Realism vs. Stylization - help!

[.cfb]

Hello all,

I'm having a problem. Since the local college accepts no one under 18 for life drawing and I'm currently looking for a studio that has open life drawing sessions, I usually just draw classmates faces (they have no idea) or pictures of me taken with my digital camera. Anyways, whenever I do this, I start out with the intent of drawing the pictures hyper-realistic, but it never turns out this way. I always (subconsciously) stylize them, I stylize the face, the body structure and the muscles (etcetera). Can someone help me unlearn my drawing style, or offer any tips on how to temporaraly "forget" my style. Anyways, you know what I mean. I was thinking about tracing an outline, but I'm adverse to tracing, and it eliminates some of the point of life drawing.

Anyways, help is needed and would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[PencilPunx]

I have the same problem. Here's what my art professor had me do, maybe it will work for you as well. The next time you do a life drawing, don't look at the paper at all. Just keep your eye on your subject and let your hand flow where your instincts guide you. The finished product will most likely look terrible, but it will train you to draw exactly what you see, not what you THINK you see.

[Chromo48]

How stylized is it? I think it would be cool if you could keep a true likeness but also implement your style at the same time.

For instance: Say you drew a picture of Michael J. Fox and showed it to people. Right away they'd be like "Hey that looks like a real '.cfb' and it looks just like Michael J. Fox!"

My point is, you don't wanna forget your style all together.

[johnsaulrubio]

I had that problem too. Instead of drawing a model's nose, I used to draw what I believed a nose to look like. Same with the eyes, etc. etc. The result was usually this idealized version of my subject that looked nothing like the human being I was trying to draw and more like some plastic dummy that sort of resembled them.

I ended up having a teacher tell me to do just what PencilPunx is saying. Do some blind contour sketches at every session to warm up. Really see and study the shapes of the model and let that guide your hand to draw every nuance and variation you can visually detect. It really helps.

Also, try drawing negative space instead of the subject; For instance, if the model is standing and has an arm bent with her hand on her hip, try drawing the triangular space between the side of her torso and her inner arm. Do this sort of negative space drawing while you sketch and flesh out the rest of the form.

Hope this helps.

[DragonGX]

Originally posted by PencilPunx
I have the same problem. Here's what my art professor had me do, maybe it will work for you as well. The next time you do a life drawing, don't look at the paper at all. Just keep your eye on your subject and let your hand flow where your instincts guide you. The finished product will most likely look terrible, but it will train you to draw exactly what you see, not what you THINK you see.


Yeah, there are alot of exersizes you can do to train yourself to draw waht you see and not what you THINK you see..

Contour drawings, outline drawings, go extremely slow and look at the object you are drawing more than your drawing. Sometimes dont look at the drawing at all... put a peice of paper or something over your drawing hand so you cant look. All of these will help you draw more representationally and in the end you will have better, more accurate drawings..


Also, what john said about drawing negative space. That will really help you. if you cant get something to look right and you dont know why, check the negative spaces and see how well they match up.

[JoshuaTheJames]

Draw anime! Thats what I do.

-Joshua

[OLSEN]

Negative space: as pointed out before. It really works but it twisted both my head and my wrist when i started out.

Draw different things: Dont just draw people, they can teach you alot, but since you seem to be stuck in a certain style you want to break free from, try drawing things that you have no previous reference to. This will help train your eye to see things as they are, and not what you think they are.

If your current style is any good, keep it and use it when its needed, not all art has to be lifelike, and if you want hyper-realistic, why not use a camera?

[.cfb]

Thank you all for your input.

The reason that I feel my style is almost hindering me is that I tend to draw very straight, fast lines. When drawing a curved object, for example, I have the tendancy to make it almost seem polygonal, and it really hurts when drawing people, because they have a very sharp look to them. When drawing off the top of my head, it looks fine, but when trying to draw muscles and stuff like that, I often misplace things as a resuly.

Anyways, thanks again.

[jrr]

when did "hyper realistic" become a common term? i got one
I draw UBER REALISTIC dancing monkeys.

you don't need a "model" model to draw. it's a lame crutch. you just need to see and draw what you see and draw everything and if it doesn't look right, you change it until it does. the more you settle with your mistakes the more.... well you know.

[PeggyChung]

you can also try turning the picture upside down and draw it upside down, that will keep your mind off how it "should" look in your mind :eek:

[Kortez]

Iffy: if he want's to learn to paint realistically, that's his choice, please stop this "if I don't like it, nobody should draw this way".

If you don't like realism, don't go for it, but just go bitchin and giving people crap that don't agree with you.

.cfb: DragonGX has some good pointers for you.
You can start off with blind contour drawing and that way, you'll be drawing what you see, not what you think you see, then work your way down to 80% on the subject, 20% on the paper. :)

[Kortez]

ohhh... well, this is kinda an awkward moment :rolleyes: sorry dude :)