The Other 50% with draw a box
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/ympovx/the_other_50_with_draw_a_box/
2022-11-05 10:00
diditraki97
Hello,
I am a complete beginner and have started learning using draw a box. As the program instructs, I should use it 50% of the time while just practice drawing on the other 50% of my practice time, instead of focusing on courses and tutorials.
However, having zero drawing skills, I find it extremely challenging to even start drawing "for fun' , as I need a tutorial for everything - figure drawing, portraits, observational drawing, views etc..
For example, I tried learning portrait drawing because I am into it but I think it misses the point of "drawing for fun" and getting general drawing practice because I spent 50% of my time on DAB and the remaining time for portrait tutorials. That made me think that it might be better to postpone portrait tutorials after finished DAB.
my question is, what kinds of drawing fields have a pretty low barrier of entry (for the basics at least)? I want to learn the bare minimum of theory and just get "drawing reps" in and not get stuck in tutorial hell.
Thank you!
Sadichi
2022-11-05 12:54
I started drawabox with 0 skill and talent. I decided that the best approach for me was to ignore the 50% rule and do courses and tutorials until I became comfortable with other type of drawings.
I completed drawabox after 1 yr, mostly following the courses. I don't think the 50% should necessarily be strictly followed. If you do not enjoy doing free drawing yet, then do whatever fits you well.
sephirothxxl
2022-11-05 13:19
Well I think the idea behind the 50% is, that you can spend an entire lifetime practicing, without ever drawing of the sake of drawing.
People are often quite puzzled what to actually draw, when they stop photocopying.
Every starting artist feels this gap that is opening up, when he wants to be free to draw anything, but just doesnt know what.
My advice ? Find a project that suits you. Even if it is Portrait. But instead of "learning", make "experimenting" or "failing" your goal. You might - as a starter - look up for different creative ways of doing portrait. for example glueing a torn newspaper on the blank sheet and drawing over it.
If you have no clue what to do, take something you can do at leas a little bit and change it, turn it into something new. This way you build up creative vocabulary and ability, which is quite the contrary of the constructive approach of drawabox or most tutorials.
Make a series of maybe 10 portraits, each with a different approach. add strange color, a dot on the middle of the paper...whatever. This is where the fun starts and you can easily create new avenues in your creative thinking. After doing 10 portraits differently you can put them all next to each other and say: "Oh wow, look who neatly my portraits developed. Portrait number 11 should have even more of this crazy background, I like." Welcome to life.
-WASM
2022-11-05 13:30
I think its 50% draw a box 50% what you want. The key seems to be with draw a box is that you are working hard at doing the lessons correctly. If you do the other 50% you dont have to do anything correctly. You can just experiment with different materials, study anatomy, draw some head, practise a cartoon style. Honestly, just doing draw a box and then spending the rest of your time learning to draw things you like would be a good place to begin, imo the subjects you pick when starting are pretty irrelevant til your skill set is starting to improve. If you love sonic the hedgehog, draw him. If you love cars, draw them. If you love Manchester United draw the stadium, players, club mascot etc. if you draw what you enjoy personally or are a fan of you will do will imo.
KingradKong
2022-11-05 13:57
Stop worrying about doing it 'correctly' when 'drawing for fun'. Like you said you waste your time on tutorials and not drawing.
Set aside 30 minutes. Set a 5 minute timer, and a 30 minute timer. You have 5 minutes to figure out what you want to draw or find references maximum. No going past this. If your 5 minutes is up start drawing what's in front of you. No cheating, you're only cheating yourself.
Now the remainder of your 30 minutes is to complete your drawing. You don't get any more time. At the end of the 30 minutes your drawing is done. Complete. Don't go back to it. Don't finish this or that. So focus on the task and work quickly.
You will learn much faster this way then reading all the tutorials.
Brettinabox
2022-11-05 14:15
I feel that the reason behind the 50% rule is to keep students from burnout. It is more challenging to create than it is to follow directions. Eventhough drawabox has its moments, it is very thorough and well explained however the other 50% has no easy lessons. How does one be creative and have fun with drawing? How does one draw something and not look at all the mistakes? It is a deep frustration that will take much effort to let go of and will either lead to burnout or to an impatient drive to complete more drawabox lessons. Without that creativity and passion to create, finishing drawabox will leave you lost.
Its_Blazertron
2022-11-05 14:33
I'd recommend maybe learning some basics before starting with drawabox (at least that's what I'm doing.) I'm learning basics of just how to sketch things from observation, and have fun with it. Once I'm having fun, then I'll probably start up drawabox again.
Starting drawabox before I even found art fun was a mistake for me, I took it too seriously and burnt out. ctrlpaint.com has some basic drawing advice you might want to check out, in my opinion, it's a much easier resource to start with, although it's much less dense, you might need to look up a few things you learn to get some extra advice.
I believe the point of the 50% rule is to not fear drawing badly, and also to balance work and fun. So you don't really need to know the basics of drawing to do it, but I feel the same as you. When you absolutely don't know how to draw anything, and have the same skills you had when you were 10, it's just not very fun, feels like you're just sitting there wasting time, which I guess you sort of are. You just end up screwing around and doodling things, barely even enjoying it. I disagree with the 50% rules recommendation of not using reference. If you don't use reference, you'll just end up symbol drawing like when you were a kid. The point of that recommendation is to help you not be afraid of drawing badly, so I kind of get it, but it just didn't work well for me. Learn some basic observational drawing (like from ctrlpaint.com) and just sketch things for fun, keeping in mind that it will look bad for a while. Also, if you use reference, try to combine multiple references, and take general parts of them, don't make it an exercise/study, since the 50% rule is meant to be fun, not study/work.
toepicksaremyfriend
2022-11-05 14:40
Draw what you want to eventually be able to draw well, and use them as drawing skill milestones. Dont worry if you think it sucks because the person you drew is literally a stick figure, the house is a triangle on top of a square, the clouds and trees look almost identical, and the dog is an unrecognizable mess. Weve all started there; dont compare your beginner attempts to people who have already invested tens, hundreds, or thousands of hours or more in drawing. Youll see the progress as time goes by, and be able to compare your first attempts aka I have no drawing skills to wherever you are in your learning process. Youre guaranteed to see progress as long as youre putting in the effort.
