Drawing in the Digital Age: An Observational Method for Artists and Animators
Wei Xu
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 1118176502
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A solid foundation for improving your drawing skills
Teaching a new observational method based on math and computer graphics principles, this book offers an innovative approach that shows you how to use both sides of your brain to make drawing easier and more accurate. Author Wei Xu, PhD, walks you through his method, which consists of scientific theories and principles to deliver real-world techniques that will improve your drawing skills. Xu's pioneering approach offers a solid foundation for both traditional and CG artists.
- Encourages you to use both sides of your brain for drawing with the highest efficiency possible
- Introduces an innovative method invented by the author for improving your drawing skills
If you are eager to learn how to draw, then this book is a must read.
Manga Art for Beginners: How to Create Your Own Manga Drawings
Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley: 30 drawing lessons from the creator of Akiko
Drawing for the Absolute Beginner: Techniques
we draw contour lines accurately—not even close. Many artists I have asked or have observed, including myself, have trouble producing good contour-line artwork in observational drawing. The image shown on the left in Figure 1.21 is an example of a contour-line sketch I did of a simple cup. Compared with my regular sketch of the same cup on the right, the contouring is terrible! There are several scientific reasons why the contour-line method gives us poor results. When we draw, every single
rectangle is not. (Imagine a triangle and a square made of flexible straws. If you were to pull or push on a side of each shape, the triangle would not deform, because each side braces the two other sides, but the square would.) This math property simply means that a triangle mesh cannot be stretched, but a grid system is stretchable. In other words, if we use both systems to describe spatial information, triangulation is more reliable and error-proof. • The second difference is in flexibility.
Chapter 2, “Extracting Graphical Structures—A Scientific Point of View,” you learned that a grouped GS is a kind of dynamic GS formed by independent objects, based on your viewing position. When multiple objects are placed in a scene, you can always find many useful spatial patterns that connect unrelated points. This kind of GS is very valuable for arranging and drawing shapes on paper. The top-left image of Figure 6.1 shows a picture of many pens that are randomly positioned on a table.
and quality. Furthermore, they are more than just artistic theories. They are actual techniques that you can apply to all of your drawing in the future. That being said, get ready for drawing along with the demonstrations that follow. Demonstrations ■ 153 Demonstrations In the following demonstrations, the newly introduced techniques in this chapter are used first, even if some old techniques are also applicable. Various subjects are chosen in order to cover a wide range of topics.
top-right image of Figure 8.3 shows the results of this step. General Tips In the bottom-left image of Figure 8.3, facial features are arranged with a few additional lines. You will learn how to draw them in detail in the next section. The bottomcenter image is what the drawing looks like if all structures are placed correctly. After you confirm that there are no major or obvious errors, you can add finishing lines for the whole picture, as shown in the bottom-right image of Figure 8.3. Tip