Drawing Tips For Newbies

[Beaniebon]

blur is useful for textures like blending red into skin but otherwise this is generally a good idea

I do use blur myself if the person I'm drwaing is blushing, but I find too many beginners fall into the trap of bluring colors together to make shading and they should just avoid using it until they've figured to rest out honestly. Amost every single beginner to digitalart abuses it.

 

[Zababa]

I do use blur myself if the person I'm drwaing is blushing, but I find too many beginners fall into the trap of bluring colors together to make shading and they should just avoid using it until they've figured to rest out honestly. Amost every single beginner to digitalart abuses it.

Yeah no that's generally a bad idea. I usually blend red into the skin, and for paintings I add in yellow and blue and blur them together. A blurred effect can be useful for super soft shading, like a sphere in low contrast lighting, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

 

[Malady Twigs]

I love every post in this thread, but I suppose I could still use some help. I know this thread's been a little dormant, but if you guys can lend me a hand, I'd be very grateful.

I have a friend who wants to learn how to draw. Her occupation has, literally, NOTHING to do with art of any kind, but, nonetheless, she now wants to do it. Unfortunately, she's... not very good. She has absolutely no academic foundation and not a lot of skill, either. She's the type of person who draws stick figures and "V"-shaped birds.

I have advised her to take some sort of lessons, but her job makes it very difficult for her to attend, so she has pretty much to try to learn on her own. A few months ago I bought her this book, which I'll give her as a birthday gift. I don't know if it's good or not, but I suppose it's a start. I'm thinking about buying her some pencils, too.

My question for you guys is, essentially, how can a person with absolutely no drawing practice learn to draw, from the very start? Is there, like, a schedule of some sort? Do Art schools do that? What's a person supposed to learn first, and how does it go from there? Do you learn anatomy first? Lighting and shading? What are the "goals" in the learning curve?

She (and I) did browse the web and found lots of websites that supposedly "teach" you how to draw as a beginner, and, thanks to this thread, I found Ctrl + Paint, figure tools and learned lots of tips and tricks, so thanks for that. I have a friend who lurks chans who told me there's a 4chan board that's all about art, so I'll refer her to that, as well.

Thanks in advance for any heads-up!

 

[Kartoffel]

I love every post in this thread, but I suppose I could still use some help. I know this thread's been a little dormant, but if you guys can lend me a hand, I'd be very grateful.

I have a friend who wants to learn how to draw. Her occupation has, literally, NOTHING to do with art of any kind, but, nonetheless, she now wants to do it. Unfortunately, she's... not very good. She has absolutely no academic foundation and not a lot of skill, either. She's the type of person who draws stick figures and "V"-shaped birds.

I have advised her to take some sort of lessons, but her job makes it very difficult for her to attend, so she has pretty much to try to learn on her own. A few months ago I bought her this book, which I'll give her as a birthday gift. I don't know if it's good or not, but I suppose it's a start. I'm thinking about buying her some pencils, too.

My question for you guys is, essentially, how can a person with absolutely no drawing practice learn to draw, from the very start? Is there, like, a schedule of some sort? Do Art schools do that? What's a person supposed to learn first, and how does it go from there? Do you learn anatomy first? Lighting and shading? What are the "goals" in the learning curve?

She (and I) did browse the web and found lots of websites that supposedly "teach" you how to draw as a beginner, and, thanks to this thread, I found Ctrl + Paint, figure tools and learned lots of tips and tricks, so thanks for that. I have a friend who lurks chans who told me there's a 4chan board that's all about art, so I'll refer her to that, as well.

Thanks in advance for any heads-up!

I'd say it depends what kind of picture she would like to draw the most. If she wants to get into landscape painting there is for example not that much use of learning to draw humans (at least in the beginning).
Try to find out what kind of picture she likes exspecially and work from there on; that will give her some quick satisfying results.

From the technical perspective she'll need to master three things to accomplish good stuff:
- sketching (aka building up your picture that everything is perspectivly and anatomically etc. correct)
- outlines (turning your sketch into something you can color (even usefull if you don't actually use outlines))
- coloring (applying color to your picture and shading stuff)

Some things will be roughly the same independent of medium, how you build stuff up, how colors work together, etc.
Other things will feal greatly different depending on the tools you use.
The probably cheapest option to begin drawing that also has the least learning amount for you to master the basic use of your tools would be colored pencils (a box with 12 is already enough, because then she has to learn to layer the colors from the very beginning). But it can also be hugely satisfying to start drawing on a computer, but that will necessitate the aquisition of a graphics tablet sooner or later (unless you're into vector drawing which imho works much better with a mouse).

