How do you draw from imagination?

[Anonymous No.3652640]

>can draw a 1:1 copy of a photo reference without any trouble
>can't draw without a reference to save my life

/ic/ told me that I should always use references but because of this, I can't draw anything relying on them.

And looking for specific ones really takes the enjoyment out of drawing because it usually takes hrs.

Its beginning to really sour my opinion of drawing as a whole because of this. Whats even the point in trying to draw for fun if you need to pull up a reference every single fucking time you want to draw something?

Who should I read/watch to help me with this?

[Anonymous No.3652644]

>>3652640
Actually start drawing and try out.

[Anonymous No.3652648]

>>3652644
Sadly, this is probably the only way.

[Anonymous No.3652649]

>Who should I read/watch
Nigga...

Maybe keep some anatomy diagrams at most while doing poses from fantasy. Start drawing.

[Anonymous No.3652653]

Just draw.

[Anonymous No.3652658]

Try to draw something. Put some genuine effort in it.
Then get a reference. Try to understand what you did wrong.
Then get rid of the reference and try again. If you learned what you did wrong you shouldn't do the same mistakes again.

Repeat until you can get it right on the first try.

[Anonymous No.3652659]

>>3652658
>use references to draw without reference

[Anonymous No.3652664]

>>3652640
>can draw a 1:1 copy of a photo reference without any trouble
post work

[Anonymous No.3652667]

learn construction, when you use reference, dont just copy shapes, construct the figure, sooner enough you will be able to rotate shapes from imagination

[Anonymous No.3652674]

>>3652640
you must internalize form and function.
then it becomes yours and you can manipulate it to your liking.
To do it you must go learn anatomy, perspective, facial expressions, etc.
Instead of copying from reference and making one single finished drawing, draw 1000 sketches of people. Eventually it will be ingrained in you.

[Anonymous No.3652687]

Hey anon, i'm a professional and maybe i can give some guidance because my career came to a grinding halt when i realised i couldn't draw from imagination and had to rely on mish-mashing different resources (photo bashing). I couldn't give my client what they wanted because i only had certain references. There is no worse feeling.

I've essentially worked to become a photo-copier and loathe how mine never has that "painterly" feel. I'm just starting to learn to do things from my imagination.

I haven't moved onto a new stage yet because i'm having a horrible art block/i'm afraid of making mistakes but here are some steps that can help

>if you rely on references, keep them to the side, never trace or photobash, no matter how nervous you are (it makes your paintings WORSE)
>pink up oil painting/acrylics and try to make something you're proud of
>challenge yourself to create characters/scenes that aren't similar to the references you have

All the other advice in this thread is really great. Good luck anon, don't do what i did.

[Anonymous No.3652708]

>>3652640
u know how i know youre a dunning kreug

youre supposed to learn from drawing all those references. if you retained nothing, only two possibilities:
>you're a fucking retard and drew on autopilot
>you're a fucking liar and didnt draw as much as you say you did

how to navigate /ic/ 101.

[Anonymous No.3652711]

>>3652708
Anon, he explained hes drawing on autopilot and wants to not use reference for this anymore. Are you a fucking moron?

[Anonymous No.3652714]

>>3652711
nice ad hominem, m'atheist. just because i didnt read his post all the way means i'm retarded?

[Anonymous No.3652715]

>>3652687
imagination drawing is not going to get you anything painterly. construction is going to spell out every detail making it look cartoony.

[Anonymous No.3652717]

>>3652640
Stop copying and start analyzing the figure with hundreds of gesture drawings. Start drawing from imagination with what you've learned through studying the gesture and then work with basic forms on top of it.

[Anonymous No.3652719]

study and draw references, your approach should be "okay how will I be able to draw this from imagination next time I need it?" it's all problem solving. next time you draw from imagination your stylistic flourishes will come out naturally

[Anonymous No.3652756]

>>3652714
Yes. Yes it does.

[Anonymous No.3652759]

>>3652756
hmph!

[Anonymous No.3652761]

>>3652640

[Anonymous No.3652773]

>>3652640
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SINIX WAS RIGHT BTFO REFERENCEFAGS

[Anonymous No.3652775]

>>3652761
He's not wrong you know.

[Anonymous No.3652805]

>>3652640
>/ic/ told me that I should always use references
We never told you that, retard.

It's your own fault.

We don't chant the name of LOOMIS for nothing. Idiot.

[Anonymous No.3652814]

>>3652640
By "using referance" it doesn't mean to simply do a still life of whatever it is your drawing, it's figuring out how something works/looks.

