Is drawing realism hard for you?

[AnnaLandin]

Not really. I've practised it a lot - I've painted portraits of people, I've studied lifedrawing, etc. - so it's not particularly hard, but it is time-consuming, especially since it's a style I don't use every day.

But it used to be hard, the way any challenging thing is before you've had time to practise! The important thing is to not give up before you've figured it out.

[Kyuu]

Realism is hard in a sense that it takes great effort and time. But that also means, with enough time and effort you can draw realistic. However the hardest thing is being creative, having your own style and color that is unique. So dont focus on trying to be realistic, but try to learn how things work and why they are drawn that way. I'll put up couple of my artwork for credibility

[JessJackdaw]

Okay... short answer is yes. It is hard certainly, but this is going to sound weird.

Learn your foundation skills first then focus on true realism.

If you have a good foundation, realism comes more easily. The two go hand in hand, and trying to go about realism with out it? Oh man, that's like trying to build a full sized house with toothpicks.

I might be forgetting a few but the basic foundation skills are value, composition, light/color, form, and perspective.

Even the tip top artists still hone these basic skills. Which helps them immensely when they try to tackle realism.

This is a recent face study I did. Which I usually do when I come across a face that's really interesting.

Oh! Another bit of advice! With visual art, tutorials never really helped me. Books never really helped me. Watching those speed paint things... just made me feel awful. What did help me, was critiques. Not always of my own work, but dang do they make you see what you can do better and they just make you want to improve so bad. Like seriously, if you're too nervous to ask your favorite artist, there are truckloads of artist critiques on youtube!

Somehow when you see something you're doing wrong be corrected by a master, it just clicks! Like one time, I watched Anthony Jones (amazing creature artist) do a paint over for one of his students and he fixed something I never realized I was doing wrong. Like the fact that, eyes aren't pure white. Skin is never uniform pink (actually it's grey-yellow and soft red). Hair actually tends to clump together and shouldn't be drawn strand by stringy strand. All sorts of things!

I dunno everyone learns differently though! Best of luck! : >

Edit:

OH! Almost forgot! Image flip! Like.... DO IT! Seriously. You catch so many mistakes. Like, I had a wonky eye that I caught here. XD It helps out loads! ALSO! Don't worry if your image looks weird or bad in the beginning of working on a realistic piece. (They always do). OKAY I'LL STOP RAMBLING.

[mariusthered]

as a caricaturist myself i would say don't be too upset over that drawing i knew who it was right away and you captured the essence of the subject.

[jennula]

Realism doesn't interest me much, or at least not drawing as realistic as possible. However, it's good to make color studies, draw/paint still lifes and criquis and such every now and then. I did these two in March during a course in digital painting, and I guess this is the closest to realism I've come yet:


It is possible, if you put a lot of time and effort in it (at least in my case), but I think of these more for practise to get better than something I'd boast about too much.

[AliceHoffmannArt]

I don't draw realism that often and when I do it's mostly to exercise body parts.
For me it can be challenging but mostly in terms of shaded artworks it just feels like it drags on forever because of all the detail. I clearly prefer abstracted styles to be honest. They are just more fun for me and I even find them more appealing most of the time.

[eslameldeeb]

If you find it difficult, then maybe that means that your self doesn't accept being limited by such style
I love realistic art styles, but only if it's drawn well, and some people are just good at that, if you are not 100% confident about the style, then simply don't go that road
Don't know why a lot of artists obligate themselves to draw in realistic artstyles
Go wild and draw in whatever artstyle you feel happy with

[mg78]

of course it is!
that's why i choosed to draw my comic with a cartoon style... it way more easy to handle than a realistic comic.

[Shanny8]

I wouldnt say drawing in a realistic style is hard for me...I just have no desire to do it. I enjoy drawing in comic book style; drawing in a realistic style bores me.

[AliceHoffmannArt]

It's not that easy to just say "draw whatever art style you like".

Realism is the best basis for a fundamental understanding of anatomy. If one wants to do professional artwork, it can't just be disregarded on a whim. In fact, anyone who is serious about any kind of character artwork has to study some amount of realism to make it believable. Of course it's also generally well-liked in portfolios for art course/ university or job applications.

Thus, ignoring short term wishes regarding art style can pay off big-time if the goal demands it.

