Drawing, Part II - Sad Skillz
Jun. 15th, 2007 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiDo you think I'm wondrous and amazing? Do you envy me completely? Have you ever wished there was something I COULDN'T do, so that you could laugh at my sad attempts?
...Aaah, some crickets in the audience this evening! Glad you could come out!
Well, if you agree with our insect friends here, then NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!
As a continuation to my last, incredibly wordy entry, I uploaded to my image host...something I DREW!
And if you're saying to yourself, "Well, that's odd. I didn't know that Bean drew," well, that's because... I don't. Every once in a long while though, I forget that fact. And I try to draw.
It generally goes rather badly.
Now, it's true that most people usually don't forget things like, "Oh, I can't draw." It's been burned into their brains from earliest childhood, and you would think it would also have been burned into mine. But I'm something like a character from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, routinely marching over the cliff edge out into space. Somehow, deep down, I privately believe that I really can draw if I want to. And that someday, when I'm least expecting it, I will put the pencil to the paper and discover that I can make representations which actually properly look like the things they're meant to be representing.
(Incidentally, I'm rather the same way about the idea that I can levitate objects with my mind. But we won't go into that.)
A brief explanation here:
Ever since the realization that my "role" as a writer is easier to adopt than my sister's "role" as an artist (see my last entry, but warning, it's long), I've had this odd competitive urge to attempt to draw. I get it at least annually. And because I now make my own money, these urges often result in the buying of things like sketch pads and drawing pencils and massive pencil crayon sets - things people bought my sister like there was a world shortage, but which I've never been allowed to lay my hands on.
Then they just sort of sit around and collect dust because, you know...I can't do anything with them.
My mother has a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She originally bought it during a period that my sister and I were homeschooling, to stock our "library" with. And she attempted to use it herself when she was going back to school to study interior design.
(Which, she concluded, requires too much math - she's got an math LD - so she ended up with a degree in interior decorating, instead.)
The book didn't really do much for her, according to her. But then, she admits she has never found the patience to do all the exercises.
I've flipped through the book, and realized I recognize a great many of the exercises myself - they were incorporated into a children's art-tutorial computer game someone gave my sister one Christmas. (One of the few art tools of hers I was allowed to use myself.) I thought the program was great fun, but didn't get much out of it in the way of technical artistic skill.
Coinciding with one of my random urges to attempt to draw, however, I rediscovered this book on our shelves and decided to give it another shot.
The premise behind the book is that basically, non-artists are blind. Well, not actually blind, but unable to SEEEE with right-brained artist-o-vision. The left side of the brain, the theory goes, is the pattern-finding side, the side which fills in gaps and tells us how things are supposed to look; the right side sees things as the truly are - however kooky. The key to realistic drawing then, is to be able to "turn off" your left brain (so to speak) and draw what's actually there, rather than what you expect to see there.
Simple enough theory, other than the fact that I don't entirely buy it. I was a child who spent hours thoughtfully staring at tree roots - why can't I draw them? It seems to me there is a synapse or two missing between the part that sees and the part which correctly produces the lines - at the right angles, at the right places - to represent what I see.
But hey. What do I know? I'm no artist.
Problem is, the exercises in this book ARE, in point of fact, tedious. I imagine they're slightly easier if you're naturally excited by the process of drawing, which I most certainly am not:
Oh, excellent! Several hours worth of frustration, with no resulting product of any worth!
...Sign this wabbit up for that.
Still, I added this ("finish exercises in Right Brain Drawing book, learn to draw") to a list of ongoing projects like, "teach self piano, play at concert level," "learn Latin," "learn to play chess, become Grand Master," and, "study all applicable medical textbooks in spare time so med school will be easy if you ever get your lazy ass accepted by one."
But you don't actually care about any of that, right? Here's the actual drawings to snicker over (and seriously, go ahead and laugh - I don't mind, as I find these funny myself):
Draw A Person From Imagination
[This is a so-called "pre-instruction" drawing, which you are supposed to do before going any farther in the book. There's four. I've done one. Speedy, aren't I? Then I'm supposed to follow this with a personal assessment of the drawing.]
