Simple techniques.

[Scotty49]

Hello
Let me start off with im not that much of an artist. My school subjects were all sciences and maths but i love to draw, as bad as I am.
I love sci-fi and when i see concept art for games etc.. of space settings, aliens and such i just love it. But when i try to draw it ends up looking out of proportion and/or childish.
So i write this asking for any help of simple techniques on plain black and white sketches that could help.
Much Thanks
Scotty49

[Gerulaitis]

So... you want a technique for "making things not look out of proportion and/or childish"? I don't know any, unless (god forbidd) tracing photographs is considered as one. Sounds like you need to improve your drawing skills, that's all. There's a difference between a skill and a technique.

The basic drawing technique is putting the pencil's sharp point to the paper and then dragging, thus making a line. Then there are things that could probably be considered techniques - like hatching, crosshatching (you don't need anyone to explain them, you look at a drawing and you see how it's done - a bunch of parrallel lines make a tone), stumping (stay away from it), negative drawing (good for getting the visual brain working), contour drawing (mostly for learning purposes), stippling (time consumming) etc.

Technique is what you need for speeding up a certain process or adding interest to a picture, or achieving a certain "look", NOT controlling proportions or drawing the human figure well - you need observation, knowledge of the thing you're drawing and other skills. I don't think observation is a technique. It's a skill, requiring time and effort to develop.

Learn the basics, like perspective. Draw alot to get a feel for proportion. Dig up some Andrew Loomis books and read them through atleast a couple of times - he explains basic stuff quite well. And it may be exactly what you're looking for. The names of his books are the following:
Fun with a pencil. (very basic)
Drawing the head and hands.
Successful drawing.
Creative illustration.
Figure drawing for what it's worth.
Eye of the painter.
If those are too basic - get Kimon Nicolaide's book "The natural way to draw" and go through the course in that book. If you can manage it, it should help.

You also need to put something inside your head before you can start taking things out. Namely - build your visual library, by doing lots of studies of very varied subjects: machinery, environments, anatomy, critter studies, light and color studies, portraits, and so on.

And btw...
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.

I guess that's just all round drawing advice.
That, or... could you please be a little bit more speciffic with what you need help with?

[Farvus]

It's all analyzing real life objects and using their proportions to construct something new. If there were some simple techniques, I wouldn't have to spend so many years on learning it.

[Alex Chow]

I love sci-fi and when i see concept art for games etc.. of space settings, aliens and such i just love it. But when i try to draw it ends up looking out of proportion and/or childish.

In order for one to alleviate those problems, fundamentals must be learned and understood (which are not really techniques). Fundamentals cannot be considered "simple" at all, however. Every artist has to learn them in order to make things "in proportion" and less "childish" and it takes many years to understand life and apply them through practice. Insect666 already listed great suggestions but do not expect to go from "out of proportion and childish" to Massive Black quality rendering in one night (hence, not very "simple").

[Seedling]

Try the link in my sig called "concept art 101".

[Scotty49]

Thank you all for the advice. I am defiantly rather impatient with myself and realise now that even Massive Black artist were embarrassed, like I, with their first drawings (i hope). I shall continue to sketch and try to get the proportions under control.

[Viridis]

To keep things in proportion, it's best to study the figure, of course. But I also find it helps immensely if you can internalize the guidelines of where things are supposed to match up. For example:

Face:
-Generally split into 3 thirds. Top third is the forehead to brow, middle third is brow to the bottom of the nose, bottom third is nose to chin. The eyes generally line up right in the middle. Lips are positioned halfway between nose and chin. Eyes should be "one eye length" apart. Ears line up between the top of the eyebrows and the bottom of the nose.

Body:
-Adults are generally between 6-8 "head lengths" tall. Shoulders are about 3-4 "heads" wide for guys, smaller for girls. The tips of the fingers fall just in the middle of the thigh. Elbows line up with the bottom of the ribcage.

There are other little measurements, too, that you might not expect, like: the length of the foot is equal to the length of the forearm.

