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I made it my New Years Resolution this year to learn how to draw and right now I want to take it seriously. I know that there are quite a few books and tutorials out there for absolute beginners but i'm not sure which ones are the best choice or are worth spending money on.

I'm hoping to able to develop drawing skills so that I may one day be able to contribute to the site community and whatnot.

Ask our community artists Muumi and Natsuru for help. There are other artists that aren't recognized in the site. Go to art threads and drawing threads to get inspiration.

You could look at some youtube tutorials, there are a ton of those. (markcrilley is a great example)
Also, aside form the artists Greninja mentioned, there are a ton of great artists in this thread that you could ask for help.

I guess since I was called upon, I will go ahead and give some advice.

There are multiple ways to get into drawing, usually either though copying another persons art style or by attempting to draw what you see. Both of them are equally as valid, and if you draw in another persons art style as long as the art style in question is semi-realistic (notice how I draw anime with more realistic body proportions), it's not that hard jumping into Still Life, or vice-versa.

Here is my main suggestion though: draw and draw often. Don't be ashamed of your work and don't be afraid to let other people critique you, sketch before you make the confident hard-trace, and for gods sakes DON'T EVER build up an ego over your work. You will never be the best artist who ever lived.

A fun way to draw often is to get into a continue-the-comic with somebody else. Just be certain you have a sketchbook, a comfortable pencil with a White Plastic Eraser (I prefer Mechanical), and have fun with it. That's how I got good.

I'm not at all an accomplished artist like others on this site( I'm mediocre at best), but for the past few months I've been putting aside 30 minutes everyday to practice drawing. I started by just drawing characters from screen caps. I was awful at first and trying to draw my own thing was a disaster, but I kept at it and I have improved quite a bit. Just practice as often as you can.

If you're looking to be correct technically and perfect the art of drawing things realistically, tutorials and how-to books are the way to go. However, I believe that to develop a true knack for drawing, you must begin without any of the potential restrictions given by having rules or teachers.

Draw what you feel like drawing. Don't worry about it looking "ugly" or "incorrect". As a beginner, just get a feel for it first. Later you can worry about form and details, but not when you first start out. Let your passion guide you and free your raw potential. Let your emotion flow through your fingertips and dance on the blank canvas before you. Create what you never could with words alone. Never be afraid. Never hold back. Always have that passion.

That's my advice anyway.

My advice: Do it all the freaking time. Whenever you get the chance, try to draw stuff. Carry a little notepad or something with you so you can practice. I've actually been trying to improve my drawing, and I've gotten way better than I was before. Before I drew sloppy stick figures. Now my stick figures are all neat n' tidy. :3

Another suggestion that I use is to first start off tracing pictures of things, then you can start drawing using the picture as a reference, until eventually you can do it by memory! If you keep doing this, it will help you get better perspective on things. Speaking of perspective, trying drawing three-dimensionally. When drawing a three-dimensional object, think of a consistent light source always pointed in one direction to see where the shadows go. (Try shining a flashlight on different objects to see different angles you can try.) Try different angles of light (back lit, front lit, from the side, etc. to see what you like best. When drawing a real life place or something, try to make the shading identical to irl. (Ex: If drawing a tree outside, use the sun as the light source and draw the shadows the sun makes.)

The most important thing is to never doubt your ability. Don't go "LOL my drawing skillz srsly suck guise!" Once you get that attitude and you don't believe you can draw, you never will. Believe in your abilities.

I agree with tracing. But when you get more comfortable, start making bases for your original creation. For example, when you are making a character, make sure you draw shapes so it would be easier to visualize the final product. Such shapes for a person would consist of circles and squares. And maybe even a triangle. Remember, shapes are very important in drawings!

Back when I had more free time on my hands about a month ago I started taking drawing more seriously and I've been very pleased with the results. So much so I'm starting to get cocky. I finally realized my biggest problem for years was that I simply wasn't taking my time, and in realizing I lived up to my username yet again I hung my head.

