My Design Process

Today I was given a task to write about my design process and how I develop ideas. I’ve never really thought much about my own design process, but I suppose if I had to quantify it, it would start with the initial idea, from here I would probably create a sketch, trying to get as close as possible to the image in my head, the specific example I’m thinking of as I write this, is my most recent pencil drawing of a dragon.

To begin with, once I had decided it was a dragon I wished to draw, I looked up other artworks of dragons and observed their style and technique; from here I took inspiration and ideas I could use for my own drawing.

Once I have decided on what style I’m going for, I start off with the basic outline, drawing and redrawing the structure lines until I’m happy with their position. I then fill in the structure lines with more detail including pupils and teeth.

At this point I might show this first sketch to friends or family asking for their opinions of it, if they think any modifications could be done to improve the design, and make adjustments as is necessary.

Next I would fill in the spaces with shading and attempt to create realistic lighting effect, note: this doesn’t always work quite how I would like.

Then with this drawing, I altered the baground colour in order to bring out the foreground and make the image more striking.

Once the piece is finished I occasionally ask people’s opinions of it, and take onboard any constructive criticism that may help me with my next work.

In contrast to this, another work that I created, the burning man, was a far more off the cuff development process, he began as a simple sketch drawn absentmindedly on my notepad while in a lesson.

I decided that I liked the design and wanted to draw it as a finished piece, from here I followed pretty much the same process as with the dragon, only this drawing was kept in ink, as in the original sketch.

 The final drawing is also scaled up to A3, whereas the original was about A7 size.

Almost all of my drawings are also uploaded to networking and art sites in order to obtain feedback from a wide range of people.