The Secret of Tracing Like a Pro – Basic Under Drawing Techniques
October 24, 2012 in Beginners, Lvl 0
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~Scott Adams <= CLICK TO TWEET
Getting it Perfect the First Time
You can't seem to get it down the first time. You know what you want but you don't know how to get there.
You understand the concepts being taught. You're trying to apply them. You're doing the exercises but you're getting frustrated.
The truth is, when you put down a line to draw a face, a circle, or a stick figure body, you either don't know where it will end up when your done, or you do know, but it just ends up somewhere else.
That blank page has no "foot holds". You wish you had an "anchor" or SOMETHING to guide you, so that you know where to place your pencil as you draw.
Well, that's where tracing comes in.
What's that? You thought tracing was bad?
Well, it CAN be. It depends on how you use it.
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use tracing to refine your drawings and your control over what happens on the page. By the time we're done, you'll know how to set down the guides that will help you control the most complicated types of drawing.
How the Professionals Trace
I know of very few professional draftsmen who can just pick up a pencil, start in one corner of the page, and magically have a finished art piece in one pass. Those guys are the legends.
That's not us...at least...not yet.
The majority of professional, do what is called an "under drawing".
An "under drawing" is a rough pass, or trial run for a drawing. Like a rough draft in writing. It's not meant to be perfect by any means.
The purpose of the under drawing is to explore the direction you want to take the drawing and solve any problems the drawing asks you to solve. It's meant to be sloppy and imperfect. It's there so you're final drawing looks good.
Most beginners never do this. Have you been doing it? I didn't think so.
So what does this have to do with tracing?
Well, once the under drawing is done, you then draw over your under drawing, either directly, or on top with another piece of paper, "tracing" the final lines of your drawing.
There are two kinds of tracing, the bad kind and the good kind.
- The bad kind is what most people do. They take, say, a drawing, put some tracing paper over it and mindlessly follow the lines of the original drawing underneath. The end product looks like a wobbly, ugly version of the original drawing.
- The good kind is what draftsmen do. They take that same drawing and the same tracing paper and REDRAW the original drawing underneath, using it as a guide and making confident line CHOICES. The result is a new confident drawing based on the original.
"Good tracing" is in fact, not quite tracing but redrawing. Since it's redrawing, you make conscious choices as you go. By doing so, you end up, not only refining your drawing but also your drawing skills.
When you redraw over your under drawing, you're actually choosing what final line you want from the rough mess of lines you've put on the page. The outcome SHOULD look like a drawing you finished effortlessly.
Let me show you what I mean.
Here's Some Examples From This Very Site
Okay, so remember this drawing from the "Start here" page?:
Figure 1
This is how I approached the drawing.
First I drew a really rough gesture drawing of the pose (Figure 2). I'll explain gesture drawings in a later drawing level. The point is, the final Figure 1 drawing didn't just appear fully formed. I first drew the scribbly mess that is seen in Figure 2, to get it started:
Figure 2
Once I'd gotten all the shapes and lines approximately where I wanted them I refined the drawing by drawing over it . In Figure 3 you can see what I did. I recolored the rough from Figure 2 blue, so you can tell it apart from my more refined rough:
Figure 3
Having redrawn and refined the character, I decided it was time for the final line. I took the rough I drew in Figure 3 and drew over it:
Figure 4
Figure 4 is the result. Notice I was basically "tracing" or redrawing and refining my drawing in order to get the final result. At this point, it was more about what lines to choose and what to leave out than anything else.
Let's take a look at another example.
In Figure 5, we have the other drawing from the "Start Here" page:
Figure 5
But in Figure 6, we can see where I actually started:
Figure 6
As you can see in Figure 6, my first pass was a big mess. I was just scribbling, trying to get the shapes down where I need them to go.
Once that was done, I went and redrew on top of the scribbly mess, refining the drawing a bit more:
Figure 7
As you can see in Figure 7, I did a lot of adjusting and redefining. It's still rough and imperfect. I wasn't being "precious" with the drawing in anyway.
