The One Mindset to Keep in Mind If You Want to Use Blender for Illustration

"Why don't you give it a try? It's not difficult at all."

In recent years, Blender has been gathering a lot of attention.

As many of you may already know, to explain it briefly, it is 3DCG software equipped with a wide range of functions including 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and video editing. It is free for commercial use and is high-performance enough to be adopted by major overseas studios, yet it features an intuitive interface that is easy for beginners to handle.

And believe it or not, it's free.

Although it is 3D software, its range of capabilities is so broad that it becomes a powerful production aid tool even for artists who draw 2D illustrations.

In particular, I think there are quite a few artists who struggle with drawing backgrounds, perspective, small items, or deciding on compositions that require a sense of lighting and lens work.

Blender is the very tool that such artists should be using.

If you use Blender, you can freely change camera angles to easily create compositions with accurate perspective, and it is also convenient when drawing character poses from unfamiliar angles, allowing you to create more convincing artwork.

"But I've never used 3D software, and it looks difficult."

"I tried it, but I gave up..."

I hear voices like that, but here is the phrase from the beginning.

This is what I think.

If you are interested, I think you should give it a try. It really isn't that difficult.

However, "not difficult" might be a bit misleading.

This is because the range of what you can do is so vast—from things you can learn immediately to things that require mind-numbing amounts of training—that by trying to master everything, people end up feeling like the hurdle is too high or they give up halfway through.

To be precise, it's closer to the Othello catchphrase: easy to start, a lifetime to master.

In that context, there is only one mindset that an artist should adopt when they want to use Blender to create art.

That is,

the "this is good enough" spirit.

Perhaps many people misunderstand that because they are using Blender, they must create a fully completed 3D work.

Please look at these two images.

A model made in detail over about 30 minutes, and a model made casually in 3 minutes.

Of course, if the final output is a 3D work, a precise model might be required, but if the final output is a 2D work, that is, an illustration, there is no need to go out of your way to build it thoroughly.

When used as a rough sketch for an illustration, even a combination of simple box shapes or a basic human-shaped model will be sufficiently useful.

What is important is the 'good enough' spirit.

A 3D model is merely an auxiliary tool, and it is enough if you can utilize it for the final image creation.

For example, for a mailbox, even a simple model that is just a rectangular parallelepiped with a window attached has sufficient value as a reference for perspective and lighting.

In this way, cutting corners appropriately is the most important mindset for artists to make effective use of Blender.

If you try to make a perfect 3D model, it will take too much time, and the original purpose of drawing pictures will be neglected.

Rather, by quickly creating a rough sketch with the minimum necessary modeling and using the remaining time for the original image creation, more efficient illustration production becomes possible.

What people who want to use Blender for illustration production should aim for is taking the best of both 3D models and hand-drawing.

Of course, I think that wanting to create works that can be completed only with Blender is also a wonderful goal.However, it is a swamp.

If you use it as an auxiliary tool for illustration production, it is important to keep the functions you learn to a minimum and utilize them to improve the quality of your own pictures.

If there are many requests, I will continue to post how to use Blender for artists on note in the future, so I would be happy if you could comment on SNS!

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I will also be posting articles about Blender here, so please take a look!✨

One more thing! This is an article about what I did to go from having zero connections, skills, or savings when I started my career as an illustrator in 2020, to becoming an illustrator with over 80,000 followers! I would be happy if you could read it as a way of getting to know me!