the concept down better!

Either when we get a few other's thumbnails or if no one does more by say tomorrow afternoon we'll start talking about selecting which thumbnails and how to approach a composition sketch. No rush on everyone else, I won't post an actual lecture on it, but I'd like to make sure everyone gets feedback in a timely manner.

 

[Nina]

-snip-

Teacher's pick for your thumbnails are.....

Singer with Microphone
What captured my attention the most were these four thumbnails. On the left and top, these two are a good chance to do some nice facial expressions and give a piece a lot of mood to it. The last two are pretty dynamic and could make an interesting pose, especially with the last one and the curvature of the stage I think I'm seeing. With that last one though, just be aware of how much of the body you end up cutting off in the end or it could look odd.

So, you only need to pick 1 or 2 of these to develop into a composition sketch! It's your choice of which ones you want to do, and you can even do one I didn't recommend.

At this point, you want to take into account your actual composition, the way elements flow into each other, the way objects interact with the edges of image, etc. I'll go into more detail if needed, but that sounds like something that could be explained more in Traditional Arts classes. You're not supposed to take value into consideration at this stage, but if you have light lines or what not, don't worry about it erasing them or something like that.

Your comp sketch shouldn't get tied up in small details, but at the same time, you want to work out your sketch to be solid enough that you could just trace it and use it as a base for your final image. Oh yes, your comp sketch should be the same size as your final, unless it's over like 12 inches physically. By the way in these examples, you don't have to work past the border! It helps a lot when doing bodies though so you can make sense of where limbs come in and out of your image, and to avoid having items 'squashed' against the edge.

COMPOSITION SKETCH EXAMPLES

 

[Fairy]

Requesting extension on my homework. I'm.. actually kind of struggling with making the thumbnails. I must have sat down and attempted it a good seven times now. I realize these are supposed to be quick, simple, uninvolved sketches but, every time I try, I get caught up in making things too complicated. Like my brain for some reason isn't shutting off at the "enough" point and I end up not only unhappy with the result, but not evidencing the lesson either. Only maybe two of my thumbnails have been successful so far.

But I am working on it and will definitely turn it in asap!

 

[Nina]

Requesting extension on my homework. I'm.. actually kind of struggling with making the thumbnails. I must have sat down and attempted it a good seven times now. I realize these are supposed to be quick, simple, uninvolved sketches but, every time I try, I get caught up in making things too complicated. Like my brain for some reason isn't shutting off at the "enough" point and I end up not only unhappy with the result, but not evidencing the lesson either. Only maybe two of my thumbnails have been successful so far.

But I am working on it and will definitely turn it in asap!

That's fine! I think it's working out that I'm just going to work 1:1 with everyone as we've got different schedules and levels, and maybe we'll all catch up again! Don't worry about it.

If you want, we can plan a skype date I can talk you through it/give you some exercises to do! I don't want you to struggle! Have you practiced life drawing or drawing under a time limit at all before?

 

[Aquacorde]

So I got very sick recently and am headed out of town for a while so I don't know if I'll get to comp sketches within the next two weeks :( But when I do, what size do you recommend for a full piece? I've never done anything finished before really.

 

[Nina]

So I got very sick recently and am headed out of town for a while so I don't know if I'll get to comp sketches within the next two weeks :( But when I do, what size do you recommend for a full piece? I've never done anything finished before really.

That's cool. I guess we'll just put this class on hold for a little bit, let everyone get their breaths. : )

It's up to you and what you are comfortable with, but if it were say to be an illustration for print in a magazine it would not be much smaller than 8.5 x 11, and not much larger than 11 x 14. That's a good workable size for traditional drawing! As long as you work in the same ratio as your prompt, you can work larger, and a lot of artists feel a bit more comfortable making it slightly larger. You also have to remember if you ever plan on selling prints, what size you would want them to be printed. You may have an image going on to a a full page in a magazine, but may feel like your idea would be good enough to sell as 11 x 14 prints in the future, so you would work at that size. If you don't really care about or plan on selling prints, don't worry about it!

If you're doing something digitally, make sure you enter in your dimensions by inches with at least 300 dpi, not 72. This will ensure you have the best quality if you plan to print something/your indented output is print media. Like wise, when scanning in an image to work or on the final, make sure you have a scanner that can scan in at least 300 dpi. You can scan it in even higher, but going over 600 dpi really isn't useful as the human eye can't make out the details any more than that.

