[HN Gopher] How to Draw Animals (1930)
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How to Draw Animals (1930)
Author : ddtaylor
Score : 133 points
Date : 2022-06-05 05:05 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (dessinoprimaire.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (dessinoprimaire.blogspot.com)
| hamiltonians wrote:
| looks like physics disgrams too
| ThrowawayR2 wrote:
| Before you upvote this post, note that ddtaylor is basically
| farming karma by reposting past HN stories that got significant
| upvotes. You can see from the user's posting history that roughly
| 2 posts per hour are occurring, one of which is usually an old
| article, and this pattern has continued over the past several
| days. It would probably be a good idea for someone to report this
| to @dang.
|
| This kind of implies some kind of automated posting as well,
| since it's unlikely somebody is sitting in front of their
| computer 24 hours a day to post twice an hour.
| gpspake wrote:
| Reminds me of one of my favorite drawing books as a kid. [Ed
| emberly's - Make a World](https://www.amazon.com/Ed-Emberleys-
| Drawing-Book-World/dp/03...)
| Minor49er wrote:
| Same here. I loved Ed Emberly's books as a kid. I'm pretty sure
| I also had the Big Purple Drawing Book, among others, since I
| remember how he drew robots which I thought was really cool
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| So this is where my grandmother learned all this! It seems that
| years later, she still remembered how to make them.
|
| I spent a lot of time sitting next to her doodling while she did
| chores around the house. I was always amazed at how she started
| with triangles, squares and circles and then came up with amazing
| animals.
|
| They are so identical to her drawings (which we no longer have)
| that they bring tears to my eyes.
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| Looking at the examples, the step between the last and the second
| to last of a series is much larger than the other steps. For
| example the butterfly.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| tptacek wrote:
| The second-to-last butterfly is the complete, instantly-
| recognizable shape of the butterfly; the rest is just coloring
| and shading. Getting the shape right is probably harder! The
| butterfly also probably makes a point about the importance of
| getting the basic shape right before you get tangled up in the
| fine details --- you can be "wrong" about the butterfly pattern
| and still produce a butterfly, but it's much less ok to be
| wrong about the shape?
| [deleted]
| sydthrowaway wrote:
| How does this compare to Loomis books?
| egypturnash wrote:
| More designey, less emphasis on installing a 3d modeling
| package in your brain. Much less textual explanation.
| marcodiego wrote:
| Public domain?
| elihu wrote:
| See also: "Please, enough with the dead butterflies":
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27948008
| YeBanKo wrote:
| It actually shows how to draw a more or less natural butterfly
| position.
| layer8 wrote:
| Dead butterflies look really nice though.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Sort of like, sort of hate these books.
|
| They imply that there is a "trick" to drawing each animal -- if
| you can just remember the initial shape, small strokes made for
| each animal. Drawing by memorization.
|
| On the other hand they sort of show you that the final image is
| built up, not drawn as a single, free-hand, outline.
|
| To be sure though it was a book like this that got me started
| drawing as a kid.
| [deleted]
| guywithahat wrote:
| It's crazy how little has changed in drawing styles since the
| 30's. Those books look like something you could buy today (or at
| least find on the internet, I'm not sure if people still buy
| drawing books)
| egypturnash wrote:
| The fundamentals are always the same. Start with a rough shape
| that vaguely resembles the thing you're drawing. Work over it
| to make it look more like the thing. Look at real examples of
| the thing if you want to. When you reach the desired level of
| detail, call it done.
|
| The details change over time. New conceptual tools, new mark-
| making tools. But the process I use as an artist is
| fundamentally unchanged since the first caveman saw firelight
| flickering on a bulge in a cave, said "hey, that looks like a
| bull", then picked up a bit of charcoal to make some marks that
| make it look even more like a bull.
| zuminator wrote:
| You actually _can_ buy it today:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Draw-Animal-Book-Step-Step/dp/1631598...
| noahbradley wrote:
| I'd say a whole lot has changed in drawing styles. There just
| happened to be a fairly accessible style of drawing that these
| sort of books teach which has stuck around well. It can be a
| nice intro to art and at least starts you thinking about how to
| construct your drawings. But yeah, once you move past that it's
| fairly impressive how much things have changed/evolved in
| drawing.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Flickr has old books with drawings in them. Really fascinating to
| see some of the visuals from a few hundred years ago.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| HTTPS version: https://dessinoprimaire.blogspot.com/2012/02/les-
| animaux-tel...
| silicon2401 wrote:
| Curious what advice I can get from HN on this. I've loved drawing
| since I was a little kid, but gave up in middle school because I
| just didn't know how to get better and didn't have access to
| improving (no money, nobody I could ask, etc). As an adult, how
| can I learn to draw? Ideally in a self-guided way
| jgable wrote:
| "How to See, How to Draw" by Claudia Nice is a good book for
| learning to draw in a self-guided way. Doesn't take much money
| -- $20 at any art supply store can get you a decent drawing
| book and a decent set of pencils.
