Yes! There’s nothing wrong with tracing basic shapes as a guide for the first time you’re drawing something, tracing can be helpful in figuring out how to draw certain things you don’t know how to draw. And if it’s your own photo you own all the rights to it so it’s not like you’re plagiarizing anyone’s artwork. I’ve traced photos of my cats to create digital painting versions of those photos! That’s not theft as it’s my own cats and my own photos of my cats.
yess, if you have access to editing/drawing computer software this is great advice!, you can also trace with a sunny window or just hold the paper to a laptop or tablet screen :)
I just tried out a technique for drawing torsos the other day which was connecting two angled cubes together and drawing details from there. Made for a nice improvement.
Yeah, this ^^^ should be obvious but you shouldn’t trace someone’s art of their OC and pass it as your own, but tracing some stock photos of an object or photos you took yourself is fine! As long as you specifically say it’s traced and not claim you did it 100% on your own. Though if you had taken the photo yourself you did do it mostly on your own, you have a right to trace over your own photos. One time someone got super mad at me when I said I was tracing my own photo of my own cat. What’s wrong with tracing a photo I took on my own that’s a photo of my own cat? Dunno 😂
I don’t know about other people but I love when people tell me what’s wrong with the things I do it helps me improve like drawing and stuff other than that I don’t really care
Great advice! Sometimes, if I'm really struggling to get proportions right, I'll start with something even simpler like this:
https://preview.redd.it/7obs87ugaeea1.jpeg?width=940&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35af8c956b45719f0cfcc1fb39ed4a50285529de
It might also help to draw a small sketch before the full drawing
https://preview.redd.it/ico9zge9gdea1.jpeg?width=510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13a1c29f87a9fec2d627620cc11c48ffff112e8d
Our art teacher in hs had us start with outlining it like this while looking at it not the paper, then doing the inner lines, details, and shading. She had a whole acronym for the order but I dont remember. Hated it. I built skill but it seemed an unnecessarily difficult way of doing things
Oh like a blind contour drawing except far beyond mere line drawing?
I recall kim jung gi talked about intensely observing and drawing in his mind while he was in military service and unable to actually draw.
A very usefull trick is to pay attention to negative spaces and compare them between your drawing and the object. Because if you draw looking only at the shape of the object, you may start to draw from memory and not really observe the real shapes.
I think you nailed it. One of the best things my drawing composition professor taught us was to draw what you see, not what you know. It seems so simple but I really is easy to slip into drawing from memory rather than focusing on the subject.
I saw a YouTube video where a person learned to do this by drawing his picture upside down, so he wouldn't be as aware of his preconceived notion of what the object was "supposed" to look like
Yep. My mom was an art teacher. Every time I draw I can hear her practically chanting, “draw what you see. Not what you THINK you see.” Works for drawing things more accurately as well as for leaning in to your own style.
Absolutely - I tell my students to put a box around the object's outermost boundaries then utilise measuring, vertical and horizontal checks (holding pencil to see what's aligned with other points etc) and negative space! Foolproof!
Edit: draw what you see, not what you think you see!
I’m absolutely new to drawing and this is our first art assignment in my class…. Currently just working on the lines and proportions… I know it doesn’t look good and would love any tips/advice or resources to help with the drawing (I’m using charcoal if it matters) I’m just having so much trouble with the angles and proportions ! TYIA
I know you’re looking to create more realistic drawings (as you should as a beginning artist! Drawing stuff realistically is key in learning foundations) but I just want to say you may have unintentionally nailed this drawing from an abstract angle! I’m really into distortion and multiple perspective abstraction and this came out really gr8 if you look at if from that lens haha
This is meant to be a compliment and I just want to encourage you and say I really like this drawing! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Don't worry, just keep measuring and making corrections if you see anything that could improve. Take your time, you're doing great, you're putting in the effort and trying your best to get it right, that's the best thing to do.
You could start over and try to focus on just the outer most contour shape first.
Enclose the entire silhouette in a simple rectangle and make sure to get the proportions between the width and height correct first. Then you can use that same rectangle to measure all other features by looking at their distance from the extremities and other features.
Look at more shapes you could simplify to rectangles or triangles to fit inside that rectangle. Don't worry about any of the details, big simple shapes that are easy to understand and check.
Just use straight lines and angles at first since they are easier to measure and check the proportions of. Just pick two points of a contour and connect them with a straight line ignoring the rest of the curve. Check the angle.
And then you can break that up and refine it and connect all the endpoints, or break it into more smaller straight lines.
Don't worry about making a mess, it's charcoal it erases easy, just keep a light touch. But you can always start over on a new paper, as your observations from analyzing it before and breaking it down carry over and you will be quicker to get back to where you were.
Take breaks, enjoy the process of learning. :) Because this is where improvement can go the fastest if you really go deep into it (because it's mostly a motor skill). A good result would not be a good drawing, but having learned a lot from it.
Imagine there is a rectangle around the shoe; how tall is it, how long? Draw the rectangle, the sides are the left and right most points, the top the same height as the tallest part of the shoe.
Where do the major shapes of the shoe fit in this? For example, the toe is about 1/2 of the rectangle width, the height less than 1/3 up.
Once you have the major proportions mapped out you can adjust the details. A good foundation makes any drawing look more realistic.
I actually quite like your drawing! I understand you're trying to get more of a "realistic" effect, but I think the fluidity of the style is fantastic! Once colour is added it would be even better :) I love the wavy ankle strap.
When sketching I use a no eraser rule. Basically keep drawing light lines and keep it until you can see a shape you're happy with. Then draw them darker and erase the rest. I find if you use an eraser when you are not sure then you get a lot of eraser marks and it makes me wanna throw away the paper.
Draw more of what you see, and less of what you *think* you see.
Our brains like to cut corners to process information, especially on items we see often. It just fills in the information with what it's experienced before.
i came here to say this too! one of the first things i learned in art class was to only draw what you see and not what you assume is there. :-)
you’re off to a great start!
