Squish's Squiggles [Lern 2 Draw Noob]

[Admiral Squish]

So, I've always wanted to learn how to draw, but I'm kind of awful at it. The best way to get though the part where you're terrible at art is to do LOTS of art.
After seeing thanqol's thread about drawing a thing a day, I figure, I might as well give it a shot, before I have a chance to talk myself out if it or make excuses.
So. I shall begin doodling one page per day. No excuses. I may not be able to upload each day, but I'll do all I can to draw something every single day.

IT BEGINS! With the very first image being a somewhat horrifying humanoid being...
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3775_zpsd98d78de.jpg

[Domochevsky]

Alright then, we'll be keeping an eye on you. Do you have a battle plan? :smallsmile:

[Admiral Squish]

Alright then, we'll be keeping an eye on you. Do you have a battle plan? :smallsmile:

Basically, charge forth and die with honor.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo at the moment, so I'm thinking in all likelihood I'm gonna do my writing first and do my doodlin' after I burn out on that and before I'm allowed to get back online. After NaNo, well, I'll have to figure it out.

Oh, I should mention: If anyone wants to point me to good instructional videos/tutorials or similar, that would be dandy.

[Admiral Squish]

DAY 2:

Whoo, two in a row! Go me!
I hear artists talk about wanting to be better about anatomy all the time, so I figured it would probably be a good time to start on that. I looked up a photo of a skeleton and drew all the major bones. I did gloss over some details like wrist bones, the whole thing is drawn flat, rather than 3-D,and I probably have the wrong number of vertebrae, but then, this is how we learn.

Skelly!
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3777_zps9504a8f8.jpg

[Admiral Squish]

After I burned out a bit on writing today, I decided to try a humanoid again, but this time, with a little more focus on the details of anatomy. I did a half-man with blown up detailed sections, focusing on details in the face, hands, torso, and foot. Still not great, but significantly better than Saturday's homunculus, I believe. I believe I shall try to find something on 3D-shapes and shading and practice that.

I present, the half-man.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3778_zps20a86fe5.jpg

[Valefor Rathan]

This kind of self-growth is awesome.

I think I'll try to start doodling along with you.

Thank you for the nudge.

[Cuthalion]

Ah, cool! Glad you're doing this.

May I suggest since you're doing it from this angle simply taking a skeleton and drawing it in different poses. Then you learn where the muscles are, and place them on top. It'll help overall, rather than one quick skeleton.

[Admiral Squish]

Skeleton from multiple angles seems like a good idea, but I think to pull that off I'm gonna have to get better at drawing 3-dimensional objects.

Today's doodlin's: 3D objects with crude attempts at shading. I wanted to finish off the set with a donut shape, a cylinder bent until it's ends touch. I know how it should look, but I can't seem to figure out how to draw it. So, in the end, I decided to make an Orca.

Shapes!
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3779_zps2d9cce6d.jpg

[Cuthalion]

Do you have a range of pencils?

I like the orca!

[Admiral Squish]

Do you have a range of pencils?

I like the orca!

No, just the one mechanical pencil as of yet. I may expand upon my implements later. I will probably want an un-lined notebook at some point, and perhaps, in some distant future, coloring implements.

Thanks!

[Cuthalion]

One'll work, for now. I'd suggest, on the sphere, lightening the outlines on the lighter side and leaving them darker on more shadowy bits.

[Admiral Squish]

I did doodling again! I bet you weren't expecting ponies. You probably should have expected ponies.
I drew best pony, then I had space, so I tried to do shading on a gently-curving shield. And then there was more space so there's a snake. I dunno. It just happened.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3780_zpsec43cebf.jpg

[Cuthalion]

I wonder what would happen if you took a shield like that and blended it more evenly. Maybe something to try?

[Admiral Squish]

Another day!
I didn't want to just do more shading stuff, and I didn't really want to do just another human, so I decided to do a humanoid race from my homebrew, the Screamers. Half-human, half-destrechan. I like this method of depicting humanoids, honestly, I may do it for other creations in the future.

Anyways, here we are, screamers.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3781_zpsf55563da.jpg

[Thanqol]

Good luck on the challenge!

You asked for tutorials and I deliver. Sycra (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5dyu9y0EV0cSvGtbBtHw_w) is awesome, informative and simple and I'd be way further ahead of where I am now if I started off by watching his stuff.

Keep at it!

[Cuthalion]

I second this information.