Drawing time: About four hours. Except that's not accurate because I didn't actually draw for four hours. I drew a line...erased it...stared at it endlessly and listened to music...drew the line again...erased it...listened to a song...etc. So I have no idea. But I spent a LOT of time thinking about just where to place each line, so let it be known: I did my best (except on the hair, but I'll get to that). This is SUPERHUMAN EFFORT, y'all.
Size: The entire drawing itself is actually only 1½ inches wide by approximately 2 inches high in reality. I do that classic non-artist thing where I take a big expanse of shiny white paper, and then draw something very very small in one small corner because I lack the skill and confidence to take up the whole page. So it was a bitch to scan.
I messed around a lot with the contrast and brightness in Photoshop; I was trying to make it visible without affecting the integrity of the drawing, but that's probably not 100% possible. I didn't want to make the paper too bright, because some of my lines are so light they get washed out. (Something my drafting instructor once complained about... "So precise and neat, and it won't even show up on a blueprint! Press harder!") So some of the eraser marks disappeared in the process of trying to make the lines blacker/more visible. LOVE THE ERASER MARKS! There's a ton more you can't even see.
Materials: I'm relatively sure this is all 4B and 2B drawing pencil, but I wouldn't bet my life on it, as I don't totally remember.
Subject: I'm fairly certain the fact that it is a human figure comes across, but just to clarify: this is a little boy. Specifically, a little boy who just got out of bed on Christmas morning. Honestly, I could not think of a DAMN THING when I tried to imagine a person, until some Christmas tunes rotated up on my Zen MP3 player. So that's what this is.
He's sitting in about the most awkward position imaginable. It's hard to describe, but imagine kneeling on your left knee, and then balancing on the ball of your right foot, with your thigh rotated outward as far as it will go. Yeah. Like that. YES, you can sit like that: I tried it. Only a small child would willingly sit like that for any length of time, though.
WHY I didn't draw him standing or something simple: I don't know. That's just the way he was in my head.
He's...supposed to be blonde. He's not, because I haven't the foggiest how to draw cute blonde curls. And his hair was the last thing I drew (I started with his right knee; again, don't know why, it just seemed easier than the head for once), so as I told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
elicia8 earlier, I got lazy and just scribbled. So it looks pathetic, or, to quote myself, "Now it either looks a huge bowl of noodles [on his head], or like he had the top of his skull cut off and his brains are falling out."
And...he kinda looks pudgy, which I didn't intend, but I clearly can't get the folds of flannel pjs right. Or ankles.
I sorta gave up on the area around his groin, and anything that required small detail (eyes) - the disadvantage of drawing so small was that the pencil lead can't be sharpened enough.
I have not the faintest idea if much of this is in proportion.
...But you know what I am insanely, absurdly proud of? HUGELY proud of? The inside length of his left forearm and the length of his foot basically match. His foot might be slightly longer, but that's okay, because he's wearing slippers. Don't ask me why I'm so proud I got those to match, BUT I TOTALLY AM.
I would normally be practically crying over the failure of this drawing, but for some weird reason I have been pretty at peace with it since I drew it, and that emotion hasn't changed. Yeah, so it sucks. BUT I'M OKAY WITH THAT. Weirdly.
Okay, one more:
Random ears!
[Not one of the exercises, I just felt like attempting ears.]
I got basically nothing to say on this one. Same materials, maybe twice the size on paper. Just...ears. Which don't look much like ears.
Okay, that's all for now. Possibly more amusing attempts later as I do more exercises.
...Aaah, some crickets in the audience this evening! Glad you could come out!
Well, if you agree with our insect friends here, then NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!
As a continuation to my last, incredibly wordy entry, I uploaded to my image host...something I DREW!
And if you're saying to yourself, "Well, that's odd. I didn't know that Bean drew," well, that's because... I don't. Every once in a long while though, I forget that fact. And I try to draw.
It generally goes rather badly.
