05-13-2016, 12:31 PM
Sorry about the late reply, been super busy, and this is a difficult post to write coherently.
I think you are totally right that you are lacking direction. That doesn't matter at your level because you don't need a direction until you are a fair way down the road of improving as an artist.
I think the most important thing to try and understand is not what to study, but why to study specific things.
The way i see it is that there are two fundamental skills, Accuracy and Form. Accuracy being the ability to see the world for what it is, so you see how far things are apart in a 2d space as we see them, and then form which is the ability to conceptualize 3d shapes and intimately understand how to represent them on a page. I also need to point out that these skills are not just to do with drawing, they directly change how your brain can gather information about the world, so as you improve you will start to "understand" the form of objects more clearly.
To develop accuracy the best thing to do is to learn how to copy perfectly, because you need to train the brain to do a lot of complex things automatically, such as checking angles, comparing distances. Also it is one of the best tools we have of training our perception to have less distortion. How most people perceive the world is so far from reality it is startling, I would almost describe it as a distortion filter on the world that you are trying to straighten. For this I would recommend Dorien Itens guide on Accuracy, and just copying photos with line and trying to match up the proportions so exactly you can overlay the drawing on the photo. http://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy/
Form would cover ideas such as construction and linear perspective, these are about inventing form, and drawing things without a reference. Linear perspective is the tool we use to design and teach how form recedes in space, but it's not practical to do this for organics, so you need to learn how to draw perspective by feel, but you develop that by focusing on drawing simple constructions perfectly to teach yourself what looks correct. For this i would recommend drawabox.com as a really nice introduction to construction, though stop at the end of part two because his section on the human figure sucks, instead move onto maybe Hampton as you've been using, or guys like Ron Lemen or Proko. http://drawabox.com/lesson/1
I would specifically not recommend starting with anatomy construction to begin with, because to represent the human figure on the page is probably one of the most complicated forms in the universe, and even if it wasn't we are intimately wired to respond to it, so our brains actually work against us. Drawing a form incorrectly, but slightly more correctly than the last time is one of the least efficient ways i can imagine learning, so it baffles me that this is what the majority of untutored students do.
Once you learn how to construct with line, the next step is to learn how planes directly relate to light direction.... but that's for another day.
I would also impart a few different mantras to tell yourself:
* Discipline is the key to improvement: Challenging yourself to draw things to a level beyond your capabilities takes a hell of a lot of effort, i personally feel anxiety about drawing specific things, but you need discipline to focus on these things and push through.
* hold yourself accountable to quality: Drawing simple objects perfectly is far more beneficial to drawing complex objects badly. Focus on drawing the basic things to a high quality, and move on as soon as you feel it not stretching your brain anymore. If you are copying something, you'll be getting all these little devilish thoughts like "it doesn't need to be that good, I'm just a student", or "who cares if it doesn't match".
* If you practice making mistakes, they become habits: Pretty self explanatory really.
Don't feel like this stuff is just a temporary thing btw.... you'll be studying this stuff for however long you are an artist. Art is a complex dance of very simple things all done really well.
Anyhow that should be enough... not sure. Trying to impart advice to a beginner is really difficult as sending you down the wrong path now can be really harmful later. So... good luck!
I think you are totally right that you are lacking direction. That doesn't matter at your level because you don't need a direction until you are a fair way down the road of improving as an artist.
I think the most important thing to try and understand is not what to study, but why to study specific things.
The way i see it is that there are two fundamental skills, Accuracy and Form. Accuracy being the ability to see the world for what it is, so you see how far things are apart in a 2d space as we see them, and then form which is the ability to conceptualize 3d shapes and intimately understand how to represent them on a page. I also need to point out that these skills are not just to do with drawing, they directly change how your brain can gather information about the world, so as you improve you will start to "understand" the form of objects more clearly.
To develop accuracy the best thing to do is to learn how to copy perfectly, because you need to train the brain to do a lot of complex things automatically, such as checking angles, comparing distances. Also it is one of the best tools we have of training our perception to have less distortion. How most people perceive the world is so far from reality it is startling, I would almost describe it as a distortion filter on the world that you are trying to straighten. For this I would recommend Dorien Itens guide on Accuracy, and just copying photos with line and trying to match up the proportions so exactly you can overlay the drawing on the photo. http://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy/
Form would cover ideas such as construction and linear perspective, these are about inventing form, and drawing things without a reference. Linear perspective is the tool we use to design and teach how form recedes in space, but it's not practical to do this for organics, so you need to learn how to draw perspective by feel, but you develop that by focusing on drawing simple constructions perfectly to teach yourself what looks correct. For this i would recommend drawabox.com as a really nice introduction to construction, though stop at the end of part two because his section on the human figure sucks, instead move onto maybe Hampton as you've been using, or guys like Ron Lemen or Proko. http://drawabox.com/lesson/1
I would specifically not recommend starting with anatomy construction to begin with, because to represent the human figure on the page is probably one of the most complicated forms in the universe, and even if it wasn't we are intimately wired to respond to it, so our brains actually work against us. Drawing a form incorrectly, but slightly more correctly than the last time is one of the least efficient ways i can imagine learning, so it baffles me that this is what the majority of untutored students do.
Once you learn how to construct with line, the next step is to learn how planes directly relate to light direction.... but that's for another day.
I would also impart a few different mantras to tell yourself:
* Discipline is the key to improvement: Challenging yourself to draw things to a level beyond your capabilities takes a hell of a lot of effort, i personally feel anxiety about drawing specific things, but you need discipline to focus on these things and push through.
* hold yourself accountable to quality: Drawing simple objects perfectly is far more beneficial to drawing complex objects badly. Focus on drawing the basic things to a high quality, and move on as soon as you feel it not stretching your brain anymore. If you are copying something, you'll be getting all these little devilish thoughts like "it doesn't need to be that good, I'm just a student", or "who cares if it doesn't match".
* If you practice making mistakes, they become habits: Pretty self explanatory really.
Don't feel like this stuff is just a temporary thing btw.... you'll be studying this stuff for however long you are an artist. Art is a complex dance of very simple things all done really well.
Anyhow that should be enough... not sure. Trying to impart advice to a beginner is really difficult as sending you down the wrong path now can be really harmful later. So... good luck!
Drawing out of perspective is like singing out of tune. I'll throw a shoe at you if you do it.
Sketch Book
Sketch Book