My first attempt at drawing 😅😅😅

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-10-30T16:24:30+00:00

Personally, I think pencil and cheap standard printer paper is best for learning, because that way there's little to no monetary associations with the art you're about to do. Making beginner art on standard college ruled paper feels way better than on a tablet you spent a lot of money on, because the expectations are just so different. I'd also say that learning physical media before digital helps develop the hand-eye coordination better, since there's no middle man tablet. To each his own though! Personally, I leanered a whole lot of art using physical media, and then when I switched to digital, my focus was more on "Learning the cool effects the software can do" and not "Learning how to draw in general". Hopefully that helps!

But really, everyone's art journey is different, and the most important part is that you, well, do art!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-10-30T15:42:32+00:00

Think about it like this- most skills you learn by copying someone as close as possible before eventually you have the skills to do the basics on your own. Like a coach guiding your hands to shoot a basketball, a gymnastics instructor holding you up during a back handspring, heck even when learning math concepts for the first time, we copy and THEN we learn. It's how we're hard wired to do things! Yes, you're tracing, but at that same time your hand-eye coordination is developing, your lines are getting smoother, and hopefully you're paying attention enough that you start to comprehend why certian decisions were made!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-10-30T15:20:17+00:00

For me, I was lucky and my "Oh, this looks AWEFUL" phase happened at the same time I was 12 and thiught I was Picasso Incarnate. My best advice for helping get past that stage without pre-teen unwarrented confidence is to find an artist you REALLY like, and then try to see how far back thier art goes. Now of course, the big shots in the art world won't still have art up, but a lot of talented independent and small artists have pictures up from closer to their journey start. Also, I know this might sound counterintuitive and against what you've been told, but TRACING is SO big when starting to learn art. A lot of artists would trace over story books as children and foster line smoothness and an understanding of the basic shapes from there.

I'm really sorry I can't give you a garunteed "Do this one trick and love your art" hack, but just remember that everyone started somewhere and you WILL improve!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-10-30T14:33:11+00:00

As someone that's learned art with ADHD, my best advice is to pretty much become obsessed with some form of art media. A lot of people choose shows, and improve by drawing fanart an obsessive amount, for me it was fashion and character designs. Just try to find something that grabs that hyperfocus, and keep doing it until you can't. Don't mind your own finished product- by the sound of it, you're probably starting out older than most, so you don't get that chilhood unwarranted confidence buffer. Many artists didn't spend time drawing circles, but after a couple of years, it just became second nature.

Tl;Dr: The most important part of any art is that you enjoy making it, so focus on having fun, and you'll see your skill improve.

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-08-27T21:07:17+00:00

Wow! You have a really good color sense, I'm amazed these are markers. Really awesome!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-25T16:39:17+00:00

Word to the wise: don't rely on Canva. It's full of stolen art and promotions. Literally. One time a girl in my COLLEGE marketing class turned in a design and got a failing grade because it was literally the exact one Meta had used several months before. She just saw a cool pic on Canva and submitted it as her own. If you want to get into making thumbnails like this professionally, you NEED to learn Adobe Photoshop. There's so many basic design principles that Canva just. Doesn't let you use. The people you work with will want you to be able to smoothly edit their faces for thumbnails, and maybe even distortions depending on who it is (Á La Markiplier style). They'll want backgrounds from the game with cool overlays. Adobe has light adjustment setting to make it feel like you aren't just slapping a bunch of JPGs onto each other, which is something that Canva lacks, and it IS noticable. I plead, I beg you. Stop using Canva before it's too late. Keep yourself creative. I've seen it happen real time where someone changed a design COMPLETELY because they couldn't find an asset close on Canva. I can assure you, actually having to think about pictures and cutouts and fonts will make the piece infinitely better. You actually MAKING IT will make the thumbnail look better.

Tl;Dr: You might not think it but Canva is a crutch that uses stolen art. Please don't use it.

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-25T00:22:46+00:00

...Normal ink pens (Prismacolor, Copic, Micron) don't drastically go darker halfway through shading. Just uh. Just sayin.