Besides, I'm not sure if you really mean it that way, but people are never "just good at that" from the get-go. Proper realism demands hours and hours and more hours of exercise.

[vongcw]

I love it actually. Particularly practiced with pencils (black and white) drawings. You really learn a thing or two. pity I don't practice as often as I should.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

@CatharsisGaze the Lannisters send their regards...

Realism is hard and time consuming.. I always need a reference photo. But even if you're a cartoonist its a good way of learning how the real body is structured, how shadows on the face work, etc. Once you get some basics down you can play with and exaggerate parts you like to develop your style. It also helps you avoid same-face syndrome.

here are some of mine:

Jeeja Yanin (Chocalate)

This helped in prioritizing line art of facial anatomy:

(The left eye is higher than the other, always check the sketch before color TT_TT)

And now for stylistic liberties:

[eslameldeeb]

To me, art style is another way of saying "how one approaches reality in the form of artwork"
One's art style is part of one's identity, one's identity is something that is in our nature, and we either choose to obligate such nature by submitting ourselves to commonly-agreed-upon notions (when it comes to art styles obviously), OR working in a style(s) that makes our selves comfortable
Either ways, practice is a must, but practice should support a passion that IS already their in our nature and not vice versa
Practice and exercise is going to make what IS already "good" in our approach to reality "better"
Now, doing back to how @xeithe addressed it:

It's very difficult for me to draw

It all goes back to how this is all a natural thing, if it's already in your approach, you wouldn't find it "very difficult" and the slightest of practice will show you improvement and psychological comfort (You must be alarmed if art makes you uncomfortable)
All what i'm saying is that beating a fish to come out of the water to play on the beach "because this is the only way to have fun" is a bad idea

[scythe]

To be honest, straight realism is a piece of piss mate. (there's some Aussie slang for you!)

To me, nailing a stylised look or adding that extra je ne said quoi to a realistic setting is what's really hard.

[indagold]

Oh it's really easy for me, just my style isn't focused on it. Meanwhile my mom whose a proficient illustrator who does hyper realistic art just feels uninterested in my work because of this lol

[joannekwan]

It's not hard hard, it's just I've done enough of it in school and life-drawing classes that I don't particularly want to do it any more.
And I agree with @JessJackdaw, never was one for tuts, what was most helpful was when my professor would tell me what's wrong, how to fix it, or lightly go over what I have done to show how it should be. And I trusted him since he was a medical illustrator.
I should try and do some color studies from film stills though, to work on my digital painting.

[ConradComics]

I have issues with detail, a hallmark of realism. In that, detailed art looks busy to me and busy does not look good to my eye. I have put in the practice on it, but overall, I'm not going to draw what doesn't look good to me.

As far as difficulty when it came to practicing, it's not that bad. More tedious than anything.
(Which comes back to my lazine... er, issue with detail, I'm sure : )

[KSlinger]

Sorry, @JessJackdaw something went a bit weird there!

Yeah, I find realism really hard. Or at least the kind where you take a photograph and try to reproduce it. A bowl of fruits and a silky rag on a table? Cheers but no thanks, I'd rather draw a monster. I know, I know, practicing the fundamentals of light/colour/perspective is good for me, and sometimes I see other people's studies and go 'shit, I really need to do that' buuuut I just don't want to. I don't enjoy it. If you want to strip off and let me draw you in all your naked glory, however, please take a seat.

[Maxiachan]

It not really hard for me if we're talking about looking at a photo and reproducing it. I find those to be easy for me to do, especially if it's an animal/fruit. I don't do very well with realistic people though. I don't like drawing realism, I rather draw in a much more cartoony style. It's takes too long to draw realism and I don't have the patience for it.

[Kura]

Not really hard, just boring. Attention span is just lost on it.

Weirdly enough I used to be able to do/stick to working on realism much easier as a kid, and I used to do it all the time. I was actually pretty exceptional at it for my age, lots of people were impressed and my skill ended up giving me a shitty 50% in art because 'IT WOULD NOT BE FAIR TO THE OTHER STUDENTS' if they gave me full marks because I could draw so well.

Then I discovered cartooning and anime and how much more fun that is to draw compared to realism. I just really enjoy the exaggeration and the stylistics looks off it, the art of making something look like something without every little detail and just simplistic or general lines was just... amazing to me. Now I get bored trying to do realistic stuff. Even semi-realistic is boring to me.