Draw realistic characters from imagination?

[sketchfreak]

There are some confusions and hope you can help me!

1- Can you draw realistic/believable characters with good pose from imagination, without any major problems?
Or need lots of sketches, skeletons, geometric shapes, guides and good eraser to balance pose?

2- Can you draw anything from imagination? ... or depend on your visual memory and past drawing experiences?

3- I'm in hard drawing practice, What is the good point to shifting to digital painting and painting study?

Thanks
Sorry for my Englishy!!

[kev ferrara]

Do whatever you can to make your work just as believable as you need it to be... no more or less.

This may entail using photo-reference.

kev

[Zaxser]

Hi, I'm 25 and self-taught, I try to develop solid drawing skills and practice 5~6H/day from real-life and references...
I'm too creative (near madness) and I feel good drawing skills can turn me into future-monster!
Art is not my business and I can't interact with artists!
So...there are some confusions and hope you can help me!

Humility much?

1- Can you draw realistic/believable characters with good pose from imagination, without any major problems?
Or need lots of sketches, skeletons, geometric shapes, guides and good eraser to balance pose?

I like my drawings from imagination with no or very few references. I still need a lot of work though, and rely on a ton of pre drawing, including thumbnails and construction.

That said, I should probably draw more from reference.

There are people who can draw from imagination with very little or no pre drawing, but most would say their work was better with it.

2- Can you draw anything from imagination? ... or depend on your visual memory and past drawing experiences?

No. And I honestly can't think of one person who would say they can draw anything with a high degree of competence from imagination. Ocassionally I'll start feeling really good about my figurative work and then am completely deflated to realize I'd have no clue how to do a fully painted landscape.

Building a good visual library take a lifetime.

Reading your question though, I think you should just relax. Keep working. Keep drawing. If your not painting, start.

Follow the cliche advice: Draw what you see. Learn new techniques and try them out. Practice them again and again if you like them. Draw everything you see. Draw all the time.

[sketchfreak]

Thanks, very helpful...

"Humility much?"
ooh, sorry for too much explanation, I thought give you some background about my practice and study...

[Jasonwclark]

When you say you can't interact with artists, do you mean because there are no other representational artists around in Tehran to work with? If that's the problem then I think you've probably come to the right place. Interaction here is pretty simple, just grab a camera and post your drawings in the sketchbook or critique section. That's usually the best way to get feedback and advice. I'm not sure how many other members here speak Farsi or Arabic, but you might try a couple searches to see if anyone lives near you, and then maybe start up a sketchgroup. Right now I count about 8 or 9 members from Iran on our world map.

Drawing accurately from the imagination/memory is difficult to get good at, probably the most difficult. I'd say don't worry to much about buying expensive paints or computer equipment right now, just stick with pens, pencils and the like, until you feel comfortable. That way it'll be easier for you to transition into the more complicated mediums later on. If you really are dedicated and putting in 5 hours a day, you should start to see some real improvement in fairly short order. I'm lucky if I average 3 or 4 hours, and even then I take a lot of breaks, so if you're willing to put in the work it should definitely start to show before too long.

Here's something that Whitaker posted the other day, that offers the most sound advice I've heard in a while:

I've been teaching now for a very long time and I think I might have a few generalized answers for you.

Know this. Drawing is everything! A 2B or 3B pencil is just fine. The first thing to get good at is simply making professional looking lines. When I was 16, I made over 400 drawings with an ordinary school pencil (probably a 2B) on regular typewriter paper (today's copy machine paper.) I got very good with lines. Learning to work a computer or a computer program, learning to paint in watercolor, gouache, oils, markers - is easy once you draw well. Not having fancy computer equipment at this time won't hurt you at all.

Copy others. Copy with great seriousness and dedication. You will learn faster this way than anything else you'd do. I was discouraged from copying and that was stupid advice. I could have gotten ahead twice as fast had I done serious copy work. Don't worry about creativity, individuality. That will come when you are artistically ready for it.

Let your art lead you. If you draw exactly what you want when you want to do it, you will eventually go from challenge to challenge and master everything. This has to be fun or you will simply give up. Have fun or you won't stick it out.

Bill

The first step is to start drawing and posting your work though, so we can give you more specific suggestions.

Best of Luck

[sketchfreak]

Thanks Jasonwclark, very helpful...

There are lots of great artists in tehran, But I don't know anyone to interact with ...

I'm so excited about drawing with simple pencil and paper, it's just more fun than fun, I practice drawing until death!

Ooops, old-fashion way and hard work, I'm going to start my sketchbook here...

[J Wilson]

I'll just respond to Number 3, since others have covered the other two well. In my opinion, there is no reason to delay painting/color. Some artists argue that you do not start in paint until you are very confident in pencil, but I think the basics of drawing can be learned in paint as well as pencil, and paint has an advantage in that it's easier to think in planes with paint/color.

Another option if you do not feel ready for color is to work on grey paper (or any mid tone paper- even paper bags or cardboard can work) and use both a white pencil and a regular pencil or charcoal. This too makes it a little easier to think in planes and shapes.

[sketchfreak]

Thanks J Wilson, Good advice...

I buy very cheap brush and gouache (6$!) ... to understand basics and workflow ...

Thanks all ... I back to my sketchbook...

[Riiroi]

I've been teaching now for a very long time and I think I might have a few generalized answers for you.

Know this. Drawing is everything! A 2B or 3B pencil is just fine. The first thing to get good at is simply making professional looking lines. When I was 16, I made over 400 drawings with an ordinary school pencil (probably a 2B) on regular typewriter paper (today's copy machine paper.) I got very good with lines. Learning to work a computer or a computer program, learning to paint in watercolor, gouache, oils, markers - is easy once you draw well. Not having fancy computer equipment at this time won't hurt you at all.

Copy others. Copy with great seriousness and dedication. You will learn faster this way than anything else you'd do. I was discouraged from copying and that was stupid advice. I could have gotten ahead twice as fast had I done serious copy work. Don't worry about creativity, individuality. That will come when you are artistically ready for it.

Let your art lead you. If you draw exactly what you want when you want to do it, you will eventually go from challenge to challenge and master everything. This has to be fun or you will simply give up. Have fun or you won't stick it out.

Bill

About copying, I know that it helps a lot but I remember reading somebody say that by copying others, we would be copying other people's mistakes as well. (This excludes copying from the masters and anatomy books) This kinda confuses me. What do you guys think.

[Kiera]

copying others, we would be copying other people's mistakes as well

This excludes copying from the masters and anatomy books

own question almost answered..

If you only copy one mediocre artist and never do life-studies.. then it's no good.
If you draw from life and copy different, even mediocre artists and learn how they handle things differently then you'll have in your own paintings more possibilities to choose from. Learn what makes the pictures of others appealing (I was also discouraged to copy and I regret that I didn't make it earlier)