10-19-2015, 06:39 PM
hey bookend,
I am not sure, which study you mean, but generally studying shouldn't be about perfect copying but about understanding something. You can copy something 100 % correctly, but afterwards have no idea what you did. This maybe sounds a little extreme, but I remember studies I did where afterwards, I didn't feel smarter at all. Then again I did studies, that where merely scribbles and notes, but they helped me to understand something very well.
I am no master of this, to be honest. I don't understand lots of it myself, but in my experience, if you don't feel like you understood it, you haven't understood it. That is to say that some things get stored in the back of your head and when you reach a certain level all of a sudden it makes total sense. That is when you jump ahead and that feels awesome.
But take of all that with a grain of salt, I am also struggling with studies and I don't feel I get ahead as fast as I liked. Listen to "The science and practice of drawing" by Harold speed. There is an good audiobook of it in the web. And also the blogposts by the Creativetrigger guy are cool. He talks a lot about seperating what you want to study and then do a focussed study of that. for example don't copy only masterpaintings or fotografs, also du linestudies only, or simple value studies, or realy simple stilllifes with only 1 lightsource. Really try to seperate what painting and drawing is made off and then study each part.
Again: me no master. But here is what I think, what you need to learn:
drawing accurately : practice contour drawings of simple objects
values: do value scales and simple value studies
composition: do small comps and comp studies
perspective: read about it and pratice your basic volumes in perspective
colors: read about and look for hue and color temperature changes. do small studies and try to match colors. after you did it, pick the colors and see how the react in the picture
narrative: I don't really know how to practice this, but read, watch movies, think up stories and such
anatomy: contour drawings of anatomy parts. I have not a lot of clues about anatomy but I feel like there is a better way to learn than the way I did it, so I won't say a lot about it. But you should know the bones and the big muscles. Use ref a lot.
Change media from time to time and just do whatever it is that makes you love painting. Easier said than done, when you have a tight schedule...
And lastly, as long as you keep drawing, everything will work out sooner or later. Peter Mohrbacher didn't learn the fundemantels for a long time and look where he is now. Dave Rapoza says he sucks at painting hands. Nobody is every totally satisfied. :*
I am not sure, which study you mean, but generally studying shouldn't be about perfect copying but about understanding something. You can copy something 100 % correctly, but afterwards have no idea what you did. This maybe sounds a little extreme, but I remember studies I did where afterwards, I didn't feel smarter at all. Then again I did studies, that where merely scribbles and notes, but they helped me to understand something very well.
I am no master of this, to be honest. I don't understand lots of it myself, but in my experience, if you don't feel like you understood it, you haven't understood it. That is to say that some things get stored in the back of your head and when you reach a certain level all of a sudden it makes total sense. That is when you jump ahead and that feels awesome.
But take of all that with a grain of salt, I am also struggling with studies and I don't feel I get ahead as fast as I liked. Listen to "The science and practice of drawing" by Harold speed. There is an good audiobook of it in the web. And also the blogposts by the Creativetrigger guy are cool. He talks a lot about seperating what you want to study and then do a focussed study of that. for example don't copy only masterpaintings or fotografs, also du linestudies only, or simple value studies, or realy simple stilllifes with only 1 lightsource. Really try to seperate what painting and drawing is made off and then study each part.
Again: me no master. But here is what I think, what you need to learn:
drawing accurately : practice contour drawings of simple objects
values: do value scales and simple value studies
composition: do small comps and comp studies
perspective: read about it and pratice your basic volumes in perspective
colors: read about and look for hue and color temperature changes. do small studies and try to match colors. after you did it, pick the colors and see how the react in the picture
narrative: I don't really know how to practice this, but read, watch movies, think up stories and such
anatomy: contour drawings of anatomy parts. I have not a lot of clues about anatomy but I feel like there is a better way to learn than the way I did it, so I won't say a lot about it. But you should know the bones and the big muscles. Use ref a lot.
Change media from time to time and just do whatever it is that makes you love painting. Easier said than done, when you have a tight schedule...
And lastly, as long as you keep drawing, everything will work out sooner or later. Peter Mohrbacher didn't learn the fundemantels for a long time and look where he is now. Dave Rapoza says he sucks at painting hands. Nobody is every totally satisfied. :*