Is it worth learning anatomy by drawing?

#1

hi guys !
As the title said! I gathered some books on life like drawing. They are all good but the main problem is, this will take me more then a year to get through the books.
My question is… Those books are on drawing. So is it worth to wate 1 year on drawing and learning anatomy?? Will drawing in anyway help me in zbrush?? because i want to be a creature artist.
Thanks!!!

#2

I have to wonder why there is this fear of learning anything.

It is not a waste of time to learn anatomy by drawing. Artists have been learning anatomy by drawing for centuries. It takes time AND practice AND patience, so until somebody invents a machine that lets you download knowledge like the one in The Matrix movie, learning anatomy isn’t going to happen instantly.

Beginning students are starting to sound like lazy theoretical scientists. They form all sorts of theories about how they should be learning, but they just need to take that next step: learning by doing. As a wise, short, green alien once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

There are many benefits to learning anatomy by drawing. I don’t know if the benefits are listed in any of your anatomy books, but here are some of the bonuses:

  • By drawing anatomy, you will learn about visual landmarks on the body. Everybody already knows a majority of the landmarks: eyes, nose, lips, ears, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and so on… When you try to get correct proportions in your drawings (and later in your ZBrush models), you need to understand the relationship in distances between all the visual landmarks. It makes all the difference when someone asks you to create a child version or a geriatric version of your model.

  • By drawing anatomy from different angles, you will build a visual library in your mind. So when it comes time to give that creature model an extra knee joint in ZBrush, you have an idea of how construct a knee.

  • By drawing anatomy, you will learn observation. How to see which detail is more important than others. How forms cause shadows (because shadows are important clues in telling if your ZBrush model has the correct form)

So… rather than focusing on the amount of time you need to learn anatomy, focus on the possibilities that learning will open for you. You’re already thinking in long term of what drawing will do for your ZBrush modeling, and you already gathered some books, so why stop there?

#3

I actually just wrote an article related to your question earlier this month (Why 3D artists want to learn 2D), published right here at CGSociety:
http://www.cgsociety.org/news/article/2694/why-3d-artists-want-to-learn-2d

#4

Being able to draw naturalistic is a tremendous boost for your skillset.
It is literally like speaking a very fast language everybody understands and all your other creative skills will be boosted.
It takes dedication, and to be really good and fast you will hve to pratice for longer then a year, just like with a language.

And when you really want to impress the *** out of somebody, learn to draw over head.
I have gotten whole jobs only by performing that while talking in a calculation briefing sitting opposite to my prospective clientG

#5

I agree with what you are saying, but I think you’re projecting some feelings you have about young artists today onto this guy. It sounds more like he’s wondering if his training time is better allocated drawing or sculpting, since drawing is technically more tangentially related to his ultimate goals. It’s not as if he’s lazy, as studying anatomy by sculpting and by drawing are both very difficult.

Anyway to OP, I would say do both. Drawing is very quick compared to sculpting and helps you understand things like proportion, gesture, landmarks, silhouette etc that can be harder to learn with sculpting. But when drawing you create a lot of visual “cheats” that can disguise a lack of deeper anatomy knowledge, so that is where sculpting can bolster your skillset.

#7

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#8

I’m going to be very succinct. Everyone I’ve known or seen that outright ignores anatomy study, which also includes gesture, proportion, and often flow/directionality makes trash character/creature art.