My Approach and the Plateau

The Plateau

         It’s important to have an understanding of why you started drawing in the first place and the purpose. Drawing is something that as long as you continue to do you will always get better at. The more you draw the better you will become sometimes though, a person can draw and draw and feel like they are getting nowhere or actually feel like they are regressing; then suddenly you might draw something you are pride of and then another long stretch of time where there is slow progression. Rinse wash and repeat. Your progress will be slow and gradual, you will not become a great artist in a day or a week or a month or a year. There is no set timeline for the amount of time a person needs to put in to reach professsional level, everyone is different. Your goal should be to draw first. Draw because you like doing it and it will be more enjoyable. The cycle I described in the beginning of this article is from a book I read by George Leonard, Mastery. The author is a martial artist with expertise in aikido and writes in his book about what it took to reach the level he did as a martial artist. The lessons he learned can be applied to everything from starting a new exercise routine to being a student to advancing in your career. Basically it’s a self-help book but I like the ideas brought up in the small paperback book. The reason I searched for this information is because I notice it myself not only in drawing but in a lot of other things I do. George Leonard calls it the plateau; he describes learning as a cycle where you slowly step up in skill as your brain solidifies bits of information. I read that on average it takes a person ten thousand hours to obtain expertise in a new skill, which on average is about ten years if the person remains consistent. The process is long and if you do not enjoy the process and are only there to reach the goal you are not likely to succeed. The plateau is the way the author describes the learning process as you slowly become competent in different aspects of the skill of your choosing.

The Four Stages of Learning

                If you research learning and the learning process you will find that the process has been broken down into four different stages everyone goes through. The first stage you will go through is Unconscious Incompetence where you don’t know how skilled or unskilled you are at a particular skill. The beginning of learning isn’t till you realize that you are at a certain level and would like to reach a higher level. The only way you make it to the next level is to get feedback from others or by comparing your skill level. Once you realize and become aware you reach the second stage of learning which is called Conscious Incompetence. The second stage is where you start to gather information on the skill on how it can be done better and where practice comes into play. Importantly this is where George Leonard describes the type of learners that people tend to take he describes four of them in his book he labels them the Dabbler, the Obsessive, the Hacker, and the one who chooses the path to mastery. I will talk more about this later and how it relates to drawing but for now I want to finish explaining the stages of learning.  After training for a while you will reach a point where you understand how to perform a skill better and you will have Conscious Competence. Once you know how you do something correctly only through experience and doing it over and over can you reach the last stage which is when you unconsciously perform the skill correctly and with a high level of skill you no longer have to put all your thought into it.

     This happens in cycles, a especially with skills that have many different aspects and many skills can be continued to an indefinite level. Let’s take learning to ride your bike, which is the common example used, if you never rode a bike before you don’t know how badly you suck at it until you try it. You being unaware is the first stage that I talked about the unconscious competence. Once getting on your bike and realize that you can’t balance yourself and ride you get the feedback you need to reach the next stage (Conscious incompetence). The normal response would be to continue to practice over and over till you figure what how to balance yourself just right that you can ride without falling and smashing your face. As you practice you will eventually figure out for yourself how to ride a bike, this is why only you can learn anything really, you can reach the second level of learning and have all this knowledge given to you but unless you practice it and apply it you cannot master it. The third stage is when you know how to ride the bike and when you focus on it you can pull it off. (Conscious competence) That the third stage if you continue to ride your bike you will reach a point where you don’t think about it you just ride. (Unconscious competence) The cycle is complete for that particular skill and that skill itself has a bunch of smaller skills that made up learning to ride a bike, like learning to steer, petal, balance, and doing all together.

