Let's start at the beginning shall we?
I was far beyond all levels of dorkness in middle school. Way back then, my prime wardrobe consisted of a yellow checkered zipper hoodie (the zipper was broken), cut off, roll-up jeans that resembled capris of peasantry, and splatter painted Velcro-fastened shoes. Oh, I was so cool. Anyway, in middle school, I took one of my first official art classes. It was here that Ms. Valentine, my teacher, greatly stressed the ability of "drawing by sight."
We started with looking at a simple picture and drawing what we saw. She taught us the analogy that "your eyes are an ant, crawling along the lines. Follow that ant with your pencil."
Ms. Valentine made art seem a little less enthralling for a time, by showing us all that art is really just a bunch of lines put together in an abstract way. However, her teaching later on greatly helped me see the endless possibilities of art, and how easy it really could be to draw whatever you want. You just have to keep following that little ant crawling along the lines.
Soon my classmates and I were accustomed to focusing only on each line at a time, and not rushing ahead to draw the entire picture as we saw it. To help us in this, Ms. Valentine would turn the picture of whatever we were drawing upside down. This would make it harder for our minds to comprehend the shape and rush ahead to draw it, so we would focus better on each bit at a time. By the end of our drawing session, we would all flip our pictures over and be thrilled to see how accurate our artwork was to the actual picture. As thrilled, granted, as you can get when you realize you were drawing Obama the whole time.
Once we all acquired this skill, we moved on to drawing more complex pictures, advancing towards the simple three demensionals. We started with baskets of fruit, then moved on to the complexities of things like chairs, dolls, and the human figure.
All the while, we had been brain washed, so to speak, to look at objects no matter how complex, as merely a pleasant arrangement of lines. We weren't drawing a human, we were simply following that little ant. By the end of it, yes our drawings would be of a human form, but the process was nothing of the sort.
Nowadays, I don't like to think of art as something as common as an assembly of lines. Because though it may be an assembly of lines, the result of our art produces so much more, often more than we had expected. But with this long-since begotten skill from way back when my dorkness levels were all over the place, I have been able to do so much more. Not only is imitation a breeze now, but originality (in a sense) is more enhanced.
For instance, when you want to draw an elephant, you often have a picture of what you want your elephant to look like in your mind as you draw? Well there's your picture. Using the same basic principle I learned in middle school art class, you can make that elephant by following the ant inside your head.
Here's some bases you can practice ant-following on. With enough practice, you can memorize what makes a good base, and simply follow your own picture inside your head!
Source:
http://alias-hugo.deviantart.com/art/Persona-4-Master-Body-types-chart-421762443
In conclusion, remember that a loathesome exercise like the one I learned so many years ago can actually come quite in handy.
So yes, even though it sounds ridiculous, follow your inner ant!
Stay majestic everyone!
