Attached Link: Child prodigy painter

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer. Ray Bradbury still types on a typewriter. Outside of the irony of a science fiction writer typing about the future on an antiquated machine, it has no bearing on the work he creates. It really doesn't matter whether he types on a typewriter or a word processor. Bradbury is considered one of the best science fiction writers of all time.

It also doesn't matter with Poser whether a person starts with a sketch or not. The only real wrong answer is saying that an artist has to always start with a sketch. Every person has their own individual process for creativity. It's good to be exposed to various options, but each artist, in the end, is going to choose the one for their own specific needs and habits.

Microsoft is a good example of a company that expects its customers to work with their processes rather than the ones they're comfortable with. Anytime I start up Microsoft Word for the first time on a new computer or a new install, the first thing I have to do is turn off all of Word's automatic formatting options. Maybe Microsoft thinks it's easier to only type one Return at the end of each paragraph instead of the two that I learned from typing on a manual typewriter, but I've been typing with two Returns for decades and it's easier for me to do that than force myself to switch to what Microsoft thinks is right. If I hit a tab on a new line, I may not want a tab on the next line even though Microsoft now thinks that I need to tab every line after that and automatically "helpfully" changes paragraph formatting. It takes me more work to fix Microsoft's "smart" formatting to let me type the way I want than it does to manually hit a few tabs for the few items I'm setting differently from the rest of the paragraph. If I were to tab a whole page of items, I would find out how to do it more efficiently. The other problem with Microsoft's automatic formatting is that it often doesn't cut and paste well into many internet forums and causes more work in the long run if I have to switch their now unformatted paste into the manual version that the forum input box accepts. It's more work for me to have to type two Returns in the pasted text file for every paragraph than doing it as I'm typing. This is an example of Microsoft's forced methods to do things efficiently that are uncomfortable for a user, like me that learned to do things one way, and is actually less efficient overall. Microsoft doesn't have the good sense to understand that software needs to adapt to the user rather than the other way around. It's hilarious that Apple can run commercials about all the stupid things that Microsoft does to show people that they ought to buy a Mac. It's insane that Microsoft cannot write a new operating system that retains compatibility with the pervious OS's software and hardware.

Getting back to Poser, whether one starts with a sketch or not is a personal preference. The sketch that Les did in "Secrets" is more detailed than a standard thumbnail and probably took about 15-30 minutes to draw. If he drew a number of different concepts, that could be an hour or more of doodling before settling on where his Poser work was going. The final image deviates a fair amount from that sketch, though his original sketch concept is still there. It would have been interesting for the book to show some of the alternative sketches that he had before settling down on the sketch that would launch his Poser effort. By not showing all the false starts, the point wasn't made that sketching thumbnails is the best way to go. In fact, if that one sketch were the only one that was drawn, it would be easier to argue that it makes more sense to go directly into Poser and start plopping in elements that begin to realize the concept in the artist's imagination. The Poser artist still has to go into Poser and start plopping down stuff whether a sketch were made or not. If there is only one sketch, then it is almost an unnecessary step because the time to do that sketch could be used to start assembling the Poser image. For the example in "Secrets", it was described as one of the sketches drawn, so sketching helped to zero in on the desired image.

In my own case, I tend to start with a very strong mental image that, at completion, isn't terribly different than what I started with. It's about as faithful as what the book shows between sketch and render. Maybe it's because I've been drawing in one fashion or another for nearly half a century and all that time and practice have built up my mental to real world final drawing links fairly well. That's really what it's all about. If my mental image doesn't translate successfully to the Poser image, I'll modify it to flow with what Poser does well. I've learned the hard way not to fight what Poser doesn't do well. It's better to alter my concept to fit Poser's strengths. There are hundreds of ways to get to that end drawing, including drawing a sketch.

