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Trichardsen — 10 Simple Drawing tips #6 - To see.
Published: 2012-11-03 10:57:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 2300; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 0
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[ PS: Dont forget the Make it cold (fav.me/d5ia0qe ) Contest where you can win 3 month premium and 1000 points ]
It has been a while since I have delved into drawing myself, a lot has to do with getting a new camera so ofc the enthusiasm has been very high for taking pictures lately, but that certainly does not mean I have forgotten about drawing, so In honor of the mix and match between photography and drawing I though I would cover a topic that should resonate with both.
*Again I must add that I am in no way a professional artist and you should take the below mentioned tips as such*
1. The art of seeing When you are working with the visual medium, be it drawing/painting to 3d and photography you will even when you are freshly starting out quickly start to see things different, and If you just take a small stop now and then you will also realise that you infact are starting to see things differently, and that is the most powerful tool at your disposal.
To be aware of seeing is a different thing and being able to use it at will is even more difficult, that is where practice comes to play, and there has been a lot of studies about this subject ( one is how much the right side of the brain plays its part when it comes to seeing artisticly ).
So as little as this might be a tip it is still something to take into regards cause that is where your work will come from, may it be from just looking at something or pulling out memories of things you have seen before.
2. Shapes, your best friend If you want to remember something you have seen for later or if you are drawing something you are looking at, being able to break things down into simple shapes is of tremendous help when depicting what you see accurately and correctly.
For example, a straight up portrait can be divided quite simply into a big triangle, top of the head is one point and each shoulder a point, connect the dots, and if you take into account any tilt there might be for both the head and shoulders things will start to come together a lot faster.
And then you might continue to break things down, head is a simple egg shaped oval, then 2 small circles to indicate the shoulder joints.
And if you continue to break things down you have the eyes which are simply ball shaped, the jaw can be looked as a curved triangle, long hanging hair can be as simple as the letter U and so on.
If you then start to add in the general drawing guidelines like a centerline, the ears are from brown to bottom of nose ( on someone looking straight ahead ) to the human body is generaly 8 heads long ( keep the generaly in mind ), those shapes and the aid of simple guidelines will help a lot to translate what you see.
3. Knowing is key If you know about perspective you will start to see things being more aware of perspective, if you know about leading lines, pattern, rule of thirds, opposite C`s and so on you will be more aware of it.
If your very first step into drawing is this : "I am going to try to really see things" then all power to you, because that is an amazing way to start, knowing is the part that comes after, when you are starting to see you will incorporate the things you learn more and more, and then your artworks will become a lot more powerful.
And it is better to know some rules well and break them than to hardly know about it and try to break the rules.
4. Detail awareness Details is what makes something go from a blurry fuzz to something people recognise, after learning to see the big shapes all you need to do is lower the scale of those shapes and you are soon working on intricate details and are able to translate that just as well as the big ones.
The same rules apply as to seeing the bigger shapes, if you say have 3 freckles on a persons face recognising that those 3 forms the shape of an V a C or anything else they might form will really help a lot to getting them accurately down on paper as well as being aware of that perhaps one of the freckles lines perfectly up with a persons tearduckt on their cheek.
Everything can be broken down into shapes, to see them is what takes practice and if you keep on trying it will come together faster than you might think.
5. Shapes gone bad Shapes is a big advantage but there are times when shapes will work against you, a good example is the eyes, kids have a tendency to draw eyes as the same simple shape on everybody, generally as an almond shape, and if you keep labeling what you draw as eyes, nose, mouth and so on it is easy to trigger those memories and start drawing like that even as an adult.
A good way to counter that is to draw something looking at it upside down ( No, dont hang down from the ceiling and try to draw, just turn the photo 180 degrees. 
6. Your hand has to follow Some people are naturally gifted at seeing artisticly but not always as gifted when it comes to drawing, all the seeing in the world won´t help you if you can´t use the pencil/brush/pen tool correctly, and that is where practice comes into play, do not take that gift of seeing for granted cause without practice, and a lot of i, you might spend many hours you could have avoided trying to make it right instead of actually making it right.
7. Time I am quite the perfectionist when it comes to my artwork, and I know many who are, but the price of trying to achieve it ( I never have, it is just a goal that pushes me forward ) is very simple, Time.
If you are thinking that you are going to make this perfect amazing drawing in 30 minutes that is simply a delusion, but If you are thinking you are going to make this perfect amazing drawing and you are going to give yourself 2 weeks to do so then that is a path to great artwork.
Patience is key, and its something that is easy to forget about, once you are able to make that one drawing that you really poured your heart and soul into there is no better feeling, at least in my book.
8. Frustration Not getting things right ? Want to break those pencil and throw them at a random person ?
Then it might be time to bring Fun into the game, rules are ment to be broken why not go ballistic on a piece of paper and just draw the hell out of it with whatever you want, a puppy eating a blue whale with cheese ontop, whatever your heart desire, cause sometimes it just feels good to get it out.
I got stacks of paper with basicly crap drawn on them, it look like shit and it is not something I am ever going to post online but they helped me out when those drawings didnt quite come together as I wanted, it is important to have fun as well.
9. Look at other peoples work Sometimes artwork just stops you dead in your track and it is hard to take the eyes away, and that is where you really should stop and think for a moment, as yourself simple things like : "Ok, now why do I like this ?" , "What has this artist done right ?" , "Is there something I can learn from this ?".
If you are able to answer those questions then cudos to ya, cause then you have the possibility to not only do something simular but even better, simply cause you are aware of things and you are better able to see.
10. Oh yes, here it is again................................. Practice, cause everything said and done it all comes down to this simple fact, those that practice more gets better faster, draw a lot and often, and if you are mindful of how to see that is yet another great tool to add to your drawing arsenal.
Big thank you to all my watchers, I really appreciate the support and I am quite humbled by all the replies I have gotten on my artworks.
Warmup: trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou… , #1 trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou… , #2 trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou… , #3 trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou… , #4 trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou… , #5 trichardsen.deviantart.com/jou…
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Comments: 23
I love your journaled tips. I will refer to them if I ever pick up traditional art again.
Also, I'd like to participate in your "Make it Cold" contest, but it barely got cool here, it won't get cold, snowy, frosty, etc until December. :C
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Thank you.
Thats the thing with Make it cold, you can take anything and make it look cold, like the example I added, it is shot late summer, when It was warm and the sun was still up.
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But that's not authentic. That would bother me.
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Maybe not authentic, but artistic comes to mind.
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Thank You!!! I need to save this somewhere...lord only knows I i can use refresher courses!!! This is great!!
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You are very welcome, and it is a pleasure.
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This is great, thank you for sharing these awesome tips!
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" No, dont hang down from the ceiling and try to draw, just turn the photo 180 degrees."
xD haha.
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awesome
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Thank you so much, very glad you like it. 
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its ok, through advice like people such as yourself I have learnt a lot on how to draw. I am always happy to read any advice people have. So I appreciate you taking the time to write the advice in the first place
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Thank you very much.
I just tell it how I call it, it might not be 100% correct every time, but it is my feelings on the subject.
And I appreciate it a lot.
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