He can draw?

[Ferret]

I'm taking art for a gcse, so I though I'd get my act together and try to draw something, heres the result. Oh and does anyone have any advice?

 

[Sonikal]

Its a good skecth, youve got the shape and symetry between the armor plates right. What you want to be concentrating on is shading, especially on black and white pieces. After all, with color (like in my pieces) different tones and hues can just be applied at will. With B&W pieces however, you need to draw the illusion of color into it. Its simple really, just make the left or right hand sides of the images shapes darker or lighter depending on the source of light and shadow.

 

[Ferret]

Thank you, I wasn't aiming for a shaded picture but I will take that into consideration, shading is one of my strong points in art, unlike paint , Water colours are fine though.

The advice I was thinkgin of was making it look less like I have the shakes whilst I draw etc.

[edit: Oh and I wouldn't call that symetry, The end shoulder plate on the right isn't the same, the bit below that has an awkward angle, the same goes for the two bits beneath it, which are anyway thiner then the other side the less said about the lower plates...the better.

 

[hellbender]

For what it's worth, my three pieces of advice:

1)Art is rendering the effects of light and shadow, thus creating shapes and textures.
2)Once you have human anatomy down, you can draw ANYTHING. Drawing/painting human anatomy in various poses and motion is the hardest thing to do.
3)Everything beings as a basic shape and goes from there. Not every rough shape needs to be anywhere near your proportion, just start rough and build up, don't expect a finished product from the start.

h

 

[alsih2o]

For what it's worth, my three pieces of advice:

1)Art is rendering the effects of light and shadow, thus creating shapes and textures.
2)Once you have human anatomy down, you can draw ANYTHING. Drawing/painting human anatomy in various poses and motion is the hardest thing to do.
3)Everything beings as a basic shape and goes from there. Not every rough shape needs to be anywhere near your proportion, just start rough and build up, don't expect a finished product from the start.

h

1. gotta disagree again, too broad.

2. having anatomy down pat and being able to draw are 2 different things. drawing anattomy is basically connecting geometric shapes, which is what all drawing is. don't worry about anatomy, it is no different than drawing anything else. to draw people well you have to be able to stack curvilinear solids, the same ccan eb said for coffe tables, airplanes and pinatas.

3. gotta disagree again, start with proportion, this will be THE deciding factor in whether or not all the pins fall

 

[Ferret]

Curvinlear?

 

[Wren]

The advice I was thinkgin of was making it look less like I have the shakes whilst I draw etc.

For that particular problem, my advice would be to lighten up your strokes. Don't press down so hard with your pencil while you are working on your initial sketch. Also, try using more of your arm to draw as opposed to laying your arm on the table and just moving your wrist. this will give you more freedom of movement and almost force you to use lighter, softer, longer strokes.

Curvinlear?

It's a fancy word for "rounded". Think cylinders and spheres. All objects can be broken down into simpler shapes, the human form being made up of mostly rounded or "curvilinear" ones.

hellbender is right by saying that one of the hardest things to learn how to draw accurately is the human form. And like him(her?) i believe that anyone who can learn how to draw the human figure well, can learn how to draw ANYthing well.

As for shape vs. proportions, they are both equally important in my opinion. you really need to get them both correct right off the bat or the drawing can (and usually will) suffer problems later on. Both are vital to creating an accurate anatomy, and proportion is additionally necessary for creating the proper depth of perspective.

All that being said, i strongly suggest you always use a reference for your figures, even if it's just a photograph that comes close the pose you are wanting to draw. Also, when you look at people and pictures of people (heck, or anything for that matter!) try and see the underlying shapes that create the objects you are looking at. Try to view everything you see as though you had to draw it. You can learn a lot about drawing just by doing that.

Anyway, i hope some of that helps. Best of luck!

 

[hellbender]

1. gotta disagree again, too broad.

2. having anatomy down pat and being able to draw are 2 different things. drawing anattomy is basically connecting geometric shapes, which is what all drawing is. don't worry about anatomy, it is no different than drawing anything else. to draw people well you have to be able to stack curvilinear solids, the same ccan eb said for coffe tables, airplanes and pinatas.

3. gotta disagree again, start with proportion, this will be THE deciding factor in whether or not all the pins fall

You certainly tend to disagree with me a lot. My rebuttal:

1) Too broad? Close your eyes and draw. Or better yet, study basic digital art, the kind done without an underlying sketch. It's ALL about light and texture.
2) The human body, especially in motion, IS the most difficult thing to render convincingly. Ask anyone who does this for a living. The human body, even in armor, in space, etc, is the one shape humans can most readily identify with.
3) Proportion is NOT where you begin. You begin with a basic shape and composition, proportion can be adjusted at any time thereafter.

This is like my comment about the fact that art is not always talent, but finding the opprotunity. I offered three examples of people who scammed their way into mega money by stealing art from others. However, I will not disagree with you, my rebuttal is offered as another way of seeing.

hellbender

 

[Ferret]

Thank you, but I don't put my arm down on the table, what I do do is try to use long lines but the way I hold the pencil means I have to move my hand round and that is where I think I get all the curved ends on my lines. I'm okish on the human shape, but fingers I cannot do. They're too small.

The way I do my pencil holding is two last fingers held against the hand, the middle sticks out at 45 degrees and the pencil rests one the last knuckle. The index holds the side of the pencil with the last knuckle bent inwards, the thumb wraps around the index. Funky huh?