“Many are willing to suffer for their art. Few are willing to learn to draw.”

Study of Adam for Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo

That is a quote by Simon Munnery and really sets the tone for today’s post.  A lack of sound drawing skills is the number one reason for a piece of artwork wallowing in failure.  You can get by with a deficient in any other area but bad drawing will always give you away.  It’s not “your style” to draw badly and it’s not “just my opinion” when your perspective is wrong.  Bad drawing is also the most difficult thing to correct when you don’t get it right to start with.  We’ve all had the experience of spending the majority of time on a drawing “fixing” it.  There are hundreds of good books on how to draw and I’m not even going to try it here in a short blog post.  I, myself, still work daily on strengthening my foundational drawing.  Instead, I’ll list a handful of tips that may help you next time you sit down to draw.

A.  Use reference because you don’t know what you don’t know.

B.  Stay Loose.  Make sure you’re not holding your breath and draw with a flourish, not as if you’re building a bomb where one false move will be the end of it all.  Develop some rhythm.

C.  Draw the silhouette.  Many artists will pay too much attention to the individual parts or in the rendering and neglect to draw the whole.  Their figure end up looking stiff and wooden.

D.  See it in a different way.  Our brains automatically try to categorize what we’re looking at and “see” what the thing is.  It’s way too easy to draw what you think you see and not the reality (when drawing from reference or life).  Try holding up your picture to a mirror or turning it upside down.  Squinting is also useful to get rid of any detail in your picture and allow you to see the basic shapes and values.

E.  Be confident!  Nothing will destroy a drawing faster than not knowing what you’re doing.  Don’t guess.  If you don’t know then go do some studies or get some reference.  Even a laymen can tell the difference between a simple circle drawn by a professional artist and that of one drawn by an amateur.

Ok, in part 1, I went over my general feelings about why an artist should use reference.  Now, I’m going to talk about how you should use it.  Nine times out of Ten I’ll do a number of thumbnails based on the idea or concept of my painting before looking for my reference.  I want my reference to improve my picture, not the other way around.

After you get your thumbnail it’s time to find some reference.  There are a few different ways to do this.

1. Use a camera to take your own reference.

You don’t have to be a semi-professional shutter bug to take some good reference shots.  You’re just looking for information to help you with your drawing.  Use your family and friends to pose for you.  Get them to dress up in costumes or anything that simulates what you’re after.  You can even put up flyer’s or post on Craig’s List advertising for models.  I did take some profile pictures of myself that I used for the peeping tom guy.  The biggest thing to look for when taking reference photography is lighting.  I’ve found it’s the hardest thing to make up and goes the furthest in grounding your image in reality.

Sometimes you don’t have the time or resources to find a live model.  Whenever I have this problem I turned to this giant box of photography I have on my desk called the Internet.

2. Find it on the web.

There are quite a few sites that cater to artists looking for reference that can be used commercially for free.  The money word is that last sentence is “commercially.”  You see, you just can’t go grabbing any picture off the Internet and using  them.  You have to have the photographers permission.  There are copyright laws and trust me you don’t want to be a dirty thief anyway.  For numerous sites like that check out the reference section over at Conceptart.org here.  From there you can find hundreds of links to other reference sites and forums around the web.

You can use copyrighted pictures to take information from.  For instance, in a painting I’m doing now I’ve got the German Shepard attacking the peeping tom guy.  I can’t draw a German Shepard from my memory.  I needed reference.  I searched online through Google image search, Yahoo image search, and various stock photography websites for pictures of German Shepard.  I ended up with 8 or 9 pictures of various dog snarling, jumping, attacking, etc.  I also got 4 or 5 more specially of German Shepard’s.  I used all of them to draw my own version.  So, while a single picture of a German Shepard can be copyrighted, what one looks like can’t.

3.  Use your local library.

Many times photos from the web are low resolution and just aren’t clear enough.  You won’t have that problem with books.  The best section for this is if you library has an over sized book section.  There are for the books are that too big to go on the regular shelves.  The only reason to print books so big is to showcase some beautiful photography.  Just remember that you don’t have the copyright to these image either and you’ll face the same restriction in using them as pictures from the Internet.

4. Use Photoshop.

I take all my reference and composite it together in Photoshop.  This way it’s really easy to move elements around, re size them and draw and paint in my own bits and pieces.  I’ll end up with something pretty close to what I want my painting to be.

I’ll print this out and along with my other reference photos draw my image.  I’ve also found that artists are an impatient bunch (I know I am) but I implore you to take your time as you do this.  Think of it as if each part of the process is your only job and when you’re done you’ll pass it off to a co-worker.  This forces you to put your energy into the stage you’re on instead of cutting corners so you can start slinging paint.

(In part one I’m going to talk about Reference in general.  In part two I’ll get specific on how to use it as a step in the process of creating a painting.)

It seems most artists are ashamed of it.  They keep it hidden away afraid the viewer will pull back the curtain and realize that the Wizard is just a homely little guy with a paintbrush.  Let me start by saying loudly and without restraint.

REFERENCE IS OUR FRIEND!

Let me tell you a little story about my beginnings with reference.  I didn’t begin to draw until I was 18 and was heavily influenced by a really good artist (and personal friend) at my local comic book shop who held the mindset that any type of reference was blatant cheating and a crutch for a lack of drawing skills.  That stuck with me for a long time and sadly delayed my progress as an artist for many, many, many, many, many years.  Yes, it was at least a five many stretch.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  Reference fills in what you don’t know.

Even the great and powerful Wizard had a few tools behind the curtain.

Use reference with abandonment.  I would strongly advise tracing too.

