Ideation Drawing -The Route to Better Composition

Do you want to maximise the potential of your ideas? Ideation drawing is the answer. It involves quickly sketching out initial concepts for a project without worrying about perfection. The emphasis is on generating a variety of first concept ideas and exploring different compositional possibilities. I’ve learned that this method can lead to more fully realised and successful artwork. By producing a large number of rough sketches, you increase the chances of discovering the best solution. By sketching multiple variations of an idea, you’re able to refine and enhance it. This time, it’s about quantity over quality. Let’s examine how you can try it out and see the improvements for yourself.

What is the purpose of ideation drawing?

Have you ever wondered how other artists come up with ideas for their work? There are several stages to this process. Like many of the students I see in classes today, when I was an art student and had an idea for a piece, my first thought was usually more or less its final form. We weren’t taught to do ideation drawings or colour studies.

It didn’t occur to me naturally to do this as it seemed too time-consuming. You just want to get on with it and get the work right, don’t you? Two learning experiences changed my mind about this, and I’ll tell you about them later.

What is missing from the process if you work like that?

If you skip the ideation stage, you miss out on a more thorough exploration of what the idea actually is and what its best form might be. You may potentially undersell your idea and overlook the potential for the best outcome from it. The ideation drawing technique helps to avoid this.

Ideation drawing is a method of sketching out your initial ideas for a piece of work in a rough and unfinished manner. You are focusing on presenting the idea in the drawing rather than creating something that is aesthetically pleasing.

Focus on producing variations of the idea— as many as you can within the time you have. Ideally, you will end up with a sheet or perhaps even pages of rough sketches that collectively explain your idea. Each should be slightly different from the others. At this stage of development, it’s about quantity over quality.

However, it’s easy to misunderstand ideation drawing and become preoccupied with the appearance of the drawing, particularly if you are working as a visual artist or designer where the final product is linked to its aesthetic value. Endeavour to avoid this and focus on presenting solely ideas. This is easier said than done and does take practice.

What does ideation drawing look like?

Development and ideation, drawing from various fields of creative practice, can naturally appear quite distinct. The ideation drawings of one artist may differ significantly from those of another, and the variations between disciplines and applications of ideation drawing can be substantial. There is no absolute standard. Generally speaking, this type of work tends to look rough and sketchy.

Typically, ideation drawing is monochromatic in appearance and is generally created using a line drawing tool such as a pen or pencil. That said, I’ve observed ideation executed in various alternative formats, including watercolour and loose paint and ink. It truly depends on the medium being considered and the type of end product you are aiming to develop.

When I work with students studying painting, I try to encourage them to use small boxes for each separate sketch. Typically, when brainstorming for a painting, they are developing ideas for a variety of compositions. While developing an image composition, it is important to consider the edges of the space as much as any other element within the arrangement.

The proximity of elements within the design to the edge of the surface you intend to paint on is equally important as their relationship with one another within the picture space. Drawing within boxes is suitable for this type of ideation for that reason. If you were attempting to design a product or some sort of object, there would likely be no need to draw within a box. The method should fit the task at hand.

The characteristics of good ideation drawing

• the drawing should not be refined or reworked endlessly to make it look better
• each drawing should be achieved within a limited amount of time and ideally the time applied to each drawing should be more or less equal
• drawings should convey an idea or a variation on an idea
• a successful series of drawings might also show progressive development of the theme

Why is ideation drawing so difficult?

Creative thinking is generally more difficult when you are not used to doing it. Ideation can be a particularly difficult stage of the creative process because it requires your brain to innovate and alternate between possible versions of an idea that you have likely just started focusing on.

It can be challenging to come up with variations of ideas to begin with. Often, when I observe my students starting to learn about ideation drawing, I notice them struggling with this. Your ideation thinking is like a muscle that requires exercise. It’s similar to going to the gym and doing your first workout; it’s tough, and your brain is attempting to persuade you to abandon the task in favour of something less stressful that demands less concentration.