Well it depends what you want to draw. I learnt to draw on my own, but reference images can help. I used to draw InuYasha as a 16 year old and I downloaded some images, printed them out and just pretty much copied where the lines went…

Draw. Draw a lot. When I started out taking my drawing seriously I drew just about every day for at least a half hour. I drew mostly in the anime/manga style so I was constantly observing other anime and taking notes on how they do proportion/style/etc. You can buy a tutorial book if you want, but your local library may have their own section of tutorial books. Also, there are plenty of great tutorials on deviantart and youtube. When you're looking at a tutorial, pay attention to their technique. Don't look at what they're drawing, look at what they're doing. Don't be afraid to ask questions to other artists.

Draw often and draw easy, draw whatever makes you happy
Watch a lot of cartoons and animated movies, find somethin that inspires you
Finding your own style is the hardest part, but that will happen over time and takes years, it's something that you come into incrementally

And remember: Just go with the flow, it's the DANDY way to draw

"Well I guess it's time to check up on that thread I start- woah."

I would like to thank all of you for the advice, it's much appreciated!

I also looked into tracing as a practice tool and it seems that the internet is split 50/50 on it. either way, I'm going to be asking for a sketch book for my birthday (which is coming up soon) and an assortment of pencils. I'll also probably ask for tracing paper too because i'm not going to knock it before I try it.

I can draw pretty well, it just takes me q A long time to do a full drawing. I'm kind of a perfectionist, but when you draw seriously I reccomend you take your time.
Also, I don't have much experience with drawing tablets, but I see that they make colors very vibrant compared to scanned drawings on paper. You could, of course, scan one of your sketches and draw over it with a tablet.

This is why I love the KYM community. So much wonderful support and advice.

If I were to add something, and I almost feel like I'm repeating everyone, but keep it simple and practice, practice, practice again. Even stick figures can turn out to be very good drawings! The worst thing you want to do is try something too difficult and give up. If you are up for a challenge, then go ahead, and keep it slow. These are all basic advice, but it all helps. Explore your own style, and be creative.

Most of all, have fun when you draw!

This should be helpful and informative:

I had a feeling someone would post that.

That's pretty much how they're like. I bought a "How to Draw Pokemon" guide book, and this was basically the instructions. "Draw some circles and then draw the rest of the fucking Pikachu".

Speaking of Pokemon, i've been drawing basic Pokemon as practice. As of tonight i've drawn Metapod and Omanyte Lord Helix. Every once and a while I also draw a cup or bowl.

When I was 7 or something I had a Pokemon book. I never did get the hang of it though, and I guess I gave up. Wonder if I still have it… I've missed so much in Pokemon.

Another thing I forgot to mention; Once you consider yourself to be an intermediate artist, Speed Paints will be the gods of teaching you drawing techniques. Especially Coloring. (Coloring applies to everything, even Greyscale Stuff since they are both regulated by the laws of shades)

Do you draw those cups and bowls from observation? If so, good on you, you're already taking steps that some artists are too stubborn to take. If there is one thing I learned in my experience, it's that drawing still life pieces can be boring and tedious as shit, but they will improve your technique like crazy. Drawing from real life can be a really important tool and is surprisingly helpful in polishing your style when you are drawing things from imagination.

Yay~ An aspiring artist~!

First off, choose your art style. Start harvesting images that your drawings would look like. It's basically putting up a goal and it will help you motivate yourself.

Viewing tutorials will definitely help, especially when you're into creating your own style. If you feel like you're just copying a certain artist, don't fret. You'll find your own style on the way~

I'd like to note that when drawing stuff, try to grasp the 3d-ness of the object/character you're drawing (tangents the same point Crimson Locks-senpai said). This skill will take time, but it's something that I prefer others to learn quickly. Once you've passed that skill, then congratulations! You're a few steps toward your goal!

And like everyone has said, practice. I prefer to practice every time I had a chance, but having also a two-week break will help you assess your progress. Also, keep your outputs. You'll be surprised when you see your drawings after a year~ I once saw my drawings five years ago aaaaand I felt stupid and at the same time proud of myself~

Last, but not the least, always have fun when drawing~

Good luck senpai~!

