[SushiMaster]

Some of the line artworks out there (in fact virtually all of the good ones) have really smooth lines, that were clearly drawn in one sweep of the hand (or at least look so!)... At the moment, my hand is not steady/confident/sure enough to draw such nice perfect lines. I realise that a lot of that confidence comes through just straightforward "practice, practice, practice" method... but what I'm wondering is whether there are any exercises that one can do to work specifically on this problem, so that at least, if I do manage somehow to get the proportions and everything else looking good, I can try to ink a pencil drawing to make it look decent - but not to make it look like a bundle of unsteady lines...

So, anyone know of exercise to work on that?

Cheers, :-)

Daniel

[Pigeon]

You could try continuous line drawings - drawings made without lifting your pen or pencil. Or look up more about contour drawings in general. Vary the width of your line to suggest depth and mass. Do blind contour drawings - don't look at your paper while drawing your subject.

Hope these help.

-Dean

[SushiMaster]

Thanks! I'll try that for a start... :-)

Daniel

[burn0ut]

also, i always like to draw circles
and be as free as you want, just try to get em looking round
and make sure you do them clock and counter clockwise
have you ever read that glenn villipu(SP)? book is pretty good ... fook i forgot the url but it had like all these good exercies

[mr lies]

I don't think they are really done in one sweep of the hand. To get my lines smooth I first move the pencil over the paper w/out touching to get a general feeling for the size and shape of my line (like a practice swing in golf), then I draw it sketchily and LIGHTLY, and then I darkly and firmly go over all the sketchy lines choosing the ones that most show what I want. Usually the light lines don't even show, but if they do I can always erase, and pen and ink makes light pencil dissappear even easier.

I'm convinced this is how it is done, but if you don't believe me there is another option. They traced it, Richard Diebencorn (sp?) has a theory that a lot of the incredible draftsmanship of the oldmasters is due to early projector like systems (camera obscura or lucida). He bases this on the fact that some of Andy Warhol's drawings were traced from a projection and the line work was smooth and unhessitating, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' drawings look the same way and he was from the 1800's.

So thats what I think, the smooth drawings your seeing arent the super rough stage but have been cleaned up a little.

[Jason Manley]

if you draw something from life and want to get cleaner...longer and more confident lines....try looking at it for a bit and then drawing it in as few lines as possible...look at big shapes and remember the shape you see...look down as fast as you can and put the exact line you see in your head in your memory...

thicker lines tend to come forward...thinner recede...top planes tend to have lighter lines (to suggest a top light source for form and space)....lines pulse from thick to thin as well.

jason

[dominus]

if your interested in checking out Vilppu's stuff he has a webpage. I have found his materials a great resource. You could start with his drawing manual which is relatively inexpensive and full of great information. Hope this helps.
http://www.vilppustudio.com/

[frostfyre]

I have to agree with the Vilppu book recomends- Glenn's great, and his methods work

In addition, try doing gesture drawings if you do figurative work. Carry your sketch book with you everywhere, and try to draw figures around you at the mall, at school, where ever, but do them quickly, and try to capture the essence of the figure in as few lines as possible. The good thing is, you keep doing this, and your lines get better and better, even though the drawings themselves only take a few minutes.

Was it Chuck Jones' teacher that said we all have 10000 bad drawings in us? Best get them out early....

[SushiMaster]

Thanks a lot guys :-)

Daniel

[dominus]

Just a footnote frostfyre, that quote is from Kimon Nicolaides, his book "The Natural Way to Draw" is another really excellent resource. One last guy I'd recommend to look at would be John H. Vanderpoel, he taught Bridgeman... his book the Human Figure has alot of great visual reference and I found it inspiring. sorry to ramble on.

[JOYSUKE]

This post also help me much, thanks all.

[stneil777]

well i think you want to get the smooth lines you see comic artist getting.
Not sure.
But as crazy as it sounds tattoo is great pratice. Because you have to do your lines with confedence and one motion.
But what we did in tattooing is if you did not get the line right the first stroke. We would start a little higher or before in the same strock and follow threw how far we wanted it to go.
Try drawing with just a pen nothing else.

[Collosimo]

I think what stneil777 meant, and what I was going to say anyway is...

There is a difference between pencil and pen finishes. Have you ever noticed that when you are using a finepoint pen, you tend to be more careful of how you apply it to the page? well I think maybe thre is a lesson in that... dunnno what but figure it out for yourself.

Other than that apparently if you draw with movements of your arm, not your wrist then you should get more confident and cleaner strokes. Apparently...

I guess resting your arm on the desk or whatever limits your movement to short and pecky strokes, but when the whole are is involved you have a larger range of movement and less restriction (except for a tired arm from all that hanging around!).

I think thats similar to what Andrew Loomis says in his figure drawing for all its worth. www.antsin3d.com/loomis/ <<Thx Anthony!

Work bigger maybe? and yeah draw circles too, both directions. sounds like a good idea.

*Note: Not an educated opinion *

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/COLLOSIMO

[Mike]

I practice by drawing straight lines different lengths and going over them about 8 times. Then I try to make parrallel lines of the same length, equidistant from each other. Then i fill the spaces in between them with ellipse. I also draw random 's' curves and try to go over it about 8 times. This might help with controlling your line and getting it to go where you want.

a good book to check out is Rapid Viz.

[This message has been edited by Mike (edited April 11, 2001).]

[Digital Genesis]

Richard Schmid (who ought to know a thing or two) stresses the importance of being EXACT.
Don't put down a line, unless you're 100% sure of it and you know what it's intended to do.

Drop being sketchy and try being meticulous. Might not be as much fun, to start with, but a WELL worth exercise.

Eventually, you'll be able to make very precise lines with amazing (to those who don't practice being precise) speed.

With speed comes natural fluidness of line.
(although you CAN get the same fluid feel by careful practice with a slow stroked line).

[Impaler]

Here's the life-saving exercise that will not only improve your handwriting immensely, but also your line quality.

O

|

-

O|-

Can you draw that? If you can, then you have no excuse for bad handwriting. All shapes and drawings are formed out of O|-..

If you can draw O|- easily, then you can draw anything.

In short, practice O|- everywhere you go. Draw them from different perpectives. Draw them tiny, draw them huge. Make them your weapon of art, and you shall be invincible.

Sorry. I felt poetic. But anyways. Just practice drawing:

O|-

Well, that and get yourself a T-Square with an adjustable angle (a straightedge will be 50% sufficent) and a triangle. All artists need those.

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My signature is slightly better than yours.