Is Fast Drawing and No Long, Detailed, Renderings a bad habit?

[Ryan K]

I draw really quick, light and loose. (Looks like I’m writing big font quickly, if you can't see what I'm putting down lol). There is accuracy, form, rhythm etc... In the sketches, but - Trying to match the rendering to go with the figures is very difficult for me. So I draw the outlines of shadows instead. (Which works well with my lines.)

I feel like I should wait until my skills develop more to work on something for an extensive amount of time, or else I just get lost in it and fall off track in the details and don't feel like I'm progressing as much as quicker studying.

Is this bad habit?

[Rist]

There is no bad habit, only style.

Nothing wrong with quick sketches. Just make sure to do lots of observational work and analyze why your drawings are looking off. Its nothing to do with the quickness of how you draw, but your ability to put it down on paper how it should look.

I think... lol

[Hyskoa]

Practice both.

[JParrilla]

there are different things to be gained from both sides. Quick drawings can teach you gesture, action, rhythm, etc. You learn how to get as much down in a little amount of time. Longer studies are obviously longer.. so You can learn about values, anatomy, etc. The more time you have.. the more you can put into the drawing. Obviously you cannot do a fully rendered figure drawing in 10 minutes.. but then again you dont always want to do a fully rendered, atelier style figure drawing. You should do what you need to do at this point in your learning.. but definetely do both short and long drawings

[vampire cervix]

Anything goes as long as the end result doesn't suck.

[XanaChama]

I had a similar problem and I've pondered the same before. But I found the rendering issue was resolved when I learned to use the mediums better to the point that it became an asset and not a hindrance (i.e. photoshop, painter, pencil, etc). If your sketches are "accurate" (whatever that means in this case), you shouldn't have too many problems creating a figure to match up with it. Maybe you can create an entirely new document for that render and base off the original sketches. Either way, I wouldn't argue that sketches should be mutually exclusive from a render, but when it comes to the pros and cons of each, it may not be syncing up per se and the key is to not lose the original 'spark' from the sketch.

Try to find other people's work in PSD forms (with layers). See how they worked ground up from a crappy line sketch (it doesn't have to be completely 'accurate'. Or get a Massive Black video designed specifically to get you past that stage, as I highly recommend those. But in terms of saying you need to "know moar", while that is true... you won't know exactly what that is until you keep trying.

And no there is nothing wrong with focusing on sketching for a little while. You know how hard is too hard, but you should always try to push yourself a little bit beyond your comfort zone and try to challenge yourself more overtime. Kinda like exercise.

[Ryan K]

Either way, I wouldn't argue that sketches should be mutually exclusive from a render, but when it comes to the pros and cons of each, it may not be syncing up per se and the key is to not lose the original 'spark' from the sketch.


THIS is my primary problem really - I'm great when it comes to line, then I try to get in some values and it fucks it all up. Maybe I should start rendering more simple objects..

Overlooked something obvious and simple, I get it now.:)