Started drawing for the first time about 5 years ago in an effort to realistically draw what I see IRL and in my imagination/dreams. Here’s how I would go about learning this skill today:
- drawabox.com provides a foundational theoretical and methodological framework that’s free and effective. Exercise and task focus leads to right-brain acceptance and left-brain results.
- Knowledge of basic perspective is key as the human mind is unwilling to accept the “illusion” of 3D on a 2D sheet of paper without accuracy and making concrete decisions and sticking to them.
- Some shapes are easier than others to master. Humans, autos, animals, robotics, architecture are fun to imagine drawing but hard to accomplish because of perspective symmetry and familiarity. I found that drawing leafs, trash, rocks and miscellaneous shapes that didn’t matter to me lead to improvements.
- The time I spent observing the world was just as valuable as putting marks down on the page. Things in life do not appear as I thought.
- Understanding relative proportions of shapes was critical, and for a long time I was constantly measuring with my fingers or a pencil (vertical to my eye-line). The moon, trees vs people, heads and hands surprised me in how far my instincts were from reality. For years I was always measuring.
- I always made time to draw what stopped me in my tracks. Whether a radio tower or a room I enjoyed, taking these 15 minutes to sketch in person helped keep me sharp and focused even when drawing was a bit awkward due to time constraints or positioning.
- I found that carrying a small notebook and pen at all times meant the difference between drawing every day or not.
- I learned to stop caring what my drawings looked like. In almost all cases, there was at least one part of a drawing that didn’t suck…sometimes these were indicators of future interest.
- When I wanted to draw what was in my mind, I found looking at Blender or other 3D software was helpful. Starting with the horizon and camera aperture, then placing what I wanted helped with offline drawing.
- Light, shadow, and color are important and beautiful but I feel are easier to understand when simple line is mastered. Ornamental to the outcome.
- Now I can pretty much draw what I want from my imagination or real life. This is the result of focus and answering a stack of questions about how the world works.
- Unexpected upside came by just not stopping drawing. A lot of drawing is connected to math and physics. I’ve met wonderful people who stopped to ask me what I was doing (much nicer with experience…), I understand the world around me better - I can see how there are really only a few key shapes that reality spreads across my vision.
Talent is truly a myth. Dedication is real.