When I wrote that somewhat encouraging post oh-so long ago, I failed to mention just how this can be accomplished. With me, I need to know how to do something and that it will work before I begin. Even if I go in with the mindset of "this will not work the first time, I will try and learn something", I always end up disappointed in the outcome. Particularly in drawing.
When it comes to drawing, gesture drawing is an amazing skill to learn. To start, you create a single line, just a swoop on the page, that describes the general posture of the model. Then, you add more lines to define form. You work as lightly as you can. The most important thing to remember when gesture drawing, is that when you make a mistake, or something lacks the correct proportions, don't erase, simply make another line the describes what it should look like.
The outcome of this method is simply that, with enough time, anyone can create an amazing drawing without getting frustrated. I'm terrible at drawing, and I have come up with recognizable and realistic drawings in a matter of minutes. The reason? My hand is drawing, not my brain. My brain does not know how, nor want to know how to draw. When I gesture draw, my hand makes a guess, my brain "spots the most obvious differences", and then my hand makes another attempt. My hand is experimenting, failing, and trying something else before I even know it's really made a mistake. It's a great way to learn drawing, because you're getting better without even thinking about it.
And some updates: My blog has stopped for a while because of a linux/firefox error that prevented me from typing text into the editing fields on Movable Type! Very quickly I lost my good blogging habit to the point of not even checking the status after a securuity update. Near as I can tell, it was fixed a few months ago.
Borealis has been given up. It was getting so complex and hairy, that I didn't even understand how it worked anymore. It had huge deformation problems, which were very depressing. Also, the model was absolutely hideous. However, Ramtin Ahmadi has given me the MooM mesh, which I hope to rig sometime.
I "finished" my April 11SecondClub entry, and you can see it here.
When it comes to drawing, gesture drawing is an amazing skill to learn. To start, you create a single line, just a swoop on the page, that describes the general posture of the model. Then, you add more lines to define form. You work as lightly as you can. The most important thing to remember when gesture drawing, is that when you make a mistake, or something lacks the correct proportions, don't erase, simply make another line the describes what it should look like.
The outcome of this method is simply that, with enough time, anyone can create an amazing drawing without getting frustrated. I'm terrible at drawing, and I have come up with recognizable and realistic drawings in a matter of minutes. The reason? My hand is drawing, not my brain. My brain does not know how, nor want to know how to draw. When I gesture draw, my hand makes a guess, my brain "spots the most obvious differences", and then my hand makes another attempt. My hand is experimenting, failing, and trying something else before I even know it's really made a mistake. It's a great way to learn drawing, because you're getting better without even thinking about it.
And some updates: My blog has stopped for a while because of a linux/firefox error that prevented me from typing text into the editing fields on Movable Type! Very quickly I lost my good blogging habit to the point of not even checking the status after a securuity update. Near as I can tell, it was fixed a few months ago.
Borealis has been given up. It was getting so complex and hairy, that I didn't even understand how it worked anymore. It had huge deformation problems, which were very depressing. Also, the model was absolutely hideous. However, Ramtin Ahmadi has given me the MooM mesh, which I hope to rig sometime.
I "finished" my April 11SecondClub entry, and you can see it here.
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