I guess this is one of those threads where my input might be somewhat valued.

If you want to start drawing, then I recommend doing the following. I think most of this stuff has been mentioned earlier, but that should tell you that it is an imprtant piece of advice.

1. Please, use references.
- Some people think this might be "cheating", but you do better job if you have something to "copy". To clarify, I am NOT talking about tracing. Tracing is something you should do with extreme caution, since you learn nothing if you trace stuff all the time.

2. Draw from life (like mentioned earlier).
- This is something I haven't done much myself, but it's something EVERYONE should do. You learn a lot from drawing quick drawings of some really basic stuff. Like someone drinking coffee, reading a magazine, cooking, or something as simple as that.

Or maybe draw some Still Life like Crimson mentioned. I takes a certain mentality to enjoy Still Life though, and not all people enjoy drawing it.

3. Use tutorials and basic shapes to help you out.
- Yet again, I have to clarify that tutorials are not to be considered cheating. Sadly, this is something I learned the hard way. I didn't use tutorials when I started, so now my basics are flawed. Don't do this mistake. Use stuff like YouTube and DeviantART, and search for tutorials on stuff that interests you.

And last but definitely not least, DO NOT be discouraged.

If you just started out, your pictures probably won't be all that good. But everyone has to start somewhere. I'll let myself be an example, and post this chart that I made years ago.

You can click the view image to see it in full scale.



As you can see, I really sucked when I started out, but I just kept drawing, because I found it to be fun. I improved slowly, because I did not have internet at the time, and good references were rare.

But as soon as I joined dA, the improvement became quite obvious. That was the moment when I saw tons of good artists that I wanted to be like. So it inspired me to practice, and gave me new ideas, visions, and drawing techniques.

So try to absorb as much influence as you can from artists that you really like.

You can attempt to copy their style a bit, but avoid tracing, and 1:1 copying.

I might be shit at drawing, but if I can offer a word of advice: Never doubt yourself.

Seriously, it's always unfortunate to constantly see people with good drawing skills doubt themselves over their own skills, and then just lose the motivation to draw altogether or give up on it altogether. You're not a bad artist, just a quality one in the making, different things. Keep yourself motivated to go for it, and you'll improve.

That said, it's a hard world out there. You're not perfect, and there will always be someone better than you. But that's life, and you can't have it all. But instead of sulking over people better than you, use their skills as a set goal on what you'd like to see yourself capable off. They have experience you don't have, yet! Also remember everyone has their own style, and everyone has a style that appeals to them. People can like your cartoony doodles a lot more than everything in the Louvre, as long as it just appeals to them.

Respect critisism. They may not always be nice, but if they can point you out what didn't go so well, it still helps. Don't grow an ego, you'll never be the best there ever was.

I try to draw relatively simple objects like soda cans and glue bottles. If there's nothing around that I can use than I practice drawing cups, bowls and various shapes from memory (mostly to practice shading).
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I'm also wondering if a drawing book (like You Can Draw in 30 Days) would be worth my time. I'm hoping that one could help with working with depth, perspective and other important skills but i'm afraid that the lessons of an art book would be restricted to the author's style (I want to be able explore different kinds of drawing before settling with one i'm most comfortable with).

Hm, I wouldn't really trust a book that guarantees you can do something within a set amount of time, but, if you like what you see in the customer reviews, go for it.

However, how-to books are kind of hard to learn from most of the time. Not that they can't be helpful (indeed they can be very helpful), but it's like being in a huge lecture hall. There's no direct communication between the "teacher" (the book) and the student. Maybe you should ask an artistic friend to mentor you or take an art class. In addition to being able to communicate with you, they can also give their own personal opinions which can help mold your own style and broaden your outlook.

