More Musings on Drawing

Two Hundred Fifty Fifth Post: More Musings on Drawing

When I sent my drawing in to be critic through the Joe Kubert Correspondence Course, the main thing on my drawing anatomy was the proportions. His recommendation is to trace the figures in magazines or art of my favorite artist.

Simple but solid advice that when practiced leads to good results. I admit I am not that good at drawing. But as I trace I learn the descriptions of the face that I always draw wrong. The problem is when I draw a face it always ends up looking the same. Simply put it is the placement and proportions of the eyes, nose, and mouth that have to be mastered to draw a proper face. Eyes are hard to draw. The nose is usually a distinct feature (everybody has a different shape) and its placement along the face is crucial.

I always draw the nose wrong. (Of course if the eyes are placed correctly only an indication of the nose is sometimes needed.) The nose is quite large in size (relative to the eyes), but most be kept subtle.

When I took my Basic Graphics Course, we learned traditional art such as drawing, painting, and shading. Everyone wondered why we just didn’t start on the computer. The answer that was reiterated again and again is that the computer doesn’t do art the artist does. Also the time must be considered. It was 1997 when computer graphics was just becoming standard. We were using Macintosh computers and the software that fueled them was expensive and not as common as it was today. In fact I don’t think Photoshop was available for the PC yet. PCs were for programming, word processing, and playing games. For years PC users were forced to use Corel Draw which was ok at best and mostly geared towards clip art.

This leads to the second reason we learned the basics. That is because at the time not everyone had access to all the computer software, printers, scanners, cameras, and even computers. I have seen the world of computer graphics evolve some in the last 10 years. Of course the machines are faster. It used to take Photoshop 5 minutes to load. The faster systems have brought video and 3d creation and editing.

But the single most important factor in graphic design in the last 10 years is that it has become common and readily available. Also important is the fact is has gotten easier to get the information you need to learn. The web is filed with tutorials and files.

So when you think of computer art don’t think of it as taking something away from traditional art. In fact it is based on traditional art. And because of the medium, it has the ability to bring art to everybody. So in the meantime... May the Creative Force be with You