Thursday, May 27, 2010

Drawing Techniques - Drawing With the Arm Part 1


Alright, I'm going to talk about drawing and give you actual reasons certain techniques, which look like they'd be useless, can actually be your best friends when it comes to drawing. This blog will focus on one technique at a time.

The first technique that I'd like to go over is the technique that baffled me: drawing with the arm rather than the wrist. I had always drawn with my wrist as a child, because that was the way I was taught to write. It seemed so much easier to draw this way, how many little details I could add, how easily I could draw any shape; I was sure this was the absolute best way of drawing. When I tried sketching objects this way, I assumed that they weren't coming out as good as I wanted them to because I wasn't that good at drawing yet, which I'm sure was partly true.

But, while watching a video of an actual professional artist drawing, I noticed that he didn't draw with his wrist, he drew with his whole arm. I was confused by this. Why the hell would he do that? How the hell would he even be able to draw a shape that way? I kept thinking these things, but as the video went on, I saw how quickly he was able to get the big picture of what he was drawing with just a few strokes. By the time the video ended, I had to try drawing with my arm.

I picked up my sketch book and attempted to do it. My attempt ended with a very squiggly line I was desperately trying to draw straight. It just wouldn't work. I got depressed and decided that it wasn't a good idea afterall.

Wow, all of the sudden, I'm extremely bored. I'll continue this later. In the next blog I'll let you know why drawing with the arm is helpful, especially with sketching. It is helpful; don't worry or think it's not; I'll finish the story. Stay tuned. I'll probably update soon.

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