But when she learns one medium to a certain degree she'll find it much easier to learn the next one.

Oh and btw. she can exercise her coloring skills without making the outlines herself, just get her a nice coloring book That might also take the possible "fear" of a blank piece of paper away.

 

[Melkor]

Would anyone here happen to know a good resource for shading/light source references? Something that is interactive?

I have designdoll but the light source tool is mediocre.

 

[bacterium]

I love every post in this thread, but I suppose I could still use some help. I know this thread's been a little dormant, but if you guys can lend me a hand, I'd be very grateful.

I have a friend who wants to learn how to draw. Her occupation has, literally, NOTHING to do with art of any kind, but, nonetheless, she now wants to do it. Unfortunately, she's... not very good. She has absolutely no academic foundation and not a lot of skill, either. She's the type of person who draws stick figures and "V"-shaped birds.

I have advised her to take some sort of lessons, but her job makes it very difficult for her to attend, so she has pretty much to try to learn on her own. A few months ago I bought her this book, which I'll give her as a birthday gift. I don't know if it's good or not, but I suppose it's a start. I'm thinking about buying her some pencils, too.

My question for you guys is, essentially, how can a person with absolutely no drawing practice learn to draw, from the very start? Is there, like, a schedule of some sort? Do Art schools do that? What's a person supposed to learn first, and how does it go from there? Do you learn anatomy first? Lighting and shading? What are the "goals" in the learning curve?

She (and I) did browse the web and found lots of websites that supposedly "teach" you how to draw as a beginner, and, thanks to this thread, I found Ctrl + Paint, figure tools and learned lots of tips and tricks, so thanks for that. I have a friend who lurks chans who told me there's a 4chan board that's all about art, so I'll refer her to that, as well.

Thanks in advance for any heads-up!

I am awful, too. The only drawing I ever felt good about was when an ex-girlfriend asked me to draw something for her. I am super self conscious, mind you so that was asking a lot. I sat. And thought. And then my eyes wandered to a pair of scissors sitting on my desk.
And I drew the shit out of it. As silly as it sounds, it was a huge boost for me.

tl:dr tell her to start with something with a real life reference

 

[Malady Twigs]

Apologies for taking a while to reply, I was gathering info.

I'd say it depends what kind of picture she would like to draw the most. If she wants to get into landscape painting there is for example not that much use of learning to draw humans (at least in the beginning).
Try to find out what kind of picture she likes exspecially and work from there on; that will give her some quick satisfying results.

I see. Well, she wasn't super specific about it. She says she wants to draw anything, but she seems to be somewhat more into designing characters and she's told me she saves lots of landscape pictures because she enjoys looking at them.

So, I guess, characters and scenarios?

From the technical perspective she'll need to master three things to accomplish good stuff:
- sketching (aka building up your picture that everything is perspectivly and anatomically etc. correct)
- outlines (turning your sketch into something you can color (even usefull if you don't actually use outlines))
- coloring (applying color to your picture and shading stuff)

I never really thought about breaking down the drawing process into these steps. This is actually very helpful.

The probably cheapest option to begin drawing that also has the least learning amount for you to master the basic use of your tools would be colored pencils (a box with 12 is already enough, because then she has to learn to layer the colors from the very beginning).

That's exactly what she'll use, because it's all she has as of yet. Besides pens. I told her not to purchase a tablet right now, but I know she won't resist the temptation.

Oh and btw. she can exercise her coloring skills without making the outlines herself, just get her a nice coloring book That might also take the possible "fear" of a blank piece of paper away.

Wow, I've... actually never thought of that. I've always had the idea they were sold as something for kids to spend their time or grown-ups to "relieve stress", but it seems they do serve a purpose after all.

And I drew the shit out of it. As silly as it sounds, it was a huge boost for me.

tl:dr tell her to start with something with a real life reference

That is pretty much the one thing people keep repeating when it comes to learning how to draw, to start from real life and use references. I know someone who's sorta into the Art field and they told me it's always more effective to draw from imagination if you've already practiced drawing from real life, so I'll be sure to let her know that.

Thanks for the tips, guys!

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

If you want to learn how to draw - I found an amazing book. It's called "drawing in the digital age". You can buy it but it's also available online on "certain" websites (if u know what I mean).

The autor invented a technique that nearly everyone can learn. He combined mathematics with polygons (the stuff used in videogames). It's not widely known but it makes drawing even the most complex forms easyier. For me - it's one of the best drawing books out there.

