What Are Thumbnail Sketches

For this lesson, we're going to talk about

what are thumbnail sketches

and why do artists use thumbnail sketches?

So, a thumbnail sketch.

So, thumbnail sketch.

Thumbnail sketches are called thumbnail

sketches because they're usually small,

like a thumbnail.

Probably not as small as a real thumbnail,

but you could actually try

to draw them that small.

So usually, when you do a thumbnail sketch,

you start by making a bunch

of little boxes on your paper.

And you try to keep the size of the box

similar to the dimensions of your paper.

So if you're going to be drawing

on a rectangle piece of paper,

you would draw rectangle

frames or rectangle boxes on your paper.

And for this, we're going to do six.

You can do a lot more than six,

but we'll start with just six.

And the way artists use these is they try

to figure out what's a good composition.

So, a composition is the way objects are

placed in your drawing or

your painting or your artwork.

Our drawings are going to be

about objects that have form.

So, I might have a few objects that I'm

going to rearrange in different

positions to see which one I like.

And I can also practice zooming in and

looking at them close up or far away.

So for this one, let's say I have

a round object,

and then I have a cylinder,

and I draw them just really quick

and loose, just to give me an idea.

And then I have a cardboard

box of crayons, and I'm just drawing them.

So there's one composition,

and I could say, "Okay."

I'm going to put number one in the corner

so that I know that's number one.

And then maybe I'm going to make a second

one, and I'll put a number two there.

And then now I want

to change my composition.

Maybe that wasn't exciting to me,

and I want to try to do something

different, so I can move

something in my design,

and then I can draw it over again

and try to get a different drawing.

So, this would be a different

position for my box.

And this time my sphere, which is a ball,

is going to be on top of that box,

and the cylinder is next to it,

but it's going off the paper.

And so, now, I've got all

this empty space here.

Maybe I'm like, "Hmm... That's

not very interesting.

I got this big empty space."

I might not like that composition.

So, I can keep doing that and changing

my objects around

for all the different thumbnails.

So, this one's here.

I'm just going to keep doing a few more.

Okay. So now, I've got my six different

thumbnail compositions,

and I can look at them and decide

which one do I think might be the best

setup for my final drawing.

So, let's say, I go through all of these,

and then I decide that number

five is my best one.

I can circle that one,

and that's the one that I will use

to redraw for my final drawing.