Noob to drawing, much guidance is appreciated :)

[lycanthrope]

Hello everyone

I picked up my pencil and started drawing not too long ago and I would like to know how do I improve my skills in art? My interest in drawing lies in illustration, character conceptual art, comic books and manga and I hope to develop skills in these areas

1) Is there any specific pathways I must follow (eg: still life - potraiture - figure drawing - acrylic)?

2) Is art training by a teacher much better than self taught?

3) If you folks will be so kind as to show me which art tutorial website is good for beginners here. Much appreciated :)

4) For those with many years of drawing experience, how did you started out when you were new to drawing?

Thanks to all who took time out to read and reply to my thread :)

[Qitsune]

I'll try to answer a few questions, for the others I suggest you hang around here and they will be answered shortly.

1) There is not 1 path one has to follow. Drawing from life (be it, people, animals, landscape or still life) is good for you. You should strive to do a bit of drawing from life as often as possible. You don't have to do JUST that. I mean, if you are bored to death drawing apples it's not going to do you any good. You should draw stuff that inspires you to keep it fun. If you have fun, you'll draw more, and you will learn.

2) Opinions on this vary and if you search a little you will find many many discussions about that on ConceptArt.

3)Here... look in the tutorials subforum, or the fine art and discovery, or search 'step by step' in the search tool. Start a sketchbook and post your stuff in it to receive crits on your work.

4) Here again, if you search a little around conceptart you will find what you are looking for. For exemple in the workshop subforum there are many interviews with the instructors with that kind of information.

[lycanthrope]

3)Here... look in the tutorials subforum, or the fine art and discovery, or search 'step by step' in the search tool. Start a sketchbook and post your stuff in it to receive crits on your work.

juz wonderng, do ppl here usually use a scanner or WACOM? which quality will be better?

[Qitsune]

You'll find a bit of everything, some do everything traditional, some draw on paper , scan and color digital, some do everything digital. It easier to do life drawing on paper though, for mobility questions and because you don't have to learn the software and learn to draw at the same time, you can concentrate on one.

[lycanthrope]

1) There is not 1 path one has to follow. Drawing from life (be it, people, animals, landscape or still life) is good for you. You should strive to do a bit of drawing from life as often as possible. You don't have to do JUST that. I mean, if you are bored to death drawing apples it's not going to do you any good. You should draw stuff that inspires you to keep it fun. If you have fun, you'll draw more, and you will learn.


i have this problem with drawing from life is that ppl and animals or cars are constantly moving. how do u overcome this problem?

i tend to draw from photos of ppl, is that good or bad?

[dogfood]

I'll piggy-back on Chantal (well, her response, anyway).

1. Like she said, change up stuff so you're balancing drawing those things that seem fun and those things which will help you advance. If you just do fun stuff and don't get any better, it will kill you just as much as never having fun.

2. It depends on the teacher. There are a multitude of fantastic self-taught professionals. But if you can swing the coin and find a very good instructor or school, you'll be at an advantage (given the same amount of dedication). A poor teacher can drag you down into a miasma of putrid suckage.

3. Again, here.

4. These paths will vary with each individual and will be dictated by your own personality and condition. The key is balance. If you only sit around drawing, you're going to miss out on a lot of good opportunities to observe life (by partkaing in it). Just make sure you're really making note of what you see and think about how you'd go about drawing it.

With regard to your last question, the camera is monocular and is going to see things differently than people do (well, people with two eyes, anyway). The camera is interpreting the image for you, putting one more layer between you and reality. Sometimes, however, it's just too tough to work from life (kids come immediately to mind) and you need to supliment your observations with photography. There's also the fault of workig too closely to your reference and not injecting your own knowledge of your subject.

OK, that was too much to comfortably read, so go observe, study, draw and post and we'll talk more later.

[Yiako]

The answer to your four questions is...
MAGIC ART REPRODUCER

[lycanthrope]

With regard to your last question, the camera is monocular and is going to see things differently than people do (well, people with two eyes, anyway). The camera is interpreting the image for you, putting one more layer between you and reality. Sometimes, however, it's just too tough to work from life (kids come immediately to mind) and you need to supliment your observations with photography. There's also the fault of workig too closely to your reference and not injecting your own knowledge of your subject.

OK, that was too much to comfortably read, so go observe, study, draw and post and we'll talk more later.
so i reckon that drawing using photos is ok up to a certain point? anyway i cant post my stuffs since i dun have a scanner , i'd juz have to hope if i draw enuff i will get better.

[lycanthrope]

another thing is when looking at the photo of a model, wat should i be looking out for specifically? do i need to construct a rough "skeleton" before fleshing it out or should i jump straight into the drawing?

[waronmars]

Definately construct the figure first. This will help you out with live figures that move alot - you can get the pose down then use your knowledge of anatomy, drapery etc to finish it off.

Honestly you just need to DRAW. There is no secret, no amount of question asking will make you magically a better drawer. Look what other people do in their sb's. Pick up that pencil and get going.

http://www.eatpoo.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11173

All your noob questions answered.

