Process (1) - Group mind

For The Intrinsic Perspective by Erik Hoel

Commissioned by Erik Hoel for The Intrinsic Perspective

Welcome to the first of ‘Process’ where I will briefly break down how I create illustrations. People often ask where I get the ideas from and how I put them into a finished piece. Quite often, the truth is, they just happen on their own. But when they don’t happen, I have a method to make an illustration appear. This is the process.

Group Mind

‘Group mind’ was created for The Intrinsic Perspective (TIP) essay ‘The egregore passes you by’ by Erik Hoel. I picked this illustration as the first example because, well, it is the last illustration I did so it is fresh in my mind. But also, I like some of the development drawings. Sometimes the sketches and early drafts for an illustration are beautiful in their own right but not useable as a finished illustration. For example, I really liked the raw grayscale drawing below. It could be good enough on its own in a different forum, maybe as an inline illustration, but it doesn’t work as an attention grabbing thumbnail. It also doesn’t fit with the overall aesthetic of TIP. Here it is in a different forum as an inline illustration.

Process 1

The first thing I need to do for any illustration is read the essay. Seems stupid to put that into writing but it is worth reminding myself. Sometimes I read the first few lines and immediately get an idea, and it is tempting to start working on that idea without reading the rest of the essay. A mistake I have made a few times. It’s a shot in the dark. It might work, but it might not. Best to be sure before spending all morning crafting an illustration only to find that it completely contradicts the main point of the essay. No. Much better to sit down and read the essay first.

This is of course a much more pleasurable way to work. I must force myself away from my desk into a comfy chair with a cup of coffee and a fresh draft of an interesting essay. What a life. I don’t draw anything while I’m reading the essay. Ideas pop into my head while i’m reading but I wait until the end to do anything. I digest the whole thing before getting to work. This is of course slightly different to an illustration I would do for a national magazine or newspaper. Deadlines are tight for those jobs so it’s a quick skim of the copy then straight to sketch ideas to be signed off by the art director; which I enjoy, it has it’s own appeal. It can be exciting coming up with ideas on the hoof as it were.But TIP isn’t like this. Illustrations for TIP are slower. More like a creative response than a professional transaction.

Process 2

The hard bit

Coming up with the idea is the hard bit. After reading the essay, I might leave it a few days before drawing anything. I ruminate on it while doing other stuff. Sometimes, the idea just pops into my head while I’m not thinking about it. More often, I need to sit down, usually the day before it is due, and force an idea into existence (More on that in another post). For this illustration, both happened. I tried to force the illustration out because I knew it was due soon but the only decent sketch I could do was the one above. I wasn’t feeling it that day. Then that night, while lying in bed about ready to go to sleep, it popped into my head and I did a sketch immediately. I showed it to my wife who said it looked like broccoli or something. But anyway, it told me exactly what I needed to know. The composition would work.

The rough sketch is extremely important before attempting a finished piece. It defines the composition. It’s an extraction of an abstract thought onto the page. It’s funny, sometimes I think I have a fully formed picture in my head ready to be put on to paper, then when I set the pencil down, it simple doesn’t work. There is no way I can translate the vision in my head to something on paper. This usually happens when I imagine the image in the style of someone I admire. They could do it. I can’t. I must do it my way. If the idea doesn’t fit my way of drawing, then it is not a successful idea. Of course, I don’t just drop an idea simply because my first attempt didn’t work. Sometimes I keep at it until I can bend it into my own style. This can be good and bad. It is easy to feel like I have wasted a day on a failed illustration but I have come to learn that it is a necessary part of the practice. That’s not to say I am not pissed when it doesn’t work. My frustration is visceral and real. But frustration passes fairly quickly these days. Possibly because I have learned when to walk away.

Process 3

The easy bit.

Once I know what to draw and I know that it will work, the easy bit is sitting down and doing it. This part is like meditation. Sometimes I listen to the radio or a podcast but it is mostly just for background noise. I sit at my desk with a fresh piece of paper and a blunt pencil and draw a rough drawing of what I want. Then I put that on my lightbox and trace it with a 0.4 micron pen. And this is the meditation. Tracing doesn’t require any thinking. It requires attention but no thought. I lose track of time doing this bit and I can no longer hear the podcast. When I sit up with a finished image, it is like exiting the cinema in broad daylight, the illusion broken but still lingering. There isn’t much more I can say about it. I love it.

Then I take that drawing, scan it into the computer and make lots of horrible colour versions of it until one of them works. Tah da

Thank you

Thanks for reading this far. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and some insight into how I do my illustrations. I fully realise I haven’t actually explained how I got the idea for this one but that would make this post too long I think. Maybe in the next post I’ll try to explain where the ideas come from. Somewhere in my subconscious is a library of imagery from years of looking at pictures and they come to the surface when I try to visualise a concept.

Please subscribe if you haven’t already. And leave comments. This is still early days for me on substack so I’m sure I will only get better at it.

Also, if you like this image, it is available as a print from my new shop