Berk's Forumvine

Hello! I've been finding that a lot of people on this site want to learn how to draw but don't know where to start, so id love to share some advice, and others are welcome to help as well! on how to get started learning how to draw, Im gonna paste over what I said in the other thread

The best way to learn how to draw is to draw from life, the human form is extremely difficult for beginners because they vary so greatly and are so intricate. Start with still lives, try and draw a cup from your kitchen, its boring but the beginning stages of anything are boring, think of the tutorial levels of a game vs the conclusion. The conclusion is much more fun, same thing goes for drawing. You can also have one of your parents sit on the couch and watch tv, tell them not to move too much and draw them! LEARN REALISM AND DRAWING CORRECT PROPORTIONS BEFORE TRYING TO ABSTRACT THE FORM INTO SOMETHING CARTOONISH. Ive seen this so many times and its a terrible terrible mistake, you end up with 2 elbows instead of 1 etc. You cannot exaggerate or distort a form without knowing the original form you are distorting!

Whenever there is an animal that i am trying to create a character out of I find reference and fill around 4 or more pages of my sketchbook drawing them and understanding the shape of their body and movements. This creates a strong base for me to deconstruct and work from creating stronger and more appealing characters.

I wont go deeper into character design right now but the thing I want you to take away is, draw from life! If you draw from " how to draw manga" books you are limiting yourself to a distorted figure to start with, and someone elses style. Drawing from life allows you the freedom to draw however you want and explore what works best for you.

Thank you so much! This will really help me!

AuroraBorealis

13 May 2014, 16:08

Thank you so much! This will really help me!

if you have anymore questions feel free to ask!

You're a genius! I can do this with writing, too! Thanks so much!

Always had trouble with Proportion when it came to drawing,

Thanks for the tips!

What I do is stare at a picture for a while then draw it. Trust me it helps, well for me anyways.

Freyja

14 May 2014, 14:56

What I do is stare at a picture for a while then draw it. Trust me it helps, well for me anyways.

Reference photos are always helpful when you can't draw it in real life! and reference photos are not cheating at all, all professionals use them and i feel like a lot of people think that its cheating!
I was just talking to a concept artist at activision today and he said he dedicates the first half of his day to reference research.

Asvald Veleif

14 May 2014, 06:48

Always had trouble with Proportion when it came to drawing,

Thanks for the tips!

Has anyone ever shown you the angles and foreshortening trick? by holding your pencil up vertically to what you are trying to draw, you can then slide your thumb along the pencil, so that from the edge of the pencil to your thumb is how large the object you are trying to draw is. you can then apply this measurement to your drawing. but it is important that you use the same method for the whole of the drawing, otherwise your proportions will be incorrect.

and also, if you are trying to draw a line at a specific angle then you close one eye and angle your pencil so that it is in line with what you are trying to draw. you then bring the pencil (at the same angle) down to the paper to see either if you have drawn it correctly, or to try and get the initial angle.