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Darth_Biomech
May '21

Many comic artists that I saw a speedpaint video from are doing something really crazy from my POV - their sketch phase looks barely beyond what I'd consider a somewhat detailed blockout - and then they jump directly into final inking. I have really hard time grasping how the hell they skip the "draw all the details" phase. For me, inking was always a step that just makes lines of your sketch be all nice and smooth and ironing out any ambiguous areas where the sketch had become too muddy or hairy, but these people draw at least 60% of the details on the fly during the inking. I'd really want to learn that technique!

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    May '21

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    Jun '21
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Yulek
May '21

I think it's a practice thing.

the more you do it, the less detailed your sketch needs to be?

Puck
May '21

Just like Yulek wrote, it´s a practice thing and it takes time.
An important step is to draw using simple shapes in perspective and use that as the building
block for everything you draw. I used to outline everything directly without any construction, it looked
horrible, then started constructing the sketch, it got better, then I started using basic shapes in perspective
and knew that´s the way. You need less and less lines after a while, I needed a lot and now my brain starts
filling the gaps and I start to imagine the construction

Kaydreamer
May '21

Those artists may seem like they're drawing out of nothing, but they'd have such a clear picture of all those details in their head. They know exactly where every line needs to go, to the extent that laying it down in the sketch stage is just a waste of time for them. I mean, why sketch a hand when you can get it more-or-less perfect in one pass? Just block out the overall perspective and shape, and worry about the details later.

How do you learn how to do this? You draw for decades. You get so confident with the human figure, and faces, and buildings, etc that there's not much point putting those details in the sketch, because you're likely to nail them on your first go anyway. They're so very clear in your mind.

I'm definitely not there yet, but I'm juuuuust good enough that I can see how it would work for artists who're far more skilled than I am.

Darth_Biomech
May '21

I still think there's some metric ton more nuance to this than that. There wouldn't be 16 year old prodigies that push their work for publishing already, if the only metric of quality is how much time you poured into your passion (and "talent" is a myth and doesn't exist) and you need decades to get adequate at it.
If you want to pass to the other side of a wall, you might bang your head on it in order to punch a hole, or makeshift some instruments to help break the bricks easier... But what if there's a door somewhere to the side that you don't know about?

a.g.meade
May '21

@Darth_Biomech - Just speculating here, but I've always assumed it had something to do with iterative drawing (and, of course, the aforementioned practice). I guess if you've drawn enough versions of... let's say a coffee pot, you know what features you like/dislike and can skip over the extra pencilwork.

It may also have to do with their familiarity of the design of whatever it is they're drawing. If they have designed this specific coffee pot to have a white stripe on it, they can just skip the pencils because they already know it's there.

rajillustration
May '21

It's just practice. When you draw traditionally, you don't often get the chance to redraw several times because it kills your paper. You only get one draft--and then it's on to the final (unless you trace a few times with a light table--which is a good hack if you are ever working traditional). Gesture drawing and Figure drawing are basically where you learn how to very carefully lay down every line.

So I guess I'm guilty of this...but only with characters I'm really confident in. Otherwise I do a few sketches (especially of things like hands) since the computer tablet is less exact than paper.

nathanKmcwilliamsIn the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
May '21

The majority of my stuff is all inked on loose sketches, I very rarely do more than two passes. But I draw constantly. Like every day I draw, and I've been doing that for 16 years on my lunch breaks at work.
So yeah. Practice. And repetition.

Caro
May '21

Like everyone else said; 100% practice. I draw traditionally and have gotten mega comfortable with drawing and know where to put my lines now so sometimes my pencils will just be a couple circles and some rectangles when its not for a company or something.

Not everyone works like that though. There’s zero shame in polishing your pencils if it gives you your best results. Plenty of professionals spend more time on pencils you just might not see it because a lot of em don’t stream! Heck, clean pencils can be part of the job if the work has to go through an approval process so the exact opposite of what you’re describing is also actually ~very professional~.

Rhonder
May '21

I sometimes do this, but only with characters that I'm really comfortable with, and usually only in basic positions or poses that they're often in, or sometime certain elements of their design. Basically re: practice. I haven't been able to do this very much at the beginning of projects, but as I get into them and draw the characters more, I can start to "cheat" on the penciling to save time in places.

