Step-by-Step (7): Mapping with Thumbnails and Photobashing

Sometimes a planned illustration is rather complex, which can make it difficult to discuss it in detail early on in the process when going too much into detail too quickly could mean having to make huge corrections later on or if you as the artist aren't entirely set on every element yet.
A way to prevent this from happening is working with quick composition sketches or use techniques like photobashing:

Mapping out the composition including perspective (where good references like photos, 3d models etc. really come in to save the day) and sketching the lights and contrasts first can make for a great quick base to add on to. With most things contrast is what's coming in to make a scenery coherent: light and shadow, cold and warm, rendered and sketchy. It's not so much about adding color at this point and can already be accomplished in a monochromatic black and white. So-called "Thumbnails" are quickly drawn, often rather small composition sketches that can help visualise the rough shapes of a complex drawing. It's about defining the different planes of foreground, middleground and background as well as scale and shapes.
By focussing on the bigger aspects first you're giving yourself the space to try out different approaches before choosing the route to follow. Less is often more.


When you do have a lot to show and elements you need present to make it fit a specific vision, photobashing is another very valid technique in concept art to bring scenes to life early on in the process:
It's basically collaging photos together and drawing over parts that need to be pulled in or added and it makes for highly detailed and realistic compositions in a comparably short amount of time if you mastered the technique. It's certainly a skill of its own that needs practice to be pulled of nicely, but sometimes it's less about perfection and more about practicality to have a solid visual ground for further discussion and decision making.

There's none better than the other as each technique aims for different goals. Rather than giving them an artistic value I suggest viewing them as tools to help you settle for wherever you'd like to take your drawing next.
In my personal examples above the photobashed sketch was really mostly meant as a guide and reference for the actual drawing that followed. The Thumbnails for one of my personal projects are meant to convey an atmosphere of the setting for the world I'm creating, like notes to reference later on or to even scrap without too many hard feeling, since committing to illustrations early on hinders the level of neutrality to its contents:
It's always harder to get rid of sth you already spent a fair amound of time one than something done the quick and dirty way.