Monocle
Member
I accidentally made a big post again. There went my hour.
Getting back to proportion and placement, they're all about comparing and relating one part to another. Like:
- How wide is this car bumper compared to that window? One and a half window-widths? A little more or less?
- Exactly how would I draw an imaginary triangle between the model's left elbow, right wrist, and top of the head? Here clavicle and tenth ribs? Her navel and heels?
- Where is the halfway point on the long axis of his body. Or his leg? Or his finger?
- If I draw a vertical or horizontal line from the top of my kitchen counter, exactly where will that line touch and cross my refrigerator?
You never stop making these comparisons no matter how good you get, it just becomes easier to do it faster and maybe use fewer construction lines. But the techniques stay the same.
Speaking of techniques... Triangulation is a big one. The basic perspective-oriented skill of multiplying and subdividing boxes is another, because anything can be placed in a box and then precisely measured. Drawing the shape of the space around the object/facial feature/whatever (the negative space), rather than the object itself, can really help you get around your untrained preconceptions about how something should look. Using measuring units is another critical skill. Some experience with blind contour drawing is helpful, because it lets you develop the sensation of touching your subject with your drawing instrument, which leads to an intuitive sense for proportions. Eventually you'll be able to "feel" when something is off.
Here are some of the places you can learn this stuff (many of these were mentioned earlier in this thread, because they're great):
Measuring units, negative space - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards - Invaluable book for beginning and maybe intermediate artists. Covers many practical tools and concepts. Has good exercises that should greatly improve your ability to make accurate comparisons.
Angles, measuring - The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Packed with a stupid amount of powerful techniques for artists. Also full of great insight from an opinionated and very old-school teacher. Tips like how to analyze a curve, and the different effects you can create with crossed, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal hatch lines, improved my skills almost overnight. This book will definitely help you. Read it and apply as much of Speed's advice as you can.
Triangulation - Jason Baalman (Eclectic Asylum Art) on triangulation: Full playlist or cut to the chase - A very effective tutorial. (Ignore the video quality; it's rather old.) This placement method doesn't get nearly enough attention for how useful it is. If you learn nothing else about accurate drawing, learn this.
Multiplying and subdividing boxes - How to Draw by Scott Robertson - Mostly too technical for beginners, but it's a full master class on perspective from one of the best industrial designers in the business. No serious artist should do without it. A cheaper, simpler alternative is Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling. Come to think of it, Marshall Vandruff covers this in his excellent $12 perspective course too.
Blind contour drawing - The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides - This book provides a good and rigorous program of study for would-be art students. Emphasizes that tactile sense I was talking about, where you learn to feel like you're touching what you're drawing.
Human proportions - Proko's got you covered.
All of the above (almost) - Andrew Loomis books - Get any of them. Get all of them. At least read Successful Drawing.
You might be able to find some of the content from those books in free tutorials. The resources I listed are all high quality though. Stick with them if you want to be positive that you're getting good information from teachers who know what they're doing.
Repetition is part of it, but people who can draw characters from imagination and make them look like the same person every time have also developed their skills of proportion and placement. The way to get there is to learn a set of tools that help you accurately observe and measure relationships. You'll probably want to take the extra step of memorizing basic human proportions too, like the equal thirds rule of the head, which will give you a standard to judge the unique proportions of your characters against. When you know chin to nose base, nose base to brow ridge, and brow ridge to hairline are equal distances on the average human head, you can easily make this lady's forehead a little bigger, or this guy's nose a little lower on his face. So some knowledge of average proportions is a big help, and a stepping stone to inventing your own proportions.
Getting back to proportion and placement, they're all about comparing and relating one part to another. Like:
- How wide is this car bumper compared to that window? One and a half window-widths? A little more or less?
- Exactly how would I draw an imaginary triangle between the model's left elbow, right wrist, and top of the head? Here clavicle and tenth ribs? Her navel and heels?
- Where is the halfway point on the long axis of his body. Or his leg? Or his finger?
- If I draw a vertical or horizontal line from the top of my kitchen counter, exactly where will that line touch and cross my refrigerator?
You never stop making these comparisons no matter how good you get, it just becomes easier to do it faster and maybe use fewer construction lines. But the techniques stay the same.
Speaking of techniques... Triangulation is a big one. The basic perspective-oriented skill of multiplying and subdividing boxes is another, because anything can be placed in a box and then precisely measured. Drawing the shape of the space around the object/facial feature/whatever (the negative space), rather than the object itself, can really help you get around your untrained preconceptions about how something should look. Using measuring units is another critical skill. Some experience with blind contour drawing is helpful, because it lets you develop the sensation of touching your subject with your drawing instrument, which leads to an intuitive sense for proportions. Eventually you'll be able to "feel" when something is off.
Here are some of the places you can learn this stuff (many of these were mentioned earlier in this thread, because they're great):
Measuring units, negative space - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards - Invaluable book for beginning and maybe intermediate artists. Covers many practical tools and concepts. Has good exercises that should greatly improve your ability to make accurate comparisons.
Angles, measuring - The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Packed with a stupid amount of powerful techniques for artists. Also full of great insight from an opinionated and very old-school teacher. Tips like how to analyze a curve, and the different effects you can create with crossed, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal hatch lines, improved my skills almost overnight. This book will definitely help you. Read it and apply as much of Speed's advice as you can.
Triangulation - Jason Baalman (Eclectic Asylum Art) on triangulation: Full playlist or cut to the chase - A very effective tutorial. (Ignore the video quality; it's rather old.) This placement method doesn't get nearly enough attention for how useful it is. If you learn nothing else about accurate drawing, learn this.
Multiplying and subdividing boxes - How to Draw by Scott Robertson - Mostly too technical for beginners, but it's a full master class on perspective from one of the best industrial designers in the business. No serious artist should do without it. A cheaper, simpler alternative is Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling. Come to think of it, Marshall Vandruff covers this in his excellent $12 perspective course too.
Blind contour drawing - The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides - This book provides a good and rigorous program of study for would-be art students. Emphasizes that tactile sense I was talking about, where you learn to feel like you're touching what you're drawing.
Human proportions - Proko's got you covered.
All of the above (almost) - Andrew Loomis books - Get any of them. Get all of them. At least read Successful Drawing.
You might be able to find some of the content from those books in free tutorials. The resources I listed are all high quality though. Stick with them if you want to be positive that you're getting good information from teachers who know what they're doing.
