Use Your Eyes, Not Your Brain to draw better sketches
Upside down drawings.
I am an adult and I am meant to say sensible stuff, so when I am teaching
cartooning to people and I say to "stop using your brain" I sometimes
get some very funny looks.
But, when we draw things we often start to draw what we THINK we SHOULD be
seeing and not what is REALLY there.
Let me give you an example.
We all KNOW what an eye looks like so we draw something like this.
There is a round bit in the middle and then a top eyelid and a bottom one
and some lashes.
However, look in a mirror and really take a good look at your own eye. Spend
a minute or two and you will see that the eyelashes don't stick upwards. You
will see that the pupil isn't plain black (there are reflections and highlights).
in fact after a minute you will see that an eye is a complex thing to draw.
OK, so now here is my tip.
Get a nice big photo of an eye from a glossy colour magazine and
turn it upside down.
Now here is an exercise for you. You must forget that it is an eye. To draw
it well, you must consider it as just a bunch of dark and light shapes.
Now get a pencil and paper and draw a copy yourself. Remember we are trying
to use our own eyes and not our brain here so don't say 'Now I will draw the
eyelashes.' Instead, if you have to say anything just try and say "This
dark bit is attached to this light bit." Or "Now I will draw that
dark curve in the bottom right corner".
It may seem silly, but the results will astound you.
Take a bit of time and when you are finished turn your drawing the right
way round. You will be very pleasantly surprised by the result. I can (almost)
guarantee it will be the best drawing of an eye you have ever done.
(I drew this upside down in 2 minutes based on the photo above)
Why is this important for cartooning? Well it is only when you can sketch
an eye for real that you will be able to exagerate and add real expression
to your cartoons.
Try it with anything, this tips is not just for drawing eyes. Drawing ANYTHING
when it is upside down forces you to get rid of the ideas
in your brain and DRAW WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY SEEING instead..
And if you do an upside down drawing that you are particularly proud of,
email me a copy and maybe we can put
it up on this web site to encourage everyone else.
Drawing Tip 2
2 minute sketches.
Take a pencil and paper and a stopwatch out into the garden. Set the alarm
for 2 minutes and then give yourself until the alarm sounds to sketch something.
You will probably not be happy with the finished (or much more likely unfinished)
picture, but keep it and reset the watch. Now draw something else but again
only allow yourself two minutes.
2 minute sketches teach you to be quick with the pencil, which is really
useful for capturing ideas as you have them. All artists who are good at drawing
sketch regularly and their drawings are better as a result.