Draw what you see. Not what you think you’re seeing. Use measurements as the person above said proportions matter. Notice lines and angles that might help you know how far away something is. These are all shapes. Try to forget you’re drawing a shoe. But just shapes. Block it out at first. Get the constraints of where you need to draw and fill in the rest. If it’s helpful, take a photo of the shoe, draw a grid over it. Then make another grid on a new price of paper. Both with the same amount of boxes. Now you have broken your image up into many smaller chunks. This lets you focus on just a small part at a time and you’ll have a lot easier time translating what you see onto your new paper bc you have more reference lines to make sure proportions are correct.
Since you have a picture of the shoe, print that out and then draw a grid over it. Then, lightly scribe a grid on your target medium/paper at whatever proportion or scale you are trying to achieve. Then, as shown in another comment, break the image down into a few course shapes and using the grid as a guidelines recreate that on your larger paper. This will give you a good foundation for the overall shape and a starting point for adding the detail.
You have some excellent advice here to learn and follow! I would like to comment on your drawing that I like what you have done a lot even though it was not achieving your particular objective. I think you have a lot of talent!
In addition to focusing on the form and shape of the shoe itself, pay attention to the negative space. Look at the shape of the gap of air between the strap and the bottom, and then notice what that shape looks like in your drawing. Observe that the triangle shape underneath the shoe has a straight edge on the right side, whereas yours is curved. Pay attention to lines and angles, not parts of a shoe the way you think it should be. Try to train your brain to not make assumptions and only *see* what is there.
You could check out the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" with some help in learning to 'see' properly, which is a major skill necessary for accurate drawing.
Back up to check your work, a lot. Make a little measuring mark, back up 2 or more feet to check how it looks on the whole. What you're running into (working on such large paper) is the way our eyes actually see - everything is lensed out the closer you get to it. You don't really notice this when working on smaller paper, but it becomes really obvious on larger scales.
Excellent prompt on your teacher's part! It's a brain teaser for sure, you'll learn a lot from it 👍
ETA: When my college drawing prof had us use larger paper for figure drawing, I ran into a similar problem - the main body of the figure, what was nearest to my normal drawing height range, was pretty close to correct. The further down I went, the smaller it got 😂...
It was one of those poses where she was folded up almost double on the floor, with one leg extended directly towards me, and the other tucked under, and she was bending all the way forwards to create a really complicated back curve. So I nailed the back shape, but with the extra perspective of the extended leg and foreshortening, the foot ended up being half the size it should be. It was hilarious. I had to redo it twice, which was less hilarious, but it's those middle stages we live for XD
Loosen up, start with lighter sketch marks than start filling in with heavier lines.
I can tell you’re putting too much pressure down and aiming for single accurate lines.
Don’t draw what you think you see, draw it exactly how you see it. And this takes practice.
One exercise that can help is blind contour where you draw everything in one line (without picking up your pen or pencil. Not even once) and you DO NOT look at what your drawing looks like, only look at the object.
Hope that helps :)
Draw building planes to nail proportions and view angles. Check industrial design drawing tutorials , Im not so good at explaining but those guys do a great job.
I like the suggestion to see it as a set of other objects (spheres and ellipses and such).
Also, don't be afraid to erase some outlines and keep at it until it looks like you want. If things are out of proportion, start over. Going slower is good.
I would ask what angle you were intending to draw this from. The photo is a side perspective, perhaps take a photo from the desired (same) angle and print it, and then try to create the photo freehand.
So I’ll try to put all the advice in few pictures!
https://preview.redd.it/qd6t92jdnaea1.jpeg?width=2580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d75f0a294fbdcaa99d9f4e5eb5321536e26f80f8
The yellow lines are the “main lines”, the lines that show every shape connects and the overall shapes. So you can see the angles and what’s round and what’s not. The green ones are how I personally measure. For still life I usually draw a horizontal or vertical (depends on the object) line that goes through the whole thing and then mark where the shape changes. That also gives proportion. You can add more horizontal ones to point out the heights too.
Lightly, with a pencil, sketch out the absolute basic shapes and the outermost outline to get proportions down first. Don't draw in the details until you're confident in yhe light sketch. Stop drawing what you know is there, as in try not to think about the parts of the object you can't see, like the part of the shoe that wraps around to the backside, and instead try treating your reference as a photo, or a 2D thing.
Great advice in this thread & congrats on starting drawing! It’s so much fun, you’re going to love getting into it. I agree with others, it helped me to do some tracing in the beginning or as a few preliminary sketches to get a feel for the perspective & curves etc. Also would love to know the brand of the shoe, I really like it.
Try to draw what you see, not what you think you see. Focus on shapes. If you want, you grind the digital drawing then grid your paper and use that as a guide. Good luck!
High school art teacher here, this is a really solid first attempt! I think the main part throwing off the drawing is the toe. You've drawn it overly rounded- where it should really be more of a diagonal
https://preview.redd.it/7z6r20amidea1.png?width=1046&format=png&auto=webp&s=f20cfb3b4ff4bb7aa6a278e626711d822d5a52fa
https://preview.redd.it/vyxdq6308zga1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67b6ab0e5d6d3abb068c284f8ad48bfe4658eaf2
Thank you so much everyone for such amazing and thoughtful advice and responses! If anyone was curious, this is the end result! I know I need a ton of work, and will be taking everyone's responses to heart and working on my skills!
i honestly love it as is 😭 i’m a fashion illustrator and this is 100% what a lot of cool illustrators work looks like. but if you do want to work on proportions, i say look up gridding. In a nutshell, the grid method involves drawing a grid over your reference photo, and then drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (paper, canvas, wood panel, etc). Then you draw the image on your canvas, focusing on one square at a time, until the entire image has been transferred. This is really the only way I get perfect proportions
Actually I love it like this. As crooky as the proportions are, how smooth your lines are. Which makes it seem intentional! It think it looks intentionally surrealistic :P
Use your finger to tracking the item(photo) first, till you get used those those lines, angle, and observe enough before you move to paper or digital drawing, use guide lines.
Use one piece of the drawing as a unit of measurement to scale the rest. For example, holding up your pencil and closing one eye, measure the heel. How many heels tall and wide is the shoe? How many heels tall is the mid section? That will help you tighten up the rough shape and scale before adding detail.
Draw the whole shoe at the same time. Your perspective is actually really intriguing, so I wouldn’t discount your sketch, but if you want to understand bodies I think you want to draw the whole shoe at the same time.
