So Like... Where Do I Go to Learn How to Draw?

[powerplantanimations]

Yeah help me out here because I feel like I'm probably better off learning how to draw since I'm usually left waiting for the animators and the only artist that can keep up with me is only able to do one project.

I feel like I have a lot of energy to just commit to art. Novel writing isn't as fun despite me getting the hang of it. So like... I'm thinking of taking local classes.

How should I approach this?

Do I start off traditional? Or should I learn digital right off the gate? Do I painting classes? Will you help a homie out because I'm at the point where I can literally churn out art like a mf.

[feuersichel]

Cool that you are taking on the challenge I can give you several links to very good learning videos. (But I just had a very late shift and need to get sleep for the next so I might need some time to do so).

What helped me to start is learning the basic rules. Learn from images of real people and break them down to simple forms and shapes. The website quickposes has a lot of such pictures to learn from. I use that alot. When you learn from other artists you might also learn their mistakes also.

The loomis head methode helped me especially for mapping out a face.

I wish you all the best on your artist journey

[Umber]

Personally, when trying to improve my art I usually just sketch traditionally, but when I'm trying to make a finished piece I use digital.
But I would try and start digital art as soon as possible because it's pretty important you figure out how to use your drawing program efficiently.
If you're looking for some small tips n stuff, SamDoesArts on Youtube is a great help! He's not like an actual art teacher but he does give some pretty useful tips for beginners.
Pintrest is also pretty awesome for looking up drawing tips and references.
Anyway, goog luck commiting art!

[Aleksei]

Hi there!!!
Gonna try to help the best I can!

First: Digital or traditional?
-It doesn't matter. Both are mostly the same as you are the one who do the drawing. Its good to have technique, and that comes with practice, and you can practice in both at the same time, there is no worries! Digital has the advantage that you don't need paper or pencils, BUT you need to buy equipment that can be pricey. Also the ctrl+z can become a crutch if you only do digital. Traditional is cheaper, but you always need more materials, as paper run out, but builds confidence in your linework that digital can't compare to.

But.. .what is technique??
That depends on what are your goals. If you want to learn Powerpuff Girls style, go for it! BUT, on my experience is the best to learn the basic anatomy, and later go into manga/comic/antro/whatever style -because once you learn how everything is connected, you can deconstruct everything at your own leisure.

How to learn basic anatomy? - First, the head- Loomis Method vs Reilly Method.
Here you need to search wich method is better suited to yourself. Maybe there are others methods, or even a mix of those will be enough for you. Don't let yourself fit in a box if you don't want to!

...and for the body? - There is a lot to learn about the body, such as how many heads taller a body can be, the proportions, muscles, bones, expression, etc, so you gonna need to search for tutorials, be it on YouTube, paid pages, books, etc. There is a lot of sources, and all are okay. You can start doing a stick figure, or a 3D block to see the body, or try life drawing, whichever is the way you choose, in my opinion all of them complementes each other, so go to all you want and learn.

And after the body? - You still need to fill backgrounds!! So you will need to learn about...

Color. - Values, tones, hues, light, reflection,
Composition - Focus point, vanishing point, linear objects, overlaping figures, general value changes, graphic reading of light and dark objects, contrast of shapes to have foreground, midground and background.
Narrative - You have different types of narratives, like monoscenic, simultaneus, continuous, sequential, synoptic, panoramic and progressive.

...is that all? NO! Because between all that you will need to learn about clothing, fashion, arquitecture, interior design, graphic design, lettering, paneling, and script!!

That is all I can think of the top of my head.
Its scary, but you are not the first person who try to draw, so don't be afraid and grab a pencil and start drawing!

Good luck!

[river121693]

If you’ve never drawn before, the best start is honestly to copy the shit out of your favorite artists. I don’t mean trying to learn their method, I mean literally look at their art and replicate it. It should get you comfortable to the act of drawing.

From then just find tutorials that teach you the basics of how to break down figures into shapes and forms and apply it to your copies (drawacirclethendrawanowl.jpg). Do the same for real figures— look up real life references and break it down into shapes and forms.

