My 'art style' to call it the least, is mostly derived from anime. I have 3 books on how to draw anime, atleast 100 reference pics for poses, eyes, clothes ect... on my phone then there's pencil drawings I do when they aren't people stuff.
I want to get better at drawing; I admit, while my stuff isnt amazing, it's not terrible. I have my 'strong' suits and weaknesses. I like drawing flowers and my acnl mayors, even if the poses I have in my mind never even get sketched on paper. I plan on posting some of my stuff so you get an idea of what I can/don't do.
Any tips for an ametreur can't spell drawer?
Here's an anatomical heart I did back in February of this year. It's kinda hard to tell with my crud old phone camera, but I did try to add some shading.
Also many, if not all of my drawings that aren't people have a photo refernece to them.
If I'm going to be honest, don't focus on trying to draw anime, and this is from someone who draws basically only anime. Try focus on increasing your awareness of 'form'. I can't explain this well, but a book that helped me back in the day was the "Vilppu Drawing Manual". You'll have a hard time finding a physical copy of this book, but I promise you can find a pdf online easy ;-)
Do you have any other examples of art? honestly sketchier less polished work is better to get an idea of your 'personality' as an artist.
Ah ok, actually I found some examples by going thru ur post history, sorry!
You seem to lack confidence with certain areas, shying away from drawing hands, etc. Don't worry, this is very common and normal when you start off. However you need the confidence to make mistakes too! If you never start drawing hands, you will never manage to know how to draw them. Even if you don't like how it turns out, you need to keep going as it will be the quickest way to improve. Something else is that you seem to have a hard time with creating a sense of weight in your drawings, I have this problem too! what I mean by this is your figures look very stiff. This can take a long, long time to fix, but if you immerse yourself in drawing different poses I promise this will improve. Best of wishes and I hope you keep having fun improving with art! Let yourself sketch, not everything has to be a clean finished pic. The more you let yourself be messy, the more room to develop the factors that make your art unique.... at least I think so.
Thanks for the feedback! It was in my intention to post an example of my anime style with my mayor Ginseng on this thread, but I haven't gotten around to drawing her yet. On the drawing her arms were going to be behind her back too X)
Other examples of my drawing include Dragons, trees, a scorpion, flowers, a koi, a tiny simple like drawing of a fox, the four core elements in Chinese characters, and more flowers. I do shy away from super detailed stuff, especially since most of my drawings have been done in under an hour. I don't like leaving a drawing and coming back to it later, but sometimes I don't have the focus to draw for a long time.
- - - Post Merge - - -
Here's that fox pic, it's probably the closest thing to a sketch that I consider finished. The dollar bill is there for size comparison.
i agree with Warrior, it's best if you try to stray away from only drawing anime. it's much MUCH better to try and find your own art style, because once you find it, drawing will be much easier. plus, drawing in your own style is really fun imo. i hardly ever improved until i found my style. regardless your art is really good, keep up the great work!
Thank you very much! Part of why I draw mostly anime is because I'm still trying to find that art style thats mine and somethin I can draw alot of without needing references. The other stuff was just what I wanted to draw at the time.
Thank you very much! Part of why I draw mostly anime is because I'm still trying to find that art style thats mine and somethin I can draw alot of without needing references. The other stuff was just what I wanted to draw at the time.
Try not to get caught up in style, because ultimately it doesn't matter. Style isn't that important, and people's style changes all the time, the most important thing is to build up skills. I think with this mindset instead of trying to create new art, you might get stuck trying to do something that works over and over again, but if you do that, you'll get good at one specific thing, but not much else (ie. I like drawing girls so much I can barely draw men TT__TT)
I know it seems like I'm exaggerating a bit from your original point, but try to focus on each picture as it's own thing, without comparing it to others peoples art, or even other of your own pieces if that makes sense. It's ok to compare your art to get an idea of progress, however try to avoid doing it while actually making a new picture.