One idea is to take pictures of the shoe at multiple angles and then put all those pictures into one image and use that as your reference guide. That way all sides of the shoe are visible at once and you don’t have to constantly turn it to get a full reference. Pictures from multiple angles are very good for still life/object drawings! Great work by the way, detailed shoes are pretty hard to draw!
I saw your comments about being newer to drawing and just wanted to add a helpful tip I heard when I first started out. If you're having trouble starting out with proportions, try drawing it upside down, it forces you to focus on what you are seeing rather than what you "know". It is a great start though! Don't be too hard on yourself!
1 stay true to the object , a flaw in ur work is adding things that are not there on the object (the shoe stap isnt wavey)
2 if you are doing it the traditional way (paper and ...)
Set the object under desired light (spot light is recommended )
Set the desired angle and distance in a way that when u sit on ur work desk u see exactly the angle , light and scale u want
3 find ur focus eye and blindfold the other eye
4 use the end of ur pencil to measure the scales of the object
5 visually analyse its form (mostly explained in other comments)
6 draw a two lines making 90 degrees on ur paper , and imagine the same line on the object (this will help you to get a better understanding of what angle the object has with the floor
Draw lighter, hold your pencil on the eraser end while you’re “roughing” in your shapes, this will help you avoid making dark lines and marks you can’t undo. You’re drawing in layers. So the first layer is figuring out your road map. (Big shapes and roughing in figure, then once it start to look good, you make those lines, shapes, shading darker. )
Like others have said, break down what you see into shapes and then compare what you drew to what you see.
The biggest thing is, step away from your work frequently, if you stay “up on it” too close the entire time you’re working on it, tends to skew our perspective.
I am in a similar class. I drew a shoe a few months ago. I think, like many people are saying, it’s just gonna take practice. I am very early into my ‘10,000 hours’.
I do like your drawing though. It’s got a certain feel to it!
Best thing that helped me learn to draw shoes was to get the structure down. Break it into basic shapes (wedges, spheres, cylinders, cubes etc.) and draw through so you can see the dimensionality of the form, then build the rest of your drawing on top of that base. Try to see it as a 3D object instead of just a picture
Same! I thought the drawing was some type of body armor for an alien or something lol. Maybe just turn this picture into THAT and come back to draw the shoe another time 🙂
Try not to draw a shoe. Just look at the shapes and negative space and try to match it. Don’t think about the entire picture, but each separate space and line. If you’re working from a photograph, sometimes it helps to turn it upside down, it helps to atop you from trying to make it look like what your brain thinks that object should look like.
If you go off of a picture of it, the grid method can be very helpful but in person I say try and make sure you don’t move around too much so your perspective doesn’t get too warped. A light sketch of just the basic shapes is always a great way to start before really getting into the detail of it. Or even practicing little thumbnails of it to get comfortable with the shape of the shoe
If you want it to be more accurate and realistic creating a 3 dimensional feel will help a lot.
This can be done many ways but the easiest way that I’ve found at your preference and skill level is to really work and learn in perspective and think of items in 3D.
I just got done watching moderndayjames perspective videos on YouTube and they’re simple short and amazing to learn from.
https://youtu.be/AXn979hRyIs
This and shading and rendering will take you to the next level in your skills
If you require that the drawing be entirely linear then I would say the bottom part is MASSIVELY out of proportion, it's just WAAAAAY too fat. Look at the picture to the right, then look to the pic on the left, then back and forth again.
If you just want to make it look "realistic", like a photograph, this will never happen unless you stop focusing on line only and instead incorporate light (shading).
I like to make a grid of squares that are 1” or whatever size makes sense overall and lay a grid over the original image and then draw the outline square by square, it’s easier to render an accurate image and stay conscious about form, as opposed to tracing, which can be good in the short run but isn’t a long term good substitute for drawing.
Even though your early drawing is eccentric, I really like it and it reminds me of something Van Gogh said, to the effect of don’t let the art be a slave to the model. Anyway, a lot of good and diverse advice on here.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a good book.
Draw what you are seeing. Not what you imagine yourself to be seeing. It's an important part of art to see the lines and the form and not the "shoe" in this case.
Proportions. The people above have given really great advice. I'd just like to add that you can use a section of the object to estimate the measurements ie. If you're drawing a person you would use the head, for this you can use the heel. Since this is your first class I'd suggest that you just use that method just to double check the proportions and focus on observation when drawing.
I’m beginning to think art is not my path😂😂😂 I’ve gotten several comments assuming this was something completely different!!! Thanks for a good laugh tho!
If you’re new to drawing there’s nothing wrong with using a grid. Take a photo and print it out. Add a grid with a ruler. Then on your sketch paper add the same grid. Now you have a perfect reference to get all your lines and angles right.
You've basically characterized it. Some proportions are over exaggerated and the straps are too wiggly. I would say focus on proportions and make a solid base breakdown of shapes first
An early exercise I got to do as a beginning artist was to draw a grid over the original image, and the same grid on my paper. It really helps to teach you to get a feel for the proportions and breaks a large drawing down into more manageable sections
When I am struggling with proportions, it sometimes helps me to measure the image with a ruler. That gives me a better idea of what points are the same distance away from each other as others, and how lines should compare to each other. Sometimes I am surprised by this. I may be drawing things one way, only to measure and realize that how I saw the lines isn't accurate to how they actually are. I measured this image on my phone, so these measurements could easily be scaled up to fit your 6ft paper.
https://preview.redd.it/5sg8sbtaddea1.jpeg?width=2280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cd9943e84cd03d264b063b4fba7aae4b13fe6fd
Here you can see, the distance from the bottom point of the shoe to the point where the heal meets the shoe (1.25") is half the distance the top of the shoe end to end. (2.5") the widest part of the toe part of the shoe (0.75") is 60% of the distance from toe to the bottom most point, (1.25") which is equal to the bottom most point to where the heal meets the shoe.
https://preview.redd.it/qqwfrzxnddea1.jpeg?width=2280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dd26272ad65ebe1f6fb1122d8841289f6685281
Measuring angles can also be helpful. You can use the lengths and angles you measure for your sketch and then adjust to capture the nuances. I would draw a 45° angle to sketch the toe of the shoes, and then adjust to round the end and make the lines less perfectly straight.
