I wasn't sure where to posts this but here goes... I want to "learn how to learn to draw" if that makes sense. This is not a topic on me wanting to learn "how to draw", only to get the answer "yOu NeEd tO PrAcTiCe" about 40 times over and over again. I guess what I'm saying is I wanna learn the best ways to practice. Should I trace things and hope my hand learns how everything goes? Does drawing the same image over and over again help you to draw in a particular style, or is it better to draw many things within that style(by style I mean Toon(american), Anime, Realism, etc.)? I'm not sure if anyone here is skilled in traditional arts but if you are it would be great if you posted some of your work and talk about how you got to that point(and don't just say practice, i wanna know how you practiced). Some tips and tricks would be nice too if you got 'em.
I used to draw before I got into Digital Art. I'd post some of my drawings but I have no idea where the drawing pads are. But anyways, I did cartoons, realism and all that. I got practice by looking at things and drawing them. Sometimes I would look at the object once, and draw it without looking at it again. Then I would compare how I did, and I would keep trying. I usually used references for most of my drawings. I did draw freestyle with no references sometimes as well but it was a lot less realistic.
First of all, there is no good way to "learn how to draw." And Secondly,"you need to practice" over and over again. Get ideas jotted down on a scratch piece of paper. Draw faces and anything else that comes to your mind onto a scratch piece of paper. After that take your pencil, trace it out and then erase things that you don't like and make it better. Then again either trace or place it in front of you and re-draw it onto a white piece of printing paper or any other type of drawing paper. Erase and try to finish up to get the final look. This final look does not have to be all lines, it can be shading or anything else that you want. And you should have your first drawing. Mostly, in the beginning I traced drawings and stuff, like characters from Dragonball Z, Cartoons that show up on Nick as they are 2D they are easy to practice on, and as you get better and better, focus more on large pieces like actual humans, not in the human form but in a cartoonist form. As for beginners, you shouldn't focus on the professionality of the piece but on how much fun you had making it, because in the end it all comes down to whether you like it or not. To start you off here are some sites that I googled, which should've been your first choice on finding out more about learning how to draw because that way you will get better and more professionaal responses. http://www.learn-to-draw.com/ <--Checked it out and looks fine to me. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=l...mp;aq=f&oq= <--Go there and you can find further more websites. Once you get familiarized with drawing basic figures maybe if you want to give it a shot try doing digital drawing by going over to DeviantArt and looking at the Digi Paintings / Tutorials that they have. It is the best resource whore you can find on the net Enjoy and hope I helped. PS: If you want more info just ask and I will be happy to help. I haven't drawn in the past 1 or 2 years but I love to draw. It is a passion and you should never let go of your passion. That is one of the reasons I am on the site though I tend to draw singatures and tags instead of actual pieces. It is art overall. PPS: If you need more additional help and from a professsional, then go to DeviantArt and send a note to the artist that you like. Most probably they will help you out Zain.
check out markcrilley on youtube, he has a lot of tutorial vids on anime/ people figures...etc check it out http://www.youtube.com/user/markcrilley i learned a lot with his vids.
I know you need practice which is why I said this: I know I need to practice, what I want to know is "how to practice" or "ways to practice" since there is no right way if that makes sense. Knowing this I would assume would give me a good start in becoming a better artist instead of practicing bad habits that don't really help. Trust me it was my first choice, I've been looking at tons of sites on "how to draw" but they don't really show you how to draw IMO, instead they show you what to draw next(not saying they don't help but I think they could be better). Yeah I've thought about that too, and have been adding tutorials to my favorites for two or three years now. Gotta "learn to crawl before I can walk" so to speak though (plus I need a tablet ). Will do, and thanks for the reply ^_^. Yeah I found his videos about a month ago, thanks for posting though. Pretty much everything on "how to draw" that you can find on the net I've seen guys, that's why I'm asking for good ways to practice drawing. It's been my personal experience that tutorials always draw things in steps and expect you to know how to complete that step. Example: 1. Draw a sort of skeletal system for your character(sounds easy enough) 2. Now start drawing the outlines for everything(Where do I start?Left, right, top, bottom, eyes, nose, etc.? If it's a particular part like the head what part of the head do you start at?) 3. Now add the shading(How do I do that? Cross hatching, straight up and down, left to right, same direction as the part I'm filling in, scribble it in, etc.? Then after all that I wonder things like how long should I draw(or sketch) something, should I draw it more then once(repetitively till I get good at that single image)? If I'm drawing the whole body or every part that makes up a particular object should I practice one part of it until I get good at that one part then move on to the next part, or should I always draw everything at once? I hope you can understand my terrible english, and I hope I'm not repeating myself too much.
I think the hardest part is putting what you want to draw in your head. I don't mean seeing it, because if you only see it, once you stop, the picture will be gone. I mean that you have to be able to close your eyes, and get your imagination to draw it out in your head. If you have do that, you'll be able to see it on the paper because your imagination will put it there, and then all you'll have to do is trace the lines. You have to let your mind do all the hard work, and let your eyes just help. Once you've gotten that down, just practice a lot. Your hand has to get as comfortable to drawing whats in your head as it is with writing letters.
Your English isn't terrible. Mine's worse. I just write whatever comes to mind first and never re-read it to fix mistakes. 1. Do Stick Figures. They are a nice way of starting out. 2. Outlining is fairly easy and depends on where you want to begin. I always go for the head first as it starts the whole impression of the face and that way if you decide to make the face angry you can get an idea of how you want the body to be and just go from top to bottom. I would say go from Head to Shoulders / Arms to Torso to Legs and then finish off the clothing. Clothing depends on you actually how you want to do it of if you don't want to do any. It is the part that comes into effect if you are going to colour your drawing later. 3. Shading is the BEST PART OF THE WHOLE FREAKING DRAWING And I say it as a good thing. You can go crazy here but not too crazy as you need to keep in mind the effect of lighting as that is part is the most crucial part of the whole concept of drawing. It is where your Shading, Colouring and everything else takes place. I would say that in the beginning take your pencil and scribble in the shading using small and long strokes of straight lines. That is how I start and then from there on I go into fill it in if I feel like it. If not I just leave it there. Remember one thing Eraser is your Best Friend in a Drawing but also your worst. Hence, I don't use it that much. I just leave my drawing the way it is because free hand drawing is much better than actually going in and erasing stuff to get it right. That part comes in much further where you actually want to get something coloured or just pretty much outlined. Remember to use large strokes rather than small ones. Remember to utilize your whole arm and elbow rather than your wrist. If you use your wrist you wont get the full motion of your hand, and if you use the full arm motion it is the best as it gives you better strokes and results in the end. Also, the part which is hard overall is the part of actually thinking to draw something or to actually look at a concept and then draw from there. By concept I mean like an external picture in front of you then you draw it out. If you are doing like the ---'s these days, then they think everything then jot it down on scratch and go from there. People like me, sometimes just take couple of pictures which have similarity between them and then go on from there. That way it is much easier. As for your last question I would say that scratch the part of drawing one thing over and over again. If you really want to get good and fast, pick up a Pokemon, Digimon or Any of the Cartoon Network / Nick Cartoon Magazines. Practice drawing them as much as possible. They have heads, feet, hands, bellies and other parts for you to practice on. And the important one they all have good impressions for beginners. I used to draw that back in the past, and it helped me. Don't stay on one part for long. Maybe do one drawing of hands and one of feet then put them together in another drawing with different body parts and such. Again, ask if you get stuck. Zain.
I think just drawing in shadow is a fun exercise. throw a B&W into PS, threshold it, and draw what you get.
