Decided I'd try a slightly different approach at marketing - in the past, laying out some flashy flyer-type images has been a little hit and miss, so this time I'm trying something a little more engaging. Comic strips! I figured they'd could be a pretty effective way to deliver very simple conceptual lessons. The first one's on wobbly lines.
Admittedly, comics are surprisingly difficult. Between crisp line art (anyone who's seen my art knows that I'm strictly a digital painter, which allows me to get away with a lot of vague, implied detail rather than making clear decisions on where things go), clearly defined and designed shadow shapes, and so on, it's a real challenge. Then on top of that, there's laying down dialogue and delivering a point concisely with as little text as possible. We all know how long winded I can be, so that's definitely not something I'm used to.
But hey! It was fun, and I'd like to do it again. These won't be a regular thing, but I'd like to make more in the future.
This is awesome :D I look forward to future installments!
[deleted]
2016-05-14 17:33
Huh, looking back on me trying to draw slowly, everything makes sense now... muscle memory is pretty crazy. Thanks for making this point in such a clever way.
Not that I need advice seeing as I've thought about ^learning ^to ^draw ^^for ^^^years...
I hope to see one that better explains textures T_T I got stuck there and haven't really made any progress haha. Seeing one for cubes and 3D shapes could be good too.
Textures is a good one, I can think of a few ways of approaching a comic on that topic. For constructing boxes, have you looked at the resources available on the 250 box challenge page? There's also a link to a video there that people seem to like.
It's solid advice, but it feels a little strange to give it by beating up a strawman. I'm guessing it was an attempt at being funny, but it comes off as little more mean spirited to me I suppose.
It certainly is rather mean spirited! To be honest, I have next to no experience when it comes to writing comics, so at least for the time being, I'm relying on the quiet bitterness that buds within me. Hopefully over time, I'll develop more in that area and will think of more genuine ways to spread the message.
Mm, certainly. This is my first foray into comics in quite a while, so it's definitely highlighted issues in regards to business, clutter and long-windedness. I hope to improve on those in the future.
Basically the problem is that people tend to think that the best way to get good linework is to be very cautious and careful while actually drawing their marks on the page. They do this so that they can make adjustments and correct while they're drawing as soon as they see themselves going off-course.
The very advantage they're after - being able to course-correct while they draw - is what results in wobbly, shaky and stiff lines. What is a wobble in a line, but the brain making little corrections along the way?
So, the ideal approach is to separate your mark-making into several steps. This is something I deal with quite heavily in Lesson 1, it's called the ghosting method. There's diagrams and such under part 1, exercise 2.
First you identify the mark you want to make, if it's straight, curved, wavy, elliptical, etc. and find the most comfortable angle of approach. You may want to rotate your page, since drawing at certain angles are much easier than others.
Next, you prepare. This is primarily done by ghosting the line, something I mention in the comic, but don't go into detail on. I might go into it on the next comic. Basically, you mark the start and end point of your line with points, and then go through the motion of drawing the mark without actually letting your pen touch the page. You let it hover a little but over instead. You repeat this over and over, with a quick, confident pace, familiarizing your arm muscles with the motion that's required of them.
Finally, you execute the mark. As you ghost through the line, once you feel confident in your ability to hit it, you let your pen touch the page at the starting point and without skipping a beat, repeat the motion you've been practicing.
The whole idea is that you want to draw just quickly enough to get your brain to stop interfering and micromanaging. You don't want your line to be the result of several independent motions stitched together (which you get when drawing slowly), you want to achieve a mark that is the result of a single motion only.
The downside to drawing faster is that your accuracy will suffer - that's why there's so much stress placed on the preparation phase, to counteract this inevitable drop in control. Ultimately, it is much, much easier to practice away problems with accuracy, than it is to practice away a wobbly line.
Furthermore, over time you will find that the speed you need to draw at in order to shut your brain up will decrease as you get more familiar with this whole process. This means that eventually you'll be able to regain some of the control that comes with drawing slower, without worrying about your brain interfering.
could you demonstrate the technique you describe too
I expect (could be wrong) that /u/__DEADPOOL__ was trying to make a suggestion (or comment) about the comic itself.
He might have been wondering why you didn't directly illustrate the correct technique of confident, ghosted lines being performed by one of the characters.