Now, it's true that most people usually don't forget things like, "Oh, I can't draw." It's been burned into their brains from earliest childhood, and you would think it would also have been burned into mine. But I'm something like a character from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, routinely marching over the cliff edge out into space. Somehow, deep down, I privately believe that I really can draw if I want to. And that someday, when I'm least expecting it, I will put the pencil to the paper and discover that I can make representations which actually properly look like the things they're meant to be representing.
(Incidentally, I'm rather the same way about the idea that I can levitate objects with my mind. But we won't go into that.)
A brief explanation here:
Ever since the realization that my "role" as a writer is easier to adopt than my sister's "role" as an artist (see my last entry, but warning, it's long), I've had this odd competitive urge to attempt to draw. I get it at least annually. And because I now make my own money, these urges often result in the buying of things like sketch pads and drawing pencils and massive pencil crayon sets - things people bought my sister like there was a world shortage, but which I've never been allowed to lay my hands on.
Then they just sort of sit around and collect dust because, you know...I can't do anything with them.
My mother has a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She originally bought it during a period that my sister and I were homeschooling, to stock our "library" with. And she attempted to use it herself when she was going back to school to study interior design.
(Which, she concluded, requires too much math - she's got an math LD - so she ended up with a degree in interior decorating, instead.)
The book didn't really do much for her, according to her. But then, she admits she has never found the patience to do all the exercises.
I've flipped through the book, and realized I recognize a great many of the exercises myself - they were incorporated into a children's art-tutorial computer game someone gave my sister one Christmas. (One of the few art tools of hers I was allowed to use myself.) I thought the program was great fun, but didn't get much out of it in the way of technical artistic skill.
Coinciding with one of my random urges to attempt to draw, however, I rediscovered this book on our shelves and decided to give it another shot.
The premise behind the book is that basically, non-artists are blind. Well, not actually blind, but unable to SEEEE with right-brained artist-o-vision. The left side of the brain, the theory goes, is the pattern-finding side, the side which fills in gaps and tells us how things are supposed to look; the right side sees things as the truly are - however kooky. The key to realistic drawing then, is to be able to "turn off" your left brain (so to speak) and draw what's actually there, rather than what you expect to see there.
Simple enough theory, other than the fact that I don't entirely buy it. I was a child who spent hours thoughtfully staring at tree roots - why can't I draw them? It seems to me there is a synapse or two missing between the part that sees and the part which correctly produces the lines - at the right angles, at the right places - to represent what I see.
But hey. What do I know? I'm no artist.
Problem is, the exercises in this book ARE, in point of fact, tedious. I imagine they're slightly easier if you're naturally excited by the process of drawing, which I most certainly am not:
Oh, excellent! Several hours worth of frustration, with no resulting product of any worth!
...Sign this wabbit up for that.
Still, I added this ("finish exercises in Right Brain Drawing book, learn to draw") to a list of ongoing projects like, "teach self piano, play at concert level," "learn Latin," "learn to play chess, become Grand Master," and, "study all applicable medical textbooks in spare time so med school will be easy if you ever get your lazy ass accepted by one."
But you don't actually care about any of that, right? Here's the actual drawings to snicker over (and seriously, go ahead and laugh - I don't mind, as I find these funny myself):
Draw A Person From Imagination
[This is a so-called "pre-instruction" drawing, which you are supposed to do before going any farther in the book. There's four. I've done one. Speedy, aren't I? Then I'm supposed to follow this with a personal assessment of the drawing.]
Drawing time: About four hours. Except that's not accurate because I didn't actually draw for four hours. I drew a line...erased it...stared at it endlessly and listened to music...drew the line again...erased it...listened to a song...etc. So I have no idea. But I spent a LOT of time thinking about just where to place each line, so let it be known: I did my best (except on the hair, but I'll get to that). This is SUPERHUMAN EFFORT, y'all.
