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First Finished Drawing ever
Pumaz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Howdy all,
Been a big fan of Penny since I started reading them last year (people in the bookstore looked worried). Anyways, was on the forums here and figured ya'll looked like a good crowd to show these too. Never been a good artist or learned how but I've always loved to be creative. So After 1-2 of reading some tutorials on drawing I came up with this. I'm posting it in search of criticism good and bad or the brutal truth if I just can't draw. It's also my first attempt at scanning in and coloring any photo that's been drawn...Used Gimp seemed to work ok. But please any feedback I will love ya'll forever. If it's considered NWSF please lemme know and I'll edit the title right quick.
Original Sketch:
Colored:
Been a big fan of Penny since I started reading them last year (people in the bookstore looked worried). Anyways, was on the forums here and figured ya'll looked like a good crowd to show these too. Never been a good artist or learned how but I've always loved to be creative. So After 1-2 of reading some tutorials on drawing I came up with this. I'm posting it in search of criticism good and bad or the brutal truth if I just can't draw. It's also my first attempt at scanning in and coloring any photo that's been drawn...Used Gimp seemed to work ok. But please any feedback I will love ya'll forever. If it's considered NWSF please lemme know and I'll edit the title right quick.
Original Sketch:
Colored:
Pumaz on
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Posts
btw i like the colouring of the sky and mountains!
Starting from a "simplified" manga type style because it's easier and then moving towards more realism is as backwards as it gets. You have to learn the rules first before you can know how to bend and sometimes break them. Right now you don't even know what game you're playing.
You have a choice right now in this stage of your development. You can choose to be the kind of person who doodles for fun on the back of a sheet of paper or margins of a notebook and just have fun with it and not take your skills too seriously. There really is something to be said for blissful ignorance. The other, much more difficult choice is to become the kind of person who is constantly driven for improvement and mastery, never satisfied with your current abilities and always climbing upwards.
If you want to do the former, I suggest you avoid posting in critique oriented art forums for your own benefit, because there is a fundamental philosophical disconnect between those two mindsets. If you want to do the latter, and take the plunge into taking your artwork seriously, then I suggest you start with the very basics of observational drawing and pick up a book like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to acquaint you with the concepts that you will be battling with the rest of your artistic life.
Now that I wrote that out, I can't help but notice the distinct similarities between the dichotomy I described and the scene in The Matrix where Morpheus sits Neo down and offers him the red pill and blue pill. Deep!
http://www.griftart.com/Loomis.rar
Download them, they're PDFs, and they're probably one of the best sources of learning and guidance when it comes to creating artwork.
You may not want to hear it, but the way you learn to draw is by drawing from life. That means chairs, plants, people, everything. When you draw you are trying to accurately depict some kind of object that is at least loosely based off of something in life, so by having intimate knowledge of life and how to draw it you can pretty much draw anything you want. Even cartoonists have a solid understanding of the fundamentals.
It sounded horrible to me at first, but the confidence I gain all of the time by being able to draw what I want to because I know how is a feeling I'd hate to never experience again. But I'm also the kind of person who always wants to improve, and this is the perfect outlet for that kind of person.
I'd listen to what these dudes said. I'd suggest that you work on some basic drawing skillz before you start learning about human anatomy (although anatomy is INTEGRAL and very much needed). Work on getting a solid understanding of perspective and and good sense of space and structure. Then, learn about values (how dark and how light stuff is) and lighting (err, self explanatory IMO). You can get a few books or ask the people here in PA for help, but the leg work is up to you.
I suggest that you just lounge around the house and draw random stuff. At first, just try to learn how to place the object on a plane. Then, draw a second object next to it. And another, and another, etc. Don't worry about shading at this point. After this, start adding in shading. But really analyze the shading. Just because there's a lamp on one side of an object, it doesn't mean that the other side is an unfathomable void. Light reflects off of stuff, and in most situations, there are multiple light sources.
THEN learn about colors. Colors IMO are sort of a "finishing touch" thing, AND a whole other complete discipline. I myself am pretty inexperienced when it comes to colors, so maybe that "colors" my perception a bit on this subject, but even the best colors on a poorly defined/rendered object can't mitigate the inherent "badness" of a picture.
Colors are also quite complicated. There's some color wheel or something or another, and saturation and desaturation and other witchcraft. It'd probably be best to ask someone else about this particular subject.
Also, not to sound like a 4th grade teacher or anything, but have some goddamn fun (what? My teacher cussed at us all the time...). Unless you're doing art for work, you should be having fun while doing art. If you get totally tired of the nose to the grindstone part, then take a break and draw for some lulz. The important thing is that you learn art at a reasonable pace so you won't get burned out and quit all together. Its important to draw relatively often, as you will only improve with practice.
Also, listen to Scosglen. Don't ignore it. That's pretty much a decision you have to take now if you want to actively improve your artwork.
Not to sound like a broken record, but you have GOT to start with realism or your cartoon-style drawing will never look 'right'. Start with stick figures. Get a few 100+ page sketch pads. In the first one, divide each page into quarters (don't really draw the lines to divide it). Draw a stick figure in each quarter of the page & keep doing this for the ENTIRE sketch pad. Don't draw them with no shoulders, either. Give them a collarbone-esque shoulder line, bisecting the torso line. This will help with your proportions & posing. Once that book is complete, if you feel satisfied to move on, ten in the second book do the same thing, but draw skeletons. Andrew Loomis teaches to begin with a stick figure that has features like a skeleton (like a rib-cage & pelvis). This will benefit you greatly & you may want to do 2 sketch pads full of these. You can start fleshing them out once you get a better feel for perspective & proportion. If you get this down, then the actual figures will come more easily than you think. You aren't close to being done, though. You will need years of practice to master the muscle anatomy, clothing folds and lighting/shading. Stick to black & white for a while. Coloring only when you are happy with the final picture & just wanted to breathe a little 'life' into it.
You have a long journey ahead of you & it can be fun, or you can end up never putting a pencil to sketch paper again. Use moderation, don't push yourself beyond the point of enjoyment. The Q&A thread has massive amounts of must-read books that I highly suggest you buy, if you are serious, or at least check out from a library if you want to give them a once-over.
he is a very skilled artist who has made leaps and bounds in his progress here on the ac because he followed the advice given to him and took the right steps
he is one of the people on this forum who's advice should be taken very seriously as he's living proof of what listening to that advice can yield.
so don't take the crits as harsh, he's not bashing you as a person, he's bashing your art, and if you want to get better, you have to take a few good solid beatings.