Would you mind sharing some of your favorite drawing tips, processes, tools?

Like ...

--Cross hatching, filling in fabric texture, etc.
--a favorite technique or two,
--"I start with ..."
--products you like.
--what to avoid when drawing people.


Stuff like that ... anything.


My own humble advice to others:

*Told my instructor that everything I draw looks cartoonish. He advised me to "Go with that!"

*Drawing hands. I worked two days on one hand for an illustration. Erased through lots of paper. After that, I drew them well.

*Wear glasses with real glass lenses. High-impact plastic is for woodworking--not drawing.


Study:
*Mark Crilley has great YouTube videos for drawing facial features.
*Chuck Ayers (Crankshaft strip)--does great hands.
*All of Steve's that you can find--gorgeous color.

Anyone else have advice to share?
Thanks in advance.

Now, I can draw while drinking tea.

Edited to clarify heading.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2017 05:33PM by kathleen.

Good request, Kathleen.
It's even better if you have had an opportunity to meet him to see the person behind the cartoon.

I would like to know how he maintains the passion that keeps him creating like that after all these years.

. . . with my looks not necessarily having improved with age. I met her when I drove up north (I think it may have been on my motorcycle) years ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 12:58AM by steve benson.

I really enjoy his cartoons. When compared to some other well known editorial cartoonists such as Doug Marlette, Gary Varvel, Pat Bagley and others.....Steve is just a better artist, illustrator, doodler. His talent and skill in these drawings is off the charts!

We are extremely fortunate, me thinks, to have his presence here on the RFM forums. Steve is an amazing writer, thinker, and practitioner of the english language.

Pat's ideas were out of the park, When we occasionally get together over beers in Salt Lake City, we talk about our good ol' doodling-duo days at BYU back in the '70s--and he humbly agrees.

Pat's first cartoon that he ever did, he brought into the Universe offices one day. He handed it to me, expecting, as he tells the story, to have me redraw it for publication.

But the Universe's faculty advisor, Nelson Wadsworth, had other ideas. In that moment, he made a critical decision--one that was fundamentally important to Pat charting his professional artistic course. Wadsworth said no way, we were running Pat's cartoon as is.

It ended up in Time magazine.

Pat's grestest artistic strength, in my opinion, is his elegant simplicity of line, wrapped around a clear and core message. His style is a vital reminder that the message is the most important part of the art--with the art itself serving as the deliverer of the message. He doesn't let the art get in the way of, or interfere with, what he is saying.

To this day, the highest compliment I hear about Pat's work is when former Y students tell me they loved my cartoons when I was there. They go on to describe their favorites and, dammit, invariably it's a Bagley cartoon. I kid you not.

Pat was (and is) a terrific cartoonist. I kid you not.



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 09:34AM by steve benson.

Edited post to clarify subject line.

1. Learn how to draw realistically first.

Meaning objects, the human form (including skeletal and particularly facial). other animals, landscapes, still life, buildings, trains/planes/automobiles, etc. Also, work on perspective drawing. If you know what stuff looks life in real life and from different vantage points (such as vanishing points), it's easier and more effective for cartoon exaggeration later.


2. Work from life whenever possible.

Photos tend to be flat. Life provides you the subtleties of form, light, shadow and perspective.


3. Do not overdraw.

A classic sign of an amateur at work is overdone work. Know when to stop. Let the mind's eye fill in the continuation of line. Remember that the brain does not record everything in minute detail but it imagines detail by finishing it up for you in your brain. Draw what you optically see, not what is artifically detailed.


4. Use the work of "the Masters" (Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, Rockwell, etc.) as initial guidelines and examples of wonderful rendering.

But increasingly mix in your own unique signature as you go along and become more confident in your own style. As you grow in your personal artistic abilities and skills, your personal imprint will become increasingly evident and recognizable.


5. Start with media that are easy and comfortable for you to control, such as pencil, acrylics and charcoal/pastels.

Then move to ink, watercolors, oils, as you wish.


6. Don't feel obligated to use media that others use.

Work in what feels best for you and in which you can let your own identity shine.


7. Constantly review your work to get an idea of your progress and to recognize where you can improve.

Lay it out in chronological order of production. You will be better able to view your advancement, as painful as that may be. Also, to literally get a different perspective that you are not normally accustomed to, hold your art up in a mirror. The unusual reverse image will help you immediately detect oddities and flaws that you might not otherwise notice.


8. Force yourself to work as quickly as possible when you are drawing in the moment.

Carry a small art pad with you so that you will be able to sketch quickly and immediately what you see and/or want to draw. Push yourself to render your art in these situtations as fast as you can. Do not labor over your work. The important thing is to capture form under deadline. The details will come later. This approach will build your confidence.


9. Solicit and listen to helpful criticism.

Input from others is always helpful, be it from other artists, from art experts and from non-schooled observers. But do not obsess over it. Consider it valuable viewpoints from others that may be different from, or even foreign to, your own.


10. Practice, practice, practice and . . .

did I say practice?
_____


Now, some technical and mechanical tidbits from my own experience:

-For paper, I use Strathmore Sketch (with a fine surface tooth over which to drag the brush).

