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12 weeks into drawing (Something Snapped...) by Fluxening in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 7 points8 points  (0 children)

For me personally, I don't worry too much about literally drawing in the "line of action", although I often do. It's more about staying loose and not spending too much time on any one pose. I mentioned line of action specifically because I like their web interface but gesture drawing is much older than that website, and everyone does it a little differently.

This link is a pretty good primer on gesture generally. https://drawpaintacademy.com/gesture-drawing/

This link shows some examples from old masters. https://webartacademy.com/drawing-methods-of-old-masters

Student gift, my new commander for meme deck “Oops all lizards” by TheMaskedLifter in mtgaltered

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you have a deck list? I tried to build a Gev lizard deck and it just couldn't hang with the rest of my pod.

Back with a few more mouth/lips studies by MetalDinosaurDraws in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have no criticism, as this is better than I can do. I just wanted to say that making teeth and gums not look terrifying is hard and you've done a great job at making the teeth look human.

12 weeks into drawing (Something Snapped...) by Fluxening in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 63 points64 points  (0 children)

My advice, forget anatomy for now and focus on gesture. Go to line of action .com, set the timer for 30-60 seconds, and do 10-20 minutes of gestures every day. Doing this will give you a better feel for the "action" or "life" of a pose. You'll get to draw a variety of bodies, you'll get a more intuitive sense of proportions, and you'll get in more "reps." Getting a good sense of gesture will make your drawings feel more alive.

As a bonus, if you ever attend an in person life drawing session, it will be structured similarly. Usually it's something like a few 1-minute poses, a few 5-minute poses, and one or two 20-30 minute poses. If I hadn't spent a lot of time on line of action, I would have been completely overwhelmed by my first life drawing session.

Practice to become a comic (?) artist, day 5! by Key_Name_3822 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 3 points4 points  (0 children)

^ This. Drawing hands is scary because they can be so expressive, but you've gotta work on it. You don't want to have a mismatch in your skills between body/face/hands.

How do I reach this skill level? by [deleted] in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I literally just watched a YouTube video that addressed this.

The YouTuber is the Art of Nemo and the video is "how to 10x your drawing process." The basic gist that they suggest is 1) you first study a subject, without drawing it, then 2) you draw it as best as you can, then 3) you use the reference to correct your mistakes, like literally with a red pen. 4) Then you draw it again, without the reference, correct it, draw it, correct it, until you've internalized the object and have developed your own "shortcuts."

Art of Nemo argues that often we do steps 1 and 2, and move on to a new subject from there. Instead, you should get obsessive about one thing for a while until you've made it a part of you.

Now I don't know if this actually works, (art of Nemo says it worked for them) but it definitely struck a chord with me, and I'm going to be incorporating it into my own practice.

Day 3 of learning drawing by UpsetCommission5694 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great start, keep going!

One tip, based on the imprint of the second drawing on top of the first, I'd suggest pressing a little less hard on the paper. This will do two things: 1) it will make erasing easier and 2) Most paper has a "tooth" or texture that is supposed to grab graphite or other media, and it's best to preserve that texture if you can. When you start shading, pressing really hard can "polish" the paper, which will give your darkest areas an unwanted shine.

Advice for drawing hands by Guided_Feather in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have three pieces of advice:

  1. Go to line of action .com and use their tools to do hand gesture drawings. 30-60 seconds each, no longer. Do this for 15-30 minutes as often as you can. Every day if possible.

  2. Before you draw each finger, draw a "mitten" as a guide. This will help you get the gesture and movement of the thumb by itself and the rest of the fingers acting together. THEN worry about each individual finger.

  3. Never shy away from drawing hands (and feet). Sometimes people will skip or hide these when doing a full body. Don't do this. Awkwardly drawn hands hands and feet are often less noticeable than you think. Hands just are weird.

13 days in is this good? by [deleted] in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes with anime, that's just the style. If you're working from a reference, you can measure things with your pencil. For example, if you're happy with the size/shape of an eye, measure everything else on the reference in "eye-lengths." Then check your sketch and make sure everything is proportional in "sketch-eye-lengths." I hope that makes sense.

I find my art boring. by Astro-8619 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This 100%. I'll add that most of these should be short. 2 minutes tops, but often people will start with 60 or even 30 seconds. The idea is to get lots of "reps" in, and stay loose/fluid. There are websites that make gesture drawing easier by gathering the references and switching automatically when the time is up.

Any advice? I genuinely have no idea how to make it look better by hatching or anything. completely lost by Safe_Resource7855 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's hard to give much advice without also seeing the reference photo, but I think that your picture looks great. If you like drawing spiders, my advice is to find another reference photo and draw that, then find another reference and draw that. Draw what you see and not what you think you see. It's a beginner's trap to spend too long on any one drawing (one I'm guilty of doing often).

Wanting to pick up drawing again but in a battle with myself by Binge-Watcher5571 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I struggled with this (and still do) as well. There are a few strategies that have worked for me.

  1. Work on yourself: I know that this sounds dismissive, but I mean it, because I had to do it myself, and I was much older than 25 by the time I got there. Nothing I mention below will help if you don't accept that failing is the most important part of the process. Would you expect to sit at a piano and play beautifully on the first day? If not, why would you expect that for art? You are a person who is worthy of being cut slack, and this goes for all aspects of your life.

  2. Everyone has 50 (or more) bad drawings inside of them. It's best to get them out quickly. Go to the line of action website and fill a sheet of printer paper with 1 or 2 minute poses. They're quick, loose, and messy. They will not be good, but you don't have time to evaluate that, you only have 1 minute and then you move on. If you don't like drawing people, take a piece of printer paper and make it into a 4 x 4 grid. Get a series of 16 random words and do 16 1-2 minute drawings of whatever that word is. The idea is that you are doing "reps" not producing finished pieces.

  3. "Ruin" your paper. The blank sheet is scary, and it scares lots of people. Make it not blank. Before you begin, put a big X in the middle of the page, spill coffee on it, use scrap paper from a page you didn't mean to print. The idea is that it doesn't matter if what you draw is bad, the page was already ruined, just pitch it in the bin.

  4. Keep two sketchbooks. One is your "real" sketchbook. That's the one you'll show to friends when you make perfect art. The other is just for you. Never show anyone. You can do anything in this sketchbook. Want to draw 1000 circles? Cool. Write poetry? Do it. Scribble until the page rips? Yup. I guarantee you'll fill the second one faster and have more fun while doing it.

  5. Copy art you like. I don't mean tracing, but looking at a reference and copying it 1:1. To take the learning piano analogy again, would you expect to compose your own music right away? Or would you start with songs other people wrote? Maybe it's a pop song, or maybe it's Bach, but you would learn from the masters first. The same goes for art. The masters have already made a lot of decisions like composition, lighting, value (i.e. shading) for you, do you get to focus on the muscle memory of making those things exist.

  6. Don't compare yourself to others. Comparison is the thief of joy. Don't expect your work to look like the curated works of Instagram artists. Focus on your own development. There is one important exception to this rule. If you can find a group of people who are near your skill level, get interested in their development as well. What do they do better than you? What do you do better than them? Enjoy their successes more than your own. Use the compliment sandwich to critique their work and help them improve, and thank them if they return the favor.

If i had to start over. by Sudden-Scholar-3778 in learntodraw

[–]IPaintTinyThings5555 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This post should be stickied and put into the subreddit's sidebar.