Drawing tips for other exercises

Hello.

I've started figure drawing 1 week ago and I wonder if I have to switch up with the other things such as expresisons, hands & feet, animals, simple forms and backgrounds. Except I can't find any tips on those, just the human figure from the starting tutorial.

I'm new to drawing, but I want to learn the basic skills in order to better deal with other fields.



How can I proceed?

Just to be honest, if you already know how to draw a stable line that is where all progress is going to stop.

I am not making any of this up, this is the end line. I have been drawing random people badly (which is what gesture drawing is all about) for the last few months and I still don't know what I am even doing. All tutorials and outside media are made by people who already know anatomy, yet anatomy cannot be learned unless you know gesture drawing, can you see the logic here?

the alternative is to draw each shape of the body the same way an architect would, you'll need to learn 3d shapes subdivided regularly that bend in different directions, but that requires so many construction lines you'll not be able to see the drawing.

My biggest advice is: draw like you have nothing to learn, do stuff at random, chase all the wild geese you want and be shure to get distracted enough to not let your frustration ruin the process. In my case I have been turning pokemon designs into simple shapes. If you want I can teach you those shapes

These are all my figure drawing I made in a week. I can't tell if my line is stable enough or not.


So I should takle the basic figure's classes in the site for that or I have to study resources like Drawabox or the likes?


Actually, one of the reasone why I started to take on drawing was not only to shape my thoughts better, but also being part of what my favourite artists are.
I hope this influence map of mine does not look too much.

There's a lot to study, but studying is part of my life and I'm not gonna shy away from ordeals.

Ok, there is still something you can learn at the moment. let's start from the line. the way you draw makes me think you move the hand really slowly. Well when I am talking about stable lines I mean make each line with a simple swoop, do not put time or effort into it. flick your entire Forearm to make it as much natural as possible. In this case every single tutorial can help you with that. Try the drawabox site where you can find descriptions and so on or you can look at the BaM Animation channel where they can give you some exercises on how to train your arm in doing said lines. usually [url=]this video[/url] was the one that taught me to fill a page with lines.



[url=&t=380s]Or this one[/url] where it gives you more exercises but doesn't put as much effort in explaining them.That is the first thing I ask you to learn, then You can think about gesture, force, structure and all that crap.

Looking at your influence map I can maybe help you with simple or iconic character design like in the case of Super Mario or Pizza Tower, the Kentaro Miura style might be a little too much for the both of us.

Well, I like fantasy artstyle with warm colours like Asada, Inomata and HACCHAN (also good at doing iconic and simple designs), as well the gritty and realistic styles of Kakizaki and Miura, especially the latter on how he used to compose the scenes.

In regard of the other influences, I've grown with video games and I like to play them, that's why I added them, moreso if there are plenty of official and fanartists nailing the characters' models without straying too much.


I know there's plenty to study, but I'm used to do so as I wrote before.


Speaking of study, I tried Drawabox but it felt too slow for my taste, so I wonder if that channel you linked me could be a good middle ground for training my lines more efficently.

Yeah, as I said. when it comes to the lines it is all straighforward. Every source can do its job. Regarding all those realistic and really complicated designs... that requires beyond expert level of artistic talent to understand. I do not want to discourage you but many artists, especially in the east had a particular upbringing from a very VERY early age. It is all OK if by inspiration you man using some of their ideas, but in case of artistry or comlpexity it's not like asking to draw in the Fairly Odd parents style. Trying to emulate him would bring every novice at a disadvantage.

I tell you all of this because I was really ambitious in terms of inspiration. I thought I could rival many Disney animators if I just understood the behind the scenes and so on. But in reality those people never even started asking for help in some art forum, 'cos they always had the right masters teaching them the job. If they couldn't make it at that level on their own what makes you think I should? So at the end of the day I've learned to just start from the bottom. It's quite a good thing you like things that have a simpler art style, that doesn't mean their art sucks, but their decisions are based in simplicity and function.

I just like to learn something new and improve myself whenever I can, and learning from my favourites could be a boost if I don't overdone it.

I'm in my 30s, so I'm probably out of the field for the eastern artists, but I don't plan to get the bread out of drawings anyway.

Just because I aced History of Arts during University, I know that the practice is quite demanding compared to theory, but I do not mind improving myself in my spare time and for my self improvement.

as I said before, don't even do it to improve. just do it to spend time some way

I don't agree with this defeatist attitude that you shouldn't draw to improve, you got this!

