Drawing for Illustration

Product Information

Please note, if you choose three or more course choices, then you may be referred for a careers appointment first.

This is where your harder pencils come in, to lay the foundations and do the exploratory work without making a smeary grey mess of the paper. For drawing, pencils are ideally sharpened to reveal a good length of lead, unlike the uniform point produced by a pencil sharpener.Different grips will free your pencil to make a full range of strokes, with that all-important element of confidence. They are graded from H (hard) to B (black) with a number prefix indicating the degree of hardness or blackness.

So drawing is a process: taking in information about a subject, analysing it, and setting it down on paper.Martin studied illustration at Maidstone College of Art (now part of the University of the Creative Arts) in the 1970s. For fiddly erasing I often use a special eraser that comes in the form of a pencil and can be sharpened to a point.

These insights demystify the illustration process while providing the reader with plenty of knowledge and inspiration, regardless of their area of interest. From the very start you should aim to draw with confidence and expression, even at the expense of precision.

To start with you’ll need pencils, paper, an eraser and a knife, but throughout the book we’ll look at other materials and tools you might want to experiment with and add to your kit. In the beginning, a pencil and a blank sheet of paper become two most terrifying things on earth, so you will need to take care of your mindset before you begin. With the guidelines carefully erased, you are left with letters that are much neater than you could have achieved without the preparatory work.

The final section takes the discussion a step further by talking about applied illustration for picture books, editorial and more. You’ll be introduced to Shayda Campbell, who’ll show you how to create simple but very effective works of art. It's designed for beginners and covers all the essential basics to build a strong foundation in the subject.A good illustration definition is that it is a visual explanation of a text, which can be used in books, newspapers, posters, video games, films or animations. Renowned professor on the subject examines the practice of drawing for illustration through case studies and sketchbooks.