If I work digitally I start at 9 x 12 @ 300 dpi (also pixels per inch) which ends up being 2700 px x 3600 px, usually no matter what the drawing. Traditionally, I'm prone to go smaller at an 8.5 x 11, but scan in at 600 dpi if I want it to be bigger. That is a thing you can do by the way, you can scan in smaller artwork at high dpi to get a bigger image, which won't be pixilated, however you're going to be able to see more detail that you might not want. For me, if I'm just beginning with a sketch a lot of times I'll just take a camera photo!! If I'm going to draw over or paint over it, I don't care the size.

So uh, lots of talk, but it all depends on your workflow, and for this class the comps need to be the same size as final, and the final should realistically be between 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 14.

 

[Bezu235]

I'm a big super noob when it comes to art as good as yours, but I'm really keen on learning it =o Idk if my microsoft Paint art counts, but yeaa haha.

 

[Nina]

I'm a big super noob when it comes to art as good as yours, but I'm really keen on learning it =o Idk if my microsoft Paint art counts, but yeaa haha.

What ever program works for you man! I'll be updating the class soon, I'll add you to the roster.

 

[Nina]

Spoiler:

☆

☆

☆

Hey! So I've been a little under the weather but I'm going to kick this off now, but here's a few changes. Anyone who's looking at this who I didn't quote, just jump in!

I feel like people were a little inundated with the beginning project, being able to do whatever with little guidance. So, we'll be doing something simple. I still need you to read through previous white boxes!
So for our project here:

☆ Pick a type of frog.
☆ Draw 5 - 10 thumbnails with the frog in different ways.
With plants or in different views, what ever you think will look good! Just look at references from google and don't worry about it.
The reason we're doing a frog is because I doubt anyone is a FrogDrawerMasterPro, so no pressure! Everyone is gonna have some quick frogs!​

☆ Post them here!
Any program is fine, just post a .jpg or .png in this thread. No deadline like before, but I'd really like to have them in a week or two.​

 

[Fairy]

Posting to say that I'm in and I'm excited and I will be posting my frogs over this weekend! :)

 

[Circuit]

Just putting my notice in that I'm in, prepped and ready for this, and you can expect my frogs over the weekend too haha

Omg frogs tho

 

[Nina]

Omg frogs tho

(fictional frogs are also acceptable drawing subjects)

 

[Circuit]

I DID IT!

So obviously I had to include some Froggits :)
Hopefully this fits the requirements :3

 

[Nina]

I DID IT!
-snip-
So obviously I had to include some Froggits :)
Hopefully this fits the requirements :3

Hey! We're getting somewhere!

My recommendations to move forward are the two checkmarked ones! I found the one on the right to be a possible interesting composition/look, but I just love the first one!
Which, actually might just be a frog looking forward with it's mouth closed and the chin defined, but I'm reading it as a :D! looking frog and I LIKE IT. If that wasn't your intention just lie and pretend it was. :D
The Froggits look good, but they're just not as interesting compared to the others.

But remember, you can always combine ideas!

You can move on to composition sketches like outlined before. I have a feeling we'll be revising these, so just give it your best shot even if you're not sure about what you're doing and we'll work from there!
Bezu has a skype update of something about not being able to get on for awhile, so I guess they're just going to be inactive till when ever.

So, you only need to pick 1 or 2 of these to develop into a composition sketch! It's your choice of which ones you want to do, and you can even do one I didn't recommend.

At this point, you want to take into account your actual composition, the way elements flow into each other, the way objects interact with the edges of image, etc. I'll go into more detail if needed, but that sounds like something that could be explained more in Traditional Arts classes. You're not supposed to take value into consideration at this stage, but if you have light lines or what not, don't worry about it erasing them or something like that.

Your comp sketch shouldn't get tied up in small details, but at the same time, you want to work out your sketch to be solid enough that you could just trace it and use it as a base for your final image. Oh yes, your comp sketch should be the same size as your final, unless it's over like 12 inches physically. By the way in these examples, you don't have to work past the border! It helps a lot when doing bodies though so you can make sense of where limbs come in and out of your image, and to avoid having items 'squashed' against the edge.

Don't worry about the size so much. Just decide if you still want it to be square like your thumbnails or not.