01-24-2014, 08:08 AM
Hmm, so I was mulling this over the whole day today.
There is an actual physical part of this, indeed, and it is, well, small. It's the tool - your mastery of pencil, or charcoal, or paint, or photoshop. I think the confusion arises because there is not clear separation when the visual language ends and the tool begins - but we sort of mess up the ability to do a smooth gradient or a hard edge with actual good communication!
I was thinking about it and it suddenly hit me - the question "what are your brushes?" comes from this, it seems. And anyone that is barely deep into it knows that is NOT the question you're supposed to be asking, but about the though process behind it. You're not supposed to be asking what words are good to use, but why you chose this words over others! And now that I made the parallel - that is like going to your favorite author and asking him what keyboard he is using to write his last novel.
How silly can it get? lol
However, the tool we use has more influence over the results than a keyboard to a writer, and it does require mastering. But once you have understood the enormity of the task that is good visual communication, you know that tool mastery will just happen along the way.
And Stanley Lau (Artgerm) saying he was practicing drawing with his mind? Well, I do think he was practicing.. visual communication. He had a pretty solid idea of what he was going to say before he even touched the pencil. And thinking about it today, it made sense to me that this was what other pros were talking about, like Bobby Chiu and his visualization technique. It's having a clear notion of what you're going to say - the message you're going to paint, instead of starting with just a vague idea and seeing what happens. You can look at something and ask yourself "how would I paint this? What angle? Would I put this in or out? Maybe move this there? Make this bigger?" and all of it would be practicing your language skills, dealing with the enormous problem of making an image work.
Then you'd go for the pencil.
Lots of comic artists actually do repeat this mantra, of thinking a lot and drawing just a little. Planning ahead.
It all clicked into place today, so thanks for bringing it up! :D
Now it's very clear why they say brushes don't matter, and why a pro can make a pretty awesome picture with the most basic tools. We need to clearly separate what is tool mastery to visual communication mastery. The language you can apply to any tool, but mastering a tool will not make you good at the others - hence the so called crutches.
Yay!
There is an actual physical part of this, indeed, and it is, well, small. It's the tool - your mastery of pencil, or charcoal, or paint, or photoshop. I think the confusion arises because there is not clear separation when the visual language ends and the tool begins - but we sort of mess up the ability to do a smooth gradient or a hard edge with actual good communication!
I was thinking about it and it suddenly hit me - the question "what are your brushes?" comes from this, it seems. And anyone that is barely deep into it knows that is NOT the question you're supposed to be asking, but about the though process behind it. You're not supposed to be asking what words are good to use, but why you chose this words over others! And now that I made the parallel - that is like going to your favorite author and asking him what keyboard he is using to write his last novel.
How silly can it get? lol
However, the tool we use has more influence over the results than a keyboard to a writer, and it does require mastering. But once you have understood the enormity of the task that is good visual communication, you know that tool mastery will just happen along the way.
And Stanley Lau (Artgerm) saying he was practicing drawing with his mind? Well, I do think he was practicing.. visual communication. He had a pretty solid idea of what he was going to say before he even touched the pencil. And thinking about it today, it made sense to me that this was what other pros were talking about, like Bobby Chiu and his visualization technique. It's having a clear notion of what you're going to say - the message you're going to paint, instead of starting with just a vague idea and seeing what happens. You can look at something and ask yourself "how would I paint this? What angle? Would I put this in or out? Maybe move this there? Make this bigger?" and all of it would be practicing your language skills, dealing with the enormous problem of making an image work.
Then you'd go for the pencil.
Lots of comic artists actually do repeat this mantra, of thinking a lot and drawing just a little. Planning ahead.
It all clicked into place today, so thanks for bringing it up! :D
Now it's very clear why they say brushes don't matter, and why a pro can make a pretty awesome picture with the most basic tools. We need to clearly separate what is tool mastery to visual communication mastery. The language you can apply to any tool, but mastering a tool will not make you good at the others - hence the so called crutches.
Yay!