Size: The entire drawing itself is actually only 1½ inches wide by approximately 2 inches high in reality. I do that classic non-artist thing where I take a big expanse of shiny white paper, and then draw something very very small in one small corner because I lack the skill and confidence to take up the whole page. So it was a bitch to scan.
I messed around a lot with the contrast and brightness in Photoshop; I was trying to make it visible without affecting the integrity of the drawing, but that's probably not 100% possible. I didn't want to make the paper too bright, because some of my lines are so light they get washed out. (Something my drafting instructor once complained about... "So precise and neat, and it won't even show up on a blueprint! Press harder!") So some of the eraser marks disappeared in the process of trying to make the lines blacker/more visible. LOVE THE ERASER MARKS! There's a ton more you can't even see.
Materials: I'm relatively sure this is all 4B and 2B drawing pencil, but I wouldn't bet my life on it, as I don't totally remember.
Subject: I'm fairly certain the fact that it is a human figure comes across, but just to clarify: this is a little boy. Specifically, a little boy who just got out of bed on Christmas morning. Honestly, I could not think of a DAMN THING when I tried to imagine a person, until some Christmas tunes rotated up on my Zen MP3 player. So that's what this is.
He's sitting in about the most awkward position imaginable. It's hard to describe, but imagine kneeling on your left knee, and then balancing on the ball of your right foot, with your thigh rotated outward as far as it will go. Yeah. Like that. YES, you can sit like that: I tried it. Only a small child would willingly sit like that for any length of time, though.
WHY I didn't draw him standing or something simple: I don't know. That's just the way he was in my head.
He's...supposed to be blonde. He's not, because I haven't the foggiest how to draw cute blonde curls. And his hair was the last thing I drew (I started with his right knee; again, don't know why, it just seemed easier than the head for once), so as I told
elicia8 earlier, I got lazy and just scribbled. So it looks pathetic, or, to quote myself, "Now it either looks a huge bowl of noodles [on his head], or like he had the top of his skull cut off and his brains are falling out."And...he kinda looks pudgy, which I didn't intend, but I clearly can't get the folds of flannel pjs right. Or ankles.
I sorta gave up on the area around his groin, and anything that required small detail (eyes) - the disadvantage of drawing so small was that the pencil lead can't be sharpened enough.
I have not the faintest idea if much of this is in proportion.
...But you know what I am insanely, absurdly proud of? HUGELY proud of? The inside length of his left forearm and the length of his foot basically match. His foot might be slightly longer, but that's okay, because he's wearing slippers. Don't ask me why I'm so proud I got those to match, BUT I TOTALLY AM.
I would normally be practically crying over the failure of this drawing, but for some weird reason I have been pretty at peace with it since I drew it, and that emotion hasn't changed. Yeah, so it sucks. BUT I'M OKAY WITH THAT. Weirdly.
Okay, one more:
Random ears!
[Not one of the exercises, I just felt like attempting ears.]
I got basically nothing to say on this one. Same materials, maybe twice the size on paper. Just...ears. Which don't look much like ears.
Okay, that's all for now. Possibly more amusing attempts later as I do more exercises.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-16 04:04 am (UTC)Here's the things... learning to draw isn't a simple matter of flipping a switch in your head, no matter what some book tells you. So go easy on yourself. There's nothing wrong with these little drawings except in the amount of room you give yourself to fail or succeed.
And some things in that book are good advice, btw (Christmas present from a well-meaning aunt when I was a teenager). I recall some sections on blind contour drawing that were kind of useful.
And for what it's worth, PEOPLE are probably the single most difficult thing in the whole world to draw. Ever. No wonder you're going crazy, staring at the page and erasing every line. Try drawing something simpler first. Like a can of soda sitting on a table. And LOOK at it. Look at the can MORE than you look at your paper.
In fact, that's probably the best advice I could ever give you. Don't stare at your paper. There's nothing useful on your paper. It's a deathtrap. It will kill your mind. All the information you need is in the object you're drawing, so look at it instead. You will draw better staring at the object and NEVER looking at your paper than you will if you simply try to guess.
