173 réponses à ce sujet

[Teshayel]

Grid drawing has been used by the masters for centuries. It is not cheating, though some people view it that way. But, really, if you want to be 100% accurate, you have to use a grid. 

 

I am not sure if it would improve drawing freehand. It is a completely different approach to a subject. Seriously, you don't have to focus so much on construction as you have to look at every quadrant being reproduced precisely. I would say it depends on what you want to achieve with your drawings. 

 

Do you want to reproduce things precisely? Practice grid drawing.

 

Do you want to be able to draw from your imagination? Learn construction, and draw freehand.

[Cerulione]

Qween asked for proportions once, I found this from Loomis' book PDF. There's the link somewhere in this 6 page for the complete book

 

[Vorathrad]

I don't view it as cheating, as Tesh said, it depends on what you want to accomplish. I think grid drawing is specially useful when you want to reproduce a drawing in a very different size; for instance in my regency watercolour practice, the original drawing was waaaaay smaller than the A4 piece, so I used a grid to copy it. I also use a grid for my niece's drawing, because I wanted to get proportions completely right (and because I thought the mouth would be too much of a pain already, tbh) 

 

I see it as different forms of practice and approaching your art, same as with copying from a photo reference or a live model. And also as different forms of learning, I think all kinds of practice (grid drawing, copying, freehand) help to make you a better artist. And even if you use grid drawing for a finished piece, it's still your own piece and has your personal touch. Maybe I'd see it differently if I were a professional artist, but I don't see it as cheating.

[QweenBeen]

thanks guys! I've been mostly drawing directly from a photo, without altering anything, to understand construction, because eventually I'd like to do more from the imagination. Good to know!

[Cerulione]

TBH I don't get it at all Qween. If you want to draw from imagination, isn't it better to use the free hand & construction thing? Grid drawing is great when you have an exact reference for that. But once you go to imagination isn't construction more useful?

 

Afterward it depends, do you want to draw from imagination realistic stuffs or cartoony stuffs, or other style? Guess that you'll always have more liberty in cartoony style probably. 

[QweenBeen]

Oh I've been freehanding it, Ceru I was toying with the idea of grid drawing but haven't tried it. I was just curious on how it was viewed

[alschemid]

Pretty much what Tesh said, if you want to draw from imagination free hand construction is more useful.

 

However when I am studying proportions of different poses of the same subject I like to use a grid background to build my construction lines over, so that I have an easy way to measure everything and compare them. The only time I really did a grid drawing was to resize a drawing to paint on a canvas, but it was so boring that now I prefer to draw on a huge paper and trace it.

[Cerulione]

This is probably rather weird to say (but not very evident for me): someone told me that if you want people to see your artwork on the social network, it has to look interesting on all size. That means from the thumbnail version to full-sized version. Apparently most artworks are dismissed (in many social networks like Deviant Art) when it doesn't seem interesting on thumbnail at first glance... And if it does, the full-sized version will have to do justice.

[Vorathrad]

That makes sense, Ceru; but I'm not quite sure how to make thumbnails look interesting. Maybe by always using custom thumbnails?

[Cerulione]

I don't know, that's what my Mom's friend told me. Apparently for photography contest that's how they do it, put everything as large thumbnail and just sort out everything that doesn't look good at thumbnail.

 

I also do this personally on Deviant Art. When there's hundreds of notification, I won't ever open one by one artwork that doesn't look interesting as a thumbnail and just go for the one who are eyecatching. Sometimes it's coloured, sometime it's greyscale stuffs, so no idea actually. 

[Vorathrad]

Hi all! I will begin shading on my steampunk mother drawing as soon as I'm back home. Do you know any good tutorial or have any recommendations for shading with charcoal?

[Cerulione]

Ooooh great! Can't wait to see that one, multiple character is quite challenging for me personally since one character will always put shadow to the other. Hmm I only watch Proko's though, he uses charcoal pencil

[alschemid]

This is probably rather weird to say (but not very evident for me): someone told me that if you want people to see your artwork on the social network, it has to look interesting on all size.