Don’t get frustrated if your drawings aren’t looking right. Art is meant to be fun. You’re always improving

[powerplantanimations]

@Umber That's the tricky thing with YouTubers like that. Like where do you even begin (the reason I made this thread)? Their playlists are so scattered it's like "Okay, I'm just... checking out" (which is why I'm signing up for classes in the end). Even if they are giving useful tips, my OCD is like "but wait, do I learn this first or THIS first... WHY did he put perspectives with stuff like painting online???".

@river121693 Yeah I heard that's the best thing to do. I'd probably start doing that once I have my tools? The real life reference thing I should've done from the start. That sounds fun. Like writing though, I probably won't see art as fun lmao (learning it I mean). I didn't want to learn it, but at this point it feels like the type of skill I HAVE to learn whether I like it or not due to my lifestyle, interests, and future career. I'm venting a little here, but like... yeah lmao. A little bitter I didn't start before. I see it as a bully that needs to have his head kicked in. I guess I'm frustrated that this is going to be stressful af similar to me getting writing down. I know I'm the type of person who'll get it, but the route there is going to be me going pure perfectionist. I'm just happy I have two friends who'll help me out. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

@feuersichel Yeah that'd be cool thanks... Can they be in recommended order please? What scared me away last time is the fact that a lot of YouTubers don't organize their videos.

[Sea.Cup]

You could try Marc Brunet on YouTube. He teaches art.

[Aeneas1]

There is a British YouTuber called mikeymegamega who teaches people how to draw.

[darthmongoose]

A good place to get started is probably good old pencil and paper, because it forces you to learn good fundamentals first instead of fancy rendering, and you don't need to invest like a hundred dollars in a graphics tablet. Get yourself a cheap little sketchpad, maybe even a pocket one or one that can fit in your bag, and a pencil (any is fine, doesn't have to be expensive. I like mechanical pencils myself because they're low-fuss; don't need sharpening and their lines are consistent.

When you get free time, try to do some drawing every day. Good things to try first might be simple 3D objects, like a cylinder, a sphere, a cube, with some basic shading. Here are examples (not mine):

You'll want to focus on control of the pencil, so when sketching your initial shapes, you press just softly to feel things out, and construction vanishes away or can be easily rubbed out, and then you can press a bit harder and do a nice, confident line or curve, ideally in just one or two strokes (not lots of of little ones or "hacking" the pencil back and forwards like a zig-zag) when you commit to a line.

If you can draw 3D primitives and confident lines, controlling what's construction and what's a final line, you can hypothetically draw anything. So start looking at objects around you and try to break them down into these shapes, or observe their forms and attempt to draw them, like "Oh hey... this table is made out of cuboids... and my coffee mug is a cylinder..." Most books on drawing anatomy and perspective assume you can draw these basic shapes and control your lines, so get this bit nailed down before you jump on something like "Figure Drawing for All its Worth" by Loomis (which has been recommended, and is a classic book and a free one).
Also once you're at this stage, you can start trying to imitate drawings by artists you like, or trying to deconstruct the volumes in their characters.

You'll need to be a bit patient, because it's like learning a language, and there's a lot to it. Avoid taking the easy road of tracing; it leads to good looking early results at the cost of slowing your development of understanding form, so will ultimately slow down your progress. Keep working on capturing the form, that's the really important part.

Best of luck on your journey!

[Lensing]

I have some experience in that field I can share with you.

I started drawing comics in 1983, I started without know any theory and just
drew pages right away, I didn´t sketch, I didn´t know anything about perspective
and anatomy. The good thing about it was that my comics were very expressive
and made people laugh. I tried to relearn how to draw at the age of 40 because
I wasn´t happy about my drawing skills anymore. It was still expressive but also
looked unprofessional and like drawn by a kid.

Here are some things / tips from the last 8 year training:

First the 2 important things:

-draw pages
-get feedback

This will lead you to the things you want to improve on and
the things you can skip because you don´t need them.

