Thumb nail sketches

A small thumbnail sketch can be a helpful way to conceptualise a drawing. Thumbnail sketches are often used to quickly plan out compositions before beginning a painting. The same can be done for planning out a character’s pose. These often take the form of small gesture drawings and they act as a trial stage to consider different options to convey an action.

Once I come up with a pose that I’m mostly happy with, I’ll refine the sketch on a new layer placed on top of the thumbnail drawing. This approach enables me to create a cleaner drawing, while hopefully still reflecting the initial feeling of movement that I caught in the thumbnail.