01-23-2015, 08:24 PM
Hey Lilly, great work! I feel you on the imaginative stuff, it doesn't come out as fresh and exciting as you want because of lack of visual library. Here's some tips that I use to help that, not in any specific order.
1) before (or after) you make a study, make some notes (mental or written down but it helps to make it stick if you write them down) on the key characteristics you want to remember - like 2 or 3 points, the shape of a nose, the gesture of a tree trunk, the general silhouette of a mountain - whatever it is you're studying. Then after, make a drawing without reference and use those characteristics. (That's what study and application means). Things are shifted into our long term memory if we remember them right at the point we were about to forget them - so doing another drawing using those characteristics a day, a few days or a week later will help to lock them down.
2) If drawing something in nature, try to break it down into simple shapes and gestures - like this guy breaking down a wave (here is the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6LkGjT5SYA)
![[Image: 6jhnye6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/6jhnye6.jpg)
Or like with the birch tree in this image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzCJ6zstW_I/Ta...G_1653.JPG You can see the branches on the right side curve upwards (the side the wind mostly hits from), and on the other side they curve downwards. Making notes like this for yourself, if you want to draw a wave or a birch tree you've got a really simple starting point to build details onto.
3) Study something, then draw it from memory (good for things like skulls that you want to lock in all the details). It'll look rubbish the first time, but keep doing it til it looks beautiful.
4) Use a reference picture but draw it from a different angle.
5) Apply any / all of this stuff in thumbnails. That way you can focus on practising the imaginative parts without sinking extra hours into careful rendering and painting. You could get maybe 4 or 5 thumbnails every hour if you take time, so 4 or 5 chances to practice imaginative drawing in that time.
Hope that's useful! Keep up the great work!
1) before (or after) you make a study, make some notes (mental or written down but it helps to make it stick if you write them down) on the key characteristics you want to remember - like 2 or 3 points, the shape of a nose, the gesture of a tree trunk, the general silhouette of a mountain - whatever it is you're studying. Then after, make a drawing without reference and use those characteristics. (That's what study and application means). Things are shifted into our long term memory if we remember them right at the point we were about to forget them - so doing another drawing using those characteristics a day, a few days or a week later will help to lock them down.
2) If drawing something in nature, try to break it down into simple shapes and gestures - like this guy breaking down a wave (here is the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6LkGjT5SYA)
Or like with the birch tree in this image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzCJ6zstW_I/Ta...G_1653.JPG You can see the branches on the right side curve upwards (the side the wind mostly hits from), and on the other side they curve downwards. Making notes like this for yourself, if you want to draw a wave or a birch tree you've got a really simple starting point to build details onto.
3) Study something, then draw it from memory (good for things like skulls that you want to lock in all the details). It'll look rubbish the first time, but keep doing it til it looks beautiful.
4) Use a reference picture but draw it from a different angle.
5) Apply any / all of this stuff in thumbnails. That way you can focus on practising the imaginative parts without sinking extra hours into careful rendering and painting. You could get maybe 4 or 5 thumbnails every hour if you take time, so 4 or 5 chances to practice imaginative drawing in that time.
Hope that's useful! Keep up the great work!