Skills not ready for art school

[jcsketch]

Hey guys, I'm in bit of a situation here. Hopefully someone can give some suggestions.

I'm 23 years old and I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, but I never learned the foundations of art. As a result whatever artistic talent I have is limited to being able to duplicate what I can see, but no ability whatsoever to create my own original art of comparable quality. I know because of this I'd find it extremely difficult in an art school, as I wouldn't be able to hand in work that I merely duplicated from somebody else, but my own personal work wouldn't be up to par.

What I'm looking for is some way to improve my skills to a point where I'd be able to enter into an art school and be able to do the courses. I was hoping that some of you might have some suggestions on how I could go about this.

I've tried the artbooks but I need more instruction than they give. I don't use the whole basic shapes thing to create the rough picture before I start it, and I know that's one of the major causes of my problem. I'd like to learn that skill but gain some feedback on my progress from somebody. I'm mainly concerned about pencil sketching, art foundations, and then from there working on anatomy and some color studies (I absolutely suck with color since I never bothered with it, and can't paint worth a damn).

Would workshops or gallery courses be my best bet? Or would a mentor be better? If so, where would I even go to look for a mentor? Hopefully someone has some advice here, I'm pretty stuck here. Thanks :)

[Pixeldragoon]

First step; Hang out here for a while, gain the motivation and control to learn as much as you possibly can. If you really want to learn the foundations, I would recommend an Atelier, which is pretty much a mentor program. You are in a studio with a few other students and do hardcore art a few days a week. Look at this thread;
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870
This dude is awesome. Started out worse than me 4 years ago, and came out incredibley. Well, okay, he was slightly better than me. =P You get the picture! Hard work is the key!

[AdamDillabo]

draw from life.

[jcsketch]

Wow, that thread you linked to is awesome, Pixeldragoon :) He improved so much, that's incredible to see the steady improvements. From the sounds of it, the Atelier system sounds like it is exactly what I've been looking for. Now I've just got to find one as I've never heard of such a thing before, lol. It looks like the ARC Museum has a fairly lengthy list of "ARC Approved Ateliers" so that's probably a good place to start. Thanks everyone for the input so far.

[Bubstar]

I just draw all the time, if you can get mentor do it, check out art books to explore new techniques. enroll in a local community college art class.

I find I get motivated by just reading something which demands me to see things in new light or really makes me question how things work. I have a problem with color also but I am dealing with it by painting from life. That has forced me to really see that color is something you learn from practice.

[dogfood]

I'm with Pix; set up a sketchbook here and find some other folks to support you (they're called Sketchbook Support Groups, oddly enough). This place is an art school in its own right.

And try drawing something from reference, then draw it again without reference. It will work wonders.

[luke_q]

Ya i agree with that. Copy something and then draw the same or similar thing from memory. I'll also say the best way to improve is to seek criticism. And be your own harshest critic. Always strive to be better. But not to the point where you break yourself down. Work on your weakest parts most, like hands, feet and facial features. These are everyone's biggest problem at first. I still find hands daunting in some instances. I'd attach some proportional drawings but i'm havin problems attachin things properly. It's my first week here. If and when i figure out i'll show you what i mean. Good luck.

[jcsketch]

Alright, unfortunately a lot of the ateliers I've been able to find take place around this time (meaning they're full for this year) so it's something for me to keep in mind and prepare for next year. Luckily there's a good art community here where I live (Vancouver Island, Canada) so there's still plenty of weekend workshops that I'll be able to hit up :)

On a day to day basis I know I need to draw more. Most of my time drawing takes place on the PC (Wacom tablet) but I need to stop that and use pencil more often. Some days I don't even doodle at all so that needs to end too.

I had absolutely horrible, horrible art courses throughout high school where the most instruction we ever received was from a hand-out, and we were just to draw the final image on it. I honestly can't remember a single time in all 5 years when we drew anything that wasn't already printed on paper. That's why I'm coming off as a bit of a "duh," I'm at such a loss as to how to improve my art :P

I often see the suggestion of 2 hours a day of drawing, too short/long? Lots of people say draw from life, but I never know if they mean just draw some trees, go to a park and draw people, animals, whatever, lol. Or even how far I should develop the sketches when drawing.

Would 2 hours a day of randomly drawing whatever I can see at a park/beach, then uploading it to a sketchbook here to be ripped apart (hehe) be the best route? I can't color worth crap currently so I'd want to focus on improving my sketching, and ability to quickly create pictures from my own imagination.

