Fun sketching at Draw Night

Spent a couple hours with my Illustrator brother and some friends talking about sketching landscapes and the importance of doing thumbnails before engaging in a larger image.

I have always known the importance of thumbnails in the design process. But honestly I never really understood how they can be a launching pad for doing a landscape. Special thanks goes out to Michael Buhler for showing us how thumbnails can quickly get your creative juices flowing in a quick easy way.

I quickly drew 3 thumbnails in row, shown below.

I liked the idea of the first one, a giant tortoise staring down a small character at the top of a cliff. I probably drew this from my first viewing of the Neverending story movie, in which the hero has a conversation with an ancient massive turtle.

I took this and expanded on the thumbnail below to create a larger more detailed sketch. I had great fun doing this. I may take this sketch to another level and create a digital painting. We'll see.