But There Is More To It Than That
Repetition does do wonders but having understanding of what lies beneath the skins helps even more.
A lot of people think art is just some magical talent you are born with while others are of the impression that you can just learn a few tricks and magically improve.
The reality is that it takes a whole lot of effort and repetition but also a lot of studying. Regardless of what other people think, you have to combine both to see the best results.
A lot of people struggle with combining the two.
Sometimes, it's hard to apply what you learn through a video or a class into what you draw. Alternatively they might practice their heart out but are stagnating because they aren't learning anything new.
The thing is the actual anatomy studying can be done within a month or two. I'm referring to what an artist needs to know, not a medical professional. The next step is a life long journey of studying the human figure visually. The more figures you draw the more you pick up on. The challenge is in learning just a little bit and then applying that through practice. What or how much that 'little bit' is and for how long one needs to practice that varies from person to person, which is why it is so difficult to have a clear cut method that works perfectly for everyone.
The more figures you draw the wider your visual library becomes as well, so you will need less visual reference, and can focus on building up other aspects of your visual library.
Take Alex Negrea for example, he is a professional character design artist and he has a video out on how to build a visual library.
It pretty much comes down to just doing tons and tons of studies.
Once you understand the form and design of something you don't have to spend an extra 30 hours to make it photo real. Sometimes just an hour study is enough to really understand something. He recommends doing lots of somewhat clean line drawings but if you need to understand how the object is effected by light you'll need to do color/value roughs.
I would say that learning how to do art better is just as important as just drawing a lot. But it is much easier to learn too much and not practice enough. So if you're not sure if you should study or just draw, chances are you should draw. If you are feeling uninspired it can be helpful to learn more techniques and become inspired by the new knowledge as they will ultimately open up new paths for you to take.
Take a look at where you are today. You've got another thousand lousy drawings in you. That's how it works, we all have to make those thousand lousy drawings. The sooner you get them out the better. Get some vine charcoal, a kneaded eraser, and an 18 x 24 pad of paper and work like that for a while. It will help you to loosen up.
Master studies are a great learning tool if you know how to approach them. So long as they are not an exercise in creating a copy of another work, but rather a window into another artist's mind.
The reason drawing from life is encouraged is because you want to draw things how the human eye sees the world.
Drawing from a photo you are drawing how the eye sees what the camera sees.
It's not the same.
Ask yourself this:
- This area here has lots of fine detail, but over here it's all just loosely sketched in.
- She used all these very de-saturated middle tones throughout, only right here there's this sudden swatch of intense orange.
Is drawing from photos bad? Nope! Just not as good as from real life.
For the sake of argument let's say you're learning from photos. It depends on your goal. For example, it's best to practice anatomy from real live figure models. Well if you don't have access to those you're stuck with photos.
Life drawing classes are also good for seeing how other artists solve certain problems. "How can I portray a background in a studio setting simply but clearly?", that sort of thing. Now you could draw photos day in and out for days until you could copy them perfectly, but if you're just focusing on copying what you see, that's the skill you're most training, and you can expect to have learned very little about actual anatomy. And the ability to solve problems is then left out, because the photo doesn't have the same problems that you will encounter in a life drawing class.
But class isn't the only thing.
To really get the most out of them you have to know enough to be able to ask the right questions.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't do them; they can be fun and educational in other ways. But if you go too far down that road it can be hard to break away from, when you're trying to make your own work and start comparing it to the studies.
Which brings me to master studies. Master studies are excellent because it keeps you from spending massive amounts of time reinventing the wheel. If you copy them just to copy, much like the photos, all you'll train is your copying skills. If you approach them as an anatomy study, you'll learn anatomy much in the same way you would from photos and like a photo you will be copying the stylistic choices.
That means that there is a danger to doing that. But at the same time you can learn a lot about how to approach your own figure drawings by watching and copying how other artist's approach theirs.
A master has already solved all the drawing problems. Take those answers and keep them in mind while drawing from reference.
The study can be of anything from any artist. How the lighting is set up, how colors are used, composition etc. Producing an exact copy is not needed. You just want to find the master's answers to the problems you are having.
Mix it up!
Just so long as you're aware of what you're practicing, why, and any potential downfalls to it, you should be fine.
Now it is time for a cookie!