Getting Help?

Stratadrake · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject:

Today's topic: References.

Because making a drawing based on imagination and skills takes more, well... [i]skill[/i] than drawing from a simple picture. Today's discussion centers around drawings based on imagination.

What do you do when you can't seem to get a drawing to look 'right' in your eyes? Say you're sketching out a character and you start noticing that their face just doesn't have the right [i]look[/i] to it, it doesn't match how you thought it would turn out. What do you do, then?

When you alone can't get a picture to look right and you need help, where do you turn? Source material? Pictures/photos? Real life? Or can you just continue to blindly tweak awy with it until it turns out the way you want (or, a mess) ?

That's my question for today, because I'm a from-imagination type artist myself, and because when I've done [i]fan[/i]art of an official character, trying to communicate the character-ness of the drawing is paramount, yet a difficult task. Is that why I prefer inventing original characters, because there's no "role model" that the drawing has to live up to?
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Kes · Forum Stalker Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 1549 Location: UK

If it's fanart I look at loads of different official pics /screenshots of the character at different angles to help.
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fallenangel · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:13 pm Post subject:

[quote]Because making a drawing based on imagination and skills takes more, well... skill than drawing from a simple picture. [/quote]

That's highly subjective. What if I imagine a picture that is a white canvas with a green square in the middle? I could paint that in 30 seconds, does that make it more skilled than someone who based theirs on a picture? If you're ONLY talking about anatomy, perspective, and form, THAT can be a show of skill from imagination. It takes years and hundreds of hours of study to master the anatomy of anything to be able to do complex and action poses from one's head.

And even then, right up to the professional level, a lot of poses or parts of poses are referenced because it's so difficult to really [i]know[/i] how every bone and muscle looks from every angle. When I see people who pride themselves on working entirely from imagination, 99.999% of them have serious anatomy issues they've never noticed (or don't bother fixing). The ones who pass it off as "style" are only hurting themselves.

There's imagining a picture, and then there's drawing it entirely from imagination. Two different things. Imagine the composition, color, right down to every detail, and thumbnail it out. Then, if the person is smart, at least double check what you've done against some reference (even just standing in a mirror) to get everything as it should be. One of my biggest pet peeves is the "Well, it's made up, and that's how horses look in my imagination" excuse.

DISCLAIMER: Not arguing that an image that is an EXACT replica of a picture is "better" than an imaginative piece, merely that it's not necessarily more skilled to work from imagination with tons of flaws.
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Talin · Has No Life Joined: 15 Aug 2004 Posts: 498

Depends on what I'm drawing.
If it's a bird or something like that, I turn to Audbon books, and do we have lots of those.
If it's anime, I refer to my "How to draw Anime"...ect. books.
And since my mom is a great artist I most often turn to her. Though she helps with tweaking the lines, and gives suggestions on coloring, she doesn't actually do it for me, which is a good thing.

Ogrim_Doomhammer · Oldbie Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2116

I turn to my art teacher, but she isnt really a good teacher soooo... i turn to throwing it to the rubbish can...
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Brianhjh · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:47 pm Post subject:

Easy, when I'm drawing animals (I suck at them, so you don't see them in my gallery) I turn to the magical Animal TOOBS! (animal figurines in a narrow cylinder container)
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