^
Yeah, 30 days isn't enough time for anything. Kind of reminds of this…

make no mistake, just like anything, its going to take years to get good at drawing. I would check the reviews of that book. The name might be misleading, but the stuff inside might be good.

I am just going to throw out: NO, don't rely on a single instruction book. From my collection I have, 3/4 of the authors are incredibly bias towards certain styles and aren't afraid to take a shit on the styles they don't like.

"How to Draw" books are okay if you use them for reference (if you want to get into Cartooning, pick up a few books), however much of those tutorials can either be conveyed better online via Video or be taught in a classroom by a teacher who knows his shit.

EDIT:

Actually, if you feel you need a book, find an Art School Textbook. Yeah, it might be incredibly boring but the books themselves has no bias due to the process needed to approve them and oftentimes written from an objective point of view rather than a personal one.

Whatever you do, never consult an artbook. Use your own original style of drawing your pictures, and let me tell you, it WILL be a VERY LONG TIME before you draw incredibly. I've drawn for about ten years, and this is the best I can manage.

Compare with other works of art, and let me tell you, it is a long road. Just keep individualizing your own art and try to keep to your own style. Create whatever your mind sets itself to, and try to imagine whatever you're trying to draw already on your paper.

That really depends, my friend.

Some people can draw their own styles, others must rely on copying on other styles.
It really depends on the person really.

Most of my drawings ( which i've been practicing for 4 years) came mostly out of copying from other artworks. So far, I've been aiming on getting proportions over style.

My only advice is to start by learning proportions. If you're learning to draw objects, animals, or people, the best thing to do is to study from real images of the subject or from other people's work.

My other advice is to be active in an artist community. Who knows, you can learn a lot of things by talking to other artist, and even find someone who is willing to teach you. (that's where i met one of my teachers)

And most of all, never give up! never get prideful of your art (the sin of many artist in Deviantart and Facebook)!! and do your best!

Try to start out by copying your favourite artists or find something that's easy and fun for you to draw. Personally I don't use learn to draw books, I'm just too lazy for that. It'll be frustrating at first and the artworks will be crap, but if you keep going, you'll see progress and you'll begin to love it.

However, the most important thing is to be mentally fit, try not to overstress yourself drawing, or else you'll gonna get burnouts, and this will trainwreck you in the most subtle way.

I would like to thank you all again for all the input.

I would also like to ask if anyone has any tips on perspective? As far as using shadows for perspective goes I've only learned how to draw lighting from left or right, what about a little to the front? I also have this wood horse thats been sitting in my houses game room for a while and I plan on using use it in a still life to practice more complex shapes. I hear that working in a dark room with a single light source can really help.

You may already know this as it is common knowledge, but something I learned was that when creating a drawing with setting and different forms and elements, draw a center dot to guide you. Not neccesarily in the middle, but a area to work off of. This is useful for landscaping or different shades.

Kinda like this.

^
This~

Also, when it comes to perspective (and proportions), someone taught me this: Print something that you would like as an output, but set the image as a bit transparent. Then use that print to sketch some guidelines into it; ink pen preferred. Draw center markings, find the vanishing point, etc. Study the picture this way, then make your version.

I sort of didn't caught on that practice though. It's not my style; maybe it will help you senpai~

Working with a single light source is definitely helpful in learning how to make shadows. When doing still life I like to use a nifty little clamp light to get a nice concentrated light source
They look like this

And you can get them at a hardware store for about $7 (American money). Using any light source other than an overhead light should do, but I highly recommend getting one of these babies if you want to experiment and play around with the direction of your light sources.

If you wouldn't mind, it would be awesome if you posted your horse drawing when you're done with it.

I've been practicing at least 4 times a week since last April, so almost a year. I did take art for 3 years in highschool, but I didn't take it very seriously at all, though it probably did help some. I have, throughout my life, tried to draw but then quitting. this is the first time I've stuck with it.
Before


The yoko pic I'm pretty sure I copied the image by looking. The Mikasa one I think I tried making a pose separate from my reference image.
Now



I went many months just copying work to get a feel for drawing. I drew out a stick figure, then drew in shapes, then details to get a feel that technique even though I was just copying. Recently I've limited myself to only using reference images sparsely to look at some details and purposely picking poses that differ from the image i'm using so I can't copy(That's what I did for the images above). I've seen a pretty big improvement after practicing constantly. So practice all the time and have discipline.

