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The "too tidy" sketch critique that flipped my line work
Last month someone in a local drawing group told me my doodles looked like I was trying to print with a pen, no looseness at all. They said start every sketch with a 2 minute scribble layer, just garbage lines, then build on top of it. I tried it on 10 quick studies and honestly my proportions got worse at first, but the finished pieces have way more life. Has anyone else gotten advice that made things worse before it clicked, or did you just stick with your old way?
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the_lucas7d ago
Does a scribble layer actually fix anything though, or does it just hide the problem? I agree the messy start gives you energy and kills that stiff pen printer look, but I don't buy that it's the fix for everyone. If your proportions got worse, that tells me the scribble was covering up mistakes instead of teaching you to see them. I'd rather learn to draw loose lines on purpose than start every sketch with random noise and hope it looks alive at the end.
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