Elfwood is the worlds largest SciFi & Fantasy community.
- 92979 members, 22 online now.
- 59033 site visitors the last 24 hours.
- 479169 SciFi & Fantasy Pictures, 36069 Stories.
- 4173172 comments written.
'The greatest art is produced when an artist with original vision also has a high degree of technical skill. Of the two, vision is the more important because, on its own, all the technical skill in the world will not produce a great work of art.'- Ian Simpson from 'Drawing, Seeing and Observation.'
This isn't going to be a 'how-to-draw' article. There are too many different ways of learning to draw for me to write this along those lines. What I am going to try to do is offer my perspective on drawing, specifically pencil drawing but a lot of what I will cover applies to drawing in general. Drawing is important to me, I'm training to be an illustrator but that isn't why it is important. It is a very personal experience (like any method of creating artwork), this is one of the most important points when considering what good drawing is. Good drawing isn't trying to produce a drawing of an object or a scene in the style of anyone else (no matter how famous they are or how good you think they maybe). Good drawing is about describing something, whatever that maybe (a memory, a thought, a scene in front of you) in a style that is personal to you.
Of course, as artists we should learn from other artists (I will mention one or two artists during the article at relevant points) and feed off what other people have done. However, the end result must be yours; if you copy the style or work or ideas of another artist then the artwork might as well be theirs. It stops becoming personal and original.
Originality in artwork comes in many forms, it could be in the style, in the subject matter or the idea that is governing a piece of art. I can't comment on the artwork of everybody who reads this (without make sweeping and mostly inaccurate statements) so I'm going to comment on mine.
Here is a small collection of my work (although not all recent), it shows widely varying techniques. It isn't all pencil drawing, for which I apologise, but the collection shows a wide variety of styles and ideas. This brings me to my second point, experimentation. This (again) applies to all artwork not just pencil drawing (but it does apply strongly to pencil drawing). I am in the process of learning to draw and I don't really know what my style is yet (I'm getting an idea of where it is going but I don't know where it will end up). Some of my work is realistic(-ish), some is abstract and some is stylised. By experimenting with styles and methods of drawing you will begin to learn exactly what it is that you enjoy doing. Not necessarily what you're good at, not what someone else enjoys looking at but what you enjoy producing. The chances are if it is something new to you, it won't look very good first time round but it will eventually and you'll enjoy doing it. How do you know you don't like abstract art? Or realistic art? Or watercolour? Or gouache wash-out? Or screen printing if you've never tried them and spent a while just playing around with what can be done. Experiment, try new things, try everything and see what appeals to you.
Contents of Article
I have broken this article down into several smaller chunks in order to make it easier to navigate.
Sketching With A Pencil: For Those Who Are Just Beginning Hamilton explains, in a fine text accompanied by many simple sketches and finished drawings, how to sketch. He succeeds in encouraging development of competence and increasing satisfaction for amateur artists using the simple materials of paper, pencil, and eraser. Concentrates on fundamentals: how to hold a pencil and compose a drawing; and creating the illusions of depth and distance.
Pencil Sketching, 2nd Edition (Paperback) The complete, classic guide to the art of pencil sketching. So many art books give long-winded descriptions of what to do, and even how to do it, yet they fail to capture the essence of what makes a drawing good. Wang concentrates on simple elements and rules of thumb, providing a wealth of wisdom in a few words and pictures.
First of all I just want to say thank you for taking time to make this tutorial. Second, to all of those who have commented about this tutorial saying negative things, you should just follow the saying "If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all."
Personally I love to draw or should say I wish I could draw better so that I can love to draw more. I have little drawing knowledge so I sought out a tutorial on how to get better at drawing, and to hopefully learn what the reason was that i haven’t been getting any better. The biggest problem that i face with drawing is that I’m a perfectionist, when I draw something i try to get it perfect the first time, I get frustrated when i spend time sketching something and it doesn’t turn out how I intended it to. Having the ability to draw/sketch well and not take all day doing it is very important to me. I’m 18 years and since I was 4 years old I have been playing video games, I love them and can’t get enough of them, which is why I plan on going to college for the graphical end of video games. This is why i want to improve so much, I want to be able to draw all the concept art that i need to for my future career in the video game industry. Also in past several years i have gotten quite interested in anime and manga and I have been working on a story that i think is quite good and would translate well into a manga/anime type setting. I had got one of my friends at my school to help me with the art end, since she is an amazing artist. Problem is she hasn’t done any of the sketches that i asked her to do and I’m getting impatient, as it has been over 6 months since I originally asked her to do them. So I have decided that it would just be easier if I do the sketches, which is another reason that i was looking for a tutorial like this.
(Didn’t have enough room to finish comment, continued into the next comment)
19 Aug 2009
Anon.
Loading...
(Continuation of previous comment)
Sorry, seems like I went on a bit of a rant there. I just wanted to let you know how important it is for me to learn how to draw better. Normally I’m not the type of person to leave a comment but after reading the whole tutorial I felt that I had to. I loved this tutorial and thought that it was very informational, I plan on putting into practice what i have learned.
too drawn out and dull, to write a good tutorial, make it more interesting and shorter, im 12 and read 1 sentence of the whole thing and almost fell asleep
The collection of art and writing tutorials in the Elfwood Fantasy Art Resource (F.A.R.P.) is a part of Elfwood. The FARP logo was created by Miguel Krippahl (The muscular guy in the FARP-logo) and Thomas F Abrahamsson (The text and general graphic design). Those sections written by volunteers are copyrighted to Thomas Abrahamsson and the respective writer. Elfwood is a project created by Thomas Abrahamsson.
All rights reserved. Unauthorized Reproduction of the graphics, writings, and materials on these pages is absolutely prohibited! You may consider all material on these pages protected and copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. You may NOT use the images found at the FARP or Elfwood pages on your home pages! All of these images are copyright protected! Everything you see here represent the collaborative effort of the Elfwood community and Thomas Abrahamsson. Please read the Legal Disclaimer for more info on warranties/etc for these pages!
Anon.
Loading...
Back to the FARP main page.
