how come if

Chatterbox: Inkwell

how come if

how come if i do all the sketch books i cant get them right?

submitted by lauren, age 11, new york
(October 12, 2009 - 6:46 pm)

back to the Inkwell

If you mean those silly "How to Draw..." books, don't worry you're not alone. The thing those books seem to miss is that drawing is an art form and therefore dependent on the individual and, um, can't really be taught by saying, and then you draw a circle here and a triangle there and and and...

You'd probably be better off drawing from a picture or a model or even real life if possible. I thought I was a terrible drawer until I stopped following the "directions" and started drawing what I actually saw. With the exception of faces, for example, I never never ever use circles/ovals as a base. I prefer polygons. 

Anyway, rather than get frustrated because you can't get the simplistic instructions right, my advice would be to wing it. 

submitted by TNÖ, age 16, Deep Space
(October 13, 2009 - 7:02 pm)

Hear, hear! I did the same thing. (Add circle and a triangle and then connect them with two lines of the same length...) Then I just closed the darn book and sketched the face of every person who walked by me for the next hour. It was so much easier, and the product was so much better.

submitted by Annie
(October 16, 2009 - 6:45 am)

I tend to start with (for bodies) free-hand loose sketchy circles. But that's still a matter of observation, for instance observing the way people's bodies connect, elbows stick out, etc. I don't use a drawing book, and I did not learn that from a drawing book.

submitted by Emilie L., age 14, WA
(October 16, 2009 - 6:28 pm)

I only use drawing books when I want to scribble something but I'm stuck. My advice is to just go outside or to the mall, or someplace interesting, walk around a little, then close your eyes, spin around, point, and whatever you see that is what you can draw. I do this all the time.

submitted by Ema, age 12, NY
(October 22, 2009 - 3:08 pm)