Desperate rookie need help!

[Ivan]

Will you please help me become a good artist?

I have recently started drawing, and by recently I mean two days ago, I'm really enjoying myself drawing and it's always something I've wanted to learn but never had the time before now so I decided to jump on it. I'm probably one of the worst drawers ever, at least my drawings speak of no hidden talent so far.

This is what I've done so far, grabbed two .pdf books, the only I could find, it's the Andrew Loomis fun drawing and figure drawing. I'm not past the first book yet, still doing my lousy comic faces.

If anyone could give me some good tips that would be great, I understand there's no shortcuts, but certain ways are perhaps better for faster improvement than others. I really hope to not have to buy any books though. I have alot of freetime for drawing so I should be able to improve each day.

Maybe what I need most of all is encoragement? Maybe see some of your first drawings? Hehe.

Oh, and this was sort of a "Hey, I'm new here to the forums" message. I'm planning to stay and I'm hoping I can eventually contribute with art and help other people (lightyears away).

[Epoch]

Hey Ivan.
I'm new to this community here too! My main problem for not posting stuff yet is because scanner is down.. :(
Anyway... about learning techniques without buying books.. hmm, I would suggest for you to just u become comfortable with drawing : read the books u own and try to learn/master each subject/style/technique as it comes along. When you feel you have some decent experience, try drawing from life (draw still lifes, objects, people u know, etc) using your newfound skill (hopefully :P) in expressing what u see.
I'm sorry i don't really have any resources for you :( but for me, reading the Osbourn Complete Book of Drawing (and now i know its NOT)... and just sketching from life have improved my talent greatly. If you check this thread again this weekend.. i'll try to have some of my before/after drawings to help you boost self-esteem :)

[Ivan]

Hehe :) Thanks for tips, I'm going to read out these two books and then try to draw from life. Because right now I'm not good enough to do that. I'll try to post some of my own doodles soon as well :)

[AnarchyAo2]

I think your off to the best possible start. You have the right additude. You know there are no shortcuts but there are lessons to be learned.
I'm still learning anatomy and practicing life drawings (to a certain exent). These are my drawing exercises:

1) Still lifes. Just take a couple of pots, pans, glasses, flowers, etc put them on a table. Take a lightsource and set it up ( If you can use natural lighting, I find thats best).

2) Life drawing. Draw your family, draw your dog, cat, whatever.
Some tips for life drawing (and still lifes):
-Draw what you see. Not what you mind wants you to see. Your mind thinks it sees things one way, when in reality they don't look that way. Don't draw a "jar", draw the lines and curves which make the jar. Understand?

3) Copying other people's work. This is probably the easiet way to develop techniques that took other people weeks, months, or years to develop. Think of copying as training wheels on a bike. It keeps you from falling (or screwing up while drawing), and it shows you the techniques needed to ride a bike (lets you develop techniques needed to make a nice drawing). **PLEASE, when you do this, give credit to the artist and the original piece of artwork. For respect to the artist and to avoid any legal trouble.**

4) The DSG, or the Daily Sketch Group, is a great way to get ideas to draw.

5) Drawing from reference. Using photographs to make your own drawings. I find these great when you can't find anyone to draw. We've also got a "Reference" section of this forum. You should go check that out too.

I hope I helped somewhat, and welcome to the forum.

[Ivan]

You helped a ton man, thanks alot :) Great tips.

I know what you mean about the draw what you see, not what you think you see thing, read a little about it, it's weird how hard that is. I can draw the whole thing, then look at the drawing, at the object, and just go wtf? That's not it, hehe.

Another great tip I received was everything has volume, don't just think lines, I tought about this when trying to draw an apple and I realized, it's like in matrix. There is no spoon, just like there is no outer line... :P

[AnarchyAo2]

What your saying about volume and such sounds a lot like the philosphy for painting. Which is good, because I'm struggling to break the habit of thinking in contours. Don't get me wrong, contours are useful. But some things can't be expressed in contour. Like noses. They can't be.

[dzu]

Learn to see and construct things in simple shapes. Try and break complex objects down into spheres, cylinders, and cubes. Understand how light rolls across those 3 objects to help define the form and give the illusion of a 3rd dimension. Learn perspective and how it affects the above 3 objects. Try to get some good instruction in life drawing so that someone with a trained eye can spot your mistakes. Start with basic construction and gesture before your worry about anatomy, edges, etc. I refer you to fredflickstones tutorials in the Life drawing/tutorial sections.

[Mindflaw]

Hi

I see that you got a lot of good tips already. I will give some more that I hope you get good use of they helped me a lot and still does (I´m no pro)
To qoute AnarchyAo2
Draw what you see. Not what you mind wants you to see.
Thats one of the hardest thing to learn, but one exercise to learn this is to draw negative space. Meaning take an object like a chair don´t look at the chair but on the space that is not the chair and draw them. This will make you able to look at one object in two different ways and make you judgement better (since your "eyes" will not trick you as easily) hence what you draw are going to be better.

Another exercise that sound strange but helps a lot is that you draw an object, but you do not look at the paper you are drawing on, just concentrate at looking on the object. It will look crappy but this is a good warm-up exercise and will develop your skills.

On learning basics form check this link (http://www.anticz.com/drawing1.htm)
That I took from MindCandyMans thread "Journey of an Absolute Rookie: Paintings and Sketches" check it out there are more links that might help you.

I find photos a lot harder to draw than comics try draw comics before you try out photos since most of the "brainwork" already are done. See the linework and learn from it. As anarchy said learn from others by copy their work.

Hope this will help you.

[Ivan]

Thanks everyone, really great tips from all. I'm sure they will all help me in my drawing. I'm going to start trying out some new exercises now and hopefully I'm going to see some improvement in not so long.