Hello guys, today I'm posting something more useful and interesting, a day before my novel gets released to the steemit space. I wish this is the right move that I've been waiting for.

this drawing is mine
A few days ago, someone in the general chatroom showed his painting to us users who were online that time (well, just for the sake of the user I'll mention him here, please visit his blog his name is @failedpaintings). Well, the painting was good but I feel like it lacks some elements as a whole. I am not commenting about the picture he made as an expert in painting, but instead, I'm commenting as someone who has been researching in the field of effective designing and illustrating.

The picture lacks contrast and details, well, to tell you, @failedpaintings really made something hard in my opinion. His canvass is 3 ft by 1ft(I'm not sure about the height, but it's large). Many people think that painting in a large canvass is easy if they just make the picture as it is. Well they are wrong, when you do an illustration that has a large space to fill, you risk having a lot of dead space in the picture that will make it dull as a whole.

I know what I'm talking about here since I already mentioned in one of my posts that I am fund with busy backgrounds and this is the very reason.

source:google
If you watch Bob Ross' videos you will notice how Bob Ross always emphasizes the importance of space, focus and details and ofcourse the 'fun of painting' ( I love that guy, too bad I missed one of his cheap paintings being auctioned online, it was only sold for a cheap 600 dollars MA GOD! I will not tell you guys where I found it, LOL)

But this post isn't really about @failedpaintings missing elements, I know he will be really good after some more practice, I saw his Mortylisa painting and it moved me(check that out).

What I want to really discuss here is about the three factors that affects an illustrators level in drawing and some practices that people tend to think that is right but actually is wrong.

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So after I made my analysis about the painting another user tells me about the practices of getting a picture and copying every inch of details into a piece of paper or canvas. The hell, that is very wrong! People tend to think that this activity of copying a picture inch by inch is healthy but actually it's wrong.

Many people might raise their eyebrows cause of this statement I made above, but listen to what I am about to say first so you see a different perspective on what I'm saying.

Now prove it turtle, why do you think it's wrong? Ha? Are you good? I saw your drawings in your blogs, their shit crap! I even make a better illustration than that with my butt when I wipe a paper in it when I do business in the comfort room.

Now come on, first of all, people should know the three factors that affects an illustrators level of understanding and ability.

There are mainly three of them and thus just knowing them would give you a better understanding of how to do it and how to improve. Don't worry, I'll give sample of basic excercises that I did when I was just a starting turtle.

The Three Factors:

1 Hand discipline

Yes, many people have it right in this first factor. It is really required a lot of practice to have an edge with a really good hand. It requires time and devotion to the subject to be able to achieve a delicate hand that can make straight lines without any rulers. It's okay, that ability and talent is not God given and is not attached to you when you were born, you can definitely work on it, just have the confidence and the interest.

2 Influence

Ahhh, this one. Many people don't realise the importance of this trait. It's the same thing as in Psychology. Everything about a person like beliefs, philosophy and motor are mirrors of his nature and his surroundings, same goes with drawings. A good example are Japanese comic artists or also called "mangaka's". Just browse different Japanese comics or "Manga", you will notice the great difference in styles. At this rate, Inluence plays a really big factor on their style outputs.

If I could kidnap a "Mangaka" right now and dissect his or her brain from the memory of the first time he drew or in the first time he was fascinated to appearances of objects, I'll do it just to show people what I mean here.

source:google

Another good example here just to show you guys that this influence thing is really a general thing and not only limited in comics. Here is a scene from Gendy Tartarkovsky's Samurai Jack.

Tartarkovsky is one of the best cartoon directors and producers out there. He is known for his famous series like Dexter's Laboratory, Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy, The Power Puff Girls and many more that I cannot mention here cause it will take me a whole day just to mention them all.

So bottom line, this guy is successful in his field of entertainment cartoons. Look at those styles of drawings. Yes, people might say that "but turtle, those animations are made by low waged animators", yes, yes. That is true. But watch Tartarkovsky's style in story telling and scene approaches. The way he picks the names for his characters and the designs.

All of those were work of this influence that I was telling.

So now, let's recap.

Let's say I'm this guy who is a very beginner in illustrating and all I do is print a picture and copy every detail inch by inch for a whole day by drawing on another piece of paper with a pencil. Do you think the first and the second traits would grow with just copying something?

Maybe, since you will be moving your hands for a whole day in a focused way, maybe you'll achieve hand discipline. But how about influence?

Yes you can achieve 'influence' this way but not that fast. In my opinion, it will even delay your growth as an illustrator. Why?

Cause all you focus about are the details of the picture and you are only motivated to 'achieve copying the picture', not to learn 'what makes the picture'.

3 Memory

source:Google
Are you surprised with this one? Maybe yes, cause not everyone knows that memory plays a very important factor in drawing. I'll not explain much about this trait but instead I'll just give healthy examples of good drawing excercises and activities.

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Just remember everytime before you draw, ask to yourself this question "will this activity improve my three factors?" If yes, then go!

Samples of good drawing habits:

source:Google

1 Drawing a line art with the fastest you can

For this activity, Google a very simple picture with really few details like this drawing I attached above. Look at it and draw it on a piece of paper with the fastest you can.

Do it repeatedly, like maybe five times a day or if you have more time, a hundred so you will progress faster. Yeah, that's more productive than just playing the very cancerous game called Leaugue of Legends.

Then after a week, if you already achieved the piece easily, look for a harder picture with more details in it. This way you'll achieve hand discipline, influence and memory. Influence is achieved here with the step of picking the picture, yes, picking the picture is an important part in this activity, so pick something that you like before doing so.

2 Sketching with a naked eye

source:pixabay

So here is a really confusing activity to consider. It somehow contradicts my claims above about copying pictures inch by inch.

Well, that activity, to be honest could also be effective if it's done in an effective and really fast phase. The thing that people should always focus on when they do this copy picture activity is the observations on the subject not the details in the picture as a picture.

So I suggest to people to find an actual subject to draw, I mean not a picture but an actual model. This way, you will be observing more than focusing on the details of the picture as a picture.

3 Study Chinese and Japanese

source:pixabay

Yes, studying Japanese and Chinese will strongly affect the three factors. Why? The fuck are those languages, in Japanese, you have to memorize and study more than 3000 characters that looks like houses, paddles, snakes and many more characters that are so hard to memorize! And in Chinese, you will do the same thing only three times more characters than Japanese.

Do this language studying and I promise you, you will be a different person afterwards. LOL

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Ending:

Wow, I made a longer and more senseful post today, I hope it makes me some money (atleast a dollar please! Amen!)

I just want to promote again my novel that I will start releasing tommorow, that novel is a daily novel that I had worked for two weeks now and I really putted a lot of work into it just to make it as entertaining as possible as I can. Please, please, give it a chance! At least browse it and look at the drawings I did for each chapter. I'll release em every 8 PM here in Philippines that is GMT 8+

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Well, that it is again for today guys, thank you for dropping by and please support me by resteeming, upvoting, following and leaving a comment...

Again, thank you and see you again tomorrow.

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every word in this post are mine, the references for the claims are from my life experiences, maybe you'll see this terms in some articles, if you do so, that's just a coincidence, I formulated everything here by myself. Everything here is mine except for those pictures. Thank you.