And *hugs* too. You are totally brave for sharing. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-16 11:24 am (UTC)You know...you'd THINK this would be BLINDINGLY obvious, but it's clearly not. 'Cuz what does every kid try to draw first? I'm pretty sure it's people. Other people I've seen struggle to draw? Totally people.
Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-18 11:13 pm (UTC)There's a series of psychological tests, btw, that you're probably well aware of, called the DAP. (draw a person, draw a house, draw a tree.) They're supposed to say something about something, but really, I've forgotten the significance of all that so I can't really analyze anything here.
Maybe you could look it up if you're bored, but then, it's kind of counterproductive insofar as creativity is concerned, because then you end up drawing more to create a pleasing psychological profile than a pleasing image.
Actually, maybe that's why I've forgotten all about it. I found it disturbing in a way, and kind of not useful.
Nice picture, though. Better than mine. I tend to draw majorly cartoony because anything else ends up looking undead.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-19 02:54 am (UTC)Thank you, but I have a feeling you're fudging some. LOL. It's childish. I know that, it's okay. (And by the way, I've always been impressed by, and envious of, your little cartoons. Even if you can't draw anything else, you can still get the basic form of a cat or a pig down! The first card I got from you, I thought, "Oh great, and he draws, too.")
Elicia up there is about the nicest girl in the world, so she went really easy on me (seriously, if your computer will load it, go visit her journal and see her stuff!), but this drawing is only a "success" if the "room" in which I give myself to succeed is very small. :P
I always thought it was more of a hand/eye coordination thing, but then, I don't know anything about drawing.
I think it's both...? Like, your hands need to know what to do. BUT it's also about seeing what's actually there. Non-artists don't tend to actually draw what's in front of them (IME), they draw symbols to represent what's there. Like, instead of actually drawing a table the way it looks...people will draw a skinny rectangle with sticks coming off the bottom, and that's, "a table."
I don't think I have a problem with switching to the right sort of "vision" (for the most part); I definitely think my problem is the first part. I'm 85% certain that I have some mild motor control issues in all areas (graphic, fine, gross), and possibly some motor planning issues, too. So that's mostly my problem.
Oh, and plus some of it is just experience. i.e. knowing that this line will look like that, etc. I've watched my sister's trial-and-error over the years enough to know that even natural artists don't always know exactly how the lines and colors go. (Well, not that you don't know that, but...I'm trying to be thorough.)
There's a series of psychological tests, btw, that you're probably well aware of, called the DAP. (draw a person, draw a house, draw a tree.) They're supposed to say something about something, but really, I've forgotten the significance of all that so I can't really analyze anything here.
I've been given a version of the DAP, actually! I actually had to draw, "my family," "a tree," and "a house I'd like to live in." Dr. Miles gave it to me.
I understand that research into the DAP has revealed it's not a test which produces reliable results (and probably shouldn't be used as a test). I still think it's an interesting method of evaluation, and in certain cases, could probably be useful.
Unfortunately, I never went back to see him following that session, so I didn't get his full assessment of my drawing. But I did find a book on art therapy years later, and from what I can remember of my tree (at least), I think I came off as stable enough. :P
Thank you for looking at this, anyway. I appreciate it. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-23 12:52 pm (UTC)I tend to start with the most obvious features, like I always do the big round horse face first, then add two points on top for the ears. It's really kind of comical when I watch myself draw.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-23 12:54 pm (UTC)your assessment of my 'drawing' turned me into a small puddle.
P.S.
Date: 2007-06-19 03:06 am (UTC)Fair, point, no? We don't really instruct children on how to draw in early years, and then (in most places in North America, anyway) art classes are no longer mandatory past 6th grade or so. And the age where it might be more easily learned is past.
Something to mull over...
(And if your comp won't load Elicia's posts - she does get a lot of comments, too - I could maybe email you a sample? I could just include the credit in the filename, maybe.)
Re: P.S.
Date: 2007-06-23 12:42 pm (UTC)Interesting about the development of art. I'm a bit foggy right now so I can't really form a coherent reaction to it just yet.