Change of disciplines.. How to train

[antw911]

I've always been an artist, but never was able to actually take any art classes (my parents were very anti "starving artist" as they put it). I've been out of school for a few years now and I'm returning to the arts because i love them. Ive been big into photography for the last 3-4 years. I want to really get into illustration and possibly painting. My question is how do I train on the basics or foundations.
I AM looking at attending TAD in the near future, but I have NO drawing portfolio - though I do have photography work.

I really love your help on this.

[jbrown67]

Well, if you know photography well, you know composition. There are hundreds of tutorials for techniques, but you really just have to jump in and do it. Get a sketchpad and fill it up with perspective and anatomy studies. Get yourself a loomis or hogarth anatomy book, read it and do all the excercises. Get yourself a tablet and photoshop and start painting. Just practice practice practice as with anything else. If you want to get into TAD, you should be putting some serious time and effort into it fast. A great way to learn foundations is through instructional books, you can find lots of them as free pdf's on the internet. Don't just skim through the pictures, but read the words, and do what they suggest. That and... practice! That would be my advice. Oh and also... have a ton of fun while practicing. Don't forget that!

[antw911]

Thanks alot for responding... I'll get on the sketchbook, anatomy book and perspective drawings. I've been working with still life drawings but really wanted some more structure. If you know of any sites in particular to pick up foundations I'd love to hear about them.

[nonameowns]

Thanks alot for responding... I'll get on the sketchbook, anatomy book and perspective drawings. I've been working with still life drawings but really wanted some more structure. If you know of any sites in particular to pick up foundations I'd love to hear about them.

plenty of resources here. you can find them yourself. for starters, go to tutorial section.

get a grip of the basic foundation.

perspective, 1 point, 2 points, mixed, 3 points and 4 points. (4 is optical unless you wanna know how to do distort like fisheye effect)

basic drawing: gestures, construction, volume (simple shapes)
anatomy: draw every bones in every angles. so you can easily draw cool aliens and whatnot from your mind.

light and value: learn color theory and how does light work and what it effect and so forth.

that's the stuff you gonna learn generally. and it all just more practice practice practice!

[antw911]

Thanks, you guys have no idea how helpful you've been.

[nonameowns]

Thanks, you guys have no idea how helpful you've been.

you got it. CA is the greatest art community. :steph: