Mabelma's Thread of Stuff (Art)

[KoA]

No idea how much weight anything I say holds, as I'm not yet a professional artist by any stretch of the word, but I find references to be a very important and integral part of the art process.

Sure for instances like random doodles and sketches it's perfectly fine to go unguided, as most of the time these are usually just used for "warm-ups" or practice before you actually go on to make the actual art of whatever it is you are doing. However one mustn't try working on just memory alone, as your mind has a bad habit of playing tricks with your memory.

I'll give an example of what I'm trying to say. Think of your favorite video game character in your mind. You can make out all their features right? Hair color, general body structure, and other characteristics? Now without looking at any other picture other than what you have in your mind, try drawing them out. If you're anything like me, you should have difficulty because even though you have a concise mental image of what you plan on drawing, you can't really get it physically down on paper. Even getting the general pose and form of your mental image down can be quite difficult.

I'm not quite sure why this happens myself or if there's some strange memory problems I have, but it is nigh impossible for me to go to work on a new piece unaided as I quite simply just cannot trust my memory and mental imaging.

Take that same character and after having some reference shots made available to you, try sketching out different aspects of them and then some basic poses. Much in the same way that writing down notes in class helps you subconsciously remember the material, this helps your mind take notes on how that character is created and drawn out. After doing this enough times, you should get enough of a grasp on the character to work unaided and with good accuracy.

Know that that technique works for everything, not just video game characters. The most important thing about making a piece of art is that you have to be comfortable doing it or the end result will be awkward. The best way to get comfortable with something is to practice at it.

In my humble opinion, practice is what the key to success is. This current thread title is awkward to me because while art isn't the key to success for all trades, practice is universal.