So I Kinda Want to Learn How to Draw...

[Sectan]

Like the title says, I want to learn how to draw and I've got no idea how or where to get started. Is it even possible to LEARN? I feel like a derp for even asking, but for a while I've wanted to get into something to spend my spare time on instead of Vidya Games and consuming media. I'm so clueless I don't know any specifics to ask about. Any advice would be cool.



Thanks

 

[Eleuthera]

There's bunches of "how to"s on the internet. What type of drawing do you think you want to do?

 

[Zhukov]

Yes, you can learn. Anyone can. Apart from the occasional gifted freak, everyone who can draw had to learn how to.

As for how, there are hundred upon hundred of tutorials online. I'd suggest looking up a couple of books by a fellow named Andrew Loomis, Fun With a Pencil and Figure Drawing For All It's Worth. They're old and kind of quaint, but the lessons inside are rock solid. There's also a book out there called Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain. I personally didn't find it all that useful, but people much better than me swear by it.

Of course, you could also sign up for art classes if you're so inclined.

At the end of the day, and I know this is never fun to hear, it's all about practice. Tutorials and instruction can only can only serve to direct your practice and make the learning more efficient. You only get good through practice. Hundreds of hours of practice. Your first drawings will suck. So will your second, third, fourth, fifth and so on.

What else... oh. Yeah. References. For the love of God, use references. By that I mean have a picture of the thing(s) you want to draw in front of you when you draw them. If you're doing a picture that involves, oh I dunno... a horse, then do yourself a favour and find some pictures of horses. It's not cheating, it's just good practice. It's going to be frustrating enough without trying to draw from imagination right off the bat.

Good luck with it.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I'll second the recommendation of Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain. You can get it electronically if you can't find a physical copy.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

I'm about halfway through this book these guys mentioned above, and while some lessons/exercises are pretty cool and efficient, there are others that just don't work for me. I still do them, but deep inside I'm thinking "Jesus... it looks better when I try my own methods." I'm in a weird position though. Recently I decided that I wanted to learn how to draw too, except... I used to draw and paint every day for hours, but I quit around 2004 because I became addicted to two things that I regret today since I essentially ruined my career when I was getting started. So I wasted a whole decade and I no longer have my own style, everything looks like shit, the stuff I make today looks worse than what I did 10 years ago. At least I think so, I don't know for sure because I trashed all my work years ago. I guess this is some advice already? Don't ruin your own life?

But yeah, it sounds cliche but the honest advice is practice. Start drawing something you're comfortable with, but also try things that you just know you're terrible at. Spend hours drawing everyday. At first it will look like shit, don't let people tell you otherwise because most people can't be honest when you ask them for their opinion. The honest answer is "no, man, that's garbage" but they'll say how amazing it is. This is good to keep you motivated, but you have to be honest with yourself.

Hearing only good things doesn't do you any good and you'll risk getting lazy because hey, everyone keeps telling you you're so good. Try and get some constructive criticism out of people who know what they're doing. A mere "omg amazing!!1" from your aunt does nothing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, don't try to get your lines right the first time around, sketch a lot, don't rush things thinking you can finish a drawing in 5 minutes, etc. Some very talented people/pros put up videos on Youtube so maybe you could learn something simply by watching how they do it.

Please note that just because your drawing looks terrible, it doesn't mean you can't be happy with it. It's all about getting some perspective on things. I just drew my own hand recently and while it's undeniably flawed, I was happy with it because I haven't done anything in a decade.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

quote

You'll need lots of paper (so buy a cheap sketchbook) and of course a pencil.
Here are some good free tools for drawing from life.
http://artists.pixelovely.com/
http://lovecastle.org/draw/

The tool on pixelovely even has a class option.

Then draw!
As other have said, you won't like the first thing you draw, or the second, or the third, you'll get better with practice and the more practice you do, the faster you'll get better. Don't get discouraged, over time, you'll be able to see your own improvement.

