Quote:
Originally Posted by 70SATMan
I draw and paint from pictures. Ask me to draw something completely from my mind and it comes out cartoonish.
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So, what's missing? Knowledge. If I asked you to draw a cube, you could. You know what a cube looks like. Or an egg. A simple shape, you've seen a thousand of them. Where you probably run into trouble is with something more complex. You can do a portrait from observation, but not from your mind, because you don't have a detailed understanding of the anatomy of a head. If you did, it becomes easy. Or easier. Buy a few books on perspective theory. Buy a few books on anatomy for the artist. It's what the old masters studied.
Drawing like you do, a line needs to be in a specific place. Right here, not there, or there. You focus on that. Drawing from nothing, you have to start with a general shape, then refine it. Details come way down the road. You have the ability to see when something is not right. All you have to do is keep refining what you put on paper.
The first thing they teach you in an art class is to be loose. It's a hard thing for most people. Growing up, for me, the hard thing was blowing through my stock of paper in a pad. Paper was expensive, no sheet could be wasted, must be careful... all of that was counterproductive.