28th January 2010, 09:24 PM
Practice, practice, practice!
Try drawing lots of different artefacts made from lots of different materials. Nick Griffiths book is very good at the basics and layouts, and covers all the basic equipment. There is also lots of new computer stuff to get to grips with, but to my mind you need to be skilled with a set of rotrings first. Technology like scanners and photocopiers, or computer packages like corel or illustrator are great and can save hours, but if you want to be a proper illustrator you need to understand how to bring out the best of an object and actually illustrate it, not just draw it.
Buy a pad of bristol board and a cheap technical pen -doesn't have to be a rotring at first although David will try and sell you the new disposable rotrings (which are good). Play about with different styles of stippling, shading, line weights, layouts, try stuff out and see how it looks. Look at published drawings and see how different materials are drawn, and don't be afraid to say 'that looks crap' but then ask why does it, how would I improve it? My top tip is look at old 19th c antiquarian illustrations, and for contrast look at some of the worst of the 1960's/70's 'technical' illustrations. Then you will understand that a drawing can have a soul.
You should have some sort of reference collections at your university, although often these are fairly manky groups of old pottery, so try asking at a local museum and draw some decent artefacts -complete pots, metalwork etc that will inspire and test your skills. Drawing something which is complete can help bring on your understanding of how to bring out the best of the artefact, after all its easy to look at a complete pot drawing and say 'yeah that looks right' or see where you have gone wrong, whereas withjust one sherd its a lot harder.
The best artefact drawings tell you how the object was made, its material, its texture, and have a bit of you in there somewhere too.
Try drawing lots of different artefacts made from lots of different materials. Nick Griffiths book is very good at the basics and layouts, and covers all the basic equipment. There is also lots of new computer stuff to get to grips with, but to my mind you need to be skilled with a set of rotrings first. Technology like scanners and photocopiers, or computer packages like corel or illustrator are great and can save hours, but if you want to be a proper illustrator you need to understand how to bring out the best of an object and actually illustrate it, not just draw it.
Buy a pad of bristol board and a cheap technical pen -doesn't have to be a rotring at first although David will try and sell you the new disposable rotrings (which are good). Play about with different styles of stippling, shading, line weights, layouts, try stuff out and see how it looks. Look at published drawings and see how different materials are drawn, and don't be afraid to say 'that looks crap' but then ask why does it, how would I improve it? My top tip is look at old 19th c antiquarian illustrations, and for contrast look at some of the worst of the 1960's/70's 'technical' illustrations. Then you will understand that a drawing can have a soul.
You should have some sort of reference collections at your university, although often these are fairly manky groups of old pottery, so try asking at a local museum and draw some decent artefacts -complete pots, metalwork etc that will inspire and test your skills. Drawing something which is complete can help bring on your understanding of how to bring out the best of the artefact, after all its easy to look at a complete pot drawing and say 'yeah that looks right' or see where you have gone wrong, whereas withjust one sherd its a lot harder.
The best artefact drawings tell you how the object was made, its material, its texture, and have a bit of you in there somewhere too.