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3:43 AM, Tuesday August 1st 2023

There is some real frustration here that I can relate to. To begin with, I think you may be rigidly interpreting the reference rule. Uncomfortable says that the use of reference is both Ok and not Ok. It depends on how you use it. When you talked about drawing the pirate ship, you mentioned that you did a childish doodle (which is totally fine) but then wanted to add something to the deck. You looked for a reference to see how to draw a microphone and some planks. Whether it is Ok or not to use reference here has to do with how you use it. My interpretation is if you google a microphone and pick an image and then render "that" microphone, then there is a problem. If you look at a few pictures because you don't really know how to draw a microphone at all and then do your own thing, your fine. I think this is because when you draw your own thing, you are synthesizing all the important information about microphones and then using that to make a drawing. I think it is counter intuitive but looking at a few pictures of microphones and then drawing your own, no matter how "bad" the drawing looks is still better then rendering a photo from Google.

If you are stuck on what to draw, I highly recommend the drawing prompts on this site. Most of them come from the promptathons every few months. I have really enjoyed doing them. I often need to use reference to draw my ideas, I just don't copy what I look at. As a bonus, each prompt has samples of other peoples work to look at. There are all ranges of skill there.

When I first started trying to learn to draw, I was rendering different things in my house. The drawings were Ok but not great. Then I learned about more fundamental skills like perspective, structure, value. After that, my drawings were terrible. But that is because fundamentals are hard and take a long time to learn. Uncomfortable says something in the 50% rule that is really important: "To put it simply, it becomes a lot harder to learn how to play when you’ve developed the technical skill, and the expectations that come along with it." You have to learn how to play. Anybody over the age of 12 gradually loses the ability to play as children play or draw as children draw, without expectation. Don't overlook the value of a childish doodle.

Confession time. I probably don't follow that 50% that well. But I am still learning, still drawing and and still having fun. As long as that continues, I think how I do things is fine. There are many paths to the top of the mountain.

9:14 PM, Tuesday August 1st 2023

Thanks for the replay, have to say I found it quite motivating, but I still don't fully understand everything. I didn't explain myself very well when I described the process of copying from google, so I'll try to do it better now. The video I referred to is 20+ minutes long, but the specific part I was thinking about is around this time stump https://youtu.be/LWgXSxxEjgs?t=633. This is where Uncomfy shows how he copies several references of single images and only after that he does a drawing from imagination, combining them. This is what I was doing with the microphones and damp planks and other elements. He calls the process of copying the reference 'study' and talks about how he focuses on different elements when doing these. I assume that this is how he thinks everyone draws from reference and I did not think or analyze at all what I was drawing when going through that process myself. It was super fun and freeing, which is what I believe 50/50 is about, but nope, can't have fun that way, because it's a 'study' and this time is dedicated to not studying(?) I guess.

As you wrote 'My interpretation is if you google a microphone and pick an image and then render "that" microphone, then there is a problem.' I interpreted the instructions the same way and I simply do not understand WHY that is. Because I might accidentally think about getting better at drawing at that point and then it's not 'drawing for the sake of drawing', or something stupid like that? I don't get it and it's ok if you can't explain that either, but if you think you can, I'd love to hear it.

As far as ideas what to draw go, I've seen the prompts and didn't exactly think they're necessary for me yet, but if they'll help me to take multiple references and combine them together without doing these 'studies' first, then yeah, I will give them a shot.

Also, I'm a little surprised at what you said about your drawing getting worse as you were getting better with fundamentals. Do you mean that they seemed worse to you because the expectation increased, or that they actually got worse because you lost some abilities as well? Because if its the latter, that's fascinating and I'd love to hear more about it.

3:16 AM, Wednesday August 2nd 2023

I think the ultimate goal of the 50% rule is to keep or create a sense of play and joy while drawing. No matter how good you get technically, if you lack enjoyment it is just drudgery. Most people will quit learning long before they reach that technical level of skill. When I do one of the prompts, this one [https://imgur.com/a/MWjWa0w] for example, I am absolutely trying to make the best drawing I can. I looked at pictures of dirigibles, of pirate ships, I took pictures of myself in poses. I didn't copy any of those pictures, just used them as mental imagery to draw on my own. This was not a study. It was just drawing a picture. I think even when an artist is doing a personal project for fun, they may be consciously applying what they have learned.

If it is any consolation, many people have written in about their struggles with the 50% rule. I think I struggled with it too. I think having fun and not stressing too much is the key. Maybe you could try a personal project that is a bit more involved. I asked a writer friend of mine to send me something that I could try to draw as a comic book. I have no idea what I am doing but it is fun and certainly burning those 50% minutes.

When I mentioned about learning fundamentals and getting worse, I was specifically referring to rendering a picture or object versus using fundamentals to draw the same thing. If I draw a car and I am just rendering it, I can do a pretty good job copying that car. But I am only drawing "that car" in that particular position or lighting. I don't learn anything about any other car. When you use fundamentals to draw, you are drawing any car. What you learn can be applied to all cars you may draw in the future. The problem, at least for me, is that fundamentals take a while to learn so when I first tried to apply them to something like a car, the drawing was worse than when I just tried to render it. I am equally bad at drawing all cars everywhere however. This sounds bad but as my fundamentals improve, I will improve in drawing all cars everywhere also.

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Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.

Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.

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