new guy help please

[Kawe]

Always practice with pen and paper. How else are you going to practice when you aren't at the computer? :) I used to practice drawing straight lines on the way to school everyday.

Personally I looked a little at Andrew Loomi's "Fun with a pencil" and it taught me a few things about drawing figures. Don't worry about style. You should be able to apply your own styles with his concepts I believe. From what I gather he's all about what I'd call fundamentals.. what I personally lack.

Even if you think you have a good grasp on the fundamentals I'd suggest glancing through the books at least to see if it gives you any better understanding of what you are doing.

[Maidith]

Don't worry so much about whether something will help or not. Most important is that you do it, and that you draw whatever you want. At the same time, experiment with various things. You'll find out what helps you most only by doing so. :)

Some copypasta (those are my favorite learning methods; they helped me improve and still do)

- Look at pictures by artists you admire, and try to figure out things. How do they handle light and color? Why do they use that particular color there? What technique did they use? How did they work? The more you look at work of others, the more different kinds of styles and techniques you will see.

- Learn from the masters. Copy works you adore. Not for imitating the artist or showcasing your copy, but for the sake of learning. Don't be shy, ask your favorite artist everything you want to know, such as "What paper do you draw on?", or "How do you go about painting a picture, do you start with a sketch?", etc. But be specific, don't ask "how can I paint like that?". And check the artist's website, chances are they already have tutorials, a FAQ or step-by-step tutorials there.

- Challenge yourself. Never used a particular medium? Then buy it, no matter how poor you are, and try it out. Never drawn a still life? Do it. Never used that particular color scheme? Give it a try. At a certain point, when you are afraid of repeating yourself, you are on the right track to improve.

- Use reference. If you aim for realism, you can't paint most things straight from your imagination. The old masters always made preliminary studies of life models, and did most paintings from life models too. For example, if you are unsure how to paint a head with the light source from below, look up a photo, or take it yourself, or have someone pose for it. It is worth every effort!
Stock photos from deviantartists can be a valuable resource also and provide inspiration.
Here's an article about why reference is even more than a crutch, but essential for artists who paint realistic illustrations: http://maidith.deviantart.com/journal/15788173/

- Draw from life. It's probably the most valuable practice that there is. Sign up for a life drawing class so that you'll be actually "forced" to do it. Believe me, it works wonders.

- Look up tutorials. Browse through the tutorial section and study the many different ways and media of the different artists. Also visit the websites of the great artists here - many have tutorials up there.

- Collect pictures. On my harddisk, I have different folders: 1) one for old master oil paintings, 2) Modern master oil paintings, 3) Different kinds of watercolor paintings, 4) Great digital art images 5).
They are very inspiring to browse through and can give you new ideas in terms of technique. Whenever I feel uninspired, I look through my folders.
The images I've collected over time, mainly from Cgtalk.com, Deviantart, Epilogue, Artrenewal.org and many other websites.

[Lunatique]

When a learning material is teaching foundation knowledge, the style is not an issue. You could be drawing in anime/manga style and still benefit just as much from Loomis. Remember, stylization is something that comes AFTER you've strenghthened your foundation skill/knowledge. IMO (and those of artists who's been there and done that), if you cannot draw a decent realistic portrait or figure, then you really have no business trying to do stylized figures like anime/manga/comics. People who skip learning the foundation and jump straight into stylization often will only magnify their mistakes and lack of knowledge when they stylize. You have to know how something really looks and behaves before you can do a stylized version of it. That is something most young people ignore--they only want to draw anime/manga/comics and their work suffers because of it. Then they wonder why the heroes they look up to are better. It's because their heroes most likely have already learned their foundation, or eventually learned them along the way, and it shows in their work.

[Biggjoee5790]

Thanks so much for the responses. one more question.. what is the best way to go about practicing? Should I break up my time into using the books and also drawing my own stuff in my prefered style? Should I avoid copying art in my favorite style until I build a stronger foundation? Im just lookin for some ideas on how you guys practice your skills for both digital and regular art. I started through the Loomis book "Figure Drawing" and its very informative yet a bit complex. It gets a little boring measuring proportions of males and females after a while. Of course I know that studying this will help me, Its just tough for me to do this when I would rather just draw.. know what I mean? Any suggestions for me to work through this material and improve without getting bored?

[Lunatique]

I think it's better to think to yourself, "If I had to do a comic book in a more realistic style because the story calls for that kind of an approach, how would I do it?" instead of trying to write off the more realistic style altogether. A good artist should be able to do different styles. The really good manga/anime/comic book guys, no matter how stylized their own stuff is, can ALL do really good realistic work too, because they know they need to know it and do it because that's the foundation training for all artists. You can try splitting your time 65/35 between realism foundation and stylized stuff.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.