“Imagination” and drawing.
“Your wrapping lines are always so spot on - all of the creases around the eye really make it show here. It’s particularly difficult when drawing from imagination for me. Any friendly advice/tips you may have?”
Drawing from the imagination is the easiest thing a guy or gal can do, it need only require a strong visual library. Inspirations, time and a basic understanding of how to draw. Even as a kid I was drawing from the “Imagination”.
Look at references, use weird shape combinations, lightly sketch down nonsense on a page and then build directly ontop of that to discover an idea and expand upon it like crazy!.
I look around tumblr, Devi, Artstation and see “imaginative” drawing all around me but really its more accurate to call it transformative as none of this stuff was ever original, just changed or reinterpreted. Original landscapes pulled straight from blade runner, original species and characters inspired directly from existing characters like salarians, turians, greys, xenos you name it.
You live with/absorb pop media and just art in general, or look around the world you inhabit long enough this internal library of visual information piles up and can be turned into anything and everything you want.
As a 10 year old kid I was heavily inspired by Half Life’s Vortigant’s. That distinct visual signature and head shape directly translated to an original character and species I created.
This is what imagination is. It is not pure creativity, it is conscious or unconscious transformation and re interpretation of everything you see and experience in the world turned into “original” things. Anyone who tells ya they can draw from complete imagination with no reference or experience is just lying to ya! haha
My art mentor is one of the most skilled and famous illustrators and comic book artists in the UK and he trained his abilities by doing studies of existing art! :D
Just use your drawings skills with this in mind and you are set! This is no super power.