Drawing Poses from Your Imagination
Welcome Back My Fellow Artists!
In today’s post I want to share some of my thoughts on drawing poses from your imagination and why I believe it is so beneficial to our growth.
Many artists will tell you to draw from life as much as possible. Which is true, but how much and with what goals in mind?
We all want to draw the human body to the best of our ability but some are trying to draw realistic figures and some want to draw for comics, so the focus tends to be a bit different.
If we are talking about the later then drawing from your imagination a bit more might make more sense. Still a good percentage of our time should always be dedicated to drawing from life and anatomy books so that we understand what we are trying to draw from memory.
The actual percentage may vary based upon your current level of understanding and again, your individual needs and goals.
I would say that I spend about 50% of my time drawing from photos and anatomy books and the other 50% goes toward drawing from my imagination. I am sure my numbers skew from one week to the next but these are my estimations.
I wouldn’t suggest that you do the same. I teach these topics online so I am constantly trying to learn more as I improve my own drawings.
If you are someone that is actively trying to work as comic book illustrator then it would make more sense to draw more from your imagination and a bit less from studies. Maybe an 80/20 rule would work better for you.
Drawing Poses More from Your Imagination will Develop Your Style
When we draw more from our memory or imagination we tend to make a few more mistakes. Some of those mistakes look pretty cool and ultimately we push those into the style category.
I really don’t believe in failure but rather a constant calibration of our efforts. So as we draw we have to keep experimenting to find our style. It helps to have a positive outlook on what we consider mistakes in our drawings.
I believe that studying from life, photos, anatomy books, and more advanced artists all goes into our development. Then when we practice from memory we commit certain ideas into our own style.
Personally, I get a huge boost of creativity when I draw from my imagination or even when I study from stylized art such as comics. This bit of creative fuel can be very helpful at times.
Again, we still need to balance these practices with drawing from life/photos so that we understand the body and how it moves.
A great style cannot generally overcome a lack of understanding of the figure but the two combined can really make your art something to be admired.
So find your balance on these areas of your studies and keep making awesome art to share with the world!
-Robert
Here is a Video I Created on Drawing Poses from Your Imagination –
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