(no subject)

[nockergeek]

So... I'm trying to teach myself how to draw. I was inspired this weekend to try to learn. 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.

Comments

Much unasked-for advice.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Good luck! :D

And talent is overrated, IMHO. Anyone can, with practice and teaching, although it takes some people longer than others to rewire their brains, learn the skills to do a competent job. I think where talent comes in is how easy it is for you to do it, and once you get to a really high level of competence, the difference between a good artist and a great artist.

So much of art is about learning how to see. You mentioned in your DA post that you're starting to look at things and break them into shapes, so you know that you're starting to rewire your brain that way. You'll start looking at light and shadow that way, too. And once you start seeing not only objects as shapes, but the areas where objects aren't as shapes, you know you're an artist.

There's a particular exercise called contour drawing, where you don't look at the paper, just at the object, and draw the shape of it. You go veeery slowly, trying to let your hand floow your eyes around every tiny nook and cranny in the outline of the object. If you do it right, and don't sneak peeks at the paper, what you'll end up with is the most awful mess of pencil lines ever. I used to hate contour drawing until I figured out that the point isn't the drawing - it's to train your brain to look at the object and see everything for what it really is, instead of seeing this shape in your brain labeled "bottle" or "shoe" or "wife", which is what we're seeing normally.

Of course once you start in on life drawing, even when your results aren't yet good, you'll find it way too easy to flip into artist-brain, which means you'll see people as a collection of shapes and edges and planes instead of as people, and you'll find yourself staring at random strangers' body parts working out how to draw them without realizing you're doing it. :)

And another thing in this long rambling comment (because once I start talking about art, it's hard to get me to shut up): I find that most drawing sessions are hard slogs. In my weekly classes, I usually have one of those days where almost everything goes right, and every line you slap down feels gold and you're in the zone about once every six weeks. And the rest of the time it feels awful, and frustrating, and I'm ready to throw down the pencil and quit. But a few months later, looking at the artwork? You can't tell the difference between the gold days and the black days.

You may find janni 's blog entry (http://janni.livejournal.com/306020.html) and the article she links to interesting - it's a Scientific American article that says research suggests that we grow the most when we're out of our comfort zone. The days you're feeling frustrated because you're trying to do something that you think you'll never be able to do? Are really important, because those are the days that train our brains the most.

And even if you're horrified by your early work - and the bottle and taiko drum controller are pretty damn good for a rank beginner and I've been in classes with rank beginners so I know damn well what theri work looks like - keep it. Because a year from now, when you're feeling like you haven't improved any, pull it out and compare it and you'll be stunned by how much better you are. You're just frustrated because your standards (which are always a little higher tan your skills) have risen.

And now I go to procrastinate validating this webpage elsewhere! :D

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

Basically, everything telophase said: yes.

And I have the exact opposite problem, myself. I can do wonderfully curvy shapes day in and day out, but ask me to draw a straight line, and I'm going to stare at you blankly.

It's all fun, though! If for some reason you think I might be able to help you with anything, don't hesitate at all to ask! I'd be happy to help, if there's anything I could do~ Though I can't imagine there's really much the_z couldn't answer for you. She has a better grasp on most of the technical stuff that I just don't have. She's very respectably good! Ar num num! :D;