To be honest, there just wasn't enough room. I'm trying to work out a decent balance between light education and visual interest, while avoiding an overly large comic. More than anything, this comic and those to follow it are intended to be more of a marketing tool than a teaching one, intended to plant a seed in the reader's mind and draw them to drawabox.com for more information.
There are some problems here with page flow. I've drawn red lines showing the page flow here. That is the way your page draws the eye from one panel to another. The blue panels are panels that the flow of the page skips over. This disorients readers and forces them to have to figure out what is going on with your page rather than being a seamless reading experience. The very first panel you are supposed to read in this comic is not the first panel on the page, and the page flow actually causes you to try and skip that panel and its dialogue altogether. If the panels highlighted in blue went with the flow of the page you've set up rather than against it, it would help the readability of the comic immensely. This is something you'll wanna think about in the future, it'll make things much easier on your readers!
Here's a page from the comic Octopus Pie that shows a really good use of this kind of flow within an atypical panel layout. The natural rhythm of the ferris wheel becomes the rhythm of the entire page, allowing for a very cool and very natural flow from the top of the page to the bottom. As an added bonus, you even get to see this rhythm in motion as you scroll down the page! It's really cool, and in the same vein as what you seem to have been trying to achieve here, either on purpose or by accident.
You can actually use a disorienting panel-flow on purpose as well, should you want to. This page from A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible starts off fairly straightforward, but then becomes more and more chaotic with less-defined panels as to reflect the situation in the comic as time goes on. It actually wants the reader to have to take a step back and reorient their self on the page as to draw attention to smaller details, though it still keeps a pendulum rhythm downward through the whole page.
If you wanna delve into this kinda stuff more it might be worth reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices by Will Eisner.
Hopefully this isn't a faux pas or anything. There's just some comic formatting mistakes in this piece that no one has seemed to chime in on in any detail. I hope this is helpful!
Man, unsolicited as it may have been, I really appreciate this! I honestly have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to layout, so your breakdown of flow was very helpful and I'll be sure to apply it to the next one. I'll also definitely check out those books you suggested. Thanks a lot!
[deleted]
2016-05-15 02:49
I've never really posted in this sub before, but I have used Draw A Box quite a bit as a resource on my own. So I suppose an opportunity arose here to give back in the form of some knowledge from my own niche of the arts woods.
What I mean to say is "Thank you!" and "Glad to help out!"
Heh cool, this is important to keep in mind now that I'm using a pencil again, and can easily rely too heavily on being able to rub things out and start again.
But this comic has instilled in me another question, why is your chosen internet moniker Uncomfortable? Do your clothes itch? Or do you feel awkward in social situations?
Edit: I put the comic on, my tumblr with a link to drawabox, where it may reach all two of my followers.
Thanks for the plug on your tumblr! As for my name, I guess it's just my natural state of being. I am comfortable in my discomfort. It's who I am!
[deleted]
2016-05-15 12:44
Here's some advice to you: The Pen character seems to be moving the wrong direction, when Brain turns the car. Momentum/centripetal forces would have Pen move the opposite way to the turn. =]
I just skimmed through to see all of the characters, and oh wow, the mushroom people are absolutely adorable.
As for taking a long-ass time, yes and no. This stuff started to click for me around 2013, when I took the plunge, quit my job, and went to Los Angeles to learn the stuff I've put in my lessons. Before then, I'd been actively teaching myself to draw since 2003. Ten years of second guessing myself, not trusting my arm, having no confidence to speak of and assuming that there was just a ceiling for me that didn't exist for everyone.
Choosing to trust your muscle memory is a plunge you have to take. It's not something that develops with time, it's not something some people can do and others can't - it's just something you do. It's a decision you make, a conscious one, letting go of all of the mental blocks that tell you otherwise.
So, you do it, you draw your line, and it comes out HORRIBLY. You've failed. You took that step, you failed miserably, now what do you do? Does this mean you're not cut out to draw? Not at all.
You were supposed to fail. That was the expected result. The first failure of hundreds, of thousands. But there's nothing wrong with that. The people who are currently unable to draw with confidence are horrified at the prospect of failure, like a single failing is going to represent the straw that broke the camel's back. A single failure is all it is. It's the worst that can happen, and frankly there's nothing bad about it.
Coming to terms with that is hard, but it's also immensely freeing. If the worst that can happen in your perspective has happened, what is there left to fear?
