How’d ya’ll learn to draw?

Generally self-taught. Got a wacom bamboo tabet when I was 11 cause my best friend at the time got one. Messed with it for a few months then dropped it. Picked up art again at 17 because of a high school art class, which didn't teach me much but oh well haha. Then got pretty serious about it after graduating high school and been on it for a bit over 2 years. I don't know much about my skills yet honestly. Like the better you get, your eye also gets better and you keep on realizing that this a journey that never ends. Which is also why I recommend getting critiques and outside perspectives often because they can really help in telling you exactly what you need to improve on. Also - time. Art takes a long time, especially when you get better because your tool box keeps getting bigger. One can render till the end of days, but still need to have those fundamentals down. Another thing that I'm lazy with is properly visualizing something before I draw instead of chicken scratching my way through it or repeating bad habits. And anatomy anatomy anatomy, so much can be learned through the human form - value, perspective, structure, colors, line quality, lighting, shapes, etc.

When I was a child, a cousin very dearest for me drawn very very well and I wanted to be like her, so I started to draw consciously, not doodling like a child do.
I drawn pretty well, in school I was the "artsy" friend who drawn everything in the group homework an all. In university I took a course named croquis, where we drawn from a living model for hours. It was amazing and I noted that I improve a lot, so since then, time to time I take private courses of drawing with living model. And that's it, that's my relationship with draw till now

I believe sort of strongly that nobody is fully self-taught, and everyone is partially self-taught.

I've been drawing since I could hold a crayon, and I liked describing myself as self-taught before I went to college; it sounded more impressive to say that nobody taught me. But that's not quite true. I checked out every How To Draw book I could find, I studied every tutorial I ran into online once the internet became a thing, and I used to hang out on an art forum where artists would ask for critique on their pieces. I didn't post much, but I read the advice that everyone else got. I read pages and pages and pages of critique. I learned to study other artists and try to learn from the art I liked. I absorbed bits and pieces from every artist I interacted with who gave me tips here and there as a kid.

And then I went to art school in college, and to be honest, it helped more than I ever expected -- but so much of it was professors pointing me in the right direction. There was a lot of advice I got that didn't truly click with me until I started making my own comic, and things that I'd already technically learned in school finally made sense a year, two years later when I had worked with those concepts myself and seen them in the context of a comic I cared about and made my own mistakes. And like, so much of my improvement came from classmates, too? There's a couple of things that still rattle around in my head when I work that just came from a classmate giving me a tip they heard one time. A lot of what I got out of college was really similar to what I got out of that one art forum -- just more hands-on and intense.

The idea that if you took classes then someone else taught you how to draw, but if you didn't take classes then you taught yourself how to draw, doesn't quite ring true to me. Most self-taught artists have learned from others, they just had to pick their own avenues of study and set their own deadlines. Most formally-taught artists had to teach themselves, they just had guides to help speed up some parts of the journey.

It's really a combination of self-taught and formal education.

First, I've been drawing since I was a wee little lass. Basically tried to emulate my dad who's a cartoonist & painter himself.

Second, I eventually studied art in university. Sadly, I felt like it wasn't really contributing much to my skills but I did learn anatomy stuff. lol

Third, I didn't end up finishing uni. But now I'm just teaching myself and learning a lot. Let me tell ya, drawing comics and fanart helped me. Like, a lot. It forced me to get out of my comfort zone, drawing poses or designs or composition I've never tried.

I've always been something of a creative individual. I took a few art and creative writing classes in junior high and high school, and also joined writer's clubs.

I would have joined the fine arts program in college, but they wouldn't let me in when I first enrolled. I ended up teaching myself by reading Internet comics, art books and online tutorials. I also go to monthly life drawing and sketch groups to get some practice in.

My only neighbor from age 11-17 was a horse and I wasn't allowed to watch TV or leave the house. (and I must add, this was the dial-up internet age. Which I also wasn't allowed to use.)

self taught, I'm drawing since I remember, I always could draw, by just looking at a drawing.
I wish I had practice it more, but I'm getting back into that.