Once I was satisfied with what I had, I went in drew over the rough for the final pass:
Figure 8
Figure 8 was all about "tracing" or redrawing and refining. Once again, this process is about choosing the right lines to keep, while throwing out unnecessary lines.
"BUT...," I hear you saying, "golly gee, it's all swell and jolly to do that with your fancy pants drawing, but how does that apply to MY drawings? I mean, I'm only drawing stick figures here."
That's a good question. Take a look at Figure 9:
Figure 9
Yup this is the rough I drew for the STICK FIGURE drawing I used at the head of the "Stick figures with style" post.
Even THIS drawing didn't come fully formed. I drew a rough under drawing for it so I could work it out. THEN I drew over it:
Figure 10
You can see in Figure 10 how I refine even a drawing as simple as a stick figure.
The result is the drawing in Figure 11:
Figure 11
Had I not just shown you what I did, you would have thought I effortlessly drew it.
I get paid to draw for a living and this is how I approach drawing.
You want more control over your final drawings? You want your drawing to start looking effortless? It's time you start putting down some under drawings.
Baby Steps
Your Exercise...
I know this seems new, and daunting and crazy...
Don't worry. Take a deep breath, we'll take this nice and easy. I've broken this down into steps.
The goal of these steps is to get you to start drawing your own things this way. First you simply need to practice getting some control and learning to make good line choices:
- Step 1. Learn to do the "good" kind of tracing
- Step 2. Learn to make good line choices
- Step 3. Try it out on your own drawings
Step 1. Learn to do the "good" kind of tracing
Below I've posted three characters. Your exercise is simple:
Trace them.
BUT, don't simply trace them, try to redraw them. Recreate them as you trace over them.
In order to do that, here's what I want you to do.
- Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
- Save it to your computer.
- Print out the image,
- Get some REALLY low quality printer paper (they are very transparent) and trace over the drawing.
Like this:
But I've got THICK paper I can't see through, so I want to use tracing paper or better yet NO tracing paper!
Okay, that's what's why I also made THIS set of images:
These characters are specifically designed so you can simply draw over them directly.
Here's how you do it:
- Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
- Save it to your computer.
- Print out the image,
- Trace over it using tracing paper or...
- Trace directly onto the printed image.
Like this with the tracing paper:
Or like this directly on it:
(Yeah I got a bit sloppy with my lines on that last video. Sorry, I had the camera in one hand and was drawing with the other.)
Once you've done this, find other things to trace. Coloring books or comic books are best but anything you find is good. Practice not simply tracing but redrawing the drawings your are tracing. Use the drawings as a guide more than anything else.
Step 2. Learn to make good line choices
These next set of images are the actual under drawings that I used to make the cleaned up characters above:
You've gotten a chance to practice your lines, now it's time to test what you've learned.
Draw a final clean drawing from the rough drawings above.
This exercise is meant to help you learn to make line choices. It doesn't need to look like what I drew above, it has to look like what YOU want it to look like.
Choose a line to make. See how it turns out. It's okay if it ends up looking odd. The point of the exercise it to learn to make line choices.
Okay so here what you do:
- Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
- Save it to your computer.
- Print out the image,
- Get some REALLY low quality printer paper (they are very transparent) and trace over the drawing.
Like this:
What's up with the flip?
Well, the paper was transparent but not transparent enough. I started flipping in order to get a better idea of what the rough looked like under the page. As I flipped it helped me decide where I wanted to put my line.
I taped the two pages together to make sure my paper didn't move around when I flipped it.
Just like in Step 1, I also created a version you can use tracing paper or draw on:
- Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
- Save it to your computer.
- Print out the image,
- Trace over it using tracing paper or...
- Trace directly onto the printed image.
Like this, with tracing paper:
without tracing paper:
You can try cleaning the roughs up, over and over to practice if you want. Ultimately, the what you want to end up doing is...
