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Generally speaking, the less expensive a stretched canvas or canvas panel is, the more heavy / wide / pronounced the weave of the canvas will be. (It's like thread count in sheets; the more expensive it is, the more threads there are per unit of area.) Nothing wrong with using the less expensive stuff for practice and learning with, but if you get tired of having to fight against all the texture, a few extra coats of acrylic gesso or even just one coat of a heavy body gesso like this one from Art Basics will go a long way towards smoothing out a rough canvas. I've been using that same heavy gesso lately and it's great stuff; it's so thick it's easier to squeegee it on with a palette knife than it is to try and brush it on.

I love self-portraits because its always really interesting to see how people see themselves. Did you work from a photograph for this, or from a mirror?

If I offered any advice, it would be to blend and refine less. Did you use one pencil for the entire thing? Id recommend getting a pencil set so you can experiment with a range of hardness - it will give you the option of darker darkers and more crisp, defined lights. They arent expensive and they'll last you for years - I think I might actually have my first set from college, although its def not a complete set anymore :)

Also, don't be afraid of hard lines and dark shadows. It will help you build structure and depth. Newer artists are always afraid to go too dark. Don't be! If you want a fun experiment, get a black piece of paper and a white piece of chalk and work in reverse (building up the lights, rather than shading in the darks).

Keep up the good work!

Thank ya. Drawabox.com (/r/ArtFundamentals) was huge for me even though i had done two years of art school in the past, fundamentals were never really taught correctly. Modern Day James on youtube. Figure drawing book by Micheal Hampton. Really everything i focus on right now is about "forms" and drawing forms in correct perspective, how perspective and forms affect shadows and lights.

For portraits, I bought a $10 anatomically correct skull to have on my desk to reference as well. Drawing skulls is great for learning faces.

This is the one I bought here

This little skull is a good, inexpensive little reference you can keep handy, and it's more than accurate enough for little studies like this.

Watch the area between the bottom of the nasal opening and the chin; the teeth project forward from the face quite a bit more than you might expect - Glenn Vilppu describes it as being like half a grapefruit - and there's more distance between the bottom of the nasal cavity and where the teeth come together than you've captured in most of these.

You can find translations of DaVinci's notebooks, what he wrote is just as if not more important than his illustrations for learning how to draw. I suggest it for any beginning artist https://www.amazon.com/Leonardos-Notebooks-Writing-Master-Notebook/dp/1579129463/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PXK79V2C1R5W6099R3FH

You can often find a copy, sometimes without illustrations, in a used book store for cheap

I don't want to sound mean, but it looks like you need to learn the fundamentals of drawing first before you learn the fundamentals of painting.

The perspective of the house doesn't really make any sense, and the composition of the piece definitely needs some work. There might be some people out there who can just whip out a painting without doing a drawing underneath, but that takes decades of practice.

There are a lot of great drawing resources in the sidebar, I would recommend checking those out. I would also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It will tremendously improve your drawing abilities, as I can see you have painted symbols rather than actual objects and that's one of the main subjects the book deals with.

General makes these white pastel chalk pencils that are my go-to, but I very rarely do full, finished pieces in dry media these days, just for quick sketching, so take that recommendation with as many grains of salt as you like. They're not waxy like white charcoal, at least.

I think it's perfect as is. It has a nice engraved look to it.

That said, if you want to experiment with values, I suggest scanning it and playing with it in a digital art program before committing anything to paper. If you don't have one, Photopea is a near 1:1 copy of Photoshop that works in your browser.

This is the first thing that came up on google and seems okay.

Sycra's videos are usually good.

Some people learn better with a hard copy so this would be extremely useful. But, for those who don't win this hard copy there, is a free online version as well. :) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Online

I use Photoshop CS6. But I've been using Photoshop since college in the early 90's, so, you know, I've gotten used to it.

The two big brush engine overhauls came in Photoshop 7 and CS5. If you're using a pre-CS 5 version, in particular, it's going to feel a bit dated, even though the PS7 engine update was pretty amazing for it's time.

Brush selection and customization makes a world of difference though. There are lots of free ones out there that are hit and miss. I really like Kyle Webster's brushes and have most of his sets; he's got several free brushes and a small sampler set if you want to try them out. Most issues of ImagineFX include a bunch of downloads, and those usually have a number of brushes as well. (And it's a pretty interesting read most months.)

If you can't afford photoshop/illustrator and want a free digital painting program, Krita is a pretty good one for learning how to paint digitally. I prefer it to photoshop actually.

https://krita.org/

Not to sound dismissive but start with a pencil and paper. Start drawing. Draw everything. Draw your friends, your bike, your phone... the house across the street... Just draw, and do it every day. Only time and repetition will make you better. Do those exercises in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." They really help.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain taught me a few things. Now, I don't necessarily agree with idea that drawing happens in the left or right side of a brain exclusively, but whatever the theory, the resulting tips are the same. A few that helped me the most:

• You have to forget what you are drawing, just focus on the shapes as they fall onto your eye. If you see a chair, part of your brain will immediately go "yeah, that's a chair, it probably has 4 legs like this and a seat like that, this is boring, can we do something else?". You have to really concentrate to stop that symbolism from interfering. It's even more of an issue with faces (the "huge features, no forehead" dilemma is part of this).

• Drawing is transforming a 3D scene into 2D, you are projecting what you see onto an flat surface. You can literally do this by holding a sheet of transparent plastic in front of you, close one eye, and draw what you see on that sheet with a whiteboard pen.

• Negative space. Instead of drawing the difficult shapes, draw the gaps inbetween. Imagine you're using Photoshop, and have just cut the object you want to draw from the scene, leaving only the background behind. Draw that, and the white space you left is suddenly the object! It surprised me how much easier this makes certain fiddly details. It also seems to help with perspective and relative dimensions.

Nice platitudes won't help you or answer your question. There's no way internet strangers can answer this for you. No one can.

I can't tell you why but I can tell you that all your points are common mistakes in reasoning that are highly effective to sabotaging yourself.

You mythically define an "artist" and at the same time determine that you don't fit your own fake definition. The only definition of an artist I know is: someone who doesn't quit; the pain of not making art outweighs the pain of making mistakes.

You mythically equal art making with happy joy inspiring feelings. You determine you don't have happy joy inspiring feelings so you mythically rationalize you aren't an artist. Truth is - art making is work; people are lazy and look for excuses to not work.

You should read: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

There are several usually recommended ways to begin. "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" and "Keys to Drawing" is one option (lately I've seen keys being recommended more, but both are good, even though from the Right Side is filled with pseudo science)

As Jay said, ctrl+paint is great, and has a non digital section aimed for beginners.

I am currently using Uncomfortable's ArtFundamentals, because honestly, I find it to be more enjoyable, but to each his own,and AFAIK, all of the above are very good.

Don’t judge your own process by likes. That’s not accurate or even relevant. You should judge your progress not by what random strangers think, but by your own improvement.

As far as starting an art business, that’s a very hard thing to do. Not impossible, but it takes work. Plus making art for a living may not be as fun as you’d think. Bonus round there are a lot of ways to make a living as an artist, well beyond sharing work and doing one offs as an artist only making their own work.

I would suggest you read this book which is a decent primer for art as a business.