Also I think full figure tips can be translated to the other categories as well. A line of action exists in hands and faces as well. The way you draw shapes as a base for your figure works in everything too.

(backgrounds have shapes - that's why you have that category with the building blocks. they're specifically just shapes without the noise of like, outside detail)

like, what you should consider in this case I think is that coming up with those base shapes IS the first part of the exercise. Like if you're drawing a hand, where do you put your circles? Maybe you could print out some pictures and draw on top of them to figure out base structure for yourself, etc.

Either way, have fun!

Yeah, I've had my fair share of issues but I don't agree with the other user's advice either. It's counterproductive to learning. I think it's in poor taste to tell someone who's learning that something is completely beyond them or unachievable; bringing other people into self-deprecating talk isn't "being realistic", it's really just insulting the other person. Having good teachers helps, but the internet is a solid resource, so why not use it? Plenty of artists start off being self-taught.

You can't tell what a person is or isn't doing or what their life is like just from looking at their art; find people who are interested in your journey to get critique from. You want folks that ask questions about your work and what you're trying to do.

I think starting late might give you some mindset advantages; you'll likely have an easier time knowing what works for you. Additionally, lot of Japanese artists are in their 40s - 60s, and a lot of their early work looks pretty different. Don't have too many examples of late bloomers off the top of my head for manga or game artists, but Van Gogh started painting at 27. Kandinsky started learning art when he was 30.

Circumstances can affect your ability to draw, but innate talent doesn't really exist. Art spaces tend to suffer from a standardized grindset mindset that doesn't account for disability or things like that. There's no one-size-fits-all approach; not every technique will work or click with every person. Not every experience is universal (I have trouble with general audience advice because my own issues with art are outside of most peoples' area of expertise). I had people tell me that Draw A Box would solve all of my problems. I learned nothing, hated every second, and still get people yelling at me about it. It's good for a specific type of learner.

For actual art advice, you seem to already know what you want your art to look like, and that's a great start. If you're looking for specific tips, I really like the guides from EtheringtonBros, Manga Materials, and Taco1704 (I believe they're all on Twitter and Instagram). Michael Hampton's book is good for more 'complex' simplified anatomy, and he also has a YouTube channel. I also really like Pikat (also on YouTube). A number of manga artists have YouTube channels (Akihito Yoshitomi regularly posts his sketch processes, and VOFAN posts speedpaints with express purpose of sharing the process), and a few episodes of Naoki Urasawa's Manben are available with English subtitles. Also be sure to study those artists you like, too! See how they stylize or simplify things.

But if you want to just keep doing what you're doing for a while, why not do that? Feeling like you have to do other things right now will make the process less fun, and so will only ever doing fundamentals. If you're not sure where to go, you can ask for more direct critique, too; people can usually point you in a direction.

Tiny edit: As a fellow TKRB fan, should add that many of the artists are also on social media (this goes for most gacha games with multiple artists' contributions), so it might be worth seeing if any of them post process or sketches or things like that.

Alright, so I only have to grasp the figure tips in order to translate those to the other categories.

Or there's something else to it that I need to study in the site or somewhere else?


I've managed to found a couple of groups on Telegram and Discord, so I should approch them more in that regard.


Yeah, Drawabox may be in depth, but is quite time consuming if you want to start to define your art style. Yet, a good bedrock can make the process kinda reliable.

Then again, I dropped that due to not work that much with me due to my tight schedule.


Thanks for all those names and resources. Although, for the other artists present in the Influence Map, finding info is gonna be hard.
- Nintendo's artists didn't share their art unless in Artbook format

- Kakizaki doesn't have any social presence (not a terrible idea), so I've gotta search other materials of him other than studying his comics

- HACCHAN and Inomata are slightly easier due to artbooks and the former's social media presence, so I should be covered

- Hiroyuki Asada has a social media account, but I've gotta find somewhere else for his art.
Cool thing to see a fellow fan. This reminds me the Wiki has a page with all the artists.

For the rest, I have pratically hoarded most of the fan artists' works and even more in these years of web browsing, so I've got plenty of reference to get by.



At last, my thanks to Tired in a Tree and Icouldntthinkofaname for the posts. Gotta be hard to find the time to practice and study with a pen in my hand, but I will do that even if in small doses.