My art needs help

[Nibleswick]

I want to start drawing a comic strip, but I need to improve my art first, especially in two areas: hands, and the female figure. I'm afraid that I can't show you my art, as I don't have a scanner, so I would mostly like general advice.

-With gratitude
Nibleswick

[Lyinginbedmon]

We can't really critique without examples, and if it's hand-drawn (As the scanner implies) then it'll be really difficult to adequately critique over the Internet

[Nibleswick]

Well, nuts. But still, any general advice on drawing people realistically? (Hmmm there needs to be a smiley for puppy-dog eyes)

[TheCountAlucard]

(Hmmm there needs to be a smiley for puppy-dog eyes)

Just use Thog! Thog likes puppies! :thog:

[Nibleswick]

:thog: funny man say if thog help funny man get help then funny man draw puppies for thog:smallbiggrin:

[BisectedBrioche]

It really depends on what style of drawing you're using. i.e. Stick figures, realistic, cartoony, manga, etc?

[Szilard]

Well, nuts. But still, any general advice on drawing people realistically? (Hmmm there needs to be a smiley for puppy-dog eyes)

It really depends on what style of drawing you're using. i.e. Stick figures, realistic, cartoony, manga, etc?
I think It's realistic.

[Brickwall]

Buy a scanner so we know what you're doing wrong.

[yoshi927]

Hey, as an aside, if you have no method of scanning, how are you planning to start a webcomic? Or is it for a newspaper or something?

Well, the biggest "in general" tip I can give you is "big before small". My teacher always likes to drill this one into me. Draw the structure, then the details. Like, if you want to make a pizza, you don't make it one slice at a time.

Other than that, if you're starting a comic, you have to read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud. It's a law. Or at least it should be.

[Uncle Festy]

YES. Read all of McCloud's work. Or else face MY WRATH!

[Nibleswick]

Well,publishing in any form is out the window for the next two years or so, but I can practice the craft, and I want to practice it right so that I don't get stuck in bad drawing habits. What it boils down to is that I have no Idea where to begin.

Hmm, I just remembered I have a camera, hang on a tick.

Edit: So, With my cheep old camera I bring you these:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010045.jpg
O.K. this is where the whole thing started, this is Pete in cartoony style.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010042.jpg
This is my first attempt at getting proportions right.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010040.jpg
this is attempt number two.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010039.jpg
No. 3

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010036.jpg
This is number four, I sorta feel that I got closer with this one then the others.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010043.jpg
This is my try at applying what I learned to a person, so we have a beefy guy.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010038.jpg
this is me trying to do Pete now that I've hopefully learned a bit.

[Nibleswick]

Ok, to continue:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010041.jpg
this is an attempt at a female figure

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010037.jpg
more attempts at females.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x108/Nibleswick/Peg-Leg-Pete/P1010044.jpg
and the puppies that I promised thog:smallbiggrin:

[Brickwall]

Wow...I really don't know where to begin.

Clearly, art hasn't been a part of your life at all, and you just decided to pick it up for some other reason. Not a bad thing, but it means that in the race, you're starting about 500m behind. What you need to do is get a pencil and draw from life. Sit there with something in front of you. Do not think about what it is. Think of the line. The curve. One single pencil stroke at a time. You can't draw an eye, but I bet you can draw three irregular arc shapes, some lines, and circles lying under the arc shapes. Look at an "eye", find out where those things lie, and draw them that way. Repeat for everything else.

Now, when you do that, the stuff will still be horribly off. You won't become an excellent artist that quickly. But what it does is cultivate your ability to stop seeing things the way your mind abstracts them (draw eye, eye is somehow like circle, draw circle), and start seeing them the way they are (draw eye, there are such and such lines here and there, draw such and such lines here and there). You won't draw them right, but at least you'll be drawing the right things wrong instead of the wrong things. Then you can start cartooning. Cartooning is a re-abstraction from reality. You stop abstracting them the way your brain says, and start abstracting them to be representative and attractive with cartooning. It's another skill, but in the end, is easier than really accurate life drawing.

You could also try to learn directly from another art style, but then you're more stuck around that style (like me with Japanese cartooning...it was a bad move), and there's more inertia to break into other things. It's a good deal quicker, though.

On another note, you seem to have a good grasp of basic proportions. Surprising for a beginner.

[yoshi927]

Well, I'm going with Brickwall here. Life drawing practice is good for the soul.

When you're life-drawing, concentrate on reducing things to basic shapes and lines. Just practice the structure. If someone asks you what you see when you look at a piano, you say "What piano? All I see are shapes and lines."

Also, try to draw some people from life. Do the same thing; concentrate on getting the structure down. There's not much more that I can tell you over the internet.

[Nibleswick]

Thank you for your advice folks, with it in mind I have spent the day out sketching random people and things.

Brickwall: your assessment is spot on, I basically started about four days ago upon realizing what a useful tool for story telling art is, and that it is in the realm of possibility for me to use it. Again thank you, all I needed was simple advice that I can use to help guide me as I will not have access to outside resources (art classes ect.) for the next two years.

As to Understanding Comics, my impression after reading it is: Other people need this explained to them:smallconfused: but still it has a lot of useful hows and whys of comics, and story telling in general. It has my approval.

[Brickwall]

Brickwall: your assessment is spot on, I basically started about four days ago upon realizing what a useful tool for story telling art is, and that it is in the realm of possibility for me to use it. Again thank you, all I needed was simple advice that I can use to help guide me as I will not have access to outside resources (art classes ect.) for the next two years.

Art lessons? Poppycock. I never had a class that taught me how to do the art I do, and according to a lady who's opinion I respect very much, I'm as talented as a few folks she knows who actually go to a school of fine arts (the real deal). Lessons aren't useless (in fact, I still want to take them sometime), but especially for cartooning, you don't need formal lessons. The basic ones will teach you fancy words for stuff you don't need to know, and about two techniques that you could figure out on your own in the time you took to learn the stuff you didn't need to know.

Good luck, and don't think anything about your art except "I can do better," because you always can, and if you know that, you always will. Though you'll get a hell of an ego complex, but hey, that's artists for ya.

[Nibleswick]

Well, I'm already a writer, so I've got the ego down pat at least:smallbiggrin: I actually see "I can do better" as a rather humbling statement, because it implies that everything I have done up to now is now the best that I'm capable of. Again thank you for the help, it has already been vary useful. Ya know this is fun, I wonder why I didn't take it up years ago.




In retrospect I suppose this post is mostly to satisfy my ego by having word, oh well:smallbiggrin:

[TheCountAlucard]

The basic ones will teach you fancy words for stuff you don't need to know...

Chiaroscuro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro)... This is the only word I can recall from my high-school art class, and knowing this word has not improved my art in any way whatsoever.

Actually, now that I think of it, there's also Stippling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stippling), but I only remembered it 'cuz it sounds funny.

[banjo1985]

Chiaroscuro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro)... This is the only word I can recall from my high-school art class, and knowing this word has not improved my art in any way whatsoever.

Isn't that a big fancy desert city in the Exalted setting? Or am I going insane?