         Now the learner stages goes for everything, think about the different skills you have now. If you know how to drive and have been doing it for a while do you think about driving the way you did when you first started probably not. You most likely are able to focus on what’s going on around you and not worry about driving because you are unconsciously competent. If you never heard of this before then you just went through the stages to learn this information. It’s a little different but you became aware of i,t learned the meaning of concepts, applied it to a skill you might of learned already and examined the stages at work, and now hopefully when you hear this information again you won’t have to think about what each stage is, you should will be able to point out the stages someone is in. This is a theory created by 1940's psychologist Abraham Maslow. I think this explains the plateau George Leonard is talking about in his book, because we can only focus on small bits of a skill at a time we experience the plateau. We are consistently becoming aware of new skills to master, and the time spent on the plateau is the second stage of learning the training and the practice until we can figure out how to do it better. The reason why drawing is a long term process is because of all the different skills you have to master and normally you don’t spend enough time on each skill you jump around. You focus on being able to copy an image by learning how to measure perspective and how to shade and how the light reflects on the object and the different parts of foreshortening and so on. To be able to do that without a reference to refer to means you have to understand how each works and how to apply it and then do it until you are able to do it unconsciously.

George Leonard’s Dabbler, Obsessive, Hack, and Path the Mastery

           These are all different types of learners you could be, I am not one for labels but it is interesting to know and good to know the pitfalls that the first three have. I’ll briefly describe how each approaches drawing. Check his book if you want to learn more.

The Dabbler is someone who likes to start new things he is a jack of all trade’s type person. He likes the process of starting something new, as an artist the dabbler would buy new sketchbooks, buy new pencils, fancy inking tools, maybe software like photoshop whatever. He will practice for a while until he draws something decent that he likes he basically reaches his first plateau but after that he quickly losses interest and convinces himself to pick up something else. The Obsessive is the type person who wants to be an expert already he tries to cram as much knowledge as possible into his brain and becomes obsessed with drawing. He will probably get better quickly because of the amount of time and energy he put in but soon after will quickly get burnt out and quit. The hacker is the person who is the forever doodler he reaches a level that he likes and stays there indefinitely he doesn’t try to learn anything else. They all have there are problems and struggle to stay on a path of consistent learning. George Leonard says the best way to go about getting better is to remain consistent and creating a habit for yourself that way it is natural for you to practice. You should set a definite amount of time each day like an hour whatever you want but you have to do it. Each week pick one thing you are going to focus on and small chunk the massive of information about ways to draw. Learn a new technique and work on it till you are comfortable with it. Another way is to get better is to copy the work of artists you like and study how they draw. I’ll probably post some articles of me copying and studying other artist; also you should buy a small sketchbook that you can carry around I do this so I don’t end up drawing on something I am not supposed to. Now that you understand the process of learning you shouldn’t get upset when you feel no progress because you understand it’s just a plateau and you enjoy drawing anyway so you should be alright and not freak out and quit. Ok that’s it.

-Guy

Getting Started Drawing

          The whole goal when I started drawing was to be able to make my own story with my own characters; this meant that I had to draw from my head. A lot of aspiring artist have this problem, you see a clear image in your head or you have a rough idea of what you want the image to look like but when you go to put down on paper the image gets fuzzy or the end result isn't what you wanted. Understanding the brain and how it works when we draw is an important part of developing a nice skillset when drawing. I believe strongly that drawing is a skill and can be learned and improved with and practice not a born talent. The idea might be cliché but I have met a lot of people who say things like well I can't draw or I wish I could draw. How can you get better at something if you do not practice? First of all if you are taking steps you become a better artist and you are a beginner or maybe you just want to understand the basics better check out Betty Edwards book The Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

           Most of the things I mentioned came from that book and is where someone should start. Do the exercises in the book and practice. The reason a person might start off better at drawing then someone  else most likely is because the person is more right brain oriented. Betty Edwards talks about how the left side of the brain is more logically oriented it processes information analytically, its where speech is and this is the side of the brain you learn to use in school when you do math or if you ever took an IQ test. People tend to favor one side, and if you favor your left side you probably enjoy solving problems and like things to be structured. The left side of the brain is also responsible for your comprehension of time. On the other hand, the right side of the brain is the more visual side of the brain and processes information differently. The right side of the brain tends to be better able to do a variety of things simultaneously while the left side focuses in more on one thing. Another thing that happens when you are using the right side of the brain is the loss of time. Betty Edwards talks using the different sides and refers to them as the R mode and the L mode to describe the side that is currently being used; when you draw or read a good story the visual side of your brain is being used more so time could feel like its pasting faster. I have experience more self and is why I think I drew so much in High School. This theory was developed by Robert W Sperry. This is great when drawing a person, and landscape, whatever it is your reference but what happens when you are without a reference, for example when you want to draw from your imagination.

