TL;DR - drawing from reference is necessary when learning to draw from imagination BUT its not about copying the reference

Ciao 👋

My goal is pretty much the same as 99% of people who are into drawing.

It's spelled clearly in YouTube channel banner:

I want to learn to draw from imagination

it's always been my goal

And when I say draw, I really mean create, visually, in any medium that involves using a stick in my hand.

Including inking, painting, digital, and whatever else...

I don't care, so long as its from imagination.

So why am I spending most of my time drawing references using DrawingTimer?

Simple:

Drawing from imagination is limited by your visual library.

Why do I say that?

Sure, you have to get used to rotate primitive forms in space...

But once you can rotate a box in a few directions, you can pretty much construct anything and place it in any position you want.

You might struggle, and it might take you a little bit of time.

But still.. that skill is not really what stops you from creating complex scenes from your imagination.

What stops you is:

• Knowing what you want to build
• Knowing how it's supposed to look

And that becomes easy once you have a vast visual library of subjects in your mind.

Subjects that you understand well enough to be able to build on paper.

It's not about remembering it accurately accurately.

It's just about understanding how the thing is supposed to function, so that you know what is important in that subject to make it recognisable.

And to do that, you need to obsess over it for a little while.

Draw that subject many times, from many different angles and in many different contexts.

You will start spotting patterns.

For example I noticed that when a feline walks, its front paw lifts from the ground at a diagonal angle.

That gesture alone is typical of the feline species.

So whenever I am drawing a scene from imagination and I want to add a cat, I can use this gesture I learned to make it easily recognizable.

from imagination You can use it when you have to draw a cat or a lion, and make it easier to read and recognise.

And this applies to everything.

How do you recognise a diner?

How do you recognise a bartender?

How do you recognise batman?

☝️ Except that last one, I've got a Pinterest board for it.

And I created the drawingtimer website for this exact reason by the way.

Drawing on a short timer forces you to figure out how to make the subject recognisable.

I keep underlying this word.

Because we get so lost in the details that we forget that drawing is really just a form of communication.

First we need to make urself be understood. (= readability)

And little by little expand our vocabulary. (= visual library)

In the process, we can pick up some accents too. (= style)

But really, we're all here to tell great stories. (= I'll leave this one to you 😉)

:)

Have a strong week

🫶

Massa

P.s.

I am giving $50 off to people who want to commit to a year of drawing with me in weekly live calls.

Simply use the code MARATHON50 on the annual plan of DrawingTimer PRO

Cool thing is that it stacks on top of the 42% you already save with the annual plan!

⚠️ code expires on the 1st of October.