Practicing Preliminary Drawing
In my second-semester painting class, I made a remark about not liking my sketch for one of the assignments, immediately, my professor looked me square in the face and said, “how about we look at it as a preliminary drawing, rather than a sketch”. I didn’t think too much of it- I wrote it off as thinking that it didn’t really matter in the end, because I thought it was a poorly executed sketch.
Through my career so far as an artist, I have been told a number of times not to throw out my sketches and to actively look and critique all of my drawings. I used to think that this was a little silly because we all make bad art, and I couldn’t wrap my head around why we would keep things we don’t like.
This week, I was thinking about ‘sketching’ to get back into the flow of things when I found myself having an internal conversation about drawing rather than ‘sketching’. After I decided that I should draw, I started producing sketch level pieces but continuing to work on them rather than just dumping onto the page and moving on.
I finally understood that a preliminary drawing is a rough draft to a final piece, something that is more than a sketch, and respectfully its own piece.
After getting loose and taking the time to actively work on something that I knew had no pressure, I decided to create my ‘finished’ drawing using all the knowledge that I gained after my first drawing. I decided to use this preliminary drawing to work out some color palette issues, figure out the composition of the work, and to see how it could look overall.
I took it easy this week, but after not painting for the majority of the summer, it was nice to start off on such a great foot.
While doing this preliminary drawing, I did a quick ‘sketch’ and loose, non-particular painting to get an idea of how the final painting might look. In doing so, I found that I created a piece that I wasn’t expecting, but is just as much of a piece of art as the final painting.
Though I have decided to show off the last piece, the first painting is its own work that also deserves recognition.
Preliminary Sketches
About 6 months ago I came across an article, I couldn’t find it again for the life of me (sorry), that talked about preliminary sketches. What are they you ask? In short, preliminary sketches are what some artists do to make sure they like their illustrations before they put them down on a more permanent surface. They have a few other functions as well, which I’ll be covering in this article.
For the sake of categorization, preliminary sketches are considered both an illustrative tool and a practice. The reasons will be explained below.
Functions of Preliminary Sketches
Character Design
Normally used for character design, preliminary sketches can show many things that are expected to be seen in the scripted comic. Things like body language, facial expressions, body type, a character with their costume on, maybe how they look using their powers, etc.
Approval
If you are working under an Art Director or someone else wearing the same professional hat (writers). You are probably better off doing some preliminary sketches.
The benefit that comes from this is simple. Everyone involved gets to see how characters or designs will look and can come to an agreement. No surprises and everyone is happy. Changes can be made at this stage before endeavouring an entire project.
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Vetting
Another added benefit of performing some preliminary sketches is that you get to see how working with someone will be like. If they ask for too much from you; too many redesigns, are never happy, they literally eat your sketches and spit them back at you, etc. You can at that point resign from working with that person if they become too unpleasant. You know, before you invest a month or more of your time trying to finish a project with that troll.
Referencing
Yes, sometimes you are your own. You’re your own writer and your own artist. You might want to use the preliminary sketches for references to how certain characters are supposed to look. The characters could be minor characters of issues past (my attempt at a Christmas Carol reference) that you probably want to a refresher on for later stories.
You could even keep them together with your Character Bio’s. This way you get to keep any ideas for a character all in one place.
(Meat & Potatoes; by Blake Kandzer)
Feedback
Picture it again, you’re your own artist (It doesn’t stop being scary does it?). You are your own worst enemy when it comes to deciding if something looks good or not.
Another benefit is that you can use preliminary sketches to get feedback on your designs from your friends, family, and peers. You can also post them on Deviant Art, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media for the same result.
Giving Back to the Fans
If you have a Patreon or other crowdfunding campaign and want to show your fans that you care then variant designs of your characters can do just that. Sharing your process with your fans has shown to result in a significant increase in support from fans.
Heck even if you don’t, your followers on social media will love to see your designs. I sure love liking, sharing, commenting, and retweeting on sketches.
Conclusion
Preliminary sketches can have an array of benefits that can help both the individual artist, the creative team, and even gives fans and followers renown interest in your work.
If you aren’t using preliminary sketches in your process and just going freehand. Then… good for you! I can’t imaging doing that myself.
But in all seriousness, you can definitely benefit from it. They are a resource that any artist can produce. Whether they illustrate with pencil/pen and paper or digitally.
