Advice on Learning to Draw

[Septimus Faber]

Inspired by the various serial drawing threads on the forums and my own initiative, I was wondering:

How did the artists here learn to art? Is there any particular way to learn to art you would recommend? How do I improve my arting skills? Most importantly, how do I art?

(I really want to learn to art, but my skill ATM is basically limited to stick figures.)

[Thanqol]

ONE PICTURE.

EVERY DAY.

NO EXCUSES.

Sheer bloody-minded persistence is THE key. If you read my thread you can basically see my journey word for word, beat for beat, with me talking about everything I learned or tried along the way.

THINGS WOT HELP:
- Experiment. Try drawing with thousands of tiny short lines instead of one long line. Try doing the shading before the form. Try doing everything in shades of yellow. You're like a scientist of your own vision so try new things and see what you learn!
- Digital Tablet. It's free ink and paper which is great for learning colour.
- Draw from life. When you draw a picture it's going to be like a jankey version of the original. A drawing is already a jankey version of the original and a cartoon or anime or something is hella jankey. So draw real human beings (photographs are fine) so you can minimise the jankiness.
- When you're just starting the MAJORITY of your time will be spent learning how to draw straight lines and coherent circles. It's a lot harder than it looks! That's okay, at this point you're just getting used to holding a pen. It's like basic physical fitness. Fancy stuff comes later!
- IT IS WORTH IT. It WILL be hard. It WILL be boring. You WILL experience burnout. But it's an amazing hobby that makes you feel super confident, gives you an awesome story to tell your friends, lets you create and give out thoughtful, touching and awesome gifts and is basically "Like videogames, but better".

I'll provide ongoing commentary on specific stuff from time to time but right now, just get the philosophy down! It IS worth it and you CAN do it!

[Oneris]

They way I learned to draw was by going to a still life sketching class for a couple of years, then eyeballing pre-existing art until I was completely confident what I think I was drawing is identical to what I'm actually drawing. That's a key one. Too often, an artist falls into the trap of becoming complacent that they work looks fine, because that's all they have stared at for many days. Computer drawing applications are excellent for this. Flip your image horizontally or vertically, and suddenly, every mistake pops. Good art should look good from any direction. I say eyeball your art at these early stages, because you can easily superimpose your work over the original to see your mistakes.


ONE PICTURE.

EVERY DAY.

NO EXCUSES.

Sheer bloody-minded persistence is THE key. If you read my thread you can basically see my journey word for word, beat for beat, with me talking about everything I learned or tried along the way.

THINGS WOT HELP:
- Experiment. Try drawing with thousands of tiny short lines instead of one long line. Try doing the shading before the form. Try doing everything in shades of yellow. You're like a scientist of your own vision so try new things and see what you learn!
- Draw from life. When you draw a picture it's going to be like a jankey version of the original. A drawing is already a jankey version of the original and a cartoon or anime or something is hella jankey. So draw real human beings (photographs are fine) so you can minimise the jankiness.


I'm going to object to your suggestions of experimenting and demand of one picture every day. By focusing your attention on too many different techniques, you gain only the barest amount of mastery in each. EXP in real life only accumulates if you gain enough at a time to make it stick. Focus on one aspect of your art, and you'll notice it helps you immensely in others. Draw 2 dozen imperfect stick figures one day and imperfectly color an orange the next, and after two days, all you have are 2 dozen crooked stick figures and a blobby orange. Draw an imperfect stick figure one day, and perfect it the next, and you'll have a perfect stick figure. Spend the third day fleshing it out instead of flitting over to color values, and there's the beginnings of a complete piece of artwork. It looks better when you show off to others, too.

While I do agree with your suggestion to draw from life, I believe that should only be done when the degree of 'jankiness' actually becomes relevant. No matter how much you shun eyeballing pre-existing art and only draw from life, if you're unable to draw an arm because you haven't measured your lines right (very important) it looks bad no matter the source. Of course, vary your eyeball sources to avoid falling into common pit traps of one medium. I took far too long drawing Anime, and now I'm unable to draw noses no matter how I try. Had I practiced on American comic books more often, there wouldn't be this problem.

[Cuthalion]

I second the drawing every day, but rather than making sketchy things I'd suggest setting aside some time to make one more or less completed drawing. 's worked for me so far.

EDIT:I started in January and am unbelievably better than I was. Far from perfect, but much much better.

