For the class project, we'll be creating two sets of stylistically and conceptually related Spot Illustrations. Spot illustrations are small, self-contained images that float in the layout of publications and websites. Their purpose is to highlight key ideas in a story or article and to create visually compelling entry points into the text. Like all illustrations, a spot illustration can be very simple and literal in concept, or they can be more conceptual, conveying an abstract idea rather than something tangible.

In case you're curious about the way I'm using my iPad with Photoshop, I use an app called Astropad Studio — use this affiliate link to learn more and support your teacher! 🙏

SETUP

As our starting point, we first need to come up with an overall direction for our illustrations. In a real world assignment, this would come from an art director, and would include how many illustrations, what size, and what they should be about. To simulate this, we'll need some way of coming up with such direction ourselves. To do this, follow these steps:

Setup Step 1
Choose a general theme.

Setup Step 2
Choose a specific experience related to your theme. Optional additional step: imagine a context/purpose of an article that might be about your theme and experience (e.g. a list of tips in a running magazine).

Setup Step 3
Write two lists of 4-6 items each related to your theme/experience as follows:

List A: Simple objects (nouns) related to your theme or experience
List B: Abstract ideas or situations related to your chosen experience.

We'll use these lists as we go through the rest of the project. These preliminary steps are crucial to the success of the project. Again, in the absence of a real-world brief, these lists are what we will be basing our illustrations on for both sets of Spot illustrations.

Feel free to download the Concept Prompts PDF on this page for some helpful examples.

SET 1

The first set of illustrations will be based on simple, physical objects (rather than abstract ideas) that we came up with in Step 3, List A above. In this set, we'll work out our style by applying it to these simple objects.

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SET 2

The second set of illustrations will be based on the more abstract ideas that we came up with in Step 3, List B above. In this set, we'll be thinking more about how to visualize these more abstract ideas, while also applying the same style we worked out in Set 1.

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All the steps for Set 1 and Set 2 are covered in the videos, summarized below:

Research and Discovery: Find reference images related to your illustrations and draw from them. Don't try too hard to come up with ideas at this point, just draw what you see. This is called Free-sketching. This helps "download" visual information so you can freely draw from it without images later.
Concept Sketches: Start working out actual concepts for your 4 spot illustrations. Focus at first on quantity rather than quality. Once we have sketched out a handful of rough concepts for each spot illustration, we choose the ones that work best and refine them. Finally, we choose our favourites to bring into the final illustrations (in the next step).
Final Artwork: Place your sketches into your final illustration file (we work in a "four-up" file in this class). Choose a limited style palette to work with (I demonstrate using 1 line style, 1 texture style, and 4 colours), and use it to build out your final artwork. Work on one illustration at a time at first, and then once all four are completed, you can go back and make adjustments to the set, to balance it out.

DELIVERABLES

Here are some key things you can share on your class project page. For each set:

Share your theme, experience and two lists.
Share all sketches, whether from your free-sketches, your rough concept thumbnails, or your refined selections. Be sure to label each accordingly.
Share your final illustrations! If you want, describe your chosen tools and techniques and any challenges or thoughts of the process along the way.

ILLUSTRATION DETAILS

2 sets of illustrations
4 illustrations per set (or more if you're feeling ambitious!)
Each illustration should be 3" x 3" (72mm x 72mm) @ 300 dpi
In the demo, I create all 4 illustrations in one 4-up file (2 across, 2 down = 6" x 6"/144mm x 144mm)

When posting, if you're stuck for a name for your project, I suggest using your specific experience (Step 2 in the setup).

If you share on Instagram, please tag @mrtomfroese in your post and use the hashtag #SweetSpotsIllustrations!

I can't wait to see your Sweet Spots!

As always, if you have any questions or feedback about this class, please be sure to let me know in the Community section of this class.

INSPIRATION ETC.

Sweet Spots Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.ca/tommyfroese/sweet-spots/

Below: Some examples of spot illustrations I've made over the past few years

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