Anyway, the last point I want to make failure is the expected result. More than that, it's necessary. No one ever learned anything by doing it right the first time. You try, you fail, you reflect upon what specific things you did wrong (by yourself or with the help of others), and then you do it again while consciously trying to compensate for your revealed weaknesses. That's what practice is - revealing, facing and conquering your weaknesses.
I'm actually thinking about making the next comic on this topic. I think it makes sense to cover more abstract concepts in the comics, rather than dealing with specific techniques. Confidence, fear, failure, etc. are things everyone struggles with immensely, and it's probably the biggest thing that holds people back - in drawing, and in pretty much everything else. At least in drawing, the worst thing that happens is you draw a shitty drawing. Apply that to mountain climbing, and the worst that could happen is somewhat more... dire.
Hey, awesome comic Uncomfortable! I keep forgetting to prepare and then make the stroke, and when I remember I do it so much better. :) I hope you make more of this comic-strip mini-lessons!!
Hey Uncomfortable just a quick question. In my gesture drawing class we were always conformed and directed by the professor to draw very quickly in our studies. By popular belief I think this is correct but was this was you were talking about? I know ghosting is the multiple air strokes before the strike, but for quick sketches and such to get the idea that isn't being proposed as bad by you is it? I might be a little confused hahah sorry maybe I could get some clarification.
It's not about one being good, and the other being bad. The problem is that beginners tend to rely so heavily on quick, loose sketches with no semblance of structure or planning that when they need to slow down and think through their problems, they are unable to. When it comes to constructional drawing, taking the time to draw specific lines (rather than approximate, rough ones) is imperative, otherwise your basic forms come out looking less solid, which then impacts the resulting construction.
Right. How do I know if I'm doing this? It's always been my style to quickly do sketchy gestures because that's when my hand is the loosest. I stray away from the tighter strokes at first. I then proceed to revise them and such.
If you decide to do the lessons I post on drawabox.com, forget about your 'style' and focus on following the instructions. Plan and think through every mark you put down. Apply the ghosting method as though your life depends on it. It takes a lot longer, and you will naturally fight against it.
The lessons rely heavily on the requirement of working in ink - when drawing with a felt tip pen, you don't have the liberty of being loose and sketchy, then cleaning up. You'll just make an indiscernible mess. You need to think about which lines are of value, and which ones are not. It's not at all about drawing only your final lines, but rather understanding what is a waste. You'll learn about a lot constructional lines that are of great value.
More than anything, remember that the fundamentals of drawing have no style. Style is something you lay on top when producing something of artistic value, it is not something to factor in when learning the underlying skills. Style is a matter of how you interpret this stuff, and in order to develop a style you must first learn what it is you are interpreting.
Sorry I'm just getting a little confused if this is the case, why was I told to do 30s, 60s, 120s figure drawings if I should instead ghost my strokes? Once again I apologize for the concerns!
Oh, I see, you're still talking about your figure drawing class. Don't mix different sets of instructions. If your professor gives you an exercise to do, do it exactly as they have instructed, and if you need clarification, ask them.
There's a lot of danger in mixing instructions on things like this. While there are many approaches to tackling a problem, you are not going to understand why a certain path led to your destination until you reach there. So, if you pick some instructions from one source, and some from another, you're more likely to end up away from where you intend to go.
That's why when people take my lessons, I insist that they take everything they already know and set it aside, to follow my instructions to the letter. Once you have reached your destination, you'll understand why you were asked to do things a certain way, and at that point you'll know enough to decide what worked for you and what didn't.
All that said, I don't see anything wrong with doing 120 figure drawings and carefully planning out every line you draw. Sure it'll take a long time, but no one said it wouldn't. But that doesn't matter right now - if your instructor tells you to do something a certain way, and you're doing that work for their class, then it's their call.
Thanks for clarifying. They generally told me to do quick figure sketches no matter if we had 30m or 30s. If we were gained 30 minutes to draw our model, we would instinctively all slow down and our professor would see that and say "Everyone speed up, looks like you're slowing down!". We'd do a quick gesture sketch then refine with regular components such as your tutorial. I think what I was getting at was the 'prelude' to what you described? I definitely understand slowing down and breaking the figure into shapes after the loose study is done.
