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Where is the start line? (Drawing)

polycounter lvl 5
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Deoce polycounter lvl 5
Hello people, I've been working as a 3D artist for 3 years now and i got to the point where i really think i'm lacking that drawing skill to get my models and textures look good and to another level.

Recently i watched the "FZD episode 59 before and after" and he said that you should work on your core fundamentals more then just drawing over and over again.

So my questions are these.

What exactly are core fundamentals?
How/Where should i start?
Can you recommend some tutorials/books/videos that can help me with my future study?

Sorry for my bad english and thanks in forward.

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  • Shadownami92
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    Shadownami92 polycounter lvl 7
    Ctrlpaint.com has lots of good tutorials, and the video library is organized pretty well to fit your needs.

    http://ctrlpaint.com/library/

    If you're doing characters I would look up information on figure drawing, and possibly try to find a center or community college that holds figure drawing classes/sessions.
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks a lot for the fast respond.

    Ctrlpaint looks awesome.

    I'm not a character artist, but i'm trying to learn that too. will check it out.

    by the way how much time should i spend drawing each day?? not to much to over burn my self and not to little that wont help me... whats the middle ground???
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Maybe start with some observation drawing; away from the computer. Pencil or even better, colour media. Nowt wrong with starting out with Still Life, doesn't have to be fruit etc., can be the contents of your desk for example. Avoid just drawing outlines (which is why I don't recommend Pencil for a beginner). Observe colour, surface of an object (texture), how light hits these objects etc. Also hand studies are good.

    For me this would be the start line in drawing. :thumbup:
  • Overlord
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    The fundamentals of drawing physical forms requires knowledge of perspective, anatomy (for figures), and proportion. You have to understand how objects exist in space visually before you can draw them accurately on paper. Every object is comprised of basic 3D geometry that provides form for an object and your goal is to represent that form in 2D space. Break every object into their basic geometric forms and then increase their complexity one layer at a time. That's just a back of the napkin explanation, you'll have to check out sites like Ctrl+Paint for more information.
  • EmAr
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    EmAr polycounter lvl 18
    You can start making quick gesture drawings as soon as you like too. It's already in the Ctrl+paint videos. You can read/watch Glen Vilppu's material too:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguK0ehqROM"]188 Clip, Vilppu Figure drawing demonstration, Gesture - YouTube[/ame]
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    Drawing outside my house its not really a option where i live... there are few teachers that are really good here but dont really have that much time or money to spare for that... so drawing digitally on my tablet or traditional with pencil is at the moment only way i can start learning.

    I've spended a couple of hours today watching Ctrl+Paint and practicing and i'm starting to get why core fundamentals are so important. Also Ctrl+Paint haves so much tutorials and they are arranged in right order from start/beginner to finish/pro. Now i just need to make my self get that drawing habit maybe getting a sketch book or something...

    Again thanks a lot everybody for posting.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Deoce wrote: »
    Drawing outside my house its not really a option where i live...

    C-C-C-Compton?
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Deoce
    Drawing outside my house its not really a option where i live...
    C-C-C-Compton?

    there are some high schools that have art program but that's just for students and its only on weekends and few people who teaches for money... that's why i said drawing outside my house its not really a option :poly124:
  • Equanim
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    Equanim polycounter lvl 11
    Composition, perspective, proportion, and light sources. More advanced techniques incorporate things like line weight.

    When I was in college, the best drawing course I took was one where we would do about 60 2x3 foot (roughly .6x3 meters) drawings in three hours. Every two minutes or so, the model would switch poses and we'd have to start over again. The amount of progress each student made in a matter of ten weeks was amazing! Sure, most of our drawings sucked, but every so often you'd pull a gem out of nowhere.

    I still practice like this today. It's active, fun, and the sheer volume of work you're making means you'll encounter and solve many problems very quickly. I'd treat it exactly like a workout routine, devote 20mins to an hour a day and you should see noticeable improvement very quickly.

    The other thing you might try is focused learning. If you're bad at drawing a particular thing, draw the hell out of it for a few sessions.

