Back to the drawing board: Part 3

 Really my purpose for publishing these is to show that we need to keep learning, most people keep these piles of learning sketchbooks hidden away from the public eye. But as has always been my aim with this blog, I share everything, good and bad so that people can see that anybody can be an artist, as long as you can put in the work and have a passion for what you do.

Back to the drawing board : Part 2

 So here's a story that always stuck with me:

I met a guy who had taken a year out to draw faces everyday. After he finished this year of daily studies, he tried drawing his own stuff again and he found that he wasn't really any better at drawing. So he was very disappointed by that. 

And so that's a great thing to keep in mind, if you really want to improve it's important you study by copying, BUT THEN you need to also draw from your imagination. Because the two parts of your brain need to sync up. If you draw a page everyday of studies, and then a page from your imagination / memory, Eventually the 2 will merge and you will come out a better artist.

Well, that's what I believe anyway :P There are geniuses in the world who learn things really quickly, I am not one of them. But I enjoy the journey, so it doesn't bother me that it takes me 5 times as long as other people :D 

Below more of those studies, also some pages from memory mixed in:

Back to The Drawing Board : Part 1

 So I took Inktober as an excuse to go back to sketchbook drawing. I will be (trying) to make a comic book in the traditional way on paper with real inks. So I have been looking at some comic art (going back to the 80s X-men, because I have never read those!) 

So every day I filled at least a page with studies of hands and sometimes faces, I started with pencil drawings for the first 2 days but then I went to drawing with biro, since as a storyboard artist you need to draw fast, you never really have time to construct, so I think it's better to learn how to draw hands without the need for an eraser. 

For me sketchbooks are not about making nice pictures, instead it's a learning ground. Make mistakes, make notes, and fill as many as you can :)

Back to Studies

I have not updated this blog in adages. Which shows how little how I've been drawing 😀

Part of that was because of an injury I had, and then once I lost the habit, it's been hard getting back into a rhythm. So I've come backing studies on a different angle. This time around I've been studying from comics. Not technically life drawing, but it's still studying the figure. So I'll be posting my studies here. 

An exercice I came up with is to copy a hand from a comic (this is from X-men, artist: Paul Smith). And draw it 4-5 times, than draw it without looking. An attempt to expand your library of shapes. Not sure if it works or not yet :P

Same with heads, this a drawing from Buscema in Magik. I always find that when I draw a style I am not familiar with, it takes me quite a lot of pages to be able to draw it. But by making the mistakes, you can often stumble on things you like. This can all end up being your style.