Yeah, there's definitely lots of value in that. My instructor kinda split figure drawing into two equally important components. Gesture and structure. Some people focus too much on gesture, and their figures end up being flimsy with no substance or believability. Others focus too much on structure and end up being stiff with no life to them.
The approach I espouse definitely leans more towards structure. The way my instructor put it was that you will likely focus very heavily in one direction, learn the crap out of it, and then switch to the other direction to reign yourself back. Then repeat the process again and again, gradually coming closer to a point of equilibrium.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 16:29
Decided I'd try a slightly different approach at marketing - in the past, laying out some flashy flyer-type images has been a little hit and miss, so this time I'm trying something a little more engaging. Comic strips! I figured they'd could be a pretty effective way to deliver very simple conceptual lessons. The first one's on wobbly lines.
Admittedly, comics are surprisingly difficult. Between crisp line art (anyone who's seen my art knows that I'm strictly a digital painter, which allows me to get away with a lot of vague, implied detail rather than making clear decisions on where things go), clearly defined and designed shadow shapes, and so on, it's a real challenge. Then on top of that, there's laying down dialogue and delivering a point concisely with as little text as possible. We all know how long winded I can be, so that's definitely not something I'm used to.
But hey! It was fun, and I'd like to do it again. These won't be a regular thing, but I'd like to make more in the future.
agentmuu
2016-05-14 17:31
This is awesome :D I look forward to future installments!
[deleted]
2016-05-14 17:33
Huh, looking back on me trying to draw slowly, everything makes sense now... muscle memory is pretty crazy. Thanks for making this point in such a clever way.
Not that I need advice seeing as I've thought about ^learning ^to ^draw ^^for ^^^years...
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 17:34
Jams his advice down glah's throat with a toilet plunger
tsej
2016-05-14 17:37
Hah. I think these comics will really help with exposure.
It's looking neat and lovely! I'll be waiting for more!
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 19:22
Thanks! I certainly hope my devious marketing plan works out well.
livingonthehedge
2016-05-14 18:08
That was unexpectedly ... dark. In terms of mood / tone.
But I quite enjoyed it. Great job!
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 18:45
Ahaha, yes, that's the bitterness in me seeping out. But I'm glad you liked it!
Shugbug1986
2016-05-14 18:23
After reading manga for so long this layout fucked with me for a bit. Great work though! Hope to see more on the other techniques your site teaches.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 18:46
I'm certainly hoping to find ways to streamline my process and make more!
Shugbug1986
2016-05-14 18:59
I hope to see one that better explains textures T_T I got stuck there and haven't really made any progress haha. Seeing one for cubes and 3D shapes could be good too.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 19:04
Textures is a good one, I can think of a few ways of approaching a comic on that topic. For constructing boxes, have you looked at the resources available on the 250 box challenge page? There's also a link to a video there that people seem to like.
Shugbug1986
2016-05-14 19:12
I checked it out a while ago, I need to get back in the rhythm. Practicing daily is a chore when you have trouble with ADHD stuff haha.
FromtheSound
2016-05-14 18:41
It's solid advice, but it feels a little strange to give it by beating up a strawman. I'm guessing it was an attempt at being funny, but it comes off as little more mean spirited to me I suppose.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 18:44
It certainly is rather mean spirited! To be honest, I have next to no experience when it comes to writing comics, so at least for the time being, I'm relying on the quiet bitterness that buds within me. Hopefully over time, I'll develop more in that area and will think of more genuine ways to spread the message.
______DEADPOOL______
2016-05-14 18:46
... that was a bit hard to read.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 18:48
Mm, certainly. This is my first foray into comics in quite a while, so it's definitely highlighted issues in regards to business, clutter and long-windedness. I hope to improve on those in the future.
______DEADPOOL______
2016-05-14 18:50
yeah...
and could you demonstrate the technique you describe too?
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 19:03
Basically the problem is that people tend to think that the best way to get good linework is to be very cautious and careful while actually drawing their marks on the page. They do this so that they can make adjustments and correct while they're drawing as soon as they see themselves going off-course.
The very advantage they're after - being able to course-correct while they draw - is what results in wobbly, shaky and stiff lines. What is a wobble in a line, but the brain making little corrections along the way?
So, the ideal approach is to separate your mark-making into several steps. This is something I deal with quite heavily in Lesson 1, it's called the ghosting method. There's diagrams and such under part 1, exercise 2.
