Learn to Draw!

[johnmedz]

Well. Im currently in school for a BFA and have taken several drawing and other art courses. i really like a lot of the work ive seen on these forums and have done some myself that i will post soon, i promise. There are some tips ive learned along the way id like to share with you all. there are some things i think everyone needs to know when drawing something. i realize that there are different styles of art and some of these techniques wont apply for some styles, like many pen drawings, but these tips should be helpful for drawing a more realistic picture with all types of media.

1. Make sure your lighting conditions are good. this is just really important for getting the shadows easily visible. a trick i was taught is to blue ur eyes a little. its a strange technique and its kind of like crossing your eyes but not really. This will make it much easier to see light and shadows and the contrast between them at your reference

2. Know your media. looks like you used mainly pen and pencils to do this art. do u ever try charcoal? it can give great results! having control of which media to use and when to use it is really important

3. FORGET ABOUT LINES! :flame: lines are just symbols weve learned to use to express something. lines do not exist in reality, they are just our visual interpretation of a contrast of light and dark values. everything is just a balance of light and dark when your are drawing. if you dont see a dark line, dont draw a dark line. often times when drawing an object that has a shadow cast on one side, the other side that is light will only have a faint line or no line at all, just make sure u build in some dark areas in the back to bring the light forward.

4. keep your view steady. this is important for if you are drawing a model or a stationary object. if you are moving up and down and side to side, your perspective will change and thus u wont have an accurate representation of your subject.

Thats all I feel like including now but if anyone has any questions for me or anything theyd like me to add, let me know. ill be updating this over time. thanks! :smoking:

johnmedz

 

[TheSomeone]

Nice tips, especially for noobies like me. Thanks, I already knew most of those but I'll refer to them .

<3

 

[Garfield_]

yeap, thanks i really needed this .>

 

[TheSomeone]

However about the lines, I don't think that's true for all art, because that would completeley discredit comic book artists as artists. I think it's a skill to be able to put lines in the right place, even when they dont exist in real life.

<3

 

[Amicus]

Lots of artists use contours... michelangelo for instance.

But i understand what you mean.

Getting my BFA too Freshman

 

[short recoil]

However about the lines, I don't think that's true for all art, because that would completeley discredit comic book artists as artists. I think it's a skill to be able to put lines in the right place, even when they dont exist in real life.

<3

It all depends what you are drawing, lines are actually very useful for concept art e.t.c for shapes.

When i draw i sketch the drawing with very light lines and then with the shading the lines go.

Here is an example quick sketch using heavier lines, in all honesty i dont think it looks bad at all, especially as its concept art.

 

[johnmedz]

It all depends what you are drawing, lines are actually very useful for concept art e.t.c for shapes.

When i draw i sketch the drawing with very light lines and then with the shading the lines go.

Here is an example quick sketch using heavier lines, in all honesty i dont think it looks bad at all, especially as its concept art.

thanks you all for the input. i meant to include something in there about if you are doing concept or a more graphic type art style, that lines are totally okay.

basically, another thing with art (perhaps the most confusing thing) is that you can take all these rules ive laid out and not follow a single one and still come out with a nice work of art.

This "tutorial" definately does not apply to all types of art and really only applies to still life and figure drawings with charcoal.

These tips, however, have made me a better artist and i felt that many people could use these techniques to further their own skill in the field and in the mod community! My buddy does mostly pencil and i gave him these tips and literally overnight, i saw a drastic improvement in his work.

If anyone else has anything to add, please do. id like this to be an ongoing thread on technique if possible.

 

[TheSomeone]

Yeah, I didn't say I disagreed, only that I found it untrue on a certain level. When I'm drawing portraits or figure for example, I wont use lines. But when I dont feel like shading, well i'm obviously going to use them.

<3

 

[eatbugs]

Could you possibly run us all through a few tricks on getting perspective correct. I think that's where most people give up with art.

 

[eatbugs]

Or... .not..

 

[Druckles]

Helpful, except when you're drawing from your imagination

 

[Sulkdodds]

What's blueing your eyes? 0.o

And that's a nice pic, Short Recoil.

 

[Druckles]

I think he means blurring?

 

[Sulkdodds]

Okay, what's 'blurring your eyes'?