[Thanqol]

I'm going to object to your suggestions of experimenting and demand of one picture every day. By focusing your attention on too many different techniques, you gain only the barest amount of mastery in each. EXP in real life only accumulates if you gain enough at a time to make it stick. Focus on one aspect of your art, and you'll notice it helps you immensely in others. Draw 2 dozen imperfect stick figures one day and imperfectly color an orange the next, and after two days, all you have are 2 dozen crooked stick figures and a blobby orange. Draw an imperfect stick figure one day, and perfect it the next, and you'll have a perfect stick figure. Spend the third day fleshing it out instead of flitting over to color values, and there's the beginnings of a complete piece of artwork. It looks better when you show off to others, too.

And at the end of the day you've got a perfect stick figure. That's, y'know, nice if that's your goal. But what if you want to learn how to paint? How do you even start?

You start by experimenting. And by experimenting you have fun (which is -the- major thing in maintaining persistence) and broaden your horizons. A lot of the experiments do need to be in 'how do I get this right' but it's a problem that you can come at from different angles as it suits you. EXP doesn't accumulate in real life.

[Oneris]

And at the end of the day you've got a perfect stick figure. That's, y'know, nice if that's your goal. But what if you want to learn how to paint? How do you even start?

You start by experimenting. And by experimenting you have fun (which is -the- major thing in maintaining persistence) and broaden your horizons. A lot of the experiments do need to be in 'how do I get this right' but it's a problem that you can come at from different angles as it suits you. EXP doesn't accumulate in real life.

You finish learning to draw a passable person first, then start painting. A simple pencil sketch of a perfectly proportioned person is acceptable piece of artwork, but a perfect painting of a man with unevenly spaced eyes and a nose offset by 4 inches is a terrible painting, no matter how good the color choices and shading are. Even Picasso first mastered the basics before ignoring them, just look at his Blue Period.

Start off with experimenting to get a feel for what you need to stick with and perfect or to overcome art blocks, but don't rely on mere experimenting to teach you things further in depth. It's the difference between reading an encyclopedia and reading a dedicated textbook. With the first, you gain a cursory amount of knowledge regarding everything. With the second, you become an expert in one. Which one grants more mastery?

[Thanqol]

You finish learning to draw a passable person first, then start painting. A simple pencil sketch of a perfectly proportioned person is acceptable piece of artwork, but a perfect painting of a man with unevenly spaced eyes and a nose offset by 4 inches is a terrible painting, no matter how good the color choices and shading are. Even Picasso first mastered the basics before ignoring them, just look at his Blue Period.

Oh yes. Absolutely. You do need to know all of the things to produce a good picture.

However you do not need to only do sketching until you master sketching, and then only do lineart until you master lineart, and then only do painting until you master painting. That's incredibly boring and contributes hugely to burnout. You can skip around through them however you want. You can paint long before you master anatomy, and although you will need to master anatomy at some point you can do it at your own pace and take your own path to getting there.


Start off with experimenting to get a feel for what you need to stick with and perfect or to overcome art blocks, but don't rely on mere experimenting to teach you things further in depth. It's the difference between reading an encyclopedia and reading a dedicated textbook. With the first, you gain a cursory amount of knowledge regarding everything. With the second, you become an expert in one. Which one grants more mastery?

See, the problem there is that you're likening learning to draw to reading textbooks and encyclopaedias. I don't agree with that. Drawing should be fun.

[Septimus Faber]

Thanks a bunch for all the advice, guys. Just one more question: I found an old book of my grandfather's concerning drawing and colour and so on, and it details pretty thoroughly how to draw from life. (Not that I can yet; I just know how you would.) but drawing from the imagination is one of my main goals, and I really don't grok how it's done... Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

[Thanqol]

Thanks a bunch for all the advice, guys. Just one more question: I found an old book of my grandfather's concerning drawing and colour and so on, and it details pretty thoroughly how to draw from life. (Not that I can yet; I just know how you would.) but drawing from the imagination is one of my main goals, and I really don't grok how it's done... Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

Drawing from imagination comes way, way later. Have it as a goal but do not even worry about it.

As I understand it, it comes down to a combination of using and combining reference material and having a really strong grip of basic shapes and how to combine them together. At no point does anyone serious stop using references.

EDIT: Also deep study and understanding common artistic trends.

[SiuiS]

Drawing from imagination comes way, way later. Have it as a goal but do not even worry about it.

As I understand it, it comes down to a combination of using and combining reference material and having a really strong grip of basic shapes and how to combine them together. At no point does anyone serious stop using references.

EDIT: Also deep study and understanding common artistic trends.

Huh. I started drawing from imagination and it took me far, while I was doing it. Interesting.

