[Ultra basic drawing tutorial] Overlapping forms!
polycounter lvl 17
So here's the idea:
1-Pay close attention to whether any given shape you are drawing should overlap/occlude the shapes around it.
2-Is it in front, or behind, other nearby forms?
That's it. It's tremendously simple, but stopping yourself to think about this could save you a ton of trouble starting out. Being confident in something this obvious and powerful can be a great springboard toward tackling more complicated perspective and shapes. It's a great way to check your work.
Here's a little elaboration.
Is this useful, or too simple/silly for you guys?
I'm thinking about doing a handful of these aimed at the posters who come here and actually have zero idea how to draw, and get pretty overwhelmed when everybody starts throwing pretty big concepts at them.
This is something very very basic about drawing that I remember took me nonsensically long to figure out on my own. This might be TOO simple to post, but hopefully it can be helpful to someone. It's all over every drawing book ever written, but I've personally never seen it spelled out anywhere on its own.
Absolute beginners struggle with this idea a LOT, and tend to overthink their perspective and intricate details of their drawings when the problem is as simple as somebody's chin in front of their shoulder when it's supposed to be behind it.
1-Pay close attention to whether any given shape you are drawing should overlap/occlude the shapes around it.
2-Is it in front, or behind, other nearby forms?
That's it. It's tremendously simple, but stopping yourself to think about this could save you a ton of trouble starting out. Being confident in something this obvious and powerful can be a great springboard toward tackling more complicated perspective and shapes. It's a great way to check your work.
Here's a little elaboration.
Is this useful, or too simple/silly for you guys?
I'm thinking about doing a handful of these aimed at the posters who come here and actually have zero idea how to draw, and get pretty overwhelmed when everybody starts throwing pretty big concepts at them.
This is something very very basic about drawing that I remember took me nonsensically long to figure out on my own. This might be TOO simple to post, but hopefully it can be helpful to someone. It's all over every drawing book ever written, but I've personally never seen it spelled out anywhere on its own.
Absolute beginners struggle with this idea a LOT, and tend to overthink their perspective and intricate details of their drawings when the problem is as simple as somebody's chin in front of their shoulder when it's supposed to be behind it.
Replies
Good starting point, i think i make those mistakes quite often.
Can you make a tutorial for basic perspective drawing?
and having helped her grade the work its suprising how hard this concept can be. mostly the people and objects are drawn next to each other not touching. then a bit funnier sometimes both characters are drawn just overlaping like ghost people you can see both of them.
but the best is some will bend the body around the other one had an invisible forece field and the other was smooshed up against it so his body bent into the shape of the first person, but never touching.
Rhinokey that's awesome. Sounds like a cool job, too!
Endzelt, I'm hesitant to talk about perspective because it has been so exhaustively covered by much better artists and much better teachers than me -- there's a lot about it in Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for all its worth and Successful Drawing, both of which can i think be found on Scribd. Additionally, Matt Kohr recently made some videos on ctrl paint about it!
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/home/2011/6/7/perspective.html
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/home/2011/8/4/perspective-drawing-isnt-scary.html
But keeping it in mind when you're drawing is an acquired skill, albeit a very simple one. I see new posters and beginner 2d artists CONSTANTLY trying to cram every single detail or shape that makes up an object into one drawing, even when they clearly should be occluded by one another, just because they don't stop and think about it. It's just one of those things that sounds obvious when you say it, but really isn't always something that people remember to apply.
I may add another 'slide' or a few lines explaining a bit more thoroughly WHY this is useful to an absolute beginner.
Breaking down the forms you observe as 2d shapes that do or do not occlude eachother is also an awesomely effective way to quickly analyze complex form. It's not really something I consciously think about (i doubt too many people do) but picking out what's slightly overlapping what is something I regularly use when dealing with simplifying more intricate shapes, like cloth or skin folds.