It is easier to draw something that we see than trying to do the same thing from entirely within our minds. Having drawn something from life, it becomes easier to draw that life image from the mind. That's why art courses start with drawing things that we visually see. Our brains are wired to work with eye-to-hand coordination. Going mind-to-hand is not as natural a process. Mind-to-hand coordination takes practice. It's much easier drawing what we see with our eyes than drawing what is in our imaginations. Practice strengthens the ability to draw from the mind. Starting with a sketch is a necessary middle step. It allows the eyes to register the image in a firmer process than the mental image is and the mind has something real to start with and decide if that starting point is exactly what is wanted. The mind can now focus on what needs to be changed to make it better. For myself, that initial sketch is usually done in Poser now. It serves the same purpose as a hand drawn sketch. It gives me something visual to work with as a starting point. It's a much more literal starting point than the hand drawing because it's the real Poser figures I'll be using and some stock poses that sort of get the figures into the general layout that I have in mind. I don't add hair or clothing or many props unless they have some visual impact that will strongly determine the direction I'm going. I add whatever elements will have strong interactions with each other and have a strong impact on the final concept. It takes me about a 30-60 minutes for this initial 3D sketch. That's longer than doing drawings, but an artist, that starts with sketches, is going to spend about that long moving from their drawing to the initial Poser setup with figures and props. It's a time savings for me because I've skipped a manual 2D step. I'm not saying that's how everybody ought to work, but it's how I do it. It's a process I'm comfortable with.

I'll admit to being surprised that the preferred method for most Poser artists is starting with a sketch instead of immediately immersing oneself within the 3D program.

If I were doing a commercial project, I would of course show a client a drawing because it will be more complete than my Poser sketch. That's because what I see in the primitive Poser draft image isn't what is on the screen. I have a good idea of what the final image is going to look like, but there is still quite a bit of work to get there. When a client looks at that draft Poser sketch, that client sees a bunch of bald naked emotionless figures in poses that don't look right without all the expected props and it looks like garbage. It has no life. The client doesn't see what's in my head. A sketch, that has all the missing elements, gives a client a better idea of what they're getting. Before showing that client the sketch, I'd want to have a Poser sketch started to be sure that the dynamics of the sketch can work within Poser. The most difficult thing to do in Poser is the kind of strong dynamic motions that are so easy to draw. If I cannot get something that closely matches the dynamics of the sketch, I could be in for a lot of trouble. A good painter can translate a sketch into a fully rendered final image with a lot more faithfulness than a Poser artist because the Painter is not switching mediums. A painter is refining what is in the sketch. A Poser, or other 3D graphics, artist is plopping figures and models into a scene and has to try to duplicate what's in the sketch. It's a different workflow. It's starting from scratch with a blank Poser slate whereas a painter is painting on top of his sketch. The downside for the Painter is that changes are a lot harder to make if the client wants a head posed differently or something else that requires repainting elements or starting from scratch if the changes are too drastic. The Poser artist opens up his saved file, moves elements about to match what the client wants and renders the image again. It's a lot less work for the Poser artist to make changes.

I have occasionally doodled entirely within Poser by starting with a prop or figure and building around it and come up with something that I like. Creativity is never limited by processes.

As far as everybody having the capacity to draw, I believe that's true to an extent, but a person who hasn't drawn most of their life is not going to be as good as somebody who has. Drawing is a muscle as real as any physical muscle. A person lifting weights every day is going to put on more muscle mass than a person who doesn't. It's no different than drawing. I lump all forms of drawing together because they are all the same thing with different processes and techniques. Everybody has had drawing classes in school and has seen that some people draw better than others and some draw worse. Exactly how much of that is due to parental and peer encouragement, or lack thereof, is hard to say. There is little doubt that the child that is encouraged will probably continue to draw more than the one whose early efforts were summarily dismissed and not encouraged. Then there are some individuals, like Akiane in the link, that mastered skills way beyond what most people at that age (or for that matter--any age) are remotely capable of.

Let's not forget that the bulk of expensive art nowadays is stuff that is so ridiculously bizarre. I saw a painting sell for over a million dollars that was a single solid hue of blue--no shading--no shapes--just a flat color.

With Miss Nancy's mention of the original purpose of Poser, take a look at Scott Thigpen. You won't recognize his work as being Poser because he only uses the program to create an image that he can draw over with his personal style of exaggeration.
http://www.sthig.com

My visual indexes of Poser content are at http://www.sharecg.com/pf/rgagnon