[shawnhcorey]

Everyone has their own technique and style. But learning to draw boils down to 3 easy steps, to be performed every day:

Practice
Practice
Practice

BTW, these steps work for just about any endeavour. :smallsmile:

[Oneris]

Everyone has their own technique and style. But learning to draw boils down to 3 easy steps, to be performed every day:

Practice
Practice
Practice

BTW, these steps work for just about any endeavour. :smallsmile:

Of course, make sure what you're practicing is the correct technique, or you may end up with a very deeply set bad habit.

[Fralex]

Yeah, learning to draw is basically a sort of exercising, only you're building up, like, the neural pathways responsible for fine motor skills instead of muscle mass. Do it a lot, even if you can't do very much at first, and you'll get better. Also like physical exercise, there are no special techniques or devices that will eliminate this part of the process. There are things you can learn and things you can get that will allow you to do more with your artistic ability, but getting the ability in the first place is just simple hard work and dedication. You can see this in action when you read almost any webcomic; the art quality goes up the longer it runs. Questionable Content is a good example. Gunnerkrigg Court, too.

Don't trust your memory of how something looks; see it for yourself! Look for patterns and underlying rules to the thing's construction. Break it down into shapes. See if there are multiple ways to break it down like that!

Having a distinctive art style isn't something you need to worry about. It'll just naturally develop as you get better at drawing. You didn't do anything deliberate to acquire your handwriting style when you learned to write, after all! When you become as comfortable drawing something as you are with making recognizable letters, chances are the way you choose draw it is a way you like.

And about drawing from imagination: When you get right down to it, it's not much different from drawing from life. All ideas have to come from somewhere, so it's just a matter of taking bits and pieces of things from the real world and getting good enough at drawing them that you can combine them. Drawing a good dragon means knowing how to draw a good reptile and knowing how to draw a good pterodactyl wing. Drawing an imagined person well means knowing how to draw different kinds of existing face and body features well. So anything that helps you draw from life will also help you draw from imagination.

[SiuiS]

Legit. "Motivation? Screw motivation. Cultivate discipline. It will actually get you somewhere."

– somewhere on tumblr

[Alent]

Most everyone's covered the good suggestions, so I'll share something my art tutor taught me back in middle school:

Art is easy. Learning how to see reality well enough to recreate it is the hard part. This is generally why people tell you "don't draw from your imagination", because anything you draw from your imagination is limited to how you see reality right now. There's nothing wrong with that in moderation, but you absolutely need to work from reality enough to improve your vision.

Improving your vision is what you should be doing when you practice drawing, painting, etc. When you look at something, practice looking at details that make something look good, that you wouldn't ordinarily notice. The book you mentioned finding that talks about color will go into huge depth about things like this- color theory and the behaviors of light are two things you have to learn to see and recreate, and it's a slow slow process that never ends. (But it does go faster here and there.)

I find that once you're aware that you need to see better, you begin to look at things differently, but this doesn't immediately translate into your art, instead it kind of clumsily creeps in, improving your art over time. I don't draw very much these days since I messed up my dominant hand, but by always trying to improve what I'm seeing, I still get some improvement every time I draw even if my hand doesn't work as well now as it used to.

Also, this was something my tutor hammered into me: Photography isn't reality. The lens type and depth of field on a camera control what you see and creates a certain kind of falsehood. As an artist, it's your job to learn what's there well enough and choose how to present what you see. You may want more of the landscape in focus, you may want only a single person in the composition to be in focus. Working directly from life lets you see more of the picture, and decide what you want to be in it. Sometimes you don't have a choice, which is fine since this is the same as working from your imagination- fine in moderation.

Lastly, and this is just my experience, remember that you are probably your own worst critic. If you keep at it, there will very soon come a time where you've learned just enough to see how bad you are, but haven't learned enough to be where you want to be. The only cure is to spend more time drawing, and getting advice from another artist or mentor never hurts.

[Tiri]

Drawing a good dragon means knowing how to draw a good reptile and knowing how to draw a good pterodactyl wing.
Some people draw dragons with wings that are more bat-like than pterodactyl-like.

[Jinny Jarvis]

Hello! I know its kinda late to reply to this, but I just want to share something about the topic. Drawing is related to arts. I think, you must first love arts and be creative to do great on this forte. I guess, if you have already the passion and really enthusiastic to learn, I am very sure that it will be easy for you to be very good on that thing. The only advice that you must follow is to start sketching on your own until you develop the style. Remember that practice makes perfect always:)