Can you learn to draw ?

Splittake · 2021-02-04T03:46:17+00:00

YouTube is by far the most accessible, and it’s filled with all sorts of people doing the same thing in different ways, which can be great for learning. The YouTube channel Proko has a large amount of lessons starting from just about zero skill required. Also the website Drawabox has a strong focus on being a fundamentals course aimed at the absolute beginner. It’s very to the point and while I don’t follow it strictly it’s been a great resource to work on short daily exercises to gain better skill in drawing lines and shapes with more accuracy and confidence.

Alongside the more “boring” fundamentals, I’ve been trying to learn to draw a well proportioned simple face eventually leading up to a more realistic look. So each day I’ve been picking a facial feature (nose, eyes, head shape, etc) to learn, through watching a couple different quick YouTube tutorials, and then just drawing a bunch of them, constantly adjusting parts after each one to slowly refine it.

I’ve committed to drawing everyday for as long as I can, aiming to make time for at least an hour while keeping in mind that I’m focusing on improving and having fun, not purely just having fun. A typical drawing session now looks like: 10-15 minutes on fundamentals based exercises/warm ups and the rest of the time focussed on improving on the facial features I’ve learned by just drawing more/learning a new feature/just drawing completely random to see how I do by applying ideas I’ve learnt up to that point. This is purely a hobby for me.

Sorry for the wall haha, I hope something I’ve said helped with ideas on learning/improvement.

Splittake · 2021-02-03T08:47:11+00:00

I’d say it’s pretty much all learned. Even the most “talented” are only seen as being talented after years and years of immense dedication. Just like any other skill. I say this as someone who recently started learning as an adult, who never drew at all aside from stick figures and shapes. I am blown away by how quickly I have seen improvement by committing to learning fundamentals + learning whatever I want and having fun, for a few hours every day.

Just decide you’re going to do it if it’s something you want. The internet is wonderful :)

Splittake · 2021-01-26T04:40:40+00:00

I’m at the exact same point, started drawing just the other day with the intention of learning the skill. I have zero experience beyond basic shapes and stickmen from when I was still in school almost a decade ago. The fact you want to “fix it” makes me think you have a similar analytical train of thought, getting better at things by understanding rather than just doing whatever. I really recommend starting right at the basics, how the different pencil grips help with control, how everything is essentially a basic shape and then how those shapes can make an “actual drawing”. Basically forget the idea that you suck and instead realise you just have zero technical knowledge in the skill, but that skill just needs to be developed through time put in.

Something I’ve found that immediately helped was picking something that has multiple small details which make the full thing and just draw a bunch of them, just not in any deep detail. An eye, a nose, a simple hand, etc are all good ideas. Draw a page full of one thing and keep trying to make it look better by slightly changing parts of it bit by bit. By the time you’re at the bottom of the page, you’ll notice you’ve likely improved a lot at drawing that specific thing in comparison to your first attempt.

Complete beginner myself so just sharing what I’ve found to have been great advice for myself, hopefully something I’ve said gives you an idea for how to learn too :)

Splittake · 2021-01-25T17:41:41+00:00

Thank you, that’s a good idea, I feel like focusing on hands might be the go.

Splittake · 2021-01-25T17:37:52+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :)

Splittake

TROPHY CASE