How to improve at ideation drawing

Let’s examine some specific methods for enhancing your ability to ideate. Remember that it requires effort and concentration. Ideation does not come easily when you are starting out, especially, but here are some barriers and advice on how to begin overcoming them:

Get more experience in your subject area

Ideation will be more effective if you have some mental tools to draw upon. One such tool is your inner library of inspiration. It is crucial to continue examining the work of other practitioners, both contemporary and historical, to cultivate an awareness of what exists in your field (and beyond). This will aid you in the ideation process. Details, compositional arrangements, colour schemes, and other influential factors will be stored in your inner library.

When it comes to ideation, these details will help inspire your development drawings. Nothing truly originates from us as new. Typically, whether consciously or unconsciously, we create ideas from snippets of things we have observed. Enhance your ability to do this by building your inner library and studying other practitioners in your field.

Avoid getting stuck on one variation

We often find ourselves fixated on one of our initial variant ideas during the early stages of the process. I’ve witnessed numerous individuals engaged in ideation drawing who struggle to move beyond their first idea. They repeatedly revisit and refine it when they ought to be progressing and generating new variant sketches.

Ideation drawing is a habit-fighting exercise, and it requires a will of iron not to engage in it. Working quickly does help; if you allow yourself only thirty seconds for each drawing and set a timer to remind you to move on, you will be less likely to invest excessive time on one sketch.

Fighting the obsession with a single idea is also a meditative task. Being aware of your thoughts while working and suppressing the desire to focus on that one idea develops your self-discipline. This is, needless to say, a good thing for your productivity. In extreme cases, when I have found myself struggling to move past that one sketch I have erased it from the page; I’ve found that this can help me to move forward and on to other thoughts.

Use suitable drawing tools for the task of ideation drawing

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t really a wrong tool for the job. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference regarding which tool you use to express your ideas. If you are trying to illustrate your concepts on a smaller page that requires a certain level of detail, and you are using a blunt charcoal stick, well, I’m sure you understand the difficulties this might present.

I’ve also found that even a drawing tool that annoys me can disrupt my concentration, such as a pencil that is too soft and requires constant sharpening. This interrupts my train of thought and makes it difficult to enter a flow of ideas.   

Avoid evaluating, correcting or refining ideation in progress

One of the important aspects of ideation drawing is entering a state of ‘unfocused focus’. You want to produce a volume of drawings here without getting too absorbed in any single one. This is harder than it sounds. You need to train yourself to do this and reinforce the brain wiring that aids you in doing this successfully through repeated practice.

Try to skim lightly from sketch to sketch, allowing your subconscious mind to produce the forms, patterns, and compositions without consciously evaluating any single sketch. Avoid evaluation at this stage; you can do that later. Leave in mistakes; don’t redraw or refine any sketch too much. As soon as you become attached to one of the drawings, you lose the ability to move on to the next one easily, and the thought process falters.

Consider this task to be akin to skating on thin ice; if you linger too long in any one spot, you will fall through the surface. Keep it moving; reserve the analysis and evaluation for later.

Beat the difficulty of coming up with numerous alternatives

With almost every ideation drawing session, you reach a limit. The variations eventually dry up, and you run out of steam. If you are only managing to produce two or three variations, or none at all, this can be a problem. This comes with practice, of course, and is easier when you are in a good frame of mind for the task.

There is a technique I use when I am struggling to produce compositional variations. I imagine the scene in 3D space and consider my mind’s eye as a camera moving through and around that scene, observing it from different angles. Every now and then, I take a snapshot with this mind’s eye camera, and each of these is an ideation sketch. Like a film director, I might reposition the actors from time to time to enhance the shot.

This may sound like it only works for ideas that are traditionally representational, but it can also apply to abstract compositions. If you break the elements apart and rearrange them in 3D space in your mind, an abstract composition can transform into a type of (imagined) traditional picture space. This enables me to produce many variations of an idea from various angles.