First you identify the mark you want to make, if it's straight, curved, wavy, elliptical, etc. and find the most comfortable angle of approach. You may want to rotate your page, since drawing at certain angles are much easier than others.
Next, you prepare. This is primarily done by ghosting the line, something I mention in the comic, but don't go into detail on. I might go into it on the next comic. Basically, you mark the start and end point of your line with points, and then go through the motion of drawing the mark without actually letting your pen touch the page. You let it hover a little but over instead. You repeat this over and over, with a quick, confident pace, familiarizing your arm muscles with the motion that's required of them.
Finally, you execute the mark. As you ghost through the line, once you feel confident in your ability to hit it, you let your pen touch the page at the starting point and without skipping a beat, repeat the motion you've been practicing.
The whole idea is that you want to draw just quickly enough to get your brain to stop interfering and micromanaging. You don't want your line to be the result of several independent motions stitched together (which you get when drawing slowly), you want to achieve a mark that is the result of a single motion only.
The downside to drawing faster is that your accuracy will suffer - that's why there's so much stress placed on the preparation phase, to counteract this inevitable drop in control. Ultimately, it is much, much easier to practice away problems with accuracy, than it is to practice away a wobbly line.
Furthermore, over time you will find that the speed you need to draw at in order to shut your brain up will decrease as you get more familiar with this whole process. This means that eventually you'll be able to regain some of the control that comes with drawing slower, without worrying about your brain interfering.
livingonthehedge
2016-05-14 19:17
I expect (could be wrong) that /u/__DEADPOOL__ was trying to make a suggestion (or comment) about the comic itself.
He might have been wondering why you didn't directly illustrate the correct technique of confident, ghosted lines being performed by one of the characters.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 19:21
To be honest, there just wasn't enough room. I'm trying to work out a decent balance between light education and visual interest, while avoiding an overly large comic. More than anything, this comic and those to follow it are intended to be more of a marketing tool than a teaching one, intended to plant a seed in the reader's mind and draw them to drawabox.com for more information.
livingonthehedge
2016-05-14 19:27
Makes sense!
______DEADPOOL______
2016-05-14 21:30
What he said.
Zeldrin
2016-05-14 20:09
I just got back to your lessons after a long hiatus, and i find this very relatable, good job.
Btw, your straw man looks like he has a plant growing out of his head, and it's weirding me out _
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 20:13
Keep looking at it! Don't avert your eyes!
Zeldrin
2016-05-14 21:00
Great, now i see a white deformed tomato...
[deleted]
2016-05-14 22:34
Since we're giving unsolicited advice...
There are some problems here with page flow. I've drawn red lines showing the page flow here. That is the way your page draws the eye from one panel to another. The blue panels are panels that the flow of the page skips over. This disorients readers and forces them to have to figure out what is going on with your page rather than being a seamless reading experience. The very first panel you are supposed to read in this comic is not the first panel on the page, and the page flow actually causes you to try and skip that panel and its dialogue altogether. If the panels highlighted in blue went with the flow of the page you've set up rather than against it, it would help the readability of the comic immensely. This is something you'll wanna think about in the future, it'll make things much easier on your readers!
Here's a page from the comic Octopus Pie that shows a really good use of this kind of flow within an atypical panel layout. The natural rhythm of the ferris wheel becomes the rhythm of the entire page, allowing for a very cool and very natural flow from the top of the page to the bottom. As an added bonus, you even get to see this rhythm in motion as you scroll down the page! It's really cool, and in the same vein as what you seem to have been trying to achieve here, either on purpose or by accident.
You can actually use a disorienting panel-flow on purpose as well, should you want to. This page from A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible starts off fairly straightforward, but then becomes more and more chaotic with less-defined panels as to reflect the situation in the comic as time goes on. It actually wants the reader to have to take a step back and reorient their self on the page as to draw attention to smaller details, though it still keeps a pendulum rhythm downward through the whole page.
If you wanna delve into this kinda stuff more it might be worth reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices by Will Eisner.
Hopefully this isn't a faux pas or anything. There's just some comic formatting mistakes in this piece that no one has seemed to chime in on in any detail. I hope this is helpful!
^(Edit: Some extra stuff added.)