[Admiral Squish]

Good luck on the challenge!

You asked for tutorials and I deliver. Sycra (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5dyu9y0EV0cSvGtbBtHw_w) is awesome, informative and simple and I'd be way further ahead of where I am now if I started off by watching his stuff.

Keep at it!

Just took a quick look at the how to practice tutorial, and it most definitely seems like it would be a more efficient way to operate, I suspect I'll probably do something along those lines today.

[Admiral Squish]

Well, it's officially a full week of doodling!

Today I went through and drew a lot of eyes, quickly, and experimented with a couple different styles. I'm drawing them fast enough, at least. Probably more experimenting to come.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3782_zps6b17c9cc.jpg

[Cuthalion]

Are you aiming for cartoon, anime, or realistic?

[AtlanteanTroll]

Regardless of that, try thinking about the muscle structure underneath. This is a nice site (http://www.posemaniacs.com/randompose) for reference.

[Admiral Squish]

Are you aiming for cartoon, anime, or realistic?

I never really thought about that. An important topic, no?
I think that, ultimately, what I'd like to be able to use my drawing skills to do is to illustrate all the things I create in my brain, be they scenes, people, creatures, or devices. A realistic style would probably be best for such things.

[Admiral Squish]

Guess what I did today? MORE EYES. ALL THE EYES.

I googled eyes and doodled various images of eyes, loosely based on the eyes returned by the search. I even drew a cat eye because that popped up in the list and they have cool eyes. Can't seem to make an actual matching pair yet, though. I also worked on drawing them a little smaller, and adding some little details, like eyelashes and eyebrows.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3783_zps8691432b.jpg

[Cuthalion]

My challenge is for you to try to find a decent eye-drawing tutorial and do it. Then try to apply what you've learned to the other eyes.

[Admiral Squish]

I did try to find such a tutorial, but it seems that in order to get a decent eye, one must first understand shading. Since my earlier attempt was so unpleasant, I figured I should put some effort in on that front. So, I did a quick shading tutorial. Well, all of one and a the first minute or two of the other. Guy had a bunch of tools I didn't have access to.

So, I did the shading of a sphere. I think my mechanical pencil may be too sharp for most shading, though, no matter how light I went, it always ended up leaving notable lines. then I remembered the thing from the first video about tools, so I took a discarded sheet of paper and rolled it into really tight tube, then flattened and folded it to give it a little stiffness, and used that as a blending tool to blend away my lines. The results seem to have gone pretty well. I would have liked to have a bit more variation at the lighter parts, but here we are.

Also, I found it really helps me figure out the shading for a sphere if I think of the moon. The shape of the crescent, really.

Tadaa
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3784_zps947185a1.jpg

[Admiral Squish]

Forgot about drawing until way too late, had to scribble something super-quick. Tried to come up with something, and first thing that came to mind was a bat'leth (star trek was on, okay?).
This thing is awful. I regret putting this in the world.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3785_zps806a5248.jpg

[Thanqol]

This thing is awful. I regret putting this in the world.

Welcome to the process.

[Admiral Squish]

I have failed! Alas, it is with great sorrow my count now returns to 1.

Today's drawing is an interesting one, a sketch relating to an idea for a homebrew race.
You can read about it in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?384472-Homebrew-Race-Design-Brainstorming-Suggestion-Thread-Weird-Edition!-(Give-me-ideas!)) if you'd like.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3789_zpsec98e7d5.jpg

[Cuthalion]

Well, at least you're good on NaNoWriMo.

[Winter_Wolf]

Don't worry about it, Admiral. Success is built on failure, or something like that. I use a mechanical pencil for most of my drawings, and you can accomplish quite a lot with a 0.5mm (or 0.7mm, I suppose). Ease up on the pressure when making your outlines, you can always go back and make 'em darker later if you like. Mainly if you want to make adjustments, lighter lines are a lot easier to erase afterward. (Speaking of which, don't erase your original line until after you're happy with the new line; otherwise you might well end up tracing the same bloody line a dozen times and hating the way it looks.)

One thing I really like is the tortillon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortillon)(it's basically just tightly rolled newsprint with a sharpish tip, you can make 'em out of newspapers or even facial tissue in fact). Great for making soft gradation, and even possible to draw with if you saturate the tip with graphite/charcoal—but I'd get the commercially made super tight rolled ones if you go that route.

