Issue 45 - Let's talk about business illustration
... and festive stationery, wintery drawing and big news
Hello you fabulous visual thinkers and welcome to December’s issue of the Visual Edit.
Pens
Just looking at all this beautiful stationery makes me feel festive.
If you’re buying yourself a little stationery stocking filler then check out the bulletin board at the end 👇 for a little festive code from us to you.
Drawing practice - a wintery street
When you’re drawing buildings it can be tempting to overcomplicate or strive for architectural realism. As graphic recorders we know that buildings don’t need to be realistic, or survive in the real world, but sometimes we do want them to have a little pazazz! Here’s the challenge - how can we give our buildings character without getting bogged down in 3D realness or details that don’t add anything?
Here is a simple, but characterful wintery street.
By breaking this down into stages, let me show you the difference each layer of detail makes. There isn’t a right or wrong level of detail to add, and what is appropriate will depend on many things:
what purpose the image is for
the speed you work at and the time you have to draw
the size the final image is being viewed at
Let’s break it down!
Colour Blocks - I’ve started with a simple set of colour blocks. I was working in Procreate so I created an outline and then used a textured brush in two different colours to fill in the blocks. If I was working pen on paper I’d have used a Neuland BigOne chisel tip to get some broad strokes on the page
Outline - I’ve added the structural details in black, and now you can see that this is a street. It’s already got character, and leaving the roofs white make it feel snowy.
White Fills - I added a little bit of extra line work on some of the roofs so that there was variety. Then I did the most important step after the outlines, I filled in the windows with white. This is super easy if you’re working digitally, but if you’re working pen on paper you’ll ideally want to think about windows first (put a bit of light tack tape down before you do your colour blocks). Or grab your white labels and cut and stick some little blocks you draw on as windows.
Colour - Such a valuable layer to add. I used it as an opportunity to add some wintery detail to the houses. They’re very simple additions but they create a big impact.
Environment - If you’ve ever done one of our courses you’ll be familiar with the drawing warm up of creating an Environment Set. Here I added the ground, a letter box for posting all those Christmas cards and a snowman. Quick and simple but they turn this into a street you can imagine walking down.
People - Finally I’ve added some people. They are deceptively simple and they add movement and life to our little festive scene (including a chimney visitor).
Try it yourself and feel free to STOP adding detail at any point along the way! If you’re having too much fun, you can just keep adding to this street until you’ve got a whole wintery little town!
If you draw a wintery street do share it with me here in comments or tag me over on Instagram @graphicchange
My studio table
This month around the studio table I want to delve a bit deeper into last month’s income stream pie chart (If you didn’t see it then check out Visual Edit Issue 44 here) and look at the segment of the pie that was labelled illustration, at 16% of my income.
As a graphic recorder I get asked to do illustrations for my clients and although every job is different they do tend to fall under some main categories. Today I’m going to lay those down for you in the hope that you’ll feel inspired by different ways of working visually. But first let me talk about the equipment I use the most often for illustration work.
Equipment:
The set up is quite simple. I use 3 x pieces of equipment
iPad Pro
Apple Pencil
Huion tablet desk stand
and 1 x drawing app
This simple, reliable set up works a treat for me and I use it successfully for all my digital illustration work.
Categories of illustration:
Rich Pictures - These might be the visualisation of a strategy document or of a whole organisation and they are particularly useful for showing the entirety of a particular system, model or business:
Infographics - If you have a client with a heap of data they want to share, or a handy set of instructions they want people to follow, then an infographic might be the answer. Of course I don’t mean the soulless Ai generated, clipart offerings you might see laminated on an office wall, but characterful and energetic delights that are both informative and very, very shareable.
Summary on a page - You know how it goes, you’ve done an important bit of work, you’ve written a wordy report and you know most people will never read it. Heart breaking; all you want to do is spread the important messages you worked so hard to pull together. A visual summary is a powerfully effective addition to make your report accessible to the widest audience.
Report illustrations - Another way you can help get eyes on the page is to add illustrations that reinforce the content. This could be an annual report (usually yawn), research findings or any wordy report you want to stand out in a crowd.
Slide decks - Even nowadays you’ve heard of or experienced death by Powerpoint I’m sure. Well visualising a slide deck is the antidote and it really can help your clients win pitches. As if the universe knew I was writing this article, here is a screenshot of an email I got from a client today:
Books - For me books are definitely the smallest part of the illustration pie. To date I’ve illustrated 4 books with another in the pipeline for the new year. Of course as a graphic recorder I’m used to simplifying complex information and this lends itself perfectly to many non-fiction books. Check out some examples in the brilliant book Written by Bec Evans and Chris Smith.
Book covers - This is a new category for me. Of course I did the cover for my own book but I generally consider book covers to be a specialism that I really appreciate but I’m not experienced in. A bit like logo design… I have done it but it’s not work I seek out. Saying that, I do currently have a book cover on my to-do list which made it through my filters because they’re a long standing client of mine for other work.
If you’ve got any illustration questions give me a shout in the Comments.
Bulletin Board
If you have any relevant visual thinking news you’d like us to share, email Natasha at support@graphicchange.com
Pens & Stationery - Cult Pens is small business that we use in the UK - a pen lover’s emporium well worth a browse. If you do find something you like then here’s a link to give you a festive 10% off. Enjoy 🎁!
Visual Journal BOGOF - If you’ve ever wanted to start a visual journal but lack the confidence then here’s another great offer. Sign up to our online Draw a Visual Journal course and a get another free place on the course to gift to someone you want to treat. Yep you heard right - buy one get one free! See last month’s Visual Edit (Bulletin Board no.3) for the details. Offer expires on 5th January 2025.
Big news! In January 2025 we’re going to be turning on our paid subscriber option here on Substack. Don’t worry, the Visual Edit will stay free and you’ll keep on getting it in your inbox each month. If you do decide to be a paid subscriber you’ll get to come behind the scenes to my virtual studio to access all the extra content and support we'll have to help you grow your skills and business as a graphic recorder or graphic facilitator. As an existing subscriber you’ll get to take advantage of our day one subscriber offer.
We hope you have some cosy wintery (or cool summery if you’re on the other side of the world) time planned for the coming weeks. We’ll be having a couple of weeks off over Christmas but we’ll be back mid January with all the news about our new content and more Visual Edit goodness to share with you.
Cara and Natasha x