| ottobonn wrote:
| "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Edwards is a good
| introduction to drawing. I think in particular it is a good
| explanation of how much of drawing is learning to look at the
| world, and exercises to improve your skills of looking at
| things. One of the big takeaways from this book and other
| drawing courses I have taken is that once you learn to draw
| what you see, nothing is particularly easier or harder to draw;
| in every case you are drawing what you see. The feeling of
| difficulty in drawing a particular object often comes from
| trying to parse it into visual symbols, then draw those
| symbols, rather than seeing the object as a pattern of light
| and reproducing that on the paper.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| praptak wrote:
| I also recommend the Betty Edwards book. It took me from
| stickmen to realistic drawings of chairs and hands :-)
|
| It also makes you appreciate paintings.
|
| Curiously the book from the TFA is doing almost the exact
| opposite of what DotRSotB recommends. The former is about
| parsing things into shapes while the latter is like tracing
| from an imaginary glass in front of you.
| nkrisc wrote:
| Plenty of good suggestions so I'll just add: draw every day.
| Guided resources are good but nothing beats _just doing it a
| lot_. Start with some simple still life. Get a big pad of
| paper, an easel if you like, and some charcoal. Each time you
| do a drawing, to begin with, just focus on one aspect of it.
| Try to just work on getting the perspective right, keeping in
| mind a vanishing point. Next just focus on light and shadow.
| Practice drawing circles. Lots of them. Over and over. Draw 100
| vertical lines on a sheet as straight as you can. Drawing uses
| specific muscles and requires muscle memory to take the line
| you want to draw in your mind and translate it onto the page.
| The only way to build that is by just doing it a lot. Next take
| your still life objects and draw it from the perspective
| _opposite_ where you 're sitting, accounting for the light and
| perspective. Add in some more difficult things like fabrics or
| objects with fine texture. Your drawings will suck at first.
| They always do. Save some as you go as a sampling of your
| progress. From time to time compare your latest ones to your
| first ones. What's improved? What hasn't improved? Go outside
| on some lovely day and find a nice comfortable place to sit and
| just draw whatever you see. Doodle when you're on the phone.
| Draw in the margins of everything. Just keep drawing.
| Broken_Hippo wrote:
| If I were going to teach myself to draw today, I'd turn to
| youtube. There are a variety of tutorials: I usually suggest
| Alphonso Dunn upfront. He also sells books if that is your
| preference. The youtube content is free, however, and covers a
| variety of topics.
|
| Books are great, though its been a while since I've bought one:
| I think my last was portraits and the human body - these were
| great reference books and honestly, I still miss them
| sometimes. If I drew more portraits or city scenes, I'd
| probably get another set.
|
| And realistically, once you get going for a bit, the main thing
| is practice. Seriously: The main difference between the
| experienced artist and the beginner is practice. If you can do
| 10 minutes most days, you'll start seeing a lot of improvement.
| Some of these practice pieces should be quick (and sloppy),
| some take more time.
|
| I'd try a variety of subjects because it'll help you later on,
| but I'd suggest mostly doing pictures that you personally
| enjoy.
|
| I would definitely suggest starting with more "traditional"
| art, mostly realism. While I personally do a lot of abstract or
| surrealist pieces now, I'm really happy my art instruction as a
| child (through high school) focused more on tradition because
| it makes me so much more flexible now. (I'm over 40, by the
| way). This said, if you really enjoy abstract work, start doing
| some once you feel you are getting some decent control over the
| pencil, pen, or brush.
|
| And don't be afraid to go into more permanent media or to more
| sloppy media: You might find charcoal or pastels to be nice and
| expressive in ways that graphite won't. Similarity, you might
| have an affinity for ink. And don't forget trying out dip pens!
| The only way to get over that hump - and many others - is to
| just try things.
|
| Oh, and have fun.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| I'd take an art class. There's nothing like having a talented
| teacher (if you can find one) and lots of people around you
| interested in and working with you towards the same goal.
|
| It's hard for most people to stay motivated without that.. and
| getting good at art just isn't something you can achieve over
| the weekend. It's for long distance runners, not sprinters.
|
| Apart from that, draw every day. Quantity beats quality, and
| ultimately results in quality. Overcoming self-criticism and
| excuses not to just create more art is half of what being an
| artist is all about.
| al_borland wrote:
| >I'd take an art class
|
| I've always found finding things like this difficult. Red Ed
| classes are generally geared for young kids, to expose them
| to some new hobby, or for old retired people looking for
| something to do. I've tried a couple and felt very out of
| place.
