Why Every Artist Should be Thumbnailing

Do you want to draw faster? Do you want to have a stronger, clearer image? Do you want to be able to pick between 2, 5, 10, a dozen ideas?
I feel like my art has improved slowly over time, but I inadvertently started leaving Thumbnails out of my process, and that ended up making it worse. I need to bring it back, and here’s why you should be doing it too, along with how.
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[@tempesttossed6029]

"--it forces you not to hyper focus on the shading of your character's abs" I have been called out.

[@LunichuDraws]

I know I should be here to learn, but quite honestly I find these videos so ridiculously entertaining that I come for the entertainment 🤠

[@dominionmoudabe9802]

I know I just can't stop

[@FrootDeMoN]

2:30 "When everything demands the highest tier of the visual hierarchy, it is now a visual anarchy." Ah, yes. Truly iconic words from syndrome himself! Love to see it

[@sylvanshroom]

I wanna thumbnail more, I often get caught up in wanting to get to the finish line so quickly that I end up with smth worse that takes longer that coulda been solved in thumbnails, as you said. The intermediary stage is smart too, I'll definitely give that a try 👀

[@MakoKitten]

thumbnails are super useful with iteration too, I've been working on more button/badge designs lately and even with that it's been helping me find better design to fit in my lil circles. I'll have ten or more of one idea on a page with small tweaks before going much further at all.

[@Catpuff818]

Sydrome went to art school yall that's why his hideout is so well designed. Dude's got talent.

[@ibisskb]

I do a similar technique, where instead of doodling what I want through lines, I interpret the shapes as sections, and then upscale the image to allow me to do some detailed lineart using these sections as a basis to what I plan to draw. In a way, thumbnailing but there's a different color for every part so it's more convenient.

[@madisonlecong6083]

That technique sounds similar to what another KZbinr does: Popcross Studios. He does a lot of cool crossover art (e.g what if Pokémon were dragons etc.) You should check him out :)

[@mellowmelly9258]

2:08 i _was_ gonna say something along the lines of "but i think the POINT of that scene is for everything to be overwhelming and chaotic, while simultaneously beautiful, whereas to show the true nature of the sea" but... i really don't think it matters if it IS the point or not; your statement still stands. it IS visual anarchy, and honestly, it's used rather well. it mimics A.I. generated images in it's colors and jittering, folding shapes. it's super chaotic to watch, and i honestly love it

[@kreyfid]

I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED A JOE PERA AND BROOKES EGGLESTON CROSSOVER UNTIL TODAY

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Joe is the BEST

[@kreyfid]

@@CharacterDesignForge FACTS !!

[@BubblingBrooke]

I usually do character work with them by themselves, no background, and I thumbnail poses all the time! (Usually stick figures, but it's usually enough!) It really helps me get the pose I want and helps me refine things that may not be working!

[@Artofcarissa]

Not sure if anyone else can relate but it’s hard for me to make thumbnails as I naturally draw very large haha

[@aizakkukun4985]

agreed lel this is the reason why I struggle to do thumbnails lel

[@eslm-studios2996]

I can relate.

[@bluefox5331]

if I correctly assumed that the part you have trouble with is drawing in such a small space, then maybe set a larger box for your tumbnails? it's supposed to be small so you see the composition and don't focus on details, but that size will be different for everyone

[@GretchASketch__]

I love going to the bar to get tired... But this is very helpful. I try thumbnailing as often as I can remember but I will sometimes get frustrated with it because of how many I will need to do at times. Never thought of just doing a mini grayscale painting for a thumbnail.

[@salvidomum5287]

I struggle thumbnailing digitally for some reason. When I doodle with pen on a sticky note or wherever, the chunky shapes come much more easily than they would on my iPad. It's almost like the technology is too good, it doesn't allow for messier work

[@dakat5131]

I find that settings like stabilizer and stabilizer-weight can impact drawing speed and ability to draw certain shapes. It can be helpful for some tasks but gets in the way other times. It's a situational thing. I draw in Krita with a Huion tablet though so I don't know how much that affects iPad drawing.

[@arkanimation9833]

Hmmm making thumbnails the size of thumbnails… Brilliant! No lie I have been doing thumbnails normal size, so basically a sketch lol. No one not one professor or fellow student was like “hey try drawing your thumbnails thumbnail size”. This is actually really cool and feels like something I should’ve already known, but this is awesome!!

[@SirMasi]

"It's like Syndrome always says..." 🤣. Seriously though, thanks for the reminder to thumbnail! It's a really great practice that is often overlooked.

