--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "leon_the_wulf"
<blackwolfomega_at_a...> wrote:
> Hi there, Huge fan mate, your art is the best. But I have a
question,
> have you aways been good at drawing or did you learn?
No one ever starts out "good", man. Some folks might have the
potential to be good, but that doesn't mean it'll come any easier.
I've been drawing for almost 30 years, and I've been drawing furry
stuff for about 20 of those years.
I flunked whatever art classes I had to take while in school, and
refused to go to college. My whole argument was "Why should I pay
the school money to take X number of classes, when only one of them
deals with art? I didn't do my classwork while in school for FREE,
so why would I throw away my money for college? There's no way I'm
gonna do classwork for shit like English, Math, or whatever." Old
habits die hard, I reckon. Personally, I think it's the only way
these colleges can make a course last for four years. Add a bunch
of extra classes to the curriculum, and presto! Your 1-year course
now takes four!
Not only that, but "college-educated" does not necessarily
mean "intelligent". There are lots of college-educated folks
flipping burgers nowadays, so college is not necessarily the only
way to go.
> I myself
> totally suck, my bodies are too stiff, my detail is lacking, and I
> keep drawing the same head for each character *sigh* but then
again
> as most people have said I have just started, what do you think I
> should do, are there any particualr techniques that could help me
in
> practising?
Everyone sucks at the beginning. Believe me, man, most of my
earlier pictures look like shit. Proportions are way off, there's
no expressions on the faces, characters have muscles that don't even
exist in the body, etcetera.
Start out loose. Don't try to go for detail from the start.
Details come later. The first part is to get the pose or the flow
of action. Lots of light, sketchy lines are best, because you'll
eventually start to darken the proper lines as you go over the
picture.
If you're concerned about anatomy, I'd recommend the book "Atlas
of Human Anatomy for the Artist" (I think that's the title), by
Stephen Rogers Peck. That book shows skeletal structure,
proportions, body types, racial distinctions, musculature, hair,
eyes, expressions, etcetera. Truly an excellent book if you have no
live model to work from.
For heads, it helps to understand that not heads have the same
underlying shape. Think of them in terms of basic shapes. Does it
look round, like a ball? Or is it a little more triangular?
Desiree's head starts out as a trapezoid, whereas the skunks start
out as circles.
> Thanks in advance mate
No sweat, man. Hope the above advice will be of some assistance.
Above all else, always draw! Even though I can't do too much in
the way of inking and coloring right now, I still keep from getting
rusty by drawing tons of rough sketches. The drawing muscle must be
constantly exercised to prevent it from becoming flabby and out-of-
shape.
--JMH
Received on Sun May 16 2004 - 14:21:40 CDT