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Learning to draw? where to start?


-james-

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The device was called a Camera Obscura.

Whilst I agree that tracing is not cheating, and I use it all the time btw, I would still highly recommend drawing from life. tracing will not allow you to develop the eye hand coordination needed to draw with confidence.

Be wary of tracing from photographs, the old addage that the camera never lies....should be taken with a pinch of salt, always check, if it looks right it is right.

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I talked about the subject to my engineering teacher today, he said we didnt need to know how to do perspective drawing for the exam or any part of the course so wouldnt go through it :( At least I have you guys to help me :D

Thanks everyone :D

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MarkSH is right - I meant to add that copying a photo was useful - but it would be unwise to rely on it (the photo being accurate) . Many suffer from lens distortion with stretched wings or fuselages . Also air to air shots can be warped by the canopy glass they were taken through.

That's why you need to study perspective and practice drawing from real life - that way you learn to pick up on any errors in photos you might use.

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One more thing guys, how do i decide on where the vanishing point is to be? Probably a really silly question but its the one thing im unsure of :)

Trying to do a Tsr 2 atm :) The canopy is awkward!!!

James

Edited by -james-
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James,

I have looked at this guy's (See link below) website before and found it to be quite informative (He's also a very good illustrator).

His page on perspective grid construction particularly so.

http://www.khulsey.com/3_point_perspective.html

When constructing a grid remember to take into account the size of the object you are trying to depict. A matchbox does not need a lot of perspective (unless you are an insect of course) a house would need more, but then again it also depends on how close you are to the subject matter, if you are standing right next to a house the perspective will be extreme if you are a hundred yards away all the construction lines will appear more or less parallel.

To be honest with you I have never stopped learning about perspective and I've been a Technical Illustrator for over 25 years, as you do more, you rely less on the maths side of things and grid construction and fall back on your own intuition, again if it looks right it is right. However I can't emphasize enough how important it is to learn how to draw before you try to do technical illustration...when I was doing Tech Illustration at college more time was spent in Life class or filling up sketch pads than learning how to construct perspective grids.

Sorry if I'm being an old bore.

Keep at it you can obviously draw well already.

Edited by MarkSH
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Thanks Mark :) Its encouraging to see all these technical illustrators :D And you're not being an old bore, its really interesting for me :)

I shall post my latest effort later :)

James

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tracing! :o

filthy word! they'll be telling you to use bloody rules and set squares next! :rofl:

to be fair there is a time and a place for it James but personally i am agin it.

This will go against the grain it seems but am going to stand my ground here! :fight:

while it will help as a quick fix it will not help you develop your drawing abilities, which you obviously possess.

ONLY trace your own drawings if you need to.

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Hi again :) Anyone any idea where the nose for this Tsr 2 should go? looks weird atm. And ive not started the detailing yet, this is just the rough outline still :)

IMG_0793.jpg

James :) and thanks for all the kind comments :)

Edited by -james-
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Picture0008.jpg

Here is a photocopy of my drawing that I have used to try and get things right before doing it on my main drawing :)

Hope you like it up to now :D

Thanks everyone, James

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So it does! thanks for pointing that out :) I love having photocopies so I can make changes then go back to the original outline when i am sure of everything and do it right :D

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Well, seeing as that photocopy shown above would have been thrown out, I did some experimenting on it first :) Opinions please guys :)

IMG_0795.jpg

IMG_0796.jpg

IMG_0799.jpg

Also, what grade pencil should I be using? Im using an F atm and I dont think its giving me the range I need, what would everyone suggest?

Thanks :)

James

Edited by -james-
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The grade of pencil you use really depends on what you are wanting to use it for.

For technical drawings and sharpness of line I would use antything from F to 3F.

If you are going to shade the drawing then you really need to be looking for a

much softer pencil, like a 2B or 3B. I had a set that went to 6B- lokts of smudging :D

Edited by scottie_K
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IMG_0794_edited-1.jpg

Looks like a trip into town is in order at the weekend! or maybe to manchester and I can pop into modelzone too :D

I think im making good progress with drawing :D

Edited by -james-
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That looks good James - cockpit and tail might be a little bit out scalewise but the overall impression is good . I particularly like the exploded look into the engine which shows you have a good understanding of perspective . Keep at it . Next one will be another leap forward.

As for pencils - for sketches - say 2H , HB, 2B ,and 3B are the main ones I use but I've collected a much wider range over many years!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys :) Long time with no updates on progress, had so much work for school to do :(

Anyway, heres probably the only thing i've done worth posting on here from my sketchbook :)

DSC02226.jpg

Wanted to do some still life and incorporate perspective into it :) Hope it all looks alright to you :)

Thanks for all the help everyone :)

James

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Hi James

good work

Look at the angle of the upright boot top. It is tipped towards the viewer too much.

If you think of the upright/vertical/shin part of the boot as a cylinder, then the top and bottom of the cylinder are circles. (In plan view)

Imagine those circles inscribed in squares- ie the square sides are tangential to the circle

Those squares will be planes that obey the same perspective rules as the floor tiles and have the same vanishing point

(I am just using single point perspective to keep it simple but it looks about right for the boot anyway)

Now inscribe the ellipses back into the planes and Uncle Bob

That is harder to say than do lol

Obviously the bootleg is not quite a cylinder but is close enough to get the perspective and then fill in the rest to match

hope that makes some sort of sense. I know what I mean, which is not always the case!

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  • 2 months later...

Hey guys, ive been swamped with exam work and spending time with my gf etc, not had much chance to do any more drawings nevermind post them on here :P

Anyway, thought id just post a a pic i did a month or so ago :)

IMG_0866.jpg

Thank you for all of your help :D Im taking an engineering exam in 2 weeks time :D So any drawing skills i have picked up will be invaluable to me :)

James

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Looks like all your practice is paying off, i used to love drawing at school, and learnt to use a grid system to do big A3 sketches.

My art teacher from school had a pencil drawing of a Hawker Typhoon that i did in class once, that was drawn in the same pose as this one is....

ClosingtheGap.jpg

He had it on his wall for years, but god knows where it is now!

Keep up the sketching, it will prove fruitful in the future, for many things!

Adam

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