How To Draw Your Stories | Illustration - Comics

Line and Color Quick Start Guide: www.thedrawingcodex.com/quick...
In this drawing lesson I go over some techniques and strategies for thumbnailing out scenes.
I think thumbnailing is one of the best things you can do to build that creative muscle for story.
It's important to start building the muscle for turning your ideas into actual images. This can be challenging because it takes ages to complete a finished illustration... and the skills required to do it well take a long time to develop.
But thumbnailing is not just about the finished result it's about the thinking process. You start to learn how your idea looks when you sketch it out... and this helps you to refine your ideas to suit your medium... in this case the two dimensional page.
The more you get used to thumbnailing out your ideas straight away the easier it is to check how good they are... to start thinking of new ones. To brainstorm. To get into creative flow.
This has been really helpful to me over the years. It's one of the main tools I use to plan my images and also to get my stories down onto the page quickly.
Remember these don't need to be great drawings. They are there for you to think through your imagination.
Happy Drawing!
Tim Mcburnie
Learn Drawing and Illustration from me: www.thedrawingcodex.com
Portfolio: www.timmcburnie.com
www.artstation.com/tim-mcburnie
timmcburnie
timmcburnie

[@travisnobleart]

This video, perhaps unintentionally, really captures the struggles we feel when brainstorming and trying to put new ideas to paper. When you were working on the second panel, you seemed to have some doubt about what to put down, and it showed in your monologue where everything is just sort of this or that, and that's kind of the same thing I find myself suffering from so often, like I'm just not sure if this is okay, but let's try something here, or this is a cool idea and I like it, but maybe it doesn't fit for my story (those are the hardest ideas to say no to, e.g. kill your darlings). So I just wanted to thank you for really showing the struggle of this process, and I totally resonated with it. Giving yourself all of those casual thumbnails really is a great idea, opening up the playing field, and giving yourself something other than a blank page more room from the onset to allow for mistakes and just play around with ideas.

[@deardeaddays8673]

I find your channel incredibly valuable! Thank you!

[@omalga]

Thank u! That’s exactly the channel I was looking for YEARS! Like a lot of videos on KZbin cover beginner stuff like “how to draw head” etc. that’s good and important, but there isn’t much content than covers in depth topics like this one. Also a lot of videos on KZbin talk about pretty art, but art without a story. I aspire to tell stories through my illustrations and now it’s not the problem about “how to do something?”, but “how to tell the story I want to tell?” . Ur video shows ur thought process really well, and is long and I can really get a lot from it. Thank you it’s amazing! Subbed! ✨

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Awesome! Totally agree about art and story! Thanks for letting me know this was helpful! I appreciate comments like this a lot :)

[@Simon-et4hu]

Your thumbnails really show how your idea is clarified a bit more with each iteration even when starting with a simple sentence. It seems that the little drawings we do also feed into our head. It's a great reminder to allow the first drawings to be loose and "bad" because they serve to tell us what we really want. That's so interesting and thank you for this lengthy video :)

[@CharlieWritesPaints]

I tell you this, I love your drawings. If my bunny story gets picked up, you would do well for it, I think. Never know, how things go, I'm new. But I love your drawing. You got a beautiful hand. There is real beauty in it.

[@Thezellofamily]

This is the video I didn’t know I needed. Thank you so much. I think this might be one of those videos that I watch more than once because there’s so much useful tidbits in it. :)

[@leo-zf3vo]

I have no specific question because you explain really well, just commenting for the algorithm ;) thanks for your videos man !

[@echocloud0647]

I love his work!!!! ❤ it’s super beautiful and pretty. They’re very creative and awesome ideas and thoughts that he puts onto the pater. I can’t stop watching his videos and how he creates his work sometimes. Keep up the great artwork.

[@Michaelangelodesign]

Once again Tim thanks for your gifted inputs ...... they all help in the evolution of the creator within each of us ..... a sort of unleashing the dragon! Trust in the process. I am just catching up with all your inspiring courses. Thank you so much .. is that a Scottish twang I hear? A bit Sean Coneryish!! Ha ha ... kind regards

[@rachelloof7569]

i love this channel makes art super soothing and inspiring tbh.

[@mitchellsink2584]

Exactly the advice I needed. Thank you.

[@DippedInInk]

Just bumped into this and I’m locked in. Not a thumbnail person but since I’m working on a graphic I see I have no choice but too.

[@stevenseale8633]

Awesome video, Tim does a great job of drawing and explaining the process, playing with ideas, being fluid and playful. He shows what makes an image visually interesting, So inspiring, a great lesson for artists, or anyone interested in learning. Personally, I've been looking for inspiration to help get out of artists block, This really helps reminds me to have fun and play around with creating my own little storylines and to think of the most interesting image from them.... Thank You Tim.

[@fredfry4756]

Your work is noble and good. I salute you, sir.

[@ezekielmcville5101]

Your videos are simply inspirational and motivational

[@darioscomicschool1111]

Thank you for this one!

[@silentobserver4425]

Quality! 👌

[@artwhat..]

Codex..good stuff as always,art supplies,I think once an artist wantabe figures out the medium they want to focus on, it's good to get the best.. bye'eeee..

