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Does having ASD make it tougher to learn drawing fundamentals?

S

Slime_Punk

 Please erase
V.I.P Member
Hey everyone!

I've been designing (as a hobby) for a few years now, and recently I decided to try my hand at actual drawing and... well, I'm pretty terrible. I'm not sure if this is an ASD-specific problem (probably not, since most of you can probably draw and paint amazing pictures), but I feel like there's so much to learn and I can't fit it all in my brain.

I've actually had this problem with music, despite doing this as a hobby for the past 15+ years; theory doesn't come natural to me, and I feel like I have a mental block. I can do a lot of heavy design tricks (similar to the visual art problem) but can't seem to nail those basic fundamentals.

Does anyone else have this problem and feel like they're doing everything in reverse to what NT's would do? And should I accept my lot in life as a designer or try to force myself to learn those basic fundamentals instead?
 
Everything is practice, when you learned graphic design was what you produced perfect in the first few minutes, i learn somethings quickly some very slowly ,it depends on if it satisfies me .

it's as much about the journey as it is about the destination enjoy from start to finish! let go!.

do you dance?remember the feeling of freeness !.
 
It's training your hands and eyes to translate things that you see to the page. If you find that your terrible at it, it's more a matter of training the hand. That takes some time and obviously some practise. If you use tools like rulers, squares, pens, pencils, ink, paints, they will aid you so that it does not have to be perfect every time.

If you say your terrible at it, are you talking about freehand drawing? Most preliminary sketches look sloppy or loose or basic. They are an idea, or a thought translated to the page, no more than that. And from that you do another more thorough one, with more detail if you like. Artists do many sketches before they start the final piece.

The basics of learning to draw, are easy if your willing to put the time in. Like music, you play each day, the same as with drawing. Here is a book available as a pdf if you wish to look through it:

The natural way to draw by kimon nicolaides
 
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I like drawing superhero-style figures.* I find background and props drawing to be boring so I haven't spent much time developing that. (That killed my chances at making it a profession.)

I have a degree of prosopagnosia [face-blindness], so I keep a troupe of face models on hand.**

In school, I was ahead of everyone else in drafting [by hand] & CAD. (I am strong in spatial awareness.) Drafting seems to use a different set of skills than drawing freehand, though there is some overlap.

*All these were hand-drawn, scanned & computer-colored,
Light Corps
Studio 126

** Heads, Female
 
l have weird issues. l can play by ear notes on a piano or guitar from a simple song l just heard but can't understand or count out beat counts. It reminds me of trying to read clocks in childhood.
My mom tells me l am a artist, she has a graphic degree background. Composition with colored pencils comes easily to me, but l have a stumbling block when it comes to backgrounds. I don't like doing them because l draw a blank yet they are important to the composition.

So l guess l am trying to put across that in anything you do, there will be perhaps an area that you are remarkably expert at with perhaps no training, but in the same minute, you find another aspect that frustrates and irritates you. So see your strengths and perhaps concentrate on improving the not so great skill. But if you do something for the passion of it, you will gradually improve.
 
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I’m pretty talented when it comes to drawing and painting. I never really tried to learn anything though, I just do.
 
I believe I've heard that autistic people may have poor motor skills, but it's certainly not universal. I think I'm okay, but one thing I have trouble with is perspective, and drawing things from different angles or in different poses. I also have no imagination for detail. All the clothes I draw are pretty plain, because I can't imagine what sort of designs to put on them. Things like wrinkles, folds, and shadows are also a mystery to me.
 
Initially I didn't do so well at the beginning of an Art & Design course.
Just wasn't 'getting it'

The tutor then said "forget everything you think you know and just draw what you see"
I learned to copy.
(in great detail... too much detail)

My brain thought it knew what a hand or foot looked like,
until I started to sketch them. They're huge ! :)

I enjoyed the course and the varying ways in which to look at objects.
(Still prefer M C Escher though )
 
Crossbreed said:
And in certain poses, parts are obscured or foreshortened...
Click to expand...

:D
When trying to sketch a person, straight on, sitting on a chair,
The thigh shrunk.
Initially causing chaos,
I'm like...'Wait, What? The femur is the longest bone in the body!'
... not in my sketch it wasn't.
 
Gracey said:
I'm like...'Wait, What? The femur is the longest bone in the body!'
... not in my sketch it wasn't.
Click to expand...
full
TUBULAR, dude...!
 
Nooooo
I thoroughly recommend the book Betty Edwards Drawing on the right side of the brain.
The book is excellent and brought out my photorealistic artistic talent I never knew I had.
It shows a group of adults before Betty teaches them the techniques, and their drawings are terrible, but afterwards, they are excellent, really well worth it.
I am also great at mixing colours.
 
@Gift2humanity ,
  1. "Right side" is good for drawing what your eyes see in front of you, like a camera.
  2. "Left side" is better for drawing from your imagination.
  3. More "right side" experience will improve your "left side" work.
 
I checked out an anatomy book from the school library once in the hopes that studying the skeletal system would help my drawing skills. Not sure if it helped, since my style is more anime-inspired than realistic, but I learned the names of a few bones.Crossword puzzles seem fond of the ulna.
 
Soleil said:
I checked out an anatomy book from the school library once in the hopes that studying the skeletal system would help my drawing skills. Not sure if it helped, since my style is more anime-inspired than realistic, but I learned the names of a few bones.Crossword puzzles seem fond of the ulna.
Click to expand...
There are anatomy books that were written specifically with artists in mind.
Two that I have,
  • An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists, Fritz Schider
  • Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, Stephen Rogers Peck
(I surprise some doctors when I know the correct name for some obscure body parts. ;))

To the OP, before trying to draw people, it is better to start with basic shapes, like
  • spheres,
  • cubes,
  • cylinders,
  • pyramids, etc.
 
I am not 100% sure so I am not really claiming it does but I wouldn't be shocked. I have been drawing for literal YEARS and my abilities haven't really gotten any better at all. I thought they were until I looked at some art I made 5 years ago and its the exact same quality. Even after going through big phases in practicing and studying I haven't really gotten a better understanding of it at all. It can be frustrating being into things that you aren't really wired for and when you complain about it people just respond with "just practice more teehee", especially if you were already practicing a lot.
 
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