[edible snowman]

hello. Im almost afraid to ask this question, because its pretty general and vague, but here goes anyway. How do you get better at line art? I mean pencil and pen stuff. I know the obvious answer is draw a lot, but sometimes i can only realize there's something wrong with my picture, not how to fix it. It would really help me out, because all i do all day is draw at school, and it would be great to have something that doesnt look like crap. Again im sorry this question is kinda vague, please dont eat me even though i am edible:-) I could also post some examples as soon as my scanner is fixed if anyone cares

[coconutmonkey]

Well you can practice drawing what you see instead of what you think you see. We did this one excercise a long time ago in art class where we sat a shoe on the table in front of us, and we just drew the contour of the shoe without looking at the paper, do that a LOT, your first attempts will look like pure crap probably but the more you do that the better you get. This gets you to spend more time observing the object for what it is instead of looking at your paper and drawing it from what you think it is. Another thing is if you're drawing real life is to look at a scene or an object not as a "shirt" or a "nose" etc but as lines and curves. Doing this really helps get the realistic shape of things. Hope I helped! =)

[edible snowman]

thanks for the replies, that was pretty quick:-) sounds like good ideas to try... ive gotten a few of those "how to draw" books but im not sure if i like copying other peoples stuff. I think i might have done that shoe thing before, i might look kinda weird if I took my shoe off in the middle of class, stuck it on my desk, and started drawing it... but ill try it at home if anyone else has any ideas, keep 'em coming, you have been very helpful

[waylon]

Drawing from life is by far the best way to get better at art. What Coconutmonkey suggested is a good exercise to do early on, because it really does help break you away from drawing what you think, instead of what you see. But once you've done that a few times, keep drawing from life WITH looking at your page. Notice the form of objects, their proportions, where lighting and shadows fall, etc. If you're trying to draw something realistic, it just makes sense that the best way to do it is to use something real as reference. Practice on whatever you can - school supplies, books, the walls of the room, the shirt of the person in front of you... Also, if you practice outside of class ever, get a bigger sketch pad and some charcoal... #2 pencils are really limited when it comes to art.

[This message has been edited by waylon (edited September 23, 2000).]

[edible snowman]

thx waylon (and everyone else) sounds good.. but i hate charcoal its too messy:-( ill have to use it anyway i guess oh well. does anyone know any good places on the net to find reference pics for stuff like that. I looked at a few fashion sites and got some good pictures to draw men and women and folds in clothes. If anyone else knows where larger amounts of these types of pictures are grouped together that would be appreciated... at least until people start lining up to model for me:-)

[waylon]

Another alternative to charcoal is conte crayons... Very similar effect, but not as messy. (though still a lot messier than pencils.)

And, I just have to say, drwaing from pictures is NOT the same as drawing from life, and while you can learn quite a bit, you can learn a LOT more from drawing real life. One exercize you can learn a lot from is to go to a public place (mall, library, etc) and sketch people that you see about you. Most of the time you'll be limited to a few minutes a pic, at most. But this will help you develop a good feel for form, and help you break away from filling in details too soon (a problem nearly everyone has at the beginning.) And it's pretty fun, especially if you can convince someone to come with and draw with you.

[SushiMaster]

Yes... the difference, according to "Drawing on the right side of the brain" (an excellent book), is that the difference between "what you see" and "what you think" is this: If you try to draw, say, a face, your brain has plenty of symbols of face all ready for you to draw, like, say, a circle with dots for the eyes, a line for the nose and one for the mouth, and stuff like that. These are fine for getting the idea of "a face" across quickly, but they're crap when you're trying to draw one face in particular, realistically. So to learn to draw realistically you must draw what you actually see in front of you, instead of drawing the symbol which your brain provides you with. That's what drawing from real things around you helps you with.

You don't have to draw from a shoe, try drawing your teacher's face, your friends' shapes, from behind since if you turn arount to look at the people behind you your teacher will notice it, etc... try drawing what you see around you at school. And try drawing it by looking at the real thing and trying not to analyze it in terms of "this is hair, this is a nose, this is a mouth", but rather in terms of "this is a line, this is another line, this is another line". You'll get better very quickly.

Daniel

[bell_maker]

hey..
well.. this is what i do.. dunno if anyone else dose this.. but when drawing faces.. and bodies.. i draw like circles. ovals.. like get the overall size and proportions.. and then i start adding details afterwards.. dunno anything else hehe
goodluck snowman
-bellz

[Dan]

What we did in class to break away from drawing what you think you see was to copy some line art upside down so that it is harder to recognize features and draw them as your mind tells you they should look

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It's sad how entire families can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of rabid wild dogs

[edible snowman]

hmm yeah, i guess ill have to go to the mall or something. no one in my school sits still for more than 20 seconds. Plus they get really weird if the think your drawing them.