art; drawing

[degrasse]

how you started out, how you learned, what kind of drawing you do (traditional, digital, cartoons, sketching, etc.)

 

i like to call myself an artist, but i still struggle with some aspects of drawing! such as anatomy, colouring, perspective, etc. wanted to know if any artists wanted to lend a hand and maybe explain how they got better/improved!!

[TehUltimateMage]

It started with bad fanart when I was 11, and has only gotten better since then. I love keeping really old art. It makes me nostalgic. I'm also mostly self-taught through books and online resources apart from high school art classes. The funny thing is that I took a watercoloring course when I was younger and the teacher thought I was hopeless so my parents stopped paying for lessons. Fast forward 10 years and I believe my watercolors are quite decent. XP

 

I do a little bit of everything, but my specialties are traditional sketches in pen and ink.

 

(also pssst check out my art thread in Original Works and I'll be looking forward to when and if you make your own OW thread!)

 

Edit for book recommendations:

For human anatomy: Any of the books on this list are awesome. I own Bridgeman's Life Drawing, Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, and Figure Drawing for All It's Worth. They're all really good, imo.

 

For perspective: An odd choice, but Perspective For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea was really helpful! Reading a classic such as Alberti's On Painting is also super helpful in understanding perspective, even if the language is a bit dense.

 

Basically -- Study, practice, repeat. It's okay to trace an image to figure out how something works and where all the bits go, and it's okay to fill an entire page with knees or some other body part.

 

Currently I'm learning how to do backgrounds and cityscapes!

Edited January 5, 2016 by TehUltimateMage

[Clya]

I just kinda started out by learning Manga style. I moved to Manga people to chibis, creatures etc. I now draw a lot of pretty much anything in my journal, and draw a lot digitally as well.

 

Anatomy and shading though are what I struggle with, flat drawings and dragons are os easy though

 

My favorite things to draw though are dragons and any sort of requests that people send me on my art thread, they are so much fun!

Edited January 7, 2016 by Clya

[Funcanlong]

I don't remember ever NOT drawing, but i started getting really into it in 5th grade. I enjoyed drawing animals most back then but now i draw almost exclusively humans. I like semi-realistic styles but when i draw more cartoony you can see some heavy manga influence in my art lmao.

[Dragnilu]

Well i am self taught and i go to kids art school where i learn all the basics allmoast about everything. It us a small school about 30km away from my home and sometimes having trouble getting there. You could say every city has one. So anyway i love art school and im on my last year and thinking aboit my diploma errm task? Work? I forgot it in english. I like to think im very good at tradicional sketching and pecil work. I dont like to do flat color art so i try to add more color even if i want to do it simple, and flat colors aint my styleXD Im still learning anatomy and stuff.

 

Like theultimatemage said i have an art thread too.I dont bite and i like new art threads too.

[Predat0rs]

I'm also self-taught. One of my favorite ways of learning is watching YouTube videos of others drawing. Or if someone is streaming their current project.

[sapphiredragon73]

I'm self-taught as well. I don't remember when I started, but it was when I was really little. I used to just go off of what I thought was right, then someone told me to try referencing photographs. I did my first photoreferenced drawing when I was in like 5th or 6th grade, and then I started actually improving, which was nice.

Traditional art is what I started with and what I'm best at, but I got a tablet last year for christmas, so I've been starting to dabble in digital art... it's a work in progress, really.

 

[Predat0rs]

Tablets are a definite must for any artist I believe. They rule \m/

[Dragnilu]

Tablets are a definite must for any artist I believe. They rule \m/

too bad i don't have one

[Predat0rs]

too bad i don't have one

Awww sad! They are a good investment I think, even if some are pricey :S

[TehUltimateMage]

I've always wished for a tablet since I was like, 12. Though I got a cheap one around 15, I didn't really start using tablets until I saved up for an actual one at 17, because the cheap one sucked. Lesson learned: get the genuine product! XP