Learning to draw

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Otterly

Otterly

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kiwifarms.net
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Jan 6, 2019
I’m going to have a slightly longer than normal summer break this year and I’d really like to learn to draw. This may be a daft question, but can anyone recommend a good book that covers the basics for an adult who was Ok at it at school (which is decades back) but hasn’t done anything since? If it’s relevant, I’d like to do pencil sketches/watercolour and mainly landscape / botanical type stuff. I just fancy drawing trees and whatnot for a bit. No digital, just paper. I have some ancient watercolours and pencils. Where do I start, and what do I need to know? (I guess just practice, but there’s probably theory and stuff?) I learn better from books and don’t like videos
 
It's a bit of a meme and has been for a while, but Loomis is good. fun with a pencil and figure drawing for all it's worth are solid starting points. I see you said mostly landscape and botanical but there's some good nuggets of general drawing philosophy in there even if you're not going for character art.
/ic/'s sticky thread had a good selection of resources collected for free download last time I checked.
 
TenMilesWide said:
It's a bit of a meme and has been for a while, but Loomis is good.
Click to expand...
I've been using Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. There' s a lot of pseudoscience crammed in there, but I think the exercises and the mentality aspect are pretty good. Helps you get in the right mindset for drawing.
 
TenMilesWide said:
It's a bit of a meme and has been for a while, but Loomis is good. fun with a pencil and figure drawing for all it's worth are solid starting points. I see you said mostly landscape and botanical but there's some good nuggets of general drawing philosophy in there even if you're not going for character art.
/ic/'s sticky thread had a good selection of resources collected for free download last time I checked.
Click to expand...
Second this, the sticky on /ic/ along with additional resources I found through YouTube and lurking further on the board were how I started as well.
If landscape and botanical illustrations are your interest, it'd be beneficial to focus heavily on getting down perspective and forms:
- Scott Robinson's "How To Draw" is an excellent book which approaches this from a draftsman's perspective.
- DrawABox is a tutorial site which forces you to get familiar with drawing organic forms, in addition to approaching the fundamentals through multiple progressions.
 
Go to the Art Renewal Center website and find an atelier near you.

You’ll learn how to draw proportionally and on an upright canvas.
Bonus: Nude figure drawing
(^_~)

Actually no, it’s not a bonus because the model is usually a middle-aged validation-seeking Latino fag with chlamydia leaking from his chode’s pee-hole.
 
Catboy Ranch Dressing said:
I've been using Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. There' s a lot of pseudoscience crammed in there, but I think the exercises and the mentality aspect are pretty good. Helps you get in the right mindset for drawing.
Click to expand...

I second this recommendation, because the book broke a glass celling with my drawing skills I would've never figured out until I had burnt myself out trying. TL;DR; the book tells you that getting academic with learning how to draw is counterproductive perfection. Autistically seeking resources because you tell yourself can't draw well will not only actively sabotage progress, but also get in the way of enjoying a very simple process all things considered, with the book actively demonstrating these points through guided practice.

The above posters are absolutely on point: all you need to improve on a technical level up to professional levels is DrawABox and Loomis, but the point of drawing is to just draw. It's all about having fun. Your best teacher is your favorite landscape.
 
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Otterly said:
I learn better from books
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As other have said the /ic/ sticky is very good for resources on how to draw.
If your interest is just in drawing landscapes i'd recommend 'Perspective made easy by Ernest Norling'.
For a more general aproach to drawing "Figure drawing for all it's worth by Andrew Loomis'
Otterly said:
Where do I start, and what do I need to know?
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You just draw and practice, most learning material on how to draw is just giving you excercises to do, using real life pictures for reference and just doodling about.
 
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I've been drawing my whole life, those books are useful I guess for tips and tricks but the best thing to do is just put pencil to paper. You really don't need books or tutorials unless you're trying to work on certain techniques, or at least that's what I've found. Same thing with writing.
Find a subject or reference that you like and literally just draw it. Draw it again and again until it starts to look more like the reference. Drawing things you like is the key to enjoying it and continuing to practice. I've drawn the same things thousands of times just cause it's fun. Art is more about trial and error - the only way to improve is by making a lot of mistakes.
 