Step 3. Try it out on your own drawings
Take everything you've learned so far and apply it here. Draw some rough stick figures and clean them up.
Go crazy and get messy. Remember, an under drawing is NOT the final drawing, it's simply a stepping stone that guides you to the final drawing.
Here's some tips on how to practice doing this.
Tip 1:
Draw your under drawing, VERY lightly onto your paper. Be messy but put very little pressure on the pencil.
Once you have the under drawing the way you want it, go back in and pick out the lines you want by making darker "final" lines over your under drawing.
Like this:
Tip 2:
If you're having trouble drawing a LIGHT under drawing, then simply draw the under drawing as dark as you want to.
When it's time to do the "final" line, use a ball point pen.
The drawback to doing it this way is that if you make a mistake with your final line, you won't be able to erase it.
The good thing about doing it this way is that, once your done, you can erase the under drawing and you'll end up with a nice, clean final line.
Here's an example:
Tip 3:
This is what most pros do.
Get a Col-Erase Colored Pencils
Once you've got the under drawing the way you want it, draw over the color lines with a regular pencil.
If the color line is too dark, get an eraser and "dim down" the lines a bit so they aren't so dark.
Here's an example:
So there you have it.
This is new and different. It will take a while for you to get used to it. The more you do it, the easier it will get. Once you're used to it, you'll wonder how you could have done without it.
Trouble?
Q: Yeah, I can't get a clean line. It's all wobbly. I know what I want and can almost get it but it's just not coming out right. Any way you can help me out?
A: Here's a little something I learned from a friend of mine who did clean up at Disney. Work WITH the natural pivots of your body, not against them. Here's what I mean:
Your wrist is a natural pivot point. It's like a limited compass. Your elbow is ALSO a natural pivot point.
Knowing this you can then position your PAPER and your drawing in such a way that when you make a mark, your working WITH those natural pivots. You'll find that your lines will come out looking better for doing so.
Here let me show you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qildN-ajx4U
Don't be afraid to move your paper around.
Pro Tip
Professional draftsmen are obsessed with seeing other professional's rough drawing. Most of us would rather see that than their finished work.
An under drawing is a window of how a draftsman solves drawing problems. By seeing those rough drawings, we hope to get tips and tricks WE could use to solve OUR drawing problems.
Now that you know what you know, you might want to start paying more attention to rough drawings as well.
Questions?
I can’t help you if you don’t ask.
What’s your burning under drawing or tracing questions?
Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about under drawing or tracing? Ask.
I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows, probably write a post about it.
Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.
Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice. You can ask me questions that way also.
Not sure where to post this question but this step seems to be the most affected, so here goes: I draw too hard. Literally, all of my lines are dark/heavy and as a child I could draw holes in paper if I tried hard enough. My grade school art teachers constantly scolded me for it, telling me to draw “lighter”, lighten up, or relax. Not sure what my underlying issue is, but drawing “lightly” isn’t actually relaxed for me – it takes me incredible amounts of effort to focus on not drawing heavy handed.
In previous lessons drawing heavy didn’t seem to matter as much, since I was just making doodles/shapes anyway and if the lines were bold I didn’t think it looked bad. But with under-drawings now I worry I’m just going to create darker clouds of antimatter upon a black abyss of scribbles. Are there any suggestions for this habit, or is there an Iron Palm Technique I could use to redirect my strength in a positive way?
Thank you, by the way — really love this site!!
Thanks T.W. for the question,
First I just wanted to let you know, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I may not have been creating black holes when I drew, but man did I draw hard. It took me years to get over it (and I still kinda have it).
Here’s some tips that may help and that helped me when I was in the same boat. Especially with under drawing.
1. Use pencils with harder leads. Search for drawing pencils that have the letter “H” on them. The higher the number, the harder the lead. This means that line will be lighter because it has more clay. H9 is the hardest lead. Start with an H2 and see how that works out for you.
