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Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#111

Post by bhu1st »

hourislate wrote: post #27

Although I consider myself a hack, my family and friends think I have some God Given drawing talent. Not true I tell them, anyone can draw well. You just need this book and practice. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B005GSYXU4&preview=new... This is probably the best book I have come across and it took me from stick figures to what my family con…

I went through the book once 10 years ago. It is definitely recommended to anyone considering drawing seriously.

It is easy to lose focus when drawing. Hang in there. Look more closely. Focus on the details. Try to copy as much details as you can.

The quote "Good artist copy great artist steal" is true in the sense that the more we focus our attention on the details of the drawing the closer we get to copy/literally steal the feel of object we're drawing.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#113

Post by samlosodesign »

For vector graphics use Adobe illustrator. Try learning a 3D modeling program (not sure which type of engineer you are). Don’t worry about not being able to draw well with your hand. I’m an architect and use pen+paper for thinking something through, then use software like illustrator to execute.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#114

Post by xtiansimon »

> "...career as an engineer. I want to be able to illustrate my ideas when writing blog posts and documentation."

> "... drawing complex real life objects using vector graphics..."

These two statements suggest to me you're aims are diverse. It would be difficult to help you to _start_ the process of "learn to draw" from these opposite aims. Yes, opposite.

"Drawing from life" and wireframes for a webpage or ERD diagrams are completely opposed. The extension of 'drawing from life' is towards the emotive dimension of interpretation. The extension of ERD is towards _executable_ BPMN. Woah.

This leaves me with only answering your question. To which I would advise you there is drawing and there is draftsmanship, or what artistic pedagogy might call 'craft'. I like the former for the high-level view. (I have an undergraduate in art and design and craft is still one of those things which you best know when you see it). To illustrate the point of drawing versus draftsmanship, you might consider Randall Munroe's XKCD comic versus Bill Waterson's Calvin & Hobbes.

So what do you do? I would suggest finding your medium (another art school familiar term), or the material you like to work with. Is it paint? Is it pixels? Colored pencils, quill pens or 4-color BIC? Who know's! You're an engineer, test them all.

How will you know you have the right medium? First you'll enjoy _looking_ at your results. You'll revel in the process of making marks and expressing your thoughts. Fully in the moment of idea, execution, and result. IT IS PHYSICAL ACTION WITH YOUR HANDS. IT'S VISUAL. It's my belief when you find the right medium you will know it. It may work well for a time, and then you can try other things. The art store is full of toys.

How does that translate to your engineering career? Certainly not directly, but by the practice of looking and being comfortable with making visual decisions your ERD diagrams might improve. You may find your documentation has more appealing layouts with 'negative space' and not 'blank space'. The hierarchy of line weights may communicate more clearly. Stuff like that can be your reward if only you dedicate every weekend for the next 100 days to watercolors of your house and garden.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#115

Post by adyer07 »

The funny thing about drawing is that it’s not one skill - it’s a collection of many different skills. An architect, a cartoonist, an illustrator, an animator, Michelangelo and Picasso are all drawing, and clearly what they produce and its goal are very different. Arguing over whether to use Drawabox or Right Side of the Brain or Bob Ross videos is silly, because these courses are all trying to teach totally different parts of the skills we call “drawing”.

So here’s my very general advice for you:

- Start trying to make the drawings you WANT to make, before you think you have the skills. Illustrate your ideas and blog posts! Then, take a step back and evaluate that work - was it effective? What do, or don’t, you like about it? What skills do you think are missing, and what processes might you use to achieve it? A lovely illustration is much more than looking realistic - it may be completely unrealistic at all. It has mark making, color, design, composition...all separate skills you can work on.

- Identify people whose work you love. Find someone who you look at and think, “yes, I want my drawings to look like THAT.” Make copies of their work for practice (call it a “master copy” to feel smart about it.) Find out which artists inspired them or taught them, and copy their work, too. Find out what artists they like and stalk them on Instagram. Buy a print of their work and marvel at it, every day.

- Get a sketchbook on cheap, terrible paper, and fill it up. Doesn’t matter with what. Get comfortable experimenting and producing a lot, even if it’s junk. The time investment is important.

- Expose yourself to as many different skill sets as possible. Take a community college life drawing class! Draw a comic! Design a chair in AutoCAD! Draw from life, and imagination, doodle and paint and play with infinite patterns in Illustrator. You may start to feel what ways of thinking work for you. Perhaps you enjoy academic drawing and not cartooning. Or maybe you’ve got a hidden fascination with the abstract expressionists. That’s one way to find out.

- Make friends who draw. Share your work with them, and let them share their work with you.