Another book I highly recommend is Art and fear. It's about how to overcome your fear of failing when drawing/painting.

 

[admiral]

Get proper equipment and take your time. Decent paper is cheap- don't bother with the expensive crap if you're not a professional or an art student.
Don't rush your drawings, even if your work feels slow.
Youth and inexperience are no excuse for lazy or poorly thought out work.
Also, don't press too hard. It looks shitty. (I do this all the time, and as such a lot of my earlier traditional work is arse.)
Ask for critique frequently, or you'll never see your art as it really is. Don't get offended if someone says it's got an error.

Seriously though, I see people (not really on this site, but a lot elsewhere) posting lazy pencil drawings on lined paper asking for critique. Fucks sake, this obviously isn't your best work. Don't show me your binder doodles of Fnaf characters. My first uni submission was terrible because I rushed it and, even though it looked okay, you could tell I hadn't tried as hard. (As such, I got a bad mark and I have to work doubly hard now.) There's a fine line between 'sketchy' and 'rushed.'

 

[Kartoffel]

That's exactly what she'll use, because it's all she has as of yet. Besides pens. I told her not to purchase a tablet right now, but I know she won't resist the temptation.

Small addendum; if she draws on a computer and doesn't have a tablet yet she should try to lower her mouse's speed. That will probably help her very much to get more precision and less wonky lines. Also I suggest spending some time on learning how to use bezier curves, which can make drawing the lineart much easier.
Also she might want to look into vector based drawing for her lines; to color them later in a regular painting programm. Many artists also like to make their initial drawings on normal paper and then digitalize their lines, clean them up and color them digitally.

 

[bacterium]

Get proper equipment and take your time. Decent paper is cheap- don't bother with the expensive crap if you're not a professional or an art student.
Don't rush your drawings, even if your work feels slow.
Youth and inexperience are no excuse for lazy or poorly thought out work.
Also, don't press too hard. It looks shitty. (I do this all the time, and as such a lot of my earlier traditional work is arse.)
Ask for critique frequently, or you'll never see your art as it really is. Don't get offended if someone says it's got an error.

Seriously though, I see people (not really on this site, but a lot elsewhere) posting lazy pencil drawings on lined paper asking for critique. Fucks sake, this obviously isn't your best work. Don't show me your binder doodles of Fnaf characters. My first uni submission was terrible because I rushed it and, even though it looked okay, you could tell I hadn't tried as hard. (As such, I got a bad mark and I have to work doubly hard now.) There's a fine line between 'sketchy' and 'rushed.'

Real talk, if a drawing is good, it's good. The medium doesn't matter. I have seen amazing artwork in composition notebooks.

I'd say starting with those notebooks with the grids, then moving to composition, and finally to blank paper.

If she insists on getting a drawing tablet, I got a Huion H420 cheap on the wish app. But you can find it elsewhere, too.

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

Does anyone have tips/resources regarding foreshortening? I'm trying to draw an arm at a rather extreme angle, but nothing looks right. Arms are way harder than legs imo.

 

[CaptainMappy]

If you're learning to draw the human form, then buy a book or two on anatomy and figure drawing, study both of them ten times over, and draw draw draw until you can't get it wrong.

 

[DatBepisTho]

Sounds kinda weeby of me, but look at how Osamu Tezuka's drawn his hands through the years and mimic until you can draw a decent hand outline with minimal effort. They're simple as hell but still convey a degree of form and emotion.

-No more hands in pockets until you get better at drawing more realistic hands, freshmeat!

 

[Schwachkopf]

4chan /ic/ has tons and tons of really good resources for drawing, i only know few good resources for drawing furry stuff but i can't tell if one of you are interested in that, so here's the goods.

https://hubpages.com/art/how-to-draw-learn
https://sites.google.com/site/ourwici/
https://boards.4chan.org/ic/thread/3265101

 

[Gus]

When you shade with a pencil, never put it on too hard at first, and use your eraser lightly when you overdo it. Let it come in gradually so that you consider every bit of what you're doing for every second. Think about how heavy the shade is and where it should realistically go and flow.

 

[MW 002]

If you're like me and want to stick with traditional colouring, there's a ton of tutorials on YouTube which I found very helpful.

Don't be like me and avoid experimenting with other mediums- I avoided markers for the longest time, but have found out recently that they are excellent for making wonderful backgrounds.

Speaking of backgrounds- try landscape paintings when you're in an artist block. It is seriously helpful in making more dynamic backgrounds; and if you're a generic animu artist, then making appealing backgrounds could make your artwork stand out from the rest of the DeviantArt crowd.