[lycanthrope]

i have juz finish drawing and shading the male model. i used a mechanical pencil with 2B lead 0.5mm for the job. since i have no scanner or tablet PC i had to improvise with an old digital camera. i hope my work still shows clearly although it isnt good but its a start, please give ur constructive criticism on my work

[dogfood]

Be cautious of overemphasizing elements that you don't completely understand. In the photo, the abs don't have the strong outline you've given them, and in so doing, you're highlighting that you aren't certain how the abs look and react with the skin encasing them or the rib cage (which you're also not sure about).

Especially here in the early stages it's going to pay huge dividends if you can find out how things work. Be careful not to kill you motivation to draw, though. I'm a serial browser, and the ease at finding out about things makes me want to prolong it at the expense of my drawing time. So keep drawing, but mix it up with some study.

You'll be glad you did.

[lycanthrope]

Be cautious of overemphasizing elements that you don't completely understand. In the photo, the abs don't have the strong outline you've given them, and in so doing, you're highlighting that you aren't certain how the abs look and react with the skin encasing them or the rib cage (which you're also not sure about).

Especially here in the early stages it's going to pay huge dividends if you can find out how things work. Be careful not to kill you motivation to draw, though. I'm a serial browser, and the ease at finding out about things makes me want to prolong it at the expense of my drawing time. So keep drawing, but mix it up with some study.

You'll be glad you did.
if it was up to you, how would u have drawn the model? does it make a difference if i use a mechanical pencil or a normal pencil?

[dogfood]

The medium is immaterial.

How would I do it? Hmm... Well, there are a host of good books that address the how's, but there are a couple different ways to go about it. Here's one (but do not take this as the only way to go or even the preferred method; this will simply help see the bigger shapes first):

Use light lines for the first several steps and as you darken, realize that lines often represent value shifts (when you're not using the actual values), so go lighter and darker depending on what you're identifying. During each step and prior to starting a new one, look at the drawing in a mirror (or reverse horizontal if it's on the computer) to ensure you're not skewing things (we all have this tendancy unless you've trained yourself out of it). You can even look at everything upside down.

1. Identify the major axes (the plural to axis) and carefully measure out where they are going on the paper (don't be afraid to use a grid set-up until you train your eye to go it alone). Right now, you might only have four light dots on the page, or you might have several, each identifying the end of a "high point". You may even use 7 or 8 lines to block in the major points and compare that to imaginary points and block-in on the source (or real points if you want).

2. Block in the major shapes, paying close attention to relative positions and angles. You can start lightly laying out the stuff not on the outlines, but only the major bits that help you accurately define the entire shape. Once you've gotten done with this point, the relationships must be the way you want them (if you're deviating from the reference). Do not move on until they are.

3. Refine the shapes. They should start looking close to the contours on the image. Continue to lay in the interior stuff.

4. Render to taste.

If you'll notice, there are far more instructions for the planning and getting the proportions right. That's because unless you do get them right, no amount of rendering is going to make it look right. You'll just be polishing a turd.

[DannySketch]

this thread makes me happy:yayca:

thankyou dogfood for that last post, was helpful to me also

lycanthrope if you have a digital camera then its REALLY a good idea to set up a thread in the sketchbooks section, a scanner would be more ideal but people will live with digital photos and you can get crits on a regular basis, specially if you join a sketchbook support group here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=928783#post928783) where people will put a link to ur sketchbook on the signature and visit your sketchbook regularly with crits and encouragment

the most important thing ive learnt from ca is to draw LOTS i couldnt believe it when i heard people would draw 13 hours a day but alot of the pros do,

peace

[lycanthrope]

this thread makes me happy:yayca:

thankyou dogfood for that last post, was helpful to me also

lycanthrope if you have a digital camera then its REALLY a good idea to set up a thread in the sketchbooks section, a scanner would be more ideal but people will live with digital photos and you can get crits on a regular basis, specially if you join a sketchbook support group here (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=928783#post928783) where people will put a link to ur sketchbook on the signature and visit your sketchbook regularly with crits and encouragment

the most important thing ive learnt from ca is to draw LOTS i couldnt believe it when i heard people would draw 13 hours a day but alot of the pros do,

peace
thanks for the link, now that my exams are finally over i can start drawing again :)

[lycanthrope]

snipped
so ur saying that i should not shade the drawings until i get better?

[dogfood]

Oh, goodness, no.

Above all things, keep yourself interested. If you become mired down in boring exercises and drawing is no longer fun, the likelyhood of continuing is low. No, it's just good to balance the fun with the growth, to maximize your improvement over time.

[lycanthrope]

a new one :)

[lycanthrope]

based on...

[Robert.B]

Well as we must all learn to crawl before we walk I would suggest pricking your finger and drawing on toilet paper as i was taught at an early age.

[blog]

dude where are you getting these refs from, I mean dayum!<3

[lycanthrope]

dude where are you getting these refs from, I mean dayum!<3
from my local gay site :D but juz to set the record straight, i am not gay :) they juz have very good models on the site and i dun have money to spare for life drawings so i can only opt for the cheaper alternative

http://www.sgboy.com/hotbods/

[lycanthrope]

Well as we must all learn to crawl before we walk I would suggest pricking your finger and drawing on toilet paper as i was taught at an early age.
what do u mean by that?