-learn how to sketch
-learn basic perspective
-use reference

There are drawing methods for everything. I wanted to be good at figure drawing
and wanted to be better at drawing heads that´s why I learned every method and
did a lot of anatomy courses and that helped me a lot.
But that´s very individual and that´s also something you find out when drawing pages
and when you get feedback.

Traditional or digital? Both.
Have a sketchbook with you all the time. Have sketchbooks in every room.
Other people check their phones when they are waiting for the bus, you sketch.

When you think about doing online courses here are some I recommend:
Proko (anatomy, figure drawing), Marc Brunet (everything), Angel Ganev (portraits)
They all have youtube channels and paid courses. All those courses are advanced

Drawabox is a good course for perspective and to be able to draw everything with
simple shapes, but it´s also boring af imo

Don´t learn too much theory, it can burn you out quickly

[RedLenai]

As a self taught, each journey is different.

However, there are a few things you could do:

Start traditionally at first, not only is easier, any kind of paper, pen or pencil will do to start.
But how do you start? Well, many started by trying to redraw their favorite cartoons or anime, some copying the art of trading cards, or videogame covers.

Copying is not a bad way to start, better than tracing indeed but it starts to train your eye to start to look for shapes, movement and composition.You can also grab photos of real people, and break them down and study them.

Now, the internet is your biggest resource, there are lot of PDFs available in online libraries and archives. There are several youtube tutorials, art classes both paid or free, courses, live drawing sessions and all. Take advantage of that.

However, theory is one thing. Is all good and all to know the rules, the fundamentals, and similar. The thing that'll matter the most... is practice, and don't get me wrong, is understandable just looking at the blank paper and feel intimidated, but give it a try, do a few crazy lines, dots, spirals, shapes, scraps, etc.
Not only to remove that fear of "Oh, I don't want to try I don't want to make something I don't like. What if it's ugly?" but also to start giving your hand some muscle memory.

Another thing you'll need to practice are:

• Posture, try to keep your back straight, get a support to raise the paper instead of slouching down to the table
• Start with a small, used pencil. Why? Some people when they start have very stiff hands, some don't have a firm grip. Starting with a small pencil helps to keep shackyness in check, this method is originally used on little kids to help them start getting used to draw and write
• Since we're talking about holding a pencil, check the ways to properly do it, yes, depending on what you have to do there are certain grips and movements you need to apply to avoid damaging your wrist.
• Move the elbow, not the wrist. I get this is very hard, even a lot of people making art have a hard time remembering to do this, especially digital artists working on either normal tablets or with-screen tablets

Is ok if you want to start digitally too, but try to have a steady growth on both fields. In most cases, I would recommend to focus traditionally (Which is an irony considering I'm mostly a digital artist) but here is why: Digital programs are more of a tool that you'll get full advantage by knowing first how to do things the old fashioned way.

[Legendofgenii]

Life drawing classes were invaluable to me, and I would continue to attend if there was a class nearby.

I would look online and see if there are any classes in your area.

[Umber]

Yeah, I get that.
Youtube videos definitely aren't a substitute for real classes, but they can help with little things sometimes.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I did a lot of sketching on scrap paper. I used to be pretty perfectionistic, so starting off with a 'perfect' canvas stressed me out. Starting on an already imperfect surface that I couldn't 'ruin' took away a lot of anxiety It also made me comfortable sketching with a pen

...is that all? NO! Because between all that you will need to learn about clothing, fashion, arquitecture, interior design, graphic design, lettering, paneling, and script!!

Tbh I wouldn't advise bombarding oneself with all the things that one has to learn from the get-go. I started out drawing characters; eyes, then faces, then the whole body. I kept the poses and stuff simple, focusing on faithfully portraying the character themselves as who I envision them as, their personality/expression etc. Others may start with something different, depending on their interests (I knew someone who would just draw a lot of weapons); but an initially myopic focus like this makes it less overwhelming to start off with imo