Omg the drawing females alot and not being able to draw men, that's SO me. I've only drawn guys I think 3 times with my style, I know the first time was for someone else. And I'm pretty sure they were all headshots.
note: im self taught, so all of this is from personal experience!! u may find different things to prioritize, etc. this is longer than i thought, so ill spoiler/section aa;;
i personally have a very uhh "anime-esque" style in terms of categorization honestly(my general art portfolio is here if ya wanna check it out? warning for artistic nudity) but as the ppl have said above, not focusing on a specific genre can b beneficial! the main reason as been pointed out above is that it just. tends to follow from how u tend to draw/the influences u consume a lot, but there are a few other reasons as well!(blabber of other reasons below spoiler )
1. mangas/animes are not 1 style, end-all-be-alls too! its possible ur lookin at a style like Gakuen Alice thats a typical mid-2000ish shoujo style, something MUCH more dynamic/stylized like Nabari No Ou or Dokyuusei, or a typical mahou shoujo like Glass Mask or even something thats a lil more illust/semi realistic style like that of sakimichan or yuumeiart, among others! they all vaguely fall under "something anime-y", and ur direction can change depending on that!
2. Focusing on learning from a basis/root of a stylized-style cqn be unintuitive to learning, especially the basics such as grasping form, shape, and size.
3. Style can be determined by the shape of your eyes, hands, etc. but often times what REALLY makes a style iconic is the way you do ur strokes, handle ur brush, use ur techniques, etc!
4. (mentioned above but) artists evolve styles as they grow, and ive personally found myself in a rut more times i can count when i first started when i found myself focusing on learning based on style, cause u like it one day, the next day its farther from where u were gjfjfj. learning technique lets u grow intuitively n be flexible as an artist! tho the reason u wanna do art, the purpose/use of ur art, etc definitely gives a hand on whether or not flexibility is important too but yeah
in terms of learning, I personally found focusing on these things important for my drawing journey!
1. Form and shape -
how you see an object, and thus how u draw it can be influenced by how u tackle drawing the object. u can look at either the overall OUTLINE of a sybject(this usually rlly helps with readability and dynamism) or you can identify the shapes that make up a object (helps with form, shadow, and building a figure). learning to play with both i find rlly helps with drawing. (<<this is where stuff like anatomy where u understand whats were n how each muscle/fat/etc under the skin tends to be what shape and where!)
2. Balance/Composition -
this falls for the larger piece, but it definitely falls on the subject/design matter too. If you try to look at things like comic tutorials, i find they give a very good overview on teaching about eye flow and image cropping! looking at background tutorials i find a pretty great in lending knowledge about overall balance and composition! ("golden ratios," elements of design, etc)
3. Color Mood, Tone, Choice -
ur color choices very much lends to the mood of ur pieces, as well as the overall feel of ur style! i personally LOVE to use more neutral/muted colors cause it lends a very soft feeling with small places of high saturation cause i find it rlly pretty n lends to a feeling/focus. But there are people who use funky colors w high saturation (check out @pegushi_ on twitter), dark realistic colors, bright realistic colors, soft pastels, etc. learning basic color theory is very useful i find, as well as color relations, and personally, its not mentioned a lot but color temperature as well! (this tut is p useful for color temp!). colors honestly isnt my strongt suit in general, but its def one thats impt to learn!
learning how to handle a medium rlly helps lend to a good piece! i personally love to spend time that im bored by drawing lines of different width, length, curvature, etc. on scratch paper cause it helps me handle my pen. Some artists like to press hard, others have a wobbly line, others have REALLY dynamic strokes - all of these lend to the feel of ur final piece! And if youre using digital mediums, the program u use will very much affect the attitude of ur strokes because of different pen pressure curves, brush types, and even the way they read ur strokes! The order n method u do of ur sketching/coloring/lining, etc definitely affects final outcomes too. for this, i recommend trying to watch some speedpaints esp of artists u like, and trying out a bit of experimentation urself!