And don’t shit-talk your own work. At least not In public. It always plays off as false humility, looks unprofessional, and well.. if you don’t like it, why should I?

Teaching myself to draw using methods primarily from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Reasonably happy with first few attempts, but I can easily see things I didn't get right and stuff I can work on.

I'm very happy to have found a way of thinking about drawing that has clicked with me though

• Be very mindful of how much time you're looking at your subject vs. how much time you're looking at your drawing. If you're not spending at least or more time looking than drawing, then you're probably making shit up.

• Make sure you're starting each drawing lightly and loosely, so you can figure out things like proportions, angles, and placements before you start worrying about details.

• One of the things my life drawing instructor told us back in college - I'm pretty sure this is in 'Keys to Drawing', which is a book you'd probably find useful - is "Look, hold, draw". Look at the bit you're about to draw. Study it carefully; you might even hold your pencil or pen or whatever up and trace that bit in the air so you can feel it's shape. Hold that bit in your mind; if you close your eyes for a second you should still be able to see it. Then, when you've got it in your head, draw it.

• Blind contour drawings are a good observation exercise.

Sounds like you need better perspective skills. If you understand how the form is effected by perspective you should be able to draw something at any angle. This is a skill that many never truly master and it's just part of drawing and getting better. Perspective effects everything and not understanding it up to a point will hurt your art. You can make due with the basic knowledge of perspective, the trick is applying it.

This is a study method I learned from Krenz Cushart about breaking down a figure and recreating it in perspective. I've done a lot of these but so few turn out good but it has helped my imaginative drawing a ton. In hindsight I didn't change the angle of the camera enough. http://i.imgur.com/uBrELkH.jpg

First image is before any real understanding of anatomy, and the second one is after I studied anatomy through Rey Bustos's tutorials on New Master's Academy (actually a great way to get into anatomy if I'm honest, but maybe i struggle to learn something as dry as anatomy, in my opinion, through books). Getting started on Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth" and finding it very helpful as well, so hopefully i'll see more improvement by the end of next year :)

Worry less about the details right now, you need to learn the shapes. Get some charcoal, get some cheap newsprint paper, draw big, draw from life, what you see, not what you think you see.

Biggest examples in your image of you drawing things you think you see instead of how things actually are: His ears, his eye shape, the hairline. Pretty much everything in the image to some extent, but that is understandable when you're just starting out.

Try out the 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' book, it works well with beginners and helping people get things that they see onto paper.

This + The book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If you are interrested in learning how to draw from life I can highly recommend this book.

I think it looks great as is!

An alternative method (but not necessarily better, just different) would be to cut out strips of contact paper that are wood print. Or to get stick-on plastic tiles that are wood print. If either of those things exist. I’m assuming they do.

Edit: example of wood contact paper

Example of stick on tiles wood print

Really good work! If you want to work in that industry you're definitely going in the right direction, I recommend keeping up regular focused practice even if just a small sketch a day.

I found it helps me to think of it as a muscle you're trying to train, any art you do with the intent of improving is like an art workout that will improve your work as a whole even across mediums.

I recommend these books on getting into concept art and the industry if you're in need of direction :) Designing Creatures & Characters by Marc Taro Holmes for concept art practice, his prompts are good and gets you used to rendering ideas from other people (key part of being a concept artist) and Ultimate Concept Art Career Guide by 3dtotal Publishing which has a lot of useful information regarding the industry. (Also any books about art by James Gurney are absolutely brilliant tools for learning)

It's a good start. Obviously you're unpracticed, but drawing is a very learnable skill and you've got everything required to learn it.

I'd recommend getting your hands on a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It'll get you past a lot of the common mental blocks that people who are new to serious drawing struggle with and you're right at the skill level where it'll be most beneficial. If you work your way through that, you'll be astonished at what you're capable of within a few weeks.

The neuroscience it talks about has largely been debunked, but the exercises and basic concepts are still spot on.

Not sure if this helps at all, but I started recently drawing seriously. Until now I always wanted to draw but couldn't find the path I should take to learn. Now that I finally have something going I think I can recommend it to you. This may not be the best way to go but it'll certainly help. Head over to /r/artfundamentals and work on those lessons. Make sure to post your homework and make sure you've done it right. You'll learn what medium is best for learning (felt tip pen and paper) and it'll give you a direction. Once I'm finished with lessons 1 and 2 I'm going to read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain to help assist with the other lessons. This is just what I'm doing since it's been hard for me to know what to do until now. Hope this helps somewhat.

/u/Uncomfortable's comment is gold imo & I would highly recommend checking out /r/ArtFundamentals or the sister site www.drawabox.com. Also possibly check out the book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' which completely demystified the ideas around 'seeing' for me. I have found some art teachers have a bias to the students who naturally understand how to visualise 3D space onto the 2D plane & simply berate everyone else with just look it's right there! That book explained the concepts to me in a way I understood & the progress I made afterwards shocked me.

People here are also saying draw more which can be taken the wrong way & I personally much prefer following a guided system since it works for me (hence draw a box & right side of the Brain), but you do need to practice & do as much as possible. Whether following a system or just drawing anything & everything as often as possible, just try to draw. Drawing is as much a technical, learnable skill as it is an artistic endeavor, knowing that helped me get past the feeling that if I wasn't naturally talented then I may as well not bother. Good luck.

Learn the construction of the head. I recommend Loomis's Drawing the Head and Hands. It's essential to articulating a face that looks right. While practicing, I highly recommend using models from life. I personally use myself a lot, because I am free and always available. Learn the anatomy of the head. Your rendering looks very clean. Do not be afraid to play with the contrast a little to create a more compelling picture. I know anatomy and memorizing planes is boring but once you have understanding your work will show it in spades.

I saw this method on a subreddit a moment ago and I didn't thought it'll be really helpful. Well, it turned out to be amazing ! Maybe someone already posted it, but if it's the first time you see this method, give it a try !

Here are some results of people who tried this method ~

You need to think of 3d form while you draw. And learn to measure proportions. For example you drew chin too big so it looks male.

Here's a beginner guide: http://hubpages.com/art/how-to-draw-learn Also check out drawabox.com and https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals

Honestly, starting out you really don't need a lot in the way of supplies! All you really need is a box of #2 pencils and a big ream of cheap copy paper. You don't need to spend a lot on a sketchbook, because (if you're doing it right) you're going to be doing just tons of drawings, and most of them won't be worth hanging onto.

A good beginner book with a lot of clearly laid out lessons will help as well. Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner is a good one. A lot of people like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain; I don't care for it but many folks swear by it, and it's one that's almost certainly going to be in your local library if you want to check it out before you buy. Keys to Drawing is a classic. You don't need all of them; just pick out one you like and work your way through it.

After you've been doing the pencil and copy paper thing for awhile, if you decide you want to work bigger, you can spend just a bit more and get some charcoal pencils - a set like this that also includes a small kneaded eraser and other tools - will only set you back about $10-$12. For the same amount you can get a pad of newsprint to go with it.

That whole setup - paper, pencils, a book, charcoal set, and newsprint pad - would fall well within your budget and keep you busy drawing for months. And there's tons of good, free drawing tutorials online, too, if you blow through the book.

