Every artist knows the feeling of staring at a blank page, waiting for that spark of creativity to strike. For sketch artists, drawing inspiration can come from the most unexpected places—a fleeting moment, a captivating scene, or even a simple conversation. But where exactly do artists go to find this creative fuel?
In this article, I’ll share some personal insights into how and where I discover drawing inspiration for sketches, offering a behind-the-scenes look into the creative process that fuels my art.
Whether you’re an aspiring artist or simply looking to reinvigorate your creativity, my tips and experiences will provide you with the sketch art inspo you need to transform blank pages into works of art.
Guide to thumbnail sketches for drawing inspiration
Usually whenever I start on a client project for an explainer video project or illustration, I start with a bunch of thumbnails. I assumed everyone did that but it seems that’s not true, it’s a pretty simple approach to idea generation and has proven useful for countless artists and designers over the centuries.
What are thumbnails?
Thumbnails are small, quick sketches used to brainstorm and explore ideas before committing to a final design. They’re perfect for experimenting with layouts, compositions, and concepts, helping you visualize and refine your ideas on a smaller, less intimidating scale. Think of them as a creative playground where you can test possibilities and spark inspiration for sketches.
How I use thumbnails to draw inspiration into sketches
I was brought up with the idea of always having a sketchbook nearby to nail down sketching new ideas before you forget them. Inspiration for sketches often start out as tiny thumbnails, scribbles and sketches, sometimes literally the size of a thumbnail, and often hard for anyone else to make sense of.
Thumbnails are a great way to get over the “fear of a blank sheet of paper”. They are not precious and usually only take a few seconds to make. They can evolve and you can quickly try out a range of different approaches, angles, figures or poses. Thumbnails are useful because they let you see the big picture without getting bogged down by focusing on any of the small details.
A sketchbook is good way to keep track of all the aspects of a particular project like format, dimensions, start date, time spent, expected delivery date, initial ideas and questions, etc, and have it all in one place. But any old scrap of paper and a pencil will do for thumbnails, just start making lines.
My Top Tips for Sketching My Inspiration and Ideas
Simplify what you want to visualise
If you are working from a script for an explainer video, you can break each sentence or short paragraph down to a single image. When you get an idea or inspiration for sketching, any tiny scribble might be enough to get you moving in the right direction. You’re not making pretty pictures here, just explaining an idea as simply as possible.
Start with empty thumbnails or panels for initial sketch inspiration
If you have no ideas at all it can be worthwhile to draw up a line of small panels (maybe 4-5) in the approximate format and then challenge yourself to fill them all up as quickly as possible with anything you can think of, there’s no bad ideas, just fill those panels!
Any sketch art inspo will do!
Getting the pencil moving and making marks is a good step forward. If you get a few promising ideas from that, move on from thumbnails to rough drawings or sketches. Try drawing a few panels at double or triple the size, and draw them a bit bigger and cleaner, or combine two or three elements into one better design.
Any text or speech bubbles can be indicated with an approximate scribble or maybe write it out roughly so you have an idea how much room you may need for headings, text or logos.
Experiment using photos or other images for drawing inspiration
Having tiny sketchy little drawings of figures can help you work out what pose might work best, before you reach for any figure or character reference, which can often unconsciously influence you into drawing a figure in a set way. You can always get up and try out a few poses yourself and get a feel for what goes where, maybe even get someone to take a few photos on your phone.
Don’t be afraid to gather inspiration or confirm your ideas from photos or images from the internet! Reference is often necessary when we need to illustrate something specific to the message or story we want to communicate – whether it be a particular costume, workwear, safety accessories, religious paraphernalia, or special tools and technical details.
Transform your thumbnails to visuals
Back to thumbnails, they are rarely ever anything that you would want a client to see. So the next stage is to work them into rough sketches – bigger and cleaner.
Try drawing your images with a pen which you can then scan into digital images. Experiment blowing them up to fit the correct dimensions and redraw them nice and clearly, either digitally or feel free to print them out at 30% black and draw on top of them physically, they are just a guide at this stage.
From my experience, I always start with this as a draft sketch which is usually enough for a client or producer to work out whether the draft illustrations are capturing the intended message during the making of an explainer video.
Other factors to consider when drawing your sketch art inspo
Good composition, staging and strong silhouettes are all factors that help an image tell a story to its intended audience.
Ensure you plan there is sufficient space in your sketches to include text. A computer can be incredibly helpful to plan for this. There is nothing worse than finishing your sketch, only to find there is insufficient or no space for a heading, text or a logo which is essential for the video.
So if you haven’t already, please give thumbnails a try. The first few sketches can be as basic as you like! It’s all about getting some ideas and inspiration down, and having it evolve a little along the way and knowing that you tried out a few different things and focused on the best ideas.