Some questions for people who are skilled visual artists

[Valtharius]

Patience...the one thing you can't buy.

 

[reddishbird]

If there's anything I can help you with, let me know

 

[Aquilonian]

I don't think that how one does at school is a reliable guide to what talent or capability one can acquire in adult life. In school there are too many other factors, like incompetent, uninspiring or hostile teachers, peer pressure from other kids, rubbish materials to work with, distractions inside and outside of the classroom, status accorded to different subjects, etc. Much of what I most enjoy now doing is stuff I hated at school.

My favourite how-to books on drawing are the three books by Patrick J Jones, in one of which he says that even after 20+ years as a successful artist he needs to draw something every day otherwise his skills get rusty. He advises getting a large amount of the cheapest possible brown paper to begin with so you're not afraid to make mistakes. He also advises to start with charcoal.

 

[JohnM]

All one needs is a stack of paper and a pencil. Kids starting out don't need complex instructions, they just draw. The same for adults regardless of age. Where to start? Copy black and white art you like, but don't trace it. Then color art. Don't think beyond just getting used to the idea that you've taken your first step. I think a lot of newer 'how to draw' books are just bad. I would strongly suggest getting books by Andrew Loomis. The main problem to overcome is making flat drawings look three-dimensional so getting a copy of his book, Successful Drawing, is a must.

Start simple. Don't select art that is complicated, especially artists that use a lot of lines. I suggest comic books and newspaper comic strips. For those in the US, comic books with art by John Buscema, Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr. of Spider-Man fame. Yes, these classics are best since they show good human anatomy in simplified form. For newspaper artists, Hal Foster, who drew Prince Valiant, and Al Williamson who drew Secret Agent X-9. For those who like Disney type cartoons get Animation by Preston Blair, published by Walter Foster.

I cannot overstress the importance of starting with simple drawings. Beginners, regardless of age, can be quickly overwhelmed by complex drawings and enter into a "I can't do that" mindset. Well, that particular artists *did* do that, and taking a step by step approach is the best way. Learn to draw the head from different angles, then the hands and so on.

Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth is a bit too subtle in presentation. He does not present the problem of perspective drawing well, which is why I would recommend Andrew Loomis.

And computers. They can't teach you how to draw. Pencil and paper, along with a bit of imagination, are cheaper and better overall. The issue of drawing figures and objects correctly in perspective can be worked out without computers, and drawing this way will be your most sure way forward.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I don't know if I count as a 'skilled' visual artist but I draw. Like most things it takes practice. The only pieces of advice I will feel confident about passing on are:

Look at what you are drawing not the at the drawing. Don't get hooked up on what the drawing looks like... just draw. Look at the drawing afterwards. I haven't been for the longest time (Damn you Covid!) but I used to go to life drawing sessions with the local art group.

While I was with the group I found out that I draw fast. I draw... and as soon as it 'starts to go wrong'. I stop. And I start a new drawing. I was piling up paper while other people were meticulously working away at trying to 'fix' whatever problems they were having. Maybe it worked for them but if I tried to do that I just end up very irritated with a sketchbook full of muddy messes. Nope stop. Put it down. Get it right next time.

One of the greatest drawing lessons I ever had was at Art School. The model was in one room... our drawing boards in the room next door. You had to LOOK. Fix the line in your head... then go next door and put it down on the paper. That was hard. I once spent an hour drawing a barmaid in a pub in Edinburgh but only as she was pulling pints from a particular pump so she was returned to the same position. That was fun.

Don't get hooked up on getting expensive paper and top of the range drawing stuff.

Those two drawings (bare naked woman alert) - one was done with a bog standard 2b office pencil, the other with a 99p fineliner pen - both in a sketchbook that I bought in Lidl. The pen one was me pushing myself outside my comfort zone because I don't normally draw with a pen. I stopped when I realised I had just done Franco Belgian comic book modelling on her knee there. It had stopped being a drawing and was a bit of art.