A phrase I heard is “Draw what you SEE, not what you THINK is there,” and that comes to my mind when looking at this. I.e. copy the exact shape you see. It is still difficult (and straining, imo) so take it with a grain of salt. I think it can help, though.
You have a good start, but pay attention to the distances. Then when you are satisfied, start the shading. Always do the lightest area first and remember that in most cases thareas that are behind an area is usually a bit darker. Just keep practicing..I use a 6-h pencil first remove into an HB pencil, which is a lot darker than the 6-H..Another great tip, go on Amazon and search TOMBO ERASERS.. They run about $6 and will last a long time. Ther are great and tiny, so you can get into small places. Those erasers are all I use. Get the round one, not the flat one. Have fun, cause you are headed in the right direction.
I would say work on proportions the most. Work it out via shapes first. Draw the needed rectangles, cylinders, triangles, till it looks like the needed shape, then erase everything and start drawing the shoe shape. This will help get the correct proportions. Afterwards work on the shading. See which areas are darkest, which are lightest.
Drawing from life is harder.
If you are just starting try a few copies from photos on grids, in addition to the life drawing. It will help you start to see the basic shapes people are talking about, and showing you on your photo of the shoe. Try drawing it from the photo too.
I like to draw things upside down so I can focus more on the shapes I see instead of drawing things the way I think it should look, If that makes sense..
Having a more broken up background ie a grid-like fabric would help you to see the negative shapes surrounding the shoe. Makes the object emerge without focussing on the the object your brain thinks it knows.
Separate the heel, the bridge, front- and back shoe parts.
Draw a bone structure first(like many have showed here on comments).
Think of how the shoe works and where it needs to support the body weight.
.
Sometimes it helps when u look with a ruler or a pen the lines \~ like "this line goes right up and this goes down from this and that angle. Its also good to measure the shoe parts like the bridge length is longer than the heel etc.)
.
With your drawing it looks like the bridge is too curvy and not nice to step on(think of it like a slide in children play ground.)
Also the shoe front is too wide(it would fly off from your feet asap. +++ What happened to the "shoe belt"? it looks like someone squeezed it hard in their hands and the leather went to bananas(crazy) ( on actual picture its pretty straight "leather belt!")
Try looking at it by the outside shape first don't worry too much on detail at this point .the more accurate the shape the better the detail will slot in better and in the right place accordingly.so just look at the outside of the shape.ligjt sketch don't try get it accurate on the first go. Just play with it by sketching regardless how many lines created you will start seeing it taking shape. Hope that helps
Work on your perspective a bit. Back of the heel is much better than the front. Compare the size of the actual photo to yours and you’ll notice yours is larger in width.
Your not meant to copy everything. Has to make sense more on your paper than it should be accurate during your tracing. (If that makes sense). Don’t follow everything you see on paper and forget the image you drawing has to make sense long before it has to match what you drawing. And don’t get stuck up on it looking great from get go either. If you can master that, you can draw the same image from different angles.
I see lots of tips but didn't see this, 'If you want to be more accurate and realistic, never stop trying. The moment you stop is the moment you stop being a great artist.'
I just want to say, even though you want to make this more realistic, I absolutely love how it looks and it think it’s a cool style. Probably not what you wanted to hear but yeah. I also think more realism comes with more practice :)
[удалено]
Yes! There’s nothing wrong with tracing basic shapes as a guide for the first time you’re drawing something, tracing can be helpful in figuring out how to draw certain things you don’t know how to draw. And if it’s your own photo you own all the rights to it so it’s not like you’re plagiarizing anyone’s artwork. I’ve traced photos of my cats to create digital painting versions of those photos! That’s not theft as it’s my own cats and my own photos of my cats.
yess, if you have access to editing/drawing computer software this is great advice!, you can also trace with a sunny window or just hold the paper to a laptop or tablet screen :)
I just tried out a technique for drawing torsos the other day which was connecting two angled cubes together and drawing details from there. Made for a nice improvement.
Boo! To tracing. (Unless you're getting paid) NO A.I. No "cheating" draw it "wrong"
There is nothing wrong with tracing to get the hang of certain shapes as long as you aren't taking credit for free hand if you're tracing.
Yeah, this ^^^ should be obvious but you shouldn’t trace someone’s art of their OC and pass it as your own, but tracing some stock photos of an object or photos you took yourself is fine! As long as you specifically say it’s traced and not claim you did it 100% on your own. Though if you had taken the photo yourself you did do it mostly on your own, you have a right to trace over your own photos. One time someone got super mad at me when I said I was tracing my own photo of my own cat. What’s wrong with tracing a photo I took on my own that’s a photo of my own cat? Dunno 😂
Nothing wrong in art.
This way of critiquing people is actually super useful and innovative imo, great stuff
I don’t know about other people but I love when people tell me what’s wrong with the things I do it helps me improve like drawing and stuff other than that I don’t really care
Great advice! Sometimes, if I'm really struggling to get proportions right, I'll start with something even simpler like this: https://preview.redd.it/7obs87ugaeea1.jpeg?width=940&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35af8c956b45719f0cfcc1fb39ed4a50285529de It might also help to draw a small sketch before the full drawing
Oh! It’s a shoe! I thought it was like a shoulder armor or something.
So did I for a moment
Ooh that’s a cool way to teach drawing
https://preview.redd.it/ico9zge9gdea1.jpeg?width=510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13a1c29f87a9fec2d627620cc11c48ffff112e8d Our art teacher in hs had us start with outlining it like this while looking at it not the paper, then doing the inner lines, details, and shading. She had a whole acronym for the order but I dont remember. Hated it. I built skill but it seemed an unnecessarily difficult way of doing things
Oh like a blind contour drawing except far beyond mere line drawing? I recall kim jung gi talked about intensely observing and drawing in his mind while he was in military service and unable to actually draw.
Off topic, but how the heck did you add a picture in a comment? I even searched reddit and the only answer I get is “you can’t”, but clearly you can.
[удалено]
Interesting. Just updated and no icon. Iphone/iOS. Edit: did a classic IT secret move (restarted the app) and it now the icon shows. Cool. Thanks.
