Betsy Beier - Anywhere, Anytime Art: Illustration: An Artists Guide to Illustration on the Go!

After years of carrying sketchbooks with me, I have noticed that I see things differently now. A rather mundane scene may catch my eye because of the stunning color palette. A unique sign may beg to be drawn to capture the retro lettering.

When first starting out, its important to experiment with various styles, media, and subject matter to find your niche.

What do I mean by illustration styles? When you look around at the wide variety of illustrated products, youll notice many overarching styles in how the art is rendered. For instance, you may see a clean-lined, graphic style; a precise, photorealistic style; a painterly, impressionistic style; an abstract, bold style; or a naive, simple style. A style can be used to represent any topic, but some lend themselves better to certain subjects than others.

ILLUSTRATION STYLES

These examples of illustration styles lend themselves best to telling a specific story or viewpoint:

A quick marker drawing in an expressive style of people in a bustling market is a great way to illustrate the pace, energy, and activity level of the location.

An impressionistic watercolor, using washes, bleeds, and loose lines, can illustrate a blooming garden. The looseness of the illustration represents how lush and wild the garden is.

A precise pen-and-ink drawing suits itself well to a botanical illustration of the parts of a flower. This medium is very effective for rendering tiny details.

A sweet, naive-style drawing in colored pencil can illustrate a childrens story.

How does an illustrator find a unique style? Over time, as you build a body of work, you will naturally gravitate toward certain media. Also, many illustrators tend to work best when they focus on subject matter they are passionate about. Its amazing how passion can innately show through in the storytelling of an illustration.

Even seasoned illustrators take time to experiment with new styles and media. As an artist, its always important to keep growingyou never know where you may end up!

Just as some subject matter lends itself to a certain style, some media are better at achieving a specific look than others. Lets look at the varied media and tools used throughout this book, with some sample techniques that can be achieved with each medium.

PENCILS

Theres nothing like a pencil to just scribble down some ideas! The best thing about this medium is that its usually readily available. Even if you forget every last art supply at home, you can typically find someone with a pencil (and perhaps a napkin) so that you can get your creative ideas on paper.

Graphite Pencils

Graphite pencils are graded with letters and numbers to determine the hardness of their core, with the hardest core being 9H. The line is light and faintthe graphite is so hard, it doesnt leave a heavy mark. As the numbers go down, the line becomes darker and heavier. After 2H are H, F, HB, and B in the middle of the scale. Then come the Bs (2B, 3B, 4B, up to 9xxB). The bigger the number, the softer the graphite, leaving a heavy black mark.

Hard Pencil

Soft Pencil

Colored Pencils

Colored pencils follow the same model as graphite pencils in terms of softness, but typically, a pencil brand will describe the core as soft, medium-soft, or hard. Just like graphite pencils, colored pencils are easier to control than a brush and give you more precision. They also come in a rainbow of colors. This example shows how you can shade and blend with colored pencils. The left banana has no shading, and the right banana has shading and blending details that add form and dimension.

Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor pencils are versatile, because they are like two mediums in onepencil and watercolor! They are also very easy to travel with and dont make a mess. Since this medium behaves like a pencil, its great for people who like to draw their subjects versus painting with a brush. With just a few brushstrokes of water, the drawing can soon become a painting. This step-by-step example shows how to use watercolor pencils. The first two steps are just watercolor pencil. In the final step, the addition of water turns the grapes into a painting.