Drawing... and books.

[Reaping]

Why do us people read books to learn to draw? Drawing is amazingly simple, you just need a pen and a paper(or a stick and sand, if you want) and you can draw everything you see, if you have enough practice.

There's only one thing to it, find a paper and make lines.

Wouldn't it be better to be outside(or using pictures, in worst case) for 2 hours, drawing landscapes etc, rather than spending 2 hours reading a book about it and doing exercises?

I'm not trying to be pretentious here, I'm just asking to see some interesting answers. I use books myself.

[Star Eater]

Okay.

[pegasi]

Different tastes, different people

[Charlie D]

I take 2 hours education from John Howe anyday of the week

[Elwell]

Okay.

/thread

[yoooee]

Reaping,

I agree with your comment about practicing and spending as much time as you can drawing. The nice thing about books, if their good books, is that they'll contain the authors/artists knowledge and tips they've learned in their many years of experience.

You may come up with a set of rules that work for you on your own, but it may take you years to accomplish this feat. Someone else may have already figured out the same thing and you can then use their method and ideas saving you time.

Other artists knowledge in whatever form, along with a lot of personal practice, is a great way to grow as an artist yourself.

[Reaping]

/thread

Please share your view or refrain from useless comments. Thanks.

What I'm saying is that people(including me) would be far better off just drawing what we see, instead of worrying for which book is the best.

[bcarman]

I know that's the way most people do it with math too. They're just numbers. Put them together for crap's sake. If you think that drawing has nothing more to offer or learn from than copying nature then you need a good book.

Sarcasm, sorry. Look, if you don't want to bother learning from what other people have discovered then that's OK but as in every discipline people have things to share. No obligation to read them though.

[Charlie D]

I can see you are living up to your honorable 'Honorable Critic' title. Please share your view or refrain from useless comments. Thanks.

What I'm saying is that people(including me) would be far better off just drawing what we see, instead of worrying for which book is the best.

People (including you) would be far better off downloading (or buying those available) the A Loomis set of books, reading and following any instructions.

[Elwell]

Please share your view or refrain from useless comments. Thanks.

What I'm saying is that people(including me) would be far better off just drawing what we see, instead of worrying for which book is the best.

That was my view. Do whatever you want. Knock yourself out. Have fun. Bon voyage.
And if you don't want useless comments, refrain from posting useless threads.

[bcarman]

You don't want to step on the Zohan's. . .I mean Elwell's toes.

[[email protected]]

While I roughly agree with the call to just practice drawing, there is a little more about drawing that is not so obvious. There is a reason why art took thousands of years to develop, and why the old cavemen never brought forth a Rembrandt.

Things like construction, line quality, energy/impulse/gesture, perspective and anatomy are all things you don't pick up so easily by just looking and drawing. At the very least, you will save yourself some time by reading a fistful of good books.

[TinyBird]

Why do us people read books to learn to draw?

Wouldn't it be better to be outside(or using pictures, in worst case) for 2 hours, drawing landscapes etc, rather than spending 2 hours reading a book about it and doing exercises?

Well, I'm also interested on other viewpoints than my own. Books written by different artists, with different backgrounds, educations, experiences, techniques and interests offers much more interesting ways to see art and nature and think about drawing, than only sitting staring and drawing stuff alone. I can read a book and say "holy crap I never thought about that/saw this/thought about doing this that way" and then read another and say "I didn't think about it like that either!".

...also there's lots of pretty pictures in those books.

[Black Spot]

Why do us people read books to learn to draw? Drawing is amazingly simple, you just need a pen and a paper(or a stick and sand, if you want) and you can draw everything you see, if you have enough practice.

There's only one thing to it, find a paper and make lines.

Wouldn't it be better to be outside(or using pictures, in worst case) for 2 hours, drawing landscapes etc, rather than spending 2 hours reading a book about it and doing exercises?

I'm not trying to be pretentious here, I'm just asking to see some interesting answers. I use books myself.

Because you might be learning it all wrong and have to relearn it. If I can't get up any enthusiasm to draw, I stick a download or a streaming class on and within 15 minutes I'm running away to go and draw something. Not sure it that was the intention, but it works for me.

[J Wilson]

Seeing is NOT understanding.

Understanding helps you to makes sense of what you see.

Books (or other instruction) helps with understanding.

[tobbA]

Because there are smart people who've allready done the learning for you so you don't have to reinvent the wheel again. Sometimes you even have to read a book to realize there was something that you didn't know that you now have to learn.

[Arshes Nei]

Why do us people read books to learn to draw?


... I'm not trying to be pretentious here

...first problem...

[Conniekat8]

Wouldn't it be better to be outside(or using pictures, in worst case) for 2 hours, drawing landscapes etc, rather than spending 2 hours reading a book about it and doing exercises?

No, because operating in a vacuum of knowledge, other then trying to reinvent something on your own offers very limited results.

Just like you could put 20 people on a sand dune, and leave them there for 10 years, it's highly unlikely that they will discover how to make glass out of sand. But teach them, give them knowledge and tools, they're likely to take it to the next level.

Us hoomans and the societies we built work off of learning from each other; tapping into the collective knowledge. Not wanting to learn from available knowledge out there it would be a tad... crazy. At the minimum, in case of someone highly intelligent and inventive, it would retard even their potential progress.

[Flake]

If you wanted to learn to play guitar, you could certainly sit down with a guitar and just start twanging away at the thing, you might even pick out something like a tune eventually.
I guarantee you that the process of learning would be quicker and smoother if you'd bothered to read an intro book covering basic music theory, scales and chords first though..

[stabby2486]

Even though you ultimately do need to put pencil to paper, the reason art has continued to evolve from primitive drawings on cave walls to what it is now is because artists have passed down their knowledge to their successors. By not taking that knowledge in you're basically trying to re-invent the wheel.

[manlybrian]

We learn from those before us. Nobody wants to start from scratch and figure EVERYTHING out on their own if people have already solved the problems.