There are a lot of articles online about this theory; also there is a test to see if you are more left brain or right brain dominant.
       Betty Edwards teaches you to measure negative space, the empty space outside the image you’re drawing, and calculate points. You measure points for instance if you are drawing a face and you find that on the reference if you draw a line directly under the pupil you reach a point where the mouth ends.
    Betty Edwards teaches you to measure negative space, the empty space outside the image you’re so you keep that in mind when drawing the mouth. It is hard to explain but there some videos on youtube that illustrate this pretty well. The point of looking at points and measuring is to draw the image the way it actually is and not how you think it looks. There is an exercise where she actually makes you draw and image upside down because you’re left side of your brain can’t process the pattern so your right side takes over.  The more you plot out points the better you will get at recognizing them and the more you will fall into the “the zone” or R mode where you are totally focus on your drawing and time seems to past by quickly.
       This is where I think people should start. Another important thing is many people attack the paper like it’s a stone and they are chiseling there work into it. The paper has rids that catches the lead as you draw, if you dig into the paper that mark is permanent.; pressing down hard leaves little room for error. When you beginning a drawing you should sketch out everything lightly and build the shapes. You draw lightly so you can leave the lines that aren’t what you want and continue to sketch until you are happy with it then gradually build making the lines darker. You should use a page before you start an actually drawing to warm up, make sure you hold the pencil a little further back then you normally do when you write. You hold it further back because it is easier to draw lightly that way, and then sketch out basic shapes, a bunch of them. Draw a bunch of circles. Draw a bunch of squares make sure each side is parallel. Practice drawing cubes too, and draw a bunch of ellipses as well. Practice drawing straight lines without a ruler, draw a bunch of points and connect them. This what you should do to warm up , when you draw the shapes like a circle or even a straight line you don’t drew using your wrist you keep your wrist straight and move your entire arm. You can move your hand in the motion before you actually draw on the paper ghost it out.

            Something I do to practice drawing light is I like using a cheap pen, like those bic pens the ones that come in a pack with a bunch. I like the way they write and I think you can really get a sense of the pressure you are putting on the paper. If after you are done drawing you flip it over and it feels like braille then you are pushing too hard. It should be light!
        Another thing is the pencils you use. If you are using a number two pencil you are using a HB lead. You should use a few different leads it gives you image some value. The pencils range from hard to soft, which means the softer the lead, the more lead gets on to the paper which means it is darker. The hard lead draws a light line so there good to start a drawing but remember the harder you get the easier it is to destroy the rids in the paper leaving a permanent line. I tend to use a 2h pencil you sketch its light and the lead is not too hard that you will imprint the paper if you are sure to draw light; then I use a HB pencil to outline and a 2b pencil for my shadows.
The lead varies from really hard lead (light) to really soft (darker).
Lightest 8H 5H 3H 2H F HB 2B 3B 5B Darkest.

       The goal for me was to be able to draw without reference though so if that’s the case we need to learn more technique to help us; this is why you see sketches where the artist as all these light lines and circles drawn into their illustration to help guide them. Guidelines help you plot out where everything. In my next few posts I’ll talk about guidelines and drawing without a reference a bit more; only because I am going on a rant with this post. I think the very next post will be about my approach and some advice on your journey to becoming a better comic artist.

