Help: Artistic advice wanted

[Hellfire]

I was looking at The Onciest's thread HERE and was very impressed, so you should check it out too.

Recently I have started drawing (mostly when I'm meant to be paying attention in lectures) I use a fine-tipped pen and just draw whatever comes to mind.

I was just looking for some constructive criticism from any artists (or critics) in the community, though keep in mind I have basically no experience doing art; I don't think my drawings are amazing or anything, I'm a complete beginner and I realise that. I'd say the thing I have the most trouble with is depth, but I hear that's normal, anyway here are a few:

1

Click to enlarge

2


3


4


5


6


7

Click to enlarge

I quite like that last one, anyway tell me how I can improve

[Argh non Ral]

Wonderfull!
Man you have a great talent!

...was joking

Well if you are looking for improvement I think you can find many guieds on the web about 'the basics of how to draw human body'...
...Or how to start drawing pictures in isometric then later in perspective view.

And about the lines. I think you should forget about these hard 'hairy' outlines. Try to drive your pen/pencil light and continously repeating the line untill you find it's final shape.


+rep for the spirit and good luck

p.s.: I have a very good book with the tilte 'How to teach illustration' but it's in hungarian

[unionova]

If you're serious about drawing, painting, sculpting, sketching, you already know it takes loads of practice if you're not one of those icky people who have a natural talent from the day they plop out.

So initally; practice drawing details. Details of the body can be f.ex. the hard ones like hands, feet, body proportions, eyes. Try putting it together into a full body that is both symmetrical and where all the parts are in right perspective to each other. Thats the tricky part

Think of it kinda like a cut-out doll. You need to know how to make the actual doll first - the silhouette, the outlines. After that you have different parts of details that you slap on there, make them fit.

To try and actually get things to look "real", draw from models (ofc doesnt have to be live models, could be a coffee cup, a photo, whatever). It's a huge difference. Draw what you see with your actual eyes. Not what your head remember, like a feeling or an idea.

When you have a model you can compare your drawing to the real thing, seeing properly where your weaknesses are - maybe you're not following the elbow line properly because you have a set idea of how an elbow looks so you actually draw it from memory rather than from reality.

If you think its hard, try starting with tracing a photo in a magazine or something. First time you trace the whole thing to gradually lessen the amount you trace compared to the amount you fill in yourself. Excellent opportunity to practice shading, how it changes the picture when using different styles & levels of intensity.

If you have an idea of a drawing, get it down on paper quickly, just enough to remember it. Include the small quirks you thought would be fun, or that you want to stand out a little extra. So basically - put your ideas to paper.

When you have your idea safely described in a probably very abstract manner, you can start working on the real thing and not having to rush it.

And maybe try use pencils (like, graphite-ish or something) and erasers instead. Helps alot when working on both shading and details, where the pen you're using here seems to bleed and makes the lines fuzzy.

Lastly i think you have a bit to go (coming from someone who struggles with stick figures though ). Your pics are kinda cartoonish and mainly outlines, which makes them flat. Shading & details does wonders

(and yes, i know we all approach drawing in different ways. what ive stated are just how i personally look at it, how i do it when i get the urge to see if Im a da vinci after 2 years of never touching a pen. turns out i never am
The whole "quickly scratch down a few lines and have a master piece"- kind of drawing that some people seem to be able to do, comes after you have the basics firmly attached in your spine and with your eyes closed can draw a multi-tasking dragon in lingere sipping coffee and having a puffy in front of a mac book air on top of a sky scraper in a post apocalyptic metropolis. For those of us who arent quite there yet, it requires tedious practicing, just like in 1st grade when you have those books where you're supposed to write the alphabet 743 times )

[The-Onciest]

Two words, 1-Draw 2-People. <3

Pretty much, Unionova took over and beat everyone to the punch. So listen to her/him if you're serious about anything.

Good luck man and damn, thanks for forwarding my thread. O.o

[Arokh]

Aside from the shading thingamajig uninova said, I think the most obvious thing is sense of proportion. This is one of the hardest things to get right, so worth practising.