Last things first:

> Do I keep making bad drawings?

Well, yes. That's how it works. If you could already draw things well, you wouldn't need to practice; you'd be doing it for a living.

Leave the video tutorials aside. Get yourself a good, structured book on the subject, one that has lessons followed by drawing assignments. Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner is one. Keys to Drawing is another. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is not my favorite but a lot of people swear by it.

Whichever one you pick, even if you don't decide to read it cover to cover, it'll give you suggestions for things and ways to draw to help hone specific skills.

Generally speaking, though, when you're starting out, keep it simple. Draw things around you. Draw what's right in front of you. I had some time to kill the other day, so I grabbed a couple of tubes of gouache and my sketchbook and painted the coffee cup I was drinking from.

I second this but I'll throw in a few classic recommendations. Google Andrew Loomis books PDF and you can get those for free. Also perhaps 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' or an anatomy book. Perhaps even 'Colour and Light' if you're looking to try something a bit more advanced. Plus Colour and Light also has badass artwork in it so it's just a good book to look at.

Don't use lined paper, you can get cheap sketchbooks at the dollar store even. Be proud you at least attempted to draw the hands and an entire character instead of just hiding from them because they are difficult like 95% of people who try to become artists.

Maybe start with a beginner book like Keys to Drawing or something like the Right side of the Brain without all that retarded ego stroking nonsense in it.

Micheal Hamptons figure drawing book is a little easier to digest than Loomis or Bridgeman. Everybody just says get the Bridgeman book and doesn't explain what to do with it. At least the hampton book builds things in a logical progression. Go look at Proko, go draw from youtube channels like OnAirvideo or websites like quickposes if you don't have access to life drawing. Do specific studies of hands and feet, and pay attention to the rhythyms of the hand, and its proportions. Stuff like this.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/83/3e/84/833e844ad44dec0167f46c5d1c5f3f74.jpg

Find proportions to keep as a reference point in your mind. Your eyes are up to high among other problems of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYjpkg6vrlg

Draw every day with purpose and even in a half a year you could probably see a lot of progress.

Grab the Loomis PDFs off the internet anyway of course.

Everyone starts off not knowing how to draw (with some very rare exceptions). It is definitely something that can be learned. For example, Van Gogh started learning art when he was about 27.

You should check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It's more than just step-by-steps and tutorials. It goes into detail about how to learn to draw and how your brain perceives and processes imagery. Once you do get started, keep at it! ...and marvel at the new super power you've acquired! :D

I was also on a game dev course when I decided to become a concept artist so I can give you a heads up if you're serous about this. The thing is to make sure you ARE serous about this, because unless you have 12 free hours a day to learn and have the discipline to actually use those hours effectively, your looking at around 8 to 10 years of study before your going to be at a place where you can get work. I wish I had known this starting out so I could of pushed my self further.

This type of work is unforgivably challenging and it never gives up, its always kicking your ass, so you need to be the type of person that enjoys challenging themselves constantly, you need to be the type of person that has the discipline to work on the bad days, the days when you feel like you cant draw for shit or the days when you just wanna play video games or go out drinking with friends.

I'm not saying this to scare you away, i'm saying this so you don't end up studying for 5 years only to realize you're only about 10% of the way there and give up. One last thing, this isn't something that you can do on the side, what I mean by that is that if you're planning to do programming or game design or 3d modeling as your main job, then you can pretty much forgot about being a professional concept artist/ illustrator. There isn't enough time in a single lifetime to take all those skills to a professional level, most people spend their lives trying to master just one of those, and those guys are your competition.

If you still wanna do this, then pick up the Andrew loomis book "Fun with a Pencil" that should get you started.

I am also a beginner like yourself, and I am self-teaching as well. I spent like weeks googling and researching on how to learn how to draw, and there are 2 main points that are constantly brought up:

1. Draw everything around you. Just draw everything you see.

2. Learn the fundamentals of art.

I'll admit that now, after a couple weeks of drawing, I do see the benefit of drawing things around you, and I see improvement. However, I didn't act that way when I first started drawing. I found drawing from life with very little skill annoying, hard, disheartening, and it overall felt like I was learning to draw at a very slow pace.

In my opinion, I think it is best to learn how to see first. I got the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, and it has helped my ability greatly in seeing. I am still working through the book, but it has shown good improvement. Now obviously there's more to art than just drawing what you see, but I believe the first step to learning how to draw is observation. After I'm done with the book, I plan on getting more books, studying different subjects, and just drawing a lot.

And most importantly: draw a LOT. Even if it's just for an hour a day, draw.

You might get some folks suggesting Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Pick up Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner instead. It has similar practical exercises but none of the left brain / right brain bullshit.

Starting out all you really need is some paper and a box of #2 pencils. If you're looking for a sketchbook for ink drawings, I've been sticking with Canson Universal Sketchbooks. I do a lot of ink work and the paper holds up just fine, with no bleed through and very little show-through, so I can safely ink on both sides of the pages.

For sketching pens, ultimately you're going to have to just try a few til you find what you like. I use fountain pens with adapters so I choose my own ink. I've got a Rotring Artpen and a Lamy Safari that I use all the time, though generally I use the former more for drawing and the latter for writing they both get used for both periodically and work great in either capacity. The Rotring runs about $20, and a Safari is only a couple of dollars more than that on Amazon.

(If you pick up a fountain pen, though, make sure you only use dye-based fountain pen ink and not a carbon ink. Carbon inks are literally that: bits of carbon in suspension. Those bits build up inside the pen tip and will eventually clog it. Pick an ink specifically for fountain pens, cap the pen when you're not using it, clean it regularly, and you can keep using it for years and years to come.)

You know, it's like Kevin Smith says, you have to celebrate yourself.

A think a great introduction point is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If you're interested in a manga, or anime style, symbol drawing is the toughest problem for the beginner. Symbol drawing is more about mentality than dexterity, and this book helps you to recognize that.

Doing realistic drawing, and still lifes, are essential but might not interest you. Just pepper in some fun stuff with the hard work.

Thank you so much for the advice! This is exactly why I came to Reddit because I knew I would get this type of response. I will most definitely pick up the book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' and give it a shot. I will continue to randomly draw things but I will tackle the fundamentals as well. Thanks so much!

> I also have a really bad problem where I get impatient during drawings, I get this urge to just "finish" the drawing so I end up scribbling instead of taking time to make it look good.

That's probably the source of the problem. I always tell myself, "terrible drawings happen when you get frustrated and stop looking at the subject." If you have read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, then you already understand the type of focused observation necessary to create a realistic drawing. Frustrated scribbling completely undermines that mindset. Be precise, meticulous and patient, and remember that, when drawing from life, the answers are always right in front of your eyes.

Also, I wouldn't seriously attempt to draw from imagination just yet. That requires experience with the 2D visual "language" (e.g. form, contrived perspective) that beginners simply don't have.

You can focus on details like others suggested that's one way of gaining skills, but it will be slow and tedious and take up a lot of your time and its not the best way to be able to "see" how a drawing is constructed. Focus on large areas of light and dark contrast don't be afraid to go to dark. Look at masters as well from the "realist", /romantic/ baroque periods. Artists like Zorn, Singer Sargent, Velazquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and Carvaggio, will help you see how to draw, but it's important you just spend time looking at these artist's works close up to see their line and shading techniuqes, you can learn a lot from simply looking at a couple paintings a day for an hour or so. I would recommend copying from them as well, as you will probably learn more than from a photo which actaully flattens reality and doesn't have the depth of most paintings and drawings, but the references you choose are up to you.

