Where to Start?

Hi! So i always have been doodling here and there and attempted at drawing some character designs and stuff for my own entertainment. Although, I'm not happy with how my skills are at the moment. So I'm not really sure where to start, I guess? I want to have a basic understanding of anatomy and porportions so my figures don't look so, odd?

Any tips? :)

Edit: Here's some examples of what I have so far! http://imgur.com/gallery/NBRPJMi

Followed a lot of tutorials on shapes and the "bean" technique.

• koon edited this post on February 16, 2019 4:44am. Reason: Adding examples of work
• koon edited this post on February 16, 2019 4:46am.

Hi koon! Do you have any examples of your art? Without those we can't really be of much help to you I'm afraid!

Whoops! Forgot to add them! I edited the orginori post so they should be there now :)

The little dog? Cat? character looks like you have access to a dog or cat to provide reference and act as a model. I don’t speak very good cat, tho it’s good enough for the neighborhood cats to sometimes yell at me to behave like a proper human. My dog is better. But on average our small predator friends are more alike than they are different. And it can definitely be fun to study animal behavior by drawing your pet. It can be super hard to draw your pet when they are awake, especially if you are a favorite human. Hands that are drawing are not providing pets, food or play so your pet is likely to yell at you about it.

Trying to take reference photos of your pet is also likely to get you yelled at.

So if you are having fun drawing animals, definitely look at using class mode for animals. It can help you get faster and express more ideas. And then maybe you can draw live animals who won’t yell at you because they don’t care about you :D

There’s a little gesture basics tutorial. It’s aimed at drawing humans but it applies to most animals too. If you haven’t tried it start there.

If you have an income, you might want to consider purchasing Victor Perard's "Drawing and Anatomy" and Bridgman's "Complete Anatomy" book as well. Just copying and studying the drawings in those books is great help, I'm still going through them after three years of seriously studying drawing. If you only have money to get one, I would get Perard's.

Those things helped me more than anything, so that when I went out to draw at cafes or zoos, I was able to observe and understand a lot more than if I were just copying from pictures online.

You are heading on the right track with your drawings, they are very good! Keep drawing from life and studying anatomy, it's actually fun and not boring at all, especially once you realize how quickly you can improve. I saw daily improvement for years.

@Kevinstuh I'll definately look into thosw two books! Thanks for the suggests : ) I still try to do some dailt gesture sketchs and such.

• koon edited this post on March 13, 2019 4:09am.

@Torrilin Ah thanks ! Haha I was mostly drawing a, well it was suppose to be a flour sack after watching some tutorial on youtube. I do have a pet dog so I was basing a lot of the stuff on her actions and some cartoony animals I've seen on tv and stuff. Thanks for the advice :))

• koon edited this post on March 13, 2019 4:09am.

Yay! Then you already are thinking about how to use reference for creative stuff. Good job.

The main thing with regular gesture drawing is it gives you practice so when your dog does something cute you can draw it very fast. You don’t have to rely on having the camera out to get a picture. You’ve practiced how to break her down into simple shapes, and you know which ones are the key shapes for you to work with. And the more you practice animal gestures, the more you can do stuff like give your dog’s cute pose to a different dog.

With human figure drawings, same deal. And as a bonus, I find that animal classes make me better at humans and vice versa.