If you can keep these guidelines in mind, then it makes it a lot easier to keep things in proportion, because when you draw your initial sketch figure (I use a modified stick figure with balls for the joints and a more substantial torso), you can see if things line up more easily, and if not... you erase them.

[Mindflaw]

Just have fun drawing and see it as practice not finished works, then you both have fun and improve :)

as said previously get your hand on basic books about drawing read then practice and then re-read and practice. My own experience is that the first reading gets you to memorize the advices/ thoughts etc and then by practice drawing with that in mind you get to understand what the advices/ thoughts etc is about. And then when re-reading you have a deeper understanding and could then get even more out of the same book.

a staple advice (since it's a good one) is to fet a sketchbook that you always have with you and whenever you get some time over sitting on the bus having a break or whatever you pick it up and draw.... draw from drawings that you like to understand how they did that drawing, draw from life, draw from imagination, draw from memory etc. And most important have fun when drawing.

This thread could be good for inspiration one of the ca members who joined the CA and started to draw from scratch so you see the progression over the years. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870)

[Black Spot]

There are other little measurements, too, that you might not expect, like: the length of the foot is equal to the length of the forearm.

Heck. I have small feet or my forearm is too long.

[DigitallyDumbfounded]

Hahaha, Black Spot: Maybe we should put you in the Critique Center so that we can crit your anatonmy. ;P

Scotty: What everyone said and get Loomis, Bridgman-study, and browse thos site, you'll see, once you start seeing the problems individually you can start somewher and fix one after another. :)

[sodAp]

Heck. I have small feet or my forearm is too long.

Well, I was thinking I have VERY small feet or my forearm is VERY long

[armando]

"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" has some good exercises in it for proportions: making a view finder, tracing over a plastic window. It's worth pointing out that she misinterprets "blind contour drawing", it's more about feeling thrusts in and out of the picture plane, one thing that projects forward is balanced by another projecting in the opposite direction, which is explained nicely in Vernon Blake's "the art and craft of drawing": http://www.archive.org/details/artandcraftofdra027904mbp

Arthur Dow's "Composition" http://www.archive.org/details/compositionserie00dowauoft explains 2D space, shape and proportion quite well.

The main trick is to look at surface area, the picture plane, as if there was a window between our eyes and what we see, then just trace onto that flat surface. Learn to group similar values into one shape, and keep track of how much 2D space/surface it occupies, and how it fits together with the other shapes like a puzzle. The books will explain it better.

There's mainly two approaches to drawing: shape/2D and form/3D. Betty Edwards, Arthur Dow have a shape approach, but Edwards concentrates on light and shade for representatioal purposes, while Dow looks at dark and light abstractly. Vernon Blake, and Niccolaides are 3D, and stress feeling through space. Loomis is somewhere in between. Villpu is more 3D than Loomis, and puts more stress on boxes and spheres, constructing space by way of those abstractions. Well, that's my understanding so far. It's interesting reading about various people's interpretations of the subject.

[Hasum]

Unfortunately I'll need to expand on this later, I'm suddenly short of time.
However as I've not seen any of your artwork to give you any more concrete advice, I'll echo what's been said already.
Practice. Make like a sponge and soak up everything you can, from the people here, from artists you admire, from the world around you.

My only suggestion which might be applicable: as children, we tend to draw in symbols. A head is a circle, bodies are sticks or two mostly-symmetric curved lines, and propotions are right out the door.

We develop that as we grow older, but more often than not, the majority of non-artists don't get much beyond the draw-in-symbols stage. The sun is a circle with lines coming off it, etc.

One you start learning to comprehend and draw what you see, you'll be well on your way to making things look less "childish". After the aforementioned fundamentals, you can start drawing the wild ideas in your head (you mentioned liking science fiction, I'm with you there).

Hope that helps. :] I'll try to elaborate later if you want.

[Viridis]

@ SodAp and Black Spot:

Like all things, it's only a guideline. It works for me, but I have rather small hands and feet.