This is the Met's website pretty much every major museum has a website like it with their catalog, If you want to draw realistically, the best place to learn is from the people who invented the style.

http://www.openculture.com/2014/05/the-met-puts-400000-high-res-images-online.html

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/was-john-singer-sargent-a-virtuoso-draughtsman-1684360 this is a John singer Sargent, and as you can see if you zoom in it is not very detailed, but still appears realistic due to the heavy contrast, but also remember to use a gradient of values, you can start with the darkest dark or the lightest light, and either smudge to shade which I generally don't do because it can get messy unless your using charcoal or you can lightly take time to use different crosshatch techniuqes.

Yeah try just using hard edge brushes

No blending allowed

no erasing either (well sometimes)

I highly recommend you watch this vid at ctrl paint and get the 3 brushes - thats all the brushes you should need

or check out Noah Bradley's brush set for free

I have never painted an under water scene before but I guess you could look at light rays? Look at the examples on this page for further inspiration:

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2012/04/underwater-digital-paintings/

My only other recomendation would be to look at surface lighting. As in reflections etc. off of the surface of the water.

Once you've got the lighting sorted I think you've got a really solid piece with only minor detailing etc. left to do.

If you can afford one, get yourself a tabletop easel to work on. If you can't, a tote board that you can hold up in your lap or prop up against something on your work surface will do. Basically anything you can do to work vertically instead of horizontally will help you avoid smudging, especially if you can switch to using an overhand grip or use a mahl stick, so you don't have to rest your hand directly on the surface of the paper at all.

When you're done, use a spray fixative. SpectraFix is the one I like; it's casein based and safe to use indoors. It's a workable fixative so you can put a light coat on and continue working.

Other spray fixatives, you ONLY want to use outside, with a mask on. They're pretty nasty to breathe in.

Most any dry white medium you try to put on top of charcoal - white charcoal, pastel, chalk, colored pencil - is going to just mix with the charcoal and get muddy gray instead of putting down a white mark. Stick with using your eraser to get the bulk of your white. After you've spray fixed it, you can go back in with some white gouache and pick out really bright, wet highlights, like the on the eyes.

As an art teacher, I have students start with a still life of simple objects. They warm up with jesters and blind contour drawings. This helps them when they work on drawing the objects in front of them. I have them focus on the large shapes and proportion, then move to details, but I remind them over and over to "Draw what you see, not what you think you see." This seems to help them when they get stuck. I would suggest holding off on people until you can draw and shade objects (still life) with some confidence. Drawing from life is easier to start with, as you gain an understanding of how things fit together. Another suggestion is read and do the exercises in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." It is an eye opener. Good luck.

My recommendation would be “Keys to Drawing”. I feel it’s the only book a beginner needs in the first few months if not longer. Stick to just one book if you can, for a while. You can buy dozens of books in the vain hope to find one that shows you the magic shortcut that makes it all click, just to end up feeling overwhelmed and frustrated (speaking from experience here), but at the end of the day the only real way to learn to draw is by drawing ceaselessly and fearlessly.

I'm a beginner, but I've experienced something similar to a certain extent. I think it's mostly that when I draw from imagination I only draw what I can draw (like for example a certain shape of eyes/nose/mouth or a certain angle or my imaginary apples always look the same etc.). When drawing from life you have to draw what's in front of you, no matter if it's an easy angle or easy lighting or not. Also you have something to compare to: if a drawing from imagination doesn't turn out like the actual thing/face you imagined, but it still looks okay, it doesn't matter. But if something drawn from reference looks just a bit different, this difference is very noticable because the reference is right in front of you. So it might even be that your drawings from imagination aren't as good as you think, you just notice it more when there's a reference.

In any case as you said yourself, only drawing from imagination will limit yourself and your drawings will looks very similar. Therefore I think practising drawing from life will eventually help you in your progress because you learn to see and copy lines/shades, not just what you know certain things look like.

And yes, I think practising will help with this. Of course I don't know if there's something wrong with your eyes, you can always visit an optician to rule that out. But if your "tried several times" doesn't mean that you have really practised this at least several hundred hours, then it's way too early to say it doesn't work.

Does this only occur when drawing from life or also from photo reference? Drawing from life is usually recommended because it's more complex and photos are only flattened 2D images, but with them you can practise upside-down-drawing. You can also take a look at the first few chapters of Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which focuses on drawing accurately from life/reference.

Oh, geeze, I've got... over a hundred books here on drawing and painting, as it's a subject I'm endlessly fascinated by. I don't know if these are what I'd call essentials but of the ones I currently own they're my favorite, most read or most referenced ones.

• Andrew Loomis, Figure Drawing For All It's Worth.
• Bridgman's Complete Drawing From Life.
• Juliette Aristedes, Lessons in Classical Drawing.
• Bert Dodson, Keys to Drawing.
• Jon DeMartin, Drawing Atelier: The Figure.
• James Gurney, Color and Light.
• James Gurney (again!), Imaginative Realism.
• John Muir Laws, Law's Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling.
• Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting.
• Marcos Mateu-Mestre, Framed Ink. (Which is about composition, not ink.)
• Guptill's Rendering in Pen and Ink. (Which IS about ink.)
• Klaus Janson, The DC Comics Guide to Inking. (No joke. It's one of the best books on inking I've ever read.)
• Angelo Grado, Mastering the Craft of Painting.
• The Famous Artists Course (I have the 4 volume 1967 edition.)
• The Famous Artists Painting Course (I have the 3 volume 1964 edition.)
• The Famous Artists Cartooning Course (You can find this one online, it's the 1965 edition.)

While they do have a lot of 'how-to' in them but aren't strictly how-to books, Walt Stanchfield's books 'Drawn to Life', volumes 1 and 2, have my highest recommendation as well. Robert Fawcett's book 'On the Art of Drawing' is not at all a how-to book but is also worth a read.

I've read and own many more books on drawing than on painting, so the dearth of books on painting here is down entirely to my lack of them and not to any particular books lack of quality.

Edit: Oh, and since it's in the public domain now, there's no reason not to at least check out Harold Speed's Practice and Science of Drawing.

Right now you are automatically converting his features into symbols. You see he eye, then you draw an eye symbol. This is why you are not satisfied with the outcome.

Try this exercise: turn the reference photo upside down, and draw it. Take as long as necessary and draw every detail. Doing this forces you to see the actual shapes of his face.

Get the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. before and after

Art supplies will vary just avoid:

Ball point pen, Mechanical pencil, Any sort of lined paper, and Anything marketed as Manga/Anime/Comic special tools (https://www.pegasusart.co.uk/images/_lib//fabercastell-brush-pen-manga-pitt-brush-pen-wallet-of-8-9003959-0-1417640848000.jpg)

There are too many different tools, but usually beginners will start with just sketching/drawing. So a graphite pencil, felt-tip pen, and copy paper will do sufficient to start.

