September at My Imaginary Art School: Storytelling & Drawing
Each week has a full art cycle—from research to sketch to final illustration. Week one was all about summer turning into fall!
This month’s class in my imaginary art school’s illustration program is all about theme research and intro to storytelling. So what does that actually mean? Basically, each week is one full cycle: Monday and Tuesday are for picking a theme and doing research, Wednesday and Thursday are for brainstorming and making rough sketches, Friday is for creating three composition roughs for one idea, and Saturday–Sunday is for making a finished illustration. That’s the weekly schedule!
For example, this week—week one—I chose the theme “transition from summer to autumn.” Right now in Chicago, the days have gotten cooler, the leaves are just starting to change, and people are kind of split between short sleeves and long sleeves. Meanwhile, the cicadas are still buzzing like it’s their final performance of the year. I picked this theme based on that real-life feeling, and then searched for images that matched it using Pinterest and other sources.
This is a rough of a rough, so yeah—it’s super messy. As long as I can understand it, that’s good enough!
On Wednesday and Thursday, I used the research to come up with several story ideas that could be told as a single illustration. This time, I came up with six ideas:
Idea 1: A group of girls running after an ice cream truck. They’re wearing sweatshirts on top, but shorts and sandals on the bottom. Like they’re chasing the last moment of summer. It’s around 4pm, that in-between time when the sun’s still up but starting to fade.
Idea 2: A yellow leaf floating in a pool, and a lonely pool float left behind. That feeling of “yep… summer’s over.” It’s a morning scene.
Idea 3: A gust of wind rustles the trees, and suddenly you notice the leaves on the ground are yellow. Most of the trees are still green, but some spots are turning. It’s that “wait, is it already fall?” kind of surprise. Around sunset.
Idea 4: A person drinking warm coffee in the morning, watching a flock of birds migrate past the window. The birds are heading south, which means… yep, summer’s definitely over.
Idea 5: The sad remains of a BBQ left behind on the grill. It’s midday, but the light isn’t as bright as it was in peak summer. The main event is over and all that’s left is scraps. Kind of depressing.
Idea 6: A farmers market with summer vegetables next to fall vegetables. When you see pumpkins and apples lined up like that, it’s like—oh! Fall food season is beginning! That little thrill of anticipation.
I used these notes to capture the feeling I want to show—like the bittersweetness in the hand gripping the fence, or the vegetables’ sad little faces, and the sparkly excitement of the fall veggies finally getting their moment.
After writing all those down, I did some super rough, messy thumbnails for each one and picked the two that seemed most fun to work with: the pool idea (Idea 2) and the farmers market (Idea 6). I gathered the key elements I wanted to include for each one, using loose sketches and memo-style notes, and that wrapped up Thursday’s work.
This is another rough of a rough. I gave myself just 7 minutes per idea, and still ended up with some surprisingly fun concepts!
Then on Friday, I created three different rough compositions for each of the two ideas.
This weekend, I turned one of them into a more complete illustration with finished linework and color. I’m planning to repeat this full cycle four times this month! I just did the first week, and it’s been so fun. I came up with ideas I never expected, and sometimes the concepts that were super clear in my head at the beginning actually felt kind of flat once I started sketching. Meanwhile, the ideas I developed more loosely while drawing turned out way more interesting, both as roughs and final compositions. It’s been full of surprises in the best way! I hope I can share more step-by-step progress next week too.