Before illustrators were professional artists working on deadline and caffeine, they were once painstakingly trying to figure out how to make a nose look right, how to make the brush leave the marks they wanted, how to make fur look like fur without drawing every single hair. Though with time and effort their skills will render the nose, the fur, and the paintbrush half the challenges they once were, the question of “how do I draw?” will follow illustrators into their careers, even after many technical aspects of drawing are hardly a problem.
While every illustration presents a unique creative challenge, sometimes a project is also sufficiently outside the illustrator’s usual “alley.” And that’s when things get interesting — an unfamiliar subject means the illustrator cannot rely on many of the well-rehearsed tricks in their bag.
…which is actually primally terrifying. The “bag of tricks” is a parachute in a world in which there is often no time to risk or mess up. But it’s okay — there is nothing illustrators love more than terror, stress, and sleep-deprivation, else we wouldn’t be in the field! Onward!
