Sketching ideas wildly can help kick your left-brain to the kerb… which is a big help.
The most interesting cartoons and illustrations have a lot of action and dynamism. However, when it comes to drawing them, sometimes our minds get overly analytical and it can be difficult to come up with a good idea and draw something interesting. What can you do to get around this?
The answer is simple
Start sketching ideas (without thinking at all)
Grab a pencil and paper (or a tablet like I am using here) and start making marks on a surface.
The beauty of this wild sketching ideas approach is that you can’t possibly ‘make a mistake’ as you don’t have anything in mind anyway. The reality is that you are letting your hand and eye do the thinking instead of your brain and that gives you direct access to right-brain, creative results.
Your brain responds to your hand’s suggestions
As you scratch the first lines onto the paper, your brain starts to pick up suggestions as to where the movement and action are going and what you can do with the lines that have appeared randomly. Invariably you will come up with some excellent sketching ideas that will surprise you in their creativity.
Your drawing goes in directions you would never have considered
Once you have sketched out like this you invariably have some really interesting suggestions coming into your brain and then it becomes a matter of filling in appropriate outlines and adding a pop of colour to finish things off.
I certainly recommend this sketching ideas approach whenever you feel at a bit of a loss, or paralysed by the sight of that blank page yawning in front of you. It can demolish any roadblock that you are encountering and let loose a torrent of great ideas, just as you see at the end of this video.
What wild sketching ideas can you come up with using this approach?
Over to you! Grab your pencil and sketch like a maniac for 5-10 minutes, and see where it takes you.
As always, the best interaction happens after the video, so head down to the comments and let me know what you think of this approach 🙂
P.S.
If you’re considering to take your cartooning to the next level, check out the Da Vinci cartooning course page and hop on the waiting list.