Having Trouble Visualizing What You Want To

Draw? 3 Books to help you draw ANYTHING.

As an artist sometimes it can be difficult to translate the ideas we have in our head onto paper. Seriously some days I need some type of example or reference.

If I want to draw a horse, I have a hard time getting my mental image onto my paper, but if I focus on the smaller parts and shapes that make up a horse, things translate a little easier.

So with the horse example I would start with an oval for the body, oval for the neck, legs, and head. Then I can see the details I need to add or change a lot easier than just trying to draw a horse in one go.

Can I Steal Ideas Like That?!

   I finally realized that I really like to use drawing books or magazines to use as an example to look off of to get my proportions more realistic, or to help me think of new ideas to draw. As long as you are not tracing the pictures, you are making them your own and is not considered stealing. 

At first I thought it was ridiculous that I needed an example to get my creative juices flowing. But now it is a must to keep my creativity growing and blossoming. I started asking around my artistic friends and I found I am not alone. That made me feel a bit better.

   Even the best of the best need inspiration. It is how they translate the idea into their own piece of artistic expression that makes their art so original and awesome.

I guess I felt like an artistic impostor because I needed to look at an example. But totally not the case. So, I wanted to share my input with you in case you go through the same process with your art.

All art is our perception and even trying to recreate something will look different because it has your unique perspective. So do not have any fear with looking outward to help your ideas come to life.

In one drawing phase I was trying to draw different animals and I was not able to remember important details about the animals. Not able to see the details of specific flowers. I was on the hunt for some type of doodle book that would inspire me and these are what I found…

20 Ways To Draw Everything          Draw 50 Animals              How To Draw Animals

Extra Tips For Shading Your Creations:

The other tips that helped me is to pay more attention to the shading than the lines. For some reason the proportions can be off by a long shot, but if you use shading it will help create your vision without having to draw lines at all.

One of my many art instructors had our class choose a photo to paint, and we were only allowed to pick 3 shades for our version.

Even if I had chosen a black and white photo, I would only allow there to be “light, medium, and dark”. Then for all the areas I considered “dark” I would actually use purple. The medium I used red, and the “light” I used orange.

   The painting actually turned out really cool and pretty accurate. This technique helped me look at shading in a whole new light. You will see a shift in your perception once you do this technique even just once.

Hope this helps you get out of the artist’s block that we all go through. Doing this activity or using one of the books above helps my ideas flowing strong. 

If you found this article helpful, please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT below if you can think of anything that I missed.