![]() It suggests you start by visualising your figure with the help of basic shapes to build sort of a visual skeleton. There's also a quite popular technique I learned about called "block-in" that uses a similar approach when doing figure drawing. In others words, perfect for Graphic Facilitation students. This is great if you're going for a more abstract, iconic, or cartoonish way of drawing. Using basic shapes when drawing also forces you to first capture the main characteristics of the object you're trying to put on paper. Instead, if we first try to break down reality into simple blocks we can later improve upon it if we like. But the world is difficult to represent on paper, even for a master artist. When us beginners try to draw, we too often try to include as much detail as possible. Regardless if they're beginners or professional artists. There are numerous examples of teachers who advise their students to use basic shapes to improve the quality of their drawings. Shapes make senseĭrawing with basic shapes gradually started making sense to me. Like panning for gold, I slowly but steadily managed to extract the shiny nuggets from the surrounding gravel. But then, after things started to clear up and patterns began to arise. Shapes! But why am I surprised, in this day and age? If millions of people can "reddit" Game of Thrones spinoffs, face palms of the week, or the Earth being flat, on a daily basis, maybe "shapes" can actually spice things up?Īt first, I was kind of frustrated that each article, blog, or excerpt from printed literature pointed me in a different direction. There are a lot of people from all around the world, with a whole lot of interest, who go online to discuss the basics of shapes. After about an hour of research, I had reached a number of conclusions. As most often with Google, I had to trial and error a number of times before the search results started making sense to me. I tried feeding the search engine different keywords related to "drawing" and "basic shapes" in hope for enough relevant results to give me more clarity on the first step on the list. The first step on the list read draw the basic shapes. Big G rarely seems to disappoint when I'm in the mood for some Sherlock Holmes role play. At least to explore the possible routes out there. I usually consult my friend Google to find the way. Question: Let's say you have a clear direction where you want to go, but an unclear understanding of how to get there. It was like he had handed me a secret treasure map, passed down through generations, but without a compass to lead the way. So, although grateful for the tip, I also felt disoriented since I didn't know where to start. Without leaving so much as a clue to how I could apply them in practice. The challenge next, lay in the fact that he'd logged out right after sharing the steps with me. ![]() They were the three steps my mentor had advised me to follow: Like wisdom an apprentice would inherit from his old master. ![]() On a post-it attached to the left side of my screen, I'd safely stored three bullet points marked in black. I just want to draw a little bit better than yesterday. It's not like I'm asking to become a professional artist in the next few weeks. I'd found him to be the perfect person to ask. And he knew me as a strong believer in "life hacking," always on the lookout for a more efficient way to get something done. I knew him as a "pragmartist," meaning as a both pragmatic and artistic person. ![]() According to him, that would give me the confidence I needed to significantly improve the quality of my on-the-fly sketches at work. He'd answered by advising me to improve my skills in freehand drawing. It's lean, agile, and I really like the aesthetics of it all. You know, when you draw in a cartoonish way using icons and symbols as a means of communication. I'd asked him for advice on how to get better at Graphic Facilitation. Leaving me feeling both grateful and somewhat disoriented. After which, he'd logged out from the meeting. “Practice, practice, practice,” my mentor had instructed me. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |