On 'How To Draw' And Other Resources - Drawabox

Is H2D what you need?

"How to Draw" (commonly referred to as H2D) by Scott Robertson is regarded by many self-taught artists as the pinnacle of resources - and for some it may very well be. To start with, is "How to Draw" what you need? We must be mindful and honest with ourselves when it comes to artistic goals, but as a beginner or intermediate, it is not surprising or bad to not fully know what our goals fully are. US college students change majors an average of three times before graduating, and about 80% of students change at least once.

So let's do a very quick question and answer session to help you: What do you like to design and draw? Sexy anime people? Epic vistas? Weapons? Portraits? Mechs and vehicles? Animals? Objects you find in your every day life? Let's break it down to organic (humans, animals and such) and inorganic or hard surface (objects, weapons, and vehicles). Say you want to draw hard surface objects and epic architecture: then, yes, H2D is probably a book you need to have on your shelf. What if you tend to focus on organic subjects? Then for now let's say you don't need H2D, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at it, reference it (more on that later), or have it for fun. Don't let the common consensus of H2D as mandatory reading force you to fall in line without considering just how that applies to you. Doing so could easily lead to you taking a more meandering road than you need to - effectively wasting your time.

That's right, instead of grinding pages of mirroring complex planes you could be focusing on the human body, which is one of the most difficult and demanding subject matters of all. It's not about how much time you draw, it's how much you can extract and learn from every moment you draw that we want to maximize. Mileage is and will always be important, but you want to make every mile count for as much as it can towards your destination.

Does that mean you can ignore perspective? Haha, no- it doesn't. The fundamentals are still critical for all artists, and like death and taxes, perspective is an unavoidable aspect of our universe. Fortunately, there are more accessible sources for learning and honing your perspective:

• "Vanishing Point: Perspective For Comics From the Ground Up" by Jason Cheesman-Meyer

• "Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest Norling.

These books offer much more digestible and approachable explanations on the theory and application of perspective. For the artist who wants to aspire to character design or key art (splash art), they already have so many things to learn and balance: draftsmanship, form, anatomy, gesture, etc. Falling into the technical trap of H2D too early just isn't worth it.