Ozul said:
I've been drawing my whole life, those books are useful I guess for tips and tricks but the best thing to do is just put pencil to paper. You really don't need books or tutorials unless you're trying to work on certain techniques, or at least that's what I've found. Same thing with writing.
Find a subject or reference that you like and literally just draw it. Draw it again and again until it starts to look more like the reference. Drawing things you like is the key to enjoying it and continuing to practice. I've drawn the same things thousands of times just cause it's fun. Art is more about trial and error - the only way to improve is by making a lot of mistakes.
Click to expand...
I enjoy the memory/visualization training exercise of looking at an object, writing down its features, then going somewhere else/putting it away/not looking at it and just draw it based on what I wrote. Compare, contrast, and repeat enough times and you too can rotate an apple in your head.
 
Ozul said:
I've been drawing my whole life, those books are useful I guess for tips and tricks but the best thing to do is just put pencil to paper. You really don't need books or tutorials unless you're trying to work on certain techniques, or at least that's what I've found. Same thing with writing.
Find a subject or reference that you like and literally just draw it. Draw it again and again until it starts to look more like the reference. Drawing things you like is the key to enjoying it and continuing to practice. I've drawn the same things thousands of times just cause it's fun. Art is more about trial and error - the only way to improve is by making a lot of mistakes.
Click to expand...
Pretty much also been drawing my whole life. Though I could never make the obscenely clean line art that Japanese artists live and breathe. So I ended up using messier brushes for my own art style when making digital art to come up with stuff I like.

Then again, it also helps to not be a twitter faggot shilling commissions or e-begging and instead just do it for a hobby and the enjoyment of drawing.
 
I don't have any good advice on books, most of my life I just doodled and the most I increased in skill was just a point when I had a lot of friends who where also artists and therefore was doing lots of art to keep up with them and that got me much further than when I actually did several extra-curricular art stuff with a 1 on 1 tutor. I only consider myself to be 1% over the top of the bell-curve into artist territory so I can't really offer professional advice but did still want to give my encouragement to you, it'd be great to see some before and after stuff if you're up to sharing during the process.
 
this sounds stupid but dont draw a picture as a whole but draw each line indivually and then combine to make a whole shape. My art teacher gave me that advice and my art has improved ten fold.
 
Otterly said:
I’m going to have a slightly longer than normal summer break this year and I’d really like to learn to draw. This may be a daft question, but can anyone recommend a good book that covers the basics for an adult who was Ok at it at school (which is decades back) but hasn’t done anything since? If it’s relevant, I’d like to do pencil sketches/watercolour and mainly landscape / botanical type stuff. I just fancy drawing trees and whatnot for a bit. No digital, just paper. I have some ancient watercolours and pencils. Where do I start, and what do I need to know? (I guess just practice, but there’s probably theory and stuff?) I learn better from books and don’t like videos
Click to expand...
I wouldn't suggest getting into anatomy and perspective right away as a beginner. First couple of years have to be spent copying things, just copy everything you see and learn to replicate something you can see. Composition and structure comes later, breaking down visible objects into constituent 3d objects so you can draw them without reference.
 
I taught myself mostly through experimenting and doodling all the time, but when I was in college I took an art course and a specific book that helped me was Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain by Betty Edwards. It's a pretty good book for beginners and an interesting read. I don't remember all of it but I know it also provides a guide on what tools would be useful for beginners, which is something I noticed a lot of art books tend to leave out.

I highly recommend practicing schema - basic shapes like, circles, spheres, rectangles, some oblongs etc. - and just see what you can work with. It's a good thing to consider when drawing anatomy. Faces and bodies at their core are just a series of shapes. And don't be afraid to play around with other mediums like charcoal or pastels or colored pencils. You don't need quality ones either.
 
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