Employ the same technique to adjust the lighting in your scene. You are the director of this film, remember, so it is all under your control. Occasionally, I might even draw a little plan view of a scene, with the elements arranged like a photography studio diagram, viewed from above. Using this type of mental imagery can often help you push past the point where you can’t think of any more variations.

What to focus on when you are doing ideation drawing

So now you know what ideation is about, try focusing on the ice skating technique mentioned above. Think of your process as needing to keep moving. It might help to set a timer for each sketch, around the 30-second mark, or less if that seems to draw you into adding too much detail. Try to move lightly from sketch to sketch without thinking too analytically about any one of them. Remember that if you stand still for too long, you will fall through the ice, so keep it moving and keep it light. Keep the camera of your mind’s eye moving around your scene or through and around your elements.

Remember, it is about variation and working loosely. Sketch the larger or more significant forms and elements; these are likely what the idea will be built around. Details will come later; good drawing comes afterwards. At this stage, the focus is on arranging the larger shapes. Later in the process, when you begin to refine your ideas, you can add details and create a higher quality representation.

How I learned the value of ideation

The first lesson was a real epiphany moment when I was studying design as a subject at further education college in Glasgow. The class consisted mostly of younger students like myself, all with aspirations to become artists or designers of one type or another. We were inexperienced and somewhat naive in our processes and levels of commitment. We were assigned a task to design a label for a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc for presentation to the class the following week.

That weekend, I produced a few ideas that were unspectacular; however, later in the day, feeling dissatisfied with my work, I returned and decided to generate a whole page of ideas. In class that week, I arrived with a better design than I would have had I adhered to the two initial ideas, and I proudly presented my development work to my tutor.

The tutor was quite pleased, and the project was marked as satisfactorily completed. I was content that I had reworked my project to produce a good half dozen variations. Most of the dedicated students had done the same, so I counted myself smugly among the top half of the class.

The power of variations

That sense of smug self-satisfaction quickly turned to shame as the next student presented a complete sketchbook brimming with ideas for his label. Variation after variation, page after page. It appeared he had accomplished a Herculean task over the weekend. We were all astonished by this, including the tutor. His finished label stood head and shoulders above the rest with its sophisticated simplicity.

That taught me clearly the value of variation. We asked him how he managed to do this in one weekend. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I just stayed at home and worked.” That was the second biting part of this learning experience.

Lifelong lessons learned

It struck me then and there that being exceptional at what you do requires commitment and a sacrifice of time and other pleasures. While the rest of the class had done just enough to complete the task and spent most of the weekend partying, he had gone above and beyond. He dedicated the time he needed to excel. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my adult life.

The other experience that taught me the value of development through variation was not so much an epiphany moment as a long-drawn-out slog of repeated failures. I lost count of the number of times, particularly as a student, that I did not take enough time to fully resolve the idea for a piece of artwork.

It was common for me to feel ‘painted into a corner’ with a composition that was just not worked out well enough, or a colour scheme that went off the rails. Many times, I cursed my lack of preparation until it finally sank in that developing the idea more fully at the start would lead to fewer dead ends. For the most part, that is what I do now. But not always…

Does every project need ideation drawing?

At this stage, it is important to recognise that there is a place for intuition in visual art. I am not suggesting that every single piece of work you create must be ultra-developed and meticulously detailed. Sometimes, when I approach it this way, it diminishes the immediacy for me. I lose the initial energy and impetus to express the idea.

Sometimes, the work simply needs to emerge in whatever imperfect form it takes. You must learn to discern which opportunities are the right ones to allow this to happen. Experience and the cultivation of self-awareness will assist you in making decisions in your own practice. This is part of the reason that being aware of your own creative process and how you work is so important. Understanding how you work will aid you in determining when to employ this technique for your project.

Remember to have fun.