Copilotdorks Sketchbook! (Beginner looking for advice/direction)

[copilotdork]

Hrrm... Okay. Where do I start...

Me? I guess? My name is Nate, and I'm 19 years old, I live in Pennsylvania. That's about it... Haha.

I've always been interested in art, and always greatly admired other artists work. I've doodled and stuff, mostly cartoon things, with no real bearing on anything that has to do with actual art (form, lighting, all that technical stuff).

I've been lurking these forums for a few days, enjoying all the amazing artwork and decided I was gonna really try to learn how to draw. I got home from work this morning, picked up a pencil and some printer paper, and tried drawing my left hand for a couple hours. I only have two images, as I just started today, but I'm going to try to update this on a regular basis. Mind you these are pretty much my first (real) drawings ever so be as descriptive as possible in your critiques, I don't know many technical terms, or how to achieve most techniques, and I'm not even very sure this is where I should have started... Any advice/help/ will be thoroughly appreciated (I know I'll get a lot haha)! Tear it apart!

Thanks (or sorry, seriously, you guys scare me) in advance!

[copilotdork]

Hey everyone!

I have a quick update for my sketchbook, another hand! Woohoo!

I tried holding something, and I'm pretty content with the result.

I'm also using this as a shameless bump in order to attract anyone who can advise me in which direction to go in order to really start learning the basics of drawing.

Any and all advise is thoroughly appreciated!

Thanks!

[copilotdork]

Just a sketch of some figures using references from Pose Maniacs (http://posemaniacs.com) Any advice/comments on these?

Thanks!

[DinoZord]

Don't stop!

I saw your entry in the DSG. It was my favorite (awesome style), so I had to come check out your SB... But you don't update!
I love the story in your first post; gettin' shit done. Sitting down for two hours straight drawing your left hand. It doesn't sound fun, but it's awesome when you can see visible progress.
Keep posting in here! I'd like to see more!

[BlightedArt]

Get some life drawing classes in there if you can. And also, if you ever think that some of the constructive crit people give you is "mean" or "harsh", just shrug the sentiment off and listen to their advice (I'm not being condescending, just that I love CA.org because people are really brutally honest here, it'll help you learn!), we don't mean any harm by it! :)

H'okay, so life drawing classes are a lot better for studying anatomy than posemaniacs. Posemaniacs are more for doing fast one minute gesture sketches when you wake up etc. The next time you try to draw your hand or from life, only draw the outlines in with *VERY LIGHT* pencil and little pressure, just to faintly put the outline of the subject on paper, then properly define/render the shapes with shading.

You can still do studies with outlines etc, but doing the shading and faintly plotting in your lines first will really help you with your pressure and brushing control.

Hope to see more from you soon. :)

[DeeLock]

At this point, it doesn't really matter what you draw, you just need to practice the act of putting pencil to paper and being able to control what happens when you do so.

It's not as simple as, draw more hands, it's more draw everything, if that makes any sense.

But be sure to check out the Andrew Loomis book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and any Bridgeman book.

Keep drawing!

[copilotdork]

Minor update I guess. I've been doing some stuff lately so drawing has taken a back seat for about a month. I sat down and did two sketches and I've improved a little.