This excuse has been posed to me many different ways: “I can’t draw unless I am looking at the thing I’m drawing.” “I can’t draw from my imagination.” “I can see it in my mind but I can’t get it out.”… Basically it boils down to: “I can make comics because I’m not good enough. I can only draw things that I can see, i can never draw things from my mind.”
I find this excuse funny. Why? Because you’re excuse is a problem all people have. Not a single person alive can draw something 100% from their mind. Yet we have many great artists hanging around. It’s like saying “I can never fly, because I don’t have any wings.” Well… no one has wings, but people fly all the time, you’re just making up excuses.
“But Shono,” I’m sure you’re saying out loud right now, because for some reason you like to talk to my blog, “I see artists draw things all the time without looking at anything. If no one can draw things from their mind, how are these artists doing it?”
Well they’re not psychics or mystics. They didn’t just conjure up the image out of thin air. The fact is artist who can draw something from their mind are able to do so because they’ve drawn the same thing so many times they don’t have to look at it anymore to create it. Sorta like how a blind person doesn’t need their seeing eye dog to get around their own house. They’ve been through it so many times they have a strong mental image that lets them navigate without the need of visual aids.
But they didn’t start out that way. They only got that way from repeated practice. You can’t draw anything unless you know what it looks like. Quick! without looking draw the southeast face of Mount Washington in New Hampshire! You can’t do it can you? Does it mean you suck at drawing? No. It means you have no idea what it looks like. I know I don’t. But unless you’re an artist who has gone to that mountain and drawn it a hundreds or even thousands of times, there is no way you can draw that without looking at it.
I know thats a silly example but it proves my point. You can’t draw faces, hands, cars, buildings, streets, jungles, flowers, or ANYTHING unless you know what it looks like first. And there is no way you will know what it looks like unless you sit in front of it, and look at it, and draw it while you’re looking at it. Maybe after you’ve drawn the same thing 1000 times will you’ll be able to do it from your mind.
This isn’t cheating. It’s called studying. It’s called practicing. It’s also called using a reference, and every artist in the world uses references. And if an artist tells you he or she has never used a reference, they’re either a terrible artist, or a liar.
You do have to be careful with using things like photographs and other pieces of art as references however. If you’re using it for the sole purpose of practicing, studying and learning. Knock yourself out. But if you’re using it to create a piece of art for a client, you have to be very careful. If you copy it exactly you set yourself up for plagiarism and/or copyright infringement charges. I don’t want to get into all of that here, but suffice to say, if you’re using references for commercial art, do not copy it exactly (or even mostly.) Make sure you change more than 50% of it to be safe.
Okay so I hear one of you yelling in the back, “Shono! If you can’t draw something that you’ve never seen before, how do artists create things that have never existed before, like sci fi ships, and weird aliens?”
Thats pretty simple. Even things that have never been seen before, and are created purely by the artist imagination are based on SOMETHING that exists. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Aliens are based off of variations and combinations of other earth animals. Weird buildings or vehicals are based off of known things of today. A creative artists just combines all these things they’ve seen in their life and combine them to make unique looking things the world hasn’t seen before.
So if you can’t draw something from your imagination, fear not, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad artist. And it CERTAINLY does not mean you cannot make comics. It just means you have to practice more. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE then PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE… (continue 1000 more times…). Once you’ve done this you’ll find there are quite a few things you can draw without looking anymore.
So lets get drawing, because Making Comics are very time consuming, and we don’t have time to make anything else… (like excuses…)
I’m pretty exhausted from this week of summer camps i’ve been teaching at. So tomorrow we’re going to relax and look at some sketches. And until then check me out around the web:
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And if you love my artwork don’t forget to pick up my comics!
And remember. Make Comics! Not Excuses!
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