[Derram]

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you (w/ the skills, not the atelier thing). I'm starting community college this fall so hopefully I'll get better there and then I can jump to another school. The way I go about it is; don't limit yourself to a set number of hours. If your not drawing, ask yourself why not, and if that reason is worth it. Don't feel like it? watching tv, eating, sleeping, etc. I've gotten to the point where I'd rather be drawing than doing most other things (haven't watched tv a couple a months :$ Though I do still try to sleep and eat).
Last thing, drawing from life is good, just don't forget to draw from your head too. It's a drawing skill that you have to refine just as much as your life drawing.

(ya know, I read that and it almost sounds like I know what I'm talking about... now I just have to convince myself to believe most of it... heh)

[jcsketch]

Ah, I knew I forgot to ask something in my post. I was also curious if anyone has used any of the Gnomon Workshop DVD's, and if so, if they were useful at all. I used to watch those old drawing shows when I was younger (imagination station for example, hehe) so I know that I do learn from example. These seem kindof along the same lines as those old shows, except more advanced and for adults.

Thanks for the advice, Derram. I think I tend to avoid drawing because I was seeing no progress the last time when I was spending hours practicing. A couple months ago I was drawing for hours a day attempting to learn to break things down into basic shapes and then build them up. I was actually doing it so much that even when I wasn't drawing whenever I'd see something I'd imagine it as shapes in my head, lol. I've got to get back to doing that I guess.

[JoshK]

IMO the gnomon DVD are just demos of good artists....there are some were you could learn a lot from...Scott Robertson's basic perspective/cubes DVD are helpful. I hear from a lot of teachers that you don't get good by drawing once in a while for hours, but if you draw lets say....3-4 hours a day everyday, you will get good. The key is to just keep drawing as much as you can (without burning yourself out).

[jcsketch]

Since I started this thread I've been drawing daily, even if it's only a doodle or 2, so that's a good improvement :)

I got my hands on the Head and Hands book by Loomis and have been working on learning the technique (sphere+X+facial plate) but it's made me painfully aware that it really is a completely alien way of drawing to me.

I can do a doodle like this (Cal (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=calpicle3.jpg))* by just drawing it, I don't use any planning beforehand. That way is obviously flawed as it can lead to numerous inaccuracies (which are clearly visible in that picture), but that's the way I've always drawn so it's tough to switch. I've enlisted the help of my whiteboard which has made practice a lot easier as I can't crumple it up, throw it into the trash and quit for the day, lol.

I've ordered a couple books that will hopefully help, ("The Natural Way to Draw" by Kimon Nicolaides, along with "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards since it was cheap to bundle them) but I'd really like more instruction than books can offer. It feels like I'm just copying their images most of the time, rather than learning what they're trying to teach.

I should start a sketchbook here, but because I'm working on very basic skills I'm hesitant to do so. If anybody who is reading this thread has used a mentor to help them I'd appreciate hearing how they went about getting that situation. I'm fully prepared to pay for training but I'm not quite sure how to go about finding a mentor in my area. The galleries/schools I've contacted have been less than helpful, unfortunately.

*The picture linked above was done on my tablet in around 5 minutes in order to show a friend the artstyle compared to a couple others. A reference was used for it, a sketch by Casey Jones, as I can only draw when I have a reference. Otherwise it looks like a 3rd grade student drew it, lol :upset:

[ConCrete]

I don't use any planning beforehand. That way is obviously flawed as it can lead to numerous inaccuracies (which are clearly visible in that picture), but that's the way I've always drawn so it's tough to switch.

Dude, its called style...the drawing works fine, its got a comic style on it but I can tell its a male character(whos got an attitude)...

[conniedraws]

i can give a few ideas. if it helps me sound more credible, well i teach Advanced placement drawing to high school seniors. its a college level portfolio class.

+draw from life. throw open a ktchen drawer and draw the utencils. draw a close up of of some childrens jacks with all the little crazy shapes. draw your feet. you hand holding scissors. the corner of a cluttered room.
+the books you mention are among the best out there. (edwards and nicholai) you could spend years doing contour line drawing and every bit would be good for you. it may sound boring, but learning to see edges is a great gateway into observation.
+want to learn to draw values (light and dark)? my fav explanation is called "mapping". Find it in Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson, available at most libraries.

and don't get discouraged. drawing is hard work. like i tell my students, you don't expect to hit every free throw in basketball. with your drawigs, too, your gonna make a lotta misses. don't dispair! it takes lots of bad drawings to get to the good ones. "you've got at least 500 bad drawing in you. get them out as soon as you can."

connie