Hello dear reader!
I’m glad to have you back for the second blog for the series of art advice or tips, however you would like to take them.
Currently, most of us are enjoying our summer vacation, whether at home and resting or working. Either way, many don’t have to worry about our art assignments, which can be both a good and a bad thing. At least you can draw things that your heart desires rather than work on art assignments. I was glad I didn’t have to do self-portraits again and again. But on the flip side, I realized that not having an assignment’s deadline haunting me or the pressure of presenting to a critique left me not entirely doing my best in my personal projects.
In fact, to be completely honest, I haven’t even drawn much! So today’s blog is also a way to motivate me and get back into drawing. This blog is a quick tip on ways to improve your art skills. Even more so, studying drawing. These tips I have learned are from Marc Brunet’s Youtube lessons.
He was another one of the artists I watched a lot back when I was first starting art and someone who I still go back to and keep learning new things from. If you especially love video game character designs, he is an excellent source of knowledge!
Finding The Problems
To know precisely what skill you need to study for, you first need to find the part you are lacking. It is always fun and less frustrating to draw the exact angle of the face you’re used to. But what if you challenge yourself to draw from the below, with the face’s perspective distorted. Or what about trying to draw the face looking over the shoulder with a slight tilt? Yes, drawing a 3/4 is great, and by continuing sketching that, you can get better at that specific face angle, but try finding your weak points. If you already know which ones are your weak angles and are avoiding them, then great! At least you are aware of what you can start working on!
Observation
Don’t work. I won’t suggest observing still life and drawing that. Instead, practice working on your weak points. If hands are something you have difficulty drawing, then study the reference well before attempting to draw it. As obvious and repetitive as this advice is, the way to get better at drawing something is to keep drawing. But, observing the subject is helpful before even starting to draw. How it moves, and what muscles or forms are underneath. Breaking it into a more uncomplicated form and understanding the subject matter.
When I was trying to learn to draw hands (it may sound weird or crazy), I noticed how they move and imagined the anatomy beneath all the detailed skin. Then only seeing it as geometric shapes. I tried seeing it not as a complex anatomical structure, but by its simplest form. with the knowledge of the simplified form, i was able to draw positions and through various perspectives. I even studied how other artists stylized them. After seeing how others stylized the realistic hands, I explored my options and found how I prefer drawing them. Now hands don’t seem as scary to draw as I used to find them to be.
These are just two small tips, but you can find better-explained advice on Marc Brunet’s YouTube channel, so I hope you check it out if you have time!
Thank you for reading; I will see you again in the next post!
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