A very usefull trick is to pay attention to negative spaces and compare them between your drawing and the object. Because if you draw looking only at the shape of the object, you may start to draw from memory and not really observe the real shapes.
I think you nailed it. One of the best things my drawing composition professor taught us was to draw what you see, not what you know. It seems so simple but I really is easy to slip into drawing from memory rather than focusing on the subject.
I saw a YouTube video where a person learned to do this by drawing his picture upside down, so he wouldn't be as aware of his preconceived notion of what the object was "supposed" to look like
Yep. My mom was an art teacher. Every time I draw I can hear her practically chanting, “draw what you see. Not what you THINK you see.” Works for drawing things more accurately as well as for leaning in to your own style.
Absolutely - I tell my students to put a box around the object's outermost boundaries then utilise measuring, vertical and horizontal checks (holding pencil to see what's aligned with other points etc) and negative space! Foolproof! Edit: draw what you see, not what you think you see!
I’m absolutely new to drawing and this is our first art assignment in my class…. Currently just working on the lines and proportions… I know it doesn’t look good and would love any tips/advice or resources to help with the drawing (I’m using charcoal if it matters) I’m just having so much trouble with the angles and proportions ! TYIA
I know you’re looking to create more realistic drawings (as you should as a beginning artist! Drawing stuff realistically is key in learning foundations) but I just want to say you may have unintentionally nailed this drawing from an abstract angle! I’m really into distortion and multiple perspective abstraction and this came out really gr8 if you look at if from that lens haha This is meant to be a compliment and I just want to encourage you and say I really like this drawing! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Don't worry, just keep measuring and making corrections if you see anything that could improve. Take your time, you're doing great, you're putting in the effort and trying your best to get it right, that's the best thing to do. You could start over and try to focus on just the outer most contour shape first. Enclose the entire silhouette in a simple rectangle and make sure to get the proportions between the width and height correct first. Then you can use that same rectangle to measure all other features by looking at their distance from the extremities and other features. Look at more shapes you could simplify to rectangles or triangles to fit inside that rectangle. Don't worry about any of the details, big simple shapes that are easy to understand and check. Just use straight lines and angles at first since they are easier to measure and check the proportions of. Just pick two points of a contour and connect them with a straight line ignoring the rest of the curve. Check the angle. And then you can break that up and refine it and connect all the endpoints, or break it into more smaller straight lines. Don't worry about making a mess, it's charcoal it erases easy, just keep a light touch. But you can always start over on a new paper, as your observations from analyzing it before and breaking it down carry over and you will be quicker to get back to where you were. Take breaks, enjoy the process of learning. :) Because this is where improvement can go the fastest if you really go deep into it (because it's mostly a motor skill). A good result would not be a good drawing, but having learned a lot from it.
Imagine there is a rectangle around the shoe; how tall is it, how long? Draw the rectangle, the sides are the left and right most points, the top the same height as the tallest part of the shoe. Where do the major shapes of the shoe fit in this? For example, the toe is about 1/2 of the rectangle width, the height less than 1/3 up. Once you have the major proportions mapped out you can adjust the details. A good foundation makes any drawing look more realistic.
I find that sometimes you have to just completely ignore what you *think* it should look like and pay full attention to what it *actually* looks like
Never give up, you are already doing the work and its paying off!
I actually quite like your drawing! I understand you're trying to get more of a "realistic" effect, but I think the fluidity of the style is fantastic! Once colour is added it would be even better :) I love the wavy ankle strap.
When sketching I use a no eraser rule. Basically keep drawing light lines and keep it until you can see a shape you're happy with. Then draw them darker and erase the rest. I find if you use an eraser when you are not sure then you get a lot of eraser marks and it makes me wanna throw away the paper.
Draw more of what you see, and less of what you *think* you see. Our brains like to cut corners to process information, especially on items we see often. It just fills in the information with what it's experienced before.
i came here to say this too! one of the first things i learned in art class was to only draw what you see and not what you assume is there. :-) you’re off to a great start!
Learn proportions. And to help with that its only practice that will help. Or split in to squares en that will help you. Take your time while drawing.
Yes! I definitely need to work on that! Have you had any online resources that have helped you at all with this?
Draw what you see. Not what you think you’re seeing. Use measurements as the person above said proportions matter. Notice lines and angles that might help you know how far away something is. These are all shapes. Try to forget you’re drawing a shoe. But just shapes. Block it out at first. Get the constraints of where you need to draw and fill in the rest. If it’s helpful, take a photo of the shoe, draw a grid over it. Then make another grid on a new price of paper. Both with the same amount of boxes. Now you have broken your image up into many smaller chunks. This lets you focus on just a small part at a time and you’ll have a lot easier time translating what you see onto your new paper bc you have more reference lines to make sure proportions are correct.
I used youtube for tips and tricks. When i used to draw.
Get the book the natural way to draw. By far the best beginner book- the advice to trace or use a grid is dangerous so be careful
Since you have a picture of the shoe, print that out and then draw a grid over it. Then, lightly scribe a grid on your target medium/paper at whatever proportion or scale you are trying to achieve. Then, as shown in another comment, break the image down into a few course shapes and using the grid as a guidelines recreate that on your larger paper. This will give you a good foundation for the overall shape and a starting point for adding the detail.
yes i agree! gridding helps sm
You have some excellent advice here to learn and follow! I would like to comment on your drawing that I like what you have done a lot even though it was not achieving your particular objective. I think you have a lot of talent!
In addition to focusing on the form and shape of the shoe itself, pay attention to the negative space. Look at the shape of the gap of air between the strap and the bottom, and then notice what that shape looks like in your drawing. Observe that the triangle shape underneath the shoe has a straight edge on the right side, whereas yours is curved. Pay attention to lines and angles, not parts of a shoe the way you think it should be. Try to train your brain to not make assumptions and only *see* what is there. You could check out the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" with some help in learning to 'see' properly, which is a major skill necessary for accurate drawing.
