Is it possible to learn how to be artistic?

[morgothaod]

I like to draw but I'm not very good at it. I'm curious if I can actually become a great cartoonist/artist from just educating myself and working hard. Or do you all think I need a God given talent to have any chance of being successful? I would like to create the next big cartoon series.

If it is possible to get much better via books, can you all suggest some to me?

How would I go about creating a cartoon on my computer? What program would I need? Would I need a mac?

Thank you

[jason01]

yes - most people who are good at drawing have just been practicing for a long time.

remember cartoons can be "poorly drawn" - if people like the writing. South Park (paper cut outs) and Beavis and Butthead are two excellent examples.

here are a couple books - these show drawing tips and animation and story tips

http://www.amazon.com/Directing-Story-Professional-Storytelling-Storyboarding/dp/0240810767/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233165557&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284/ref=pd_sim_b_6

[pitabread]

Skill = practice + time. It takes time and hard work, but you can become better if you work at it.

And yes, cartoons don't necessarily need good art skills if the writing is good. Poor art (South Park, Kevin Spencer, etc) can actually be part of a cartoon's charm.

That said, if you want to improve your cartooning skills I'd suggest learning to draw from life. Cartooning is essentially abstracted life, so the better you can draw from life, the better you should be able to simplify and abstract it.

As for software, Adobe Flash is popular and used in many cartoon series (both online and television series).

[ZeroDyne]

I'd say talent is something that's very subjective... I've seen some people who couldn't draw at all but took classes and within a year they got to a good level. And then there's people who's been drawing forever and think "being an animator is my destiny" type of thing but can't draw even after years of trying.

While it's very possible to learn to draw on your own, you can learn alot faster with a school. I suggest taking a year in an art fundamentals class at your local college/university and make sure there's tons of life drawing available. As everyone's said, life drawing is very important. Even if you just learned on your own, if you drew from life, it would make your skill alot better (though some theory can't hurt, ie books like bridgman's or force by Mike Mattesi).

In the end, the reason why everyone says "life draw life draw life draw" is simply because life drawing improves all your drawing skills (perspective, proportion, accuracy, spacial awareness, and speed) at once. You can spend decades reading books to the point that you memorize the concept but drawing it is totally different.

As for software, there's many different types of programs so i wont get too into it... but like they said, flash is good and simple to use (hard to master).

Good luck

[Helioth]

yes, use your senses and imagination, approach things from many different angles, also try synesthesia (cross-sense thinking).
There are of course limits, for everyone, though i doubt anyone's ever reached them, the real limit is on how fast how much how well you can learn, not what you can do with it all in the end (i think).
Sometimes this is called talent, your innate capacity, I'm not sure as to the importance of this, I like to thing of talent as a misspelling of love (for the subject), althought I know this is hopelessly idealistic and there is some truth to genes and "blood".

In any case, live your dream and create your world, nothing's worse than dieing and regretting how you wasted your life and being continually bored (not that i would know, about dieing, or being bored).

2 quotes: Study without desire spoils the memory and retains nothing that it takes in l.d.vinci
try not to be a man of success but a man of value (in reply to your "I want to make the next BIG comic series") a.einstein

[Helioth]

imagine a colour, now imagine what it would smell like, taste like, sound like, how you would write about it, what sort of monsters would come out of it... how hot or cold it would be, how, if it were a person it would be someone you know...

Endless combinations of sense on sense, starts with anything ends with anything, taste (quality/ feel) is a good thing to select with though ;D


Compare things across senses... Damn, I don't know, when you're making your favourite soup, smell the vegetables and then hum their essence (odour or flavour), then dance how you would think they'd move.

It can be anything, It will get your creativity going though :}

I believe it was joshua reynolds who said that, essentially, creativity is no more than selection and combination of images stored by the mind (exact words i've forgotten, may be wrong!)

[Jem'ennuie]

90% practice
10% knowing that practice is all it takes
0% talent

[Helioth]

90% practice
10% knowing that practice is all it takes
0% talent

or... 0% is the amount you will know for certain how far your talent took you instead of how far you took your talent.

I guess we would have to inhabit someone elses body (whilst still remembering ours) and mind, in order to detect our "talent".