Learning to draw

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A few weeks ago someone suggested to me that the reason that most people draw like nine-year-olds is because most people stop drawing when they're nine-years-old. That stayed with me and eventually clicked into place. When I was ten I stopped doodling and started drawing mazes instead (I'm 22). Right now I'd be hard pressed to produce a decent stick figure. Is there a connection?

I would like to be able to draw. I have no talent for it, as far as I know. Is it possible for someone to learn? I'm not averse to sucking hard for a long time, but I don't want to waste my time on something that just can't happen.

If you think that it's possible for someone who can't draw and has no perceivable talent for it to learn the art regardless then please let me know. I'd also like to know what would be the best route to take. Besides drawing a lot, should I look into getting how-to books? Are there any that would be more helpful than others? Should I take a course of some sort? I'm in Toronto, so if anyone knows of a course that would help me I'd be grateful.

Also, what I'd like to do is just sketches, not painting or anything like that. The general direction would be toward comic books and concept art. I think it would help me in my creative writing to be able to visually manifest the things I imagine.

Thanks in advance.

Taximes

Drawing's just like any other skill...some people just have a natural affinity for it, but even if you don't you can always master the technical stuff with enough practice. Maybe you even have a natural affinity that you just haven't practiced enough to discover...I was into art up until middle school, then I dropped it for awhile and kind of got into the mindset that I wasn't any good at it. Lo and behold though, I picked it up later in high school and I'm at least above average now. I'm not making a career out of it or anything, but I find it a relaxing and rewarding hobby.

"How To" books might be good, but books with things like "How to Draw...Sonic the Hedgehog!" are going to be useless, because sure, maybe you can draw a great character in one pose exactly the same every time, but then it's just memorization and not skill of any kind. The kind of book you should really pick up is an anatomy book. Just study and practice sketching the body, learning where the different muscles are, etc. Also, for non-human forms, draw from life (or photographs of life...photos might make it easier since the angle is fixed and it's already two-dimensional). For How To books, the kind of thing that'd help would be a breakdown of techniques and perspectives and whatnot. Things like different points of perspective, atmospheric perspective, etc. If you've ever taken an art class in school, you've probably drawn the railroad tracks shrinking to a vanishing point in the distance.

You mentioned doing comic books and concept art, but don't necessarily try to jump into those stylized and exaggerated forms head first - the key is to learn how to draw naturally and realistically before anything else....then you know what you're stylizing and exaggerating, and you can develop your own style.

However, the Artist's Corner is going to be your greatest resource on these boards. This thread looks like it has a ton of things to help you out.

whilst riding a camel...

Dude, drawing is for rich people... and Greeks. If you dont fit in either of these categories uh... well write/draw a maze book.

Edit: Then get rich and hire a Greek dude to teach you to draw. How can you go wrong!?

roastghost

I was in pretty much the same situation but then it just sort of clicked. Now I'm still terrible, but bad for my age instead of bad for a 9 year old!

If you're an ault interested in learning to draw, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (by Betty Edwards) really is a great book. Ignore all the suspicious science, go straight for the exercises. It's good for getting out of the kid's mentality and into realistic drawings based on observation. Then make up for lost time by drawing as much as possible.

I agree about the not progressing past a certain age, but I also think that (for me at least) school art class was a waste of time. We didn't get taught anything! If the standard way of teaching in maths was to plonk down some quadratic equations and tell the kids to do them, then nuture the ones who got it early on while leaving the rest to scribble, everone would understand how pointless it was. In art that was normal and everyone treated it as a doss.

RabidCatHater

Like Taximes said, drawing is mostly about skill. Natural talent helps some, especially if you like to doodle, but if you want to get good you have to constanly be honing your skill. One great thing to do is go to the local library and see what books they have, check them out and make copies of any poses or really useful resources. Doing it that way is also dirt cheap, so you can save money for supplies!

Two books I would recommend if you want to learn anatomy are Drawing Human Anatomy by Giovanni Civardi, and Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet. The former cost me about $10 at a craft store, while the latter set my roommate back $40.

The Cat

The absolute go-to book is 'Drawing on the right side of the brain' for a beginner. Provided you have the patience to self-teach, it works wonders.

Angel_of_Bacon

I'll third Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and would highly reccomend after going through that, The Natural Way to Draw.

DotRSoB gets you up to speed quickly on observational skills and such; it's excellent, but doesn't have a lot of meat on it after you go through all the exercises once or twice. Natural Way to Draw is more like a 1st-2nd year drawing class in a book, and runs through all the basic ideas of drawing (gesture, form, contour, light, etc.) with specific exercises.

Also, and I have a feeling few people actually do all the exercises strictly according to the reccomended times for the exercises, it gets you used to the idea of drawing constantly rather than just here or there, which is always a good thing.

Chop Logic

Everyone has covered DotRSotB already, which is a book I got, I never really got into it, though its really good.

I'm not amazing, but I'm above average. I only really got better though practice though, the only people that helped me were online (AC )

The one thing I can tell you is do not draw stylized yet. Don't. Just don't. Just draw from life. You want you're sketches to look like actual things, not cartoons. When I first started drawing, all I drew was really stylized stuff, and for months I didn't improve at all. Not one bit. Six months after starting I was still exactly where I was when I started because all I was doing was drawing cartoon characters and stylized bullshit out of my head.

