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Making Illustrations Look Awesome vs Actually Telling A Story: Where Do You Fit In?

The Drawing Codex

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Check out my Free Illustration Mini Workshop where I share my journey from Amateur to Pro: https://www.thedrawingcodex.com/illus... You will get some simple advice on how to get more detail and polish in your work. How to think about composition. And my thoughts on how to prepare for professional work.

You will get some simple advice on how to get more detail and polish in your work. How to think about composition. And my thoughts on how to prepare for professional work.

Story vs Make it look cool (Or Both?)... Here in this video I take another deep dive through the concepts of Narrative vs Abstract composition... this time with examples from some great artists.

I cover what I mean by Abstract vs Narrative composition from my own work, and we check out Andrew Loomis' Creative Illustration. Which is a great classic resource for the typical foundational concepts behind picture making.

The idea is that by talking through these ideas with examples you can learn to understand some of how artists employ different strategies of picture making. And you can also start to think about how it applies to your own images.

The principals of composition and picture making are time honoured and well understood. But figuring out how to apply them to your work right now is a challenge! Often we need to focus on the types of images we want to create and understand how things like compositional principals will help us specifically!

Happy Drawing!

Where To Find More About Tim Mcburnie:

Learn Drawing and Illustration at The Drawing Codex:
https://www.thedrawingcodex.com

Take Your Career and Productivity To The Next Level:
https://www.thedrawingcodex.com/yt/mi...

The Drawing Codex Youtube Channel:
@thedrawingcodex

Art Career and Productivity:
@mightyartisan

Real Time Studio Sessions and The Art Ritual:
@linexcolor

Portfolio: https://www.timmcburnie.com
https://www.artstation.com/tim-mcburnie
Instagram: timmcburnie
https://x.com/timmcburnie

16 Comments

@TheDrawingCodex Creator 2 years ago (edited) Pinned

Check out the Line and Color Academy: https://www.thedrawingcodex.com/pin/line-and-color-academy - Master the Art of Line and Color Illustration

I actually have a big bit of paper stuck on my wall that says "MAKE IT LOOK COOL!!!" to remind myself that no matter the brief... most images need to look good :) It has served me well.

But I think this concept of focus in the beginning of an image is so important. Not understanding these ideas has really tripped me up in the past.

@melindawolfUS 2 years ago

As a pro artist, I didn't have illustration classes at school and I'm realizing with videos like your how there are slight-to-major differences to the skill sets. I think representational teachers often looked down on illustration and acted like it was less difficult or less valuable... but I'm seeing when I take on my own illustration projects that isn't the case at all. It's a slightly different skill set than just painting exactly what you see and understanding the forms and light. Illustration is a different visual language with overlaps in representational art.

Thanks for your video! You put some things into words I hadn't quite put my finger on yet. I feel like your ideas were communicated beautifully and to the point. And thanks for using visuals to explain! It's so much easier to learn visual concepts with visual examples.

@Max10_B 2 years ago

Love all the theory and long format content you do. Really insightful in ways that other teachers aren’t.

@eboi5575 2 years ago

Tim you are awesome , you're keep teaching people how to draw and your lessons help me a lot , god bless you.

@jwhite3389 2 years ago

I love videos like this. Studying this kind of work is almost obligatory. Plus it all looks amazing!

@MrHazz111 2 years ago

Those Mythic Arcana cards look awesome.

@anthonyw2931 2 years ago

so it took me days to watch this and made me subscribe. I'm not analytical in that sense and I tend to not think about why but what. So this kinda stuff is immensely valuable. I'll keep coming back to this. Thank you

@user-wk4hd6mt3h 2 years ago

This help me a lot. You are great artist and a great Teacher

@kupotenshi 2 years ago

I think you need both narrative and beauty to create memorable illustration. An image that only tells a story will only be valued for telling that story, a viewer connects with the story being told, not necessarily the image (like a movie is valued for all its moving parts, not each still frame) An abstract, beautiful image is like a flower, you're drawn to look at it, but will it stay in your memory? Especially now with social media, we are oversaturated with beautiful images everyday. It's only when an illustration does both does it really succeed, I think all the artists you've shown mastered that, even Yoshitaka Amano. Really great discussion! I am going to be thinking about this whenever I start a new illustration.

@hutnerr 2 years ago

ok, so i have yet to watch the video so i dont know if you mention anything in regards to - but could you please make the Ara comic available as digital download? Just seeing the bits and pieces makes me feel like im missing out on a great story and awesome illustration

@rafaelesse 2 years ago

Thanks for this video, I just discovered your channel and I’m loving

@jeromecorsi2126 2 years ago

Thank you so much with your clear explanations and profusive examples!! I was very glad to get your reading on the different artists you showed in the video. Just one question, what was the Amano album you were showing? I really like the collection of artworks shown and would like to dig deeper on what he creates

@user-wk4hd6mt3h 2 years ago

Great video, thanks for sharing it.

@angelruizrisueno2729 2 years ago

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@DrawingExercises-q2d 2 years ago

I really liked the reference work you shared, it drove home the points you were making about abstract and narrative styled images. I was wondering if you can explain to me why you use the term abstract for non-narrative single images. It makes sense, but I am wondering if this is your unique view, or if there isn’t something I’m missing. I’ve never heard the word used that way before. I’m used to thinking about abstract and concrete images. If you could share your thinking on this, I would appreciate it. Maybe that could be in a future (or is it a past?) video.

@artwhat.. 2 years ago (edited)

Hi Codex.. Oh'oooo the tangled mind of an artist. The what ifs maybes and could have beens of what could be. The knowledge that at times can overwhelm basic creativity is seen in them. It seems to me the less knowledgeable one is,is when they're most creative,when they look up at a tree from its roots thy can never see the top thus freeing the artist within to imagine and be creative🥸