Carry a sketchbook at all times and draw from life or doodle and just have fun with the pen pencil or whatever. (Personally I like 0.5mm propelling pencils with an HP lead.)

This is a doodle from one of my sketchbooks that I later used in Photoshop to try out a few 'new to me' buttons I thought I'd like to play with :

Which brings me to the last and most important:

You can fix it in Photoshop! - In a book on book illustration a well-known, professional artist whose work I like wrote something along the lines of: "If I've drawn a great looking hand but it's too big or slightly in the wrong place why waste it? It's a good looking hand I'm not going to rub it out and start again. I'll cut it out and resize it in Photoshop."

Lightbulb!

 

[JohnM]

Live models are a waste. I took Life Drawing at University and it was a waste of time. Learning how to draw distinct shapes and then putting it all together makes for good drawing. All objects, including the human body, are collections of shapes. The next problem is correct lighting. It takes a bit of practice but it can be learned.

Photoshop is only useful if you know how to draw.

For example, the company I work for uses a number of outside artists. A cover is sent to us as four small, black and white pencil sketches. Out of these, one is chosen. Next we get a color rough. It is usually approved as is but it is not uncommon for changes, some minor, some more complex, to be added. They are used to that. Our in-house artist was having difficulty with a pencil illustration and scanned and downloaded it to Photoshop. I had the privilege of guiding him through a difficult correction. However, it could have been done by hand. Photoshop was convenient but actually required the addition of two steps: scanning and detail correction using a drawing pad.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Live models are a waste. I took Life Drawing at University and it was a waste of time. Learning how to draw distinct shapes and then putting it all together makes for good drawing. All objects, including the human body, are collections of shapes. The next problem is correct lighting. It takes a bit of practice but it can be learned.

Photoshop is only useful if you know how to draw.

For example, the company I work for uses a number of outside artists. A cover is sent to us as four small, black and white pencil sketches. Out of these, one is chosen. Next we get a color rough. It is usually approved as is but it is not uncommon for changes, some minor, some more complex, to be added. They are used to that. Our in-house artist was having difficulty with a pencil illustration and scanned and downloaded it to Photoshop. I had the privilege of guiding him through a difficult correction. However, it could have been done by hand. Photoshop was convenient but actually required the addition of two steps: scanning and detail correction using a drawing pad.

Photoshop is not the answer to every maiden's prayer you have to pick and chose your battles. It's a tool like everything else. Personally I find actually trying to draw in Photoshop incredibly painful but I love it for colouring and painting once I have what I'm painting fixed. (Or at least fixed enough to start work.)

And I totally disagree that life models are a waste of time. Stuff is more than just a reductionist collection of geometric solids arranged in interesting combinations. 3D modellers may see the world like that and technical illustrators too but the history of drawing from cave painters to the modern day is not just about the accurate utilitarian representation of the three-dimensional world onto a flat plane. It's about the relationship of the objects the artist is drawing to the world that surrounds it. It's about the selection of those objects and which parts of them to draw. (It would, I suspect be difficult to draw your entire field of vision - though now I have thought of it - I might give it a go). It's about looking, focussing on what the world actually looks like, not what some internal world view says it should look like, and then developing that skill to represent that understanding in a way that is readable by others.

Ask kids to draw a rainbow and half of them will draw (from the outside inwards) arcs of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. The other half (from the outside inwards) arcs of purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. Both lots of kids will be happy that they have drawn a rainbow but only one lot has, and probably then only by accident. I would also pretty confident in saying 99% of them will have drawn it as a solid, opaque object that hides anything 'behind' it from view and it will touch the ground on both sides of the paper. Very very few of those kids would have actually looked at rainbows and noted the outside colour is always red, that they rarely 'touch the ground' on both sides and you can see through the buggers. Most of them will have put on paper what they think a rainbow looks like.