Whoa! Hold up!  Did I just say it was ok to trace.  Well, yes but there is a caveat.  You are allowed to do it if you learn something from doing it.  Trace to understand what you’re drawing and to memorize it.  Do it with a goal of being able to draw it if the reference disappeared.  I recently listened to an interview with Greg Manchess over at Sidebar.com (fantastic site by the way) and Greg said that while working at a design company in his youth he begrudgingly begin using an overhead projector in his work.  He said that he learned more on how to draw from that machine than any teacher he ever had.

You’re also allowed to trace if you already know how to draw and it helps you reach your goal.  I’m working on a 20″ x 30″ inch painting right now and I’ve used a lot of reference.  I have the ability to draw if freehand but it’s going to take much too long to get the drawing to the level that I want.  I’m using a grid transfer method to aid me in getting my drawing done faster and to keep the details that my mind would omit if I tried drawing it out of my head.

But, Bryan, why don’t you just trace it?  Because there are some pretty big pitfalls in doing that even when you do know how to draw.   From inherent distortion problems with photography to the fact that I’m not trying to just reproduce the photograph. I’m using the reference to hit a degree of realism  that my mind is not able to achieve on it’s on.  To supplement what I already know.  It’s a balance.  Reality is filled with so many subtle details that your mind can never remember them all.    And that’s a good thing.  It’s the mistakes or choices we make that go against reality that make our drawings so unique.  It’s what makes up the vision of an artist.

It’s a fine and sometimes confusing line, I know.  It’s very easy and common to see an artist just trace a picture with no skill to base it on.  To let the tracing substitute for his creation.  Reference has to be an aid to your creation not the creation itself.  It should be the means to an end not the end itself.   People and especially artists get so bent out of shape over this subject because they think reference is a substitute for skill.  That if f Joe Blow off the street with no drawing skill what-so-ever traces a picture and people are impressed that it’s like spitting in the face of an artist who has put in long hours of practice and dedication.  What they fell to realize is that no matter how well Joe copies it won’t equal or come close to what the trained artist can do.   It like comparing a memo from your boss on recycling to a great American novel. Here’s a great clip from the movie “Chasing Amy” that illustrates my point.

Reference is a tool.   It’s when it’s your only tool that it’s a problem.   So, go out today and trace a picture, than draw if out of your head.  While you’re at it draw from life too.  That’s better than anything.

This is the first in a series of posts concerning the mental process your brain should be taking in making a great painting.  Every piece will go through these stages and depending upon how well they are executed will result in the quality of the painting.  I’m going to skip over “Concept”, which is actually the first stage.  I’m assuming you know what you what to paint.  If now, then step one is as follows…decide what you’re going to paint.  After you’ve got your initial idea it time to figure out your most basic layout or your compositions.

Composition is simply the arrangement of shapes and values on your picture plane.

You want to aim for a combination of shapes, angles, lights and darks that is pleasing to the eye.  Well, what is pleasing to the eye you ask.  The eye likes what the brain likes and your brain likes to put things in some type of order.   It wants to take the chaos and arrange it into things that it understands.  It wants to group like shapes or sizes.  It wants to clean up a mess.  Don’t go overboard.

Aim for “Unity with Diversity”.

Most student will remember this phrase from art school.  The last thing I want you to do you to line up all your shapes from smallest to largest and call it a day.  That is the extreme that your brain is trying to do but if we travel all the way down this road will sacrifice all diversity and thus all the visual interest.  See, even though your brain is trying to put object in order it will get bored after it’s done and you don’t want boring painting.  The objective is to find that balance between unifying your composition but keep the diversity or visual interest.

One of the easiest ways to start this process is experiment or decide based on your subject matter what your dominant value will be.  Paintings should always have a dominant value.  It should be mostly dark, mostly light, or mostly a middle value.  This creates that unity by connecting large portions of your picture with one value.  Ohhh, your brain likey!  Here are some examples below.

Fig. 1 has a dominant dark value has has a number of shapes arranged or grouped in a pleasing fashion.  Fig. 2 on the other hand is weak and needs to make a decision.  In this instant as well as all you do in art, be CONFIDENT!  MAKE A DECISION!  Push your shapes and values to get a pleasing composition and then decide on your dominant value.  If you get this stage right you can make a slew of mistakes throughout the rest of the process and still end up with an impressive painting.  Nothing makes a great painting like a strong foundation and inversely nothing is worse than a weak one.

Color Intensity!

I used to watch a fantastic artist named Brian Stelfreeze every year at the Heroes comic convention doing a painting for the annual Heroes auction.  Many times I’d notice how he would create a hot spot of the most vibrant, intense color that would just leaped off of his painting.  How does he get that color to sing I’d ask myself?  Years later through study and painting daily myself it became apparent.

Let’s define a few things first.  The full intensity or color saturation is the purest the color can be.  It isn’t muted in any way by the addition or white or black.  Think of it as a color to it’s most extreme degree.

An artist can use it to draw the viewer eye to a certain area of the page or make that color literally look like it’s glowing.  Below I’ve sketched the face of a girl with red hair where in I’ve placed a yellow highlight.  I really wanted that highlight to look like it’s glowing.  When a pure bright color is placed or surrounded by a greyed color or colors it increases the intensity of the pure color.  You’re looking for a high contrast of value or intensity.  You can see how the highlight on the hair of the girl on the left really shines but the one on the right is too similar in value and does not have enough contrast to make the highlight stand out.  So watch out for using values or saturation/intensities that are too similar.

For an even greater effect use complementary colors because, as we know, these colors opposite each other on the color wheel have a natural ability to affect each other in ways that intensify the other.

There are numerous artist who are masters of this technique.  The best I’ve ever seen is the painter Joseph Turner.   A more contemporary example would of course be Brian Stelfreeze.

Thanks for reading and make sure to try this in your next painting.  The best way to learn is to do.