2. Get a light box. An under drawing is NOT the final drawing. You can be as dark as you want and then put another piece of paper on top for a final line. Using an H pencil lead.
3. Use color pencils for your under drawing. Maybe a light blue or an orange. Then you can get an H pencil on the same sheet of paper and do what you may think is a final line. Then light box the line again.
4. Get an kneaded eraser. If the under drawing is too dark, pass a kneaded eraser over it to lighten it up. Then add some final lines on top of that. Then lightbox it all when you’re satisfied and know what you want the final to look like.
This is the kind of stuff I used to do in order to work with my heavy handed drawing style.
How did I eventually get rid of the heavy hand? Well, I still have a bit of it, but it’s really confidence. The less confident I am about what I’m going to draw, the more heavy my hand is. The more confident I get, the lighter I draw. It’s that simple.
I hope this helps.
Can you please give some examples of drawing problems that drawers try to solve with a rough drawing. And what are some common techniques or approaches to solve them?
All drawing is problem solving. All drawing can be solved using rough drawing. However, if you want examples, all the formula lessons I’ve been putting up the site are rough drawings that solve a problem, like drawing eyes, drawing noses, etc.
For step 1, I don’t have a printer. So what do I do now?
You can do two things:
1. You can download the drawing, put it in a flash drive and take it to a copy place or a library were you can print it out for a few cents.
2. You can buy the print version of The Art of Draw Fu: Beginner Level on Amazon. That way you don’t have to print anything out.
The second way is a bit more expensive, so I recommend just going to a copy place or a library and printing it out there.
Hello Luis,
I just want to get out of the way that your site is awesome. I’ve been redirecting as much people as I can to your site since I’ve had a lot of fun learning drawing through your website. Your knowledge and teaching are comprehensive and well done! I definitely have the motivation to work through all of these lessons.
I’m stuck on step one of this section primarily because I don’t understand which lines I make are purposeful and which lines I make mindlessly.
I used a different reference than the ones you provided since I didn’t have a printer available on hand.
Here’s the traced image that I made: http://s9.postimg.org/lb4mhmpq7/ika_musume_pic.png
Some of my lines aren’t as confident as others and I guess I’m sort of confused how and where to recognize that.
I apologize if this is a tall order.
Best Regards,
Nick
Hi, first I wanted to thank you for your awesome website and all the invaluable knowledge you’re giving. I can’t put into words how much I appreciate everything you’re doing.
I wanted to ask, would you advise against new comers learning drawing through a electronic drawing tablet?
I already own a Wacom drawing tablet and I personally find the ‘convenience’ of it for a lack of a better word to be really nice for practice sake with how easy it is undo big mistakes among other reasons. However I hear a lot of mixed answers on the subject. Some say to start with what you plan to use in the long run, others say it would be best to learn with traditional first.
I was curios to see what a professional like you with years of experience thinks of this matter.
Great question Ryan,
I think I would help to use both. An electronic tablet IS far more convenient. You really don’t need to carry around any tools that way.
However, drawing on paper with pens and pencils is very useful as well.
Think of it this way. You can write a note or letter on a computer and print it out or send it to someone electronically. But you can also write a hand written something on a postcard, a note, or anyplace else. And they would have very different uses and feels. It depends on how personal and hand made you want to make things.
You can learn using digital out of convenience and can become very good. The skills should be able to transfer to analog very easily. The confidence, unfortunately, won’t. And that will the biggest difference.
I hope that helps.
Hello, what do you reccomend I do if I dont have a printer?
Hi Nermin,
Thanks for the question.
If possible, find a place like Kinkos and print your art that way.
I’ve spent plenty of hours and money at a copy place, getting copies and making prints.
I hope that helps.
Thank you for the fast reply. I will try the Kinkos and see if that works, thank you for your help 🙂
Hi, I never did an under-drawing or a blue print of the drawing I wanted to trace. I just started at the top of a blank page and finished at the bottom and the product was an indiscernible copy. However, I suck at drawing by my own, I cannot draw from my own head, I guess I do not have skills?