So start drawing!
Edit: You could always do the drawing prompts in /r/SketchDaily/
Arc-Tangent
2022-11-05 15:54
I am pretty sure you are allowed to do tutorials from other places if that's truly what you want to do.
But if you want something with a genuinely low barrier for entry, I have a youtube channel where I post videos of me practicing and trying to improved. This is a video I made about my favorite warm up which is about loosening up and just having fun. Basically you scribble a shape, then turn it in to something (that's the whole thing, no need to watch the video now). It's not about the finished product, just putting down lines for joy's sake. I fill a page with these before I draw anything serious.
russinkungen
2022-11-05 17:57
Just imitate stuff on Pinterest if you're out of ideas. Study stuff like shading techniques, how cross hatching or line weight variations is used. Or just draw doodles. it doesn't necessarily need to go on instagram so it doesn't matter if it sucks. It's just for you. A great exercise is to take movie posters and break them down into basic shapes like circles, squares and triangles. Then refine them by filling the previous shapes with smaller shapes. It's great for learning about composition.
Coraline1599
2022-11-05 19:44
I too feel overwhelmed as a beginner. I picked up the book 50 ways to draw your beautiful ordinary life. It has a lot of places for you to draw inside and envelopes, a cut out doll etc. all of the drawings are on the simple side, and they have a lot of the drawings broken down into smaller steps. so I found it quite approachable.
To be honest, After reading the intro and trying a little bit of it, I dont even follow what they have there, I just flip through it for prompts and try to do my own version:
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cup and saucer,
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desk lamp
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ball (tennis, soccer, beach)
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bicycle
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chair
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shelf
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houseplant
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fruit/veggies
I find picking one to three objects to be the right level of difficulty where I am willing to try and not become so overwhelmed with something big and complex that I freeze or overthink it so much I never even begin. Even if the book isnt for you maybe the prompts I listed would be helpful starting points?
AlexSanSm
2022-11-06 12:29
I had a question very much like yours a year or so ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/p28qm2/question_the_other_50/ You can see the comments there, some of them were very helpful.
From my experience, the other 50% rule keeps you from burning up. I didn't quite followed the rule when I first did drawabox and was all burned out at box 50.I definitively recommend you to follow the rule. It doesn't have to be the exact 50%, just do something else and try to enjoy and learn (key point: enjoy). Hell, even watch some videos about drawing or painting.
An important thing, mentioned by other commenters here, is that you do need to pick up other knowlegde and experience as well as doing drawabox. Watch tutorials on something else, get a bit of scrap paper or the cheapest newsprint and start doodling and drawing. It won't be nice, it won't be good but try to make it fun.Learn about shading, sketching, drawing with pencil, ink, whatever, just do something different. Sketch objects from your house, etc.
I want to do painting and figure drawing so I actually took a few classes and had terrific fun.
Doing Drawabox will help you to draw better and faster, so you can focus on other stuff instead of struggling to get persperctive and lines correct.
Here's a few videos that might give you ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2YwcmFTd8g&t=81s
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMksAbgdBI&list=PL1HIh25sbqZnkA1T09UtVHoyjYaMJuK0a (I do recommend this one)
I am doing drawabox for the second time and now I've noticed how much I've improved and how important is to do something else.
Edit: forgot to mention two great resources
Ctrl+Paint, the unplugged series is awesome!
R/drawing101 you can follow along, do the tasks and read the helpful comments
LPRAZ
2022-11-08 03:14
If you can't find something to draw just take a piece of art you enjoy and draw it. The piece of art could be your favorite artists work, a screencap from an animated movie, your favorite cartoon characters, or anything that just looks cool to you.
You have fun cause you like the thing you're drawing and you could learn a thing or two from copying other art.
Uncomfortable
2022-11-05 14:05
One thing to keep in mind when giving feedback that contradicts an established source (or hell, even if you're contradicting anyone else's advice, established or not), is that you're taking on a certain amount of responsibility for the outcome the one receiving that feedback may encounter - at least, to an extent. The individual in question also has a responsibility to take in all of the information available to them and make the call themselves, but in contributing to that available information, you also play a role.
So, when doing so, make sure that you feel extremely confident that should the person follow the path you've suggested, or ignore an instruction on your advice, that you do genuinely believe that this is in their best interest. It's not uncommon for people to just say things without really considering how they might impact a person's trajectory - and so they might not reflect all that deeply on how taking that path themselves impacted them, or whether they're even at a point to assess that.
If you strongly believe that your contradiction will surely be beneficial, then by all means, offer it. But always reflect on whether or not you are, in yourself, certain enough to share that path with another. In this case, reflect upon whether you feel comfortable jumping in and drawing whatever comes to mind, or whether you still feel hesitant or uncertain, afraid of wasting time on a drawing that won't turn out well. Reflect on whether you find yourself staring at a blank page, or whether you find yourself more inclined to dive in and just get things going.
This kind of thing - reflecting on the responsibility of telling people to do one thing as opposed to another - is something I think about every day.