[Admiral Squish]

Today's drawing is kind of lame, but I felt it an important task, if not that was particularly successful.
The goal was to draw circles. Just circles. Quick, one-pass circles. The ultimate goal being able to actually be able to draw a circle without needing to stop what I'm going and draw/erase/draw/erase/draw/erase a thousand times just to get a half-decent circle.
Results weren't great.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3790_zps902854ad.jpg

[Admiral Squish]

Today's thing is a very quick scribble. It's a bag. Specifically, a Ha-ah, a traditional rocky mountain sasquatch bag from the crossroad setting. It's designed to be very practical. The bag durable treated leather, and closes securely with a trio of pin-and-loop latches, and it comes with a wide band with slits cut into the leather. The idea is the strap lies flat, but you can push at a slit to create a gap through which one could slide part of an item or tool to be held securely where it can be easily retrieved, while you use both your hands for climbing. There's also little bone hooks, sorta shaped like the number 3, made so you can slip one end into a loop to anchor securely and hook any object with a suitable hole on the other end to hang off it.

Anyways, I drew it because I was trying to make sure I had the details down in my head.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3791_zpsdce028b8.jpg

[Admiral Squish]

Realized it was 11:00, and I had to sleep. Realized I didn't draw. Drew a sunfish.
Weird fish. Big fish.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3794_zps31997808.jpg

[Thanqol]

Today's drawing is kind of lame, but I felt it an important task, if not that was particularly successful.
The goal was to draw circles. Just circles. Quick, one-pass circles. The ultimate goal being able to actually be able to draw a circle without needing to stop what I'm going and draw/erase/draw/erase/draw/erase a thousand times just to get a half-decent circle.
Results weren't great.

Circles are way harder than they look. Way harder. Our hands aren't made to do that motion.

[Admiral Squish]

Circles are way harder than they look. Way harder. Our hands aren't made to do that motion.

Glad it's not just me.

It happened again.
Now I'm drawing memes, apparently.
I wanted to freehand a circle. Next thing I knew it was a spiral and then...

This.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3796_zps06c7a6fc.jpg

[Artman77]

I applaud your efforts! You inspire me to once again wield the mighty #2! If you want to succeed, fail faster!

Things you might want to google in the near future:
How to draw a snake (or cables, or rope, or doc-ock tentacles.)
How to draw horns (same kind of concept)
Facial proportions
Perspective
Foreshortening
Reflected highlights

posemaniacs.com is good for foreshortening because it gives you camera angles that are hard to get in real life. However, cuz it's a digital rendering, some of the poses are a little stiff and unnatural. (some of sitting poses especially)
If you want to draw more natural poses here's a site that has pics of real models:
http://www.quickposes.com/

Good luck! (an ditto on the circles, hard and boring, but important!)

[Admiral Squish]

Well, I'm getting the 'fail faster' part, at least. Again, I have failed to keep up with the daily drawings. I am going to have to change my habits to make it happen.

I'm going to start doing the daily drawings right after my lunch on the weekdays, which will hopefully instill a little more regularity into the arrangement. I'll be trying to get drawings out on the weekends, but that's no longer guaranteed.
I just hope that getting it into the schedule in a concrete way will help me get it done regularly.

[Admiral Squish]

Revisiting a previous subject matter, but with a little more sophistication and organization.
Once again, I'm drawing one of my most recent homebrew creations, which have recently been named Thirtysixes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?385402).
Anyways, two whole pages! Three if you could the one I traced the white-paper one from.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3797_zpsf1a7ef8a.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3798_zpsca407aef.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/ewurtsmith/IMG_3799_zps13ae94ca.jpg

[Domochevsky]

Oh no! You failed already. D:

[Admiral Squish]

Oh no! You failed already. D:

I know! :smallfrown:
It is becoming apparent that I am not good at keeping a schedule...

[Thanqol]

I know! :smallfrown:
It is becoming apparent that I am not good at keeping a schedule...

The trick to doing this daily is to understand there is no bottom limit to time spent and quality.

Some days you work 9 to five and then your friends drag you out for drinks and you get home exhausted, watch an episode of Death Note, and realise it's 11:45.

Then you just draw four triangles and some circles on a hunk of note paper and call it a day. I've done that plenty of times and each time I do it it's like, 'urgh, gonna do better tomorrow, this is embarrassing'.

It's all about the psychological tricks involved in motivating yourself. Finding those out is a life skill.