Weekly Update - 114 (Patreon)

We're finally home again!  Happy Mother's Day (Yesterday)!  Also Patreon has just informed me that I'm now making enough income to be reportable to the government for taxation purposes!  Not because I'm earning more money, mind you, but because the government has decided they need to drain more money from the people who are earning less!

The Redtails need their taxes, after all.  Or else.

Comic This Week? Now I know I said I was gonna post Riley comic #1 on the 18th.  There's a CHANCE I MIGHT get it done this week, depending how hard I crunch on it tomorrow.  I haven't done any digital art this week and I'm feeling the drive to hammer something out.  However, I also have a lot to do tomorrow because the house is in a state of general disarray and we're out of groceries and everything else, so it may turn out to be a busy day.  Still, Riley #1 is pretty far along, all things considered.  Plan for the 18th, still, but be pleasantly surprised if I do manage to finish it this week.

Drawing: Riley Page 1

Playing: Animal Crossing - New Horizons (AKA Switch Crack)

Ramble:  Boy do I have a lot to ramble about.

But... honestly, I'm tired from travelling and I wanna just go play games while I hydrate and reacclimate to mountain-tier oxygen.  So... I'ma just talk about those books.  You know the ones.  "Draw a (anything) in 5 easy steps" brought to you by (Insert for-profit Megacorp.)  My nephew had one lying around, and I drew a couple of dinos from it both to impress my mother and my nephew and also just to see if I could follow their steps.

My conclusion?  These books are a scam.  They are a waste of money, you will not learn how to draw from them, and they do not, and cannot teach you how to draw. The books exist to be sold in mass quantities, and nothing more.

The reason WHY they are a scam is because they advertise in no uncertain terms that they will teach you how to draw a dinosaur, (or anime, or cartoons, or loony toons or any number of other crap that appeals to literally everyone... in five easy steps.  The thing is, they aren't five easy steps, the books contain two steps, with a lot of crap in between to inflate the numbers so it seems more plausible.

The first step is always, "just draw a buncha circles."  There, isn't that super easy?  Anyone can do that.  But wait, they aren't all circles, most are ovals, of different dimensions and at different angles, and many are other shapes, only semi-round, that are purposeful structure shapes and oh wait there's also just some connecting lines, and the book does not explain to you what you are drawing or why.  It does not explain how to get the proportions right or how to build volumes from which to build off of.  What is clear to me is that an artist drew this, and that artist knew what they were doing, but the book completely ignores all the nuance and importance of all those lines on the page and expects you to just copy what you see.  After all, it's super easy, don't you think?

The next four steps are simply "add details" and the details chosen for each step seem like they are really arbitrary before we reach step 5, which is always impressively good-looking.

The books sell the idea that anyone can do this, but they totally fail to mention the fact that you need to have a basic set of artistic skills to follow along with the book.  First and foremost, you need to have developed the skill that enables you to copy what you are looking at with your pencil.  That isn't something people are born with or that anyone can just do.  You have to train your eye and your hand to work in tandem, while getting the proportions right and accounting for your perspective and translating it to a flat surface, and while I don't think it's a very difficult skill to learn, it does require time, effort and dedication to learn it, and to refine it, like any skill.

So if you're ever looking to learn more about art, save your money and don't buy one of these books.  Start with tracing.  The internet is full of free art that you can trace, and you should trace art that you really like. I guarantee that you will start to notice details you missed before when you realize all the little lines that go into it.  You will start to develop an eye that pays attention to the little things that make a solid piece of art interesting.

Disclaimer though, for anyone that does start tracing art, never try to pass it off as your own or try to monetize it in any form.  Tracing is a great way to learn or start out drawing, it's a great way to learn, but that's all.

Also, wanna know a secret?  My sketches up there only look good because they fool your eyes into thinking the lines are in the right place when the truth is the lines are actually all over the place.  It's a super sloppy mess of pencil lines, and your brain just does the hard work for me and makes you think it's amazing.  That's what I love about sketches!

So, again, credit to the artist of this book, their drawings are super clean and neat and are actually really well-done, I just disagree with the premise of the book that it'll teach you anything, cuz it won't.