Forum posts by Whotower

I've been hearing people suggest to me to become more confident in my strokes. This confuses me more often than not as I have little clue to even practice that. I feel like I get the gist of the idea, which is to draw a stronger, straighter line, but I feel that's hard to achieve. Does anyone have any tips to improve confidence in my strokes?

If you want an example of my drawings here: (It's pretty crummy and they're 30 second ones)

https://imgur.com/a/cMXhYNj

To Fasldk:

"First off nice attempts! I really like a lot of the movements in a lot of the 1 min works. There's nothing wrong with resetting and let yourself figure it out slowly some poses are definitely a lot more difficult than some."

Thank you! :D I should try to be more comfortable and closely observe the poses more. You're also right, some poses are more difficult than others. I try my best to capture the movement.

"What I recommend foremost is use a thin brush setting and something that can let you build up, almost charcoal/pencil like. If the brush settings have a flow or opacity setting use it! secondly don't be afraid to work simply with gesture lines. Gesture lines meaning just using curved strokes to indicate the figures movements."

I'll definitely try to use a thin brush setting. Also, nice tips on letting me start to slowly build up the figure. What do you mean by use the flow or opacity? I'm sorry, I'm not that good of an artist and this is my first time using a program like this. What do you recomment should be my opacity?

Thank you for telling me about working alone with gestures. I'm always worried that I have to complete everything. This would help alot.

"Instead of the 30 minutes session try doing a longer session if you can, so it gives you more time to warm up in the earlier stages. I've mentioned this in another thread but don't worry about the time limits. It is not there to tell you that you should be finishing a whole piece in that time frame cause 30 seconds is definitely not enough time to do a satisfactory sketch for some people. Treat those 30 seconds for you to train your eye on capturing the movement only and translate that as simply as possible."

Ooh, essentially, those thirty seconds are useful for observing kind of movements in the figures. This is great advice to capture poses clearly. I'll also try to use longer than thirty minute sessions to warm up. Thanks for that. :D

"Also here's something for you to think about. It's limited to 30 seconds so you don't spend too much time lingering and overthinking! So don't worry! Just sketch at the base stick figures! If you can't finish it that is OK! that's why there are longer time limits later on in the session so you can build up slowly and be able to finish a piece that incorporates those gestures and details you see."

You're right, it's about capturing pose. It's about building up these poses to make figures look better and to ensure a stronger foundation. Thank you for telling me this. I sometimes overworry about these kinds of drawings.

To Johnny Ten Toes:

Ooh, that's a Proko video! I watch some of his videos on well about gesture. He's a good teacher when it comes to learning fundamental pieces of drawing.

"I don't yet have the skill for 10mins. Try doing 30s-2mins ones for an hour a day for two weeks before going up to 5mins (that's what I'm doing)."

I'll make sure to keep that in mind! I'll try to implement more thirty seconds and 1 to 2 minute drawings!

Thank you to everyone who replied! :D

I'm using a Wacom stylus. Honestly, thanks for asking. It is one of the first things I should've mentioned to be honest.

If I had to explain an indepth look into what I thought as I made these figure drawings, it would go along the lines of, "Okay, cool, you have the shape? What about the details, though?" "Hey, buddy, good drawing, but do you think you could, like, add some details?" "Wow! Good job! You managed to create the body! Now, how do you make it look like a person?" This would explain my lack of confidence. Most of the time, I feel like I could get big shapes down, but the details. I feel that I can't progress much without good details.

I'll keep drawing with larger figures in mind and it would help me get more accurate. Honestly, in your opinion, would zooming in help? I should also lower the brush size as well. Thanks for the tip! :D

Thank you! The figures being complete is a huge stress of mine especially when I'm done and begin questioning if I could add details? Any thoughts about that?

It is nervewracking! I felt so nervous about uploading what I'm doing for the first time. Still, the people here are pretty nice and helpful as far as I've been on it. So, in that case, people like you gave me confidence! :D

• Whotower edited this post on October 25, 2018 10:37am. Reason: Grammar mistakes
• Whotower edited this post on October 25, 2018 10:38am.