 

[Druckles]

Well, it's really easy to do

You go slightly cross-eyed... it's hard to exlpain, but if you know what you mean, its obvious. It's like there's three forms of sight. Normal, blurred and cross-eyed (there's squinting as well, but that comes under blurring)

 

[Sulkdodds]

Oh right, I know what you mean... like this right?

^ ^
o . o

 

[CrazyHarij]

I'm going to quote Feng Zhu, famous concept artist and owner of www.artbyfeng.com:

There are no shortcuts. I’ve been teaching for about four years, and every student wants to know the secret of getting better. But there is no secret.
The harder you work, the more you draw, the better you get.

 

[Glo-Boy]

I think I might have to disagree with Feng. He's better than I am, obviously, but I have learned quite a bit of helpful methods and tricks to keep my drawings looking nice.

Practive is 99% of talent... but there are some things here and there to boost you up.

 

[TheSomeone]

Practive is 99% of talent... but there are some things here and there to boost you up.

Obviously there are some little boosts, and he probably knows it considering he IS one of them (an art teacher!). But they're only boosts, not shortcuts as you said. So I don't think your statement is entirely contradictory of Feng's.

<3

 

[Druckles]

Practise is not 99% of talent. Often people are given the ability of genius (lucky sods) lol. The still must practise, but there is more than 1% pure talent

 

[CrazyHarij]

You learn and develop alot by just practising, believe me. Actually, that's the only way you can develop. You can read and study all the anatomy and tricks/methods in the world, and still not be a good artist unless you put that information into practical exercise.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I would say it's like skills in an RPG. If your character class is an Artist then you'll start with the Art skill, unique to your class. But if you want to get good you'll have to level your Art skill up.

 

[Ikerous]

These are nice tips for learning how to draw well, but is it actually possible to learn how to draw?

I can look at any basic object, or imagine something i'd like to draw, and i can not for the life of me re-create it on a peice of paper. I cant even re-create a basic outline of it.

The stuff i see some of you guys do just seems unbelievable to me...

 

[Sulkdodds]

but is it actually possible to learn how to draw?

Can a Warrior class cast healing spells?

 

[CrazyHarij]

These are nice tips for learning how to draw well, but is it actually possible to learn how to draw?

I can look at any basic object, or imagine something i'd like to draw, and i can not for the life of me re-create it on a peice of paper. I cant even re-create a basic outline of it.

The stuff i see some of you guys do just seems unbelievable to me...

I'm sorry to say this but I think Sulkdodds is completely wrong.

EVERYONE can learn to draw. I couldn't draw jack shit for my entire life, but one day my mother started teaching me to hold a light pencil and draw careful lines etc, and just keep and keep and keep practise. It still looked like jack shit, but I began to improve. My drawings were completely non-3D and the proportions were ridiculous, but I kept working on it and I got better!

I'd advise you to do the same. Get a basic book on drawing or something, and don't worry about how crappy you think you are compared to the great artists, they have been drawing for many, many years and they had the same problems as you have. No one is born a great artist, and there's no such thing as talent (perhaps to some extent, but never ever believe you won't get better at drawing because you don't have "natural talent". That's BS.)

Remember that you are never going to be better than the amount of time you practise. You're going to have to spend alot of time if you want to improve, I think it took about 2 years from that I started reading polykarbon.com tutorials until I had a decent understanding and ability to draw proportionally correct humans and somewhat decent anatomy, and things like perspective and lighting/shadow. (But it's really hard to say that, since you always improve. You can't really take a picture from last week and say "Hey, this is the best I can do", because you always improve, slightly.) Improvement is very slow however, and very natural. Like Feng said, there's no secret to getting better, only to practise. You might not even notice how you improve except when you compare older drawings with your current work.

Forget talent, the only thing you need is practise, mate.

(Can anyone of you define talent? Is it a natural fallacy for the subject? You can grow a natural fallacy for almost anything by getting into it, just like people begin to get interested in different fields of work as they study more and more in university. A person who hated math suddenly loves it, and a person who never wanted anything to do with medical stuff graduates and becomes a doctor.)

 

[Sulkdodds]

Looking back on that comment, I feel pretty ashamed. That'd be so discouraging if you thought you had no 'natural talent'. So for what it's worth, I take that back and I'm sorry.

