I like to draw and i need advice......?

Question

How can I improve my drawing skills? I thinhk I am ok at it, but I'd like to get better and maybe do illustration for someone. Any advice.

Answer 1

Have your art looked at by other unbiased people - not your friends and family, but people who are just as likely to say negative things. Art critics are invaluable for figuring out where your strengths and weaknesses are. Once you know what you need to improve upon, you can get back to work on it.

Practice is key. You want to spend at least an hour a day drawing - preferably more - because if you get out of it, you will see your skills drop off a bit.

Never be satisfied with anything you draw. When you are satisfied, you will stop growing and improving, and even Michelangelo and Da Vinci had room for improvement.

On the other hand, never be so disgusted with your work that you throw it away. Keep EVERYTHING. No matter how bad, or how sketchy. File it away somewhere. Years later, you can look back on your own work and critique it, and learn from it. As an example, I came across a couple pictures I did about 15 years ago. It was good stuff, but I could see where my line work was off, and that my shading was terrible. On the other hand, I had such great creativity back then that the subject matter of my work carried it even though it was technically weak.

Probably the best advice I ever had as far as drawing itself goes - is look at your picture in little tiny pieces, and try to make each piece as good as it can be. Don't just rush through things like backgrounds and hair textures and color blending... don't "walk the dog" while you're drawing. Take the time to make it look exactly like you want it - exactly like you see it in your head.

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

Well Kelly being a painter myself, there are three pieces of advice that I can give you:

1) Draw, draw, and then draw some more. It is called hand, eye coordination. A good analogy would be an excellent musician like some of those Jazz cats like Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie. They were known for their ability to improvise. The only way they were able to do that is that they knew the fundamentals so well, that when they played, they didn't even have to think about it. They just...did it. Make sense? Same thing with drawing.
2) Take as many life drawing classes as you can, there is no better training for an artist than to draw a nude body, male and female in all shapes and forms. Here is why: when you draw an apple on a table, if it is not exactly right, no one is going to know if the dimensions are off, and frankly no one will care. However if an arm on a person or a leg, or head is not the correct proportion, everyone will notice, including you. Learning forshortening becomes critical in life drawing class.
3) Although it is a very simple concept, it is very difficult to master: Learn to draw what you see, not what you think you see. The brain tends to want to make corrections on how the world should exist when we draw, just remember almost all objects consist of 3 basic shapes: cone, sphere, and square in different shapes and sizes, learn to see these shapes in everyday objects and draw them. If you look at how animators draw their basic sketches you will see what I mean. Good luck to you and let me know if I can give you any other help.

Gregg

Answer 3

The root of your question is you're worried about proportions, right? You are a fine drawer, but if you want to draw proportionally you gotta think about anatomy. You can take a mental consideration of internal organs to allow certain bumps or fill for bodies. Such as the temporal, zygomatic, parietal, or frontal part of skulls. I'm just saying remember what a body contains and make sure there is room for the human to live and you're drawing will become alive. Lets see if I can explain proportions. There is 7 heads to a body is tall. You could estimate the size of the persons head and imagine 6 more below it. Face's are roughly six and a half eye lengths chin to hairline. You should be able to draw a straight line down vertically where the inner corners of eyes the outside of nostrils and the corners of mouths ends. Also people have brains and brains are rather large, so make sure the back of head's protrude enough back. I hope that makes sense.

Answer 4

Well, being an artist, I'd say you should always start with the head, and draw clothes last. If you want me to, I can send you my art. Pretty much all of my friends are artists too.

Back to the subject!

When you draw clothes, always have detail, such as wrinkle lines, some shading, etc.
And the bigger the eyes, they kind of look younger, and smaller, older. Ya know what I mean?

There are also different types of drawing. There's realistic, chibis, manga, and anime. I'm more of a "mixed drawing type."

Soooo....yea. Sometimes looking at pictures and drawing them gets you good practice.

Sorry about mentioning practice! I know, I'm one of those types who are NOT patient and HATE practice, but, hey, how did I get where I am know without it?

