Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
God damn.
Reading the reply posted by Mack about the issue, what gets me is how these guys justify it to themselves.
I mean, when I'm drawing, I feel bad about using perfectly acceptable and reasonable time-saving tricks such as mirroring an element of /my own/ under penciling just to keep a figure balanced and such. I feel bad "tracing" over my own damn art instead of being better at drawing every possible thing on the page fresh!
Just in the interest of analyzing for curiosity's sake, I do wonder if guys like Mack are a bit too reliant on certain legitimate mnemonic tactics taut in some art courses / by some instructors. For instance, one technique I've seen used is for adapting to a particular style: you trace approximately over an existing piece of art in a given style, then next to your traced piece, draw a freehand drawing of the same basic object but without the tracing guide. Then you repeat the process using a different drawing by the same source artist / in the same source style. The idea is that it's your second, freehand drawing in each repetition that's important. You're supposed to be taking away an understanding of how to draw in the style, not simply ending with tracing something.
But a lot of these disturbingly professional-level artists seem to use that or something close to it as a cheat sheet more than they should...
Reading the reply posted by Mack about the issue, what gets me is how these guys justify it to themselves.
I mean, when I'm drawing, I feel bad about using perfectly acceptable and reasonable time-saving tricks such as mirroring an element of /my own/ under penciling just to keep a figure balanced and such. I feel bad "tracing" over my own damn art instead of being better at drawing every possible thing on the page fresh!
Just in the interest of analyzing for curiosity's sake, I do wonder if guys like Mack are a bit too reliant on certain legitimate mnemonic tactics taut in some art courses / by some instructors. For instance, one technique I've seen used is for adapting to a particular style: you trace approximately over an existing piece of art in a given style, then next to your traced piece, draw a freehand drawing of the same basic object but without the tracing guide. Then you repeat the process using a different drawing by the same source artist / in the same source style. The idea is that it's your second, freehand drawing in each repetition that's important. You're supposed to be taking away an understanding of how to draw in the style, not simply ending with tracing something.
But a lot of these disturbingly professional-level artists seem to use that or something close to it as a cheat sheet more than they should...