As for books, this is difficult because there is a large amount of books that is targeted at beginner artist which only teaches you to draw what they drew in steps, which is useless for growth. As for more serious books, there are Keys to Drawing, Loomis books (Old and probably not suitable for her age), and Perspective made Easy.

It might just be best to ask her what cartoon/entertainment she likes and give her either an artbook (reference book) of that to copy on her own or give her a how to draw the specific cartoon/entertainment she likes in hopes that it excites her to pursue art more.

> We should draw, for the time being at least, as if we know nothing, and were obedient only to what our eye tells us to draw. This is the key to natural, life-like drawing. To understand this is to understand that there is no such thing as knowing how to draw something. One hears, "Can you draw hands - or horses - or trees?" The answer is: we do not draw "things" at all, only lines.

That's from 'Keys to Drawing', emphasis mine.

So when you look at, say, this glass of water, forget that it's a glass of water when you're painting it. There are only four things you have to think about: What shape am I going to paint? What color is it? How dark or light is it compared to the shapes around it? What sort of edges does it have?

So look at the glass. Really look at it. Start breaking it down into individual shapes. Identify the shape you are going to paint. Paint that shape with the four things in mind, then you move on to the next shape, and the next one, and the next one.

Man, I am glad you're getting into drawing. :D

I would get rid of symbol drawing first, then start measuring correctly (sight size or comparative measuring) and finally constructing and mapping lay-in phase.

How to do that? I'd start with Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson, it's a great book with good exercises that help you to get rid of symbols and draw from life better (Photos do apply too, ofc.).

Then I'd check out some youtube channels focused more around fine art, I'll post two favorites of mine: Bradwynn Jones and Watt's atelier

If you're really into this, you'll find a way how to improve no matter what.

I spent two years in a very similar situation. I couldn't focus, I felt like I did nothing all day, I would procrastinate aggressively. I was very worried I would be "stuck" my whole life.

At the end of it I discovered that I have my own set of personal limitations that I have to work with in order to be productive. I found solutions that work for me, and I think everyone has to go through a process of figuring out how to get the most out of themselves as they go through life. We're not helped by being given cultural messages about fairytale superhumans who can get everything done and still have time to enjoy life. That doesn't exist. Don't try to do that, you will be sorely disappointed. In real life, successfully "getting a lot done" looks a lot more like taking an extra hour out of your day and really making it count, every day. That's all. It adds up.

On this issue of sitting down and drawing; drawing is an extremely complex task. If you don't know where to start, you won't start. I can't really go into an explanation of how it works because it would be an actual book, but I recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," for observational techniques, and "Successful Drawing," by Andrew Loomis for theory. Successful drawing is WAY too advanced for a beginner, but it will give you a very clear idea of what drawing looks like on a practical level, and I think that's critical for a beginner to understand. I'll get you started here.

• Oxford University free lecture series: The Elements of Drawing

• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Betty Edwards

The book Keys to Drawing and do lots of still life drawing.

Also the figure classes are definitely worth it. Get some good book(s) about figure drawing (e.g. Hampton) and anatomy (e.g. Peck). ^You ^can ^find ^them ^online ^too. ^;) And you can always post them on the internet for critique. But if you will have a book to guide you, you won't really need to.

You aren't less of an artist just because you don't have those skills now. They are learned. It's all about practice. Just keep trying and evaluate what isn't working then try again.

If you try to sketch something, you can post it for critique to get tips that are more related to the specific issues you are having.

Without seeing anything you're drawing, my guess is that you just don't "see" like an artist yet. A book that helps some people get over that was Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The science that it spouts is very sketchy, but the exercises still help.

It's very difficult to draw things from your imagination until you've drawn them from some sort of reference for awhile first. You can use a mirror (or two mirrors, if you want to view different angles more easily) to draw yourself, or draw other people from life or photo.

And study; people have spent hundreds of years figuring out basic human proportions and anatomy so you don't have to do all the work yourself. There's tons of resources out there for this. Andrew Loomis' Drawing the Head and Hands or Figure Drawing For All It's Worth are good places to start but they're certainly not the only ones.

Humans are hard-wired to read each others faces and expressions, so they can tell right off the bat if something is even just a little bit off even if they can't say exactly what that thing is. So: Draw from reference. Study. And practice, practice, practice. Don't spend too long on any one drawing at this point trying to get it perfect.

There is one such thing that's on kickstarter I will PM you the name of if you want it, but I'll go ahead and give you the reading list we all get when we get here.

Andrew Loomis Burne Hogarth (Feels kinda pointless without a third, don't it?)

There's also books like "Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain", modern godfather of comics Stan Lee's "How to Draw Comics", and even Loomis's own "Fun with a Pencil" but let me ask you why you asked this question? Are you new to drawing and looking for a comprehensive explanation to everything or are you just looking for something to give to someone else?

Cuz after years of looking myself, I can honestly tell you that there is no such thing as ONE text that explains everything. There are texts that go in to detail on one thing very well, and those are useful.

Unless there is a specific thing you're looking for I'd say what you need is to learn how to study and not try and find it in a book.

It depends on the reasoning behind your desire to start making art.

If you want to make art to better yourself and broaden your horizons and because you have the need to create, then you should probably start with fundamentals. If you don't, you'll probably get frustrated at why you're improving very slowly and lose interest.

On the other hand, if you're only desire is to make your girlfriend happy and aren't really interested in the creating or bettering yourself aspects, then just jump in. Go buy some pencils, pens, sketchbooks, and start drawing. Goof off and draw something big and see if she'd be up for working together on something. You'll probably be bad compared to her, but it's not about that and you should just have fun spending time with her.

In fact. Maybe even if you DO want to make art for yourself, you should probably just dive in. If you find that you're really interested in it and want to learn more, you can always come back here and ask more questions about the fundamentals.

Just know that good quality art supplies can be pricey and that the inexpensive art supplies, although tempting, will be horrible to work with.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a good book that people seem to like around here. I've never used it so I can't really say. Also, check out the side bar for some links. There are a lot of resources there. /r/ArtFundamentals is a good place to start.

You should be really proud of this! I am thoroughly impressed by how much progress you've made in such a short time.

Keep drawing and you'll only continue to improve!

You might want to check out the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I found it really helpful for improving my own skills and it has a lot of fun and interesting techniques in it!

I think one of the reasons there are so many ways that people advise is because we all only "learn to draw" once. So we can only say what worked for us, without knowing if it would have been faster another way.

So it's my opinion that as you practice, make sure to try different things out as you progress. Little by little things will start clicking, and you'll get better. It's difficult at first because you can't pinpoint your mistakes. Like you'll know something is off, but not what. So learning seems slow, because as you learn to fix those first mistakes you'll also learn to see others. So it seems like your not making progress, but you are.

The biggest thing, in my opinion, is staying motivated. So find a way to practice that is comfortable. That dosn't mean never try things that aren't comfortable, but just as your getting going it's easy to get discouraged. So if drawing the fish photo looks fun, do that. And when your done maybe try those pop cans on your desk or a copy of someone elses drawing you like or another photo. Don't feel like drawing today? Maybe instead try charcoal or pen or pastel etc. You'll learn different things from all of them. But if it becomes a chore you'll want to stop, so keep it fun.