 

[Sectan]

Many thanks for the replies! Like you all said I spose I have to just start with something and go from there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the first few drawings I attempt will be an exercise in frustration and disappointment and it'll slowly get better with practice? Hopefully I can at least get some baby steps towards something resembling a picture in the future.

What type of drawing do you think you want to do?

People mostly. Something along the line of comics I guess...Even something simple like some dude in armor. The usual stuff people want to draw. Granted I understand I wouldn't make an attempt until I had some form of practice with the basics under my belt.

 

[kypsilon]

I'm about halfway through this book these guys mentioned above, and while some lessons/exercises are pretty cool and efficient, there are others that just don't work for me. I still do them, but deep inside I'm thinking "Jesus... it looks better when I try my own methods." I'm in a weird position though. Recently I decided that I wanted to learn how to draw too, except... I used to draw and paint every day for hours, but I quit around 2004 because I became addicted to two things that I regret today since I essentially ruined my career when I was getting started. So I wasted a whole decade and I no longer have my own style, everything looks like shit, the stuff I make today looks worse than what I did 10 years ago. At least I think so, I don't know for sure because I trashed all my work years ago. I guess this is some advice already? Don't ruin your own life?

But yeah, it sounds cliche but the honest advice is practice. Start drawing something you're comfortable with, but also try things that you just know you're terrible at. Spend hours drawing everyday. At first it will look like shit, don't let people tell you otherwise because most people can't be honest when you ask them for their opinion. The honest answer is "no, man, that's garbage" but they'll say how amazing it is. This is good to keep you motivated, but you have to be honest with yourself.

Hearing only good things doesn't do you any good and you'll risk getting lazy because hey, everyone keeps telling you you're so good. Try and get some constructive criticism out of people who know what they're doing. A mere "omg amazing!!1" from your aunt does nothing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, don't try to get your lines right the first time around, sketch a lot, don't rush things thinking you can finish a drawing in 5 minutes, etc. Some very talented people/pros put up videos on Youtube so maybe you could learn something simply by watching how they do it.

Please note that just because your drawing looks terrible, it doesn't mean you can't be happy with it. It's all about getting some perspective on things. I just drew my own hand recently and while it's undeniably flawed, I was happy with it because I haven't done anything in a decade.

Haha...this was my situation almost verbatim a few years ago. Definitely keep at it though and you'll find your stuff will start coming back to where your expectations are (or were). Your experiences and how you see things change as you get older and lots of artists that I know who take long breaks (years of not drawing) tend to come back and feel like they've lost something. I thought so too, though I see now, it's just that I've changed and my style hadn't caught up yet.

OP: Draw, draw, draw. Read books on how to draw, pick up books on anatomy and draw. Frank Frazetta copied anatomy books to learn how to draw people...I learned by copying out of Marvel comic books from the 80's and 90's. Find an artist you like and see if you can figure out how he works, maybe you can get a breakdown of the steps they use. The trick to drawing is simply to keep at it. Do that and you will get better. Just make sure you have fun though.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Well then start drawing. Grab a book on human anatomy for more information, take pictures and use simple shapes to form your compositions.

 

[Nazulu]

I think drawing is one of those hobbies that require a fair bit of motivation, draw what you want to draw and assess if that's how you wanted it to turn out. If you don't have the motivation to keep it up then it's not going to work out. Also, I believe it's better you try to draw without a books help because you may develop your own style quicker that way. Unless you want to animate. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Vault101]

Ive been drawing again too...I think everyones already said the base things

its hard to keep up motivation, especially with so many good games to play right now

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I originally grabbed a pencil started drawing in the back of my notebooks back in school...although I never seriously considered taking up drawing as a hobby, I guess it doesn't appeal to me as much as I thought.

But as someone who definitely can draw something by looking at it, my recommendation for you is to grab a pencil, a blank piece of paper, put an object in front of you and draw it as accurately as possible.

