Writer Trying His Hand at Art

[rmanbeyond]

Hello everyone. So I have a very general question that I want artists' opinion on. I am a screenwriter and comic book writer. I've been writing for 9 years and have written many scripts. However I've never really tried to draw them before. I basically dedicated the last 9 years to improving my writing and spend hours doing it every single day. Writing was always my true passion so I solely focused on that, but I'm now interested in trying to be an artist as well.

So my question is, being that I have next to no experience how long would it take me until I am able to draw sequential art and draw freehand? How long until I can draw near comic book quality? I know it's a very vague question and art is subjective. I was thinking of buying a bunch of art books to teach myself and dedicating a certain number of hours a week. I'm 23 years old so I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking it is too late to ever achieve being a great artist and it would take 10 plus years.
Anyways let me know what you all think. Feel free to give your honest opinion.

[WakaXO]

If you get really good art books, lessons, practice all the time, and have some natural talent, maybe 5 to 10 years?
I have met people who never had any inclination to start doing art seriously until later in life and they made it happen with LOTS OF HARD WORK and persistence. If that's a level of work you're willing to strive for then you could possible get to the level of art proficiency that you have in mind, but it'll be no cakewalk. It takes time and patience to master an art, much like you experienced with writing, working at it seriously for a few years will get you at least the basics down. Though finding a style that suits you might even take longer...

This also depends on what you think is "comic book quality", some art styles are easier than others. :/

[digitalvalium1]

It's never too late. With dedication, and drive, it can be done. Talent does play a factor, I think, but I can't say as to how much. Best advice I can give you is to start now, draw something every day, and do the basics for longer than you think you should. Don't expect to be able to draw anything well, just draw. In fact, leave your expectations at the door and don't look back. Ever. Just take it as it comes.

Depending on the styles you admire, there are a myriad of books available designed for beginners. Invest in several. Read carefully.

Take photos, lots and lots of photos. Fill your dropbox several times over. Annoy your friends with how much you take photos. Organize them according to setting, persons, positions, mood, body language. You will need them.

Above all, don't let anyone tell you that you aren't capable of it, and don't be afraid to fail. It is only when one fails that one is capable of learning. And one more grain of salt: fools can only learn from whom they consider wise, but the wise can learn from anyone.

[SynergyEclipse]

It's never too late to start learning to draw and get into making comics! Artists can grow at different rates, but you have a good starting point, planning to buy books to learn the basics of art first, and dedicating some time each week to drawing. Growth is achieved through dedication, patience, and a lot of practice, like with writing skills.

I can't give a timeframe for how long it'd take, because that would also depend on the art style you want to draw, and the level of detail, but taking the time to learn the basics first will save you time in the long-term by saving you from making some mistakes that'd become ingrained and harder to fix over time. There are also a lot of free art tutorials available online, and when studying the basics, you should observe from real life.

[hushicho]

It can take different amounts of time depending on many factors such as inherent talent, time you're willing to spend on it, and other things that have a bearing on it. And by talent I mean to say that some people...art just makes sense. Others take a bit more doing to learn how art works. But everyone can do it. As the great Bob Ross famously said, anything you're willing to practice, you can do.

I'd also like to take a moment to toss in a recommendation for a software called ComiPo!, which is a comic creation program that allows you to make comics by positioning characters and backgrounds. It's surprisingly robust and pretty fun to use, so you might want to check it out if they're having a sale sometime (which they do frequently) and it's on Steam, so a sale is inevitable sooner or later! I've played with it a good bit myself, and it can be very nice to at least convey some idea of what you're trying to say with writing.

I'm not saying to give up altogether on art, though! ComiPo! allows you to lay out panels with consistency in terms of figures, so you can develop your own images from what you've laid out in ComiPo! I also recommend Clip Studio Paint, which has a number of features that can help you, including 3D models for you to position in the program.

[indagold]

hmm, probably another 10-15 years give or take. Honestly if you're this late in the game to drawing chances are I doubt you'll get far? Drawings a complicated process and isn't like writing or taking up an instrument. I'm not being a downer, i'm just saying I doubt it's possible to take up art immediately and expect to be really amazing at it eventually. Some people just cannot draw, plain and simple, some people aren't meant for art. So there's no simple answer and there's no guarantee you'll reach professional quality art. If you want to take up art then don't put expectations that you will be amazing eventually and see it as more of a hobby.

[ConradComics]

Around the same time and effort it took to get your writing polished, so the 10 year goal is realistic. You will see real improvement after just 5 years though, especially if you hone it daily.

Oh, and it's never too late. You're still young, so that helps tremendously, but anyone at any age can pick up drawing and become really, really good at it.