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 23:41
Man, unsolicited as it may have been, I really appreciate this! I honestly have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to layout, so your breakdown of flow was very helpful and I'll be sure to apply it to the next one. I'll also definitely check out those books you suggested. Thanks a lot!
[deleted]
2016-05-15 02:49
I've never really posted in this sub before, but I have used Draw A Box quite a bit as a resource on my own. So I suppose an opportunity arose here to give back in the form of some knowledge from my own niche of the arts woods.
What I mean to say is "Thank you!" and "Glad to help out!"
deviantbono
2016-05-17 17:33
Here are two really cool articles on comic layout (with lots of pictures):
Advanced Layouts by Aaron Diaz, creator of Dresden Codak
Composition and Page Layout
Feel free to stop by /r/comic_crits for feedback on your comics any time (you deserve it for all the feedback you give here!)
Uncomfortable
2016-05-17 17:46
Thanks for the resources!
deviantbono
2016-05-17 17:38
Great feedback! If you're in the mood, lots of people over at /r/comic_crits could use similar advice.
[deleted]
2016-05-17 19:33
Thank you! I had no idea that sub existed. I would love to peek my head in there.
Peteman22
2016-05-14 22:46
Heh cool, this is important to keep in mind now that I'm using a pencil again, and can easily rely too heavily on being able to rub things out and start again.
But this comic has instilled in me another question, why is your chosen internet moniker Uncomfortable? Do your clothes itch? Or do you feel awkward in social situations?
Edit: I put the comic on, my tumblr with a link to drawabox, where it may reach all two of my followers.
Uncomfortable
2016-05-14 23:42
Thanks for the plug on your tumblr! As for my name, I guess it's just my natural state of being. I am comfortable in my discomfort. It's who I am!
[deleted]
2016-05-15 12:44
Here's some advice to you: The Pen character seems to be moving the wrong direction, when Brain turns the car. Momentum/centripetal forces would have Pen move the opposite way to the turn. =]
Uncomfortable
2016-05-15 21:15
Oh crap, you're right! That totally slipped my mind. Thanks for pointing it out!
[deleted]
2016-05-15 18:43
[deleted]
Uncomfortable
2016-05-15 18:57
I just skimmed through to see all of the characters, and oh wow, the mushroom people are absolutely adorable.
As for taking a long-ass time, yes and no. This stuff started to click for me around 2013, when I took the plunge, quit my job, and went to Los Angeles to learn the stuff I've put in my lessons. Before then, I'd been actively teaching myself to draw since 2003. Ten years of second guessing myself, not trusting my arm, having no confidence to speak of and assuming that there was just a ceiling for me that didn't exist for everyone.
Choosing to trust your muscle memory is a plunge you have to take. It's not something that develops with time, it's not something some people can do and others can't - it's just something you do. It's a decision you make, a conscious one, letting go of all of the mental blocks that tell you otherwise.
So, you do it, you draw your line, and it comes out HORRIBLY. You've failed. You took that step, you failed miserably, now what do you do? Does this mean you're not cut out to draw? Not at all.
You were supposed to fail. That was the expected result. The first failure of hundreds, of thousands. But there's nothing wrong with that. The people who are currently unable to draw with confidence are horrified at the prospect of failure, like a single failing is going to represent the straw that broke the camel's back. A single failure is all it is. It's the worst that can happen, and frankly there's nothing bad about it.
Coming to terms with that is hard, but it's also immensely freeing. If the worst that can happen in your perspective has happened, what is there left to fear?
Anyway, the last point I want to make failure is the expected result. More than that, it's necessary. No one ever learned anything by doing it right the first time. You try, you fail, you reflect upon what specific things you did wrong (by yourself or with the help of others), and then you do it again while consciously trying to compensate for your revealed weaknesses. That's what practice is - revealing, facing and conquering your weaknesses.
I'm actually thinking about making the next comic on this topic. I think it makes sense to cover more abstract concepts in the comics, rather than dealing with specific techniques. Confidence, fear, failure, etc. are things everyone struggles with immensely, and it's probably the biggest thing that holds people back - in drawing, and in pretty much everything else. At least in drawing, the worst thing that happens is you draw a shitty drawing. Apply that to mountain climbing, and the worst that could happen is somewhat more... dire.
Oh, and yes, salt. I am very salty.
