Uncomfortable

2015-03-08 20:08

Hm, that's odd. I just gave it a shot on Android - I use Flow, where all three links worked fine. Then I downloaded Reddit News. The two video links worked fine, but whenever I tried opening the channel, it would crash upon attempting to open the Youtube app, or something along those lines.

Either way, looks to be an issue with the app. Thanks for letting me know though!

Uncomfortable

2015-03-10 01:37

Honestly I've never really been big on watching youtube videos for educational content - because the majority of them (like Feng Zhu and the like) tend to get into the more advanced stuff because it's a lot more fun to watch, and generates more views. I'd probably point you in the direction of Stan Prokopenko and Scott Robertson if you pressed me for a couple suggestions.

Uncomfortable

2015-03-25 14:51

I actually do touch on that in the lessons that cover observational drawings. You're right, a lot of people explain the techniques of copying what you see onto a page, but that's not what I try to emphasize. If you compare most of my demonstrations to the reference, they're not spot on. Part of it's because I'm not terribly skilled at reproduction, but it's also because I'm not necessarily trying to reproduce. I'm trying to understand.

There are many levels of information that define an object. Its construction, its gesture, its surface texture. These components serve as digestible pieces of the overall concept of that object. If you look at an object and try to understand it as it is, it's overwhelming. There's just too much being thrown at you at once, so at best you might reproduce what you see on the page, but would you be able to rotate it in space and draw it from a different angle? No, because you don't understand it.

So, instead of trying to reproduce what you see, I encourage a multi-step approach. First, try to ignore all of the details that are present. Instead, see the simple forms that lie underneath. The boxes, tubes, balls, pyramids and cones. See how they intersect and interact with each other.

Once you've been able to capture that on the page, You start thinking about how those forms can be carved to capture a little more of the nuance of the object itself. You're increasing the amount of visual information that you're allowing into your study, bit by bit. Once those forms are refined, and it actually looks like a simplified, but recognizable version of your object, you can explore the surface textures - that is, the details.

By working this way, you both understand the object much more clearly, but you also have a much greater degree of control over how you choose to present that information. You're dealing with everything step by step, so deciding on a particular focal point (over detailing the shit out of everything, resulting in an incredibly high-contrast, busy mess) can be considered before approaching that step.

But it doesn't stop there. A single drawing still only captures one particular view. You've got a lot of those basic forms though, so you should be able to reconstruct it at different angles. It is all based on one's ability to rotate forms arbitrarily in 3D space.

There's always other things you can study within the object. Specific details and qualities can be drawn out as little doodles - you will remember better if you write out actual notes of your observations. You'll remember even better still by drawing diagrams.

At the end of the day though, it's not a matter of "making them mine." That makes me think about taking a piece of reference and turning it into a piece of art. A study is a study - if you go into it intending to create a piece of art, you will not spend the appropriate attention to understanding. Why? Because often times the techniques we use to better understand forms and space means adding lines that you wouldn't necessarily want to have in a 'final drawing'. So don't go into it expecting or intending to create something beautiful. Go into it expecting to learn and understand, as though you'll be burning the drawing afterwards without showing a soul.