I hope I really help. =)

Answer 5

just keep at it. practice drawing everything you see - still life - action and yes, nudes if you can. It really helps to understand the body and how everything works together and moves.
experiment with colour and texture too. the only way to get better is to PRACTICE
how old are you?
what about going to school (college of art?) or going BACK to school.
one thing is sure, you may think your drawings are "ok", but only time will tell if you get out there and show them. Take a look at what others are doing. If you want to get into illustration, go to the library and study lots of illustrated books children's and adult. what do publishers want? what do writers want? what do ad agencies want? etc etc....
the possiblilitie are endless.

Answer 6

One of the best ways? Practice, practice and more practice. Grab yourself the book by Betty Edwards, she has Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain plus a Workbook that goes hand in hand with it...libraries and bookstores have these.

Another great instruction aid is books from Lee Hammond...she offers up some great, easy ways to draw very realistic renderings.

There are many, many tutorials on the net, I've listed just a few to help you get started, there way down there :) near the bottom of this.

You don't need expensive materials for this...good bond (white) paper (photocopy or computer paper is fine), a 2HB or 2B pencil (mechanical actually works the best if you are going to be doing shading/blending). A soft rubber gum like eraser that can be molded (General has these, they are gray or black), a Magic eraser works well for the more serious lines that you put down and have to remove.

If you are into illustrations...one good way to work these is to find some great illustrations that you admire...create a 1/2" grid using a piece of 8x10 acetate (clear plastic used for things like projector overheads) drawing lines both across and down the width and length of the entire sheet....mark the top as 1/2" Grid so that you know the size of the squares being used...you can also make grids that are smaller squares or larger depending on what you are working on. Down the left side mark each square as A,B,C...and on top mark each square as 1,2,3... (you can do this with the letters on top, numbers at side...doesn't matter as long as both the clear acetate grid and the paper grid coincide) (see the link :: http://homepages.tesco.net/p.wilkinson/Gridding_Method.htm for clear accurate instructions to complete this.)

Get yourself a good sketchbook, grab some good artist books -- libraries, friends, book stores etc. There is a magazine out as well on Drawing...they have several tutorials in each issue and each deals with specific kinds of drawing, one month may be portraiture, another might be cartoon, illustration etc. Head to the Arts/Writing magazine section of your bookstore and you'll find a fair amount to choose from.

As promised here are some great links to drawing tutorials:

http://homepages.tesco.net/p.wilkinson/index.html (pencil portraits, cartoons, etc., tutorials and tips/tricks)

http://desktoppub.about.com/od/creategraphics/a/how_to_draw.htm Additional links to follow are here as well

This next link may or may not interest you but it does offer an inside view to the life and workings of an illustrator including some tips on how to become one...this fellow is a freelance so he works for himself -- http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2506-freelance-illustrator-toren-atkinson-macbin

http://www.eirikso.com/2006/06/22/how-to-make-illustrations-even-if-you-cant-draw/ Haven't looked too deeply into this site, but it may have some things of interest for you.

http://www.eirikso.com/2006/06/22/how-to-make-illustrations-even-if-you-cant-draw/

This should get you started...a google search for 'how to draw', drawing tutorial, illustration tutorial, how to draw illustrations etc should find you many, many more helpful sites.

All the best to you in your pursuit...it's challenging, it's fun, it's rewarding and it's always something you can do almost anywhere.

Answer 7

Practice drawing human anatomy. If you can draw the human body well, then everything else will be a breeze. No kidding. I've been a professional cartoonist for 30 years, and this technique is foolproof.

Answer 8

You need to forget the patterns you have been familiar with your entire life. Dont look at a tree and try to draw it thinking you are drawing a tree. Look at it as lines and angles, arches, etc. Try turning some line pictures upside down and drawing them.

Answer 9

Practice, Practice, Practice...
Read, Read, Read...
Find an artist in a book that style you like and try to draw like it. No this isn't stealing, Its growing your skills.. You wont' draw just like him, but you will learn what you like of the style and add it to yours. Look with a keen eye, realize how things are drawn, and try to draw them that way.
Hope this helps, Good Luck.

Answer 10

take a look in your local artstore. depending on what you would like to focus your illustrations on there are plenty of books available on a wide variety of subjects. there is always night classes. hope this helps :)