Improving in a short amount of time?

[ameliori]

One way that worked for me is targeting a very specific topic I want to learn.

I have a huge problem drawing legs/feet. So I made it a point to draw nothing but legs and feet. For 3 months of so, that's all I did. I filled up a 100 leaf A4 drawing pad with nothing but feet. I can't say it was awesome. It was tedious and repetitive and many times I felt horribly inadequate. Drawing something you are not good at does that to you. I tried tutorials, videos, drawing from reference and drawing from imagination in cycle. Finally, after what seemed like a long time, something in my head just clicked. I swear. It felt like a switch being flicked open and I actually got it somewhat. My feet drawings improved drastically.

It happened again when I was learning the front torso. I drew nothing but torsos for so long. And again, something switched. I'm not saying I became a genius at it.. But I did grasp the gist. It happened again with faces.

You said you want to improve in a short amount of time.. And I can't say this is guaranteed to work. After all, I'm pretty sure learning curves vary from person to person. But maybe you can give it a whirl. Who knows if you're one of the lucky few who pick things up fast!

So yeah.. I'm trying this method with landscape now.. And I'm stuck in the "i am a talentless hack. kill me please" stage. I'd love some company since I'm miserable! Haha kidding! I hope this helped

P.S. Sycra has been a very big part of my art journey so I'm only somewhat extended the advice I've heard from one of his vids

[suzuaki]

if you're looking for art references and tutorials, check this out http://finaltrinity.tumblr.com/post/131 ... r-accounts

these are some amazing sites for references. it has been helping me a lot.

[Sitraxis]

Besides practice, there's also study to consider. Doesn't hurt to look at all of the tutorials on dA. Take a look at some artworks and look at their techniques and look them up too. Rather than mimicking the style, take what you like and try to put yourself in the artist's shoes while trying to understand their technique.

I think I improved when I started forcing myself to draw with a pen and be sure the anatomy at some point. Eventually, I went back to using the pencil because of the mistakes I make with the pen but it helped me draw faster and draw (a little) more neatly.

[VerdeICe]

I don't know if you revived your answer, I got to lazy to read after about halve the first reply. Ill tell you my opinion though... Well you kinda have to have something to focus on; a clear goal on what you want. Like.... finding the simplest way to draw what you want to make it work in your brain. It may take hours to draw something simple though at first, but you kinda just keep working at it till you get what you want.

It could take about a day, you know if you see all the issues the first time. For me its a super strict processes, I keep trying until it nearly makes me want to kill myself because I see no improvement the fist day, mystery.

But because I spent so much time on one thing, or many things, I find that the next time I muster up the will to try again its a lot better, because I know all my frustrations much better.

It may be different for you.

[pineapplepocky]

Drawing a lot doesn't really help you improve faster. It's more like drawing and understanding your mistakes that help you improve. When you make a piece, think to yourself 'what's wrong with this thing? How can I make it look better?' If people critique your work and they say 'the foot's off by a little' you don't just understand by fixing the foot on the image, you should understand that it was because you couldn't draw it properly, and that you should practice working on more feet. Well, something like that.
Understand your mistakes, know your weak points, then go on google or tumblr and look for tutorials that work on those specific weak points. 'getting better at drawing' altogether is too broad. Pick at the worst parts of your work and build up from that ladder.

[Lesleigh63]

Try flipping your image which will help you see if there's something off.

Try doing it in greyscale and then colouring if you have problems with your shadows not going dark enough (i.e. things looking flat).

[ketskari]

How to improve quickly. Well, lately, I've been taking pictures of my process when I'm working traditionally, and I go back through them and decide what I did wrong in the last painting before starting the next one. I could do that digitally as well but I always forget to, which is probably why I'm not as efficient a digital painter as I am a traditional one. Either way, analyzing how I'm drawing or painting and being aware of how I make marks and what habits I have help me to know when I'm getting into a rut, which is the enemy of improvement. Combined with a good book (Green Glasses Girl mentioned some great ones--I particularly recommend Andrew Loomis's Creative Illustration, which is a fantastic book), that awareness will get you far.

The only other formula I can think of for improving a lot in a short amount of time is a good drawing teacher who emphasizes sight-drawing and/or a figure drawing course with an emphasis on constructive anatomy. Community colleges often have good technical drawing courses.

[naqlada]

Lot of good advice here. Back when I was taking up the pencil, life drawing got me over the hump. If I couldn't find a model, I'd use myself.

[bearsrcute]

I'm not sure what part of your art you want to improve on so my suggestions are going to be more character based since that's what I like to do and have improved on
In conjunction with drawing everyday, you might want to slowly increase your practice time. Something that was very encouraging for me was when I first started seriously drawing, I couldn't really draw for more than 2 hours before getting tired but after practicing a whole lot for a couple of months I decided to see how long I could go and was surprised that I could go a little over 6 hours!
I think having a vague schedule helps too. I mainly like to go on the pixel lovely site(GREAT website which allows you to practice gestures of people, animals, hands and feet, and expressions) and choose student session for a certain amount of time so I get my daily dose of anatomy studies. I love gestures bc they're quick and really help with your ability to deconstruct in your head and reconstruct on paper(lol those words make me feel like im talking about fma)
there's lot of exercises you can do to like for warmups curve target practice, ellipses, straight lines and then you can move on to doing something like working in greyscale for better values or palette or master studies. I also like to do this thing where i try to draw something with as few lines as possible bc I think it really helps with form and flow. Something else that you should do is don't use eraser/use only pen at times. i think it helps with your accuracy and getting things right the first time!
If you want to learn better how to draw from memory then don't use reference but once you begin to notice something like all the people you drew are in the same poses or have similar hair or something it means it's time for you to broaden your artist box by looking and retaining the memory of different forms, shapes, textures, etc from real life and reference photos. Real life drawing can aid you in ways that photos lack so you should bring your sketchbooks to the cafe or zoo(really keep a small sketchbk with you everywhere you go- you never know when inspiration strikes) and sit down and draw.
Some book work is needed too for things like anatomy and perspective stuff
I suggest you should divide your 'curriculum' between the category of art you want to get better at and the fundamentals of art

[Sonata]

fast improvement is something that is hard to achieve...improving in art takes time, patience, and dedication.
the best piece of advice I can give is experiment. Try out new coloring methods, new styles, drawing things out of your comfort zone. Not only does it stimulate creativity and creates improvement, it also helps you see what things you are capable of.

[DerWanderer]

In order to improve quickly, I think one needs to practice as often as one can, without having any expectations. If you have a big expectation (of a big improvement), you may grow impatient and perhaps give up on the way. Just do it often (with variations, just like Sonata said: getting out of your comfort zone), do your best everytime, and don't think about making the most perfect result. I think it's that simple, although a practice can mean a lot of things to different people (e.g. using live model, simply copying, drawing for imagination). Do what suits you best.