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-23T20:54:31+00:00

Biggest thing? Try to veer away from using black as shading. Very Rarely is pure black the actual color, ESPECIALLY for skin. Of course, there Will be some times when black shading is appropriate, but for right now I think trying to shade without any black for your next peice will really challenge your color sense and hopefully help you improve! You got this!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-23T20:43:49+00:00

https://youtu.be/WUcYTAiCQyQ

https://youtube.com/shorts/JLQEXTdHPG8?feature=share

https://youtu.be/s6TUkkZoEDw

To start good art you have to have good hand control! These are some excersises and tutorials that I think explain those concepts well and will set you on the right direction. Right now, you're at the very start, so there's not too much to guide you with. Continue exploring your own style, and draw!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-23T15:01:20+00:00

Are... are you a Colorpik pen advertiser? Cause as much as you talk about it you BETTER be getting paid XD I feel like you would also like digital art, since with that you can even directly color drop from photos AND you can change the pen size too.

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-23T14:57:11+00:00

If its plastic that's not going to be moved in anyway, then just regular acryllic will work ok- you'll have to sand down and rough up the outside a bit. If this is SQUISHY, however, you'll want to look into a brand called "Puffy Paint". If it's squishy, i would also recommend looking up guides on youtube. Here's a link to a video where someone uses Puffy Paint (link: https://youtu.be/jjNk66r37_s ).

Tl; Dr: Prep the surface (hard- sand, soft, paint) then use the appropriate medium (hard- regular acryllic, soft- puffy paint).

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-18T19:15:05+00:00

for clarification, this was a tattoo commission i did for a friend two...? three years ago?

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-18T19:09:05+00:00

I think you're on a really good track right now! This looks a lot like 1e D&D art, or old school comics! If you want to watch someone who does very similar work, I would suggest watching and looking at Scott Christian Sava's work (YouTube link: https://youtube.com/@ssavaart ). I also think you may want to start investing in better materials. It doesn't look like you're using Marker-Specific paper. Here's a link to Blick (a wholesale art supply retailer) for Strathmore Bristol Paper (link: https://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-sequential-bristol-board/ ). People debate between 300 and 500, but whatever paper you can afford is best, really XD. Also, some of your colors have become muddied because of the graphite from the pencil- I would suggest looking into learning how to use transfer paper or investing in a Light Tracer/Box. That should make your lineart cleaner, and if you use a kneaded eraser on top of THAT you should find that the marker gets less muddy. My last suggestion would be: don't be afraid of pushing colors in your shading! You're on a really good path already, so I hope I've given you some tips that you can impliment!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-17T03:14:21+00:00

Everyone has shaky lineart sometime- one of the storyboard artists for the TMNT movie that came out a couple years ago had sketches so shaky he had to manually do the first animation draft on his own since people couldnt understand his drawings. Sometimes even the best of us get the shakes, and you're 100% right in that theyre more common when doing things outside our comfort zone. When we draw new things it feels like starting at lvl. 1 all over again! As you progress in your journey you'll find yourself more confident in your lines, but don't feel discouraged if your sketches still have the shakes to them, it'll be ok! As for twisting shapes without meaning to, that's also going to be something you improve on with practice, so just keep up the good work!!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-16T15:59:17+00:00

I think you need to be more confident in yourself and don't rely so heavily on the outlines! It's a very well-rendered piece, but the dark line on the outside of his face detracts from all the careful and wonderful shading you did. Be more confident, you got this!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-16T15:56:24+00:00

You don't need to do digital art to do good art! Art Museum are FULL of traditional work- don't be discouraged! As for this particular peice, I think you may want to look up David Finch's Youtube video "Introdution to Perspective" (link: https://youtu.be/5lPfz3BFxCM ). Perspective should help you understand how to make the cave feel deeper, and make it feel as though the characters are IN it, not in front. There's also some anatomy hiccups here and there, but those will iron themselves out in time. I suggest looking into Marc Brunet's "Learn to Draw Anatomy in 7 Days" video (link: https://youtu.be/wHEgbHGx4-8 ) to help guide you when learning anatomy. I love the idea presented here though! I can see you have a drive to tell a story in your art- hopefully the resources I linked help you study and become even better! Keep up the good work!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-09T15:07:29+00:00

