[malakyte]

so when you are trying to sketch out an idea from memory or just trying to plain draw somthing from memory like figure or scene or a mech, do you draw really fast with lotso lines and stuff or do you draw slow and steady.

[Liser Studios]

kinda both. i use lots of guidelines. lots of em.
i always try to break everything down into basic shapes. so i do a lot of quick strokes to get the basic shapes, then i start putting in more details...
so, i don't know. but i take forever to get a pic done.
i think you should always use guidelines... maybe when you're craig mullins you don't have to (but i know he blocks things in, so he still does, but a little different than me)... when you say "slow and steady" you make me think you just go straight into pencil and just put lines down... like you somehow know where every single pencil mark, forget about the basic shapes, and add in the details first and think it'll still be all right...
sorry. i just get annoyed when people think that when they start drawing they can just go straight into the details and somehow make everything correct. it doesn't work.
sorry if that sounded rude. i didn't mean it to be, and i didn't mean to accuse you of not "drawing right." Just a pet peeve of mine... i see people who just go straight into the detials, they have a lot of talent, but they can only draw people from a normal camera angle or normal pose. Move the camera up or down, make an action pose, and they can't do it without copying...
so, yeah...

[MarshallX]

Lise, i think that is agreat reply, and everyone should listen to it, but there is one flaw, when you draw with tons of guidelines, it tends to get very messy and your craftsmanship pretty much goes down the drain, and another trace needs to be done, to clean it up, my brother is one of those, "one line wonders" as i like to call them, and I have never seen him trace something unless for an animation. His teacher who is Peter Agnus (illustrator for Magic the Gathering) let him use a sketchbook and as I was looking through it i noticed that he too was a one line wonder and there is some amazing stuff inthere, so dont say it annoys you when people draw with one line, because if your good, it looks amazing! Thanks for your time!

[nova]

It depends, but fairly quickly at first and then slow down a little when adding details. Sometimes the whole drawing is drawn really fast, those are usually the ones that turn out best. What I sometimes end up spending a lot of time on for larger drawings is laying out stuff so I can get everything accurate and then start sketching really fast.

[malakyte]

wow thanks. Great replies, very helpful! Well i hope ill be able to apply this advice some day ...i don't know if any of you have looked at my website with my sketches in there, but uh yeah, i need help...

[MarshallX]

Correction that was Glen Angus not Peter

[DarkVVulf]

My drawings are usually pretty sketchy, I tend to try several different positions for certain body parts to see how they look.
Not the cleanest but it helps me alot, and that's what ink is for anyways

[Bomu]

I do very slow pencil work.
Like Liser, I very lightly plan out the basic shapes and then start blocking in details sometimes the details are planned out with very light guides and when I add a final, slow, heavy line the light guides are hardly noticable.

I'm sure some people would say my initial sketch line work would be be good enough for a comic book inker to work on without too much trouble but I like the lightbox my stuff to make it even more perfect ^_^

And then there's the really rough, quick thumbnail type sketches and sure, those are very messy and sketchy.

I agree with MarshallX's comments on too many guidelines making your craftsmanship or draphtsmanship go down the drain- personally I love technically solid, clean line work, so if you need guides (like me) do them very lightly so they harly show up and make constant use of a putty rubber if the guides start getting to heavy from constant moddifications.