Thanks for the question Pearl. It’s cool to hear you have such great copying skills.
Copying and drawing from imagination are two different skill sets.
The under drawing process is meant to facilitate drawing from your imagination.
When you copy, you already know what you will draw since it’s already been done. But when drawing from your imagination, unless your’re great at pre-visualization and can copy what you clearly see in your mind, you’ll need to put down guides on the page to help know where you are going, what you will be drawing and how you will be drawing it.
Construction and the rest, are also needed so you know how to solve drawing problems as they come up.
Copying is great. It teaches you observation skills that come in handy through out your drawing career.
That said, when you copy you should also use it as an opportunity to learn from what you copy. If you copy something and then go draw something from you’re imagination and can draw your own version of something similar to what you’ve copied, then you’ve learn something. Otherwise, all you’ve done is increased your observation skills and nothing more.
Hope that helps.
I have a question. after i started reading your lessons i have really gotten into drawing. I am really happy with the progress i have made. (though i do get impatient with myself) And i had a question. For awhile i have been using a layer method where i start with a stick figure kind of deal then kind of draw over that adding more detail with each layer. But lately i found i am not getting great results. so i tried a more free drawing style. (Using a circle to draw a head around then working the body off of there. And i was wondering if you know if that is normal. i mean i still layer details but i just dont know if stick (or skeletal) base works for me. do you think it may be easier to do it that way? (sorry if my question is so long >.< i am just trying to work with my brain)
Thanks for the question Vexing,
Yes, it’s fine. You don’t have to draw a stick figure or a stick figure skeleton. In fact, I don’t do that and it’s never worked for me. In the post above I showed my method. I didn’t draw stick figure skeletons. I started with a “gesture” and shapes of the direction I wanted the drawing to go and built off that. I’ve found the stick figure skeleton to be confusing.
If you feel more comfortable drawing shapes than sticks, then so much the better.
I hope that helps.
Hello, Luis!
Actually I’ve stumbled upon your site just a minute ago, and I read this article about tracing, and… Hey, this is the BEST explanation of tracing’s pros and cons.
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?
Wow, great question Alexander!
I brought up this topic a long time ago on in my Newsletter. It was titled, “Observational Drawing vs. Drawing From Your Head:”
http://eepurl.com/MY2Ef
Although it doesn’t quite address your question.
Turns out the animation industry has been making this bridge for years. Although only some animation artists have become exceptionally good at doing both. Mostly it’s the concept artists like Richie Chavez, Marcello Vignalli, and my pal Paul Wee.
Observational drawing and drawing from your imagination are two completely different disciplines but they are completely complimentary. In the animation industry, when you wanted to get hired as an animator, you had to show a portfolio full of live figure drawings. This is odd considering you’re drawing cartoons all day long. So why did they have us do this? Because cartoons are caricatures of life. If you can’t draw and understand what is real, how can you caricature it?
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. BUT adjust you’re formulas to what you SEE. So you don’t simply draw a thing the way you THINK it should look or the way you “always draw it,” but you draw what you actually see and try to understand what is happening there from your anatomy and construction studies.
When you do that you can take that back to your imagination drawing which gives you more shapes and design ideas to work from. Reality gives you infinitely more ideas than you can come up with just from your head. You “fight,” your “style,” for the sake of greater understanding.
You try to have, no style at all, so you can have all the styles you want. The more you study reality the better you understand it. The more you understand it the better you’re imagination drawings become.
In the animation industry, we’re asked to have no style because we have to be able to draw in all styles. The best way to do this is to work on being a great draftsman, by studying reality, and at the same time, studying how to draw from you’re imagination so the formulas you learn can be applied to the real and the unreal.
Does that answer your question?
Your whole answer sounds right, and I understand the point (thanks for the links, btw!).
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?