|
| There are community colleges, but that seems like a more
| involved sign up than I'd like (although I did it once in my
| mid-20s after graducating from university).
|
| Other than that, I struggle to find in-person places to learn
| things. Art, cooking, gymnastics, etc. There seems to be a
| big gap in the market for adults looking to learn things
| without doing it all on their own. Is there something else
| out there I'm not aware of?
| pmoriarty wrote:
| Search around for an atelier. They are geared towards
| learning to draw realistically, using classical techniques.
| Searching for "atelier training", "atelier drawing" on
| youtube will show you some results of the kind of thing you
| can expect. Some are online, some are in person. In person,
| in my opinion, is best.
| al_borland wrote:
| I just checked out a video and a lady said she spent 40
| hours drawing a small sphere. That might be slightly more
| intense than what I'm after, but probably what I need
| with my impossible standards.
|
| I do see there is a school just about a mile from me.
| They have various summer workshops, but many require I
| take a week off work; they have a couple weekend options
| too. It looks like they occasionally have some night
| classes, but they are full. A 10 month long class that
| doesn't start for 4 months and costs over $2,400 is
| full... that kind of blows my mind. It seems like doing
| one of these fundamentals classes would be the way to go
| before showing up for a 24 hour over 4 day deep dive,
| live drawing, workshop.
|
| I guess I'll bookmark it and come back to it occasionally
| to see if something works out for my schedule and current
| skill level.
| [deleted]
| al_borland wrote:
| Drawabox seems pretty popular on Reddit. It's pretty strict in
| the "this is the only correct way to learn" sense. If you're
| into that, it may be an option. It's self-guided, but you can
| post to get "graded" along the way so you know where to
| improve.
|
| I'd love to tell you that I went through all this in 2020
| during lockdown and now I'm an amazing artist after having a
| story very similar to yours. However, after buying a full box
| (12... 20... I don't know) of the fineliners, the first one
| stopped working almost immediately. The second one was DOA. I
| pretty much quit out of frustration after that. I recently just
| bought a 2 pack of a differnt brand (Sharpie), thinking
| something from a local store may have better luck than whatever
| Amazon decides to send me. So I'm going to give it another go.
|
| https://drawabox.com
|
| I have seen enough drawing progression posts to accept that
| drawing is a learned skill and not something you're just born
| with. I also think patience is a big part of it. When I was in
| high school, the best thing in my sketch book for art class
| took me several hours. I was meticulous. Usually I just want to
| go from nothing to something good in 5 minutes. I've seen posts
| from people who made amazing stuff who say they spend 50 hours
| on a drawing. So I guess you get out of it what you put into
| it.
| [deleted]
| tptacek wrote:
| Compare to the American classic from 1970:
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=ed+emberley+drawing+books+of...
|
| Both are extremely charming. Are there other examples?
| egypturnash wrote:
| Lee J Ames's Draw 50 series.
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/99108-draw-50
| rdubs333 wrote:
| Mark Kistler taught me how to draw 30 years ago on TV and he's
| still at it!
|
| https://www.draw3d.com/
| ralfd wrote:
| Relevant:
|
| The classic owl meme:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/eccj2/how_to_draw_an...
|
| Drawing "The Tick" with a simple oval:
|
| https://imgur.com/7HMbY
| [deleted]
| al_borland wrote:
| More relevant:
|
| This book teaches you the middle bit on how to draw the owl.
|
| https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/3523029611/
| tptacek wrote:
| It'd be more relevant if the owl or Tick memes actually showed
| you a process to derive a picture of an owl, or The Tick, like
| this book does with many of the animals it illustrates. But you
| just knew someone was going to have to drop this meme on this
| thread.
| xg15 wrote:
| I dunno. In most of those, the "small details" are actually
| small - but some, e.g. the butterfly, the boar or well, the
| owl, get pretty close to r/restofthefuckingowl territory.
| tptacek wrote:
| Makes sense, pedogogically: if you're really trying to
| teach anything, it's the idea of abstracting things and
| building them up from shapes. You'd start by giving step-
| by-steps for simple animal drawings, and progress to
| examples that give less hand-holding.
|
| I guess if I have an objection to the owl meme, it's that
| most of these examples pretty much just work; they're not
| at all "rest of the owl" throw-aways.
| xg15 wrote:
| Agreed, which is why I meant _some_ of them. Most of them
| look reasonably easy to follow, including the last step.
|
| I think in general, the owl meme has its purpose though:
| I'd see it as a reminder to be aware of "expert
| blindness": If you have lots of practice in a subject,
| part of your skills or knowledge will become subconscious
| and you're at risk forgetting they are acquired
| skills/knowledge at all. If you try to write an
| "introduction for beginners" piece without being self-
| aware about this, things can get frustrating for the
| people you're trying to teach.
