When I was in art school one teacher gave my class some wisdom.
He warned us not to fall into the trap of working while under the influence. A lot of artists will get drunk or high before they create, because they think it makes them more creative.
It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. By only allowing themselves to be creative while under the influence of a drug, they program their brains to associate drugs with creativity. They train themselves like Pavlov’s dog.
Eventually, their brain forgets how to be creative while sober, because they’ve spent their so much time practicing and reinforcing this self-destructive behavior pattern.
People can only rely on self-destructive habits for so long before they hit a crisis point. Eventually the addiction gets out of control, and starts to destroy their careers.
The same applies to mentally ill artists who refuse to take their meds because they think that their skill is a product of their psychosis.
Whether you’re taking drugs you don’t need, or not taking medication you do need, you’re sabotaging your art. It might seem like it’s improving your creativity in the short term, but self-destructive habits will only damage your creativity in the long term.
Real skill doesn’t come from random moments of inspiration – it comes from thousands of hours of practice. If you do the bulk of your practice when you’re in a manic state, or when you’re high, etc., you’ll end up falsely attributing your skills to that mental state.
Don’t fall into that trap. You’re self-inflicted suffering is not the source of your “genius.” If you believe it is, you’re suffering from a grandiose delusion, and you need to rethink your creative process.
I jotted down for a friend of mine some tips and notes on how I approach drawing hair, and things I keep in mind while doing so, and thought I’d share. There are loads of other ways to do it, and the learning never stops, so I hope this helps!
HOW THE SAUSAGE IS MADE Sketchbook and ancillary pieces of paper Scanned images arranged in a workable grid in PS Printed-out rough draft, drawn over/refined (this is usually where I mess with the word placement). I draw it 7″x7″. Lettering (I almost always do this separate) Final art on tracing paper, w pens used (a Micron and a PaperMate Flair) The final product after combining and coloring it in PS
well that is simple, the head ideally sits in the middle of the spine…
positioning the head is not the difficult part, in most cases ‘artists’ don’t need to make things ‘look’ right
but make it ‘feel’ right. specially when drawing idealized and/or from imagination altering proportions and poses is rather common ⁽ˢᵘᵖᵉʳʰᵉʳᵒ ᶜᵒᵐᶦᶜ ᵃʳᵗᶦˢᵗˢ ᶠᵒʳ ᵉˣᵃᵐᵖᶫᵉ⁾
the easiest way⁽ᶦᶰ ᵐʸ ᵒᵖᶦᶰᶦᵒᶰ⁾ is to use the shoulders. Most of the time when drawing poses i will actually place the shoulders first and then draw the head. Maybe try ‘gesture drawing’ as exercise.
The hard part is done! Now for the time consuming stuff—part of which was doing that clean outline.
Also, I’m not hand drawing the final letters. Some of you asked. I just sketched them to see how they’d look. I like the font, but I might have to modify it to add the swirls, and if I do that they will be hand-drawn. Otherwise not.
tumblr backup 