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Appreciation post: My high school art teacher who said draw what you see, not what you know.
She told me that 10 years ago. I was drawing a chair and kept making the legs straight even though they looked angled. She pointed at the actual chair and said stop guessing. Finally tried it last month on a still life at a cafe in Portland. The drawing actually looked like the objects instead of my brain's version of them. Does anyone else have that one piece of advice that took a decade to click?
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max_torres441mo ago
Nah, sometimes you gotta draw what you know to make it look right.
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rowan9691mo ago
Doubt it really matters that much. Half the stuff I draw looks like a mess whether I reference it or not. Seen plenty of artists nail stuff they've never seen before just from guessing. Just depends on the person.
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cora5181mo ago
Kinda feel like it depends on the piece too. Had a friend who tried drawing a horse once without a reference and it looked like a weird dog with long legs, so she just calls it her "corgi-horse" now. @max_torres44 you ever tried that shortcut thing?
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