[@RemnantTheWolf]

I actually came back into the habit of thumbnailing lately by accident. Now working a lot more hours and many of those work hours being spent waiting I grabbed an app for my phone for drawing. This app, honestly, is bad. It's really bad at detecting any real motion and pen movement. It can't sense anything but wide broad strokes. But... This is why it's great. I can't be big on it. I can't be presice. So I draw small things. Practice in rough sketch messy styles and have gotten better at big broad strokes that help set up an idea. I can then export the ones that really resonate with me to my PC via Google Drive and flesh them out. Ask myself what I really see and expand on it. I draw a lot fast when using it so I have tons of ideas to play with. And get to experiment a lot. Good idea using thumbnailing. It's sure to make more full and real compositions.

[@flintartstudio]

Yeah, thumbnailing is something I tend to overlook, especially when I get in a rush to get some art done. xD

[@imjust_a]

A problem I often have with thumbnailing is that it can be very difficult for me to draw from imagination -- *I can't "doodle."* That probably sounds silly, and most artists I talk to have no idea what I'm talking about (feels pretty lonely). I have to start with structure otherwise I have no clue where to go and my characters look very off. I can't just picture, "Yeah, an arm kind of looks like this," and effortlessly draw it like other people do. This makes the thumbnailing process very difficult, and *MORE* time consuming for me, as I can't just throw a few lines down and make something look both proportional and readable.

[@thelostmessenger]

I'm definitely gonna implement this. I never do this when I'm making new characters and just focus on the clothes instead of the silhouette.

[@KingTwelveSixteen]

This one is really good.

[@feanaro2712]

Thumbnailing sounds like a useful process for someone like me who struggles a lot with proportions; starting small, and then scaling up, definitely seems like a more efficient way to test and adjust a character proportions then starting full size.

[@shinypigeongames]

More Clem, nice! 🍯 🐝

[@scrappyknees]

This is awesome! For once I was using a tip before I saw a video you did of it LOL I don't know if you ever take requests from comments but I hope you one day might make a video on drawing fatter bodies, like how weight distributes on the body n stuff! It's a really undertaught thing

[@markguyton2868]

If that's the case, then I've been thumbnail making ever since I started drawing... to the point where I struggle to draw anything larger than half the size of a sticky note... There are more sticky notes with thumbnails on them than actual drawings in my notebook at this point.

[@dynamicsketch]

I used thumbnail sketches for a few de ades after picking it up from a friend in college. I had managed to get one other artist to pick up on it for his work.

[@byjohan832]

It's my case too! I call it micro-drawing, my brother says it's weird to draw like that, but i get more comfortable when watching the exact pixels i'm drawing, it gives me more control for when i want to make a normal size image

[@poepoe5311]

Thank you so much~! 🤍

[@CharacterDesignForge]

You're welcome 😊

[@projp9057]

Good advice

[@KiwitriTheBirb]

The video posted 2 minutes ago and it's a 7 minute long video how could you have watched it so fast-

[@Story_paint]

I use thumbnails, but I downfall in that I don’t make enough of them… I feel so rushed for time that the first rough that doesn’t look like my dog chewed on it becomes the final design.

[@pinkietastic9430]

So I understand that thumbnailing is drawing a smaller version of the full thing to figure out what you want first, but exactly how does it work? Like, how detailed should it be? How small should it be? What’s the difference between thumbnailing and storyboarding, etc.? I’ve heard a lot of people say to do thumbnailing, but it still feels hard to know where to start.

[@WalterBenson]

Surprise Joe Pera lol

[@dylanmcartoonell1536]

Drawing tiny is insanely hard for me.

[@noproblemcha7240]

Hello 👋 Again

[@thundercat9427]

Only Problem, I am kinda too lazy to do this. I have to make hundreds of drawings for my Comic. Ant I need to become quicker. But maybe I can try to implement something like this into my work progress.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Oh goodness this is a time saving measure by far! All the more reason to use it!

[@thundercat9427]

@@CharacterDesignForge I'll try it out

[@thundercat9427]

@@CharacterDesignForge I've tried it out, you're right, actually helps a lot with the dynamic and clarity of the final Image.

[@lavandergalaxy3669]

Thumbnailing time now.

[@cory99998]

Small thumbnailing also lights up our intuitive abilities and help us 'feel out' aesthetics and ideas rather than approaching it as analytically

[@mellowmelly9258]

0:42 among us (sorry.)

[@user-H_m]

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