overall, more than anything, actively analyzing the things that make up my surroundings, as well as taking note of/learning from the way other people analyze things has been p useful to me! identifying ur purpose(that can def change as time passes!) i find helps w the direction/things u should prioritize in learning/showing in ur art, and establishing some sense of challenge with pieces thatre out of ur comfort zone every once in a rlly helps u grow
look for artists u like, follow em on social media too! just being able to see the mood/tone/style u like regularly can affect ur grasp subconciously i find, and it even gives u inspiration to draw smtimes!
but as i said, im self-taught n ur journey/what to prioritize/learn, etc is very different for all ppl!
hopefully this is helpful, and if ever u would like some links/resources i found nice/helpful, feel free to ping/quote/ask!
I'm thinking about doing a little 'experiment' and drawing one of my fav characters, Princess Peach, in different styles. I know her usual outfit well enough to draw it from memory, and if not all, include all the features she has ex the way her bangs part, the blue opal brooch, the fact that she has one border on her dress, length of her hair, the one opal ring on her elbow length gloves, the way the gloves end, the puff of her sleeves, eye shape, ect... I'm going to try to branch out from my typical way of drawing and draw different styles, my cartoony anime style, super cartoon, other styles I can't really thing if ect...
Or should I do something different? I just chose Peach since I know her design so well, and she herself has been drawn in different styles, so I have small basis of references already.
Posting hyperlinks cause I feel like they won't come out well on here.
Kasumi's name translates to 'mist', so she's a mist witch. I wanted to leave the effect of mist while it not being to solid. Rosaelia is supposed to be sitting on a star, but it kinda looks more like a flower. Oh well. Both are quite sketchy, I haven't even erased all the guidelines yet.
♥ get many different led softnesses! (2b, hb, 4b ect) the high numbers have softer led so itll be darker, by using more than one pencil you can push your darker values more!
♥ for initial sketching hold your pencil toward the eraser! itll be a bit wiley at first, but you'll be able to sketch lighter and keep a "big picture" in mind before you add the dark details! ( i get lost in details if i start sketching dark first)
♥ Look up gesture drawings & timed practices (you can do these with still lifes too, just use your phone timer!) I know its daunting to draw a whole pose in under a minute but after doing 10, 20 you will see an improvement, and don't be worried if you don't finish the pose in a minute, its like a practice sheet! & you'll get faster! --> this will help you with your "form" and make things look less stiff!
♥ Watch anime/cartoons and redraw screen shots! see a cool pose? take a picture and redraw it as a gesture drawing! this way you can practice something stylized thats not written by just one person in their sole style! (there are many different anime/cartoon styles push your boundaries!)
♥ last one! draw/create/see beauty daily, even if you're on a walk/ its busy that day and you can only snap a cool picture of your surroundings, it may inspire you later on!
Great advice! Def gonna try drawing stuff from my fav shows/anime. When you say hold my pencil towards the eraser, what do you mean by that excactly? Hold my pencil more straight rather then at an angle? (As I do now).
The above pic is one I took cause I thought through weed was pretty. When you said see beauty daily, I thought of that, haha. Sometimes I take pics of pretty sunsets and rainbows also.
When you say hold my pencil towards the eraser, what do you mean by that excactly? Hold my pencil more straight rather then at an angle? (As I do now).
I believe they meant hold the pencil towards the eraser (assuming your pencil has one) or the blunt end. The further towards that end of the pencil the lighter the pencil marks should be, which is good for base sketches or shading. More towards the tip and you can put more pressure on for more 'permanent' lines as well as have a lot more control for doing fine details.
Along with everything that has been said, I would also say do some base sketches before you start adding details. Maybe you do but from what I can see in your pictures, I personally can't see any evidence that you do.