It's like any skill. What else do you like doing? With art, you don't really learn anything when you draw things out of your head. It's only when you draw from life that you actually improve.

So I would just recommend getting some drawing pencils (you need them) and drawing like crazy. Draw everything, coffee cups, your backyard, your shoe, a lamp, a leaf, everything. I draw my hands a lot, mostly because they're always there.

NightDragon

Chop Logic wrote: »

The one thing I can tell you is do not draw stylized yet. Don't. Just don't. Just draw from life. You want you're sketches to look like actual things, not cartoons.

Soooo many people start off drawing cartoons, or trying to emulate a certain person's style they thought was really cool, and then end up just screwing themselves over in the end. Along with the generic "practice, practice practice" rule, this is probably one of the "top" pieces of advice to follow for people just starting out.

I mean, yeah, it'll be fine to draw something stylized every now and then, obviously it's not a death sentence...but try not to make stylizations the majority of your drawings.

The books mentioned above are really excellent, and I'd agree that you should take a look through them, and purchase them if you can. Also, your local library, I imagine, would have at least one of the two.

Another thing to remember is to learn by observation as much as you possibly can, rather than from memory, or what you "think" something looks like. If you're drawing a figure from reference, for example, and you start staring at the paper to draw the face...you're going by memory/what you think the face will look like. Really look and pay attention to the shapes of things, the distance from one object to another, negative space, etc. Observing and absorbing that information is the only reason people get better at drawing things from their head.

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Well, I'll be sure to check out those books. The answers have given me a little hope, which is good. Luckily I have lots of pencils and paper lying around.

mark-art

As someone who taught art(not highschool, life drawing at a privately owned school) I can honestly say, that yes anyone can learn to draw. Its really a matter of patience, practic and perserverance(sp?) But moreso, it just takes time. And it does help to surround yourself with people that are better than you. As someone else said, drawing from life is more important than anything. It will keep you honest, and it will be the one true indicator of your skill level. Too many comic book artists, and concept artists ignore it too much and it shows in a lot of their work.
Anyway, as far as books go.. I highly recommend Andrew Loomis's Figure Drawing for all its worth. Great book, and I think you can find a pdf of it online, as its out of print and $$ Also, I recommend John H. Vanderpoels 'The Human Figure' another great book to have and its dirt cheap , like 6$ Theres lots of other great books I could recommend, but they can get pricey, but the two I mentioned are great to get you started. Just remember, love the process, not the product. You have to do lots and lots of bad drawings, get them out of your system. But most importantly, know that its gonna take awhile, but try and have fun while your doing it.

Hotlead Junkie

Now I don't know how useful my advice is going to be, but I'v been drawing/doodling for the last 7 years or so, and pretty much sucked ass at it and was always frustrated with the process until about 2 months ago when I finally sat down and drew the stuff I really did want to draw and drew exactly the way I wanted to, and it's pretty much my no.1 hobby right now (yes, even above gaming) because I enjoy it so much.

My outlook on most things is that if you enjoy it enough, you are bound to get good at it eventually. I don't know if you would really want to take my advice as the advice from everyone in this thread of what you 'should' learn and do if you want to be able to draw well is very sound advice, but what, and how do you 'want' to draw? I always tried drawing in many, many, many different ways, on average, my drawing techniqe would change every 2 weeks where I'd get a cool idea of how to draw something, try drawing something like that again using the same techniqe, like the result and then think 'What should I do/draw with this techniqe'?, then get frustrated as I didn't know what I want to draw with this techniqe of the week.

My drawing techniqe right now is based upon the principle of 'What do I WANT to draw, not what SHOULD I draw'. For example, before I put pencil to paper, I'll wait for a second, think of what could look effective in terms of what part I draw first, what line width I should use, if I should even do linework and start with colour, etc then just keep trying the next thing that pops into my head. At some points, I can't think of what part should go where, and instead of thinking 'I SHOULD really draw an arm in here' or something and start drawing without really thinking about it, I'll just look at the whole picture for a few seconds and patiently wait for insperation to hit, pretty much my brain telling me 'Ah, that line would look good there' then drawing it in. Eventually, if I keep drawing in this fasion, patiently waiting for insperation to hit before I draw a line, 90% of the time I get a result that I really, honestly like. I'm a big fan of shows like Ren and Stimpy and the Luney Tunes stuff as I love how much expression the animators and artists can get out of their characters, and if I can nail a great expression on a character, I can look back on it and still love it and even laugh at it every time I see it.

The big question is though, why do you want to draw? Got a great idea you want to put on paper? Bordoem? Want to illustrate a story? Just like to experiment? My advice to you would just to draw the way you want to, for the reasons you want to and just go for it. Not everyone I know loves goofy Ren and Stimpy like characters, but I sure as hell enjoy drawing them.

Eh, take it or leave it, that's just my opinion on the matter, and the fact that it's turned a frustrating practice into something I truly love doing has got to mean something.