Anywhere, Anytime Art: Illustration

An artist's guide to illustration on the go!

Betsy Beier

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781633227002
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

With the approachable instruction andcontemporary approach to drawing featured in Anywhere, Anytime Art: Illustration, aspiring creatives of all backgrounds can learn how to make illustrative art on the go using pencil, pen, colored pencil, and more. Learn how to make art inspired by your immediate surroundings, wherever you are—whether traveling abroad or exploring at home. Use your art and creativity as a means to document your experiences, capture your travel memories, and dream of new adventures. After an overview of the suggested tools and materials, explore essential drawing techniques, such as mastering line art and gesture drawing, making quick on-location sketches, and working with color media to complement illustrations. Helpful tips include information for packing and traveling with art supplies, drawing in the open air, and working from photographs. Finally, easy-to-follow and customizable step-by-step projects show you how to creatively express yourself by combining color, pattern, texture, typography, and cultural experience with a variety of projects. Packed with a plethora of fun and creative exercises, Anywhere, Anytime Art: Illustration is the perfect portable resource for creative types on the go.

Project 1:

HOME SWEET HOME

While my head is swirling with wanderlust, counting down the days until my next travel adventure, my heart is always fulfilled at home. I’m lucky to be able to work from home as an illustrator. Although I take breaks during the day, I’m amazed at how much time I can contentedly spend in my house. It truly is my home sweet home.

Media: black ink, watercolor

What makes your home feel just right? Do you have a favorite chair you love to sit in and sip your tea? Do you always read on the couch with a certain blanket wrapped around your legs? Perhaps you love to cook and spend hours in the kitchen, your favorite room in the house.

To create this project, you’ll draw your home, surrounded by your favorite items, with black waterproof pen. Then, you’ll add some loose watercolor washes and color to soften the feeling of the stark black lines and give your illustration warmth and friendliness. The end piece will be the perfect keepsake to hang in your home!

STEP 1: DRAW YOUR HOUSE

First, take a look at your home and break it down into simple shapes. I live in a classic post–World War II ranch house. It’s long and rectangular with a low roofline. Draw the basic shapes to form the house in the center of the paper.

STEP 2: Add House Details

Now add more shapes to indicate windows, shutters, the front door, and so on. Add any simple, distinguishing landscaping that may be in front of your house. Don’t go overboard. The key to this illustration is not to end up with an architectural rendering of your house, but instead, a sweet, simple impression.

STEP 3: FIND YOUR FAVORITES

Now is the fun part—surrounding your home with your favorite things! Choose a selection of household items that are meaningful or sentimental: Sketch all your options, and choose the ones you like the best.

STEP 4: ADD SIMPLE COLOR WASHES

Pick a color palette that makes you think of your home. You can be as literal or creative as you’d like. Perhaps your house has a relatively neutral palette. Instead of painting with beige, you might pick bright colors with pop that suggest the way your home makes you feel versus how it actually looks (see “Color & Moods”).

Next, add color to the items and things around the house.

Don’t be precious with your watercolor marks. Let the color spill over the lines to give the illustration a worn-in and loved feeling, like your own home sweet home.

STEP 5: ADD A SIMPLE FRAME

Draw an oval around your entire illustration. Next, add simple leaf shapes and a few berries. Add splashes of colors to the leaves and berries to finish the frame.