building a foundation

[CarloPiantini]

hi everyone. i'm new to the forum so i hope this is in the right place. i've been doing simple art just for fun for a couple of years, but over the course of this year i decided i wanted to be a concept artist, and I was wondering where to start in building a good foundation. What are some of the books I should, the things I should start with?

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Welcome to CA!

One recommendation I can make is go here: http://acid.noobgrinder.com/Loomis/ and download several of the books...especially Successful Drawing, Creative Illustration, and Figure Drawing for all it's Worth. Make sure to read the text! There are some good exercises to be found in the Mentoring section (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=137) if you don't mind digging around a bit. If your perspective drawing needs work, Carl Dobsky's Perspective downloads (http://media.massiveblack.com/downloads.html#carl) are much more detailed than any other explanation or tutorial I've seen.

Next...If you don't already, try to make a plan to draw X amount per day, and spend at least some of that time drawing from life and focusing on fundamentals such as form, value, and perspective. Also, don't skip or underestimate exercises that look overly "boring" or "simple"...sometimes you can learn a lot by actually doing them. You can start a sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=41) on here if you'd like to receive feedback from forum members, and have a linear way of tracking your improvement.

Another way to approach it is to set simple goals such as one portrait per day, or to participate in every DSG (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=39) topic.

Best of luck. ^_^

[CarloPiantini]

thank you very much! these books look great

[CarloPiantini]

you know, i've been reading Figure Drawing for All its Worth, and there isn't really a whole lot of text. Most of the chapters comprise of his own drawings. I've never really done studies before, so I don't know how to go about using this book. This might be kind of a dumb question, but, how exactly do I go about learning from it?

[JParrilla]

you know, i've been reading Figure Drawing for All its Worth, and there isn't really a whole lot of text. Most of the chapters comprise of his own drawings. I've never really done studies before, so I don't know how to go about using this book. This might be kind of a dumb question, but, how exactly do I go about learning from it?

Read, copy, understand, read more, apply to real life and photos, copy more, etc ,etc