06-30-2016, 10:21 AM
I've been searching for a way to study for a very long time now and everytime I keep tweaking my way. In the end it will probably be the same as everyone else but here goes.
I've wrote a post some time ago before I chose a certain path: http://www.brushnoir.com/learning-how-to-draw/
I also agree with Amit, in the end it comes down to finishing illustrations to make any progress. I learned that the hard way.
At this point I really like card art, mostly legend of the cryptids (I don't care what everyone says...hehe). While looking at these pieces I try to look for certain things that makes them appealing to me. For me most of them are the poses, costumes/armor, colors, exaggerated armor even, details, backgrounds etc etc... So yeah where do you start? I tried breaking it down to basics, which for me is figuredrawing first. I'm now learning how to properly draw poses. You mentioned some books which are really good but in a way did not help me yet. I've been researching what could help me get through this wall and I stumbled upon this great comic artist named David Finch. Basically what he does is he starts his poses with a simple mannequin drawing that he knows inside and out. So I was like, yeah that's what I need, something simple that I can actually remember instead of studying something that I forget the next day. I found out he has some decent tutorial videos on his website and in the end I got myself some sort of mannequin that I start to get comfortable with.
Now that I have a sort of understanding of this mannequin thing I start to look up LotC art and study their poses, most of them you won't find in stockphotos since they are too exaggertated (I still do stockposes like you do on the youtubechannel). So this is basically my first step. After I did some poses I try to play with some imagination poses using the knowlegde I just gained from the studies. Try doing imagination stuff whenever you can even if it's for a few minutes.
This is one goal in progress to get closer to do card art. My next step would be to study the rest that appeals me in the same manner. The trick to figure out for yourself is to make everything really easy and quick to draw. Like this mannequin, details comes later. I figured that for me it becomes more important to get the idea down on the paper/screen and then think about refs, details, anatomy and all that crap (It used to be the other way around and drove me nuts).
With knowledge you get from these studies you can start making illustrations. As Amit told me earlier, card art is not something special, in the end it's just an illustration.
Starting an illustration is quite hard I find. But joining for example the CC is really helpful. It's helpful because it gives you a timelimit. It forces you to do studies and best of all it gives you can idea already!
If you're still struggling with starting an illustration, there are quite some challenges going, there are random idea generators, you can look up magic card briefs (thanks John!). There is so much usefull stuff on the net that you can use to your advantage. I did not see them untill recently.
I'm sorry if I go all over the place and if this just does not make sense but here is a little sum up of a routine I'm doing for let's say CC.
- Read the brief.
- (Close my eyes) Let my mind go crazy with ideas of how my image would look like.
- Trying to keep that thought and with the simplified stuff that I study I manage to sketch some ideas on the paper/screen.
- While I'm drawing I stumble on lot's of things that I find hard and that's where I start to progress. These hard things are something for me to study (for example face expressions, foreshortening etc etc)
- Gather some refs, do the studies. (pinterest has great refs, the check out paid stocksites, their previews are mostly useable aswell)
- Go back into your sketch and keep refining the sketch till it looks right (as far as my skills go though).
- I keep going this way untill I finish a piece.
I think what I'm trying to say is prioritize what you want to learn first, in my case I want beautiful figures. Take one subject at a time. I was doing bits of everything at once and it did not get me far because I kept forgetting it. You feel when you will be ready to move on. For example, I did quite some head studies and now it comes together with the figuredrawing.
I hope that this is a bit helpful. Sorry again if it's all over the place. If I did not answer it all please ask and I'll do my best to cover that aswell, I'm quite a messy writer so I probably forgot something :')
I've wrote a post some time ago before I chose a certain path: http://www.brushnoir.com/learning-how-to-draw/
I also agree with Amit, in the end it comes down to finishing illustrations to make any progress. I learned that the hard way.
At this point I really like card art, mostly legend of the cryptids (I don't care what everyone says...hehe). While looking at these pieces I try to look for certain things that makes them appealing to me. For me most of them are the poses, costumes/armor, colors, exaggerated armor even, details, backgrounds etc etc... So yeah where do you start? I tried breaking it down to basics, which for me is figuredrawing first. I'm now learning how to properly draw poses. You mentioned some books which are really good but in a way did not help me yet. I've been researching what could help me get through this wall and I stumbled upon this great comic artist named David Finch. Basically what he does is he starts his poses with a simple mannequin drawing that he knows inside and out. So I was like, yeah that's what I need, something simple that I can actually remember instead of studying something that I forget the next day. I found out he has some decent tutorial videos on his website and in the end I got myself some sort of mannequin that I start to get comfortable with.
Now that I have a sort of understanding of this mannequin thing I start to look up LotC art and study their poses, most of them you won't find in stockphotos since they are too exaggertated (I still do stockposes like you do on the youtubechannel). So this is basically my first step. After I did some poses I try to play with some imagination poses using the knowlegde I just gained from the studies. Try doing imagination stuff whenever you can even if it's for a few minutes.
This is one goal in progress to get closer to do card art. My next step would be to study the rest that appeals me in the same manner. The trick to figure out for yourself is to make everything really easy and quick to draw. Like this mannequin, details comes later. I figured that for me it becomes more important to get the idea down on the paper/screen and then think about refs, details, anatomy and all that crap (It used to be the other way around and drove me nuts).
With knowledge you get from these studies you can start making illustrations. As Amit told me earlier, card art is not something special, in the end it's just an illustration.
Starting an illustration is quite hard I find. But joining for example the CC is really helpful. It's helpful because it gives you a timelimit. It forces you to do studies and best of all it gives you can idea already!
If you're still struggling with starting an illustration, there are quite some challenges going, there are random idea generators, you can look up magic card briefs (thanks John!). There is so much usefull stuff on the net that you can use to your advantage. I did not see them untill recently.
I'm sorry if I go all over the place and if this just does not make sense but here is a little sum up of a routine I'm doing for let's say CC.
- Read the brief.
- (Close my eyes) Let my mind go crazy with ideas of how my image would look like.
- Trying to keep that thought and with the simplified stuff that I study I manage to sketch some ideas on the paper/screen.
- While I'm drawing I stumble on lot's of things that I find hard and that's where I start to progress. These hard things are something for me to study (for example face expressions, foreshortening etc etc)
- Gather some refs, do the studies. (pinterest has great refs, the check out paid stocksites, their previews are mostly useable aswell)
- Go back into your sketch and keep refining the sketch till it looks right (as far as my skills go though).
- I keep going this way untill I finish a piece.
I think what I'm trying to say is prioritize what you want to learn first, in my case I want beautiful figures. Take one subject at a time. I was doing bits of everything at once and it did not get me far because I kept forgetting it. You feel when you will be ready to move on. For example, I did quite some head studies and now it comes together with the figuredrawing.
I hope that this is a bit helpful. Sorry again if it's all over the place. If I did not answer it all please ask and I'll do my best to cover that aswell, I'm quite a messy writer so I probably forgot something :')