I started off with coffee cups, school stationary (drawing pencils with a pencil, yay!), teddy bears, houses, fish (fish are fun!), a few other animals, tress, etc...but never really made a move towards human faces. Everytime I tried to draw a face I would hit the "uncanny valley" and it would end up looking fucked-up.
It's good that you're aiming for comics where faces don't have to resemble real portions, getting into that is probably easier.

So yeah, grab a pencil and GO! Oh and eventually you may want to grab a few more pencils with varying hardness/grain, it really helps with shading.

As for coloring, I personally never went near coloring with a ten-foot pole. I absolutely BUTCHER anything I try to add color to, it's like I'm allergic to it
Perhaps you'll have better luck in this day and age of computers

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't think "how to draw" books are genuinely helpful. They kind of force you to dance to someone else's tune instead of creating your own. Plus, they drown you in technique which in my opinion is not the most important part of drawing.

Great art comes from inspiration, so try and expose yourself to what inspires you the most; Watching movies, listening to music, looking at other people's drawing, etc. And when you feel exhilarated enough by whatever you've been doing, go sit infront of a nice, pristine, blank piece of paper and just see what rolls out of your pen.

In the end you need to figure out yourself how you want to draw, by simply drawing.

 

[Vault101]

wards human faces. Everytime I tried to draw a face I would hit the "uncanny valley" and it would end up looking fucked-up.

I think that because our brains are pretty much hardwired to recognise faces.....you know how animals essentially all look the same but humans don't? thats also why drawing animals is easyer..in fact Id say people/faces are the hardest tings to draw

unrelated but I think I read about a bizare disorder some people can have in that the part of the brain that recognises human faces doesnt work...so they have serious trouble telling people apart

[quote/]It's good that you're aiming for comics where faces don't have to resemble real portions, getting into that is probably easier.
[/quote]
depends on what kind of comics were talking about, if your talking about your typical mainstream comics (you know...superheros or otherwise) then in fact things DO have to be in more or less acurate proportions...in fact it helps to have proportions unless your going for very stylised

some people think that if they arent drawing real life figures or scenery (because that shits booooorrring) then they dont have to bother with the technical stuff,(I did) but even if your drawing a troll riding a flaming winged unicorn flying in space the practical "real" stuff is where its all based

 

[Dabir]

 

[MetalMagpie]

Learning to draw is a lot like learning a musical instrument. Teachers and "How to" books can be really helpful to get you started, but it's mostly about practice.

 

[DrRockor]

grab some paper and a pencil and just go for it. If you keep at it you start to notice the stuff that works and work out better places to put lines. An eraser is a good idea too. How to's could proably help with the basics but I'm entirely self taught so I don't know. Wait, no I did use some how to's when I started drawing stuff in an anime style but otherwise I'm self taught.

 

[BNguyen]

Well, for me I'm not really sure it came naturally, it was just like an addiction really.
When I was a little kid that's all I really did and I just kept going at it. I'm not sure if I'm really all that good but a lot of people seem to think so.
The point I'm trying to make is for some people it might be a little hard to pick up and for others it's just as hard to teach. I suggestion you find something that can serve as a muse or inspiration that drives your passion for the work. If you don't have something like that then I'm afraid it gets hard to even want to do this.

 

[Vault101]

quote

You'll need lots of paper (so buy a cheap sketchbook) and of course a pencil.
Here are some good free tools for drawing from life.
http://artists.pixelovely.com/
http://lovecastle.org/draw/

The tool on pixelovely even has a class option.

Then draw!
As other have said, you won't like the first thing you draw, or the second, or the third, you'll get better with practice and the more practice you do, the faster you'll get better. Don't get discouraged, over time, you'll be able to see your own improvement.

[strike/]Naked women![/S] art models! how useful!

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

[strike/]Naked women![/S] art models! how useful!

Drawing naked things is part of learning correct human anatomy. Art is awesome like that.
You can always uncheck the box.