Linework for person (digital)

[heavywater]

Hello,

I'm working on a design at the moment and I'm having trouble working out how to execute it. The design is for a kind of competition and I'm looking to create something like the assembly instructions for Ikea furniture, but with a person in it. Obviously the person can't look like the Ikea man so at the moment I'm thinking that the best course of action is to make the person look like those from plane safety leaflets, just a reasonably simple line drawing. Something like these ones by Olly Moss:


My problem is that I've never really done graphics work at all and have no idea how I'd go about doing it. My immediate reaction was to take a picture of myself in the correct pose, then trace over it in something like Photoshop or Illustrator. But I'm not really very good at using these programs so any help/suggestions would be fantastic.

The furniture side of the design is pretty much sorted, as I've modelled it in a CAD program and will simply create exploded draft views from there. It's just the person I'm stuck on. I also need to create a picture of a cupped hand, but this should be fairly easy in comparison... Hopefully...

If anyone has any ideas, or any experience in stuff like this, any help would be fantastic. Thanks.

Dave

[blackink]

My initial reaction to your query is to do what ikea and the airlines do which is to hire an artist.
But then I thought "what a snarky answer" and decided not to post it.

[heavywater]

Thanks. I'm glad you didn't lower yourself to that level.

[charlieharper]

Unfortunately practice, thumbnailing, etc. is your only option unless you do decide to not do it yourself. Try doing an inital sketch in blue pencil, refine over the blue pencil with graphite, then ink over it, refining more, erase blue/graphite lines from under the ink. You are left with just clean ink lines.

I leave you with this:

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
Leonardo da Vinci

[heavywater]

Thanks for the reply. Looks like I'll just have to devote a bit of time to it then.

Cheers.