From first spark to finished artwork: how I bring my creative ideas to life
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I → bring → life
Lizzie Knott is an illustrator and graphic designer whose clients include the Lionesses, New York Jets, Arsenal FC and Disney+.
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clients → include → Lionesses
As an illustrator and graphic designer, some of my best ideas arrive when I’m away from my desk: I love working from cafés, taking photographs for inspiration or quickly sketching ideas as they come to me.
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they → arrive → me
I work across the world of sport, creating everything from social assets to programme covers for clients including the Lionesses, New York Jets, Arsenal FC and Disney+.
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I → work → Lionesses
I’m always looking for ways to capture movement through dynamic shapes, bold compositions and bright colours, and inspiration often comes more easily when I’m out and about in the world, taking things in.
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I → look → things
However, turning those initial ideas into finished artwork usually means returning to my desk set-up and laptop, which can handle the large-format artwork and files my projects require.
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projects → turn → artwork
Tablets I’ve used previously have sometimes struggled, crashing at the final stages.
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I → use → stages
So, I wanted to put the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra to the test: could it help me take an illustration from initial spark to a finished piece I’d be proud to send to print?
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I → want → print
Finding the spark: capturing inspiration on the move
With the NBA returning to the UK in January 2027, I wanted to create an artwork inspired by basketball — something fast-paced and attention-grabbing.
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I → find → basketball
I usually begin by researching ideas and making rough sketches, so after snapping a quick reference image of a basketball at home, I took the tablet to my local café.
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I → begin → café
Lightweight and only 5.1mm thin, it slipped easily into my bag and I photographed textures, colours, typography and posters along the way, using the 13MP main camera with autofocus and the 8MP ultrawide camera for wider angles.
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I → slip → angles
I was able to keep Samsung Notes and the Camera app open simultaneously, capturing reference photos and inserting them directly into my notes.
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I → keep → notes
From there I could annotate the images, trace patterns and highlight details I wanted to incorporate into my illustration for a really seamless creative process.
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I → annotate → process
Organising my ideas: multitasking with Multi Window and Samsung DeX
At the cafe, I used Multi Window to open my references alongside my notes and sketching app, so I didn’t have to leave my drawing to look at them.
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I → organise → them
In the first window, I used Pinterest and Google Images for inspiration.
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I → use → inspiration
In the second, Samsung Notes to record my thought process, which I annotated and summarised using Note Assist*.
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I → record → *
In the third I used Adobe Photoshop** to start sketching.
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I → use → Photoshop
Having Adobe Photoshop pre-loaded is great because I can use it throughout my creative process.
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I → have → process
I was exploring “What does basketball look like?” and found inspiration in players’ poses, court markings and vintage basketball graphics.
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basketball → explore → poses
I also used a fourth floating window as and when needed to reply to emails quickly without having to leave my artwork.
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I → use → artwork
With Samsung DeX, the tablet offers a desktop-style interface with a taskbar, resizable app windows, and a more familiar multitasking experience.
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tablet → offer → taskbar
Swiping down from the top of the screen to open ‘quick settings’ and tapping the DeX icon switches me into this environment, making it easy to organise my day as a creative without reaching for my laptop.
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it → swipe → laptop
I was able to arrange my workflow across separate virtual desktops, keeping emails and admin in one, research and reference material in another, Photoshop and creative applications in a third, and Spotify or Netflix in a fourth for background noise and breaks.
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I → arrange → noise
Being able to compartmentalise these elements allowed for more organised, productive working.
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Being → compartmentalise → working
Making my first marks: sketching ideas with S Pen
When I picked up the S Pen I was amazed at how light it was, which initially made me worry about its responsiveness and pressure sensitivity.
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me → make → responsiveness
However, it feels like a real pen and offers over 4,000 levels of pressure for accurate drawing and annotation which I really noticed from the moment I started using it.
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I → feel → it
The nib offers a natural friction against the glass, avoiding the slippery feel I have experienced with previous tablets, which required paper-texture screen protectors.
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which → offer → protectors
I was also reassured when I opened Photoshop and experimented with its brush textures.
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I → reassure → textures
It was useful to see where the pen was about to make contact with the screen and I could attach it magnetically to the tablet when I wasn’t using it.
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I → see → it
I started with rough sketches, experimenting with different painterly brushes to capture basketball’s fluid movements.
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I → start → movements
Because the final artwork will be A3, the large 14.6-inch display made it easier to think about it as a print rather than something that only exists on a small screen.
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that → make → screen
Building the artwork: developing colour and texture in Photoshop
As I’ve developed as a creative, I’ve gravitated towards limited colour palettes.
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I → build → palettes
I find they create a cohesive image that captures attention, while helping me stick to client guidelines.
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me → find → guidelines
For this piece, I chose orange for the basketball element, cream and black for contrast and details, a rich blue to complement the orange, and a range of skin tones for the players.
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I → choose → players
Coolors is a great website for exploring palettes, so I kept this open in a second window while noting the hex codes in Photoshop.
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I → explore → Photoshop
The tablet’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X display made my chosen colours look wonderfully vibrant.
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colours → make → ?
Even when the sun shone into the café, its 1,600-nit brightness helped me see clearly, so I didn’t have to move to a shadier table.
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I → shine → table
I kept my brushes limited, too: a standard hard brush, complemented by pencil and wet gouache to give the illustration some handmade irregularity.
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I → keep → irregularity
As the illustration became more complicated, with multiple layers and larger artwork, I noticed how quickly the tablet responded when moving between brushes, layers and tools.
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tablet → become → brushes
This allowed me to work freely without frustrating waits for artwork to load.
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artwork → allow → waits
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia
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