- There are many introductory drawing classes taught by adult education centers, artists communities, colleges, etc. These are likely to introduce you to the same basics as a book like Right Side of the Brain, but also a little bit more of the “artistic” side, like smooshing charcoal around and exercising your arm. If you’re lucky you’ll get a nude model. These are great fun and I recommend one regardless of what kind of drawing you’d like to do - it’s a great introduction to issues that are common to many kinds of drawing.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#116

Post by gdubs »

Some tips:

Try holding the pencil less like a writing pen, and a little further back from the tip. Loosen up a little.

Exercise your ability to look at your subject and not the paper. Try not looking at the paper at all, and doing continuous contours where you don’t pick up the charcoal / pencil at all. These will look silly, but that’s ok!

Learn to draw what you see, and not what you already assume is there. Make a mark on your paper - let’s say the curve of someone’s eye. Then, squint one eye and hold out your pencil and use it as a measure. You can measure the length of that mark and compare it to the distance of another mark you see in real life. Use this technique to find how far things are really from each other, whether they’re level, and the proportion of one line or shape to another.

Use your eraser as much as your drawing implement, and keep a light touch. No need to sketch over and over and over the same lines. Let each line count.

Start out with just lines - don’t worry about shading right away. Once you’ve mastered lines — how they define areas, etc, — you’ll find that the shading comes natural.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#117

Post by taphangum »

I've been doing this for my own blog posts (https://planflow.dev/blog) of late, as well as within my book (https://gumroad.com/l/Debbg/z823cp8), and I have to say, the engagement levels are INSANE.

I *HIGHLY* recommend it.

Some tips:

- Understand that a drawing is a low fidelity synthesis of an idea.

The first skill to get good at, is breaking down what you're trying to say into its 'essence'. The most important PARTS of it.

This comes with practice, but a good way to do it is by writing, and then editing that writing, strangely enough.

- Learn the fundamentals of design

Understanding the basics of design, such as color theory, typography and layout composition gives you a great advantage when it comes to your drawing technique. There is no secret here, you will just have to learn the basics and then practice.

- Use FAST tools

I use Figma for all of blog drawings [1]. Why? because it's online, and most importantly, it's very FAST. And fast helps me speed up my iteration (and therefore 'learning') cycles. Fast is highly underestimated when learning. Fast is a superpower.

- Use templates

If you take a look at the drawings I have on my blog, you'll notice that I use similar templates for each one. In fact they all start from the same template.

Using a template gives you the confidence to get over the 'blank page' anxiety that often derails beginners. Allowing you to build up a momentum that will KEEP you drawing. And if you keep drawing, you WILL get better.

I plan to write more about this in the next few weeks, as a blog post. If you're interested in reading it, select one of the posts on the blog [1] and add your email address at the bottom! :)

Hope this helps!

[1] - https://planflow.dev/blog

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#118

Post by nbzso »

Fundamentals:

1. Start with simple forms. Straight lines. Cross lines. Circle. Square. Triangle. - sketch on paper with pencil (preferably HB) - One/Two weeks period 30 - 50 sketches a day. Don't try to be perfect at all. The goal here is to create muscle memory and to get a level of comfort while drawing. Try to do circles - ovals in one movement. Avoid shading, the goal here is to draw with lines only. Try to draw by locking your wrist in fixed position and direct the movement from your shoulder. Listen to music if this is helpful to be calm and relaxed. Make it fun in some way. Enjoy the repetitiveness of the process.

2. Remove the big ideas, avoid digital tools, don't watch "how others are good".

3. After you get decent results of circles, squares and triangles - repeat the procedure with more complex objects - try to draw combinations of those elements.

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This is the most simple and most important part. When you develop a muscle memory of drawing freely simplest forms, you can take the next steps. - drawing from nature cubes, spheres and cones from paper models. - fundamentals of perspective, shadow and light - fundamentals of composition

And practice, practice, practice. :)

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Post credentials: I am professional designer with almost 20 years career and have a degree for art teacher.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?

#119

Post by nbzso »

KineticLensman wrote: post #55
hourislate wrote: post #27

Although I consider myself a hack, my family and friends think I have some God Given drawing talent. Not true I tell them, anyone can draw well. You just need this book and practice. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B005GSYXU4&preview=new... This is probably the best book I have come across and it took me from stick figures to what my family con…

Yes the most important principle being Draw what you see, not what you know. For example, don't draw an eye as an ellipse containing a circle, but look at the actual combination of of light and dark shapes, and draw those instead. [Edit]. Also, drawing people is a really good test. If you draw a house or a tree, say, you can get the shapes / proportions wrong but the thing might still look plausible. Draw a head out…

Non correct. Understanding of the form is a must. Drawing what you know is the basic principle. If you draw what you see without understanding of perspective, basic forms etc you will end with optically build representation of reality. In case of the eye you must know how anatomically is constructed and draw by combining your knowledge with what you see.
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