I have a question though for the artists on this site. I remember a couple people in my art class who had been in it for 3 years and taking it very seriously, producing many more works than other students, but their artwork was…. well, terrible, sad to say. Chris Chan has been making his comic for more than 10 years. How does that happen?

^
Practice does not mean getting better in quality, just means you can work faster. To get better you need to learn, to understand what you did wrong and how to improve, otherwise you'll stuck at the level you're in.

So the tip is to learn > practice > learn/fix mistakes > practice > learn/improve > practice.

Conman, if you'd like, and we aren't pressuring you or anything, but if you have any pieces you want to show that'd be great!

^I'll see if I can do that.

A few days late, but here's my advice on perspective:

As mentioned earlier, a vanishing point is important, but just having one can look kind of… flat? Here's a comparison of a single vanishing point and multiple vanishing points:

Try to do at least two if possible because I think that makes for a more realistic drawing.

As for shading in different perspectives, Crimson's advice is the best. If you can't spend money, though, there are plenty of online stock photos and references to choose from.

If the object you want to shade isn't a conventional object, let's say you want to shade a tree, then find the the basic geometric shapes within it to use as a reference for the shading but freestyle it so it doesn't look rigid.

@Dac:
A+ for effort on the drawings. Karma for you. To answer your question, QWERTY probably put it best: Practice and quantity of work doesn't necessarily mean an improvement in skill, it's really the effort to improve that matters. For instance, you said that you forced yourself to move from straight up copying an image to using the image as a reference and drawing the characters in different poses. that right there is what it takes to improve on something. When I first started drawing 7 years ago I just drew girls standing around, and I could still be stuck in that spot today if I didn't force myself to draw different things. Learning how to improve is not a skill everyone has. I was in an AP art class my senior year of high school and while the art program in my school was strong and there were many extremely skilled kids, there were still a few that just… Weren't that good. Hell, I'm in an art college now and I see some kids' work and am baffled as to how they got in the school to begin with. That sounds a little harsh but, well, for a place that people go to in the hopes of making careers off their work some of these people sure don't seem to want to put a lot of effort into what they do.

@crimson
Thanks. Could you post some of your work? I'm very interested to see yours.

Here is a helpful guide for beginners
Some links from /ic/

I'm going to get some drawing supplies for my birthday tomorrow including a goose neck lamp.
If i can I'll scan and post some of my better drawings.

Well happy birthday and have fun!

I scanned the pages of drawings I had (I found seven) and want to post them to the thread. Most of them are practice with shading and are coupled with doodles. Is it possible for me to take an image directly from my computer and put it on a forum post/comment or do I need to post it somewhere else first?

Here's five of 'em. I didn't feel that the other two had enough content, but i'll post them if someone asks. I did all these during the first half of march during school lunch or during ecology where we almost do nothing.

I drew some larger 3 dimensional shapes and fruit a few months back but I've misplaced them.

Very nice. Some more basic advice we all know but I feel needs to be said. Remember to draw lightly and preferrabely with a very sharp pencil. This prevents unnessacarry markings and allows you to be more accurate. Though some other artists prefer stubbier pencils. And a great way to shade is to smudge with your finger. So fill in a small space where the shade is most dark, and rub your thumb around it to create a very nice shaded effect. If you have a drawing kit, a special pencil that has cardboard for the tip is used for rubbing. Can't call the name though, but has the same effect to keep hands clean :P So I'd used this with the apple at the far right bottom of page 3.

^ I've been doing the thing with my finger on some of the items on here. I also got some drawing supplies for my birthday: Pastels, pencils of various hardness and softness, charcoal sticks, blending sticks, tracing paper, and a sketch book.