Thread: Learning to Draw: Lucid Style

As someone who makes a semi-living drawing, I highly doubt that the quality of your work will improve if you draw in an LD.

If you want to apply LDing to your drawing, try using dreams as inspiration. Many artist who LD do that. I know some painters who while lucid will ask the dream to show them something inspiring to paint. Then they'll paint it upon waking.

Get a book that teaches you how to draw manga...it's actually very easy to get the hang of. I got a book a few months ago and only went through it once and got the styles down easily enough, and I typically have a lot of trouble drawing people. As for your question, I honestly do not think you can learn/improve something like drawing in a lucid dream, however if you create the intention and attempt to practice it in lucid dreams, it's possible it might somehow carry over to your waking state. But things like drawing, reading, etc. are not easy to do within a dream. It's just too tricksy. There's really no short cut to becoming a better artist, practice practice practice.

Originally Posted by speedbasssux

As someone who makes a semi-living drawing, I highly doubt that the quality of your work will improve if you draw in an LD.

I kind of disagree with this.

If nothing else, if you are able to sit down and draw a complete, detailed picture (to the best of your waking ability) while in a lucid dream you will have developed a concentration that can only be beneficial when you are drawing in waking life.

I really think it comes down to the same principle as improving an ability by visualizing. Which I do all the time.

I actually remember something in EWLD about this, people practicing things in dreams and actually showing improvement in waking life. Try it out, it can't hurt.

I swear the author of Alice in Wonderland first got the idea from having a Lucid Dream... so who knows if a dream can produce a great book like that.

No doubt it can give inspiration. But I would love to try improving memory, meditation and other skills and bring at least some of it to waking life. After all, isn't during dreams where our memory gets consolidated (or so the scientists says)?

You all have great points made. Although I do have to believe that it can be used for more than inspiration. I am hoping to learn to see the shading, and negative spaces.

I have five books on drawing manga... so I'm covered on the book material. I think captainsleepalot knows what I am talking about, I do not mean literally just practicing nonstop in my dream to get insanely good, I mean using dreaming to help me better my visualization skills, in my waking life.

I'll just try it once I get lucid, just one more thing on the list ^_^

as scientists already proved, skills acquired during the day get processed and analised n stuff during the night so the next day you are slightly better at it - however, just saying "oh I'll just learn this skill by dreaming" is misguided. You have to practice during the day.

Originally Posted by yuriythebest

as scientists already proved, skills acquired during the day get processed and analised n stuff during the night so the next day you are slightly better at it - however, just saying "oh I'll just learn this skill by dreaming" is misguided. You have to practice during the day.

I fully realize that, but I am glad you said that, now anyone who keeps assuming that I don't know that will be immediately pointed out as someone who neglects to read all posts before putting in their two cents.

I am not treating dreaming as a shortcut, but instead as even more time to practice.
I realize that it depends heavily on my minds ability to uphold reality... otherwise my pictures I draw will always look awesome. lol

That's a great idea! Some people use pens and pencils in their dreams to draw DC's, doors, weapons, things like that.

Go for it!

Originally Posted by WakingNomad

That's a great idea! Some people use pens and pencils in their dreams to draw DC's, doors, weapons, things like that.

Go for it!

You just expanded my idea; thank you very much ^_^

I'm liking all the ideas I'm seeing.

Although yes, you really can improve skills in dreams (like mentioned in EWOLD, the winning golf-swing, perfect 10 figure skating, ect), I actually think drawing may be one of the few skills you can't really practice because it would require a lot of attention and it would easliy become unstable. But that's just my opinion.

Alice in Wonderland was inspired by a lucid dream and I have recently used a lucid dream as an inspiration for a new drawing but I think this is a little off-topic from what is being asked.

The only way to find out if you can increase these skills is to just try. Go for it and good luck!


Edit: Or maybe you could look through your drawings in your dreams and analyze them. They'll probably be different and will probably make you go "I should have tried that!".

This is a fascinating question indeed. I have wondered this for a while ['can one improve a skill in a lucid dream?', that is] and never really experimented with it or read anything on it to know one way or another if it is possible. But it seems to make sense. I agree with louie54 in that drawing might be a harder one. (Ever tried reading in a lucid dream? Seems like a images in themselves don't last long.)

It seems like if it can be done, improving skill in a dream, it would be very important news.

What is EWOLD???

Yes; what is an 'ewold'

I plan on finding out the answers to these questions. Once again; I must attain lucidity first.

If you practice during your waking hours and then decide to practice in a LD, then you're only getting more practice time. The more you practice, the better you get. I think LDing can help you improve in any area of your life. You just have to want to do it.

So, if you're a martial artist and you're practicing for an upcoming tournament while in a LD, then you'll probably have more fun practicing (you could use your dream control to set up some opponents in the form of ninjas or something ) and you'll probably feel more confident because you have the option of performing in front of a "crowd" beforehand (a dream crowd is still a crowd), as well as other options that might be beneficial for you to experiement with to fully gauge what your actual experience will be like beforehand.

In short, I think it has it's benefits.

-edit-

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming is a book by renowned dream researcher and founder of the Lucidity Institute in Utah, Stephan LaBerge.

Lol; I happen to love Japanese Fencing [Kendo]
You just gave me a great idea.

Very interesting idea....

This doesn't involve lucidity, but I did advance my oil painting skills rather dramatically like this...

I gathered together all my books on fantasy art (Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Spectrum etc) and spent maybe an hour poring over them in bed, then switched off the light. Images seemed to just keep cascading through my head as I lay there, and kept going after I fell asleep. It seemed like I dreamed nothing but fantasy painting images all night, and when I woke up I had a very clear idea of exactly the type of composition and color scheme I wanted to shoot for. That painting actually came out a lot better than anything similar I had tried in the past. Ok, Im attempting to post it here:


http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j8...afhrdsmall.jpg (Click the link to download the full sized version)

I never dreamed up how to add the finishing touches -- and this picture came out pretty pale.

Not sure this is similar to what you're talking about.

I thought about using my Lucid Dreams as inspiration for my art work. I see some weird things in my dreams, things that no one else could imagine. I need to start drawing these things.

OH LOOK... AVATAR!!!

Sorry; totally got side-tracked.

Now I wanna live that movie in my dream... that movie is AWESOME.

People always make threads about learning skills in their dreams, one guy posted a while back that he was learning to juggle

What is EWOLD???[/QUOTE]

EWOLD is an acronym for the book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge.