Earlier this month I was commissioned to illustrate portraits for a communications company based in Paris to celebrate International Women’s Day. I’ll share more about the project soon, but it had me thinking about how much I’ve grown when it comes to drawing people. I love drawing people these days, but if you asked me 10 years ago to draw a person or even just a face? I'd get all sweaty and panicky, then absolutely find a way to get out of it.
I thought it'd be fun to take you on a chronological journey to see how my people illustrations have evolved over the years. It feels important to me to show how practice and putting in hours is more important than talent (because clearly I wasn't born with the talent to draw people, as you'll see below).
2013
Take a look at one of the first times someone paid me to draw people. It's…not great, but the client was really happy and honestly it did fit the kid-friendly brand! It was the best I could do at the time, so that's okay.
2014
This is from an online illustration course I took where I really started to fall in love with illustration even though I was grumpy about having to draw people in this particular assignment.
2015
I was commissioned to create the marketing materials for one of my favorite Upstate indie craft shows. I was thrilled but so nervous to take on the project because I knew they needed an illustration of a girl included in the artwork. She turned out okay, but really I felt like I was making it up as I went. I enjoyed the hand-lettering aspect of the project so much more.
2016
This was my first major commissioned project, which was for a Homecoming event at Syracuse University. It paid well and they liked me for my illustration style, so of course I had to say yes to it even though I knew I’d be forced to draw people! It was becoming a little more enjoyable to draw them, but the process still felt a bit clunky to me.
2017
My overall illustration style was starting to emerge and be refined around this time. I started drawing more freely and allowed myself to draw in a way that seemed charming to me, rather than drawing in a way that I thought everyone else was. I started playing around with a more stylized version of a person, though I was still very intimidated by hands and faces (notice the sunglasses and ice cream cone props?).
2018
I developed an idea for a book that was all about being an introvert (based very much on personal life experience) and got very attached to it (so did the publisher) before I realized that the illustrations in it would have to involve people. Crap! Sometimes being forced to draw something (even if it was my own fault) has been the most motivating thing for me. I surprisingly had a lot of fun drawing these people and it gave me space to play around with adding more personality and character.
Early 2019
Look who’s not afraid of drawing people anymore! Me! By this time I truly was enjoying the process of drawing people. It was time for a new challenge though: drawing myself in my illustrated memoir. Illustrating imaginary people was easy, but trying to capture the essence of a person? That was completely new territory for me, especially having to draw myself in various ages. Working on my memoir was challenging in that aspect, but very fulfilling to work on.
Late 2019
I started watching online tutorials taught by a portrait artist, Charly Clements. This one was a portrait I drew from imagination for fun after watching one of the classes. It’s still one of my favorite illustrations. This is actually the portrait that caught the eye of the Parisian client and led them to hire me.
Early 2020
In 2020 I started a personal project where I planned to draw 100 illustrations of my dog, Tater. I think I originally intended it to be a quick 100 day project, but because it was for fun and I could do whatever I wanted, I ended up drawing a lot of scenes like this that included me in them as well. I’m discovering that I like playing around with the proportions of things and it’s visually amusing to me to have some contrast in sizes (long legs, small hands and feet, etc.). I like that my people are starting to look more stylized. I’m only about halfway done with this project, but I’ve been chipping away at it slowly when I have the time.
Late 2020
I took an online illustration course about illustrating for children’s books. I gave myself space to experiment with a slightly different style where I pushed the body proportions even more. In the class we learned more about how to draw facial expressions and how to show movement with the body. I really like the direction that this is going, so maybe I’ll experiment with this a little more.
2021
I’m comfortable drawing myself now after having to do it in multiple book projects by now. I’m starting to experiment with panel art and learning how to draw quicker and simpler. I want to make a graphic novel style book, so speeding up the drawing process seems necessary to tackle such a big project like that.
2022
I drew this self-portrait style illustration for fun after feeling like it had been too long since I let myself play around with drawing. I felt like some of my illustration work had lost some of the exaggerated proportions that I find so charming, so I made sure to draw that way here.
2022
This is one of the first drafts for the recent portrait project. In the end I had to shift this one to be a little less stylized, but this one here represents my own style more. I like the process of picking out the outfits and accessories, choosing the facial expression and poses. I don’t know this person, but doing these things feels fun to me, like I’m imagining her life story or something.
I like where I currently am with drawing people, but I know there’s plenty of room to grow and evolve even more. I guess the summary of why I’m sharing all this with you is just to say that improving a certain skill is less about being born talented and more about chipping away consistently over time. It makes it all sound much more attainable to me, and I hope you find that thought just as comforting as I do.