a bit sick of posting the same comments on c&c post, so for anyone who cares, another rant. the importance of reference and drawing from life is something i often emphasis on every comment i put up. why? because thats what artist are. drawing from life, study it, make sure you understand how it works, then bend it our will. Want to learn how to draw robots? well what kind of robot? are you going to copy from Dan LuVisi or Anthony Jones? Whats the point? They are both good at what they do and their mechs are awesome, but they are not you. You are then imitations of those who are good at what they do. At that point you are nothing more than a cheap copy. Want to learn how to draw dragons and kaijus? are you going to copy from pacific rim and godzilla and GoT? Did you know what the concept artist did on pacific rim that makes their kaiju stand out? they choose to study from live breathing creatures and not use anything from existing genre. in fact, del toro insisted upon it. Want to draw people realistically? are you going to copy anime or disney artist styles on the drop of a hat? no! you study from life. you need to understand the weight,the muscles, how they work, building up a visual library of what humans are like, how they twist and turn, how they poses themselves in different situation base on their personality. then you add style on top of that, look at artist like alessandro barbucci, a very anime style but widely expressive, or claire wendling, the figure might not be towards realistic and graceful, but very believable, even roughs done by glen keane of aladdin found in the Illusion of Life, they are quick rough but solid. Same thing with drawing cool robots, dragons, and kaijus, they are all base on studies of what is real, understand what is real and then twist and bend into something no one has ever seen before. so you use references. sure you can built up a mental visual library if you study long enough. I did, for poses, expressions, characters, time periods. but theres stuff I dont remember well enough or know well enough. so what do i do? i keep a large folder on my bookshelves and another one on my laptop with images. Want a robot drawn from a chrysanthum? sure, i can pull up an image of a spider chrys adn go with that! what about a mech base on a bird? sure, i got a skeletal study of a bird, wing study of all birds because they are different from one another, now i got enough stuff to go on. Same goes for environments and pin ups and everything in between. Why do you think drawing basic shapes, anatomy, and still life is fundamental? its to start that visual library. remember the shapes, the lines, the light logic, how they work, built up muscle memory and a basic visual library. Its the first step, the first baby step to become a good artist. how great you can be, its entirely up to you.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:58:52 +0000