Learning to copy a reference image is probably the most important thing you can learn and it should be something you learn to do if you are interested in dramatically improving.
First let me just say this as concisely as possible. If you cannot copy another image/photo faithfully, what chance do you have of giving your own concepts and ideas any justice. If you cannot copy a face and get the proportions right how will you be able to visualize one in your head and do the same.
Copying is easier then drawing from scratch. You can make observations and comparisons. It’s less draining emotionally and physically. Overall its the perfect way of knowing how well you handle your pencil.
I’m not saying here that you must faithfully reproduce and image to be do this well but you must be able to capture the essence of a drawing/photograph with no anxiety or frustration. This will transfer into your art as you gain confidence in your individual strokes as well as gathering innate knowledge on anatomy, facial relationships and various other shapes and concepts.
As someone whose dipped in and out of this and finally put hand to the grindstone its clear to me ignoring this for as long as I did as a core part of my learning was a mistake on my part.
Here is my suggestion if you want to see some serious improvements in your hand control and line confidence. Every image you save or fave on those social sites you frequent you need to consider those drawings to tackle. Your goal is to absorb something from them, not just save or fave em for later. Save em in a folder or throw them in tabs. Tackle them DAILY. I MEAN THIS. Your job is to clear this queue. Cram your line art on a page in a sketch pad. Just pound through all the parts of drawing you like or focus on things you week with.
What I was struggling with a lot was the fact that hands and face caused me so much anxiety, even when copying. It felt like a serious mental block. I broke slowly out of this fear by repeating this mantra.
“The lines in the hands and face are no different then the lines for the rest of the body”
As I had no problem drawing folds, clothing, anatomy, details and etc… This mantra really helped me get over this anxiety I had when dealing with these 2 subjects. Each line is just a line, there is nothing special about them no matter where they sit.
Finally, improving at drawing ends up just being a lot of drawing. Sometimes it’s good to just POUND through drawings and not worry about thinking. Copying your favorite works as references allows you to experience the process of drawing something over and over and truly get through the motions of what it takes and where to start.
Give it a try and let me know!
It’ll take about 1-2 months of constant drawing before you see some serious results so hang in there!
