How to draw and some things you probably don’t want to know but might be for the best. Drawing has always played an important role in my life and I have been doing it to a high standard for over 30 years selling my work from the age of 14, I did this without a teacher. If I can do it then I am sure you can also no matter how young or old you are. I always tell people that if you can write your name then you can draw also because we use mostly the same skills to do both except drawing is easier.
My obligation is to now pass this knowledge on to others who might want to do the same because I have received so much reward from these activities and skills that I think others should also have the opportunity.
Over these years I have had the privilege to be in a position to not only understand the problems that I faced myself when learning to draw but more importantly the problems many others face also.
This situation has given me a greater understanding of the main areas of confusion and difficulty faced by others when trying to draw realistic pictures of quality.
Introduction to drawing.
As children we all seem to draw and paint easily without any hang ups but as we get older we also seem to overlook this vital source of communication, entertainment and pleasure. Yet drawing is as always, still one of the easiest most accessible ways of communicating information through the visual form.
Even with today’s advanced computer technology and photography techniques which are readily available to many the humble pencil is still widely used by professionals. Most designers still use basic hand drawing skills for their initial drafts when generating ideas for further development because drawing can be precise and more informative in the early stages of the design and selection process.
The best attitude.
As grown ups the world is seen very differently than it was when we where children and the biggest barrier for most of us is that now we have a greater understanding of the world, we also have a better sense of correctness or in-correctness. This is usually misunderstood creating the barriers that stop us from performing and thus creating inhibitions about our drawing capabilities.
There is however nothing magical or mysterious about drawing because if you can write your name you can draw as I have already said and anyone can learn this skill. If you adopt the best approach just like any other subject you will learn and you will improve your drawing capabilities.
Remember this; practice is the essential ingredient for getting the best results.
Do you know?
If you want to learn to draw then you most probably want to draw like the professionals but what you perhaps don’t realise is the professionals draw for money this means something very different because the motivation is different. You might not think that this matters but it does more than you might realise because people who draw for money draw different than those who draw for the love of it. This does not mean that those professionals who draw for money don’t love what they are doing though but it does mean they have more than one motive and get paid for it.
People who draw for money have refined their work into something that sells.
When these people have found something that sells they have to keep doing it that way to make money.
In most instances people who draw just for the love of it haven’t reached the point of selling.
The motivation is very different because one wants a very specific preconceived result and the other just wants to find the result.
One knows what the end result they want looks like and the other is looking for the results so this is very different, ultimately one result is money and satisfaction the other is pure satisfaction.
Satisfaction.
At the end of the day an artist drawing for love has to satisfy nobody not even themselves because the satisfaction comes from the reward of just doing, on the other hand the artist who draws for money has to satisfy others for them to buy what has been produced. This can be very rewarding when you know that someone is saticfide with your work because they have paid you to do it so that is another motivating feature.
Acclaim.
Professional artists who draw for money most often draw the same drawings over and over because they draw to a formula and a good example is Scott Robertson the guy acclaimed for drawing Hot Wheels cars. If you look at his work it is really quite good but every one is drawn in the same sort of way because they are drawn to formulas that do not change very much if at all because they are selling formulas.
In fact Scott Robertson is most probably just a name that sells because the work under the name is made in a design studio with lots of people working in it. In such a design studio you would be hard pressed to find a finished drawing that has been designed and drawn by a single person because these types of studios are more like factories.
Mass production.
In these drawing factories the end results are what most people wouldn’t even consider to be anything near a traditional drawing they are very often refined tracings that are completed on a machine because speed and precision are imperative not artistry.
Time is money but art is merely a romantic whim when compared to making money unless you’re lucky as well as determined because nobody was ever successful over night without putting any effort in, luck is only a small part of it. Without any effort you don’t produce anything to bring you any luck in the first place.
The people who work in these studios are not much better off or different than people working on a factory assembly line in some ways, mass producing parts of images for money but whether or not this output is actually art is very questionable to some traditionalists.
Imagine doing the same things day in, day out, wouldn’t you get good at it, to take on any competition with professionals is difficult because you are competing against many, who are all very good because they practice all day.
Branding.
Scott Robertson might have even been leased as a name where the work is produced under the name of Scott Robertson but leased to Disney for use or another brand name. One thing for sure is if you like the pictures produced under the name Scott Robertson or Disney there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to copy draw these pictures there is nothing wrong with that either in fact it is highly likely you will learn and gain a great deal in doing so.
If you are trying to draw like the professionals you need to realize that all is not as it seems in the commercial design studios, these image factories use many people all working on projects not just one person. Commercial drawing, designs are drawn to a formula yes but no one person draws them really and certainly not Scott Robertson or Walt Disney they are the names of the branding but that does not mean that these people are not good at drawing or design. In fact a great deal can be learned from these people as I do all the time, interpret the success of others.
Remember people who draw for money have to draw what sells so they draw the same drawing to a formula because that’s what people want to buy.
If you want to draw pictures like the pictures you see all around you, like advertising, video game packaging, comics, cartoons, cars or any commercial picture created for a market to make money you are not competing with one person but many. There is nothing wrong with doing this it will make you good but remember to not be too hard on yourself if you don’t get it quite right first time, remember what your up against.
Masters of illusion.
The one thing you never see are the pictures that don’t make the grade and all factories produce waste. They always put the best work first, anything less can go in the rubbish, always push your best work first and keep working at replacing it, over time some will stay in the cupboard.
The bottom line is this, what we see in the end is a product that has been designed, refined and marketed to portray the right illusion or image to sell the product because at the end of the day all art is purely illusion. Scott Robertson or Walt Disney have both achieved their success through hard work and determination in the age old tradition of being masters of illusion.
