When drawing, do you use guidelines?

[thedarkdefender]

[Auro-Cyanide]

For the love of god, YES. Always, always use guidelines, even if they are just lines and circles.

[Blane Doyle]

For the love of god, YES. Always, always use guidelines, even if they are just lines and circles.

I admit, I am a horrible HORRIBLE artist. But yeah, this.

My last roomie was an artist and has been teaching me (slowly, oh so slowly) how to draw. Miraculously, once I drew very short wisps instead of trying to draw everything out in one go and lines for limbs, circles for joints, and a rough rib cage? My humans looked... human. Instead of like horrible scribble monsters.

There are people who can draw without them, but they are either amazingly talented and have practiced so much they don't need them anymore or they are made of magic.

[dramspringfeald]

By god yes! If you don't you are a fool.

[Deji]

Yes! For the sake of all that's good, DON'T. DRAW. WITHOUT. GUIDELINES/STRUCTURE.
And when I don't (for any reason), I redline my sketches with structure to fix them before going any further.

People that draw without guidelines ad still pull it off, I'm pretty sure they kind of... uhm... imagine/project the structure/guidelines being there and draw on top of them or something? x'D

[Taosym]

If you mean construction lines, such as joint and bone lines or horizontal levels, then yes, always use those.

[wakagana]

Well, it depends. Are you a thug?

[nyaatrap]

I even use a ruler to get proper proportions. Serious learners always do these pre-drawing processes. Only masters or sloths draw directory.

[Lumella]

Yes, you must. Unless you can mentally measure and proportion the anatomy of your character without the need of guidelines, you should always use guidelines. Basic foundations in drawing can go a long way if you're into art.

[KimiYoriBaka]

...

am I the only one here who thinks the style of the drawing matters for this?

sure, if you're trying to give realism, guidelines are useful, but...

[MaiMai]

No matter what style you use, guidelines are STILL important especially when you want to keep things relatively the same size or proportion.

[Greeny]

I don't use guidelines.

That's why I need to hire people to do art.

[EndlessNine]

I ALWAYS use guidelines, even when I'm drawing chibis and they are far away from realism xD Of course the guidelines may be different for each styles (for example I try to draw the eyes lower on the head when I draw chibis so the "center line" of the head is lower too), but style doesn't make them any less important. The guidelines help keeping everything in balance so I don't accidentally draw the limbs different lenght etc. It just makes everything so much easier when you don't have to guess how you should draw certain things.

[TheGuraGuraMan]

Obviously 98% of us needs do draw, 1% are just so bad they don't know they must do one, and the rest are liars.

[wakagana]

I don't use guidelines.

That's why I need to hire people to do art.

No, that's why you're a thug.