If you're going to draw, for instance, a rabbit, go check out some reference photos, and tackle each bit at a time. Why are the ears shaped like this? What's up with the hind legs? How is the spine shaped? You look at a bunch of pictures of rabbits to answer these questions. Then you draw your own rabbit from imagination using all of the answered questions.

If all you were doing is drawing a copy of a reference, you've just been using reference wrong this while time.

[Anonymous No.3652836]

>>3652640
first to learn how to draw well. if you have the basics dominated it will be even more fun to draw and helps you in deternated problems. at least that's way i use references.

[Anonymous No.3652839]

>>3652711
You need to draw using reference NOT on auto pilot in order to draw without reference. Are you a fucking moron?

[Anonymous No.3652855]

>>3652773
what sinix said about reference?

[Anonymous No.3652860]

>>3652640
either:
develop enough muscle memory to just draw literally from that

if you have imagination at all just imagine a scene in your head and trace it by eye

[Anonymous No.3652869]

>>3652855
Never use it

[Anonymous No.3652870]

>>3652640
Build everything out of cubes and spheres. Like you're playing with blocks.

[Anonymous No.3652874]

>>3652640
learning to draw from reference
and learning to apply that reference to imagination

these are 2 separate things. the misunderstanding is that one magically comes with the other. draw from reference lots, and draw from imagination alot. in short- just draw.

[Anonymous No.3652877]

>>3652773
>>3652869
>following sinix or any other youtube ""teachers"" past your /beg/ phase

[Anonymous No.3652896]

>>3652877
Why not?

[Anonymous No.3652981]

>>3652896
they're almost all extremely bad.
its only worth watching for background noise.

[Anonymous No.3653006]

Drawing from imagination is a crucial skill if you want to be a genuine artist.

Or do you want to be like Proko who can't even draw a Kangaroo from memory for the rest of your life..?

[Anonymous No.3653024]

>>3653006
I how much Proko's imaginative draw skills have improved since then.

[Anonymous No.3653159]

>>3652640
Next time you do reference be aware of how the light and forms are interacting. Use that knowledge in building future pieces from imagination. For me, I’ll have a simple concept I want to draw like maybe a dude and a dragon. What would need to happen for me to sell that imagery to the viewer? How can I simplify elements? Where might there be issues in “what I know is there” vs “what I see is there”?
I think these are the key thoughts I personally go through in a piece from imagination and I’ll break them down in the next couple of posts. I’m pretty /beg/ but these things are starting to click with me so I might be able to explain how better than artists that are so above this level that it’s almost intuitive.

[Anonymous No.3653165]

>>3652981
so sinix is bad?

[Anonymous No.3653166]

>>3653159
>What would need to happen for me to sell that imagery to the viewer?

This is probably the overall work of painting and probably the main thing that’s in the back of your mind throughout working on a piece. I want to show a dude and a dragon. I have my basic elements and from there you’ll think about things like setting, lighting, composition, detail. How can you sell this to the viewer? You need to understand how the viewers mind will work and use the tools you’ve acquired to differentiate form and imply depth and edge. That’s all shit you get from grinding fundies. You want a good understanding of lighting, ambient, direct, secondary, tertiary. Consistent light sources sell realism. Detail also sells realism. However you want to be careful in over selling these things. You want the viewer to work a bit to engage them in the piece.

[Anonymous No.3653170]

>>3653166
>How can I simplify elements

Simplifying elements helps engage the viewer. Instead of having a hand in the background rendered to the same degree as a hand in the foreground, a tan triangle may suffice. You have to trust that the viewer will see it as a hand. And it will be rewarding for them to see it as such. It also tells them this hand isn’t as important as the hand in the foreground. Lastly, in reality we don’t actually see everything, just what’s directly in front of us, our brain fills in a lot of the rest. Simplifying shapes, combining shapes, removing edges will help engage the viewer and actually make for a more realistic experience.

[Anonymous No.3653177]

>>3653170
>Where night there be issues of “what I know is there vs what I see is there”?

This is probably an issue where experience working from reference a lot will make it easier to do on the fly. There are a lot of videos and articles that touch on this as well. Basically, there are
countless optical illusions we come across each day, and our brain and experience translates those illusions into information. We know that the dress is grey but we’d actually want to paint it blue because the overwhelming surrounding colors are cool, a grey dress would look warm. We know that there is an edge between a dudes arm and thigh but we don’t want to draw a line there since they are the same value and hue in that lighting condition. It’s easy to pick out those situations in reference but may be harder to identify when working from imagination. It could be trial and error at first but it’s all a balance of providing the viewer with information without spoiling the story.