I have no prior art experience, learning to draw :-)

Hi,

Right now, I am 23 years old currently (yay! :D) and I am... actually a math major looking to graduate soon from university.

My major is in Applied & Computational Mathematics - a concentration bloated with science, math and CS courses. Also has absolutely nothing to do with art! xD

Well... recently I have discovered that I have an anxiety disorder, and also ADHD so I am trying to find a way to also get myself really motivated again and I have unfortunately lost contact with all of my old friends from university. So, I am hoping that drawing art will perhaps help me to "bring myself back up" in terms of having a happy life and also maybe it will allow me to make some friends.

So, my question for you guys is this: is this site a good place for me to start? I have zero experience whatsoever; all I know is what kind of art I like to browse. For instance..

I like the following images:

http://images.clipartpanda.com/lilo-and-stitch-clip-art-may1110.gif http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/pokemon/images/c/ca/158Totodile_Pokemon_Mystery_Dungeon_Red_and_Blue_Rescue_Teams.png/revision/latest?cb=20150107222838 http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/f/f3/Robin_Hood.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130624212316 http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/the-fox-and-the-hound-2/w448/the-fox-and-the-hound-2.jpg

because 1.) they are SFW, 2.) they are kid friendly, 3.) they are simple and 'cartooney', ie. not too detailed, but at the same time they carry a great deal of expression!

To be completely honest, I feel a little bit "in the dark," being a Math/CS student and maybe it is really hard to find people online who are as old as me and who don't know a thing about art but want to draw! So, it feels like I am completely alone in my lack of experience but not being devoid of inspiration, if that makes sense?

So, again to ask the question as I asked above, is this place good for me? Or maybe I should start somewhere else to start? And perhaps more importantly, would I be able to find "art buddies" here to learn and practice wtih? :)

-ghrend

https://www.facebook.com/groups/levelup.livestream/?fref=ts I started there.. with no knowledge.. now i do small commission for graphite and charcoal portraits,.. you know, just for books, coz lawbooks are effin expensive.. >_< just post a huge shoutout after joining.. you'll be peppered with responses..

The best thing to do in my experience is to just jump in and do your best. No matter what books you get or what tutorials you find, they're all going to say the same thing: Practice makes perfect. Just draw what you see, and do it every day, even if it's only for five minutes each time.

Be open to critiques, and learn which critiques are good and which are bad. "That sucks!" or "That's awesome!" are bad critiques, because they don't tell you what they like/don't like about the piece. "I think that your proportion is good" or "The colors just don't seem right, try blue instead." are good critiques because they tell you what you're doing right, and what you're doing wrong so that you can improve. Putting your art onto different sites, like DeviantArt, can get you lots of good critiques.

Learning from real life is better than learning from other art, because other art, even from masters, has the potential to be flawed in some way. However, that doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't learn from other art pieces. Copying someone else's piece for the sake of practice - known as doing a study - is a great way to learn. Also, start off with simple stuff, like stilllifes. Grab a couple of random items from your house and put them on a table, then draw those. Build your way up to complex things like humans and animals.

Separate your learning experiences into groups that you practice for a while. For instance, you may decide that you really want to focus on learning to draw hands. So spend a week, or however long you need, just drawing hands. Then the next week, maybe you decide you want to learn facial expressions. This can also work for things like shading, proportion, color, cartoon style, ect.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you out. Good luck, and have fun learning to draw!