Just remember that if 100 people did it one way, another 100 probably did it another. Figuring out what works for you is part of what you need to learn. I always recommend Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" as a good book to get your feet wet. It kind of goes into how to look at things, and has lots of good practice lessons. But there are a ton of them out there, and lots of stuff on the net as well.

Remember, art is a skill. Before the popularization of the idea of talent overcoming practice in special individuals, it was commonplace in society that results came from working hard. Art is a skill that takes decades of practice to "master". Also, an element of uncomfortable feeling is good. It's showing you that you don't know how to do whatever you're doing, whether it be figure drawing or drawing household objects.

I'd personally recommend you read Art and Fear, and Keys to Drawing. A&F should address your fear of making artwork, and Keys to Drawing is a good place to start. Lastly, knowledge is the basis for ptactics, not the other way around.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain got me started. I used to be pretty terrible. I would spend time and sit down with the book and do EVERY exercise, regardless of how much a chore it can seem like. It really does help your brain click into the mode of thinking. After than, it's just a ton of practice. I would not worry about tools at this stage. Just get a regular pencil in hand and crank out some drawings.

I started Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain about two weeks ago (it's weird but it feels way longer than that - I've been drawing every day since). This was my first "draw your hand" exercise. I had literally not drawn a picture before starting on the book for ~30 years, and was actually a little pleasantly surprised how this came out. I've noticeably improved since then and am pretty amazed at the results so far. I had pretty low expectations :)

These Reddit groups have helped, I've read a lot of good advice in the past couple weeks which has really improved the effectiveness of my practice. Have a long way to go though!

Total beginner here too! I hadn't drawn anything since I was about 6, until a few weeks ago. I bought "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and it has blown my mind. I would wholeheartedly recommend it as a great starting point. Very accessible, encouraging, and it got me drawing much better than I expected in a short period. Can't recommend anything beyond it because I haven't finished it yet, but read the reviews on it and the comments around here about it - there are very few negative things anyone says about it.

The only thing I found was it didn't emphasize the importance of a good drawing board enough for me and I started without one - you will definitely need one, even if it is just a good sized piece of plywood.

I'd really recommend you get a book on the fundamentals of drawing before jumping into portraiture. Loomis has some great books that can teach this, and free pdfs can be found here. I think you should start with "Successful Drawing" first, as this will explain to you the fundamentals and how shapes are formed in space.

When you do attempt another portrait, however, be sure to learn the proportions of the head and body first. Loomis also has a book on this, "Drawing the Head and Hands." You can also follow along in this video.

Happy drawing, don't give up. c:

These look a bit fussy for gesture drawings, like you may be concentrating on certain body parts individually, instead of how they flow into each other. IN addition to other great advice here, try finding longer lines in your subjects, most of these can be done with much fewer lines. I think the advice about bravely slapping in shadow areas will help you see the bigger shapes. I think your kick-boxer has this fluidity more than some of the other figures and shows you are on the right track. Also the shoulders of the golfer show a nice gesture.

Draw faster, find contours that look important to you, and slap 'em down. Give yourself 30 seconds instead of two minutes and see if it's better or worse.

One trick that may help you to break some habits (from Betty Edward's excellent "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain") is to take your reference photos and turn them upside down before drawing them. We tend to draw symbolically, inserting our pre-determined shapes for how we think things look, vs what our eyes actually see. This is very hard to do when your reference is upside-down and out of context. Of course this is just for photo references, not life drawing :)

PS - It's great you've been drawing "non-stop". If you can keep it up for awhile, you will get good. If you have the discipline, get Nicolaides' book called "the natural way to draw". Also make sure you have the Edwards book I mentioned above. It's a great read and could rock your world. Both of these books are widely available and can be found used for just a few bucks.

Finally, find gestural drawings from the Masters, and copy them as accurately as you can. Try to capture the motion of their lines.

Well, there is always the workbook for Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which is a collection of exercises and takes you through the same areas. I bought it alongside the book so I have a host of exercises (and repetition multiplies power) as well as theory and background reading to keep my mind stimulated and focussed if I take a break.

I'd say keep reading the book. Take it as it is, and see what piques your interest. The sections at the beginning bring into awareness where she is coming from on the effectiveness of her method to help you get the most of it. Learning how you developed as a child and adolescent in terms of your drawing helps you to be aware of your own artistic development and habits and why it is we draw the way we draw. When we are aware, we have a choice, and that is the salient point. We are becoming aware of ourselves as artists and how we work as artists. The same process applies to music, writing, dance. It is a valuable book once we put ourselves into it and not take it as "necessary" reading.

When I understood the psychology behind it, it spurred me on to learn and to accept how I draw as something valuable for myself. When I read the beginning sections, it put me in a space I felt comfortable to mentally work from. Art needs theory in this way - it is a completely new mindset compared to logical, scientific thinking.

> I just want to improve/draw better.

Try some exercises, then when you've settled down read the beginning sections if that helps. Go with your instincts, and I would highly recommend reading those sections - I got a lot from them.

Extremely new typically brings to mind that you don't know the process, how to plan, all the things that come with experience or a teacher. So while I see you're new to it, I would not go so far as to say "extremely" new.

As far as what to do about this, just turn it over occassionally while you're painting. The brain is extremely well adapted to symbolizing everything... we have symbols for eyes, nose, mouth, monkey, etc. By turning it upside down, the part of your brain that sybmolizes it gets confused and gives up, leaving the rest of your brain to see what's wrong. Also, throughout the process, put the brush down and stand back. My instructor would say "A painting is for looking, not smelling. Stand back and look."

If you get a chance, give "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and do the exercises. It will help.

I looks like a good start. A common text thrown around this sub is 'Drawing the Head and Hands' by Andrew Loomis which I agree is an excellent place to start and a continued point of interest and reference. There are pictures and diagrams in there so it's not an entirely heavy and overwhelming text-based educational aid. Also, check yourself out in the mirror, now or when you get out of the shower, and notice how your body bends, where your ribs end and the texture they create with skin stretched over them. strike a few poses and learn how the body bends and how far one can naturally move their extremities in any direction. 'The Undressed Art' by Steinhart is another good book. Learning how many eyes wide the face is or that the corners of the mouth will ideally line up with the face's pupils are always good to fall back on. A cursory look at the drawing here i'd have to say her shoulder is probably a bit high and thrown a bit too forward. also, considering her neck i'd say her chest/boobs are also thrown a bit too forward (though perhaps this is an anticipated exaggeration to draw focus. your 3/4 face 'looks' good but it seems a bit flat and there is just something not right though i can't place my finger on it...perhaps the perspective? anyway, keep it going; mistakes are really the only way to learn, especially in art. you can't know what works until you know what doesn't

Betty Edwards's "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a first step in learning how to "see" to start drawing. It came out some 30 years ago and has the the standby for anyone wanting to be an artist. Check out the reviews on amazon.