My sister was the first person to teach me how to draw. I started drawing those sausage guidlines for the body when I was 4 years old. Then I saw my cousins drawing dragon balls so I proceeded to copy that. Then my other cousin showed me his stick figure comic he made on paper and it blew my little ol' diaper mind. "I can make stories from drawings!!!"
From that day onwards I began making stick figure comics until my sister gave me my first comic book. It was a marvel comic of spider man. I'm self taught. They only introduced me to drawing, I took it further on my own with watching youtube drawing tutorials and speed paint videos. Ahh... wonderful days.

My parents divorced.
I didn't take it well....so I disappeared into my room for all of eternity ever and did nothing but draw.
I refused to even eat my dinner with my family for a good while and my report cards from kindergarten say that I stopped being able to pronounce words at some point, too.
It led to me being good because of practice, though. Now, I look into classes and I went to college for animation, but my college might be losing credibility and it's crippled me with loans.

Ah well...;
At least I can draw my little slice of life comic for therapy.

A mishmash of art classes, bob ross, and youtube videos mostly. Oh, and altering pre-existing art.

I couldnt do proper cartoony styles until I started taking canary from other artists and drawing over it to modify the design. I never posted that but it helped me with form and posing.

I copied pictures until I didn't have to

My mom noticed that I really liked drawing as a child (and wasted a lot of paper) and signed me up for a bunch of art classes, so I've been in and out of quite a few. They never really worked out for me, though, so now the only practice I have are an art course at school, my webcomic, and homework that I doodle on.
At least for me, art classes don't really work if you want a big jump in improvement. What really works is practicing endlessly at home, because you like to draw. Art teachers may force you to try new things constantly so you can get better, but it's more satisfying if you challenge yourself on your own.
It's like if you took out the trash by yourself and you're proud of yourself, but if your mom tells you to take out the trash, you get all pissy and think about how much you DON'T want to take out that trash. You dig?

Just your typical asian kid liked to doodle on most things. But my asian parents thought I was and still now more suited to become a lawyer or a doctor and i could do that academically, but the heart said no. Years later completely went off trail from tech major and dissed it for a very uncertain future as an artist, hahaha but everything is self taught and I'm now in a stale position on improvement(my eyes got better and can easily spot mistakes here and then but my hands just refused to cooperate).
Anyway good luck for all of us here.

my parents always kept a steady arsenal of Crayola products, coloring books, and construction paper growing up, so art has always been a part of my life. i used to pause certain scenes of my favorite cartoons and trace over them to make my own coloring pages for myself, so for a while i was a passionate colorist. eventually i realized that i could actually teach myself to draw my own pictures, so i started drawing anime when i was 12 then i switched over to western/disney styled art at 15, and I've been drawing cartoons ever since. combine that with a love of writing and you've got the person i am today.

i finally started taking a drawing class for college and its not... I mean, it's not terrible, but, similar to what @dawgofdawgness said, being told how to challenge yourself isn't as enjoyable as choosing to challenge yourself, so having an art instructor isn't as great as i thought it'd be.

I've been doing it since I was a baby to be hones, I did get some training too, then I went to film school, then I returned to drawing for financial reasons.

Hope my answer helps you ^_^

Oh Hi.
I'm new here lol
Uhhhh..... I am self-taught. To be honest, I am a 14-year-old and I haven't been drawing and being creative lately, until I discovered this website. I got into my creativity when I was 8 years old. This amazing dude named Mark Crilley just BOOSTED my imagination and my creativity since I was little.

I seriously wouldn't stop drawing, being creative, and writing stories since then.

Ask me about my profile picture. I dare you

Mark Crilley was one of the first people who really inspired me to do art and I used to watch his tutorials a lot (I've got a couple of his drawing books too).

Some other Youtubers I've found really inspiring and helpful:
- Draw With Jazza
- Lavender Towne
- Marco Bucci
- probably a whole lot of others I'm forgetting at the moment

i drew a lot as a child but didnt get serious til i was 12, then i was buying how to draw manga books............and not using them, eventually i just somehow got here XDD

self taught and years of practice,still improving