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Alpha Moth
March 15th, 2009, 04:19 PM
Hi,

I didn't know where to post this, so I will just post it here. I moved to Germany just after I turned 18 (6 months ago), and I will be returning home to Australia in 6 months. During the time I've thought a lot about what I want to do, and what I would enjoy doing to earn a living. I'd like to get into the direction of concept art, 3d or animation.
I don't have a good computer to practice digital art (which interests me the most, not traditional art, I really love the environment works here) so I thought I can sharpen up my knowledge over 6 months before I get home. I can copy pretty much anything, but I have trouble creating my own stuff. I got a dvd from workshop, practical light and color theory to help me on color theory, it still hasn't all sunken in, e.g. grass isn't always green, still finding it hard to believe different. My biggest weaknesses at the moment is character design, understanding perspective (I understand the basics..but not when it gets complicated) and environments. I'd figure I'd try and improve all these areas before I go home. I also think it might be wise for me to further my education to try and land a job in this area, but I have no idea what course I should take. I've been looking at colleges etc in Sydney, Australia, I've looked at diploma of digital art and animation, but I do not know what would be the best thing for me to get into to try and get the best possible chance of getting into the industry for an area in game design, movie, animation, etc.. I'd also be willing to move to another country to get a job, but my education should be done in Australia, since I can get loans from the government for it.

I've been reading a lot of other threads made by other people, because I didn't want to bug people with a new thread, but I may as well.

-For character design, I'd figure I'd need to start learning more anatomy, but I am not sure what the best method is. I've seen advice saying "draw at least once a day, something from real life (is copying from a picture OK too?)" and keep working on that, is their any online resources that I can start learning the basic anatomy of animals (mostly things that will help in character design I guess) from?
-For environments, I understand that things in the foreground should be darker and things close should be more visible and more detailed, and when stuff gets further away it becomes more saturated in defused, like mountains in a distance or something, and I guess perspective comes into this too. What kind of stuff can I do to help me getting better in this area?
Last stupid question, since I can't use a computer, I'd need a good pencil, markers and sketchbook. What kind of thing should I look out to get (keep in mind I am poor!) e.g should I use a 2b, 3b pencil, whats some good markers (prismacolor i heard is good?) for just sketching, for me to learn anatomy and some basic environment concepts.

Thanks for any help, I really need it!

Greetz from Germany

William Whitaker
March 16th, 2009, 10:39 AM
I've been teaching now for a very long time and I think I might have a few generalized answers for you.

Know this. Drawing is everything! A 2B or 3B pencil is just fine. The first thing to get good at is simply making professional looking lines. When I was 16, I made over 400 drawings with an ordinary school pencil (probably a 2B) on regular typewriter paper (today's copy machine paper.) I got very good with lines. Learning to work a computer or a computer program, learning to paint in watercolor, gouache, oils, markers - is easy once you draw well. Not having fancy computer equipment at this time won't hurt you at all.

Copy others. Copy with great seriousness and dedication. You will learn faster this way than anything else you'd do. I was discouraged from copying and that was stupid advice. I could have gotten ahead twice as fast had I done serious copy work. Don't worry about creativity, individuality. That will come when you are artistically ready for it.

Let your art lead you. If you draw exactly what you want when you want to do it, you will eventually go from challenge to challenge and master everything. This has to be fun or you will simply give up. Have fun or you won't stick it out.

Bill

Alpha Moth
March 16th, 2009, 05:06 PM
Thanks for the reply.

I've been reading through this forum, it's a goldmine! I want to pick up a good anatomy book, can anyone recommend me one? I've seen recommended ones like Gottfried or something, the book is in German, that's ok (but even native Germans will not know all the words in this book..) so I'd rather English. Other recommendations were hogarth and bridgeman, can anyone say these are good books for beginners like myself? I've also heard gray's anatomy is good, but yea, I do not know.

Alpha Moth
March 16th, 2009, 05:07 PM
Thanks for the reply.

I've been reading through this forum, it's a goldmine! I want to pick up a good anatomy book, can anyone recommend me one? I've seen recommended ones like Gottfried or something, the book is in German, that's ok (but even native Germans will not know all the words in this book..) so I'd rather English. Other recommendations were hogarth and bridgeman, can anyone say these are good books for beginners like myself? I've also heard gray's anatomy is good, but yea, I do not know.

hemP
March 16th, 2009, 11:58 PM
You can find Bridgman and Loomis PDF's on the internet. There's a full thread on this forum somewhere packed full of online PDF books. You're right about this site being a goldmine. The information is out there my friend, go find it.

Alpha Moth
March 17th, 2009, 05:25 AM
I just downloaded all the Loomis books, and two books from bridgman called human machine and constructive anatomy. I read a bit of the constructive anatomy, how am I suppose to remember all this? It's just explaining how much muscles are in each body part, e.g the hand, where they connect, what happens when you flex them etc, should I be reading all this information and probably not retaining it all, or should I just be copying the pictures in the book? What book is better, the human machine or the anatomy one?

Will any of these books teach me any good "tricks" about drawing figures, etc? So I don't have to draw so to say a box and have the figure measure just so I can get right proportions, etc?