Every designer knows that great illustrations have the power to make or break your design. If you are a great artist, or a graphic designer, then you might go with my words that creative illustrations are what every client is looking for.
Visuals not only create a deep impact on human minds, but also inspire them to make a purchase. If you showcase the illustrations in your 2d design effectively, then you can easily present the ideas interestingly.
Being in the field of designing for the last many years, I can say that by adding an appealing library of illustrations in your checklist, you can easily refine the area of graphics. Now, before we talk about the different types of illustrations, let’s get deeper insight about the term illustration.
What is Illustration?
You can define illustration as a painting, drawing, or artwork which reflects the creative idea of the creator. It is used for describing, clarifying, brightening, visually representing, or decorating an idea, concept, or fact.
Usually designers use illustrations to surprise, delight, explain and tell the business actions like sales and leads. Millions of free stock illustrations available online can be huge. So it helps to solve out what type of illustration you want before you start a project.
Many times, when people tried to find a video, article, or extra source they put light on the subject. Viewers got lost, or they did not get enough information, or they had to look at several places to be able to check findings. Sometimes we do not get what we want for our project.
But, if you use the right illustration in the right way, then you can easily grab audience attention by helping them in understanding complex concepts easily.
What are the types of Illustration?
Illustrations are broadly classified into two different categories, including traditional illustration and modern illustration.
Types of Traditional Illustration
Woodcutting Illustration
This illustration reached popularity in the middle ages and was evidently used after the printing press was invented. This approach is still used today by artists and illustrations who want a natural or rough feel to their work. Woodcut illustrations also have a lot of importance in feudal Japan.
This technique is characterized by the thick lines which are used and the variance obtained between different parts of the print.
Pencil Illustration
This method needs no explanation. It is commonly employed by designers, illustrators, and even by people trying to explain or convey a concept simply. A pencil is a required tool that allows for a variety of effects, shades, lines, and effects.
Artists may choose to use additional pencils of a single color, a graphite lead, or a variation of pencils of different colors to achieve their desired effect.
Charcoal Illustration
Charcoal illustrations are often not as accurate as pen and pencil illustrations but are a preferred choice of illustrating short stories and fast sketches. Charcoal’s go with the artist producing a range of textures, representing materials and shadows, people, objects, and the natural world.
Artists often use fingers and stuff to blend the soft material, smudge, and create smooth and soft shadows. However, to prevent useless spots, you may want to clear the mess with your fingers or use blending tools and fixatives.
Lithography Illustration
Lithography and traditional illustration styles and techniques compare each other very well. Before people used wax fat or oil to create a smooth surface of a limestone plate. However, currently, offset lithography is widely used to create illustrations.
You will be amazed to know that nowadays many high-volume books and magazines, especially when illustrated in color, are mostly printed with offset lithography.
Watercolor Illustration
In watercolor illustrations, the primary thing is to use coloring and to create different liquidity by adding water to the color. The overall feeling of watercolor illustrations is a soft light with lots of depth.
The primary aim of a watercolor illustration is to create effects and shades by adding water to create different transparencies of the color. Using a fine and creative combination of bright and lighter shades, artists can create extraordinary watercolor illustrations.
Read more about use-appearance panel in adobe illustrator.
Acrylic Illustration
The illustration is ideal for beginners. It is almost easier to work with them and with watercolor or oils. But the designer can attain both similar effects to oils and watercolors.
Various artists use different acrylic paint on various surfaces such as cloth or canvas to create an illustration. Acrylic paints are available in different ends, and they become water-resistant once they dry up.
Pen and Ink Illustration
This illustration type is noted for its clarity and detailing and its ability to create contrasts between the elements.
Even though pen and ink illustration is self-colored, it is still possible to create detailed work by applying a single color with different tints on the plain surface. Inks are widely available and affordable materials easy to carry and to work expressively with.
Types of Modern Illustration
With the growth of technology and the increasing importance of illustration in some different fields, illustration techniques have gained a whole new arrangement of possibilities and styles. The methods used to create modern illustrations are somewhat similar to the methods that are applied to create a traditional illustration.
There is now tremendous software that can be used to attain different illustration styles, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Inkscape, and so on. If you are a traditional designer looking to appear into the world of modern or digital methods or are just looking for greater understanding, this should be sufficient to get you started.
Freehand Digital Illustrations
Freehand digital illustration is made in the same way designers use pen and ink to make a traditional illustration. The only difference here lies in the full processor minimum of it being digital and generally done using a single touchpad or pen tool.
The main power here includes access to a large number of different color brush presets and tools that can be used to boost the process productively. Designers make digital art using a trackpad or tablet pen to give their interest to creating a concrete shape. The mistakes are easily made, and changes or edits can be made.
Blending or shading are generally much more casual in digital illustration, and different effects can be reached. It is commonly used for storyboarding, recreational art, illustrating books in animation in different design procedures, etc.
However, it needs to be considered that the digital illustration will be in raster mode, this means that you can zoom or enlarge the design to a certain size, or else they will appear blurred.
Vector Illustration
These illustrations look digital with bold flat colors and defined lines. They are simple and relevant to a wide variety of projects. In the group, we put vector graphics and illustrations. The way the images are built allows scaling them up and down to any size without any quality loss.
Designers create vector illustrations to ensure that every point is shown on a reference frame to establish the direction of the path. Vector illustrations can be saved in the form PDF, EPS, or SVG extensions. Due to minor flow or range, vector illustration can be by choice used as web illustrations, logos, etc.
Vectors are normally ideal for print media and are less frequently used for traveling artworks, detailing, or sketch-related work which can further be used in combination with typography and text. Most digital designers use more than some amount of traditional art in their work, even if simply for brainstorming or as basic guidelines for their digital work.
Conclusion
Well! There are thousands of types of illustrations that can be used to make the design more effective. By going through various types of illustrations that are added above will allow you to bring the most out of your designs.
Hopefully, now you can have actionable insights into how creatively artistic ideas are represented through drawings and painting. Still want to learn more about illustrations or create 2d animation video, feel free to contact us.