 

[JohnM]

Wooden models of simplified human bodies are still sold. I have a plastic version from Japan. Even in the case of cartoon drawing, a model, or maquette, is made for artists to work from. They can rotate and tilt it to check their work.

I think beginning artists should start with cartoons. Take drawing a person who is thin, just right and overweight. Live models can have a wide range of body shapes and faces. Learning how to identify basic shapes and working with simple drawings at first will help immensely when drawing actual things as they are.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Wooden models of simplified human bodies are still sold. I have a plastic version from Japan. Even in the case of cartoon drawing, a model, or maquette, is made for artists to work from. They can rotate and tilt it to check their work.

That's fine if you're drawing robots, or puppets. Models like that can be useful for blocking things out. But real people are more than a jointed mannequin no matter how sophisticated (as my teenage daughter who just looked over my shoulder and asked me what I was doing said, "well they ain't got tits for one thing have they?" which is true I suppose... I do wonder about that child.) People are all differently proportioned. We don't all fit classical Greek proportions and the body twists and turns, muscles and tendons and ligaments shape the whole way we look as we move. Puppets don't do that. Moving an arm moves muscles in the back, lifting a leg will make the person shift their weight unconsciously to compensate and reshape the body. This is why, after decades of development, 3D CGI models still have that Uncanny Valley thing going on. We can see the difference. We can't define it but we can see it. This is why drawing from real life IS necessary. Understanding the way real people hold themselves and move is important if you are going to make (representative) art that has any meaning.

 

[JohnM]

We can define things. To quote Andrew Loomis: "Why guess when you can find out?"

Yes, after learning where the bones and muscles are, and how hidden they can be, can looking at a real life person make sense. Once the muscle groups are known and how they work, do all of those real-life movements become less of a mystery. All of those lines that an artist draws mean something.

Yes, portraying emotions and the way a person stands or sits are very important things. They bring the drawing to life. But not knowing the basics means it's harder. I have little difficulty drawing from life but a model will not always be available. Photos can be useful but the most useful involve only a single light source outdoors, giving a natural look. Professionally taken photos could use multiple light sources and be retouched, rendering them less useful.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I thought of another thing.

Don't be afraid to turn the paper (or whatever it is you're drawing on) till it's easier for you to make the mark you need to make. Why struggle getting a curve that goes against the natural arc of your drawing arm when you can simply rotate the image to make the curve easier to draw?

Watch a comic book inker at work - they're always adjusting the angle of the piece they're working on.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Drawabox | A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing

A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing. We tackle drawing in a logical, analytical fashion inspired by concept artists and industrial designers, focusing on technical skills that can be developed with hard work and determination.

drawabox.com

I highly recommend Drawabox. That and Scott Robertson's "How to draw: drawing and sketching objects from your imagination."

Both of these will give you a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of sketching and drawing, including perspective, proportion, constructing shapes, texture, shading and line weight. They're both technically orientated, but they're the fastest ways to learn and fully incorporate good practice (such as drawing from the shoulder, using pens rather than pencils to get used to making confident lines at first, turning the page and so on) to get you up and running.

Drawabox can be a bit of a slog at first, particularly with the 250 box challenge, but you'll be surprised how much your drawing has improved after just the first lesson. It quickly moves from basic shapes into organic forms and then drawing animals. One thing drawabox emphasises is learning to enjoy the actual process of making lines on the page - and the first lesson tries to make you continually draw with that in mind. Once you can see shapes and proportion, you're pretty much on your way to being a skilled artist.

After that, best to join a life drawing class and get practising anatomy, value and colour theory.

The Andrew Loomis books for drawing heads and people are excellent, as recommended above.

The good thing about learning fundamentals is that you can apply them to any art style, even if technical drawing or representative art styles aren't your thing.

 

[Astro Pen]

If you buy yourself only one book on how to draw and paint, make it this one.
Elizabeth Andrewes A Manual for Drawing and Painting

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