Sagittarius-A-star
2016-05-20 10:39
Hey, awesome comic Uncomfortable! I keep forgetting to prepare and then make the stroke, and when I remember I do it so much better. :) I hope you make more of this comic-strip mini-lessons!!
Utsuroo
2016-06-10 18:21
Hey Uncomfortable just a quick question. In my gesture drawing class we were always conformed and directed by the professor to draw very quickly in our studies. By popular belief I think this is correct but was this was you were talking about? I know ghosting is the multiple air strokes before the strike, but for quick sketches and such to get the idea that isn't being proposed as bad by you is it? I might be a little confused hahah sorry maybe I could get some clarification.
Uncomfortable
2016-06-10 18:55
It's not about one being good, and the other being bad. The problem is that beginners tend to rely so heavily on quick, loose sketches with no semblance of structure or planning that when they need to slow down and think through their problems, they are unable to. When it comes to constructional drawing, taking the time to draw specific lines (rather than approximate, rough ones) is imperative, otherwise your basic forms come out looking less solid, which then impacts the resulting construction.
Utsuroo
2016-06-11 00:31
Right. How do I know if I'm doing this? It's always been my style to quickly do sketchy gestures because that's when my hand is the loosest. I stray away from the tighter strokes at first. I then proceed to revise them and such.
Uncomfortable
2016-06-11 00:44
You are doing it.
If you decide to do the lessons I post on drawabox.com, forget about your 'style' and focus on following the instructions. Plan and think through every mark you put down. Apply the ghosting method as though your life depends on it. It takes a lot longer, and you will naturally fight against it.
The lessons rely heavily on the requirement of working in ink - when drawing with a felt tip pen, you don't have the liberty of being loose and sketchy, then cleaning up. You'll just make an indiscernible mess. You need to think about which lines are of value, and which ones are not. It's not at all about drawing only your final lines, but rather understanding what is a waste. You'll learn about a lot constructional lines that are of great value.
More than anything, remember that the fundamentals of drawing have no style. Style is something you lay on top when producing something of artistic value, it is not something to factor in when learning the underlying skills. Style is a matter of how you interpret this stuff, and in order to develop a style you must first learn what it is you are interpreting.
Utsuroo
2016-06-11 01:14
Sorry I'm just getting a little confused if this is the case, why was I told to do 30s, 60s, 120s figure drawings if I should instead ghost my strokes? Once again I apologize for the concerns!
Uncomfortable
2016-06-11 01:22
Oh, I see, you're still talking about your figure drawing class. Don't mix different sets of instructions. If your professor gives you an exercise to do, do it exactly as they have instructed, and if you need clarification, ask them.
There's a lot of danger in mixing instructions on things like this. While there are many approaches to tackling a problem, you are not going to understand why a certain path led to your destination until you reach there. So, if you pick some instructions from one source, and some from another, you're more likely to end up away from where you intend to go.
That's why when people take my lessons, I insist that they take everything they already know and set it aside, to follow my instructions to the letter. Once you have reached your destination, you'll understand why you were asked to do things a certain way, and at that point you'll know enough to decide what worked for you and what didn't.
All that said, I don't see anything wrong with doing 120 figure drawings and carefully planning out every line you draw. Sure it'll take a long time, but no one said it wouldn't. But that doesn't matter right now - if your instructor tells you to do something a certain way, and you're doing that work for their class, then it's their call.
Utsuroo
2016-06-11 01:47
Thanks for clarifying. They generally told me to do quick figure sketches no matter if we had 30m or 30s. If we were gained 30 minutes to draw our model, we would instinctively all slow down and our professor would see that and say "Everyone speed up, looks like you're slowing down!". We'd do a quick gesture sketch then refine with regular components such as your tutorial. I think what I was getting at was the 'prelude' to what you described? I definitely understand slowing down and breaking the figure into shapes after the loose study is done.
Uncomfortable
2016-06-11 01:49
Yeah, there's definitely lots of value in that. My instructor kinda split figure drawing into two equally important components. Gesture and structure. Some people focus too much on gesture, and their figures end up being flimsy with no substance or believability. Others focus too much on structure and end up being stiff with no life to them.
The approach I espouse definitely leans more towards structure. The way my instructor put it was that you will likely focus very heavily in one direction, learn the crap out of it, and then switch to the other direction to reign yourself back. Then repeat the process again and again, gradually coming closer to a point of equilibrium.