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How To Draw Well * HOW TO DRAW WELL
STARTING FROM THE INSIDE AND WORKING YOUR WAY OUT by Dávid Kolodny-Nagy The first lesson that can be learned from me, DKN, is that you must do as I say and not as I do. I studied illustration and painting for many years but my early works were stifled. When I first started I got caught up in drawing Smurfs rather than drawing from life. It is fine for fans and youngsters to draw their favorite cartoon and anime characters but once you decide to seriously pursue illustration, you've got to study life. If you want to draw people then you need to study people and not on a superficial level. Even though you're probably just going to be drawing peoples' outsides (skin, hair, eyes) the best advice is to start from the inside and work your way out. Get yourself a nice fresh cadaver and cut it open. Find out where all the bones, muscles and organs are located. Okay, yea that's pretty gross but trust me that's what at least one noteworthy Renaissance artist did. It helped his career. If you can't get a hold of a cadaver then just get an anatomy book and study that. The med. students will always have an edge over ya- knowing where all the guts and muscles belong. But if dissecting a dead guy isn't your idea of fun then find yourself a live model. Study the intricacies of his/her from till you know it well and practice drawing it over and over. You can never make too many drawings and sketches. Not only will you learn anatomy but also you'll get to ogle naked chicks and be able to say you you're doing it for the sake of art. J If you are on friendly terms with them then cop a feel as well. You'll learn even more about the human body by touching than by just looking. I suppose you can touch yourself as well but it's not quite the same and you certainly wouldn't want to admit it to anybody afterwards. Uh, what was I talking about…? Hmm.
Yes, drawing! Once you have mastered drawing from life then you can go back to drawing your toons and such stylized caricatures. This may be years and years later but at that point your drawings will be much better than your earlier attempts. And now when you draw a character's arms twice as long as they should be, her head way too large or the eyes as tiny dots you will not be worried if your drawing is anatomically correct. You will know it's not. But now it is a conscious decision to draw in that stylized, exaggerated or simplified manner rather than ignorance. You have transcended anatomical structure. |
