Great logo design doesn’t just come from nowhere.
It takes time, development, and patience to get all the components just right.
Even though logo design is mostly digital nowadays, how can you improve your drawing skill to help your logo development?
Within this blog post, you will discover 5 expert tips to improve your drawing skill, which in turn, can lead to more successful logo development, more refined logo artwork, and a higher degree of skill.
Observational Drawing
As an illustrator and designer myself, I’ve seen a ton of benefit from observational drawing.
Observational drawing trains your eye so you draw exactly what you see in front of you, and not draw what you think you can see.
This is often a mistake that a lot of beginners commit.
Drawing from observation makes you look long and hard at an object before drawing it, helping your form, shading and drawing skill. It’s harder to draw from observation than a photograph or image, as you will be converting a 3D world onto a 2D world (your paper). Making it harder as a result.
However, drawing from observation will dramatically see your drawing technique improve ten-fold overdrawing from imagery.
But how can this help your logo development?
Massively!
For example, if you have been practicing your observational drawing and you’re copying a font for a logo design, you can accurately draw this font without any difficulty.
This is because you have trained your eye to not only look correctly but to record correctly too.
To draw from observation, simply get your sketchbook and pencil, and start to record the things around you. Draw your lampshade, draw a glass of water, or draw your dog.
The more you draw from observation and real life, the better your drawing will be.
Practice – It Will Help Your Creativity
The more time and effort you commit to drawing, the more benefit you will see within your logo development.
As the old saying rings true, practice makes perfect.
Commit to drawing at least once a day, draw from observation, draw on your commute, draw whenever you get a free chance.
Not only will this improve your drawing skill, it can also help your creativity.
If you can draw well, you can get your thoughts and ideas onto paper easier and quicker, which you can then refer back to later on.
Creativity is all about getting those ideas onto paper as soon as possible, and if you can do this without thinking, the better it will be for you.
Practice Drawing Expressively
As you practice drawing more and more, the more fluid and relaxed you will become. If you’re new to drawing, you will most probably be focused on all of the details.
For drawing professionals, drawing seems like second nature.
This is exactly what you need when developing a logo.
You don’t want to focus on all of those details; you want to develop onto paper quickly, so you can move onto your next idea.
When you’re next drawing, try and practice being expressive and not worrying too much about the details. Limit your drawing materials to help you do this: draw with a thicker pen, use a bigger brush or draw onto larger paper.
When you’re next developing your logo for real and can get your thoughts onto paper quickly – whilst looking legible!
Experiment With Different Mediums & Mark-making
Drawing is all about getting yourself out of your comfort zone and is the perfect chance for you to experiment with different mediums and mark-making.
Unfortunately for commissioned work, most of the time you can’t experiment too much; as clients are waiting on the other side!
Drawing allows you to experiment, be creative, which in turn can feed into your logo designs. You can see what works within your sketchbook, and use this to your disposal within your logo development.
You can experiment with anything!
From your drawing materials (paper, cardboard, watercolor paper), your drawing mediums (paint, pencil), to scale (A3, A4, A5) – anything goes!
The more you experiment with your work, the more creative and fulfilled you will be.
Test Different Colour Together
The brilliant thing that drawing gives you is the ability to see how to use colour correctly.
Colour has been used for hundreds of years in art and design, as it conveys emotion, adds appeal to work and catches the eye.
However, a lot of people don’t know exactly how to use colour correctly.
See if you can experiment with different colour combinations. For example, when you’re next drawing in your sketchbook, use a limited colour palette, use complementary colours, or even use one colour and it’s tones.
This will give you the knowledge to take forward into your logo design, as you know exactly what colours work well together.
Use Drawing To Your Advantage!
I hope you have enjoyed these tips, tactics, and techniques to help improve your drawing skill.
Drawing goes hand in hand with successful logo design, from the initial thumbnail stage, development stage, all the way through to final artwork stage.
It will help you considerably if you’re at least confident with the art of drawing.
If you take just one thing away from this blog post: commit. Commit to improving your drawing, practice, and see where it can take you. You might even discover a hidden talent that you didn’t know existed!
Author Bio
Haydn Symons is an Illustrator & Designer from Hampshire, in the United Kingdom, He has built a reputation for vibrant, colourful and often painted illustrations. www.haydnsymons.com
Also published on Medium.