[@lpgibbo7463]

Great stuff, subbed & liked after the 1st ten minutes 😊

[@koiturnbull5700]

New Pinch and zoom ability on KZbin really made watching this video even more informative as I was able to zoom in to certain details you were concerned we, the viewer, would miss. Very good video. Thanks

[@bryanchristianabrigo]

Ngl. I feel relaxed just listening to the video on background while doing my own drawing. :D

[@Truestratusx]

Dope video. Very helpful and informative.

[@cloudybeforerain7134]

Thanks, Tim.

[@sandeepkumarsethi5635]

Really really informative… thank so much sir.

[@jorgevivanco6021]

Very interesting, thank you.

[@subterranean327]

Thumbnailing is probably my favorite part of the creative process

[@HiNi.]

I love this channel

[@Fantasy2012dz]

🎉🎉❤❤ another great video

[@EuropaPhoenix]

This is a great video. In my case, I like to start with a rough perspective grid. It helps me to visualize the scene better. By the way, when it comes to composition, there are 2 books that I can't recommend enough : Framed Ink 1 & 2 (by Marcos Mateu-Mestre).

[@Gleamiarts]

The Framed Ink books are brilliant!

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Yeah those books are great. Starting with a perspective grid is a great process. I should mention that next time. I’m so used to imagining the grid these days

[@CrescentMond]

I didn't know that framed ink had a second book, I got the first one like in 2008 and I've learned so much from it! I now know what I'll get myself for my birthday next month, thanks!

[@EuropaPhoenix]

@@CrescentMond You're welcome. Framed Ink vol.2 is as good as the first one.

[@Simon-et4hu]

@@EuropaPhoenix I agree! I have them and they re fantastic :)

[@danishabbas7457]

Good stuff Tim

[@jnbouchard8756]

Hey Tim, Great video. I was wondering when and how do you integrate text and narrative in your thumbnails? Because it does take space in the composition. It already happened to me to create a thumbnail thinking about the story, but placing text in the end, I then struggled to add it into my compositions without altering them. What are your thought?

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Do you mean when Drawing comics? Integrating word balloons etc? Or things like logos for covers? I normally try to get all elements on the page for the planning phase. So I add dialogue really early on to pages. And if possible I get the logo elements for a cover etc into photoshop for the thumbnail. I think my early graphic design education left a strong mark on my process (despite feeling useless at the time). I have alway viewed type and logo as an important part of the image. It seems logical to treat them as crucial in planning.

[@jnbouchard8756]

@@TheDrawingCodex Yes, when drawing comics, that is what I meant. Thank you for your answer!

[@sandeeppal7154]

Nice

[@angele9624]

Thanks o7

[@TheLightFantasticArt]

Does anyone know the name of the Frazetta book with the sketches?

[@TheLightFantasticArt]

Nevermind. Found it. It's the "Frazetta Sketchbook".

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Yeah sorry that is the one. There is also a small one called rough work which is great.

[@yopomdpin6285]

"focus on letting your idea flow, making sure that you don't worry about if you can execute it" I mean, if I can't execute it, there's like a 99% chance I won't be able to thumbnail it anyway

[@travisnobleart]

Really? I don't know your situation, maybe you are trying to make your thumbnails too perfect?

[@yopomdpin6285]

@@travisnobleart I don't know about "too perfect" but for example I have a hard time with keeping readility with depth on my pieces so I have a hard time doing it in thumbnails too and vice versa

[@travisnobleart]

@@yopomdpin6285 That makes sense. I'm an amateur thumbnailer, but I have some ideas to help from my experience. Learn perspective, you won't get far without it. You don't even have to be scientific with it. Learn how to make a more casual perspective grid without ruler. That really opened the doors for me. You may be able to avoid the perspective issue by just dividing each scene into three spaces: Background, middle ground, foreground. This is what Cezzane did (if I remember correctly). Other ideas: start with drawing humans in the scene before anything else. Then you can compare all the props and background stuff to the human and keep everything scaled correctly. Hope this helps.

[@yopomdpin6285]

@@travisnobleart I already know perspective and most of the fundamentals, especially volume, 3D and gesture. The problem isn't how to make depth. The problem is how to still be readable while keeping the depth. Most of the time when I make a piece with proper depth, the details of stuff in the middle ground/background become unreadable

[@travisnobleart]

@@yopomdpin6285 So the main thing that affects readability are tangents. When two lines intersect between two objects of different depth will ruin the illusion. Walt Stanchfield and Klaus Janson talk about this. You could reorientate the lines, or erase the point of intersection which is common in manga.

[@begamer021]

I have no ideia how to start doing it, I stare at the page for 5 minutes, when I tart always come out bad!

[@balsamidris5271]

when I want to think of something .I go round and round in circles because it's a habit.

[@samirataufig2780]

Jangan cuma kekuatan sketsa saja pak, perspektif pada figur mana

[@nonono9681]

First

[@zakariadibe1488]

Good channel but 1 houres its long to watching mounaim from morocco

[@geovannycamargo1282]

clear your throat and stop talking with that fry effect. it''s annoying

[@isaachartsell]

Please quit saying “again”. It’s great content but you said again way too much. Most of the time it was the first time you brought up topic.

[@hi22604]

c'mon man