How to Bridge Observational Drawing and Imaginative Drawing
October 27, 2016 in ART, VIDEOS
ART/VIDEO – How to Bridge Observational Drawing and Imaginative Drawing
I got a very long question conscerning observational drawing and imaginative drawing. Since it’s such a long question, let me get to it soe you can see what it’s all about:
I have a question. And it is a very hard question, nobody ever told me the answer, no one artist or teacher.
We have two principally different approaches to drawing. First – is the approach where we should make a drawing of the existing scene. We stand at one single point of view (or we have a nice reference image), the light is set up, we draw with a variety of technics such as sight-size, or triangulation, or evaluating control points with a pencil, or using camera lucida or simply by eye… And that is a very tight process, or maybe a loose live sketch… But we draw something that exists. We can stylise the elements, we can simplify them and sometimes we can replace some details, but in overall we are limited to that one point of view. Suddenly we realize that we can’t remember what we’ve seen and draw without a reference or staging.
The second approach is the illustration. We build a drawing above a sketch, we construct objects as the combinations of simple 3d forms and 2d shapes, then make the outline, the shading, the coloring and so on… The drawing is stylised, and usually it looks like a cartoon. Technical drawing (with cross-sections and curves in perspective) is essentially the same, but it requires much more precision… But again, the principle is the same: we construct the drawing step-by-step from simple shapes up to the stage where even other artists sometimes can’t tell how the drawing was builded, because the final lineart or the illustration looks very complex and detailed.
I’ve seen a lot of artists who work perfectly from life, but they can’t do the illustration. Their work is called “fine-art”, they do exhibitions and sell their paintings for thousands of dollars, but they are unable to draw a dragon or Santa.
Also there is a lot of really good illustrators who work perfectly from imagination, they have their distinctive style, but… they make very poor life drawings. They use reference as the inspiration, but when they draw, it DOESN’T look like an object form reference image at different angle or with different light – instead, it just roughly reminds the same idea with similar textures… Not more. Life drawing is a pain in the ass for these creative persons, they usually hate borders and mandatory work.
There is A LOT of information for both matters (ranging from special ateliers, who teach sight-size method of drawing plaster casts, and up to Scott Robertson’s book “How to draw” or Neil Fontaine’s very huge and affordable course “Discover How to Draw and paint Comics”)
BUT! Nobody teaches how to build a bridge between two approaches. How could we fill the gap between drawing from life (or reference) and constructive drawing?!
I mean, how should I draw from life and analyse the reference material in order to LEARN the subject’s form for creative drawing WITHOUT a reference?
Quote: “So how to do bridge both? By practicing and mastering both skills. You learn the observation skill of drawing from life, but you don’t simply copy what you see, you reinterpret what you see using the formulas you use drawing from you’re imagination. … you draw what you actually see and try to understand what is happening there from your anatomy and construction studies.”
I am in trouble with this. It seems simple in theory, and it works more or less with a still-life (draw-through technique with simple or obviously constructive objects) or a figure drawing (anatomy schemes for doing better proportions and reinterpreting the whole shading). Actually it works well in the class or studio.
But… The trouble starts when reality comes. Let’s say, I need a decent tree for a composition. We usually are unable to find the right tree, which looks good in 2D projection. So we need to reinvent the structure of the drawing. I can’t apply any formula for such object because the formula doesn’t exist (or maybe exists in someone else’s brain).
The world is full of volumetric objects that are perceived in motion. What we really know about such complex objects is a range of conclusions and observations that are made from a lot of different points of view with various weather and light conditions. And THAT is the image of the subject in the mind of “non-artist” people. We know the subject, but a lot of that information is tactile, sound or whatever. But in order to depict the object, artists should establish the base form. When we understand the form, we can add everything: textures, small details, colour, shading, composition, storytelling and so on.
Any single point of view, any single reference image is lying to us – there is a lot of texture information, but it is extremely hard to understand the form.
It seems that I can’t get the formula out of life, it is necessary to creatively invent the formula which is believable, and for every new object there should be the new formula. HOW?!
As for the trees, the problem is how to interpret THOUSANDS of proportion relationships between leaves, not making a mess from the foliage. Also, how to reorganise tree branches in 3D space.
As for the iguanas, elephants, or snake’s head, or close-up view of the foliage, or flowers, the problem is that I simply CAN’T BREAK THEM DOWN on the simple shapes or constructive lines… because objects in nature are NOT simple. A head of a fly is not made of spheres or cubes or cylinders… Curved surfaces are everywhere, and it is necessary to simplify them somehow.
I don’t need the anatomically correct fly, also I am not going to be a botanist or guru of mammal’s anatomy… But I need the idea on how to invent the formulas based on what I see. Because three-four simplified curved surfaces would be enough for each individual detail, I just have to know the approach… How to make APPROXIMATE analysis of what I see.
I am sure, you understand what I am talking about. The speech seems complicated, but the problem is really fundamental. How Leonardo was drawing a swirls of water (or the backgrounds for his portraits)? How Durer was drawing a rhinoceros? How sculptors invent the curls?
In the end, THIS knowledge is a key to the so-called “visual library”.
How to redesign, reinvent, interpret the form on a basis of life drawing, reference images and observations? What is the methodology of this process? Not only regarding the figure drawing or technical drawing, but in overall? Any ideas?
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