tell me what help you improve your drawings skills?
I’m not really sure. A big part of it is being around people that are better than you so you can see how they do it(which you have, be thankful, its rare), for me another component is working with (or mentoring) people that aren’t up to your speed yet. They ask a lot of questions that make you re-evaluate how you do things, it’s helpful.
Consistency is the most difficult skill to attain. Those one step forward 2 step back moments are common, don’t let it bring you down. The good thing is you are aware of it and you are making a conscious effort to get better… most people can’t make that commitment it seems.
I’m still learning with every project, and I bet your boss is too, he just might be at the level where he doesn’t show it…
You make many a good points…
asking questions… i fell like doing that sometime but i don’t …because I fear he might think that I can’t do the work or something…so I’m not sure…" I’m still learning with every project, and I bet your boss is too, he just might be at the level where he doesn’t show it…" I think you are 100 % right about that…
thanks very much…
[quote] A big part of it is being around people that are better than you so you can see how they do it(which you have, be thankful, its rare), for me another component is working with (or mentoring) people that aren’t up to your speed yet. They ask a lot of questions that make you re-evaluate how you do things, it’s helpful.
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Yo, You are right in what you say…but what do you do if you cant find a good mentor… I am also looking for somebody desparately who can give my skills some personal attention and then critique constructively…Will you be my mentor…
sorry man, don’t exactly have time right now. I would suggest to post your work on here, I’m sure people (including myself) will step up and help you out with questions, tips, and suggestions.
I don’t know if my Wacom Cintiq tablet monitor improved my skills, but it definitely improved my output.
I wasn’t very good with Color in art school. It was later when I was exposed to Adobe Illustrator that I became really good with it. It was the ease and speed of the tool that made the difference. So I could imagine that a young designer might also find a tool like the Cintiq with Alias Sketchbook to be equally helpful with drawing skills.
But that’s the technical part of drawing. With regards to style, Yo’s right–emulate others! Draw from life and try applying different styles to a constant subject. In school we spent time sketching basic solids and applying effects like wood and chrome.
Also, be methodological. Pick one medium (such as a Prismacolor pencil) and master it before moving to another.
Make a habit of this everyday:
Before you draw anything else,
Draw a page of straight lines. Put two dots down on the page and try to connect them. You can play with how long the straight lines are, shorter ones are easier and long ones are tougher.
Draw a page of circles. Play with the sizes again just like you did with the straight lines.
Draw a page of ellipses. Once again, play around with both the size of the ellipse and the degree (how “round” the ellipse is).
If you do this everyday as a warmup, you’ll improve dramatically. Think of it as stretching your arm, like you would stretch before going for a run or playing a sport.
When you’re thinking about your design, its hard to also concentrate on your drawing skills. These exercises remove the “designing” and allow you to isolate the techniques.
What’s helped me is like what YO and the others have said, find some people who have a technique or a style you like and watch how they do it, if their really cool ask to have some of their work as inspiration.
For me, drawing everyday helps, if I’m off just for a week I tend to sketch like a preschooler, again. So consistency is key for developing any skill. If it’s for ID specifically I would recommend getting ID rendering/sketching books for inspiration, a classic book “How to draw cars like a proâ€. Check out Design Sketching too, it is a newer book out that shows different techniques for ID. Hope that helped.
PRACTICE, PASSION, PERSEVERANCE.
i second that. yeah, there may be times where you don’t do this before you start sketching, but make an effort to work on these simple exercises. over the summer during co-op, there wasn’t much going on, especially in the morning, so i made an effort to spend an hour to an hour and a half (time permitting) to fill pages with lines, circles, elipses, and other sketching exercises.
you would be suprised how something so simple can dramatically improve your sketching abilities. once you feel comfortable in your sketching skills, you put less focus on drawing the perfect ellipse, and more time on the idea and design…the sketching will start to flow with a lot less effort.