100 upvotes, 13 direct replies (showing 13)
View submission: How to draw an owl.
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 06:28 UTC
112 upvotes, 13 direct replies
I believe "the spark" is a myth. You just have to sit down for a few years and draw every day. Some people have fun doing that, so they actually keep up with it; those become artists. Others try to draw something, realize it looks like shit and never try again.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 06:30 UTC
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I always used to draw the circles, then look at them and realize they were incorrectly proportioned/shaped; then I would have to start over.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 08:33 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Drawing is far, far more mechanical than most preteen girls realize. Being artistic and being able to see dimensions are not at all related. Tip to become a better illustrator: measure things. For example if you're trying to draw an apple, a lamp and a praying mantis, make sure they line up with each other. The apple probably is the same height as the praying mantis, the mantis is probably a bit longer than the apple, etc.
Comment by tizz66 at 22/08/2010 at 13:35 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Buy "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain[1]". It doesn't teach you to draw by copying some shapes and expecting to know the rest, it teaches you to draw by getting you to *look* at what you're drawing in an entirely different way (i.e. with the right side of the brain). Well worth it!
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 04:38 UTC
3 upvotes, 3 direct replies
1: http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Drawing-Bert-Dodson/dp/0891343377
Comment by geft at 23/08/2010 at 04:38 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I saw a really good drawer at IKEA last night but it refused to talk to me.
Comment by DevinTheGrand at 22/08/2010 at 07:21 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
It's actually really easy to draw something you're looking at, I went through elementary school thinking I couldn't draw at all, and I only learned I could in art class in highschool. The trick is not not think of it as a whole.
Drawing something from memory though? That shit is fucking impossible.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 15:02 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The "spark" is a myth, granted, certain people may have a genetic pre-disposition to being a little quicker at picking up drawing techniques but as an art student I don't agree at all that we're all born into certain types of work.
I think anyone CAN draw, but just that some people don't bother with the effort, hell we're all guilty of it, but there wouldn't be much point in art academies if the people drew effortlessly. It takes hard work and patience.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 15:46 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
People have to learn to draw. It's not something one has innately. You should see my doodles when I was 5. But I did it a lot and got a lot better at it.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 23:23 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The spark is merely learning how to observe things objectively. It has very little to do with hand-eye coordination. When you see something your brain forms an interpretation of it, which is inaccurate. When you draw from the brain's interpretation the drawing will not come out as you expected. In other words, it won't be photographically accurate.
Learning to draw is learning how to stop your brain from interpreting what you see. The people who never find their spark are the ones who never experienced the Aha! moment in which they suddenly understood this concept. When you cut out the mental filter, you free yourself to look at things at a microscopic or macroscopic level. Zoom in and focus on details. Zoom out to get the shape relationships.
There are some tricks to help you look at things objectively. You can use a mirror or photograph to draw the scene upside down. You can filter out noise by cutting out a rectangular hole in a sheet of cardboard and making evenly spaced tick marks along the edges. When you hold this viewer over the scene it helps you frame it by eliminating excess information and allows you to gauge proportions using the tick marks.
Drawing a grid on your paper also helps. You can even lace your viewer with a thread to create a 2nd grid which you can match up with the grid on the paper. I've seen a couple artists do this. The ancient technique of using camera obscura to project the scene onto your paper allowed the artist to trace the scene out. The modern equivalent is drawing from a photograph.
The reason hand-eye coordination doesn't matter is because you have an eraser. You can always erase and redraw each section until it's just right. Many talented artists couldn't draw a perfect circle to save their lives.
For me cartooning is the most difficult. I've just never been able to get it down to a level that satisfies me, mainly because I like to draw what I see and there's no real-life counterpart to cartoons. There is a very big distinction between drawing from a reference and drawing completely invented scenes and characters.
Comment by robbysalz at 22/08/2010 at 14:16 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
the hell is the "spark"
1. if your hand doesn't do what you want it to do, it's weak and you just need to exercise the finer muscles in it - lift weights or just doodle until it hurts every day until you build up a tolerance
2. if you can't draw what you see you just need to learn to start observing spatial relationships - ie
"Point of Interest" A is X units away from from "Point of Interest" B
etc
I guess by "spark" you meant people that already knew that, but seriously that's all you need to start making educated drawings..you'll "get in the zone" in like a day or two if you focus on those two things
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 22:30 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The idea of "the spark" is a terrible myth that perpetuates itself through ambiguity and ignorance. An action considered to be done 'well' says more about what society at large values rather than the act itself.
Want to draw well? Put down the pencil. **Look**. If you don't know what the problem is, how can you solve it? If you don't perceive something, how can you draw it? If you want to draw some faithful depiction of the natural world, you have to get information from it. It has barely anything to do with your ability to draw a perfect circle and everything to do with observing and describing.
It’s not a coincidence that some of the most ‘inspired’ artistic works correlate with advancement in math and science. A big problem is that the current language of academic skill is a hodgepodge of miscellaneous recipes handed down from prior eras, to further confuse and combine the word art with identity and vagueness in an effort to keep the construct alive and profitable. A bigger problem is that the DIY crowd sees the outcome of *THAT* and aspires to attain it. (see deviantart) I’m pretty disappointed that skills and knowledge of visual material don’t enjoy the same frameworks for collaboration and learning that music and programming do.
So you want to draw a hand? Draw a circle with 5 lines sticking out of it. Label it *hand.* You solved the problem. Want to draw lines, shapes and values that are composed together to create the illusion of a hand? **Keep looking**.
Comment by [deleted] at 22/08/2010 at 07:53 UTC
1 upvotes, 4 direct replies
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