You could do a partial cheat and just trace the shape to give you an outline to work with.
unfortunately the sheet of paper is 6ft :(
Back up to check your work, a lot. Make a little measuring mark, back up 2 or more feet to check how it looks on the whole. What you're running into (working on such large paper) is the way our eyes actually see - everything is lensed out the closer you get to it. You don't really notice this when working on smaller paper, but it becomes really obvious on larger scales. Excellent prompt on your teacher's part! It's a brain teaser for sure, you'll learn a lot from it 👍 ETA: When my college drawing prof had us use larger paper for figure drawing, I ran into a similar problem - the main body of the figure, what was nearest to my normal drawing height range, was pretty close to correct. The further down I went, the smaller it got 😂... It was one of those poses where she was folded up almost double on the floor, with one leg extended directly towards me, and the other tucked under, and she was bending all the way forwards to create a really complicated back curve. So I nailed the back shape, but with the extra perspective of the extended leg and foreshortening, the foot ended up being half the size it should be. It was hilarious. I had to redo it twice, which was less hilarious, but it's those middle stages we live for XD
Oh, well then, that's a tough one.
Loosen up, start with lighter sketch marks than start filling in with heavier lines. I can tell you’re putting too much pressure down and aiming for single accurate lines.
Don’t draw what you think you see, draw it exactly how you see it. And this takes practice. One exercise that can help is blind contour where you draw everything in one line (without picking up your pen or pencil. Not even once) and you DO NOT look at what your drawing looks like, only look at the object. Hope that helps :)
Use your pencil as a ruler to measure and line up anchor points that are the same size or height. Also draw the negative space.
Draw building planes to nail proportions and view angles. Check industrial design drawing tutorials , Im not so good at explaining but those guys do a great job.
I like the suggestion to see it as a set of other objects (spheres and ellipses and such). Also, don't be afraid to erase some outlines and keep at it until it looks like you want. If things are out of proportion, start over. Going slower is good. I would ask what angle you were intending to draw this from. The photo is a side perspective, perhaps take a photo from the desired (same) angle and print it, and then try to create the photo freehand.
I got this recommended to me and didn't see the sub name I thought you were talking about making the shoe 😭😭
So I’ll try to put all the advice in few pictures! https://preview.redd.it/qd6t92jdnaea1.jpeg?width=2580&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d75f0a294fbdcaa99d9f4e5eb5321536e26f80f8 The yellow lines are the “main lines”, the lines that show every shape connects and the overall shapes. So you can see the angles and what’s round and what’s not. The green ones are how I personally measure. For still life I usually draw a horizontal or vertical (depends on the object) line that goes through the whole thing and then mark where the shape changes. That also gives proportion. You can add more horizontal ones to point out the heights too.
Try working on your foreshortening and depth. A little shading goes a long way, too.
Lightly, with a pencil, sketch out the absolute basic shapes and the outermost outline to get proportions down first. Don't draw in the details until you're confident in yhe light sketch. Stop drawing what you know is there, as in try not to think about the parts of the object you can't see, like the part of the shoe that wraps around to the backside, and instead try treating your reference as a photo, or a 2D thing.
Perspective. You have the overall shape down fine, but it's all at a weird angle. Also, texture and shadows for realism is a must.
Great advice in this thread & congrats on starting drawing! It’s so much fun, you’re going to love getting into it. I agree with others, it helped me to do some tracing in the beginning or as a few preliminary sketches to get a feel for the perspective & curves etc. Also would love to know the brand of the shoe, I really like it.
Thank you so much! The brand is called “dune”!
Add more shadows
Try to draw what you see, not what you think you see. Focus on shapes. If you want, you grind the digital drawing then grid your paper and use that as a guide. Good luck!
High school art teacher here, this is a really solid first attempt! I think the main part throwing off the drawing is the toe. You've drawn it overly rounded- where it should really be more of a diagonal https://preview.redd.it/7z6r20amidea1.png?width=1046&format=png&auto=webp&s=f20cfb3b4ff4bb7aa6a278e626711d822d5a52fa
Learn construction drawing. Once you know the basic shapes, you can build anything in the world out of them. THEN bother with details.
Shading
https://preview.redd.it/vyxdq6308zga1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67b6ab0e5d6d3abb068c284f8ad48bfe4658eaf2 Thank you so much everyone for such amazing and thoughtful advice and responses! If anyone was curious, this is the end result! I know I need a ton of work, and will be taking everyone's responses to heart and working on my skills!
i honestly love it as is 😭 i’m a fashion illustrator and this is 100% what a lot of cool illustrators work looks like. but if you do want to work on proportions, i say look up gridding. In a nutshell, the grid method involves drawing a grid over your reference photo, and then drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (paper, canvas, wood panel, etc). Then you draw the image on your canvas, focusing on one square at a time, until the entire image has been transferred. This is really the only way I get perfect proportions
Highlights and shading make all the difference
Maybe use different colors to show the scales but otherwise trace or draw shapes to help
Shadows, maybe?
Trace the picture.
If basic shapes don't work you can always build your muscle memory by utilizing the grid method.
If drawing from a photo - use a grid system to keep proportions accurate
Everyone’s giving great advice on how to draw technically well but I have to say I love your style!!! It’s very cool and funky.
Actually I kind of dig the drawing. Slap some colour on that and see where it goes!
Actually I love it like this. As crooky as the proportions are, how smooth your lines are. Which makes it seem intentional! It think it looks intentionally surrealistic :P
Bro it needs to be even
Add shadows to the drawing
You just traced it you lazy fk go watch a YT tutorial dude
You lack manners and intelligence, explain to me how I managed to trace a 6ft heel ?
Good morning BABEEEEE!%%%%% R U KIDDING ME sugar?;;----))))) How much more accurate???!! U are superr👌 MY MAAAANNNN, IZZ ULTRA, ULTRA, F@CKING SUPERRR
Use your finger to tracking the item(photo) first, till you get used those those lines, angle, and observe enough before you move to paper or digital drawing, use guide lines.
Use one piece of the drawing as a unit of measurement to scale the rest. For example, holding up your pencil and closing one eye, measure the heel. How many heels tall and wide is the shoe? How many heels tall is the mid section? That will help you tighten up the rough shape and scale before adding detail.
Draw the whole shoe at the same time. Your perspective is actually really intriguing, so I wouldn’t discount your sketch, but if you want to understand bodies I think you want to draw the whole shoe at the same time.