-I lay down the basic pencil drawing with a regular HB school pencil.

-Ink-over of the pencil drawing is done with various Micron technical pens (sized from 005 to 08), which are also good for cross-hatching. To mix up the look, I use Windsor Newton sable-hair brushes, sizes 2, 3 and 4--loading them with Higgins Waterproof Drawing Ink. All of the above gives variation to line width and weight.

-For errors made in permanent ink (and I make plenty), I paint over them with a bottle of simple typo fluid. I then go back and erase the pencil lines with a kneaded eraser and/or a soft pink eraser (the kind grade schoolers use). I don't use a hard eraser because that can tear up the paper surface.

-At this point, I scan the base black-and-white drawing into my Mac computer, clean it up a bit, then color it using a basic Photoshop palette that provides different looks and feels (applied by the mouse tool), with each color on a separate layer so that I can go back and fix/enhance things without messing up the entire drawing.

*NOTE: The above will all change over the next few months because just yesterday I got an iPadPro drawing tablet, complete with stylus--which means that the old-fashioned paper, pencil and ink productions will go the way of the Dodo bird or the dinosaur, depending on which creature you like best.



Edited 23 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 09:44AM by steve benson.

I was a studio art major in college, specializing in drawing. To add to what Steve said --

1. ITA not to overdraw. Step away from your artwork when you get the temptation to fuss with it. Most art benefits from being somewhat underdone.

A viewer's mind will complete something that is underdone. You can see most of a circle and still think, "circle." Make art that forces the brain to engage. Our brains want to be active. Don't give the viewer all the information. Allow their brain to add to it. Art is a transaction, and it is not just you. It is a meeting ground between you and the viewer. Someone who looks at your art will be much happier if you force their brain to do some of the heavy lifting.

2. Consider the empty spaces. Art is not just the space that you fill, but also what you leave empty. Yin and yang.

3. Hands and feet are tough. Most beginning artists tend to make them too small. When in doubt, make them somewhat larger. (See Michelangelo's David for a lesson in this. Michelangelo designed his statue to be seen at a distance, and he deliberately made the hands and feet larger than life.)

4. Your *ideas* about what things look like will interfere with what they actually look like. It's like your brain gets in the way. There are a couple of ways to break this habit. One way is (when drawing from life) to never let your pencil or implement move when looking at your paper. Look at what you are drawing while your pencil is moving. When you look at your paper, your pencil stops. This is difficult in the beginning, but gets easier with practice.

Another way to break the habit of relying on preconceptions is to draw or copy something upside down.

As to the fact that Michelangelo's "David" statue features disproportionally-oversized hands and feet, I would argue that this is primarily because he knew viewers of his work would be seeing it at an angle from a lower level looking up from below the pedestal upon which the statue was perched, thus making it a solution centered in the matter of visual perspective.

(But what do I know? I started out as a graphics art major and hated it. I wasn't very good, didn't appreciate being told by my instructor that my efforts were tasteless and also didn't like the notion of drawing other people's ideas for commercial purposes. So, I changed my major to political science, while putting myself through college by working for the student newspaper at BYU).



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 12:04AM by steve benson.

Practice, practice, practice. Don't take advice and criticism personal from people who have no clue what they're talking about. Find instructors whose style you like. Have fun.

Keep some of your work as you go along and continue to improve. It's amazing to see where you came from. Watercolor is more difficult than most people think it is.

Taking workshops is a great excuse to go to Europe, the South Pacific, or any other place that interests you. It's fun to meet people and travel with those groups.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2017 07:21PM by janis.

>> Don't take advice and criticism personal from people who have no clue what they're talking about.

Or as one of my art professors used to say, "Choose your critics" -- valuable advice not only for art, but for life.

. . . what they're talking about."

Ain't that the truth. I hear such gripes almost everyday--and it's not necessarily about the art itself; rather, it's often about the artistic point of view. The art simply gets them riled up enough to criticize because it's a visual, visceral, eviscerating punch in their gut (which, now that I think about it, means it's also about the art).



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2017 11:18PM by steve benson.

Great tips-advice Steve. I knew you knew the subject well but it is certainly telling, hearing you describe in such clear, yet concise terms, what any developing or practicing artist, cartoonist, clothing designer or doodler can appreciate and needs to know to improve, and even master their craft. It's what I'd expect from a professional art book, knowledgeable teacher or accomplished friend,.. and in fact have gotten from the same. kathleen knew who to ask. And she did.

Yes, Steve, your response was beyond generous! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! --And Summer's and Janis's, too.

I had no idea that I would get such all-encompassing and practical advice!

One comment that freed me was your #6: "Don't feel obligated to use media that others use." My friends use oils, etc., and here I sit with my Ticonderoga pencil and black ink. I feel good about that now!

Also, the recommendation of the Higgins Waterproof Drawing Ink was unexpected, but so valuable. Everything you listed was like a light bulb going "Bing!"

What prompted my question was that my son asked me to illustrate something he's invented. My confidence collapsed, and I froze. Now, I'm excited to pick it all up again.

I'm sure that many people at every skill level benefitted from your advice today!


Thank you again!

:D

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 08:00AM by steve benson.