Twokinds ARCHIVE Forums

This thread, I can honestly say is here for those who don't know much about the first thing of drawing.

Whether it be poses, faces, hair, clothing, feet, etc.
You can submit your tips here to help out beginner artists, or trade secrets with other fellow masters.

If we can get new artists off the ground, we can expect to see more sketches and art around.

Use the force...

The force of the circle! It is the beginning of everything.

Oh so true my brother.[/buddha]

Another tip, arms never go below the waist, hair should be many, and in strands. if slightly from the side, some body parts are hidden behind others.
(Like part of the shoulder behind the neck.)

And always, ALWAYS, use the step-by-step rule when posing.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but there's a sticky somewhere here, namely "Tutorials for all," that's all about helping aspiring artists. :)

Unless, of course, you mean to put anything here that isn't there already.

Well, as far as -just starting out- drawing? You should have one goal, and one goal alone. Correct proportions. Proper anatomy can come later. Clothing can come later. pretty much ANYTHING can come later. Because if you don't get your proportions right first, it'll ripple into everything else and make it look a lot worse. And the only way to get good at proportions is to know what they are, to understand them.

Try drawing people from life, from photos, from yourself in a mirror, etc, but rather than thinking "I'm drawing a person", try think of it as a bunch of shapes. If you think of a person in the same way you might think of copying some weird abstract painting, you'll get more of what -is- right and less of what you -think- is right. It's about getting rid of and avoiding the "wrong" idea of what a human looks like in your head, so you can fill your brains back up with the correct proportions. Ideally, you should be looking at your reference again every time you lift your pencil up.

Even if you're drawing cartoony, everything in existence starts out with the proper proportions. You'll start to be more consistent and become more assured as you get more practice. This consistency means that you're getting an innate sense of what real bodies look like, and your drawings will look more accurate if you're really trying for it. It's this skill that needs to be built for you to start drawing from your head.


Additional advice:

Don't, EVER, press hard on your pencil. Instead, go sketchy, Ideally, you should be drawing -lightly- and -loosely-. Your hand should be relaxed. This serves multiple purposes. First, it keeps your hand from cramping. Second, it makes it easy to erase if you make a mistake. (You'll make a lot of mistakes. Don't let it discourage you. Erase and redraw until it looks correct.)

Try to see how many simplified shapes you can break a body into. One of the first humans I ever drew that I was happy with was "blockman", who was made entirely of 3d cubes until I drew skin over him. Excercises like this are to help you, conciously or subconciously, understand the basic shapes of the body so that you can position them how you like in your mind and automatically know when it's wrong.

Be patient and keep at it. Skill comes with practice and effort, not sitting about and going "I wish I was better." The more often you draw, the faster you'll progress.

THAT, my friends is the purpose to this thread, those tutorials in the sticky are for generic artists. These tips should help you develop your own style by selectively choosing different types of basic drawing. :P

EVEN IF YOU HAVE A TABLET, DO NOT FORGET your closest friends in art, PAPER AND PENCIL!

Always buy the 64-count box of crayons! YOU GET MORE KOLORS!

T_T

He just wants to be in the club.

I feel special.

True story: When I was in the third grade, I went in with the 96 box of crayons. At the end of the year, I came out with about three.

Speaking of crayons I think it's a good idea to play around with various mediums and brands. What's best could very from person to person because of the certain 'feel' a product may have. I like the softness of Prismacolor colored pencils and they're excellent for blending, but a classic Crayola can do just fine. I guess what I'm trying to say is that one doesn't have to pay a fortune in art supplies, because those $100+ dollar markers aren't gonna make an instant masterpiece. Art classes are probably the best way to gain access to new materials. Tried some prismacolor art stix for the first time in one and they were awesome for large scale pictures.