|
| I guess the meme is the art equivalent of "a monad is
| just a monoid in the category of endofunctors"... :)
| tptacek wrote:
| Right, I have no objection to the owl meme by itself,
| just to the idea that these instructions are a good
| example of it. But people see instructions on drawing an
| owl and immediately post a meme that effectively says
| "instructions on how to draw an owl are impossible".
| Fooey.
| arketyp wrote:
| The owl meme is an exaggeration of the truth which
| typically looks like these examples. The frustration too
| is an exaggeration. I think the meme is very relevant,
| although, I'll grant you, a bit trite.
| corrral wrote:
| Cheetah qualifies, too. The last step is like 95% of the
| work.
| egypturnash wrote:
| The zebra is very Rest Of The Fucking Zeba. But then again
| the zebra is also near the end of the book, and essentially
| a stripey horse. You can sort of infer "well I already
| showed you how to draw a horse, right? Draw a horse and out
| stripes on it".
|
| Really the instructional step missing in the last images of
| a lot of this is "go look at the actual thing and take
| details from there".
| Tao3300 wrote:
| Pamar wrote:
| This was already posted twice.
|
| Here is the link to the most successful submission (2019, I
| think): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20110922
| jmathai wrote:
| I missed it in 2019. Had I seen it then, I might not have been
| interested enough to click.
|
| But my daughter just got into drawing animals so this repost is
| very timely and I'm printing them out for her :).
| tptacek wrote:
| Thanks for the link! I'm glad to have more comments to read
| about this. That thread has one of my all-time favorite
| moderator comments on it.
|
| On HN, stories are "duplicates" iff (a) they've been posted
| within the last year ("or so") and (b) they've had significant
| discussion already on those threads. This post flunks (b) but
| not (a) and is thus cromulent.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| cro*mu*lent
|
| adjective [HUMOROUS]
|
| acceptable or adequate.
|
| _" the continental breakfast was perfectly cromulent"_
|
| --
|
| I can never remember that word. For some reason it sounds
| like it should be an English pastry of some sort.
|
| Everything is eroding slowly?
| Pamar wrote:
| I mentioned the 2019 posting precisely because it had lots of
| comments.
| [deleted]
| barefeg wrote:
| What is the progression that should be followed? I first I
| thought it was step by step instructions, but some progressions
| have deleted lines, or lines with modified shape. (Sorry for my
| ignorance in this subject)
| kqr wrote:
| It is common to draw helper lines with pencil, then the real
| shape on top with ink, followed by erasing the helper lines.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| How do you do that without smudging the ink? On the rare
| occasion I doodle with some effort, I've found it impossible
| to erase the pencil lines without just making things even
| messier in the process lol
| egypturnash wrote:
| Draw with a light touch on the pencil. Addressing the paper
| with the side of the pencil point instead of the tip helps
| a lot - this stops you from making a trench in the paper
| with graphite at its bottom, and forces you to use a broad
| line without much detail for blocking things in. (This also
| helps to train you to draw with your wrist static, which is
| a good way to keep repetitive stress injuries from
| happening. It was one of the first things the old pros
| taught me when I started working in animation, because they
| had all seen careers cut short by injuries from bad form.)
|
| As you add detail, shift to the tip of the pencil. Your
| hand will probably smudge the first lines into nothingness
| as you do this, it's not a big worry. Grab a white plastic
| eraser or a kneaded eraser, and go at it.
|
| If you decide to go from pencil to ink, you can put some
| thought into your choice of ink to select one that dries
| quickly. You can also wait a bit for the ink to dry before
| erasing. White paint/ink does exist but it's real hard to
| find some that works well in a portable pen format.
| egypturnash wrote:
| Generally: use a pencil, not a pen, erase parts you don't want
| any more. Or work digitally and lower opacity of early roughs
| to work over in greater detail. These are all examples of
| blocking in a simple shape and refining it towards an ever-more
| detailed drawing.
|
| They are rendered in ink lines because that is far easier to
| reproduce.
| SimonPStevens wrote:
| I think of it more like a learning guide. Initially you include
| the guide lines and just sketch over them to refine the shape.
| Once you've become familiar with the shape you can just draw
| close to the final version with no guide lines, and just
| mentally visualise the positions of the guidelines if you need
| to.
| treeman79 wrote:
| When I took a college course to improve my art the most
| important part I took away it was learning to see.
|
| A good session would leave me in wonder as I walked out of ro
| and could see all the light and shadows on everything. Things
| you never noticed before.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| lxe wrote:
| Oh here we go again. Waiting for all the "this is a wrong way to
| draw" critiques. Keep in mind that this is a children's book
| about drawing animals using lines, not an anatomical study for an
| academic artist.
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