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PaperclipPerfector  13d ago (text post)   2342 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 23, 2025

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Does anyone knows of scientifically proven ways of rapidly learning to draw if you have absolutely no talent or experience? Talking about pencils initially. I know about the "drawing on the right side of the brain" already

I know about the "drawing on the right side of the brain" already

Before I read this sentence I was already preparing to mention it. Any reason why you'd need something else? For me, it unlocked a "non-verbal" mode in my brain that I didn't even know it could do.

It is 50 years old. So there may be something better out there.

If you're looking for something more modern, Jake Spicer's You Will Be Able to Draw series seems pretty highly regarded.

Yes there actually is.

The three things that matter are quantity, speed and deliberateness in that order. You want to be drawing as much as possible as quickly as you can(this is sort of related) while trying to acchieve an objective/criteria you are trying to improve in.

What you want to improve in at first is line control and your visual spatial sense. So having a line you want to put down in your mind and putting that line and its length exactly where you intend to relative to other lines.

All drawings start off as a collection of lines.

Lines are actually often called curves and you want to master the S and C curve, putting the inflection points at the right place etc.

The other part is recognizing what curve or line make up the parts of the form you want to translate on paper.

The actual practice is, depending on your personal interest and mental fortitude, either drawing random objects in front of you or (pictures of) naked people (lets face it, pretty women).

For quick early motivating success do objects.

Shit out a couple of dozen quick sketches of these things a day, focusing on one or two of the skills I named earlier. Watch a couple of Proko YouTube videos to get some pointers.

You will be able to greatly impress your friends in at least three months and be better than most "artists" in a year. You will never be satisfied with your own skill.

Additional things;

Drawing is not tracing a shape. Drawing is a form of information compression, the better you are the less lines you need to convey what you are drawing with the least bits(lines) as possible.

The confidence and elegance of the line is paramount. Lines shouldn't overlap, be shaky, or be something other than the permitted curves.

Never erase anything just start over if needed.

Draw lines in one steady stroke.

Never draw from memory, always use reference. The only way to learn to draw without reference is a ton of related reference work.

Never spend longer on a picture to make it more pretty after you have the shape and form down. This is much harder than it sounds and one of the biggest impediments to improvment.

This is how you scientifically improve your drawing ability. There's a million other skills of course, you can never master all of these. Shape is the most important though, and shape is all you need to be a great artist.

Shading, perspective, texture, weight, composition, colour, flow. All important but far far easier to learn(with the exception of perspective) and a huge info hazard for young artists imo. These are all things that you will eventually want to learn, but theres no cheat code like with shape, where you can put yourself head and shoulders above others very (relatively speaking) quickly. And the learning habits you build up from shape and form practice will be critical for these too.

Most artists use these as a crutch, putting makeup on a pig. They can make pretty pictures, but they will stagnate with a terrible foundation.

The reason most artists don't learn shape and lines is that it's really hard and requires extensive deliberate practice. The vast majority of creatively inclined people are more interested in expression and creation than improving their craft.

You learn to make very pretty fragments by doodling and drawing what comes to mind. This is very inefficient and you will never catch up to these people in the domain of aesthetic doodles.

You need to be prepared to draw a lot of ugly shit. It's like any other skill, only that it's so broad most people can get by with avoiding it and starting off making pretty little doodles but never outgrowing that. Most visual artists are actually very self conscious about this.

Edit: below you mentioned you wanted practice katas. The practice Katas of drawing are fairly unpleasant and demotivating to do, which is why they aren't taught to beginners. But yes, it is drawing something like the same teacup twelve times on one page in 10 minutes. Deliberately repeating and refining the lines from the previous tea cup.

The practice Katas of drawing are fairly unpleasant and demotivating to do, which is why they aren't taught to beginners.

Can you point me to them. I am engineer without any kind of creativity. I learned how to sharpen freehand and did the challenge of the gods on the original god of war. Can't be more unpleasant than that.

The rest sounds suspiciously like what drawbox peddle. Will give a try.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3sWBc3qUet0 - Line drawing. I had great success with this.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BKiopm83L8c - Lots of good exercises

I would personally also recommend the beginning figure drawing course by proko

But don't be afraid to just fill up an A4 page with whatever thing you want to draw that day. Choose a random object on your desk and draw it until the page is full. Organic shapes are better. People are best, but you can't step right into that one without watching a few videos or having someone teach you some basic principles. Never use a ruler.

What kind of drawing do you have in mind?

Studio drawing is really simple and straightforward, you just look between the thing and the page, and keep changing what's on the paper until it looks like the thing. I recommend charcoal.

getting something that is in front of me on paper, and getting something that is in my head on paper. Nothing fancy or abstract or cartoonish.

I don't know if there's any research into especially fast and effective methods for learning to draw. Art education is in general not very interested in finding out, since there isn't a shortage of people who can draw well enough with the current methods.

A drawing course will include something like the following:

  • A shaded sphere
  • Cubes in one and two point perspective, a hallway in one point perspective, the corner of a rooming two point perspective.
  • Negative space drawings. The space around a tree. The space around a set of easels. This is pretty important, and one of the things someone might not encounter by looking up individual topics. Especially, whenever there is an edge, you have to decide if the figure or the ground is darker/lighter, and provide contrast. Speaking of which
  • Contrast! Always figure out a way to have reasonably high contrast.
  • A draped cloth, preferably in charcoal. Preferably large. My drawing instructor made us draw everything on 18x24 inch paper. That's extremely tedious with pencils, but lovely with charcoals and pastels.
  • Basic anatomical proportions -- proportions of a face, proportions of a body, how many heads high is a person? How many eyes across is their face? DaVinci's human in a circle.
  • Some still life drawings, preferably with some reflective surfaces, perhaps silver, perhaps glass.
  • Preferably a landscape; some classes have students drive to a better location for this.
  • Figure drawings. The model might move every minute for warm ups, and then stay put for 20 minutes for a longer study. Sometimes after a few classes they stay put for over an hour, to allow a more finished drawing.
  • Critiques.

In my head there should exist some form of katas to do and practice to get better - the way they exist for everything else.

Keeping a sketchbook?

Ah, the good old drawing the rest of the owl-method.

Indeed. And since all the students surround the owl in a circle, you should also draw a slightly different angle than anyone else. Only you will know what your angle is, exactly. The teacher might make a mark or two and comment that since their head is near yours but not superimposed, those marks they made might not be exactly right.

The science of practice is going to have an effect no matter what kind of thing you’re learning. Variable practice, spacing, retrieval, elaboration. For instance, it is always going to be better to do 5 reps of A, 5 of B, 5 of c / d / e, all in one “session”, then just sitting down to do one technique for an hour. Always. And it is better to attempt to retrieve the technique out of your mind than looking back at notes; better to elaborate upon it with thoughts and examples and scenarios of your own; better to draw something you find interesting than otherwise (hence the nudes of art history); better to draw and then check your results like a test. And it’s going to be better to try fit in two or three short practices a day, rather than one long one every three days.

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