Tattoo Design Thumbnail Templates

Thumbnailing is an essential skill that every tattooer should develop.

It allows artists to solve the biggest problems in their design process quickly and effectively.

It is important to realize that thumbnailing is more of a visualization tool.

The goal should not be to work out any sort of detail but, instead, to establish the relationship of dark and light shapes and how they relate to the area of the body we are designing to.

Here are a few tips to help you become at drawing thumbnails

-Think first of the area of the body you are designing to. Should your layout be Landscape (horizontal) or Portrait (vertical)?

-What type of shapes make up your subject matter in it's most simple form? (Spheres? Cubes? Cylinders?)

-Is the overall design meant to be soft and flowy or made up of hard shapes and strong angles?

-Is the foreground image dark and background light or vice versa?

What is the perspective you are looking at the image from? Will the viewer be looking up at the image? down? straight on?

These are just a few big decisions that thumbnailing is designed to help artists make. Stay loose, work fast, avoid detail and have fun.