i’m wondering how you can go from being able to see something and draw it to just coming up with it on your own. maybe being able to recreate stuff like images and comic book splashes isn’t really a talent, so i’m wondering what kind of things i can practice to go from re-creation to just creation from the mind. any tips? thanks 
learn how to draw from the basic, like stick, cube and cylinder, search on internet or buy a book, then you can pretty much draw stuff from your mind (assuming that you really good), thats how i do but i still cant draw everything that i wanted, drawing sometime is really frustrated
Do a lot of life studies, learn the fundamentals of drawing. Learn to structure a human figure making sure everything is in proportion. Pretty much draw a lot and practice. Eventually you can start coming up with your own stuff from your head. First you need to learn the basics than you can advanced from there.
Pretty much what Nocturnal said. You have to really know the basics of drawing before you can start correctly drawing things from your imagination. Form, movement, perspective, anatomy are all parts of basic drawing that you’ll need in order for you to do that. There are a ton of things that you may never think of that are so subtle for a human. If one thing is off, it makes things look strange although you may not be able to tell why.
If you really want to draw characters, you have to learn anatomy first.
If you want to drawing hard surface objects like buildings, vehicles, props, etc, you have to learn perspective and a whole different set of drawing techniques because hard surface objects are not really organic for the most part. There may be curves, but there are also a lot of straight lines and straight lines never occur in nature/organic objects.
As DanSC said, learn the really basic forms and shapes. From there, you can start going into specific shapes. If you drew a cylinder, that cylinder will turn into an arm or leg further down the line once your anatomy is correct.
Remember…general to specific.
99.9% of maintstream comic artists use references. whether it’s the figure, buildings, trees, etc.
are you series?whenever i want to find reference to something i cant draw, i can never find it, so i wonder how can they find reference…
What I hate is drawing something from you’re head, but when you do it looks nothing like how you pictured, that is really frustrating for me.
yea i know hows that feel, that happen to me alot :sad:…
I try to memorize the way certain things look.
I like to draw mecha (there is a ton of stuff Ive done, I need a new scanner though. I didnt abandon my thread yet for those who are wondering) so I tend to pay close attention to details like angles, hinges, perspective, seams. remembering textures is important too.
if youre trying to draw something out of nothing I say…wing it?
I suck at drawing cars, so I tend to just draw whatever I want a car to look like, it isnt any specific type of car but it has lots of “car like” details.
just go with what you know and build on it. its easy…kinda
I hope this post made some sense, it sure didnt to me
I’ve drawn from memory most of my life. Or create things in my head and draw it immediately,
I should start referencing more though, especially with backgrounds.
quoted for truth.
another thing that I think is important to pick up is composition. All the anatomy, perspective, etc can will result in technically sound pics but can come off feeling flat – good composition is also needed to breathe life into your pics.
I’m also a big proponent of understanding what you’re drawing. Don’t merely memorise to learn how to draw something – understand *why *it looks the way it does.
How often do popular manga artists draw from scratch and not from a given figure?
I was looking through the graphic novel Street Fighter III: Ryu Final and the proportions and anatomy, no matter what the angle, are dead on. The book probably has 100+ pictures and dynamic poses. I doubt they had that 100+ subjects to work from.
Whenever I use a subject I feel like its cheating sometimes. I draw really great heads, but when it comes to body poses Im a beginner so I guess it’s my “Don’t use a reference for the head” mentality that makes me carry that to the body.
Most manga artists will draw only the characters and main elements, while assistants will do detailed background drawings, usually to specs clearly defined by the artist. This is in no way cheating nor does it show a lack of skill. The really great manga-ka have all put in their time as assistants and have proven they have all the technical skill required to do backgrounds. When you’re doing 10 pages a day there’s just not the time to do every bit.
The backgrounds in most manga are usually photographs or constructs of multiple pics which are traced, inked and toned. As far as the characters themselves, it’s not uncommon for manga artists to work without reference, since they’ve drawn the human form from a number of angles xN. It depends on what you’re into though, the really good artists-- Hiroki Mafuyu (almost completely unknown stateside-- peep him though, as his art is off the hook, Inoue Takehiko (Vagabond), and others obviously use more reference than the cookie-cutter variety manga.
I had the “reference is cheating” philosophy for most of my university years, but I’ve grown out of it. The thing is, once you look at the spectrum of art insofar as the human form is concerned you find that there is no substitute to good reference. You don’t have to rely on reference, but you have to study it for year and years (and years), before you have the right to abandon it completely.