Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve been here for a while and I am seeing it erode slowly.
Everything is eroding slowly.
You've been keeping the whole site together for years
How to Draw Animals (1930)
41–50 of 110 posts
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#42Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#43We play a great party game called 'Six Second Animals.' The caller names an animal and counts down from 6. Other players draw the animal. The caller picks a favorite and that drawer becomes caller.
Neat! check out Google's Quick Draw [1] where you need to draw a given object in 20 seconds and a neural network will recognize what you're drawing.
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#44The fundamental issue that is hardly addressed in drawing by shape recognition is that it gets the proportion right but fails to teach the inherent "3D" structure of the animal. The litmus test for drawing is to ask someone to draw an animal. If they can, great. Follow up and see if that draw the same thing but now in isometric view or from an arbitrary viewpoint/perspective. Imagine if you have a camera with various…
I was gifted an anatomy drawing class with live models (kind of by mistake) and decided to jump into it. I never doodled or tried to draw, basically ever in my life, and I was amazed at the complexity and challenge of it.
My first drawings were laughably bad, trying to do 50 things at once during a 10 minute drawing - they ended up worse than a bad stick figure. And I kept expecting to turn the corner and suddenly do things well, but it really is a long road. At first I thought my biggest challenge was simply how to make effective marks with a pencil, but so much more is what you said - understanding of the 3D form, the skeleton and musculature, not to mention unraveling and rebuilding all the mental shortcuts our brain takes when constructing an image from a picture. I really love nerding out on reductive drawings now, especially ones that convey a ton of info with minimal marks. It is still like magic to me, but I am excited to keep learning.
Anyone in the Bay Area interested, the class I took was from this awesome charcoal artist who is starting teaching from his own studio in SF: https://www.instagram.com/jacobdoodles/
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#45The fundamental issue that is hardly addressed in drawing by shape recognition is that it gets the proportion right but fails to teach the inherent "3D" structure of the animal. The litmus test for drawing is to ask someone to draw an animal. If they can, great. Follow up and see if that draw the same thing but now in isometric view or from an arbitrary viewpoint/perspective. Imagine if you have a camera with various…
This is peak Hacker News. Here we have a children’s book about drawing cats using circles. You’re critiquing it for failing to teach how to internalize the 3-d structure of skeletons.
It does the old 'now draw the rest of the f'ing Owl' meme, which can only hurt the kid's self-esteem when their drawings don't match the end result (reflects my personal experience when I used 'how to draw animals' books as a kid).
Use this if you just want to draw some random things for fun, but stay clear if you want to learn to draw (or want your kid to). It's an 'activity book,' not a how to draw book.
And I think that causes the contention; not that it's a kids book, but that it pretends to provide useful education. It doesn't, it'll create frustration if you think it'll actually help you draw animals better.
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#46The fundamental issue that is hardly addressed in drawing by shape recognition is that it gets the proportion right but fails to teach the inherent "3D" structure of the animal. The litmus test for drawing is to ask someone to draw an animal. If they can, great. Follow up and see if that draw the same thing but now in isometric view or from an arbitrary viewpoint/perspective. Imagine if you have a camera with various…
Yes, you are gatekeeping. My kid asked me to draw a boar and it turned into a dolphin with legs. This is just what I need :)
Well you might as well just show your kid the picture in the book then...
You will have many more memorable an enjoyable moments with your kid if you make more walking dolphins rather than just copy pictures :)
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#47We play a great party game called 'Six Second Animals.' The caller names an animal and counts down from 6. Other players draw the animal. The caller picks a favorite and that drawer becomes caller.
Neat! check out Google's Quick Draw [1] where you need to draw a given object in 20 seconds and a neural network will recognize what you're drawing. [1] https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/
That's the sad and alone version of the game.
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#48The fundamental issue that is hardly addressed in drawing by shape recognition is that it gets the proportion right but fails to teach the inherent "3D" structure of the animal. The litmus test for drawing is to ask someone to draw an animal. If they can, great. Follow up and see if that draw the same thing but now in isometric view or from an arbitrary viewpoint/perspective. Imagine if you have a camera with various…
Not everybody need to be able to draw things anatomically correct. This guide IMHO serves perfectly as a material to teach children drawing as a recreational activity. There's almost no explanations, only directions. There's no exact proportion either, you choose what look good to you.
It's not a learning material though, that's the point. It's an activity book, like dot to dot. Keep it in that context and all good
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The peacock though is pretty close to the meme..
True, but presumably once the reader has worked their way up to this part of the book, they'd have built up the needed skills for drawing this one.
Not really, that's the point of the meme: you just follow explicit steps and then have to make a logical leap in understanding the actual subject. It's a fail at all levels when the author adds detail from their own knowledge/experience the student is unaware of. Frustration will follow...
Re: How to Draw Animals (1930)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, you are gatekeeping. My kid asked me to draw a boar and it turned into a dolphin with legs. This is just what I need :)
Well you might as well just show your kid the picture in the book then... You will have many more memorable an enjoyable moments with your kid if you make more walking dolphins rather than just copy pictures :)
When drawing or making things for your kids the drawing or model is the least important thing in the entire process. It's the act and the engagement itself that is the most prized. It works in reverse too.