Check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It is the best book to help anyone learn the basics of perception. Also, always remember that it doesn't matter where you are, you will always improve. There is no end to mastery of anything. Keep up the good work and practice, practice, practice! :)

i think what troutmix is trying to say (but perhaps lacks the maturity and/or mental capacity to communicate effectively) is that content such as this does not actually teach much of anything about drawing. in fact it teaches most people how to draw badly. it falls under the how to draw an owl school of drawing.

i used to read stuff like this, and i get the attraction. presenting drawing in this way makes it seem like something you can learn the same way you learn math or grammar. there are steps, and if i can figure out those steps, i can draw. this is actually true, but the steps have nothing to do with 1) do this, 2) do that kind of work.

the steps actually have a lot more to do with perception and interpretation, not little things like "draw a small tic mark to indicate the attachment to the head" which is crazy specific. he is just getting super specific with how he likes to draw which 99% of the time, won't help you.

in fact if you are reading what you think is some authority on drawing, it could mess with your head. later, when you go to draw an ear and think of a perfectly effective solution, you might mess it up because you think "oh i need to put that little tick mark." or you could shy away from your own interpretations because they don't match all these "how to draw" books you've been consuming. this happens especially in books for kids which are all like this.

once you learn to draw (like really draw) stuff like this can be useful because it will give you a quick insight into how someone else solves a problem. of course, once you actually know how to draw all you need to do is look.

i still maintain that "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the best book to learn to draw. not because its a good drawing book, it isn't. its a good perception book.

One great way to begin the process of training your eye to see is to use Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This book will show you that the key to drawing, and from there to painting, is to learn how to really see what you are observing, and train your hand to respond to it. It teaches you to short-circuit that part of the brain that wants to engage you in a linear debate and instead engage visually and completely with what you are drawing. Great tool, and a great foundation for any further work.

The copyright has NOT "run out." Stop spreading this nonsense.

From the inside jacket of "Drawing the Head and Hands":

Copyright (c) 1943 Andrew Loomis, 2011 The Estate of Andrew Loomis. All rights reserved

> What do you as artists do when trying to recover from an art block?

Accept that it's not a force outside of you that's stopping you from working; it's you deciding to do something else instead of drawing, whether you're making that decision consciously or unconsciously, for a good reason for for a bad one.

> How do you rejuvenate the creativity in you?

Don't wait around to be inspired. Inspiration is the reward you get for hard work, not the impetus for it.

> Don't know what to draw

You're surrounded by things you've never drawn before. You could spend the rest of your life drawing the stuff that's within a hundred feet of you right now and you'd never run out of subjects or ways to draw them if you were so inclined to.

Drawing real things from life is never bad practice. You ever want to draw someone sitting in a chair, watching TV, drinking a cup of coffee, using a mobile phone? Learning how to draw a believable chair, or a TV, or a coffee cup, or a cell phone would be useful skills to have.

Want to draw people? Get yourself a skull. It doesn't have to be big or expensive; that one I linked to is exactly the one I have. Get one, make it your best friend. Give it a name, draw it all the time, from all different angles, under all different lights. You can never draw the skull too much or too often if you want to draw people.

If it's dry, you can just scrape it down with a palette knife or sand it down with some fine grit sandpaper. It doesn't have to be, like, smooth as glass or anything, you just want to avoid any big piles or little spikes of paint.

In the future, if you do your underpainting with pretty thin paint for your darks, you can wipe away the light areas with a rag or paper towel. If you're working in oil paint, cosmetic wedges are awesome, and tonking is a really useful technique for pulling up excess paint while it's still wet. (It may work on acrylics while they're wet, too; I don't really use them but unless there's some kind of extender in the medium I would think it'd dry too quickly.)

I started by reading 'Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain' by Betty Edwards. The book really felt to me like she was hammering the same idea into your brain with a mallet. I actually only went halfway through the book until I thought I 'got it'. I did notice a big improvement in my line / contour drawing.

From there, I moved onto 'Keys to Drawing' by Bert Dodson. I am probably not even halfway through that. Really recommend it. Key points are all laid out and presented in a logical order, with related exercises.

the best approach is to learn real human anatomy first, so that you can better understand it and distort it to your liking. All anime and cartoons are simply abstractions of reality.

Check out the books Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner to learn to draw from observation. Draw A Box dot com has good excercises and lessons about basic drawing fundamentals.

If you're just starting out, I would suggest 2 things. First, go through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It will get you going quickly.

Second, learn to critique your work. You can't fix what you don't know is wrong. It's a simple, but not easy thing to do. Every time you do something, when you're done look at it and honestly answer 3 questions, how do you feel about the piece overall, what do you like, and what could you improve on. The most common mistake I see people make is to make excuses for things they don't like. If you can see it and it bothers you, it will bother someone else.

There are a number of other things that you can do to help, but starting with a good foundation and a comfort with self critique will get you far.

I suggest you check out the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, though any decent drawing book (check the Amazon reviews) for beginners is fine really.

Most of the DOTRSOTB exercises should be done in pencil, and there are some portraiture exercises in there too. Judging by the work you posted here it might be to your taste.

The good thing is there is no secret. Just start drawing everything you see. You could start with something like drawabox, but I think it's impossible to understand the importance of what something like that offers until you've been drawing for a while so it will just seem boring. I tried a few books but I feel like the one that really made things click was Keys to Drawing.

I will echo drawing from life statement. But there are shortcuts, too. Check out the useful links on the sidebar for this subreddit. I always plug Andrew Loomis when I get a chance; check out Drawing the Head and Hands for this particular subject.

Don't sweat mimicking a face perfectly; it's much better to simplify and build up an understanding of the underlying geometry of the head-- and to learn how to execute it.

To take it a step further, it helps to understand the principals of representing 3 dimensional geometry -- perspective, overlap, foreshortening. Then you can take those basic shapes and 'assemble' them into what you want to draw. Took me far too long to really learn perspective drawing.

I think a lot of people will disagree with me, but the classic How to Draw Manga series is great for getting started on drawing full body characters even if you don't want to draw in the manga style.

Another big book that people bring up on a regular basis is Dodson's Keys to Drawing. I have it, but I can honestly no longer remember how much of a direct effect it had on me. I do know that my community art instructor referenced it heavily during my first year of classes. So the ideas it presents may actually have been a bigger part of my development than I remember.

My biggest advice though would be to try a little bit of everything: watch drawing youtube videos, read articles on drawing. Follow your favorite artists on social media. Google drawing tutorials.

Do studies of other people's work (draw from their drawings). The important thing is to never post these studies as your own work (for obvious ethical reasons). Dodson's book does talk about how to do this and what to expect to come out of it.

Finally, I highly highly recommend exploring the drawing and art sections of your local library if available. A lot of drawing books are good for one read through and then they don't even have much benefit as references. If you are going to buy, buy as many of the books used as possible. These things are super expensive and many of them are mandatory purchases for art students, who then resell them when the class is over. So there are a lot of them on the used market.

Don't be intimidated by the tough to draw parts. Try drawing the contours of the ear, and the fine details in the eyes and face. The worst thing that can happen is you'll see the mistakes, and gradually learn how to do it better next time. If you want to improve , just keep practicing and check out some books like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It has some outdated psuedo-science to it, but the exercises can really help you learn some of the basic skills essential for portraits, and you've already finished step 1 of the book the self portrait.

Not OP but try http://drawabox.com/ which is the lessons from /r/artfundamentals

Also you can check out the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."

Personally I think the draw a box method is better since he goes right down to the basics of how to draw lines while Drawing focuses more on learning how to 'see' properly.

