Another Design Problem

One Hundred Ninety Fifth Post: Another Design Problem

I have another design problem that I will try to post by the end of December (2005). It came about due to a project I was working on. One book that I would like to see be made is a collection of design problems. Admittedly, I own some books that offer some projects, but most of the work is put on the designer. I would like to see a book that showed how to draw engineering drawings from an artistic point of view. On www.kubertsworld.com one of the courses in design was supposed to be about gadgets and cars. I haven’t read about when, if it is available, but it would be interesting to see the technical things from an artistic point of view.

One thing that interests me is inking comics. I see a lot of politic cartoons use cross hatching for their tones. Old cartoons in magazines also use cross hatching. But as it says in “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way,” most of the work should be done with a brush. I have read some tips the only thing that I have to do now is practice. Hopefully it turns out better than my Bob Ross painting video. I found I could paint the most beautiful mountains, however, I wasn’t brave enough to add a happy tree. I tried to mix paint on the canvas and painted over my mountains. I haven’t painted since.

To create a painting it takes a little time but you will be surprised at the result. When I took my graphics training in the Army, we used little drawing tricks. Tricks that aren’t used so much anymore since computers, but if you need to make traditional art they are invaluable. You take a drawing from a magazine or reference picture and trace or draw it freehand. Once you have the drawing you use the projector and copy the image on to the board or canvas. Then you paint over your drawing. It is something different then always using a computer to combine images.

And there are dozens of little drawing tricks. There is the block method where you draw only what is in each grid. So traditional art skills and learning drawings are still necessary. The Art Institute and other schools are proof of that. A class is based on what is taught in basic art skills. I still have the painting I did in my basic graphics course in the Army. I should post it. It looks like impressionism. One of the instructors told me that if it were that time period I would have been a master. We were painting for realism though.

But until you research drawing tricks... May the Creative Force and Holiday Spirit be with You