Thanks Tara. Still trying to figure out how our amazing minds work. Still thinking about it. Maybe we will discover more along the way. Drawing from memory does seem to be the same as drawing from imagination. Or maybe, if it is birds, it’s recalling all the poses of birds we’ve drawn and seen and then coming up with something new. Pretty much how AI would generate a new image. And the way AI is programmed to generate images is most probably based on how humans generate images.
The thing that does take the stress off for me is knowing that my image drawn from imagination is not going to be the same as a photo. And I allow it to be Its own thing. Often, it’s simpler or just different. I can make adjustments, add new things to it. It’s its own thing and has its own look. And I embrace that.
Oh btw, I realised that it’s funny that a fox wants to go back to a farm. It will probably eat the farmer’s chickens!
Thank you, Drew! I learned so much from doing this exercise. I think you’re right, that drawing from imagination is knowing how birds look and then combining to create a new pose. From seeing many of your drawings, you make expressive lines and use so many different kinds of drawing tools. That contributes to the uniqueness of what you create along with your imaginative interpretation.
I hadn’t thought about it but I bet that fox was after those yummy chickens!
This is such a timely post, Tara! I’ve been feeling pretty stuck creatively, and just recently reminded myself that I was having a lot more fun drawing birds when I was drawing them mostly from imagination/memory rather than photo reference. I feel like when I draw directly from photo reference I try too hard to make the birds look realistic, I feel tight and constricted, and my drawings don’t have nearly the charm and energy that the imagination ones do. Plus, when I draw birds from imagination I can draw any bird, even if I don’t have my own reference images or royalty free images of them. My process (and what I’m trying to get back to) is to fill a sketchbook page of the bird of interest based off of reference photos. I usually do timed sketches, 1-2 minutes per bird, and focus on drawing them in various poses so I can get a sense of them. Most of the time I do this in pencil, but will sometimes use markers, neocolors, or even watercolor depending on my mood. Usually in that process I start getting an idea of the pose I want to draw. Once my sketch page is full, I put the reference photos and my sketches away, and draw the bird again. I might exaggerate the pose, or exaggerate features I really like. I’ll refer back to reference photos later to double check if my placement of field marks is correct, but I usually like to have my own bird very well developed before I do that. Have you ever tried a process similar to that?
I’m so glad this post arrived at the right moment for you, Kelly! I haven’t done exactly what you describe but it certainly sounds like fun! Because of the demands of the kind of illustration I do for scientific publications, I’ve been tied to making birds look quite realistic. As time has gone on, though, I’ve been able to be more expressive in my personal work which takes the pressure off. But I still find myself stressing over proportions which takes some of the fun out of it. The times when I feel the energy you mention is when I’m drawing on location. Capturing that freedom with birds has been more challenging but I catch up to it sometimes and it feels great! Thanks for reading and commenting, that means so much!
Thanks Tara. Still trying to figure out how our amazing minds work. Still thinking about it. Maybe we will discover more along the way. Drawing from memory does seem to be the same as drawing from imagination. Or maybe, if it is birds, it’s recalling all the poses of birds we’ve drawn and seen and then coming up with something new. Pretty much how AI would generate a new image. And the way AI is programmed to generate images is most probably based on how humans generate images.
The thing that does take the stress off for me is knowing that my image drawn from imagination is not going to be the same as a photo. And I allow it to be Its own thing. Often, it’s simpler or just different. I can make adjustments, add new things to it. It’s its own thing and has its own look. And I embrace that.
Oh btw, I realised that it’s funny that a fox wants to go back to a farm. It will probably eat the farmer’s chickens!
Thank you, Drew! I learned so much from doing this exercise. I think you’re right, that drawing from imagination is knowing how birds look and then combining to create a new pose. From seeing many of your drawings, you make expressive lines and use so many different kinds of drawing tools. That contributes to the uniqueness of what you create along with your imaginative interpretation.
I hadn’t thought about it but I bet that fox was after those yummy chickens!
Haha yes!
This is such a timely post, Tara! I’ve been feeling pretty stuck creatively, and just recently reminded myself that I was having a lot more fun drawing birds when I was drawing them mostly from imagination/memory rather than photo reference. I feel like when I draw directly from photo reference I try too hard to make the birds look realistic, I feel tight and constricted, and my drawings don’t have nearly the charm and energy that the imagination ones do. Plus, when I draw birds from imagination I can draw any bird, even if I don’t have my own reference images or royalty free images of them. My process (and what I’m trying to get back to) is to fill a sketchbook page of the bird of interest based off of reference photos. I usually do timed sketches, 1-2 minutes per bird, and focus on drawing them in various poses so I can get a sense of them. Most of the time I do this in pencil, but will sometimes use markers, neocolors, or even watercolor depending on my mood. Usually in that process I start getting an idea of the pose I want to draw. Once my sketch page is full, I put the reference photos and my sketches away, and draw the bird again. I might exaggerate the pose, or exaggerate features I really like. I’ll refer back to reference photos later to double check if my placement of field marks is correct, but I usually like to have my own bird very well developed before I do that. Have you ever tried a process similar to that?
I’m so glad this post arrived at the right moment for you, Kelly! I haven’t done exactly what you describe but it certainly sounds like fun! Because of the demands of the kind of illustration I do for scientific publications, I’ve been tied to making birds look quite realistic. As time has gone on, though, I’ve been able to be more expressive in my personal work which takes the pressure off. But I still find myself stressing over proportions which takes some of the fun out of it. The times when I feel the energy you mention is when I’m drawing on location. Capturing that freedom with birds has been more challenging but I catch up to it sometimes and it feels great! Thanks for reading and commenting, that means so much!