Speaking from personal experience, I was able to just draw naturally from a very early age (not that well, but good for a three-year old). Until you made that post Harij I'd never met anyone who started from absolutely not being able to draw anything to actually being good. All the people who I know in my personal life who are good at art have always been good for their age, and have had 'natural talent', although I know a few who should be good but never bother practising. Of course you need to practise constantly, and always be looking for ways of improving. To be honest, I don't practise enough...

There's a tendency to look at your own work, and then look at the work of a professional artist, and theirs is so much better than yours that you think "god, I'm really awful". But that's rarely true. Are you a professional artist who has years of experience? No? Then don't kick yourself over not being able to match one.

 

[TheSomeone]

EDIT: you made another post while I was typing this one up, so keep in mind I hadn't read that one before.

I have to completely disagree with skulldodds. First of all, comparing real life to computer games is a bit ridicilulous, second of all, it's unjust and unfair to say someone just can't realize their wish. There's always a chance. In my own words, talent has become a simple excuse for those too lazy to practice "I just can't do it, you were born good." Sure, some people are natturally better than others, but some of my friends who were much more talented than me four years ago I outdraw today, simply because they stopped practicing and I started.

This may sound like overdramatization, but I'm a bit upset by Skulldodd's comment. It really shows what kind of species we are. We just love to categorize, segregate, and demoralize. Why? We have much more in common than in difference. Although our DNA makeup varries, it does so by how much? A few amino acids here and there? Sorry, but what you're proposing is what I would call "talentism," which, in my opinion, isn't much better than other forms of segregation/categorization such as sexism and racism.

I'm sorry if I made you angry or made you feel bad, but that's how I feel. :/

Much <3 anyways,

 

[Sulkdodds]

It was an awful comment by me, and the "" on the end makes it worse. ;(

Some people are naturally good at things - I know someone who is incredible at maths, can just do crazy calculations in his head completely intuitively. It's a natural ability he has. But I also know people who are brilliant at maths and weren't born with any affinity for the subject.

 

[StardogChampion]

A good way of drawing if you're lazy (like me), is when you're watching a DVD, have an A4 sketchpad near you then pause the DVD whenever a character does a cool pose or something cool to draw comes up.

This way you get to be lazy and watch a movie and draw at the same time.

 

[TheSomeone]

It was an awful comment by me, and the "" on the end makes it worse. ;(

Well it's all good , things like these we wish we had never said, but look at it this way: you sparked an intresting conversation. I do agree that some people are naturally better than others, I just find that everyone can do anything (or almost).

I'll forgive and forget .

Much <3, that's what the world truly need.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It's a really weird issue isn't it? And of course it'll end up branching off into all these huge debates over how much of the human psyche is determined by DNA, how much by upbringing, is there any point to life...

I think we should start with the art tips again.

 

[TheSomeone]

I think we should start with the art tips again.

Yeah

I find it makes a huge difference what I'm thinking while I draw. If I try to hard to "make something good" I'll get frustrated and the drawing will turn out [censored]ty. However, If I just trust myself with the pencil, the drawing will most likely turn out better.

It's also important to be confident in what you'll draw, otherwise you can get very frustrated. One easy way to boost your artistic self-esteem is to go back to your old sketchbook, and in your new one re-draw sooped up versions of your old drawings, and marvel at how much you improved.

I find music can play a large role. I listen to Beethoven or Mozart's Requiem whenever I'm drawing a serious piece, and I have an MP3 cd of independent electronic artists (such as www.mazedude.com) that I listen to for my more futuristic concpets.

 

[eatbugs]

I was browsing around some of the old forums and found this. It started off with some good tips for aspiring artists but then everyone else put in their ten cents worth. I was just wondering if anyone else had any "tips" if not well that's also great!

 

[15357]

I was browsing around some of the old forums and found this. It started off with some good tips for aspiring artists but then everyone else put in their ten cents worth. I was just wondering if anyone else had any "tips" if not well that's also great!

great......

i can't draw. i want tips too!

 

[Sulkdodds]

We-ell, what kind of drawings do you want to do? Start off with really really simple drawings, and when drawing people start off with a load of blobs (blobs for arms, blobs for legs etc) before adding detail. Uh...well, practise. Practise loads!

 

[Ub3R1337BaDGuY]

I can't say i needed those tips, but yes, they are very good ones fo someone who wants to learn how to draw, good job!

 

[eatbugs]

Well I suppose I'll talk to Johnmedz about this..if he ever returns that is..