Letting the artist in me out

[wowzuzz]

Hey guys

I've always been a big fan of the work on this site and I just wanted to see if I was going in the right direction. I will be studying some loomis books that I have acquired as it seems a lot of people recommend him. I want to get better at drawing so it translates to my 3d work.

I've always heard from fellow artists that knowing the mediums will translate very well to your digital artwork. Any tips guys?

Btw I'm currently reading fun with a pencil

[Zazerzs]

Loomis is a good place to start.

That added with some perspective studies, then volume shading.

Are you more interested in drawing objects or people?, its all basically the same but if you are going more object oriented then take a look at how industrial designers draw. You need to know that stuff for drawing people too but a little less.

For people learn the 8 head proportion breakdown (Loomis has it in his books)as a start,and any decent anatomy book.

Then using what you read and see in the books, vids or whatever medium you choose to get your info from, practice it as much as you can while drawing.

Do more studies from life and books than doodling.

Goodluck!

[Anid Maro]

Sounds like you're starting from the ground up. In that case keep it simple for now, just use a trusty No.2 pencil and some printer paper or newsprint. No need to fight with mediums while you're already fighting with the basics, just keep with the pencil 'n' paper and practice practice practice.

Loomis is good, but I'd suggest checking out Nicolaides' "The Natural Way to Draw" as well. There's an old saying that goes: "It takes 1000 bad drawings to get 1 done right", and Nicolaides definitely has 1000 drawings worth of exercises to burn through.

So keep plugging away, don't stress if you don't like how your drawings are turning out, just focus on getting better each time.

Once you've filled out a few sketchbooks worth of drawings (if you're doing Nicolaides' exercises or something similar that won't take too long) then you can start trying out some different mediums just to keep things interesting and fun. Also now that your drawing arm is all nice and limber from cranking out 1000 bad drawings, it'd be a good time to start working on particular subjects like anatomy or perspective.

And yeah, traditional mediums will transfer over very well to digital work. Lots of digital painting tools are based off of traditional tools, so it's not much of a leap if you already know to work traditionally.

Oh and don't forget to occasionally ignore the above advice and try to do something way over your head. Gotta keep it interesting to keep from burning out. Gets too boring if you always do what you're supposed to. :)

[wowzuzz]

Loomis is a good place to start.

That added with some perspective studies, then volume shading.

Are you more interested in drawing objects or people?, its all basically the same but if you are going more object oriented then take a look at how industrial designers draw. You need to know that stuff for drawing people too but a little less.

For people learn the 8 head proportion breakdown (Loomis has it in his books)as a start,and any decent anatomy book.

Then using what you read and see in the books, vids or whatever medium you choose to get your info from, practice it as much as you can while drawing.

Do more studies from life and books than doodling.

Goodluck!

I'm interesting in doing objects as well as people. I've always seen the front, side, and perspective views of characters, machines that 3d artists made and I always wanted to recreate my own versions of what I had in my brain on paper and put it on 3d. I'm fairly comfortable with Maya and Zbrush. I just feel in order for me really put my own artistic touch on a 3d scene ( character, machine, environment) I really need to learn mediums a lot better. I have so many ideas, but I feel they would translate so much better if I was better at the actual art on paper.

Thanks for the comments and tips. It's all appreciated.

[wowzuzz]

Sounds like you're starting from the ground up. In that case keep it simple for now, just use a trusty No.2 pencil and some printer paper or newsprint. No need to fight with mediums while you're already fighting with the basics, just keep with the pencil 'n' paper and practice practice practice.

Loomis is good, but I'd suggest checking out Nicolaides' "The Natural Way to Draw" as well. There's an old saying that goes: "It takes 1000 bad drawings to get 1 done right", and Nicolaides definitely has 1000 drawings worth of exercises to burn through.

So keep plugging away, don't stress if you don't like how your drawings are turning out, just focus on getting better each time.

Once you've filled out a few sketchbooks worth of drawings (if you're doing Nicolaides' exercises or something similar that won't take too long) then you can start trying out some different mediums just to keep things interesting and fun. Also now that your drawing arm is all nice and limber from cranking out 1000 bad drawings, it'd be a good time to start working on particular subjects like anatomy or perspective.

And yeah, traditional mediums will transfer over very well to digital work. Lots of digital painting tools are based off of traditional tools, so it's not much of a leap if you already know to work traditionally.

Oh and don't forget to occasionally ignore the above advice and try to do something way over your head. Gotta keep it interesting to keep from burning out. Gets too boring if you always do what you're supposed to.

Yeah, you could say I am beginning the journey. I'll check that link out and I'll keep cranking them out. I am currently taking a small sketchbook with me to wherever I go whether that be work-whatever. I draw whenever I get the opportunity. You can say its moved up on the priority chart. Thanks for the tips!

[George Abraham]

Sounds more like you need The complete Idiot's guide to drawing..

LOL.. Couldn't resist that one.

It's a good book to start with btw, but to answer your original question going to 3D tools with fun with a pencil's not a bad idea but the process would be differant, most 3D character desighn starts with half a figure but you knew that allready. The spirit of fun with a pencil is something you want to pull into your maya for sure but I think good 3D would start in a good old scetch pad, that's where the good inventions begin. The trick is to have the patience to invent and the skills and patience to be able to transfer between media.

From a drawing "perspective", I would say fun with a pencil... you need to have reached the 3'rd "level up" in 3D realisation and atleast have whacked a couple of the bosses.. Hehehehe!! I don't think that part of the book is really that much meant for beginners, as loomis was playing on the 23'rd level when he did that book even though he restricted himself to really simple stuff.

[Kraus]

Umm...weird. I'm not sure why do you think drawing will help you with 3D?

Real life is in 3D, and you use that to help you with drawing. And you allready have hands on a 3D medium, you don't need drawing, you need observation so you know how things look (guess sketching here and there makes memorising easier). Hell, it's about time for 3D to make 2D concept artists absolete. The only problem is concepting in 3D is more time consuming than it's in 2D.

Anyway, it doesn't hurt as an artist to be good at both, but put your priorities straight...

[Flake]

It'll help because for all that 3d is dependent on modelling, edgeloops, shaders, lighting, and texturing skills and camera angles, once you hit that "render" button, what you have is a 2d image.

A computer rendered drawing.

Conversely 3d or sculpting is a most educational addition to 2d work.

Knowledge in one helps you to kinda reverse engineer the other..

/2p worth