I understand what you’re saying, but I think you might be over thinking it or overcomplicating it. The answer is as simple and as difficult as the figure drawing problem.
The reason figure drawing is important to learn to do well is because, in theory, a human figure is THE most difficult thing to get right. The idea is, if you can do the figure well, then you can apply the same approach you take when drawing the figure, to everything else. Gesture, rhythm, design, then applying three dimensional form and structures to those preliminary elements.
It’s much easier than you might think, BUT it takes PRACTICE, and THAT is the missing element that puzzles most beginning artists. “How does that artist THINK that way? How does he DO that?!”
Practice. Practicing a LOT.
It also helps to have a teacher who guides you on the steps you need to start when breaking things down, and shows you how the skills you get from a life drawing class can be applied universally to everything else. But it requires a lot of making mistakes, and practice to get these things right and to condition you brain to think that way until it becomes habitual.
You may not need to be a botanist to be able to draw great animals but if you were to ask an artist who is REALLY good at drawing animals, he’d be able to draw one without any skin and show you how the muscles connect to the bones. It’s easier if you know how to do that with a human being at first because animal musculature works pretty much the same way, it’s just slightly varied in spots.
You might not WANT to study stuff that deeply, but many of the best artists in the world do and are the best for that reason.
Drawing is easy, but drawing GREAT is not. It takes a lot of work and dedication.
I’ve hit those walls where I’m trying to do something I’ve never done and all my skills and knowledge fail me. No matter what I do, I can’t pass that hump. I’ve found that, when I hit a bump like that, it’s best if I simply ask a friend who is better than me, or a teacher and ask them how they do it.
Having someone show you one way to approach a problem sometimes opens the floodgates in your head. You suddenly find that the problem was so easy to solve, but you just didn’t see it.
I wrote about one of my breakthroughs on my personal blog years ago if you want to see what I’m talking about:
http://www.luisescobarblog.com/working-on-an-episode-without-a-director-finally-a-painting-breakthrough-tips-on-face-rhythms-planes-and-tones/
I hope that helps.
Thank you, Luis. Thank you very much!!!
Great information! My question is, though, how do you then transfer the drawing from the tracing paper onto the final paper?
Thanks for the question BB.
Well, there are a few ways to answer that.
1. Have the tracing paper BE the final paper.
2. Use a lightbox or tape the tracing paper onto a bright window and then put your final paper on top of that, then trace it on the final paper.
3. Make the tracing paper into carbon copy paper. Take a dark pencil, then turn the tracing paper over so your drawing in on the other side, then rub the pencil over the area behind where your drawing is, making it black. Once that’s done, take your final paper, put the tracing paper black side down on it, and redraw over the lines of your original drawing. It should work like carbon paper and transfer your drawing onto the final paper. You can then finesse the final line so it looks a bit better.
4. Photocopy your tracing and physically cut and paste it onto your final paper.
Does that answer your question? I hope that helps.
Thanks so much for this. I knew that there was a step missing when I did my designs. Even though I sort of do this when I take my drawings from paper to computer. I have always wanted to feel more finished before I scanned anything in.
I’m starting over from scratch and these lessons are really helping me fill in those gaps in my foundation. This is making me feel more confident in my sketchbook with my scribbly lines. And I am working in my sketchbook a whole new way. Since I have tracing paper, I will go back and redraw my stuff as the exercises here line out and just keep the bits of tracing paper taped in there. It will be a little messy but it will be like a timeline.
Anyway, thanks so much for being a humble professional who doesn’t mind giving not so professionals a leg up
Thank you so much. I’m glad you got something out of this. I hope you continue to improve.
What paper do you use for the final drawing?
That all depends on the purpose of the drawing. That said, for the sake of just doing the exercises, any paper will do.
I have literally done this unknowingly my entire life. I draw very loose and jagged and refine it later until I do a final pass with a felt-tip marker. I just always thought that’s what everyone did for some reason.
Fantastic! It’s great when these thing turn out that way.