Im not the greatest drawer in the world, but the thing i always lack in capturing, is the hands. Particularly articulated hands. Im alot better than what i used to be, but not to the point where i dont need my own hand for reference. I remember drawing characters in primary school. I would draw them with weapons in place of there hands. Friends would think that was really creative of me. I agreed[;)]. What they didn't realise was that i drew the weapons there, because i couldn't draw the hands.[xx(]
Eventually i would learn little tricks here and there to improve my drawing of the hand, but even still, my hands tend to look fairly generic. Still haven't quite reached the 'master hand drawer' status of rodan, but one day hope to.
But anyways, what is it u guys struggle with, and how do u overcome this problem? do u avoid it, replace it, or improve it?
Sho nuff:
quote:I'm not the greatest drawer in the world
I'm not the best cupboard myself. [:P]
I'm still trying to better everything but the biggest challenges have always been foreshortening and lighting.
My girlfriend says my women sometimes need work, to butch looking but she says they're getting there, I love having a live in critic. [:)]
I dont have one thing that gives me particular problems. I am better at women then men but thats about it. Most of my stuff is about the same quality. (How good that quality is, is up to debate).
Never hide the bit you suck at. Other artists and people who know there art will spot it real fast. Plus if you dont do it you won't get better at it. The rule I go by is that every picture I do must have somthing in it that I have not done before or something that I find hard.
Pantmonger
I don't feel comfortable in saying I'm good at any area (human drawing, proportion etc), because I'm sure I can always improve, no matter how complacent I think I am.. all I have to do is have a look at some professional work before I realise how much more I need to understand things. For example, I can draw reasonable looking hands, but they are far from the dynamic looking hands that I've seen professional artists do. Anyway, I'd love to improve in some areas like colouring, combinations of colours etc.. [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/sprofilepic.asp?pic=37_WomanOils.jpg&news=362&i…"]Malus's picture[/url] was very cool, how he put lighter blues for colder parts of the females face etc...
quote:Originally posted by Pantmonger
The rule I go by is that every picture I do must have somthing in it that I have not done before or something that I find hard.
That's a pretty good rule. I might try that on the speedpaint challenge cuz even though i start out with a picture in mind, it somehow manages to gravitate towards things (subject, poses) i have already mastered (kinda). I totally hate when that happens, cuz u look back after the hour or so u spent drawing the piece, then think "holy crap, i just drew the exact same thing yesterday".
As for drawing women, it's always good to keep a reference out on the desk, just to help guide you in your creation. After i was advised to do this, my drawings of females improved heaps. But reference for drawing in general is a must. All the comic pro's do it (especially alex ross), even the disney artists have marquettes to go by. It just goes to show that even the pro's have weaknesses.
Anything with angles, perspective, lines... graphics type drawings I am fine with. People I don't think I'm all that bad, but I have a hard time capturing realistic facial likeness. While certainly not a pro, many people including art teachers have commented on my drawing skills, so I guess I can't be all that bad! :P Looking forward to the speed paint tomorrow night... It will be interesting to see how I go in Photoshop, I barely ever use it for actual drawings!
I tend to draw characters the most. I feel I am concious about anatomy most of the time however I have a cartoony style. My biggest weakness is technical drawing such as scenes with perspective and vehicles. My biggest challenge is turning off my pc and actually going and drawing somthing with pencil and paper. Need to draw more from life dammit!
I've been heading along to life drawing hosted by QPix over at Wooloongabba. It'll be my second session tonight if I get along. More info here: http://www.qa.org.au/
Should get a buncha Sumeans along. $10 for non-members is pretty goodly.
Just a bit of science to plug away here behind the whole creative drawing aspect.
The brain is comprised of two hemispheres, the left and the right. The left controls technical reasoning, mathematical judgement and spatial awareness whereas the right side controls pretty much everything creative.
People who are "left brained" are usually engineers, architects, mathmaticians, scientists and the like while people who are right brained are pretty much all artists in some form or another. Therefore if you're able to draw perspective easily and able to picture things in 3D without needing to draw them then you're more left brained and are less likely to be able to draw natural/organic shapes easily. If you are more "right brained" then you'll find concepts such as perspective challenging but will be able to draw realistic organic objects.
Unfortunately for a large chunk of people (including myself), we never realised that art/design/3D could be so rewarding until it was too late and are stuck with VERY meager drawing skills I, for one, don't get any better at all with my drawing no matter how much I attempt to practice it. I am able to very easily visualise objects in 3D space but can't portray that on paper because of my attempted melding of the two hemispheres of the brain (going from doing technical subjects such as physics, engineering and graphics at school to needing things like art and design at uni is painful).
In other news, I would be interested in going to those life drawing lessons when I get a bit better at drawing and can afford them :S
I actually quite like doing technical drawings as I took a tech drawing/graphic design class all through school. It used to bore me but I'm quite glad now that I can drawing machinery etc. to a good standard.
What I do have trouble with is parts of women. Usually with the lower face - lips (hard to look feminine), jawline (hard to look soft) and chin. Hairstyles aren't too bad, providing I've got some sort of reference.
My anatomy is pretty good, as I've got muscularity down pretty well now, but my knowledge of the veins is pretty weak. No better way to make someone look tough than to have a few bulging bicep veins. Having said that, the tendons in the hand provide a bit of trouble from time to time as well.
Of course, like most others here, drawing these things with a reference is easy, but trying to draw from your head is the tough part.
JPK
I think at the end of the day, so long as it looks like it works, it doesnt matter where u put the veins or the extra muscle (people do this alot on backs) because unless ur a full bottle on the subjects true proportions and technicalities, nobody's gonna know you cheated. And if nobody knows, where is the harm?
Jonathan, unless ur sketch jobs are for something exact, so long as ur proportions are right, and u have a modest idea on anatomy, u shouldnt sweat the small stuff. And if u don't believe me, Joe Maduriera never took an anatomy class in his life, and his work still rocks.
quote:Originally posted by trankillity
Unfortunately for a large chunk of people (including myself), we never realised that art/design/3D could be so rewarding until it was too late and are stuck with VERY meager drawing skills I, for one, don't get any better at all with my drawing no matter how much I attempt to practice it.
I've read a story about a 40-45yr old who decided to pick up painting as a new hobby, even though they've never painted before in their life. He became quite competant within a few years of practise (and I'm talking about some really *great* looking paintings - I wish I could remember his name so yuo can look up his work). It's never too late, I reckon! (I'm actually looking forward to when I'm 60 and I can sit down and paint all day)
I still find the human form, like the hands, a bit taxing, but still very enjoyable to draw. I'm not very good at technical type drawings, which is something I'll look at strengthening in the future. I've just started taking life drawing classes, so hopefully I'll see some improvement in that area soon.