As a rule of thumb, a human body (neck to feet) should be about 7 times the height of the head. A good start would be to look at a flat on picture of a person and see how the body is scaled - where the elbows reach down to, where the hands reach to etc. One main thing here is pay attention to size! Don't make things stretched or shortened just so it fits - measure the size of the body part first and then draw it so it's proportionate. Else it'll look odd if you just start drawing it.

I don't (read: can't) draw humans, but whenever I'm drawing a creature or something I follow these steps:

• Do a very light stick figure for the skeleton. Basically this is where you create the pose as a stick figure, and the straight lines are the bones. Also a good time to make sure its all sized right.
• Then build up the main parts like the chest, hips and head with a circle. Finally use more ovals/round shapes to build up the leg muscles, on the arms etc.
• Eventually you should end up with a very light stick figure with a load of round shapes all over it, but the outline will be humanlike. You'll also need to refine details in places such as fingers/toes/wrists etc. In the end use a darker pencil to go over the outline.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, know my description is a lil crappy. If no one else has posted something up, I'll do a quick pic tomorrow and stick it in this post to explain it better.

Outlines I tend to not do them in one go, but build them up over a course of several layers of light pencil. This basically allows me to get an idea of what it'll look like and also spot any abnormalities in the early stages - when it's easy to erase and correct. Once you're confident the light pencil outline looks good, go over it a final time to define it.

As for shading, I've always found it helpful to draw a very light arrow in the corner of the drawing to show which direction the light is coming from. Helps to see what parts should be shaded and what not. Otherwise you can end up with wierd shadowing with no apparent light source.

Scribbly lines... ehrm, well that depends on WHY you're doing them. If it's just your way of 'hiding' a part you're not sure how to draw right, then yes. Perhaps get rid of them. Alternate solution to that issue is 1) practice, 2) different pose or 3) finding a clever way of 'hiding' that part.
However if thats your style of drawing and you're happy with it, I see no reason to change it. Was always taught to develop my own style so... as long as you get proportions right, I don't see why scribbly lines would be an issue.

Originally Posted by unionova

and with your eyes closed can draw a multi-tasking dragon in lingere sipping coffee and having a puffy

-> ->
I sense an EFD competition here. hehe

[Jorael]

Find yourself a nice torrent website and look for "drawing tutorials" + "drawing book" + "How to draw"...

There's tons of PDF's available with spectacular lessons on how to draw figures, shading, etc.

If you really enjoy the books, consider buying the real versions to support the author.

/good luck

[Sirhc]

Draw(sketch) as much as possible. Always have a sketch book with you even if its just to collect ideas for future projects. My sketch books contain many ideas written out, sketches, and interesting reference material I find from all over the place.

There are plenty of online tutorials but in my honest opinion taking art classes always seemed to advance my skill level. If you follow the class structure (ie. from basic to beginner to intermediate to advanced) you will get direct feedback from the instructor and be subject to the best tool in the art world "the critique" many people dread it but if done write the constructive criticism you can gain is invaluable. Beginning classes are great because you will be starting with 50-60% of the people who probably have never sketched before or need that class as a prerequisite for something like Photography.

Pick an art style and try to master it. If you like Anime focus on Anime, if you like Comic style art focus on that, if you like illustrative design, like book jackets and the such then focus on that. In the beginning if you are too diverse and try to master it all right away it can become frustrating. Eventually your own style will emerge.

You have to learn the basics though since they set up a base foundation in pretty much every medium. Basics include Perspective, porportion, composition, Chiaroscuro, etc, etc. I would recommend sketching with pencils at first since they allow you to erase and make changes plus they don't bleed into the paper like pens. If you have sketches you like you can transfer them to a good high quality bristol board for pen and ink or scan them into the computer and Photoshop them as well.

Good luck

[rik]

you have some super replies here remember the old adage practise makes perfect. Good luck.

[Stinky]

i can't draw jackshit, so gratz.

remember to leave time spare for Entropia


Stinky

[Hellfire]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it

I tried to consider everything that was suggested to me (emphasis on tried) and drew something new, at the very least I hope you recognise what it is



Spent about half an hour sketching that, then another hour on Photoshop touching it up


Feel free to come up with amusing captions: