I want to start studying Loomis books to be able to draw poses and know more the anatomy.
Is it actually interesting or does it feel like a chore ?
I'm reading Fun With a Pencil right now.
It hasn't helped me at all, I still can't draw worth shit.
depends on you.
i really enjoy drawing people, so studying technical advice on posing and anatomy is interesting for me.
i have no interest in drawing buildings and vehicles, so studying technical advice on architecture and assembly makes me feel like i'm dying. i still DO it, but i'm way better at people because i get more out of it and i do it more.
if you start learning to draw, you're going to find some subjects more fun than others.
>>2547513
Keep doing it until your images look like the ones in the book, and you understand more
>>2547538
What do you do once they look exactly the sams
>>2547548
if you are asking this then you
1.Are just copying and not learning
2.Are lying since if you do understand all of the content well enough to get the same results as Andrew loomis then you will understand how to proceed naturally
3.Think you're better than you really are
>>2547511
This is art, not lifting the irons in a gym. This isn't supposed to be a chore. Difficult, challenging maybe, but not a mindless grind.
You're supposed to draw for fun already, and use those books and the exercises inside to learn how to do new things that you'll then immediately incorporate in your next works.
> Emphasis on "immediately". Not "later".
If you stop doing the things you enjoy and only work on the exercises in the book, you'll come back here in a month complaining that you've drawn 1000 potatoes heads and made 0 progress.
Good luck and remember to enjoy the ride, or you'll burnout.
>>2547538
I'm the anon you're replying to.
I don't think the problem is with the book, I think it's with me. I try to draw a face, but I don't know what a face looks like. I don't know where to put the chin, I don't know how far the eyes should be from the nose. I don't see any logical progression in these steps, here. I think my brain is failing to make some important connection between seeing something, understanding what it looks like, and being able to put it on paper.
It's going to be a bit of a grind at times, and it'll be especially irritating starting out.
I've found in my own experience that you get the initial "this is bullshit, this is useless, why am I even bothering" frustration, but if you stick with it and 'get it' it becomes a lot more fun and intuitive.
Just set measurable goals. Such as if he goes "try doing x exercise" promise yourself to do 20 before moving on to the next exercise. If you just do 1 or you just copy his example and move on you won't learn shit.
And I swear to fucking god if I see you posting photocopied Loomis faces with absolutely zero consideration for basic shapes, construction or form I'll say something like "not gonna make it" and you'll feel slightly bad.
This is from personal experience so take it with a grain of salt.
Fun with pencil isn't helpful. Pick up Vilppu's drawing manual. Focus 80% of your time on the first 5 or so lessons (gesture, spheres, cubes, spheres+cubes, cylinders.)
One of the things that made it click for me was the bars of soap drawing exercise. You essentially draw the outer contour first and then define the box shape by adding lines. After that its like your entire vision changes and you can morph form at will.
>>2547585
>>2547728
>>2547511
Yea senpai, it really depends on where you are. I started looking at Loomis' Drawing the Heads and Hands after like a month or two or drawing and stuck with it for a while but just struggled.
I came back after nearly a year of drawing from life and Perspective Made Easy and Keys to Drawing and stuff and I understood it so much more and got so much more out of it. That soap bar exercise seems really helpful. If you struggle to understand 3D forms on the 2D page you won't get what you should out of Loomis, because his more advanced stuff depends on you understanding drawing at a level well beyond beginner. So try it out, but if it doesn't click you may just not be ready for it.
>>2547752
But to answer your question I think he's the real deal. He's one of the essential texts at the Jeff Watts Atelier and almost all of the good YouTube vids on drawing the head pretty much are just explanations of Looims.
>>2547511
studying should be fun, it shouldn't feel like grinding. the key is taking the information in the book and then finding interesting ways to apply it, photocopying will do nothing for you.
>>2547728
Also an addendum: Realize when you're approaching diminishing returns on your effort and time. When you start doodling randomly and your focus starts to wane, its time to put down the tablet/pad and do something else for a while. A single hour of good, concentrated practice is better than 10 hours of shifting, focusless wandering.
>>2547939
Not that anon, but thanks for the advice - it's really encouraging.
>>2547728
Fun with a pencil seems like the worst shit there is, why do people still recommend it?
>>2548661
>seems like
There's your problem. In my experience the shit that I avoid the most or have the lowest opinion of are the things that benefit me the most when I try them. It's like medicine. Looks like it tastes bad, actually tastes bad, but it's good for you and after a while you don't mind it nearly as much.
>>2548661
>>2547752
I'm the OP, I 've been drawing since I' m a kid but I mostly learned by "adapting". For example I'll use pictures and work of other people to draw something and I 'll assimilate elements of those works.
Thats how I got better at shading I guess. I always need references to do something, I can sketch without references but can' t make more elaborate drawings.
But this "way" of doing things seems to have its limits when it comes to figures.
Pic rel is a first quick attempt after peeking into Loomis.
Honestly I cant force myself to draw a box and sketch big lines of perspectives for every single figure.
>>2549504
>I cant force myself to draw a box and sketch big lines of perspectives for every single figure.
You don't need to be super accurate but you still need to learn perspective to place figures in space
Maybe rethink what is it what you really want to do
>>2547511
Depends entirely on you, famalam. If you want to learn it, you will. It definitely won't be something you just soak up by reading, you'll have to actually do the exercises. Loomis was invaluable to me because I wanted to learn those fundamentals. If you don't then you won't.
>>2547574
This
