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Things writers get wrong about artists
I mentioned in the Kavalier & Clay post that I have a mental list of things most writers get wrong about artists. I decided to go ahead and elaborate on that. The #1 thing on my pet-peeve list is: ARTISTS USE REFERENCE MATERIALS.
Yes, even good artists! Even professional artists!
I have absolutely lost track of the number of times I've run across scenes, on visual media like TV/movies especially, but also in books, of an artist drawing a spot-on, detail-perfect representation of something (portraits of people are a particularly common thing, but also an object, a scene drawn from memory, and so forth) straight out of their head.
This is not impossible. Some artists (though not a lot) are especially talented at drawing out of their heads and can actually come pretty close to what you see on TV. But it is a particular talent! And it's kind of a rare one!
Possibly the reason why non-artists think that all artist can do this is because most artists have a limited repertoire of objects and sometimes people which they've drawn a lot and can therefore draw reliably from memory. This is usually not real-life people -- like, most artists probably COULD NOT draw a photo-perfect sketch of their spouse from memory, unless their spouse is also their main model and they have drawn them frequently in the studio, and/or they are a particularly talented caricaturist. The kind of things artists might more commonly be able to draw accurately and quickly include things like characters (for comics artists), particular kinds of cars and planes for people who like drawing vehicles and have drawn them a lot, ditto for guns, etc. I can draw pretty good spruce trees, certain objects (especially ones my characters carry around on them, such as Fleetwood's bomber jacket), and most of my own characters without needing a reference. I have also drawn the human figure enough that I can draw a number of poses without needing visual reference (but I have to resort to it if I get into complicated foreshortening and so forth, and I think my figures almost invariably look more natural and 3D when I use a reference). Some people are really good at buildings, scenery, and perspective.
What you see on TV, though, is more like people drawing photo-realistic representations of their first boyfriend, street they grew upon, particular model of car they only saw once, etc. Like I said, that IS a thing some artists can do, but most can't.
Instead, most artists are going to have photos taped around their drawing surface of whatever they're working on (or, in a modern context, on their phone/computer). That is how the process WORKS. The particular scene that made me think about this in the book was one bit where Kavalier (the more talented artist of the two main characters) starts to draw a particular kind of war plane on his drawing board, sans reference. Okay, I can handwave it as: he's drawn it a lot, so he doesn't need to open a book and look up details. And Kavalier actually is the kind of person who would spend a ton of extra time drawing a particular thing over and over in order to get good at it (which is just about the only way you can end up being able to do this, unless you have a rare talent for visual eidetic memory, which some artists actually do). But in general, what you'd see in real life is Kavalier, or his RL comic-artist equivalent, drawing the plane from a photo taped to his drawing board.
Similarly, there's a bit in the book that mentions Sam Clay, the other character, is a lousy artist when he can't refer to his swipe file (collection of cut-out pictures he uses for reference material; the book doesn't call it that, but that's what it was called by the comics-industry people I knew). This is accurate up to a point -- some people are very heavily reliant on visual references and can't easily do the little alterations to make the drawing their own. However, what the book leaves out is that MOST people use a swipe file. The book gives the impression that Sam's portfolio of clippings is a crutch, rather than a tool that almost everybody, in the pre-computer era of the book, would have kept on hand.
(This should not be taken as a condemnation of the book, because I think it's something that's so common in pop culture it's one of those things people literally don't think about unless they actually ARE professional artists. If all you ever see on TV is people drawing things out of their heads, then of course you would think that's how artists do things! And it's exacerbated by the fact that SOME artists can draw MOST things out of their heads, and MOST artists can draw SOME things. But in general, artists use reference.)
Yes, even good artists! Even professional artists!
I have absolutely lost track of the number of times I've run across scenes, on visual media like TV/movies especially, but also in books, of an artist drawing a spot-on, detail-perfect representation of something (portraits of people are a particularly common thing, but also an object, a scene drawn from memory, and so forth) straight out of their head.
This is not impossible. Some artists (though not a lot) are especially talented at drawing out of their heads and can actually come pretty close to what you see on TV. But it is a particular talent! And it's kind of a rare one!
Possibly the reason why non-artists think that all artist can do this is because most artists have a limited repertoire of objects and sometimes people which they've drawn a lot and can therefore draw reliably from memory. This is usually not real-life people -- like, most artists probably COULD NOT draw a photo-perfect sketch of their spouse from memory, unless their spouse is also their main model and they have drawn them frequently in the studio, and/or they are a particularly talented caricaturist. The kind of things artists might more commonly be able to draw accurately and quickly include things like characters (for comics artists), particular kinds of cars and planes for people who like drawing vehicles and have drawn them a lot, ditto for guns, etc. I can draw pretty good spruce trees, certain objects (especially ones my characters carry around on them, such as Fleetwood's bomber jacket), and most of my own characters without needing a reference. I have also drawn the human figure enough that I can draw a number of poses without needing visual reference (but I have to resort to it if I get into complicated foreshortening and so forth, and I think my figures almost invariably look more natural and 3D when I use a reference). Some people are really good at buildings, scenery, and perspective.
What you see on TV, though, is more like people drawing photo-realistic representations of their first boyfriend, street they grew upon, particular model of car they only saw once, etc. Like I said, that IS a thing some artists can do, but most can't.
Instead, most artists are going to have photos taped around their drawing surface of whatever they're working on (or, in a modern context, on their phone/computer). That is how the process WORKS. The particular scene that made me think about this in the book was one bit where Kavalier (the more talented artist of the two main characters) starts to draw a particular kind of war plane on his drawing board, sans reference. Okay, I can handwave it as: he's drawn it a lot, so he doesn't need to open a book and look up details. And Kavalier actually is the kind of person who would spend a ton of extra time drawing a particular thing over and over in order to get good at it (which is just about the only way you can end up being able to do this, unless you have a rare talent for visual eidetic memory, which some artists actually do). But in general, what you'd see in real life is Kavalier, or his RL comic-artist equivalent, drawing the plane from a photo taped to his drawing board.
Similarly, there's a bit in the book that mentions Sam Clay, the other character, is a lousy artist when he can't refer to his swipe file (collection of cut-out pictures he uses for reference material; the book doesn't call it that, but that's what it was called by the comics-industry people I knew). This is accurate up to a point -- some people are very heavily reliant on visual references and can't easily do the little alterations to make the drawing their own. However, what the book leaves out is that MOST people use a swipe file. The book gives the impression that Sam's portfolio of clippings is a crutch, rather than a tool that almost everybody, in the pre-computer era of the book, would have kept on hand.
(This should not be taken as a condemnation of the book, because I think it's something that's so common in pop culture it's one of those things people literally don't think about unless they actually ARE professional artists. If all you ever see on TV is people drawing things out of their heads, then of course you would think that's how artists do things! And it's exacerbated by the fact that SOME artists can draw MOST things out of their heads, and MOST artists can draw SOME things. But in general, artists use reference.)