Rotating objects in your head

[NessIllustration]

@demotlj That's very interesting, though if I may shine a ray of hope here, not always the case 100% of the time. I'm a girl who didn't play with all those toys and activities as a child, yet I've always had good spatial skills. First time I was given those tests where you have to rotate objects in your head, I aced it even though it was the first time I ever did anything like that. I can only imagine at least a part of it is innate?

[Lee White]

depending on your project, I would recommend making a small sculpture of the object you are trying to draw (using sculpy, or clay, or even a kneaded eraser). Nothing very detailed, just a blocky representation of it. That way you can draw from it and then add the details. Many animators have done this as an aid to working with a character in many positions. Also book illustrators use this technique as well.

Hope that might help some. : )

[demotlj]

@lee-white I've gone back and forth with this idea wondering if my lack of sculpting skills would just add to my frustration but I trust your advice more than my own so I think I'll give it a try.

[demotlj]

@nessillustration Since my son demonstrated these skills from the time he was a toddler, I suspect you are right that some of it is innate. I read a neurobiologist describe skills as roads in the brain. People are born with paths for all skills but some may have dirt footpaths and others paved roads. The person born with a dirt pathway can, with work, get a paved road and if the person born with a paved road puts in the same amount of work, they'll get a superhighway. (And conversely, if you never work on the road, it'll eventually grow weeds!) Right now, I'd settle for at least a gravel road when it comes to spatial relations

[davidhohn]

I think that it can be an innate skill (which will make life easier) but the ability to rotate an object in your head is also definitely a way of thinking that can be learned. Especially if you actively practice using some of the ideas mentioned in this thread. My favorite suggestion is to create the very basic 3D sculptures to draw from. I've used oil based clay, supersculpy, bits of styrofoam and a glue gun and most recently, learned to felt all to build drawing models to make rotating objects in space a bit easier.

[demotlj]

@davidhohn How do you use felt? Do you glue together felt boxes and spheres? I have a friend who felts and would be happy to teach me.

[davidhohn]

@demotlj Here's some in progress shots of the sculpture I made of one of my book characters. Wire frame base and then wool that just gets poked over and over again. As you can see I didn't include much detail in the felt sculpture, but having the big shapes blocked in really helped when drawing this guy from odd angles. Plus the wire armature allowed me to pose the figure in different ways.

Note: Please ignore the mineral spirits in the background. That's not used for this at all, I just didn't bother to move it from when I was last oil painting.

[demotlj]

@davidhohn That's pretty cool. Thanks for the photos.

[Lee White]

@davidhohn you are such a crafty nerd

[davidhohn]

@lee-white Embroider that into a patch and I'll wear it proudly!

[NessIllustration]

@davidhohn I definitely agree! When I was working on my animation graduation movie, I sculpted my main character in clay and it was a tremendous help!

[Lee White]

@davidhohn I'm getting you a bedazzler for christmas

[davidhohn]

@lee-white Whoo hoo!! And since I already promised you a painting smock -- well now it'll be the prettiest, most sparkliest painting smock ever!!

[Buddy Skelton]

I definitely recommend using a site like www.sketchfab.com and rough out how you think an object will look BEFORE you turn the model and then turn it to see if you are right and make corrections as needed.