June 19, 2003
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Tips: Drawing Thumbnails
Some excellent stuff here on this discussion thread…
Here are some other things that are practical, that relate to improving at thumbnails:
- Observe. Observe life and remember it, that’s what all the greats did and do, that’s what they advised. Draw from life.
- Draw tiny–really tiny–figures. Or draw at the same size but use a huge chunky marker. The drawings may look terrible but if you do it enough, you will learn a lot about how to simplify, something which working from photos probably won’t give you.
- Draw constantly. Fill sketchbooks. You will improve. Resign yourself ahead of time to the fact that many sketches will fail. Do it anyway, and you will be pleasantly surprised.
- Go and watch people, and draw them, on the street, in a mall. If you want to get better at simplification (ie thumbnails), don’t draw them from close up—draw them from far away, like across the street, so that they appear tiny and simplified. There’s your thumbnail right there! Try to copy it down in a few simple lines. be as faithful as possible in the time you have.
- If you aren’t outside, you can draw from the TV, but sit as far away as possible. for the same reason—to make everything smaller and eliminate detail.
- If you see good thumbnails printed or online, copy them. You may gain insight into why they work.
- When you draw from life, activate the “memorization” part of your brain. Try to memorize what different body parts look like from different angles, to use later. Treat it as an information-gathering exercise, not just “having fun doing swoopy arty-looking charcoal drawings”. It’s research for later!
- Struggling to draw thumbnails or poses from your head will stir up a lot of questions—then when you go to a life drawing class, you can look for the answers, at least to problems of anatomy. In that, way, drawing from your head and drawing from life are two necessary sides of the same coin. You need BOTH to advance. Avoiding one stalls you. But if you tackle both together, they each complement and reinforce the other.
- Life drawing gives you information on anatomy, but the poses themselves are usually meaningless–ie they are not “acting” poses, not symbolic, not storytelling. That’s why, in order to learn WHAT pose to draw in your thumbnail, studying acting is vital. I don’t mean necessarily taking classes in it, I just mean becoming more aware of good acting, what actors do. What good cartoon acting is. There are endless examples out there. it’s a big subject.
None of this has to be “war on too many fronts”, which of course is synonymous with “losing”. Choose a few fronts and tackle those, pushing happily into the unknown. Use your ‘strengths’ to give you the courage to face your weaknesses.
It’s all fascinating if you approach it simply, from love. - Paul Rivoche -