 

The idea behind the thumbnail is that before you do a full size artwork you should try your ideas first as thumbnails where you are going to explore different compositions, forms, values, colours, perspectives, etc, using less time and less materials, and in doing so you will be able to explore and find more interesting ideas on how to create your artwork. Usually if the thumbnail looks interesting on its own, the full size artwork will also looks interesting, because you are only adding details on something that already looks nice.

 

 Do you know any good tutorial or have any recommendations for shading with charcoal?

It depends on what charcoal you are using (vine or pencils), the size of the artworkm and which effect you want to achieve.

[QweenBeen]

Proko! I'm learning how to do figure drawing from his videos but watched this and it's really good hope it helps, Vor!

[Teshayel]

Some of you were asking for figure drawing references. Here are some resources you might find useful:

 

Posemaniacs - for muscles and poses.

 

Pixelovely - nude/clothed models, as well as animals.

 

Daz3D - You can pose 3D characters any way you like for your reference. While many assets are for purchase, the basic software is free, and you do get some models included.

[Cerulione]

Animation ebooks:

 

Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston)

http://vk.com/doc-58...3708760f72ab566

http://vk.com/doc119...ce244894ed1bfda

 

Animator's Survival Kit (Richard Williams)

https://vk.com/doc17...e3d465d2f9e012c

 

Gesture Drawing for Animation (Walt Stenchfield)

http://www.floobynoo...oranimation.pdf

 

Apparently Loomis' Fun with Pencil also contains great stuffs for animation.

[Cerulione]

Advice on Painting by John Singer Sargeant (PDF)

 

https://drive.google...teTA/view?pli=1

[Cerulione]

Well, it's very humbling to realize that I don't even draw boxes & cylinders correctly and have no idea on how perspective works for foreshortening problems. So well... back to the basic for the moment. It feels like abomination to start anatomy without understanding this...

 

[Vorathrad]

I'm trying to stay away from drawing circles and boxes. I know it's great foundation but... booooring ._. I should follow your example Ceru, you work so hard! And then it's seen on your amazing progress.

[Cerulione]

Expression Tutorial (drawing & animation stuffs) ---> Stretch & Squash for expressions

 

http://the-orator.tu...ial-expressions

 

 

I'm trying to stay away from drawing circles and boxes. I know it's great foundation but... booooring ._. I should follow your example Ceru, you work so hard! And then it's seen on your amazing progress.

 

Same!!! I wanted to draw people directly so like many other here, it's a direct jump... But well... Foreshortening happened. People say that if drawing heads with foreshortening is difficult, imagine it like a box. But then how does foreshortening in a box work? Well... O.o

 

TBH I still draw people & still working on that anatomy thing. Probably doing some foreshortening & drawing boxes & cylinders as warming up can help in the long run. Before it was only circles & straight lines

[Vorathrad]

Yeah you're right, I've failed so much at foreshortening the few times I've tried. It's a good idea, mix boxes and cilinders with more fun drawings.

You've certainly come a long way since the circles and lines

[Cerulione]

Or references... XD

[Vorathrad]

I was wondering, does any of you know any good tricks to draw small faces? Small as in seen from a distance. That's the part I like the least about the Dalish dancer drawing, and it's because I don't have a clue about how to draw a face for a full-body view that doesn't look too cartoony.

[Cerulione]

Aaah I'm sorry I don't know, I draw everything on traditional on portrait so it's always A4 size minimal.

 

I guess you can always try to keep the proportion & features but erase all details?

[Vorathrad]

Ceru, I think you gave me a very important clue: I don't keep proportions correctly, so that's one of the reasons they look strange. Thank you! 

 

I decided I want to start drawing proper looking hands; I found this video, at the beginning there is a very good explanation of the basic structure of the hand. Then he goes on to do serious foreshortening, but I think it's very useful to grasp the basics.