Traditional art skills
Although my main focus in terms of art is 3d modeling i'm also interested in broadening my other 'soft' skills such as observation, composition etc or what would be considered the traditional art skills.
I'm entirely self-taught which suits my learning style so I was just wondering if anyone has any advice on developing ones traditional art skills? I've got a few books covering this however I was wondering if theres any video lectures online which may be relevant?
The free lectures from MIT and stanford cover every topic except art it seems and i've not found anything googling so any advice will be appreciated.
I'm entirely self-taught which suits my learning style so I was just wondering if anyone has any advice on developing ones traditional art skills? I've got a few books covering this however I was wondering if theres any video lectures online which may be relevant?
The free lectures from MIT and stanford cover every topic except art it seems and i've not found anything googling so any advice will be appreciated.
Replies
ps. I wouldnt consider these soft skills =P
hehe very true, I guess when your entrenched in 3d you forget what its all built upon, core skills perhaps would have been more apt
Good luck.
i think its good to be able to use a pencil quite well before attending to this,
these classes are very expensive, and if you dont have a proper base of pencil skill, it will probably hit you hard.
pick up as much as you can, every art form is usefull for your overall skills.
and i always say they overlap, if you are good at sculpting, it will boost your 3d skills ect
classes for tradition art might be useful, but i have no experience in this,
just buy the product and get started is my way of doing things.
(it may be that this only works quite well if you have more experience in teaching yourself how to do things, if you are new to alot of things, it might be nice too google around)
Have any work up we can check out? I think I've seen some of your stuff floating around in various threads but I can't recall any of it right now.
I also think life drawing is very beneficial but only when you're ready for it, otherwise like Rens pointed out, its a total waste.
The only real advice I can offer at this point would be to go after whatever it is you suck at until you're really good at it. Don't stick to the familiar and what you're good at if you're looking to improve.
More common sense stuff about observation:
- Quite your mind and your environment, unplug it all, turn off the tunes, ignore or disable the interwebs. Its hard to observe when you have half a dozen media inputs beamed at your noggin. It's like going to the movies with your ipod going in full blast. Why try and learn to filter out background garbage at the same time you're trying to concentrate and observe. bla bla bla... preach preach preach
- Observing isn't just about paying attention to all the little details, but its knowing when and what details to capture.
For example if I held up my hand across the room and asked someone to draw it, they might draw in palm lines, but they can't actually see palm lines, They also might seperate all the fingers with big gaps, even though my fingers are touching. they know I have 5 fingers and palm lines so the draw it. But instead whats really there is a oval egg shape with a few thin/thick lines that indicate the fingers.
- This is where having peers look at your stuff can be important. Someone might ask why did you draw this detail here? Forcing you to think about it when you normally might not. Its one the things people find most helpful about art classes, if its done right and people aren't too secretive about "their work".
- Think about drawing that object, before you ever draw it. You probably do this all the time but you're thinking in 3D? Instead of seeing "this is a box and this is a cone" You need to start thinking about lines and their weight, details and their importance level.
- Try to sort the details, don't draw what you know draw what you see.
- If it helps, think of it like adaptive degradation. As you move farther away, the bump map disappears, then the material gets down res'ed and the silhouette and negative space becomes really important in defining what the object is.
- You could find some crazy anomaly that hardly anyone has seen before, render it perfectly and people will think you screwed up. Sometimes boiling down the essence of something and keeping it recognizable to everyone else can be more important than accurately coping what you see. So its not always about recording accurately what you see.
bla bla bla... more common sense... bla bla bla
Lastly, no one ever got any practice in by listening to me blather on for a few paragraphs... Go, draw, observe, get better!
The biggest mistake I think people make at life drawing is to worry about the current drawing instead of trying to learn as much as possible. Sometimes you see people rub out for 50% of the time then give up and just sit there for the last bit.
If you do sign up don't worry about getting fancy pencils or paper or even a rubber, my favourite way of working is with a really hard pencils first then draw some long bold lines with a soft pencil. When the bold lines go down you cant even see the lines from the hard pencil.
They also arn't that expensive, I could easily spend the same amount down the pub!
I also think you can do quite a bit of drawing on your own without drawing people and improve your skills. Some life drawing classes are focused on people others on objects some blend the two, so don't assume they are all equal.
You can also go to places where people stand around for a while and do quick sketches. Places like across the street from a bus stop, or a train station, people standing in line for a movie, or at a sporting event. Granted they won't hold still and they probably won't be naked or near naked but it can be helpful. Especially when you start working on the drapery/clothing. As for drawing objects and things, you can arrange interesting piles of junk and draw it on your own.
I haven't really posted any of my work up which I probably should although most of it is w.i.p but I guess that'd be ok? All I used to do at school was draw in my books and I got quite good but I literally didn't draw for like the last 10 years afterwards, i've recently began again doing sketches for a portfolio piece and really got my love of it back tho.
Someone mentioned all these skills crossover and thats absolutely true, for the last two years i've put 95% of my energy into learning 3d/2d packages, modeling and texturing and neglected the fundamental skills which underlie it all. At the end of the day these are just tools to get whats in your mind 'out there' and in some way tangible.
Every 3d artist job i've seen usually has a line saying 'strong traditional art skills a bonus' and I guess I just want to brush up on it cos its been a while since a spent a day away from the computer and I guess i'd call it one of my weak areas. Cheers for the feedback all.
As Frankie, I also recommend life drawing, life sculpting or basically any drawing class that has an instructor. This way you get a live model and real time feedback on how you're doing.
Re: costs, depends what's available where you live. I've taken weekend workshops, extension classes at the local U., drop-in sessions with no instructor, one-on-one with a pro concept artist. So I have a choice where to go and how much I'm willing to pay. Just got to look for it. Artist co-ops in your area might offer reasonable hourly fees for life drawing drop-ins.
I started taking drawing classes at night after work for years and it was indeed quite an investment of time and money, but it was worth it (having 2d pieces to include in my portfolio).
The animators survival guide is a great book and its got some good lessons in there for everyone but he pretty much says "if you can't draw, don't animate".
He's right in that.
But you don't have to draw like Chuck Jones to make it big in animation. Know Don Hertzfeldt or Mike Judge?
[ame]
And yea, they go to prove you don't have to do something well as do something new. =P
I'm on it!