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The Top 5 Things I Hate Drawing

Published by Matt Glover May 8th, 2007 in Group Projects

Darren at ProBlogger is running a little project that looks like a bit of fun. Plus $1001 prize money is hard to ignore…;)

We all have our pet peeves when it comes to drawing. Those things that we have to draw, but really struggle with - no matter how much we practice! So here are the top five things I hate drawing:

1. Cars. I don’t know why, but I just can’t. Infact, make that all forms of motorized transport. For me, vehicles just never look right, even for a cartoon! Thus, my characters walk everywhere.

2. Four legged things. My horses, cows, dogs and any other mammal always look like they have a broom shoved up you know where. If they appear in my work, you’ll usually only see the head.

3. Five fingered hands. Fortunately I rarely have to do this, but every so often a client insists on five fingers. Four fingers I can do, but that pesky fifth finger makes my characters look like mutants.

4. People from behind. You’d think this would be easy, but no. They usually look like they’ve got two butts when I draw somebody from the back - one on top of the shoulders and one below the waist!

5. Women’s breasts. Given that most of us males spend most of our time looking at them or thinking about them, you think this would be easy. I think I’m just two self conscious and don’t want my characters to feel like they have boobs that are too big, or too little, or too pointy, or too saggy etc. Or maybe I just feel like a pevert if I spend to long drawing them. Who knows?!

What do you find hardest to draw?

Almost all of hotels in london are top of the line. They are the apt place to stay at if one is used to luxury travel and has just flown in through the us airlines. Any omni hotel would not work for them. This is the idea of the elite class’s cancun vacation.

54 Responses to “The Top 5 Things I Hate Drawing”

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1 Tony May 9th, 2007 at 5:24 am

I once had a client request a cartoon of two giant space aliens having a picnic in the middle of a US neighborhood with fleeing citizens everywhere, overturned SUVs, cars crushed on the ground, lodged in the roofs of houses, burning fires and hovering space craft in the sky.

So my answer is, chaotic city scenes.
2 Tim May 9th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

At the moment i think that drawing the running man (woman) is quite difficult.
3 Kate May 9th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

People from behind are difficult. I can’t draw bottoms without making them look like two badly parked Volkswagens.

Feet too, these are worse than hands. Toes always look too busy.
4 Karlo Licudine May 9th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

I used to struggle drawing these kinds of things long ago (especially in drawing hands). I used the word “used to” because after constant practice, I finally managed to improve in drawing.

The thing is, if you really like to learn how to draw. You’ll need all the courage and hard work to improve.

Nice post!

If you have time, why don�t you drop by my post:
http://mobileko.blogspot.com/2007/05/snatch-top-5-tips-on-how-to-be.html

It�s also an entry for the problogger top 5- group writing project. ^^ Goodluck to us all!
5 Eli James May 9th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

Your characters look like mutants!? Oh dear.

*looks at own hands sadly*
6 LearningNerd May 10th, 2007 at 3:29 am

Haha, great post! It made me smile. I can’t draw any of those things, either — I can’t really drawing anything, lol. One more thing I really want to learn. I’m glad I came across your blog, because it looks awesome. 1 to your subscriber count!
7 clangnuts May 10th, 2007 at 7:33 am

The No1 thing that I really struggle to draw is, Horses! I was very brave a few months ago, where I just had to draw a horse for a cartoon, but even then it still looks like there might be two people inside it (pantomime horse?).
Here’s the one and only time that I drew a horse:
http://clangnuts.blogspot.com/2007/01/prince-phillip-shoots-fox.html
I also find it difficult to draw people from behind, particularly heads from behind. Every time I do - it either looks like they have a really bad toupee, or giant ears. I’m googling right now, to see if there’s any how to’s draw people from behind on the web.
8 Funny Stuff May 10th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

I’d swear you read my mind when you wrote this post, especially with four-legged animals, and horses in particular.

I can draw anything when I have a picture or a model in front of me and have it come out awesome. But then some joker proclaims “He can draw really well” and a simple drawing request of a kitten playing with string turns out looking like an abstract of a tragic automobile accident in a zoo parking lot.

By the way, can you draw me a picture of a man riding a horse from behind waving all ten fingers to big-breasted women driving a Corvette?
9 Anne Glamore May 11th, 2007 at 8:26 am

I can’t draw. I can’t sing, dance or run. It’s a good thing I’m a great cook and so damn sexy or my boys and my husband would be shit out of luck.
10 Jason Frazer May 11th, 2007 at 1:56 pm

Women! Oh man, my cartoons are all full of men, because for some strange reason I find them safer to draw. I can spend 20 hours drawing a female portrait and having it look like her but a 30 min cartoon woman? Oh dear. I laughed when Matt wrtoe breasts because females from behind are impossible as well (which is unbelievable considering the amount of time we are looking at them and thinking about them).
I tend not to have the same problems with animals or cars, however all look like they would fit the cartoons I draw. If I was asked to add more detail I think I would struggle.
11 Ross May 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

hmm… I’m having trouble posting… hopefully this one gets through…

My top 5:
1. Cars. Lack of patience/knowledge makes my cars look like boxes (and they may get a window or a wheel or two if lucky)
2. People in my comics. I actually like drawing people… until one has to make an appearance in my comic… I still haven’t found a good way of drawing people so that they fit in stylistically with the way that I draw other things.
3. Hands.
4. Backgrounds. I worry about the background pushing into the foreground… and end up creating backgrounds that would usually be called ‘fog-rounds’.
5. Animals legs. Can be pretty confusing without reference.
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