You can look up Andrew Loomis anatomy books, I think some are vintage enough that you can find them free online. I've also got a copy of "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck that I thought was a lot of help. I've also used medical anatomy books before. Hope this helps.

PS. If anything go to your local bookstore and browse the anatomy section, find a book that best suits what you're looking for?

Copy, Study from reference, then apply. During your application stage, whatever you struggle with or fail to do correctly is what warrants more study. Do not get discouraged, even if all of it on your first trial from memory is wrong. Just keep chipping at it. It gets better. Just rinse and repeat the method above. Never stop learning. Start with Drawing the Head and Hands, reading through sections and doing the sequence above with the plates. I'd recommend quickposes, pixelovely, and Croquis Cafe (youtube) for poses. If you're struggling with a subject within the books after multiple attempts, look to other sources for assistance. Loomis explains a lot correct but some of it is very hard to understand.

Regarding Figure Drawing For All It's Worth, just struggle through it. Personally, what I did is I did the figure drawing course offered by Proko (the free version) and the anatomy of the torso from Proko, then tackled Figure Drawing For All It's Worth.

Even though it sucks a lot, drawing from memory is the true test of your ability and it is what gives you the power to draw whatever you want given you have the knowledge and practice to draw it. ALWAYS fill in gaps of your knowledge that you notice in your "tests", otherwise it'll bite you in the ass later.

Good luck!

Have you decided your next action step?

"I have to start drawing"

Okay, but what and how?

We're just gonna use printing paper and a pencil. If needed, a hard cover to put the paper on like a clipboard. If you have the book "Keys to Drawing" or "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" then start reading and do the exercises for each part.

If you don't have those books, I'd say to make a "before" picture now to track your improvement. Choose one:

Do you have a mirror nearby? Draw a self-portrait.

No mirror? Draw a face from imagination as good as you can.

We start right now. You don't need to clean your desk or eat a snack before you start. 15 minutes is enough for a start. Drawing 15 minutes now means that you have officially start. Whew! That will be a weight lifted off your shoulders.

Lastly, if you have decided your next action step and still don't start, then you are combating with procrastination. I have a few posts on that, this is what I do most often: Draw or Sleep

Honestly the best advice I can give you is to not get too hung up on a certain 'genre' for a while yet.

Pick up a pencil. See what shades and tones you can get with it by applying pressure and angle.

Now draw a circle.

Try to make the circle look like a sphere. Make sure it isn't just floating there either. It casts a shadow on whatever it is sitting on, right?

Try again. Realize this sucks and is hard, and that drawing from what you can look at helps a lot.

Draw your mouse. Your cup. A plate. A bottle. Focus on the way light and shadow plays over these objects, and draw what you see, not what you think you see. Draw your hand. Draw your hand ten more times in different positions.

There is a pretty good book that can help you get from raw beginner to 'hey, I can draw.' called 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'. It is meant for people exactly like you, with no experience drawing at all.

Once you get a basic foundation of skills down, you will be able to apply them to anything you want, whether that is a amazonian princess in battle, or your best friend's portrait.

Many people get ahead of themselves and learn a bunch of really bad habits (while also getting really frustrated by their lack of skill) because they just jump in and try to draw 'comic books', or 'anime' (especially anime lately), or 'fantasy illustrations' without knowing how to draw. It's like trying to be an Olympic gymnast when you can't even walk yet.

Most of these people never get even near to the level of skill that they always wanted to, largely because they built all these 'skills' on a faulty and unsteady base, and by the time they realize that it seems like too much effort to start all over again.

Doodle warriors and dragons, and suits of armor to your heart's content, get those ideas down on paper, but don't forget to do the 'hard part' too.

Sincerely,

Someone who is starting over and doing the hard parts they should have buckled down on more seriously years ago (sigh)

Damn this is good. I'm currently using the Betty Edwards book (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain), which basically uses 300 pages on teaching this.

Also, spot on about looking more at your reference than your drawing. A graphic design/photography teacher I had once, who had a BA in Illustration (and who also recommended Betty Edwards to me), taught us that you should not be looking away from your reference for more than 3 seconds, because then your brain starts making up shit. So yeah, awesome advice.

I just started the same thing recently and I'm using a PDF of the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards, I'm finding it pretty good. I found a website too but I've not checked it out yet.

Link.

It's a start, and it's wonderful you put so much effort in :)

The main problem here is that is proportions are all out of whack, and the drawing isn't really helped by the fact that it's half hanging off the page. Here's a nice guide to facial proportions to help you out.

The best advice I can give is to pick up a copy of the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The reason you're struggling to capture a likeness is because you (like everyone else) had ideas of what a drawn face/eye/mouth/person looks like when you were young, and they're really really hard to shake off. The book will teach you how to look past that and draw what's actually there, and as soon as you get the hang of it (which only takes a day or two if you're dedicated) drawing anything you see suddenly becomes really easy. One of the book's first exercises is to turn the image you're copying upside-down and make sure you do not name any parts of it in your head, so you could try that now.

I can't wait to see what you put out next!

A couple of years ago I got back into drawing by working through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which (among other things) shows you how to use a grid to draw what you see. Although a grid makes it easier to be accurate, I found it too restricting. In my experience it slows down the drawing process and doesn't teach you much in the way of practical knowledge.

If you want to eventually draw without grids then I think using them now may slow you down and you may come to rely on them. Look at using angles and proportional measuring instead.

It apparently takes 10,000 hours of practice to master anything. That's practice, not just doing the stuff you know how to do, but concentrating on the stuff you don't.

Have you put in anywhere near that?

Perhaps you're building practice on a bad foundation. In which case I'd recommend you read and do the exercises in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was an eye opener for me, and I came away with at least a handful of practical, useful techniques to draw anything. I'm not great, but I am getting better.

And that's all there is to it. Anybody telling you it's down to "inherent talent" is lying, or grossly (and probably quite offensively) over-simplifying the effort and practise that went into getting good.

>>don't want to start realistic drawing at the moment

all drawings are stylizations of reality (unless you're dealing with abstract art or someshit). Even something that doesn't actually exist like a dragon or mermaid has to have some foundation in reality to be believable as a thing that could potentially exist. So it follows that you need to know SOMETHING about how things look realistically to be able to have any pretense of drawing well. As your grasp of reality grows stronger, you can stylize in increasingly better ways. Any japanese artist worth his salt did figure drawings and learned realistic proportions and anatomy, and basic drawing techniques like perspective, composition, etc.

You don't have to draw super realistically but having an idea of how reality actually works is the best way of improving your drawings if you really care about it. As much as I love some japanese artists, most of the art in mainstream manga is not very good and teaches you bad habits.

I suggest taking a look at these books:

• Drawing Manual by Glenn Vilppu

• Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis

• Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgman

• Figure Drawing - Design and Invention by Michael Hampton

From what I've seen so far on a couple of sites "Drawing on the right side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards seems to be a popular choice. If you are even more serious though you can get "The Natural way to Draw" by Kimone Nicolaides which is essentially an art course in a book. Finally you're probably going to be bombarded with people screaming LOOMIS so you might as well check out "Fun with a Pencil" by Andrew Loomis. Hoped that helped.