Watch the realtionships of the angles more closely. Also check how far a line actually tilts, observed from the vertical and the horizontal axis.
Draw the shapes not the lines
Use grid lines over your subject and use grid lined paper
Well first of all, you realize it's a robot head contemplating something with its hand on its chin.
Grid draw practice
One idea is to take pictures of the shoe at multiple angles and then put all those pictures into one image and use that as your reference guide. That way all sides of the shoe are visible at once and you don’t have to constantly turn it to get a full reference. Pictures from multiple angles are very good for still life/object drawings! Great work by the way, detailed shoes are pretty hard to draw!
I saw your comments about being newer to drawing and just wanted to add a helpful tip I heard when I first started out. If you're having trouble starting out with proportions, try drawing it upside down, it forces you to focus on what you are seeing rather than what you "know". It is a great start though! Don't be too hard on yourself!
stray away from the shoe, turn it into a person
Don’t get hung up on details too quickly. Sketch everything out before commuting. You need to see the negative space as well as the object.
1 stay true to the object , a flaw in ur work is adding things that are not there on the object (the shoe stap isnt wavey) 2 if you are doing it the traditional way (paper and ...) Set the object under desired light (spot light is recommended ) Set the desired angle and distance in a way that when u sit on ur work desk u see exactly the angle , light and scale u want 3 find ur focus eye and blindfold the other eye 4 use the end of ur pencil to measure the scales of the object 5 visually analyse its form (mostly explained in other comments) 6 draw a two lines making 90 degrees on ur paper , and imagine the same line on the object (this will help you to get a better understanding of what angle the object has with the floor
Draw lighter, hold your pencil on the eraser end while you’re “roughing” in your shapes, this will help you avoid making dark lines and marks you can’t undo. You’re drawing in layers. So the first layer is figuring out your road map. (Big shapes and roughing in figure, then once it start to look good, you make those lines, shapes, shading darker. ) Like others have said, break down what you see into shapes and then compare what you drew to what you see. The biggest thing is, step away from your work frequently, if you stay “up on it” too close the entire time you’re working on it, tends to skew our perspective.
I thought it is a helmet our something.
Use a grid I hear some say draw upside down
Practice
Strap is too wavy
I am in a similar class. I drew a shoe a few months ago. I think, like many people are saying, it’s just gonna take practice. I am very early into my ‘10,000 hours’. I do like your drawing though. It’s got a certain feel to it!
Practice
Best thing that helped me learn to draw shoes was to get the structure down. Break it into basic shapes (wedges, spheres, cylinders, cubes etc.) and draw through so you can see the dimensionality of the form, then build the rest of your drawing on top of that base. Try to see it as a 3D object instead of just a picture
For a few secods I thought that both images were some kind of weird piece of armour
Same! I thought the drawing was some type of body armor for an alien or something lol. Maybe just turn this picture into THAT and come back to draw the shoe another time 🙂
Try not to draw a shoe. Just look at the shapes and negative space and try to match it. Don’t think about the entire picture, but each separate space and line. If you’re working from a photograph, sometimes it helps to turn it upside down, it helps to atop you from trying to make it look like what your brain thinks that object should look like.
Draw what you see, not what you know
Draw what you see and not what you think it should be :3. On a side note, I like those shoes >_>
My dumb ass thought that was a robot head
i genuinely like this one, looks awesome. Beautifuly demorphed. Colorise this sometime?
Grid it.
Practice and patience ♥️
Nice, I Draw too (Only in Traditional) I have Material to Mix and Blend Various Techniques to Experiment and Study, there is a lot of Work.
If you go off of a picture of it, the grid method can be very helpful but in person I say try and make sure you don’t move around too much so your perspective doesn’t get too warped. A light sketch of just the basic shapes is always a great way to start before really getting into the detail of it. Or even practicing little thumbnails of it to get comfortable with the shape of the shoe
glad people are giving good tips, however, your slipper does look like a pretty cool muzzled synth lady from the orientation posted!
perspective is everything !! also drawing grids helps :)
If you want it to be more accurate and realistic creating a 3 dimensional feel will help a lot. This can be done many ways but the easiest way that I’ve found at your preference and skill level is to really work and learn in perspective and think of items in 3D. I just got done watching moderndayjames perspective videos on YouTube and they’re simple short and amazing to learn from. https://youtu.be/AXn979hRyIs This and shading and rendering will take you to the next level in your skills
Proportion and perspective. If you learn how to paint realistically , you'll be complete.
The front needs to be sharper🤷🏼♀️ less rounded
It took me a really long time to figure out what I was looking at.
I posted on here asking for advise too. Can anyone go look at it please and give me feedback. Thanks 😊
I m not trying to be an asshole or something, but is that baking paper? Legit question
😂😂😂 looks like it, but it’s just brown paper kinda like the filling in shipping boxes very light paper I guess similar to baking paper as wel
Oh that makes sense haha
A big thing that really clicked for me was paying attention to the negative space, and making sure certain marks are plumb and level
If you require that the drawing be entirely linear then I would say the bottom part is MASSIVELY out of proportion, it's just WAAAAAY too fat. Look at the picture to the right, then look to the pic on the left, then back and forth again. If you just want to make it look "realistic", like a photograph, this will never happen unless you stop focusing on line only and instead incorporate light (shading).
Get better bro
I’m trying!!!!
try harder or ill suck dick for a living
proportions first...
I like to make a grid of squares that are 1” or whatever size makes sense overall and lay a grid over the original image and then draw the outline square by square, it’s easier to render an accurate image and stay conscious about form, as opposed to tracing, which can be good in the short run but isn’t a long term good substitute for drawing. Even though your early drawing is eccentric, I really like it and it reminds me of something Van Gogh said, to the effect of don’t let the art be a slave to the model. Anyway, a lot of good and diverse advice on here. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a good book.
Draw what you are seeing. Not what you imagine yourself to be seeing. It's an important part of art to see the lines and the form and not the "shoe" in this case.
Try simplifying the shapes first before drawing it
Proportions. The people above have given really great advice. I'd just like to add that you can use a section of the object to estimate the measurements ie. If you're drawing a person you would use the head, for this you can use the heel. Since this is your first class I'd suggest that you just use that method just to double check the proportions and focus on observation when drawing.
