#misc ref

i am trying to improve my anatomy for poses (I've been drawing for nearly 10 years) and I just can't seem to get it.

I've tried figure drawings but they all look so bad, I get discouraged and I never want to do them again. And I have anatomy books but I don't know how to use them.

Right now, I'm tracing over the refs and trying to copy the pose but it's never accurate and all my artist peers point this out constantly due to its many tiny mistakes.

I don't know what to do and I'm afraid I'll never be an illustrator because I can't draw anything right. I don't know if college classes will help me out neither :(

Now, I'm not the most articulate or best at wording what I think, but I'm going to try my best, because I genuinely think this is an issue of perception and perfectionism, and not an issue of not actually growing.

Figure drawings, in my opinion at least, don't really need to look 'good'. They are meant to be quick practice that breaks the body down into simple shapes and lines of action. Generally, with a lot of figure drawing practice, you start small and with reference, 10 second sketches, to 20 second, 30, etc. They are rough, they are messy, they are practice, and honestly? Practice doesn't often look 'good' or perfect. It will look bad, it will look messy. The key with those figuring drawing practices really is to just keep doing them, no one can have enough practice and no one stops learning or is a master that is no longer in need of practice and warm ups. Repetition will help you learn and experimenting will help you develop your own style.

Tracing over a reference is a valid way of practicing and learning! If you don't already, try not relying on the tracing too much. For example: When I need a hand in a specific pose and I just can't find the reference? I will pose my own (or a friends) hand how I need, take the picture, and trace it, but the tracing is very basic, the basic shapes, the details and fine tuning I do on my own.

I didn't go to college, when it comes to art some find it helpful, some find it to be a waste, but definitely look into colleges in your area or online that might have some free classes or events that you can attend. Some places have walk in figure drawing classes, and in this post I've discussed online resources.

But again, I think perhaps the actual issue here is perfectionism and self perception. And this is coming from personal experience:

The idea of 'pretty' and 'perfect' practice drawings or figure drawings is unfortunately a negative effect of social media and perfectionism. I think most people are guilty of it- spending time on a piece that is definitely more than a sketch, posting it, and captioning it with 'quick doodle' or 'rough sketch'. It creates an illusion of something being easy, natural, seamless, 'perfect' for other artists viewing it, and though no one should compare themselves to the work of another, I know we're all guilty of doing it.

I know I am extremely guilty of perfectionism, its something I tackle a lot with my therapist. This I think might be a useful resource and group of module work books to help anyone dealing with perfectionism, these are the exact ones I use and they are free! Sometimes we are our own worst enemies with growth, and we're the ones that stop ourselves from growing the most with our feelings of discouragement. I know it can really suck when artist peers critique and point out mistakes, sometimes it can come from a place of wanting to help and sometimes it just sucks. I certainly get discouraged, much like you're talking about, its important to focus on yourself, and your own goals rather than the opinions of others unless you are asking them specifically for advice.

Okay, so remember that bigass post full of links to resources for writing I reblogged earlier? Yeah, most the links don’t work because apparently @staff can’t program for shit, I mean, I know nothing about writing code and I figured out their problem handle you leaving their domain so links that lead elsewhere look kinda like this

http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fpage&t=OThkN2FlMTc5YjM4MmU0ZDYyYzk2Y2NlZTg3NWNjMWI1ZTdlMGE0ZixDbzQ1UWxFSA%3D%3D

and clicking them you just get the message

{”error”:“Redirect failed”}

So I was disappointed and tried to find help through google, but no luck. However I’m a stubborn ass and I decided to try to figure out how to pull the actual URL from that scrambled mess and I did!

First remove the whole http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=

Then just throw away &t= and all the nonsense that follows

Finally you decode what’s left using https://www.urldecoder.org/ (for obvious reasons not a link, just URL so you gotta copy-paste it)

With the example above that gets you

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fpage&t=OThkN2FlMTc5YjM4MmU0ZDYyYzk2Y2NlZTg3NWNjMWI1ZTdlMGE0ZixDbzQ1UWxFSA%3D%3D 

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fpage

http://www.example.com/page

Hello! This is something I myself struggle with a lot, especially when I find my preferred drawing style constantly changing and adapting. There isn’t really an easy trick or be all end all answer to this question, as much as it might suck the biggest help in this situation is just practice! Practicing drawing the character again and again!

To go a little more into depth with this, besides just practicing drawing the same character, studying can also help.

For example: If you’re drawing your own character, what kind of face shape does your character have? What is their jaw line? Sharp cheek bones? Small chin, angular chin? Once you have this figured out, keep it in mind for when you're drawing. If you have the free time, practice drawing these specific details or face shapes a few times. If you have real life face claim for your character, find some pictures of this person and study them.  The same goes for a character from a series or show, find pictures, use reference! There is absolutely nothing wrong with using reference, its one of the best ways to get better!

On another note, if you don’t have a specific face claim for a character, use multiple pictures. Open up sai or photoshop or paint or anything you have, and make a sort of reference sheet. Does a specific model or celebrity have the lips of your character? Get a few pictures, put them together (preferably different pictures at different angles), and note that these pictures are reference for the lips. Is there a picture of a random person you have seen on your dash and their hair was just like your character? Add it to your reference sheet. Gather up as much as you can if you have to take bits and pieces of different features, get them all together, and then DRAW! I promise it is the best way to improve and learn how to draw the character the same way every time.

I am sure there are people out there who maybe have small tricks that work for them, but the trick might not work for you. The guaranteed answer is to practice! I know that can be frustrating to hear, its something I still struggle with myself, but it does work!

Another piece of advise I can offer is to draw a picture of the person, head on, neutral expression, as a start. Then draw the same face (maybe different angles) with various ranges of emotions and ranging in severity. You can find many tables and charts across the internet for this. Try searching for ‘emotion chart’ or ‘feelings chart’, they’ll look something like this. 

I have plenty of tutorials archived for things like face shape, noses, eyes, mouths, ears, etc, practicing drawing those things for your characters will help and help you get the hang of it so that you will be be capable of drawing, for example, a characters nose in the same shape each time!

Remember as well: your art style will change and it will adapt, and as this happens, even if you have practiced drawing the character the same way, the character will still look different, and that’s not a bad thing! It just means your style is changing, adapting, and that you’re improving! I wish you the best of luck with this, its still something I am working on as well!