Proko - course or study suggestions for characters from imaginatio?

course or study suggestions for characters from imaginatio?

So kinda beating a dead horse here, but i started some fantasy things again with goal to go in to book covers perhaps. Now the problem is, and has been before, that when drawing or painting a scene i have problems making characters without reference. I can do the pieces, ill just use references but its very distressing for me that i cant seem to imagine any characters doing anything lol. I know i dont have aphantasia because when reading im more in to the "seeing a film" type. Its probably mostly just lack of doing these kind of drawings, and ive been better before when i did them but what im asking is: Do you know any courses or types of structured studies to get better at drawing characters form imagination and preferably without much reference. I could just try to do them everyday or something but the problem is i am very ad/hd, especially now that i do mostly mental office work.

Martha Muniz

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2yr

Hi Antii! Like samaya mentioned, building up your visual library from observational sketching, especially figure drawing, is key to posing characters from imagination. Having knowledge of the forms you are placing for your drawings and how they move in 3D space is most helpful, so both studying anatomy and practicing gesture drawing will take you a long way towards your goal. I'd also like to add that drawing from imagination is a skill in itself that can be nurtured. Take some time, even if just a few minutes, to consistently practice drawing characters and scenes from imagination without using reference. Even if just a quick sketch, training yourself to problem solve on the page will greatly supplement your studies from reference, developing the intuition for it alongside the more analytical. But don't feel guilty of using references, as even the great masters used references to help bring their works to life. If you don't want to feel tied down as in copying a specific photo, you can start out by studying similar poses, trying it out on your own from imagination, then bringing back in a variety of references to help fix your drawing afterwards. Also, here are some videos that further dive into this topic: - Marshall Vandruff's video on drawing from imagination from his Kley series: https://youtu.be/NJYnHNCmHFY - The Reference Sandwich: https://www.proko.com/s/nynp Hope this helps! :)

@samaya661

•

2yr

Hi Antti, I'm new here but I may have a few suggestions if you wan to try them. Have you thought about making an inspiration board of textures and objects that inspire you. There are lots of places to get poses of people from to help that aren't wear many clothes or use life drawing classes to amp up your visual library. Using references to draw from will help with your mental library as well as filling your sketchbook. Look at plants, animals, creatures from the sea or get your camera out and zoom in. Look at the shapes of the world around you to inspire too. And if you like films try recreating a scene that you have watched and change it up. another trick to help you would be using a character generator to give you a character description from clothing to where they are and their personality. I hope this was useful happy sketching.