Failed duck sketch; advice requested 

What am I doing wrong?

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1/2 re: Failed duck sketch; advice requested 

@vaporeon_ when drawing from real life a common sign of inexperience is inaccuracy based on abstraction, a symbolic repurresentation of the desired object

a really instructive way to get what i mean to by this is a simple exercise. draw an apple. then, find an apple, and draw that apple as accurately as you can manage. like, look at it with your eyes and draw what you see. the results will likely be quite diffurent

in short, at least when drawing from life, draw what you see. sounds obvious but it’s something you have to learn to do. getting this right is a purrocess. you have already identified some ways that your sketch does not match the refurence. that is good: you can purrocess visual infurmation with your eyes. use that. on a another go take those changes you identified into account. and then compare, take notes, and do it again until you are satisfied

(by the way: if you can layer your drawing directly over the refurence, that can be really helpful fur quickly identifying exactly how relative purropurrtions are off. scaling and transposing a semiransparent layer is your image in an editor can accomplish this if your drawing doesn't match the physical size of your refurence)

re: 1/2 re: Failed duck sketch; advice requested 

@aescling Hmm. Layering directly over the reference would require doing it on a computer instead of on paper, but perhaps I should try it...

2/2 re: Failed duck sketch; advice requested 

@vaporeon_ as fur complex or tedious patterns: getting the whole image right is hard. getting a small portion of the image right is much easier. crop out a small part of the image and try to get that right

a fun exercise, if you have the time, and pencil + eraser, is to draw a grid over a photo and then match that photo in a grid you draw on since papurr, square by square. it’s a divide and conquer strategy; it makes it a lot easier to nail really purrecise details and shapes and purroportions and such

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