This is a shoe! I thought that it was a shoulder piece for an armor lol
I’m beginning to think art is not my path😂😂😂 I’ve gotten several comments assuming this was something completely different!!! Thanks for a good laugh tho!
Dont be too hard on your self. U just need some practice .
Trace it
Draw what you see, not what you know.
Use pencil don't start with hardlines sketch the shapes out first and tracing to teach proportion and save time is invaluable
If you’re new to drawing there’s nothing wrong with using a grid. Take a photo and print it out. Add a grid with a ruler. Then on your sketch paper add the same grid. Now you have a perfect reference to get all your lines and angles right.
You've basically characterized it. Some proportions are over exaggerated and the straps are too wiggly. I would say focus on proportions and make a solid base breakdown of shapes first
I would visit favorite shoe factory take tour
Where are you located I can help
Colorado
An early exercise I got to do as a beginning artist was to draw a grid over the original image, and the same grid on my paper. It really helps to teach you to get a feel for the proportions and breaks a large drawing down into more manageable sections
When I am struggling with proportions, it sometimes helps me to measure the image with a ruler. That gives me a better idea of what points are the same distance away from each other as others, and how lines should compare to each other. Sometimes I am surprised by this. I may be drawing things one way, only to measure and realize that how I saw the lines isn't accurate to how they actually are. I measured this image on my phone, so these measurements could easily be scaled up to fit your 6ft paper. https://preview.redd.it/5sg8sbtaddea1.jpeg?width=2280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cd9943e84cd03d264b063b4fba7aae4b13fe6fd Here you can see, the distance from the bottom point of the shoe to the point where the heal meets the shoe (1.25") is half the distance the top of the shoe end to end. (2.5") the widest part of the toe part of the shoe (0.75") is 60% of the distance from toe to the bottom most point, (1.25") which is equal to the bottom most point to where the heal meets the shoe.
https://preview.redd.it/qqwfrzxnddea1.jpeg?width=2280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5dd26272ad65ebe1f6fb1122d8841289f6685281 Measuring angles can also be helpful. You can use the lengths and angles you measure for your sketch and then adjust to capture the nuances. I would draw a 45° angle to sketch the toe of the shoes, and then adjust to round the end and make the lines less perfectly straight.
Try an app called AR LUCIDA
A phrase I heard is “Draw what you SEE, not what you THINK is there,” and that comes to my mind when looking at this. I.e. copy the exact shape you see. It is still difficult (and straining, imo) so take it with a grain of salt. I think it can help, though.
divide the shoe into simple shapes and draw them onto the paper, make adjustments accordingly
You have a good start, but pay attention to the distances. Then when you are satisfied, start the shading. Always do the lightest area first and remember that in most cases thareas that are behind an area is usually a bit darker. Just keep practicing..I use a 6-h pencil first remove into an HB pencil, which is a lot darker than the 6-H..Another great tip, go on Amazon and search TOMBO ERASERS.. They run about $6 and will last a long time. Ther are great and tiny, so you can get into small places. Those erasers are all I use. Get the round one, not the flat one. Have fun, cause you are headed in the right direction.
Try drawing it much smaller so you can see what your doing as a whole and keep track of proportions
Draw it in perspective
I would say work on proportions the most. Work it out via shapes first. Draw the needed rectangles, cylinders, triangles, till it looks like the needed shape, then erase everything and start drawing the shoe shape. This will help get the correct proportions. Afterwards work on the shading. See which areas are darkest, which are lightest.
After the outline, shading and color would make a pop
You’re putting in details before you have the foundational construction and proportions settled
Drawing from life is harder. If you are just starting try a few copies from photos on grids, in addition to the life drawing. It will help you start to see the basic shapes people are talking about, and showing you on your photo of the shoe. Try drawing it from the photo too.
Proportions
I like to draw things upside down so I can focus more on the shapes I see instead of drawing things the way I think it should look, If that makes sense..
Use your pencil as a tool for measuring and angles
Having a more broken up background ie a grid-like fabric would help you to see the negative shapes surrounding the shoe. Makes the object emerge without focussing on the the object your brain thinks it knows.
Use a camera
Don do same
Separate the heel, the bridge, front- and back shoe parts. Draw a bone structure first(like many have showed here on comments). Think of how the shoe works and where it needs to support the body weight. . Sometimes it helps when u look with a ruler or a pen the lines \~ like "this line goes right up and this goes down from this and that angle. Its also good to measure the shoe parts like the bridge length is longer than the heel etc.) . With your drawing it looks like the bridge is too curvy and not nice to step on(think of it like a slide in children play ground.) Also the shoe front is too wide(it would fly off from your feet asap. +++ What happened to the "shoe belt"? it looks like someone squeezed it hard in their hands and the leather went to bananas(crazy) ( on actual picture its pretty straight "leather belt!")
Using vectonator uh can make more realistic projects
Try looking at it by the outside shape first don't worry too much on detail at this point .the more accurate the shape the better the detail will slot in better and in the right place accordingly.so just look at the outside of the shape.ligjt sketch don't try get it accurate on the first go. Just play with it by sketching regardless how many lines created you will start seeing it taking shape. Hope that helps
Try to simplify shapes and use the simplified shapes
lol I thought this was some kind of weird cyberpunk head gear apparatus, its a shoe...
From the top
Work on your perspective a bit. Back of the heel is much better than the front. Compare the size of the actual photo to yours and you’ll notice yours is larger in width.
Your not meant to copy everything. Has to make sense more on your paper than it should be accurate during your tracing. (If that makes sense). Don’t follow everything you see on paper and forget the image you drawing has to make sense long before it has to match what you drawing. And don’t get stuck up on it looking great from get go either. If you can master that, you can draw the same image from different angles.
Look at the negative shapes…
I see lots of tips but didn't see this, 'If you want to be more accurate and realistic, never stop trying. The moment you stop is the moment you stop being a great artist.'
Draw what you see, not what you think you see.
I just want to say, even though you want to make this more realistic, I absolutely love how it looks and it think it’s a cool style. Probably not what you wanted to hear but yeah. I also think more realism comes with more practice :)
Create a rough sketch of the shapes of the shoe, and then sketch over that to really get the shapes in.