A brief rant (or why i'm fed up with how to draw books)

Gah.

Art class gets me so perturbed sometimes.
I hate it when people come in and are all like,
"Hey! Look! I can draw (insert anime character here)!",
and draw it all over everything in sight,
regardless of the fact
that they only know two poses
and the eyes of the figure are pointing in two different directions.
don't look at the eyes, kids!
They'll give you nightmares!


It's not talent if you only learn how to draw using how to draw books;
it's called
CHEATING.
Now, I will admit
i've used my fair share of how to draw books,
but only as references.
No copying straight out of the book for me!
No sir!
Besides, the world gets awfully boring
if you can only doodle 1 character in 1 pose.
I respect you more if you've never opened a how to draw book and are a horrible drawer
than if you just copy out of the book well.
THAT'S WHAT COPIERS ARE FOR.
My drawing process is something like this:

1) locate a few reference pictures of the subject.
2) practice drawing the subject in the poses shown (NO TRACING).
3) do a rough sketch of the subject in the desired pose (again, NO TRACING).
4) use a lightbox to transfer (okay, trace) the drawing onto a clean sheet and add color.

This is the process if you use a how to draw book:

1) look at the perfect, finished drawing of your subject, colored and shaded in Photoshop.
2) squint at the first step.
3) attempt to match the first step exactly.
4) get frustrated and squint at the first step again.
5) repeat steps 2-4 until you are somewhat satisfied, then continue on to step 2.

I'm assuming if you draw the SAME FREAKING THING 50 times a day, it will eventually turn out looking something like the professional drawing on the page.

But not really.

:)