Drawing on the Scientific Method

[elfs]

One of the blogs I've been reading reliably recently, ever since it emerged, is The Scientific Artist. Like many just-started blogs the lifespan of this could be as brief as a mayfly or it may last for months and years, but what the author has been saying for the first couple of entries has made sense to me, so I've been following along and trying to understand what he's saying.

Until today. Today's entry, his ninth, stopped me. The first paragraph reads:

Some thoughts about drawing exercises: in my opinion the best ones are those which you devise for yourself, or adapt from existing ones, or even follow verbatim, with no changes, IF you first see precisely the reason to do them. If you do them from understanding, that sort of exercise will have the most meaning to you, and hence the best results. However, if you do an exercise "by rote", as an unthinking follower, as if repeating a magic saying that will automatically generate a result, then... there probably will be little obvious result.

To me, this is the baffling massive wall that separates me from illustration. Because, as an absolute beginner, I have no idea where to begin. I don't know what exercises will help me improve-- I just know that the doodles I'm doing now aren't working. They aren't communicating to me anything about the scene, setting, or characters that I can barely recognize when I'm done.

Comments

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

I read this to say that *which* drawing exercises you do is largely irrelevant. What matters is whether you have a concrete goal in doing it. By your own statement it doesn't sound like your current exercises have that.

Instead of doodling to communicate scene, setting, etc., perhaps focus on clear skills? Do a few (or a lot of) doodles for the sole purpose of exploring perspective. Then move on to facial expressions. Nothing else matters - scene out of proportion? Who cares. Did you capture the look in her eyes you wanted? EXCELLENT. Same thing with materials - "This picture is just to explore the new brand of pencil I've bought." Then that's what you focus on, and you're more likely to actually get that from it.

I think that's what he's saying. You should be able to find many exercises, from the very simple things like repetetive shapes to train hand control, to the sorts of 'experimental' work I described above, to, well, stuff I never got to, online or in art training resources. ;) Then pick something you're interested in, and off you go!

[hlmt.livejournal.com]

I really recommend "The Natural Way to Draw : A Working Plan for Art Study"
by Kimon Nicolaides. If you really want to get serious, then follow the plan as it's laid out in the book; but I've also benefited just from doing some of the exercises that I found particularly fascinating.

Nicolaides will tell you "precisely the reason to do them". It's not about getting it right and portraying a scene, it's about learning how the pencil works at the end of your arm. The part I like best is that for many of the exercises "realism" is a sign that you're doing it wrong--you're being too focused on what you see instead of how you're doing it. It's really quite a liberating book.

[woggie.livejournal.com]

Something for you to have a look at is Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain by Betty Edwards. She explains her premises and history, and the exercises she gives are pretty straightforward. It's worth a look if you're at all interested in illustration.

She's written other books too, but this one is the most precise answer to your question. :)

[ai731.livejournal.com]

I second woggie's recommendation. "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" is excellent for us analytical types.

I'm currently doing a Design course, and had an "a-ha" moment last night doing my Observational Drawing homework exercise. Half way through doing the exercise (for the second time, I screwed it up badly on the first attempt) I suddenly understood how and why it was a useful technique. It would have been nice, of course, if my teacher could have explained this; but finding it out for myself by working it through it was probably more helpful to my learning in the grand scheme of things.

All this to say; sometimes you can't know in advance what exercises will help, or even if they will. I think you just need to find some that work for you (you'll know which ones do and which ones don't, believe me) and go from there.

You've got to open your eyes, and "SEE" (and gag the inner critic)

[kavri.livejournal.com]

Elf, I think maybe the "tired" is in the way of comprehension. In fact, I'd suggest to check back to this entry after a few months.

As a writer, you know that most 'absolute beginner' writers feel the same way....where do I start? How do I do this? And, as a writer, you realize that in the scores of exercises out there, some work better than others for different people. It's esentially the same thing.

I'm a writer. Not a terribly grand one, and not 'published' and so forth. I finally got over the 'apology' mind set when at a writing workshop I was challenged with "a writer is someone who writes"... "if you think you can, if you really want to, but you don't write, your not a writer, your just one more person who thinks or feels or wants to be one: Writers Write".

The next big hurdle (and I think you'll see the similarities here), is that one of the biggest obstacles for new writers, is not ability, or talent, or skill, or even discipline...it's learning how to deal with the inner critic.

I have done different writing exercises all my life, from childhood onward, to varying degrees of 'success'...but, what broke the doors wide open for me, was coming across a small book by Natalie Goldberg, called "Writing Down the Bones"...in it, she says:

"The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise....These are the rules. It is important to adhere to them because the aim is to burn through to first thoughts, to the place where energy is unobstructed by social politeness or the internal censor, to the place where you are writing what your mind actually sees and feels, not what it thinks it should see or feel." [italics hers]

It is the same with drawing. One has to realize that drawing is not the skill of the hand (though a steady hand helps), it is the skill of the eye. You need to re-learn how to look at things. We, from a very early age, learn to use symbol, icon, etc... hence, by about grade two, most kids draw lollypop trees. No tree looks like a lollypop, with the exception of possibly an incredibly boring topiary. Trees are gnarled, have roots that slither through the grass, branches that jut out at odd angles...you get the idea.

The point, in my estimation, of that first paragraph, is to encourage new artists to draw, but to do exercises that have meaning for them, if not recognizing the technical reason, at least having some sort of connection or intuition or interest to it.

If one only wrote a writing exercise to say they had 'done' it, it probably won't move their writng forward.

And, with great emphasis, I agree with the other posters:

NOW! GO OUT AND BUY AND READ AND FOLLOW:

"Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" by Betty Edwards

AND

"The Natural Way to Draw : A Working Plan for Art Study" by Kimon Nicolaides.

Besides a sketch book, pencils, eraser, and sharpner....they are the BEST two investments to make. They are classics for good reason.



PS - Another helpful book for absolute beginner writers (or artists of any type) to help deal with the 'inner critic' is Sark's "The Bodacious Book of Succulence", if you're into all that warm-fuzzy kinda stuff.

Re: You've got to open your eyes, and "SEE" (and gag the inner critic)

[kavri.livejournal.com]

Damn! I thought I double-checked all my tags, but obviously missed one...and there is no way to edit comments....grrrr.