the_mary•22d agoProlific Poster

That critique about my wonky perspective actually clicked today

Been drawing for like 5 years now, mostly animals and plants. Posted a fox doodle to a different forum last month and someone said, "Your anatomy is good but every figure leans left like it's about to tip over." Ignored it at first. Then I traced my last 20 sketches and damn, they were right. Every single back leg or wing or tail pointed the same direction. So I spent 3 nights redrawing the same owl from mirror references and flipped my sketchbook upside down while outlining. Weird fix, but it reset my brain. The next fox I did actually stood straight. Anyone else get a random comment that stuck and fixed a habit you didn't know you had?

2 comments

2 Comments

viola_ward22d ago

Wait, did you try the upside down sketchbook thing specifically, or did you read about that somewhere? I feel like I saw a tip about drawing upside down to trick your brain into seeing shapes instead of symbols, but I never thought about using it to fix a tilt problem. That's actually kind of brilliant, flipping the paper forces you to notice the actual angles instead of what your brain thinks a leg should look like. I had a similar thing happen with my color choices, someone told me all my shadows were the same purple-gray and I couldn't unsee it after that. It's funny how one little comment can just rewire your whole approach.

skylerrobinson20d ago

Totally get that feeling, it really sticks with you once you see it.