DokiDokiTsuna
May '21

I think the key is to just know what you're drawing very well (being able to visualize it in your head also helps, but that's outside people's control). Be familiar enough with how they look that you know all the parts you need to include; be familiar enough with the pose to know where all the lines should go.

Sometimes I do things like that when I'm sketching a comic panel, and it's taking too long and I get fed up so I grab a pen and go "f*ck it, on to the next stage" and just finish drawing the character in ink.
But I can only do that with characters I know fairly well, or whose designs are simple enough that I already have them memorized. When you have enough experience and you know what you want, sometimes a detailed sketch is just a waste of time.

It's like when you're very little and first learning to write, and the teachers give you lined paper to help you proportion all the letters correctly (y'know, with the two solid lines and the dashed line in the middle)? And it comes in handy; you could still use it now as an adult, even...but at some point you stop needing it. You've written enough letters by now to understand their proportions without a guide. It's not really a 'technique'; you just know what you're doing.

Kaydreamer
May '21
1
Darth_Biomech

There's a few things here to unpack, but I'll clarify what I meant by "You draw for decades."

As you mentioned, there are 16 year old prodigies out there with insane skills. However, while they may not have been drawing for as long as someone in their 30's, those youngsters likely have been drawing lots more than the average child all through their childhood. In terms of the number of hours practice racked up, they'll still have heaps. Plus, you learn differently as a child than you do as an adult. Ever heard of the '10,000 hours to mastery' thing? A 16 year old prodigy started that early, or they're one of those people who just need fewer hours to reach that level. Just as some people need more. Which leads me to my next point...

Talent is not a myth. I'm a music teacher. I see talent in action all the time. Talent is not the only thing which will get you to a professional level, and hard work is waaaaaay more important, but some people do simply have a higher base aptitude for some skills than others. (And therefore have an easier time mastering those skills.)

It's why I teach some 12-year-olds who can sing everything you throw at them, and some 12-year-olds who struggle with basic pitch and rhythm. They've both been singing since childhood, and they're both surrounded by music. If I assumed the latter wasn't working hard enough, rather than accepting that they're coming from a different starting place, I'd be failing at my job. Instead, I accept that music may not come as naturally to the latter, and we approach their learning to sing in a different way, which structures their improvement. Sometimes, the latter eclipses the former, through lots of hard work, time, and dedication. Especially if the talented kid just coasts along on natural ability, and doesn't put as much work in. (Very common!)

Talent means less in art than it does in music, because art is a more mechanical skill. (Pitch and rhythm can be taught, but they're far more innate.) But it still factors into how fast one learns, and is especially pertinent when speaking about 'prodigies'. Talent does not negate the amount of hard work which goes into learning how to draw, I cannot stress that enough. And it is definitely overemphasised in importance by people who haven't cultivated artistic skills, and don't understand how they work. But it does exist.

As for as a back door into the skill you're asking about... it really is just practice, but there are a few things you could focus on practising in order to turbocharge that improvement. Gesture drawing is one, ensuring that each line you use to draw a figure is smooth and well-placed, rather than lightly sketched out as a bunch of small lines. Practising figure drawing in that way, over and over and over, will provide you with the line confidence and visual library you need to pull this off.

Also, starting to deliberately omit small details from your sketch, so you can practice drawing them in lineart. Start with little things like belt buckles, pockets, hats and so-on, before moving up to more complicated things. (I'm constantly forgetting to sketch one character's hat, and usually just chuck it in at the lineart stage.) Between those two bits of homework, you'll find yourself better able to quickly visualise where a line should go, and accurately lay it down.

Hopefully, that clarifies what I meant a little bit. :blush:

20 days later
karenfisherhhj
Jun '21
1

First, you make a sketch, a model figure, which serves as the basis for the drawing. The goal is not to draw a realistic figure. Adding details like frills, seams, and buttons will help bring your ideas to life. Drawing is my hobby, I'm not a professional, but I love it. Once a friend of mine asked me for help. He wanted to transform a photo into a sketch. I decided I could do the task. I drew the best sketch of my life, in my opinion. If anyone is interested in my work, email me to share a photo.