Help please! What was your process to learn to draw from imagination?

That's by far the most difficult thing for me! I can correctly draw anatomy from references and live models, but as soon as I'm lacking a reference nothing on the page looks right. I'm sure that's quite common, but I'm wondering how best to move on from there.

Just keep doing a lot of sketches using references? Should I instead do a lot of sketches WITHOUT references? Any specific thing I should focus on? Anything I'm missing?

The reason I'm looking for advice is because in the past, I've spent a LOT of time trying to get better at drawing, only to realize I had wasted literal years because I had no idea HOW to learn (and I wasn't the most consistent with practice). I really want to avoid that right now. I work full time and I'm able to fit about 3h of drawing practice a week. I would like to do more and will strive towards that, but I also want to make my practice as productive as possible.

Thank you so much for any advice!

I would say setting down the reference and dedicating some time each day to imagination drawing. It's a different skill, drawing from imagination and drawing from reference. Instead of thinking of the problem as "Drawing from Imagination" Maybe think of it as "Drawing from Memory".

The human form is generally lumpy and, at times, abstract. Once you've studied the construction of the figure, I would recommend doing some drawings, but this time put away the reference. Think of the forms as mannequinization of reality. Always simplify over adding detail. Master the basic shapes and rhythms. Each time, putting away the reference and basing the image on the one in your head. You're bound to make mistakes. It WILL happen, but when it does, look at the image with a new eye. Throw the reference *out* of your head.

Instead now draw what it looks like. Draw what *you* see.

If you are drawing a swordfighter, and you've messed up the wrist, instead lean *into* the mistake, maybe they're holding a pistol, a frisbee, a shield. The more objects, poses and anatomy you observe the more powerful your ability to craft not only a drawing, but a *narrative*, becomes. Applying different combinations of compositions, styles, and themes to these powerful works will allow you to become a truly great draftsperson.

As Kim Jung Gi would say "I don't make it right. I make it *not wrong*."

~pj

• Bippin Sippin Slippin edited this post on January 30, 2024 8:53am.

A practice I try to do, to transition from drawing from reference to drawing from imagination: I start with a session of drawing from reference, but I focus entirely on building the body from basic geometric forms, robot style, no details, no big flowy lines, nothing fancy. Then I chose the best result of the session, and try to draw it again, but with a 90° switch in perspective. It usually takes me quite a number of attempts and about 100 times as long to get it done.

I think drawing from imagination is related to drawing from reference, but it is just a different skill set, and you have to throw yourself into it and just start doing it to become good at it.

One problem I see for myself is, I am not a ballet dancer, a circus performer, gymnast or a martial artist, and I don't have a major in human physiology either, so coming up with entirely new, cool and convincing poses is a bit hard. So in some ways I will always work from reference, either from copying something from film or photography, or from another artist, or from my memory of what I have seen. Being able to correctly "turn" the pose to draw it from another angle gives me the artistic freedom to fit it into my composition as I need it, and working from a modification of a reference prevents me from being lazy and just copy pasting a small set of gestures over and over. I get the challenge of working from the outside world, and I can use the same mechanisms for error detection as I have acquired from working from reference.

I have been trying to walk through town with a clipboard and just make sketches after a single glance at some passerby. It has been an interesting experience, but I feel like the quality of results was shockingly low and it did not seem to improve noticably from practice. After a while I gave up sketching from a glance, and only looked for people who were resting. Which a) obviously lowers the range of poses, and b) is generally only viable when the outside weather is inviting enough to take a rest in the sun.

I am planning to repeat drawing from a glance once the weather gets better, but I feel like learning to capture, and then to consistently modify, gesture and poses from reference will give me some foundations on which to build up consistent quality from.

• Aunt Herbert edited this post on January 30, 2024 10:26am.

Hello, Cafeaulait, and how are you doing tonight? Honestly, I don't know how to answer that question, because I may not be the right person to answer your question, because I'm still figuring out the hardest way on how to draw my stuff from imagination. Please look into some studies by the great and late Kim Jung Gi for his brush and ink sketches of the fisheyed compositions.

Good luck from me to you.

For me it was a combination of simplifying the body into simple forms. boxes mostly then studying anatomy...and drawint the anatomy over the boxes in perspective. I did a lot of life drawing study...then put the study away and redraw the pose without reference...while using the method stated above. then compare and take mental notes of what is different from the ref...

And a lot of drawing from imagination after each life session drawing trying to see where i'm lacking. what i know or don't know...then focus on that on the next life drawing session....then repeat and see what if i made the same mistake this time or not.

for example the head i would try to draw a box, then carve in the shapes of the eye sockets etc...It's and endless process of carving to memory the anatomy and forms of each part of the body..

I would recommend reading on anatomy and perspective books. anatomy needs to be understood to a certain extend to get good at figure drawing from imagination. and figures are simple shapes placed in perspective...so you need to get confortable to place those shapes, boxes conces in perspective.