The Toil of (Blog) Art

2 months ago

The final 10% of a technical blog post is often the hardest part, involving challenges like organizing thoughts or implementing ideas.
Creating illustrations for blog posts is consistently difficult, requiring a balance between quality and effort.
Photography and 3D rendering are useful for some visuals but have limitations for conceptual diagrams and schematics.
Developing a new toolkit for technical visualizations has been a focus over the past three years, with evolving art styles.
Circuit schematics are a common theme, with modern EDA tools producing less aesthetically pleasing results than hand-drawn schematics.
Excalidraw and Rhino3D were experimented with for schematics, leading to the realization that consistency in style is crucial.
Affinity software was used to achieve a hand-drawn aesthetic for schematics, updating older posts with the new style.
Explanatory illustrations require careful thought to effectively convey information, with standardized workflows improving quality.
Subtle techniques like outlines, shadows, and afterimages help imply motion or depth in 2D illustrations.
Creating high-quality blog illustrations can take more time than writing the accompanying text.

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