[Dryfire]

Haven't posted in here in a long while.. i've been daydreaming too much of people and places i've been to. I sat down to draw numerous times this week.. trying to focus on a particular girl i met two weeks ago but my mind kept going blank... My question was if anyone had some helpful hints on drawing from memory.. maybe focusing on a perticular part of the body first or sumthing... It doesn't have to be digitally done either.. I like pen/pencil for my portriats anyhow... any advice would be greatly appreciated

-thanks for listening

[Derek]

In my experience people have a tough enough time drawing something that they saw 30 seconds ago... as for two weeks...?
Really I think you have to have a ton of mileage pencil-wise under you and have to have done a great amount of drawing from life to train yourself as to what is honestly visually important to remember. Hold on to that so that when you draw later you aren't just relying on the same old symbols or shapes. Have a strong enough command of your drawing and observation so that you can recall what, in your mind at least, visually evokes (in this case) her... remember, you are trying to honestly represent an individual, so respect that individuality, understand from experience what lends to it, and start by doing some exercises for yourself along a similar vein. And an important action: carry a sketchbook wherever you are, at ANY time it is feasible (which should be pretty often...) If you have the courage to do so, and you're confident, you can always ask if someone will pose for you or if they would mind if you draw them. You'd be surprised if you flip a few good sketchbook pages how someone all of a sudden has some time to do so...
Final thought: this will require you to build up one hell of a visual vocabulary, and I wish you luck in it...

[ April 28, 2001: Message edited by: Derek Smith ]

[spooge demon]

Yes, what Derek said!

[Dryfire]

thanks Darek, awesome response... it seems thatdrawing other vidualizing people i see everyday is the same difficulty.. only i do better on fine details abotu thier faces.. such people like family members. It is somewhat embarassing of what i came out with from staring at someone for a few seconds, then drawing from memory... perhaps when I get better at it :-) A stop by spooge makes the post a good one

-Thanks for your help!

[Derek]

You're very welcome... and yes a vote of confidence in one's thoughts and words is always a great thing, so thanks Spooge... highly appreciated and welcome.

[Digital Genesis]

You should consider Theta medtitation. When your brainwaves are mostly theta, you enter a state where you can very easily visualize very vivid imagery.
I'm sure you've had dreams that were so real you could hardly believe it. That's what you can achieve by practicing theta meditation.
Obviously you still need skill with your tools, but that's a different matter.

Have fun

[Impaler]

Impressionist Dega always drew from memory. In fact, all of impressionism is either from memory or imagination.

Try a traditional medium sketch over a digital. Sometiems if you're trying to remember something, you can't be futzing around with computer madness. Pastels work REALLY well with this situation. Just get some heavy paper (weight-wise), and sketch away. Once you have your sketch down, you then have a resource picture to work from. You can then photoshop/painter/ms paint away all you want.

[Dryfire]

Hmmm thanks for the suggestions... not too sure what Theta Meditation is but if it has to do with sleep, its gotta be good :-) sleeping rules. Dega drew from memory... he's got quite a lot of skill then.. keen memory skills, which i simply don't have :-( I usually use a pencil or pen when sketching people.. don't know why but it seems easier to vidualize for me, I'm also going to try out the pastels. I did try charcoal a while ago but it looked umm very messy and well ugly. Good idea on skethcin then useing it as a reference! I'll definetly try the pastels

-Thanks again!

[Digital Genesis]

Theta meditation can be accomplished in many ways. The goal is simply to get your brain to produce more theta waves than your ordinary beta waves..
It's like this:

Beta: Fully awake and aware, normal day consciousness. Also increases depending on the amount of stress you're under.

Alpha: The level under. Daydreaming, regular meditation. Usually associated with feeling relaxed and carefree. Also a very creative state.

Theta: Normally associated with dream sleep or deep meditation. Very vivid and alive imagery.
There's a 'trick' to make your brain produce theta waves, just so you can test what it feels like. Pick a spot on your hand and look at it. Don't move your eyes, don't think of anything. Just keep looking at that one spot, to the exclusion of all else.
If you do it right, you might get a sudden burst of imagery or maybe you'll 'hear' music or conversation as if it was happening right then and there.

Delta: The deepest sleep. The state where your body regenerates and does other things science has yet to understand.


The easiest way to produce more waves of any kind is to get or make a cd with waves of the type you want to use.
Syntrillium offers a 'brainwave generator' plugin in their Cooledit program. I believe it's free to try out.
Personally I like to burn a particularly pleasing 'composition' to cd for listening to at any time.
All of this is good for school and stuyding too. Can help your memory tremendously.

I'll stop my ramble now. If you have any questions, just ask

[jzero]

quote

Quote:

In fact, all of impressionism is either from memory or imagination.

Well, yeah, except for Monet's water lilies... and haystacks...and Chartres cathedral.. and Seurat's pointillism... and whatsisname's landscapes... you can't do Impressionist studies of daylight without real daylight...

/jzero

[Bishop_Six]

Digital Genesis: Whoa, that's really interesting. I'll have to try that. I know sometimes I just don't feel very creative.