This is just me trying to figure out Photopea for the past 5 minutes. Some are scrappily drawn and I would like to know how to create more clarity with them:

https://imgur.com/a/XNRBgHl

This is my one minute drawings. At least I could finish them. :P Anyway, yeah, clarity and pose is something I still struggle with:

https://imgur.com/a/FfkAslk

Five minute drawings. The guy on the top, I've just realized, has a messed up head. Yeah, for some reason, I didn't notice that until after I exited the brower. I'll keep that in mind next time. Also, yeah, still sucks at clarity and added little details to the illusion of competence:

https://imgur.com/3hQMZ8u

Honestly, I'll put myself out here, right now. This is just me staring at a person for 10 whole minutes. I kept resetting, restarting, and erasing. It annoyed me just how I can't do details. If anyone has any tips about details, then please tell me. Especially since this is my first time using an online software to draw:

https://imgur.com/a/bjg48VD

EDIT: THIS IS ME INTERNALLY SCREAMING CAUSE I SWEAR THAT I USED ERASURES IN PHOTOPEA, BUT APPRENTLY THAT MIXES MY OLD ERASURES WITH MY NEW DRAWINGS. maybe, it's just me being incompetent. I'll try to figure out how this happened and it's probably on my end. Anyways, enjoy my otherwise trashy drawings.

This is my first time using an online software to draw and I'll tell you that it's different. Not very different, but different enough for me to wonder what I am even doing.

I'll look into that. Thank you! I look further into anatomy and Terryl Whitlatch. It's difficult, but is incredibly interesting!

:D

I have been drawing human anatomy for awhile and have been drawing them alot. I want to see how it's like to draw animals. Anyone have any books, essential lessons, advice, tips, etc. that you would like to share to a complete beginner?

@Kim, that's a good question. Let's say I want to have a clear pose, what would I need to do? Would that help? I want to push further out of my comfort zone and fewer lines seem like a great tool for that!

@Sanne That's a good point! Fewer lines help capture more in a more concise, clear manner. I'm also curious if you have any other tips that you would suggest to prove more of a challenge and push me to learn more about pose.

I've been hearing that using lines such as 5-7 or even as few as 3-4 lines during 30 second gesture drawing is a good idea. I heard it makes you think about each line more carefully. What do you think? Does this work for you or do you need to use more than 5-7 lines?

Well, for me atleast, I hold my wrist and spin my hand around. I sometimes grab each individual finger of an open palm with an arm stretched forward and pull them back. I also try to do the 'raindrop' technique. You hold closed fists infront of you, both separate, and shake your hands and open them as if you're holding water in them. It helps loosen the hands a little. Also, I know there's a massage technique called raindrops but we call it raindrops cause it's a fun name!

What do I do during short breaks? I usually don't use class mode. I kind of use five minutes or 30 seconds most of the time. If you're having a break, I recommend letting yourself relaxed and think over your previous sketches. What went right or wrong? What could I improve upon?

Sorry if this isn't helpful that much, but I hope I offered something of use.

Wolfypaints, does putting your tablet parallel to your monitor help you learn the tablet enough to put it flat on the table? I'm curious because I want to try and develop that. Also, rotating the canvas sounds like good advice. I should try that. Do you think games is a good way to develop hand-eye coordination?

Sanne, do you have any point and click games to recommend? Also, the first person shooter games with a tablet sounds like a nightmare. What was it like? Ooh, I'll try random browsing. That might work.

Like the title says, does anybody have any tips for controlling a tablet? Would using a beat game like OSU work? Is there a good way to learn better hand eye coordination?

Ooh, that's nice! What advice do you have for those who are beginning to draw with the tablet? What do you think people should learn first when beginning to use the tablet?

As the title said, what was the first thing you learned when drawing, sculpting, 3d modeling, animating, photography, conceptual art, etc.? It could be from school, yourself, or even from peers.

Also, did you find these techniques essential or a good start? If not, what do you wish that somebody told you before starting that art form or wish that you learned before learning the other aspects of the art form?

For me, what I learned first was studying shadows and differentiate values. I found this really helpful as it emphasizes form. I'm not entirely good at it yet, but I found it beneficial when creating three dimensional objects.

Thank you for the article, Kim! It really does help!

On another note, one of the links lead back to this forum post? Was that intentional?