Help on Pencil Drawings

[Armenelos]

Ok I\'m not a great at drawing but I do like to doodle and I joined my art class to hopefully help me out a bit, right now our teacher has placed a bunch of african masks piled together with them looking out at you and we are suppose to draw what we see, now my biggest problem so far is, the paper is flat and what I see isn\'t... it kinda starts turning on me and I can\'t seem to capture that whole motion. Can anyone give me some advice??? I\'ll probably need to practice more, and I will have the chances with this class. We have to draw around 24 drawings of things at home so hopefully I can get a few things down. Help would be greatly appreciated....

[Karyuu]

Here\'s a tip a few art teachers mentioned to me concerning dealing with that \'3d\' problem: simply shut one of your eyes while sketching ;) It\'s simple and sounds odd, but it actually helps. This isn\'t to say that you should have only one eye open during your entire drawing session, but whenever you feel that you can\'t grasp a shape and turn it into a drawing, try this out. At least, it has worked with me. Besides that, try looking around for some tutorials online, or if you are serious, browse the art section of the nearest bookstore ;)

[Trianas]

try adding guide lines to it
  __
/_|_\\
|_|_|
\\_|_/

sumthing like that, for circles if you get what i mean

[Smokk Duranus]

my art teacher taught me a little focus excersise. i worked for me. ok fist look straight ahead, breathing in through yur nose and out through your mouth then be aware of your feet, sort of feel them with your mind? : /.then do the same thing but be aware of your clothes on your body. then look at everything u can see infront of you (things you wouldnt usually see) and listen and hear everything around u ... then your ready to draw hope it works for u it worked for me

[Trianas]

meh we did that i thought he was just crazy

[Kintall]

wow, sounds suspiciously like a Yoga class more than an art class..


well anyways,  make sure you do do the construction shapes thing.
just break down the subject, albeit real life or your imagining into basic shapes, then that will simplify the thre dimensional nature of the thing and make it easier for you to visualise

Also consider what it is you wish to be an ilustrator of.. do you wish to be come a great landscape artst? perhaps a contempary street artist? great anime artist even?

look into the particualr medeum that interests you or find new medeums that may be your unknown calling

and tell the teacher that I say shes a foolish person, thats among the most ridiculous art lessons I have ever heard of, freeing your mind is one thing, but she should be teaching the groundworks of the skills you need, not a bloody relaxation exersize

Anyways Good Luck in your chosen feild, what ever it may be

[Monketh]

Tutorials own!  Also, sketch lightly first, so you don\'t lose proportion.

...hmm, I need to scan my fresh stuff.

[Neschama]

Hm  don\'t tell your Teacher  that shes a foolish person,
The artcolege im going in has transportation design class it\'s world famous, at least among car Designers, those guys are the eliete working vor mercedes,  porsche gm and blah... these guys also  did this stuff when they got started  its about focusing your mind, drawing is seeing and understanding, once you focus your senses youre  much more open.

Another thing is this baisic shape stuff its worthles, its something you should take care after you managed your first steps.
 While focusing on baisic shapes, youre not realy observing the object, your just squeezing it in some shapes.

 Some Loose doodle is often a much better sketch. A Line has an expression  try to play with it, good linework makes 50% of a drawing

Theres a nice book  I dont know the english title but the author, betty eddwards, it explains how your mind works when you draw and how to practice it.

But this all is theory,  get yourself a sketchbook and sketch averything you got in sight(no photos), after a while  your way of seeing things will chnange...
and the more you draw the better you get ^^

gl hf  =D

[Smokk Duranus]

it may sound stupid but it works

[jonmack]

Originally posted by Neschama
...

Theres a nice book  I dont know the english title but the author, betty eddwards, it explains how your mind works when you draw and how to practice it.

...

\"Drawing on the right side of the brain\" is written by Betty Edwards. I don\'t know if she\'s authored other books, but this one is a world famous one. I\'m only a few chapters into it right now ( got it about 2 weeks ago ), still on the theory of how the brain works. Fascinating stuff if you like that kind of thing. But it\'ll be interesting to see how the techniques in the rest of the book affect my drawing skills

I find more natural things more fun to draw. Try drawing a plant, that was always a classic with my art teacher at high school. Much more interesting shapes and forms to draw than the average \"household\" items. One interesting exercise I did one was to wrap my chair in cloth and tie it with string. You could still see it was a chair, but the soft flowing lines and curves of the folds in the cloth made for an interesting subject. That was when I was studying the artist Christo, he used to do wrap things, albeit a bit bigger than a chair most of the time :p ( http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/sharedMedia/WrappedReichstag/wr4.jpg )

But whatever you decide to draw, practice all the time!

[Armenelos]

Wow, thanks everyone for responding, I will definatly try everything at least once to see what works for me.  I definatly need to practice more but hopefully I\'ll be able to draw something worthwhile someday.
I really don\'t have a chosen field of what I want to draw, I just want to be able to draw in general. It\'s very calming and I love how time flies when you get into it and your really concentrating, it reminds me a lot of playing guitar, and that is very soothing for me, kinda like my form of meditation I guess. Well this week I must go get myself a sketch book and start practicing. Well thank you all very much for your ideas, hopefully they work for me.

[DepthBlade]

just giver, don\'t use guidelines or any crap like that..just start drawing and let things just come together. I am not a very good drawer but on a odd occasion i can create something pretty cool just by doing what I always do!

[Trianas]

meh, i only use guidelines for faces and such

[Monketh]

I use guidelines because otherwise the proportion goes to Runesc@pe!

[Runesc@pe is synonymous with many words, almost all of them bad. ]

[Karyuu]

Guidelines can be left off if you are sketching simply for the sake of exploring what you can do with your utensils. But if you\'re hoping to work on actual figures and proportions, then unfortunately you\'re going to have to use them until you\'re comfortable that you can do a perfect job otherwise. Professionals use them, and I don\'t think they do it for the fun of it. Clearly, it\'s useful.