I've drawn regularly for 20+ years, I still do a basic skeleton of a character/object/whatever using basic shapes etc. before I start adding any detail to it. Lots of beginners and over confident amateurs will basically refuse to do this and expect to go straight to drawing the details, and you can really notice they have. Fact is, freehanding a drawing without a base is a hard thing to actually do well even with practice, to a point where I would personally say it's not worth practising for the minimal amount of time it takes to sketch out a base. The only person I can think of from the top of my head that can go straight to the finished product without a base is the artist of Gundam, and he gets a lot of recognition for being able to do that, which should say something about how difficult it can be to do.
And because it's a 'help' thread, the typical "anatomy, proportions, form" stuff that's worth repeating...Because many don't bother with that stuff. Practice that. Nobody expects you to be able to name every muscle and bone in the arm, but you should have a good idea of where curves and bends are, how big different parts are compared to others and how spaced out various features should be.
Oh okay, when I'm doin the base lines, I use the flatter side of the lead (oh yeah I use a lead pencil cause pencils feel weird) then when I want to have solid lines, I use the pointy end that wasn't rubbed down to a slant while drawing. Sometimes I'll draw a 'tornado' just to get a flat side of the lead before I draw, if the tip is too pointy. Probably shouldn't be using lead pencils at all thou :/
While drawing, now that you mention it and looking back at my last drawing in my other thread, I do tend to add details while I'm doin the base lines. While some details I need to add later, like clothing details, it's the details in the face I tend to add while doing a base sketch. Oops.
Ah, the human body, such a reference of many poses, curves, angles, and changing shapes. But something I should draw to better understand proportions; I mostly struggle with the length, like how long the arms or legs should be.
most pencils are lead tho, and i actually do reccomend using lead pencils - the different "hardness" pencils are all lead ones as well ^^ its just that the standard pencils j tend to use for notes, test taking etc usually are hb (which based on ur pics i think ur likely using?) and 2b, mainly because hb smudges less for the amnt of "darkness", and 2b is dark for the amnt of smudging. i personally love to use darker pencils starting at a minimum of 2b when i work, but you should def try out the other pencils to see what fits for u, as the others said! (a lighter pencil,is great to start sith under sketching if ever tho - or a colored lead)
otherwise, if ud like/u would find it helpful (and are planning to draw complicated figures aside from humans eg. monsters, animals, etc.), i could try to whip up some simplified figures that i like to prioritize when i draw/simplify a body (i think of them as "anchor points")!
Yeah I'm pretty sure they are the test taking lead pens, otherwise I may not have bought so many haha.
Just checked, it's the #2 test pencil. Impressed that you can just look and be like 'yup that's a 2 pencil'.
If you could that'd be awesome! I'm gonna try to draw more animals as well, just not sure how excactly I should draw them. I've been toying with the idea of small AC 'comics' so I'd be drawing the AC animals, but I want to draw other styles as well. So far I've done Dragons and foxes, but never in a real style. I would post a pic of a dragon I did, if only I could find where I last put it.
Ah, the human body, such a reference of many poses, curves, angles, and changing shapes. But something I should draw to better understand proportions; I mostly struggle with the length, like how long the arms or legs should be.
I personally use general references that are 'usually' true for people:
- The 'top arm' being about as long as the torso
- The forearm being long enough that the hand would rest just below the waist/hip
- The thigh being about as long as the distance from where the thigh connects to the body to the chest/breast area
- Feet are the same length as the forearm (though I honestly never do this, I just guess when it comes to feet)
- Your height is the same as your arms stretched out fingertip to fingertip (again, never actually use this fact myself)
There's a bunch of stuff such as that, mostly things I've picked up as 'fun facts' or just comparing distances on my own body. As I say, these comparisons are 'usually' true for the majority of people, but the main thing is that once you can get your head around realistic proportions, it's so much easier to break those rules and have what you create still look 'natural'.
As with most things, it's a bit of an effort to do this at first, but eventually it's just something you do without really thinking about it.
I'll also say not to worry TOO much about legs. Legs are something you can take a lot of liberties with when it comes to length and a majority of people won't notice.
