Drawing Help

[Leetmuffin]

The Drawing Board is a great resource. Especially for Nudity and pose references.

[Ben]

You might want to try the 30 second poses I linked a while back too.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3247

[Neuvost]

Wolf's pose viewer is good, but nothing beats just getting out and drawing people. Nudes are preferable as you learn how the body works, moves, and is proportioned, but if you just have to make sketches of people while they sit at a bus stop or walk somewhere, do it!

And while books and classes are great for anatomy and perspective and form and all that other good stuff, you simply need to draw draw draw in order to work on mechanics. You can understand all the learnings of art in the world, but if you can't make your pen go where you want it to it'll be of no use at all.

[Ben]

Wolf's pose viewer is good, but nothing beats just getting out and drawing people. Nudes are preferable as you learn how the body works, moves, and is proportioned, but if you just have to make sketches of people while they sit at a bus stop or walk somewhere, do it!

Suggestion!

Sit on the train, were sunnies, that way people can't see you staring at them.

[CB45]

And while books and classes are great for anatomy and perspective and form and all that other good stuff, you simply need to draw draw draw in order to work on mechanics. You can understand all the learnings of art in the world, but if you can't make your pen go where you want it to it'll be of no use at all.

I agree fully with this, knowing anatomy is nice and can help at points, but all you need to really know is in a mirror. If you need to know how someone would look in a certain pose? Ask a friend to pose for you for a second, or stand in front of a mirror or three(cameras even work). If you just watch how your body works and observe other people as well you get the basic knowledge you really need. Practice is the only way to get better.

On the subject of copying others work. I never suggest copying other peoples drawings anymore at least. It's how I started, and I found it was hard for me to break away from that style, and is still even hard to find a drawing style of my own that I like. A lot of people do say copy and add or subtract things to make the style your own. No matter what your style will end up resembling someone else's, because you already like the way certain things look I just don't recommend conscientiously copying their work, unless it's a school assignment or something along those lines(it's annoying having to copy the work of the masters).

[Ben]

See if you just copy one artists style constantly of course you're style is going to look like theres, copy from multiple sources in diffrent styles.

I know were pretty much all the spereate peices how I draw come from but put together it doesn't look like any of the sources I copy from.

[Leetmuffin]

Copy from people you like. Therefore you will like your own style. The logic is perfect.


But also, don't keep comparing yourself to other artists. I make that mistake often and usually get bouts of "I'll never be as good as he is!" I'm pretty sure I've posted some of those on the board here.

[Neuvost]

Now, one thing that I really regret in my young artistic education is focusing only on cartooning. Or, my warped view of cartooning. I said "I don't need to learn how to draw realistically! I want to draw comic strips! Cartoons don't need natural human proportions or backgrounds with proper perspective!" I crippled myself artistically for years to come and I still haven't recovered as an illustrator.

Don't always copy the end product. I tried to draw like Bill Watterson. I drew little munchkin children like Calvin. It didn't work. Why? Because for all the obvious places that Calvin is unrealistic, there are just as many not so obvious places where he looks and moves just like a little boy. And that's what brings him to life. I couldn't break my characters down to that raw simplicity and still maintain a figure that worked. Watterson knew how to draw a person, and when he warped a person, it still behaved like one. I tried to simply summon the unreal and make it act real.

Also, think twice about whether things you add to your art are good because you like your influence's final product or that exact feature. Some little things you might copy just aren't great ideas. That ear might look good on character so and so, but that's because character so and so is amazing in a lot of other ways. The ear actually kind of sucks. Especially combined with your style. It may seem obvious when I say it like that but I've seen a lot of artists do it. Take each thing by itself and as a part of their whole and your whole.

[pie]

I found the best thing about copying other artists was just learning from their style, ie, by copying SnF you might learn a lot about the use of line, you'll definitely learn a lot about the use of shadows, and then you add that into your own knowledge. When you take enough sources, you start to build up an impressive knowledge of the important aspects of art. I think the hardest thing to do in cartooning or comicing is coming up with a consistent style, so by studying others, you can see what is important to maintain.

[JadedFaye]

Now, one thing that I really regret in my young artistic education is focusing only on cartooning. Or, my warped view of cartooning. I said "I don't need to learn how to draw realistically! I want to draw comic strips! Cartoons don't need natural human proportions or backgrounds with proper perspective!" I crippled myself artistically for years to come and I still haven't recovered as an illustrator.

Don't always copy the end product. I tried to draw like Bill Watterson. I drew little munchkin children like Calvin. It didn't work. Why? Because for all the obvious places that Calvin is unrealistic, there are just as many not so obvious places where he looks and moves just like a little boy. And that's what brings him to life. I couldn't break my characters down to that raw simplicity and still maintain a figure that worked. Watterson knew how to draw a person, and when he warped a person, it still behaved like one. I tried to simply summon the unreal and make it act real.

Also, think twice about whether things you add to your art are good because you like your influence's final product or that exact feature. Some little things you might copy just aren't great ideas. That ear might look good on character so and so, but that's because character so and so is amazing in a lot of other ways. The ear actually kind of sucks. Especially combined with your style. It may seem obvious when I say it like that but I've seen a lot of artists do it. Take each thing by itself and as a part of their whole and your whole.

Well said. I definitely avoided realistic drawing for too long, AND computer art. I was afraid of being bad at it, so I decided I didn't NEED to learn digital art. In truth, It's really screwed me over as an artist. Both those things have hindered me. Furthermore, I'm frustrated because I'm unable to achieve some really beautiful effects that I might otherwise have a decent grasp on, had I been more open-minded and practiced these things. Nothing beats practice.

[elizajohn12]

Hi,
I learnt to draw picture by finding picture of cartoon of artists that I liked and copying there pictures.Another good way to get better is to freehand random cartoon pictures. When you get decent at freehand copying then try and shift the thing your drawing into a different pose like moving an arm or something or adding an object to the fray.Other way is Anatomy and Anatomy is the key to knowing how things bend properly. In your cartoon universe, this may not apply completely since most cartoons are not all that realistic but it will apply in some cases. If you can't get a book on anatomy, like I said, then you should check it on Internet.

[Kelso]

Grave dug due to Photoshop frustrations.

I bought the DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics recently, and after looking through it I was really excited to try out some of the stuff in it. (As well as a few things I should have already known. Holding shift draws a ruled line? Where was this information three years ago?) Anyway, I sat down down to try out some of the exercises, and... Photoshop Elements doesn't do paths? That sucks, since paths were one of the things I was most eager to try out. The $600 upgrade to CS5 isn't going to happen anytime soon, and ebay doesn't seem to want to offer me an older version at a reasonable price, so does anyone have recommendations on this? I'm not much of a fan of Gimp, but in the meantime I guess I can try using it just for paths and then move the product to PSE later. I considered t0rrents, but looking at comments, I couldn't even find one that I was confident wasn't virus ridden. What do you guys use for your digital drawing? Should I just suck it up and use Gimp?

[Leetmuffin]

I use a copy of CS5 I downloaded from Demonoid. It works pretty well and I feel I'm not good enough to make full use of it's features.

[Matador]

If you want to use paths, Illustrator or Flash should be your tools of choice.

[pie]

I have a copy of CS2 that I liberated from the filthy Reds over in China for a criminal fee. I could attempt to burn it onto another disc and send you a copy, if you were so inclined.