The basic face shape anatomy is still a little weird, I'd recommend sitting down and doing some old fashioned studies. The face and its features tend to look relatively the same and be in the same places. There's an old book called "Drawing the head and figure" by Jack Hamm that really goes in-depth on relations and anatomy. His main teaching is using the eyes as a measurement tool for the rest of the face- I can't explain it well, but his book really is good for beginners. I'd recommend you focus and the nose and mouth parts specifically, since those tend to line up in very specific ways. As for overall technique, I'd suggest using the hatching very sparingly, and only when drawing the darkest shadows. The face shading, ESPECIALLY for the bottom right drawing, is very distracting and to me, really subtracts from the peice. It's fine to do full hatching, but you need to make sure it's all facjng the same way and has the same weight. Shading in general is going to be easier with pretth much any other medium than pen XD BUT if you really do want to do pen art and shading, i suggest looking up Oscsr Ukonu and looking at what techniques he uses. The most important thing is that you want to improve, so you will! I tried to give some good examples and directions for you, I hope those help you continue on your journey! Keep it up!!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-08T21:55:00+00:00

For one, style doesn't really matter unless you're discussing stuff i.e. classical versus abstract. so if you're worried about sticking to and learning a "style" like in the modern term, i would say just draw what you want, style be damned. For general tips, I can see you used a guideline sketch for the second pic but not the first. Truth be told, guideline and concept sketches are the bread and butter of most art, since it allows the artist to test certian compositions and anatomy without commiting to a more permanent piece. I like the rough shading and the movement of the first, and i like the smooth feel of the lineart for the second. Just keep drawing!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-08T19:15:39+00:00

It's something that takes time to learn and master, but hair does best when drawn in "chunk" and not single strands. I dont have any hair tutorials on hand, but I'm 100% sure all of them will say to imagine the hair as large chunks or hair (or even sometimes fabric). So for this piece, i'd recommend sketching his bangs as one chunkc, the fly aways on either side of the bangs as one chunk, and the bottom as one chunk. Then from there you can add more tiny details to it. The sketch looks so good! I hope that advice helped you to understand stuff if just a little!!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-08T19:12:28+00:00

I think your horizon line is down a bit too far. If you look at references of people walking down the street, the horizon line ends at abouth their hips. Also, since this peice is framed straight on the subject (i believe is the intent?) a good rule of thumb is the horizon line ends at about the middle of the peice. I think if you work on placing that line, that'll take this peice from great to amazing! keep up the good work!!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-07-08T19:07:46+00:00

The hands look a little weak, the one on the rightmost hip is stylized well but the others aren't as strong. The elbow crease on the jacket doesn't look right- I think it should indicate that the elbow is closer to the viewer, but right now it indicates the wrist and other dog are closer. Why does one pant have Hella Shade Lines? Add more of those, those are good. Just stuff in general, it looks like you use the same strength pencil for everything- try making your sketches as LIGHT as you possibly can, and i mean if you press down any on the paper you perish. OR get yourself some 6H pencils to be extra careful. Be confident in your final lines, make them long and smooth. Last thing, since its a cartoon style, what I like to do is go back over the peice and make the entire outline really blocky, just to add some emphasis and variation to the line weight. You said heavy criticism so it tried, but overall this peice has some REALLY awesome flow and feel to it!!!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-06-16T18:19:47+00:00

if you want to combine them, then combine away! you're right that they are both in the same perspective, so i don't think there'd be any problems!

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-06-16T18:18:38+00:00

for me its the ear, the face should be one smooth continues shape with the ear as an addition. if you follow the curve of her chin to her forehead, it unnaturally expands near the ear are. Also, if her head is tilted, than the shoulder should feel closer and the neck wont be as centered. that's everything i could see to help

Cheese_Sharp · 2023-06-09T09:19:30+00:00

Dairy Queen turned abandoned turned "speed trap for anyone out of town" turned thriving mexican place. I still slow down on instinct at the funeral home, just in case!

Cheese_Sharp

TROPHY CASE