Field notes
Stories, craft, and process notes.
Behind-the-scenes thinking on illustration, comics, motion, and the work that makes them land.
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The fastest way to brief an illustration project
Sadiq Shah
The single biggest reason illustration projects end with five rounds of "this isn't quite it" — it's almost never the artist. It's the brief.
Briefs that get back fast, accurate work do five things. Briefs that don't do those five things waste a week.
The five fields
1. What it's for
Cover art for a thriller? Hero image for a Stripe-style landing page? An NFT drop? An indie author marketing campaign? Use case changes everything — composition, level of detail, file format, even what counts as "good."
2. Who's going to see it
Audience is harder to get from a brief than people think. "Tech professionals" and "comics readers" want completely different things — even if the subject matter is identical.
3. Three reference images
Not a Pinterest board with 47 pins. Three. Three forces the client to commit. A page of 47 references is a client who hasn't decided what they want, and any artist working from it is just guessing.
One reference for composition. One for colour / mood. One for finish / texture.
4. One sentence on the feeling
Not "epic" or "fun" — those are useless. "Quietly menacing, like a Tarkovsky frame," or "warm and a little chaotic, like a Pixar opening montage." Specific is the whole game.
5. The hard constraints
- Aspect ratio (yes, this gets missed)
- Deadline (with the real deadline, not the polite one)
- Where the artwork has to bleed into (book spine? page fold? UI title overlay?)
What this looks like assembled
A complete brief should fit on one page. If your brief is longer than a page, it's not a brief — it's a wish list. Cut.
The best illustration briefs we've ever received were six sentences, three image links, and a deadline. The worst were 4,000 words and a 28-pin moodboard.
Six sentences. Three references. One deadline. Try it on your next project.
Keep reading
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Comics vs motion: when each format works
If you're picking between a comic series and a motion piece for the same story, you're probably picking based on production cost — and missing the point.