drawing for beginners - resources?

[laurbees]

i hope i've posted in the right spot :/

hi guys i'm fairly new to visual novels and ren'py, but i've been practising some programming (made a short game for school). currently i have a few ideas for a project.

sadly, i'm still lacking in the visual arts department. which is why i have decided that i should learn to draw!
its a bit ambitious but as a high school student i still have a fair amount of free time, and from what little i've done so far i know that i enjoy it.

which comes to my request:
do you guys have any useful resources for developing drawing skills, especially for a beginner? (e.g. tutorials)

advice and tips would be greatly appreciated as well!

skill level - beginner (about two weeks)
i happen to already own a tablet pc, any recommended drawing programs?
also, is it better to start drawing on paper before moving onto digital?

as a (formerly) silent observer, you have a really friendly and supportive community, so thank you in advance!

[Fawn]

First of all, you should NEVER ever ever ever EVER try to learn completely new drawing skills on a tablet unless you've used one for years. If you don't know how to draw with a pencil, it will take you even longer to learn on a tablet. So, yes, learn on paper first. The kind of paper and pencil don't matter, to be honest I draw on the back of my old homework when I practice haha.

Well, most people don't like this route cause it's "boring", but if you want to get really good at drawing at a better pace, you should learn how to draw from life first. If you can draw shapes from the real world, drawing stylized drawings will be much easier. Here's a website with all you need to get started with that:
http://www.icrit.org/resources.html

Read the articles about style, and then move on to the "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book. (If you can actually get a copy of it in real life, that's even better) It's a lot of reading I know, but reading is good for you and you'll be able to draw a lot faster.

[Duredhel]

The answer to the question; "How do I learn how to draw? :<" is always the same. One word;

Loomis.

[luminarious]

I am an avid collector of drawing books. In addition to Loomis, I can heartily recommend a number of other authors.

• Jack Hamm, who has a very laconic style of teaching. Huge number of examples on relatively few pages. Great for reference.
• Betty Edwards, who teaches you to draw by tricking you. Excellent exercises.
• Nicolaides - "The Natural Way to Draw" should be mandatory for everyone learning to draw people.
• Burne Hogarth is good at reminding you that real people have curves.

[Fawn]

Well, you have to consider they might not want to just draw people... It's kind of annoying that people just shout "STUDY ANATOMY!" when the person is completely starting from scratch when drawing. Sure a lot of people want to draw humans, but they might not even know how to draw and shade a simple cube, let alone a complex mass of shapes like the human body.
I do shout "study anatomy" at people a lot, but that's because it would be pretty insulting to ask them if they even knew how to draw basic shapes; and by that time they're usually drawing animu people anyhow. But, yeah, it's best to learn super basics before throwing yourself into anatomy.

[ebi brain]

Basically what everyone else has already said.

I've flipped through some of Loomis' books and they're really nice. If you're feeling a bit intimidated, 'Fun With A Pencil' by him is great, the tone he uses is so light and well...fun ^_^. Most of his books have gone out of print, though it seems they're getting some attention again as 'Figure Drawing For Al It's Worth' has been released again.

I'd also recommend to begin with the book by Betty Edwards, which I'm working from right now. Her book is based on the 5 day drawing courses she gives where you start out not being able to draw( copy) anything to being able to draw a self portrait by the end of the course. I am up to the part where you draw you're own hand, and I'm convinced I'll be able to draw my face once I get to that chapter.

I've heard good things about 'Keys to Drawing', so that'll probably be the next book I'll check out. Though it is said to be similar to Edwards' methods.

If you're a complete noob......unless you have oodles and oodles of patience and have great skills in concentration, I would not recommend starting with Nicolaides.
I tried it for about 6 'lessons' ( like 6 x 3 hours) and I wanted to rip my hair out and break my pencil. Blind contour drawing *shivers* my brain just doesn't like it at this stage.

Or....as an after thought, you should probably spread each time block out and not do the whole 3 hour lesson in one sitting.:p

If you have money to spend, you might want to take a look at Vilppu.
He has DVDs with lectures and an accompanying manual. They're pretty enthousiastic about his lessons over at conceptart.

Also, Parkablogs has a TON of reviews on drawing books, you should definitely take a look there.


Good Luck!

[laurbees]

thank you! i'll definitely have a look at them ^.^

[EriksBlue]

I was able to get a rare Andrew Lomis art book (head and hands).

But i have issues drawing muscular men and small chested woman can anyone help me.

[EzzyAlpha]

I happen to have a link to downloads of Loomis books in e-book form! http://escapefromillustrationisland.com ... downloads/

Everyone should start by drawing from life though. Drawing stuff around your room and people from magazines help.

@EriksBlue, you should check out Stan Lee's "How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way", since superheroes are so muscular. I believe it's still in print, unlike Loomis, but I could be wrong. I also suggest drawing athletes from pictures and translating that to your style.

[Efreet]

If you're a complete noob......unless you have oodles and oodles of patience and have great skills in concentration, I would not recommend starting with Nicolaides.
I tried it for about 6 'lessons' ( like 6 x 3 hours) and I wanted to rip my hair out and break my pencil. Blind contour drawing *shivers* my brain just doesn't like it at this stage.

I'm really curious as to what this book teaches. Actually, I'm interested in all the books mentioned beforehand being a bit of a book fan. I did pick out this anatomy book, but then realised how bad the artist was with his skeletons.

I've been trying to get myself back into drawing from just trying to draw anime-style for my VN (not turning out too great, I am practising anatomy) and then just 'drawing' what I see. I tend to be better at drawing the latter, so constructing my own drawings is something I suck at (until I get the proportions right and then the style right). Drawing on pencil and paper is more 'controllable' than using a tablet, then again I am using an A5 Wacom Bamboo One with a 24" screen.. Doesn't feel very right...

Great sources guys!

[0ion9]

I personally recommend The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed (public domain, downloadable from Project Gutenberg).

Nicolaides also seems excellent -- and far more hands on, which is important.
I think he doesn't really focus on doing things 'blind', rather the converse: Time you spend looking at the paper is time you don't spend looking at the model -- time in which you are disconnected, senseless.
It is possible to develop a 'feel' for your drawing surface, just like you can learn to touch type. When things start 'clicking', in both cases, you begin to find that looking at the drawing/typing surface actually slows you down, because you are thinking about things, rather than merely concentrating and doing.
(things like getting your lines to taper right or be smooth etc all come well after the basic step of getting a good grasp of the fundamental features of the model. Grasping the relation of fundamental features is exactly what blind contour drawing is good for)

[LadyAvori]

Once you read the books and learn basic anatomy and shading it's just a matter of practice. As with everything practice makes perfect.

In High school I had several sketch books dedicated to feet, hands, eyes, torsos, shapes for shading etc, and binders full of reference materials. Of course I was an art student and the art classes require that you make the binders But if something doesn't look right just do it again, and again, then a different way if the other way isn't working and before you know it a hand (that you actually like) will appear on your paper (which is arguably the hardest thing to draw on a human body, its that or feet imo). But this applies to whatever you're wanting to draw, whether it's figures, or landscapes, or still life...

Drawing is fun so try not to get too frustrated with it. Just know that the more you draw the more you'll improve. Then post your drawings here and we'll give you some tips and help you improve even more!

Good Luck!