I'm not trying to put down my own life and love, but drawing is the most gumption oriented skill I've seen. If you want it bad enough and practice it hard enough, improvement and mastery will happen.

[DMBrigman]

It really depends upon the amount of time and effort you put into it. I think the estimate was 10000 hours. So, if you draw one hour per week, then 10000 weeks!

As an artist who has drawn my whole life, art is really about learning to "see" something, then being able to physically reproduce it. It really is a combination of observational skills and mechanical ones. "Drawing on the right side of the brain" is a standard beginner art book that can get you started. It is a good idea to figure out how you are going to draw, whether physically or digitally. In my experience, general art skills like color theory and composition transfer over regardless of medium, but once you use a new tool you have to start all over on the mechanical part. I felt I had a huge drop in quality when I switched from paper to tablet. Keep that in mind.

I would start out with real-life drawing, and being able to accurately reproduce what you are seeing with your eyes. Draw everything you can; flowers, buildings, landscapes, spoons, people, and don't give up. Art is a life long learning process, just take a look at any awesome artist's early works! You can do it!

[Overlord_Thundersnow]

I think it goes something like "spend ten thousand hours working on something, and you will become an expert at it."

I firmly believe this concept, and set out 5 years ago to improve my art to a professional level. I estimate I'm probably around the five-six thousand hour mark (I probably should have been keeping track ) Albeit I was decent when I started out, voted "Most Artistic' in Highschol, etc, I stopped drawing for 10 years. Now that I've went back to it, I am much more improved because I dedicated my life towards improving my artistic skills.

Becoming an artist from scratch is much MUCH MUCH easier nowadays with the advent of Youtube. Now you can self-teach yourself everything you need to know and it's all at the tips of your fingers.

Here's my tips for getting better:

You've already got the script so you should be story-boarding out the page. Use stick figures at first then progress out to the tube-man skeleton (cyclinders for arms, legs, egg shape of chest, etc) I use this process when fleshing out a comic page, or anything for that matter.

*Have a sketchbook by the bed, and use it before sleeping and when you wake up with some gnarly dream you don't want to forget. My entire art style is based off a dream I had.

*Watch Youtube videos of basic art concepts. They are boring as hell after awhile but you should really get down the concept of shadow and light.

*Draw at least one hour every day.

*Draw with music on and turn off the tv. This provides a more fluid and speedy process.

*After a few months, go back and watch Youtube videos of what you've already watched. You'll be amazed at the things you missed simply because 'you didn't know what you didn't know', and now your mind is open to new concepts that wern't readily apparent to your non-artistic brain when you first began.

Great pictures don't happen immediately! They rarely happen in one day.

My process is usually:
sketchbook
scan
digital pencil over the scan
digital pencil over the digital pencil
digital ink over the digital pencil
Outline over the digital ink
colors process=shade/flatten/color/highlight

So you see, unless you're some child prodigy that creates magic whenever his/her pencil hits the paper, it takes serious time and effort.

But once you've got it all nailed down, you're well on your way to becoming an artist!

And what does it mean to be an Artist? It means that you can now proudly generate a giant piece of art that you've spent two weeks pouring your blood and sweat into, throw a big party and show it to your friends who will glance at it for all of 0.7 seconds and say "Ah that's cool", belch loudly into your face and then wander off into the livingroom to watch American Trash Sniffers on primetime with all the rest of your non-artistic uncouth friends.

Best of luck to you!

[spadesart]

everyone's already said the necessary stuff but! vincent van gogh didn't start painting until he was 27 my dude it's never too late!

[rmanbeyond]

Thank you all so much! I really do appreciate hearing out everyone's different perspectives. Your words of wisdom and encouragement really mean the world to me. I also appreciate the honesty and the realistic goals I should expect. Honestly I was really on the fence about pursuing this. I'd say the number one reason was fear. Trying new things is always tough. I've come so far with my writing that starting out back at novice level in another skill was the most terrifying thing in the world.

But after reading all of your answers, I'm gonna go for it! Hearing you guys out let me know that even though it's gonna take a very long time and lots of dedication the end goal is still obtainable. It's not just some lofty ambitious gal in my mind anymore. I'm up for the challenge! I'm going to follow all of the strategies/techniques that everyone suggested. You transformed my fear into confidence!!!

Thanks for that!

[Mari]

IMHO the most important thing is that you make sure you're enjoying what you're doing. If you force yourself into keeping an art diary etc it might make you resent drawing altogether, which will be harder to overcome than any technical problem. You're new, just start by thinking about what you want to draw and just do those, when you have the free time / feel like it. Drawing more gets easier as you do it, but forcing youself to do a hobby straight away is the quickest way for you to destroy any enthusiasm for it. We all started because we loved drawing, not because we aimed to become the best of the best.