Check out some other of the links in blue.
Betty Edwards seminar this is an awesome find for beginners watch the whole thing and do the exercises. Youtube is awesome.
Check this kids videos one and two about drawing on the right side of the brain.
Another guy who is awesome. This guy is Eclectric Asylum on youtube who became youtube famous by doing crazy drawings using things like ketchup! He's instructionals learn to draw portraits video series.
-Guy

My Introduction to Sequential art

Whether you like comic books, web comics, graphic novels, manga, three panel comics, or single panel comics and always hoped you could draw your own then we are on the same page. I am definitely not a professional artist, I do not make a living with my art but hopefully someday I will be able to contribute the comic community.
          Ever since I was little, like a lot of kids I drew. I started drawing like most, different things I saw my family, my house, my dog. I was like a lot of little kids, my artwork was basically scribbles. As I got older my cousin showed me something he was doing. He was drawing his favorite videogame characters and making his own story for them. So I copied him, I can't tell you how many times I drew sonic the hedgehog and mega man in some random story I made up. I remember the first time I decided I was going to draw a story for sonic I made my mom buy me a marble note and I filled it with drawings of sonic and knuckles. I would use whole pages for each scene like one big panel where I only drew on the bottom part, I can't actually remember if I even knew about comic books yet. When I was finally got my hands on a comic I don't even think I read it I just stared at the pictures in awe. Something about comic book art, I wanted to be able draw like that. I wanted to be able to draw whatever I wanted and have it have style and the look I saw in marvel and dc comics.

           So I continued to copy anything I thought looked cool. I still copied videogame art too; I remember drawing characters from Final Fantasy 7 a lot. I still have old sketch books with Red XIII and Cloud. My parents would go to Barnes and Nobles and I would pick out drawing books on how to draw cartoons and How to Draw the Marvel Way which is an awesome book. The book not only came with the different drawing tools you needed but they included tracing paper over marvel artwork. I think they still sell a revamped edition of the book. In the back of my mind I always wanted to create my own characters and my own story someday but I never felt I had the skill to pull off something I would be pride of. I think every artist is self-conscious and most of the time is unsatisfied with their drawings. At least I am, once in a while I'll draw something that I like but most of the time I feel it could be better or I don't like the way certain parts came out.

        So I continued to draw into high school but definitely not as often as when I was young. I doodled a lot, in math class I remember every page had a border of doodles and the back of the book had whole pages drawings. I guess I looked like I was a really serious student. At this point I wanted to draw people realistic looking but I didn't really know how to shade and add highlights. At that point I tried mainly to draw hot actresses and models lol. I remember my mom talked me into taking a cartooning class at a place by my high school. It definitely wasn't what I was looking for the kids were all younger than me I remember and I felt like I wasn’t really learning anything. I didn't stay their long the only thing I learned was how to use prisma color markers to color and shade. So I just doodled more in my high school classes at this point I didn't know I wanted to be a comic book artist I just knew I liked to draw.
                                    
       When it came time to look into where I was going to go after high school my Aunt and Uncle talked me into checking out Cooper Union in the City. Cooper Union has two schools and Art school and an Engineering school it’s a hard school to get into because it’s free. My Uncle was a graduate of their Engineering school and thought I would like the art school. I remember going to the open house with a bunch of my sketchbooks in a plastic shopping bag to have them reviewed. I felt out of place there, I remember being on line and the girl in front of me had a portfolio it was amazing and she was really nervous. I on the other hand had a bunch of cheap sketchbooks filled with drawings of comic stuff. When it was finally my turn to be reviewed they asked me what was my medium and my response this ummmm. I was like what are the choices. Then I thought I only have a bunch of pencil drawings. The guy they sent me to was not amused with me and apparently did not think much of my work as he flipped through it. I remember he stopped at a page where I draw wolverine eating a steak that he had in his claws and the face he made was hilarious. He asked me something like what is my goal or something along those lines. I didn't want to go back to my uncle with a negative review when he asked me what they say so I tried to make the reviewer happy. The reviewer said most of these drawings are cartoons is this what you’re trying to do. And I felt his disapproval so I quickly said yea I know but I am really trying to move away from that. Right away I thought to myself that’s total bullshit I don't know why I said that. Anyway he basically told me I sucked and I needed to build a portfolio and take art classes. But the truth was it made me realize that I didn't want to be just an artist I wanted to be a comic artist. I wanted the skills of great artists but more importantly I wanted to draw like Jim Lee, Frank Frazetta, and Jack Kirby.

              I guess I felt a little discouraged I was self-conscious about my drawings to begin with. I had a lot of hobbies when I was in high school I played guitar and drums, skateboard, biked and inline skated at one point  so I figured drawing is just another one of those things I just like to do and I didn't expect to make a career out of it. I thought that maybe if I had to draw that I would start to not like it. So when it came down to pick a college I choice a local college. But my uncle realized that I liked to draw and being a comic fan himself showed me that Joe Kubert has a school in New Jersey. It’s expensive and I wasn't sure I wanted to go there. That summer I signed up for their Saturday drawing classes and again felt it wasn't what I was looking for I wasn't being taught what I thought I needed to learn and it was an hour’s drive to get there; Most of the kids where all younger than me. But I got to see the school and the work the actually students where doing was right on point to what I was looking for only problem was the actually school cost 17,000 a year.

            I am in college now almost done with my degree in accounting lol. My Dad talked me into to it when I was confused on what I wanted to do for a career. He said pick something and just stick with it treat it like a prison sentence. He said his uncle was a successful CPA and retired early. So I said whatever and declared my major as accounting. I continue to doodle in college, in my pass years in class I can't tell how many times teachers caught me drawing instead of paying attention. When I was a freshman my math professor walked by my desk and saw a picture I drew of him pointing at a black board saying blah blah blah. Lucky he had a sense of humor and just smirked and said interesting. So I started this blog because I want to continue to grow as an artist and hopefully reach a level where I can be happy with my art. The point of this site is to document my thoughts along the way and mainly help other artist trying to learn and share whatever useful knowledge I have. Again I am not a professional artist, so I am just sharing my thoughts and cool information I found in my years of drawing. So there will be tips and reviews and my crappy artwork lol.
         I want to use my accounting degree to get a job where I can save enough money to attend Joe Kuberts 3 year school. Right now I am still in college with a dead end part time job where there is no way I can save that kind of money I'll need. You may ask why I don't I just take out loans. I have already for the college I am at now and feel that adding 50 something thousand on top of what I owe now would be overkill. I work currently in a wholesale liquor store and have been for four years now, yes I know I am retarded. Especially because its minim wage, but it’s an easy job. Even there I draw, I draw on the cardboard dividers they use to put into the bags so the bottles don't cling together. I do stock so I can walk around with a divider and act like I am writing down things I need to get for the shelves and actually draw little comics to amuse myself. I am consistently asking my coworkers when they get the paper, what did Garfield say? Jim Davis is awesome. I actually met Leigh Rubin at a thing he did heard locally this year which inspired me to draw some three panel and single panel stuff. store.

Beside my accounting classes I did take one drawing class which was interesting. I was my first actually art class, basically all real life drawing. When we first started we were instructed to drew simple objects then more complex ones like a crimpled up paper bag the whole point was to actually see the object for what is actually looks like and not the image in our head what we think it looks like. Eventually we moved on to drawing people where we had to draw the nude models, that was different. I learned a lot of stuff but not by lectures, the whole time in class was spent drawing for three hours. The professor took me out of my comfort zone and made me use a bunch of mediums I wasn’t use to like pastels, ink wash, and charcoal. I hated it at first because it was difficult to get the details accurate but I was told the details weren’t the main task it was to draw the form or the basic parts that make up the subject. I thought I was smart and I bought charcoal pencils because they were a little easier for me so I could be more accurate. My professor just gave us less time to draw the subject with a timer. In the end I understand what he was doing. In addition I have taken an introduction course to graphic communications in was interesting learning to use all the adobe programs. It was an intro class so I didn’t learn to much just the basics. I plan to maybe take more of those classes maybe while I finish my accounting. I have learned a little about photoshop from trial and error and online tutorials I’ll post something in the future for newbies.  Any way I think the next post I try to break down some stuff about drawing skills and give my first tip post about attitude and what not. For now this is where I am at and hopefully I can continue to improve.
-Guy