Style Solution
Hallå pals!
Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.
Style Solution
This deer is technically not that accurate. Yet, I managed to make an interesting interpretation of one. I’m no expert on anatomy, volume, or really any particular aspect of drawing. I just have a general idea of volume and how body parts are shaped (and a few other things). All together that adds up to something okay. A coat of derpiness on top of it also helps make those shortcomings look more intentional. For instance look at the face of the deer, very simple, quite silly. It looks like the deer is either looking into the camera suggesting the snout is pointing this way, or that the deer’s face is flat with a silly/panicked reaction. I like that ambiguity.
I rarely find the time or interest to do art-studies, and so I’ve found some alternative ways to work around my weaknesses. I lean more on the things I know better, to hide my weaknesses in other areas. Some might say that’s bad, it might make me a repetitive one-trick-magician. But I don’t believe the main source of magic is technical prowess, to me intentionality and ideas matter more. So I’m fine with compromising on spectacle.
Either way, back to my “alternative” ways of drawing…
In how-to-draw-books they often tell you to use guiding lines, with vanishing points, etc. to help you get the perspective in an image right. That can definitely be useful, but for me it’s overly mathematical and feels like a sluggish chore. I get far enough with the basic understanding that, "perspective makes things in the distance smaller".
In this one and most of my drawings I don’t use any perspective guides. I just wing it. The basic idea I mentioned earlier, “distance makes stuff smaller,” combined with my understanding of volume, helps me space objects properly. There are no intentional vanishing points or guides, just a foreground, “middle ground”, and horizon. This works fine in scenes with a lot of foliage and no hard surfaces. A sturdy perspective matters more on something like a city street, because all the straight lines easily reveal any mistakes. Luckily there are other workarounds for that. I like to make a mockup in 3D or just build something with everyday objects and take a photo.
Here’s a concept I did for a video game called Tinykin, where I had to think of ways to construct buildings at an insect’s scale, using household objects. I literally just drew on top of that photo.
This presents two alternative solutions to making better art.
Style solution: In the forest picture I used a stylistic approach to avoid my weakness of perspective.
Trick solution: For the kitchen sink I used a trick as a crutch to get the perspective right.
And then there’s of course the true-and-tried solution of practice and study. What I’m most passionate about is the style solution. It’s perfect for a lazy artist like me.
I’ll give you another clear example of the Style Solution.
It’s commonly known that newbies tend to avoid drawing hands, they either hide them in pockets or pose their characters weirdly. An art teacher would probably say, “study hands!” Which is fine advice, but maybe you don’t care about drawing hands? Well, you don’t need to. Simplify the style of the rest of the drawing to a point where it looks fine to draw ball hands, or “mittens.”
Ball hands look ridiculous on a semi or photo realistic drawing. But if you go with similarly simple shapes for the whole drawing - then ball hands work just fine.
If you can draw everything exceptionally, except for hands, then you could make up an alien species with tentacles. As long as you have fun. Don’t waste time doing things you hate, you might have to do more of it if people like it. It’s fine to work around your restrictions and weaknesses, or simply to avoid the things you are too lazy to do.
Focus on what matters to you.
I felt like keeping it short today, that’s why I jumped straight into the essay. Thank you, as always, for reading! See you next week!
Take care and have a creative week.
(ps. I made a website)
The deer picture had me wonder how accurate it would be for a deer, with eyes on the sides of its head, to look straight forward to see something. (https://deerassociation.com/deer-can-see-even-theyre-eating/) made me find it plausible, though I still haven't observed deer enough to know how they really act; would they go through the effort to put you in their "binocular overlap?"
That was a fun read! I like to think of vanishing points as representing any arbitrary 3d rotation; I can imagine them without drawing them, and this allows me to create cool wide-angle or telephoto effects as well. :)