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Aug. 9th, 2006 03:17 pmSo... I'm trying to teach myself how to draw. I was inspired this weekend to try to learn. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_z helped me pick out a sketchbook and some pencils, and last night I started practicing doing shapes, just like starting over in junior high. It feels like junior high, too, because it feels clumsy, unsure, and terribly amateurish. I've been trying to sketch a coffee mug on my desk - a simple cylinder with a handle - and even that's a struggle. Circles and ovoid shapes elude me. Straight lines and angles I have fine, but getting good, consistent, non-malformed rounded shapes is a challenge.
I've never been one to try something that I don't feel I'm good at, or something for which I don't already have a knack. Trying this is a step into wholly unfamiliar territory. Well, maybe not wholly unfamiliar - I've watched Z draw. However, I'd liken watching an artist draw and then trying to draw yourself to watching someone put together a car from scratch and then attempting it yourself with no manual or tools. At present, I'm not mentally equipped to turn an image in the brain into one on paper, and that's only going to come with lots of practice. Lots of time-intensive, frustrating practice. Frustration has never been something that I've handled well, so I hope I can make it through this without chucking my sketchbook out a window.
I want to learn, though. I want to be able to help Z out by inking her work (digitally, although on paper if necessary) or coloring or toning her work (again, digitally). To do that effectively, though, I feel like I need to understand the basics. I'm a long, long way off from being able to draw people, and I don't know if I even have a talent for this. I suspect that I don't, or I would have tried it by now and found it, but if I can at least get a basic handle on all this, I'll actually be able to do something.
the_z helped me pick out a sketchbook and some pencils, and last night I started practicing doing shapes, just like starting over in junior high. It feels like junior high, too, because it feels clumsy, unsure, and terribly amateurish. I've been trying to sketch a coffee mug on my desk - a simple cylinder with a handle - and even that's a struggle. Circles and ovoid shapes elude me. Straight lines and angles I have fine, but getting good, consistent, non-malformed rounded shapes is a challenge. I've never been one to try something that I don't feel I'm good at, or something for which I don't already have a knack. Trying this is a step into wholly unfamiliar territory. Well, maybe not wholly unfamiliar - I've watched Z draw. However, I'd liken watching an artist draw and then trying to draw yourself to watching someone put together a car from scratch and then attempting it yourself with no manual or tools. At present, I'm not mentally equipped to turn an image in the brain into one on paper, and that's only going to come with lots of practice. Lots of time-intensive, frustrating practice. Frustration has never been something that I've handled well, so I hope I can make it through this without chucking my sketchbook out a window.
I want to learn, though. I want to be able to help Z out by inking her work (digitally, although on paper if necessary) or coloring or toning her work (again, digitally). To do that effectively, though, I feel like I need to understand the basics. I'm a long, long way off from being able to draw people, and I don't know if I even have a talent for this. I suspect that I don't, or I would have tried it by now and found it, but if I can at least get a basic handle on all this, I'll actually be able to do something.
