Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Results
Way back when I started working through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, I did a self-portrait as part of the initial course exercises. As instructed, I put it away until now. Here’s what I came up with back then:
Not very good, but still way better than some of the initial example sketches from first-time students as indicated in the book.
Today, at lunch, however, I just finished this self-portrait:
Now I see clear problems in this sketch even still. As an aspiring comic book artist and writer, this desire to keep improving is a Really Good Thing™. Nonetheless, I have to stop for a moment each time I look at today’s sketch to acknowledge just how far I’ve come in a really short amount of time actually working on the course material. Heck, in the past month since I’ve acknowledged my desire to make my own comic books, I’ve made a mind-blowing amount of progress.
The keys as I’ve learned them boil down to these simple guidelines:
- Draw something every day. Don’t make excuses. Even if you just scribble on a piece of paper for ten minutes, you can produce something.
- Allow yourself to acknowledge the success of failure. The mere fact that you can identify failure means that you can see places where you can improve. The key to getting better is to give yourself permission to suck.
- When in doubt, measure the damn thing. Don’t trust what you know because you’ll only screw up the whole perspective of your drawing with one wrong but seemingly logical decision. Learn to sight objects with your pencil instead of just guessing when you’re unsure.
- It’s okay to leave your drawing and come back to it. There’s no rule that says that you have to finish a drawing in one sitting. Getting away for a while gives you a new set of eyes to see details that you would have otherwise missed.
- It’s easy to assume that there are lines when the reality is that there is only degrees of shadow. Contrasting areas of light and dark form boundaries just as surely as edges.
I’m not Steve McNiven or Jack Kirby yet, but I’m happy with the change in my ability. Here’s hoping I can sustain this rate of improvement until DC and Marvel are knocking on my door.