Tips on art

[Eyesic]

Hi!

So I totally understand this is totally different for everyone, and the only way to be good is to practice, but would anyone have any guidance on how to improve their art? I draw from sight haha. This year I would really like to put in effort to drawing and develop it as a skill and hobby but I find it very intimidating and a bit overwhelming. Would anyone have advice or maybe some resources to point me in the right direction? I would love to learn proper rules so I can break them.

 

[Kat]

Drawing from sight means you're on the right track already! You're gonna hear "practice practice practice" a lot and I stand by it, but in my experience an even better mantra is "experiment experiment experiment". Try lots of different media (or brushes for digital art) and styles: which way of laying down lines and colours looks and feels the best? Which ways of stylising the human body and face hit that sweet spot between "easy to draw" and "looks 'right'"? I recommend keeping a sketchbook, even if it's just a tiny cheap one you draw in with ballpoint pen - in fact sketching in pen is a good way to train yourself to draw faster and more accurately, because no eraser or undo button means you're forced to try multiple times to get something right. It's less tedious than it sounds, especially if you draw small and on cheap paper you're not worried about ruining or getting "perfect" or showing to anyone.

Edit because I suddenly remembered: something else you're gonna hear a lot is "draw every day" but speaking from experience, that's terrible advice - it's a one-way ticket to burnout city! A more realistic approach is to dedicate time each week/month to practice and experimentation and to "finished" pieces - and keep in mind those two are different disciplines; the former will pay off in the latter.

If you're stuck for what to draw, there's a ton of sites dedicated to reference images: TrueRef (this one's great for Lupin fanart specifically because they have a section where you can search for models with guns, swords etc.), Line of Action, AdorkaStock and stufftodraw on Tumblr are ones I recommend. And most importantly, have fun - no, really, making drawing fun for you is the most important part of learning

 

[Eyesic]

Drawing from sight means you're on the right track already! You're gonna hear "practice practice practice" a lot and I stand by it, but in my experience an even better mantra is "experiment experiment experiment". Try lots of different media (or brushes for digital art) and styles: which way of laying down lines and colours looks and feels the best? Which ways of stylising the human body and face hit that sweet spot between "easy to draw" and "looks 'right'"? I recommend keeping a sketchbook, even if it's just a tiny cheap one you draw in with ballpoint pen - in fact sketching in pen is a good way to train yourself to draw faster and more accurately, because no eraser or undo button means you're forced to try multiple times to get something right. It's less tedious than it sounds, especially if you draw small and on cheap paper you're not worried about ruining or getting "perfect" or showing to anyone.

Edit because I suddenly remembered: something else you're gonna hear a lot is "draw every day" but speaking from experience, that's terrible advice - it's a one-way ticket to burnout city! A more realistic approach is to dedicate time each week/month to practice and experimentation and to "finished" pieces - and keep in mind those two are different disciplines; the former will pay off in the latter.

If you're stuck for what to draw, there's a ton of sites dedicated to reference images: TrueRef (this one's great for Lupin fanart specifically because they have a section where you can search for models with guns, swords etc.), Line of Action, AdorkaStock and stufftodraw on Tumblr are ones I recommend. And most importantly, have fun - no, really, making drawing fun for you is the most important part of learning

Thanks for the response Kat!

By the sounds of it, i'm on the right track haha. One foot after another, just gotta keep at it! Also thanks for the links, thats such a great resource And that's a great idea! Creating challenges for myself will hold myself accountable!

 

[a_pass_time]

I totally agree with Kat about experimenting with both material and style. And using something you can't erase, that really helped me. From my experience though, drawing every day was some of the best advice I received lol! But that's the thing with advise, you gotta see what works for you and drawing everyday doesn't work for every body. I think I don't get burnt-out because my goal is not to have a drawing every day, but rather just to draw. If I scribble a smiley face and a swirl then I've drawn that day, and a sketch page with several days worth of silly doodles ends up looking pretty dang cool! For me, it's all about exercising that muscle everyday even if I don't have a thing I want to draw.

On the topic of experimenting with style I'd recommend finding the artists and works you admire and printing that stuff out! Doom scroll is the enemy of the artist, if you wanna spend more time drawing, then cut out the digital search. Make physical inspo/ ref boards from your digital ones frequently. I'm still working on doing this myself but every time I do it I'm so much happier and I get stuff done a lot quicker. Also try to distill what exactly you like about someone's work and try to recreate it. (I saw this in a youtube video but can't for the life of me remember the channel...) You like how they pose their characters? Trace over the drawing and find the line of action, the straight and curved edges, the silhouette, the angles? (I actually don't really understand the angle thing yet...) Then you can hide the original and use the tracing as a reference. Once you're done, bring back the original and compare. (This is a lot easier digitally but can be done traditionally obv.) You can do the same sorta stuff with line-art/line-weight, color, shading, shape language. Redraw what you like and then once you got all these little studies try and combine what you've learned into something new.

I could say more but that seems like a pretty good chunk, yeah? And, like I said before, ultimately you're the only one who knows what advise works for you and what doesn't. As long as you are creating, you are improving, and hopefully having plenty of fun!

 

[Eyesic]

I totally agree with Kat about experimenting with both material and style. And using something you can't erase, that really helped me. From my experience though, drawing every day was some of the best advice I received lol! But that's the thing with advise, you gotta see what works for you and drawing everyday doesn't work for every body. I think I don't get burnt-out because my goal is not to have a drawing every day, but rather just to draw. If I scribble a smiley face and a swirl then I've drawn that day, and a sketch page with several days worth of silly doodles ends up looking pretty dang cool! For me, it's all about exercising that muscle everyday even if I don't have a thing I want to draw.

On the topic of experimenting with style I'd recommend finding the artists and works you admire and printing that stuff out! Doom scroll is the enemy of the artist, if you wanna spend more time drawing, then cut out the digital search. Make physical inspo/ ref boards from your digital ones frequently. I'm still working on doing this myself but every time I do it I'm so much happier and I get stuff done a lot quicker. Also try to distill what exactly you like about someone's work and try to recreate it. (I saw this in a youtube video but can't for the life of me remember the channel...) You like how they pose their characters? Trace over the drawing and find the line of action, the straight and curved edges, the silhouette, the angles? (I actually don't really understand the angle thing yet...) Then you can hide the original and use the tracing as a reference. Once you're done, bring back the original and compare. (This is a lot easier digitally but can be done traditionally obv.) You can do the same sorta stuff with line-art/line-weight, color, shading, shape language. Redraw what you like and then once you got all these little studies try and combine what you've learned into something new.

I could say more but that seems like a pretty good chunk, yeah? And, like I said before, ultimately you're the only one who knows what advise works for you and what doesn't. As long as you are creating, you are improving, and hopefully having plenty of fun!

Thank you also!! Pulling from influence is something I've been doing a lot of! Like I said, I know there's not a science to this so, happy to be doing it at all. Thanks for the kind words!