Draw!

[Dog--]

So, I'm bored, and when I was little, and when I got bored, I would draw. Now, when I was 7 and drew a shitty picture, it'd get hung on the fridge. Now I am 16, and if I draw a shitty picture, I'll probably get called a retard and told not to draw anymore (not by my parents, lol).

I suck at drawing, and it'd be a nice thing to do when I am bored (which seems to happen alot), but the problem is - I can't draw!

Any help for a shitty drawer?

I would draw the best I can right now, and show it to you as an example, but you can probably imagine it. 2D, stick men, army tanks, boom. That's about it. Never taken art class in school, never plan too (not that I don't want to, but I hear the teacher - the only art teacher in the building - is a complete bitch and strict, etc.)

Any free tutorials and lessons on drawing or anything?

P.S. If it's not free, please don't bother saying anything. And no, I don't live near a library..



For the record, I do love drawings, and like to look at them, only problem with this hobby is that I can't contribute to it.. My favorites would have to be the artwork for the Metal Gear games though, it's awesome (especially MGS3). Look at the cutscenes for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP), those are the best example. The artist is Ashley Wood.

 

[DannyC.]

I'm the same as you. I've always really appreciated drawing/art, but I've never really done any myself. I recently decided I'd like to start practicing and become good.

I found this handy page: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm He has some tips about reference sketching and "study sheets" at the bottom.

I know you said not to say anything about anything that's not free, but I heard about and decided to purchase a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It's vastly helped me. Here's the site, if you care: http://www.drawright.com/

Edit: I guess I killed your thread. Sorry.

 

[BaconIsGood4You]

The best way to learn is to draw from life. Draw your hand, your living room, your pets, the outdoors, etc. The key to this though is to stay loose, don't erase and don't stress out about your lines. Don't be careful and don't worry if it doesn't look right. Basically just lay alot of quick gestural marks down and commit to the drawing. When people start drawing they tend to go straight to a perfect outline, carefully and minutely drawing things in single lines. Thats bad, it doesn't teach you anything about the form or the medium, its very restricting. By staying simple and loose you get more confident with the pencil and learn to build on things.

Once you feel ok with drawing, take a life drawing course at a local college or museum and draw some boobies! Drawing nudes is the best way to learn.

 

[Jintor]

Practise. Practise. Practise. Practise.

I've always been drawing; I can't remember a time when I wasn't. And I always hated my end-results. I can show you stuff I drew last year I hate now. I can show you stuff I drew last month that I hate now. To non-artists apparently it looks awesome. But to me, it looks shit.

But what you have to do is practise, practise, practise, practise. Sketch in your free time. Just get an image in your head and try and get it down on paper.

 

[Omega11]

Practise. Practise. Practise. Practise.

I've always been drawing; I can't remember a time when I wasn't. And I always hated my end-results. I can show you stuff I drew last year I hate now. I can show you stuff I drew last month that I hate now. To non-artists apparently it looks awesome. But to me, it looks shit.

But what you have to do is practise, practise, practise, practise. Sketch in your free time. Just get an image in your head and try and get it down on paper.

Dayum, me too, everybody (who sees it) likes my work, but I always see room for improvement, or things I could try, and things I could do differently, there's always room for improvement ^^.

 

[Vegeta897]

Yeah um... I almost never found any help in anything I've read.

I've been drawing all my life (well, doodling I guess) and you just get better naturally. I really don't think you could read anything to help you out. Just draw a ****ing lot. You start naturally learning how the visual world works.

 

[Crushenator 500]

www.conceptart.org/forums

You will get more help/inspiration there than here, but it will still be the same basic things (draw from life, keep practicing etc)

Post some drawings if you want real help on what to improve and how to do it

 

[Darkside55]

I'll give you some advice. Those people who'd tell you you draw like a retard, and you should give up? DON'T LISTEN TO THEM. Seriously man I had someone tell me something similar almost fourteen years ago (actually it was more along the lines of, "You'll never be good"), and I gave up drawing. I didn't pick it back up until recently, and I'm amazed that people really get down on my art. They love it. Best of all I'M happy with it, which matters more. But these days I'm drawing (I've even got my pad sitting by me now, because I doodle while on the computer) and I think, "Damn, if I'd spent those fourteen years practicing, who knows what I could've done?"

Also, as for free advice...www.hoddinott.com. You WILL have to register for the more advanced lessons, but it's completely free. Also, check www.about.com 's drawing section, sometimes there's good stuff there.

What Bacon said about drawing from life is also some of the best advice you can get. A lot of times people try and draw something that's already been drawn; they'll pick up a comic book or something and draw from that. And while I will say that can sometimes be very beneficial, all the hard work's taken out of it for you like line weight and tone and everything else. When you draw from life you have to make those decisions and find out why something looks the way it does. Helps you understand it a bit more, and when you understand something you can draw it better. That's why anatomy books for artists always include the muscles and skeletons, so you can see how it all works.

And as Jintor said, keep drawing. All the time. If you only draw once a week, it's not enough. Draw CONSTANTLY. Draw in your off time. Draw when you can multitask (like I said, I'm sitting here surfing the net and drawing with my free hand...that's the good thing about being a lefty, since my right hand controls the mouse ). Draw all the time, and have fun with it.

 

[Fliko]

If it makes you feel any better, Matt Groening use to draw HORRIBLE pictures, but he eventually developed his horrible style into something NICE by practicing, and trying different things.

 

[Dog--]

Draw in your off time. Draw when you can multitask (like I said, I'm sitting here surfing the net and drawing with my free hand...that's the good thing about being a lefty, since my right hand controls the mouse ).

Well, if I draw in my off-time, while surfing the net, I'll be the best artist ever, because I've got dial-up, and am constantly downloading stuff.. I usually use alot of that "sit n' wait" surfing time to play these little flash games I've saved on my computer, I've actually never thought of drawing while waiting (which I do more then you'd think - each hour I spend surfing the net, I actually do, probably, about 45-50 mins waiting, playing flash games). Time to go find a pad + pencil! Ha!

When you wait for the internet, you don't even realise how much time goes by while waiting until you look at the clock.. It's kind of stupid.. Time is only supposed to fly when you have fun D:




BTW, does that "drawing the basic shapes first" stuff really work? Like you draw a flower but first jot down an oval, and triangles around the oval, do people do that, or is it just a bunch of crap?

 

[Darkside55]

I used to think it was a bunch of crap. I couldn't do it for some reason, drawing a stick figure then building the muscles on top of it then filling in the details. So I'd just skip to trying to draw something without a foundation.

The me of today would like to beat the me of yesterday senseless. Trust me, draw the shapes. Practice the shapes constantly. You want to have pages and pages of thumbnail-sized shape figures. It really does help.