[shardik]

AND IN OTHER NEWS
United States-
...the whole world drops everything they are doing and looks at their hands at once.. all progress is immediately stopped as people become hypnotized by their hands... his plan to control us with theta waves works just as the US government's plan to control us with drugs works... digital genesis takes over the world...

[gowansy]

wow

[MPM]

cool subject DG

another method is hemisync, an audio sound patented by Robert Monroe(huge out of body advocate) that supposedly creates two different sound waves that when listening to with headphones stimulates theta brain waves, or in other words synchronizes the brain waves of each hemisphere to stimulate slower and more rythmic brain wave patterns,which gives way to the hypnagogic imagery experienced on the onslaught of sleep,

although I wouldnt recommend it I'm sure the most powerful method for stimulating theta waves is LSD

brain waves while in dream sleep stage(REM) are actually more like beta wave patterns(awake) than Theta, which is the strange thing about the sleeping human mind

I can only imagine artists like HRGiger worked in the state alot,

[Digital Genesis]

Hi MPM

You got me there

I was first introduced to brainwave stuff through the works of Monroe and his Waves collection for OBE.

I wasn't aware that beta waves were the most dominant during REM sleep. Very interesting.
Still, I think we can agree that Theta is a highly visual state

The brainwave synchronizer in Cooledit does precisely the same as what Monroe does with hemi-sync. Or rather, it does a lot more, depending on how you use it.

Listening to a synchronized recording (noise, music, pure sinewaves, etc) while drawing is an excellent way to utilize this exciting tool.

[Exilium]

Hum... I was wondering about the same thing... I think the people that already say to you to draw and draw, are probably right. Just wish I can do it some day too... Easy to wish, not easy to do.

Anyway this is my first post here and just want to say that the name of this impressionist painter is not Dega, but Degas (well, if you're talking about the french impressionist, Edgar Degas). Plus, impressionists (don't know for Degas, but generally...) don't paint from memory at all. In fact, they were the first painters to DON'T paint into some closed room and were painting OUTSIDE while observing their subject. Sorry to bother you with the little art history class.

Je ne commencerai pas un cours approfondi, mais bon le principe est l�

[ May 10, 2001: Message edited by: Exilium ]

[NukleoN]

Hi there...

I mostly draw 'from my head' since that is how I prefer to work. This is good, but can be bad if you are not using reference to 'sell' something. Reference is awesome..but I work best when I memorize the reference. It's like playing piano by looking at the music or memorizing it...if you have to look at the music, the music is jerkier and doesn't sound as good, if you memorize it, you know what is coming and can make it flow...that is for me, tho...how I work best.

I find that if you memorze something, you can really understand it and move it around in space...but you have to look at reference too, coz if you don't do that, and you don't know what something looks like, you can't remember it.

Sometimes I find myself staring at something for 10 minutes or so...there is a point at which I think I 'understand' something, and I don't stare just to do it, I stare coz I can't look away. Especially art...art that I really like, I will gze at it for minutes at a time, to understand what I am missing or what I can improve upon in my own art.

So memorize, but memorize correctly (using refernce or real life).

And by god, try Painter. Hehehe.

[Dryfire]

Hey DE, thanks for all the great info on theta waves... but when i tried to stare at my hand for about half an hour... i didn't hear anymusic or see things clearer... but I did see everything in blue and yellow which was neat, or maybe it was just too late at night :-) I was suggested by someone at my school to copy pictures of other women and just put her head on it.. but I don't think that would really capture her individualism... as i am quite fond of it.
I'm not too familair with Dega or Degas but i'm happy to learn about him.. I did a search and saw some pretty neat pictures done by him. I am interested in the music you said would boost my theta brainwaves, as I am not too talented in creating my own music, is there any CD's I could sample that would get me into this clear state of mind? Thanks for all of your comments.. they are greatly appreciated ;-)

[NukleoN]

Well you must not be very interested in your hand..or it is so familiar to you that you are not seeing it with 'fresh eyes'.

Look at something that makes you drop your jaw and go WOW!!! Then do that...do that thing which interests you most, instead of just assinging yourself a task..and if you need music to get you in the mood..well I'd say you picked the wrong thing to draw.

Suggestion for music..pick a soundstrack that calms you, but inspires you...gets you in that right brain mode..if you are drawing sci-fi fantasy stuff, play something like Star Wars or Blade Runner...medieval stuff..play something from Gladiator or Braveheart...you know what I mean.

[Dryfire]

NukleoN, thanks for the input.

1st post: I agree a lot with what you said abotu the reference... but the only picture that i have of her really sucks and is blurry :-( plus she's standing inbetween to people with winter jackets on so its hard to really identify any shapes. I've seen a lot with painter... i dunno if it will help me draw from memory though ;-)

2nd post: I'm still learning here.. and I'm not too familiar with the compostion of works yet, but i'm trying. I'm also really shaky when I draw.. my lines are usually frantic and dark, which i'm trying to fix. I'm kinda afraid of copying someone elses work that I extremely admire.. since it feels like my picture would be degrating to theirs :-/ About the music... I dan't need music to draw, in fact most of the time I draw is in school... since theres nothing else to do! Hmmm I like medieval knights and dragons and such... but never thought of using music from gladiator or braveheart to inspire me! Thats a great idea!

-Thanks for your time and help