Intro Books.

[drock]

Never put any sincere effort into pencil and paper art, but I've decided to start now.

However, I'm a little bewildered at where to begin. I'm looking to work my way through a couple introductory books. Books that will hammer the fundamentals into my head. If any of you have recommendations, I'd greatly appreciate hearing what they are.

Thanks!

(Sorry to those of who who're reading this for the second time. Other thread was a mispost.)

[Signature]

Read about art and draw whatever inspires you.
It's important to know the basics (like perspective, line quality, values and so on).
If you jump right to orcs and dragons don't be discouraged if they don't turn out the way you want.
You seem to know that ... that is good! :chug:

But draw stuff like that when you want to. It's also important to have fun.

Personally I haven't read "Fun With A Pencil" but many seem to like it for learning the fundamentals:
http://www.saveloomis.org/

If you think you don't improve at all get "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain".

Use reference as long as you are learning. Also draw from life.

The middle class might give you an idea of what there is that others try to master:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=38
There's a list of the most important threads in this thread:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7124

I hope there will be more helpful replies :)

[dns2k]

Pick up the Bridgman books on anatomy. Consturctive anatomy and drawing from life are great. They are small inexpensive books easily found on Amazon. Between that and shelling out the $$ for the Loomis book (VERY WORTH IT!) you should be good. Once your down for even more anatomy then what bridgman shows in those 2 books go for the Goldfinger anatomy for the artist and the Peck book on Anatomy for the artist.

-dns

[Lev_0]

You can get all the loomis books at www.fineart.sk in the figure drawing section. If you do a search for vilppu on the main page of www.awn.com you'll find vilppu's full drawing manual, imo if you're just beginning then vilppu is best to start with. Vilppu is pretty much as fundamental as you can get hehe. Bridgeman's sketches are pretty messy, if you want some clear construction stuff then study kchen's notes in the tutorial section here.

[dns2k]

oh and also Vanderpoel has a great book on features called the human figure.

-dns