4 Simple ways to generate illustration ideas
Mind-map your initial ideas
Pull out key words, themes, or visual ideas from the text you are working with. This is a great way to get vital information from the brief. Almost like day-dreaming, allow your mind to wander and write down (or draw) any words that bring immediate images to mind. These can be used as a spring board for new ideas. Try to keep as open-minded as possible, and make note of any idea that might appear. Record concepts no matter how out-there or ridiculous they might be. If you’re too self-critical early on, it can be inhibitive to your creative process. These shorthand sketches may not look like much at first, but it’s an invaluable step to quickly mind-map your ideas on paper because you can refer to them later on when you refine, develop, and build upon these early concepts.
Word association
If you're struggling for ideas, a great way to inject new life into your process is to revisit the text and create a list of words by association. By writing down more words that immediately come to mind, you will eventually have an extensive list of visual cues to draw inspiration from and trigger new visual ideas. You can then start combining key words by sketching them together in more thoughtful compositions in order to see if it incites a concept.
“Certainty is a closing of the mind. To create something new you must have doubt.”
Morph Matrix
A morphological matrix is a fantastic way to generate a diverse range of ideas quickly. It has a complex sounding name but it’s actually quite a simple process. The basic idea is to build a grid of key-words associated with your text. You can begin to combine these words, into varied visual options in order to create multiple creative concepts. The combination of random words can be a great way to spurs any ideas and create innovative concepts. You can even number each square and roll a dice for ultimate chance combinations.
Thumbnail Sketches
Another great way to generate a lot of ideas quickly is by creating thumbnail sketches. These are several small sketches (the size of a thumbnail or a bit larger) used as shorthand to transcribe your concepts onto the page quickly. A good target is to aim to create around 10-20. They often appear as un-precious, quick doodles that wouldn't make much sense to anyone else. However it’s a time efficient way to record the key notion of an artwork, while also suggesting composition which you can refer to as you move on to make more fully developed and refined sketches to later share with the client.
You can find out many more ways to generate ideas, develop a visual language and build a portfolio in my 6 Week online course ‘Conceptual & Editorial Illustration’.