    Hope that helps.
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    this lack of drawing i can notice in my 3d work... so i think i will be able to spend a 2 hours a day to practice drawing... I'm just afraid to over do it and get to the point of lack of creativity that will make me just sit and not working at all... (it heppens when you are not satisfied with your work)

    Anyway i always try to keep my self motivated and ill do my best to learn... and if i draw something worth showing i will post it :) might even start the sketch book on the forum. :poly136:
  • Kevin Albers
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    Kevin Albers polycounter lvl 18
    I don't recall which episode it was, but there is another FZD episode that lists some pretty cool things to work on for fundamentals (such as drawing a made up object from several different viewing angles, doing quick painting studies etc).

    I think the important thing is too push yourself a little outside of your comfort zone, but not so far that you get frustrated.
  • DrunkShaman
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    imo the most important skill by far is perspective.

    Everything is based upon that.

    You can make cool drawings with depth without anatomy, but not without perspective. (albeit probably more robots and environments!)
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    i think i found the fzd episode about the fundamentals (EPISODE 19 Portfolio Prep) it helps a lot. He explained everything what should you practice and how.
  • Blaisoid
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    Blaisoid polycounter lvl 7
    You can make cool drawings with depth without anatomy, but not without perspective.

    hmm, i dunno about that. i've seen plenty of artists who sucked at perspective and would still get regular illustration contracts.
    They could get away with that precisely because of "coolness". for example they would be experts at spectacular realistic rendering and painting pretty faces, and is what most of common people focus on when looking at pics.

    i've also seen lots of concept artists who weren't too great at perspective but still could deliver badass character designs.

    I'm not saying that it's not important (in fact i suck at it and i'm not happy about it at all) but i wouldn't say it's more important than other basics.
    It depends on what is one's focus, if it's enviro, creature concepts, hand painted textures, platformer sprites, portraits, digital painting in general, matte painting etc etc.
  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    ^^^
    I have an art professor who said the same thing.

    She says perspective mostly applies to drawing architecture. Humans are too organic or have vanishing points going everywhere so it doesn't matter as much.

    Although, I still use perspective as a guide for body part visibility.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    'Perspective' as such can't really be applied to figure drawing unless there are some extreme camera angles going on; proportioning and foreshortening (where appropriate) are far more relevant.
  • slipsius
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    slipsius mod
    For perspective.. http://epicgames.com/community/2012/11/free-art-tool-released-thanks-to-epic-friday/


    The start line is when you pick up a pencil / tablet and put down your keyboard / mouse. aka, get off forums and just DRAW!
  • Bibendum
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    slipsius wrote: »
    I was really surprised when I saw this because you can do the exact same thing in photoshop by drawing a fan of lines from a guide point. Making an external app seemed really unnecessary.

    It's also not a terribly good way to set up perspective in my opinion because the lines don't converge on the horizon so it doesn't address the most tedious task of perspective (measurement)

    You're infinitely better off just blocking out your scene in sketchup.
  • Deoce
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    Deoce polycounter lvl 5
    The start line is when you pick up a pencil / tablet and put down your keyboard / mouse. aka, get off forums and just DRAW!

    Hehe thats a good point :) just in this case "the start line" was referred to the core fundamentals of drawing.

    Seen that app before i guess it can be useful somewhere...
  • WarrenM
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    Bibendum

    You can use the 2 in conjunction. Block out your scene in SketchUp, take a screen shot, paste it into Carapace and use the trace lines to set up a perspective grid. Now you not only have a blockout in 3D you have the grid to go with it!

    Check this out:

    http://ctrlpaint.com/videos/perspective-grid-utility/
  • Bibendum
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    @WarrenM: Does Carapace allow you to lock the vanishing points and draw your own lines or does it only generate them for you? (I'm sorry, I'd test it myself but I don't have winrar)

    I've only seen the videos and they all seem to use evenly spaced fans which is less useful in my opinion than setting up your vanishing points with guides in photoshop because at least in photoshop you can control where your perspective lines are rather than trying to eyeball it from the ones that are drawn out of the fan. Admittedly trying to do this over a blockout would be a pain in the ass in photoshop but at least it is an option.
  • WarrenM
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    No, you can change the density of the lines radiating out of the vanishing point but you can't place individual lines.
  • Bibendum
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    Adjusting the density is probably good enough for most things so I stand corrected, it does sound pretty useful. I'll install winrar later and give it a whirl.
  • WarrenM
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    Maybe try 7zip instead. It opens more formats and is free...
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