To the Artists of Istaria

[A'Sasha]

I'm just in awe at the amazing artistic talent in this community.

I was just wondering your tips and tricks?

Did any of you purchase art books that really helped you? If so, what books?

How often do you draw a day?

I've recently picked up sketching. I've only taken two art courses in my life and at the time I was too sensitive towards critique. My skin has thickened considerably and I genuinely want to get better. So, any tips, tricks or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Tcei]

draw as much and as often as you want/can.
Try drawing a variety of things!
Classes/books/online tutorials are good (especially for getting the basics down) but practice and experimentation are even better

For me I have a goal to draw for at least 10 mins every day. which means I actually do it about every 2-3 days. (really wish I had a scanner now :<)

As for books I've not got any sugestions, I've never had much luck with following books. I think mostly because I've read too many of them.

[BrightCat]

I used a lot of internet tutorials over the years, bought several how-to-draw-dragons books, but above all else I draw non-stop. That's the only way to improve: practice practice practice. I may not draw quite as much as I used to (finished pics and all that), but I'm always doodling in my notebooks or on random sheets of paper. Also, be sure to look up reference for stuff you don't know how to draw well. Draw from life.

[Sereamha]

I actually started when I was in my early teens. I am a huge fan of RPGs and when I played my first big one, FF7, I reaaally wanted to draw the characters. So I decided to look at pictures and copy what I saw. Repeatedly. I would spend 4+ hours a day at times just staring and copying XD That is how I started and eventually the muscle memory allowed me to start drawing stuff on my own.

Of course, I did take art classes in school and lifedrawing does help.

Program wise, I use Photoshop for almost everything I do. That and a scanner and a tablet

[Frith-Rae]

Aye - practice practice! I've taken art and drawing lessons for years and years when I was younger, but in the end its repetition and practice!

The only art book I've ever bought was the "Dragonart" book by neondragon - because I have a devil of a time drawing things out of my head - I HAVE to be able to look at something and that book starts from very basic in order to help me learn how to draw out of my head - dragons .

In your first art classes you start with excerises like drawing a shoe or your hand without looking at your paper, and without picking up your pencil. Its brain excersies that help you to look at line and shape and not "whole".

So pick up any object, no matter how trivial (even a pencil or a bottle works) and practice drawing without looking at your paper, or without picking up your pencil. In art class you do this daily for literally six weeks before you even move on to "still lifes" and such.

The important part is learning to stop seeing something as a whole, and to break it down to its direct "what shape and lines am I looking at in this moment", to really narrow it down.

But after the basics like that, its just daily/weekly practice practice drawing anything and everthing - no matter how simple or how wierd. I've sat in boring classes drawing the backs of chairs and heads from my viewpoint in class even...lol.

Me - I can't do photoshop and tablets - I'm old school have to have pencil and paper. Then scan that. Tablets for me just take getting use to and I've not invested the time (the whole thing of drawing on the table and looking at the screen throws me off lol).

But yea, draw from real life things in front of you no matter how "non-grand" it may be - and then copy from pictures and such directly.

And then do it..over and over again...often.

(and hey ol'girl!)

[Raptress]

And if you try out the whole art book thing where they almost always try to teach you to draw basic shapes like circles and squares first then erase them later, and it really doesn't seem to be helping you, don't fret. They never really helped me much either. ;3

I've been drawing since I was a little kid (talking probably four, maybe younger), and I have distinct memories of tracing a duck off of a "learn to read" type card ("D is for Duck") and drawing a great white shark by looking back and forth between an illustration in a book and my paper. That's still how I do it.

If I'm trying to draw something I've never drawn before, I'll look for a picture on the Internet and draw off of that. If I'm having trouble figuring something out, I'll load it into Photoshop and use layers and transparency there to trace it.

My goal is to figure out how everything "works" when I'm drawing something unfamiliar. What lines lead to what other lines, what shapes occur in relation to other shapes. After a while of looking at the subject matter, I become able to tell if what I've drawn does or doesn't look "right."

I've never been terribly good at drawing from actual life though. I can do it, but I much prefer the fact that pictures don't move and never change their lighting.

I try to get myself to draw at least once a week, since I too think that "practice, practice, practice, oh, and some more practice" is the only way to get anywhere with art, and I find I can go long periods nowadays where I just don't do any art. My inability to run Photoshop in conjunction with almost anything else may have something to do with that. xD I'm sure I'd be arting it up all the time if I had, say, a dual core processor and a dual monitor setup.

I think most of skill came from when I was in public school. I'd be drawing all the time there, every day. There was nary a blank-backed test nor note page margin that did not feel my artsy fury.

So yeah. My advice is practice, look off other pictures, and don't be discouraged if you don't find art books very helpful. I don't own a single one that hasn't been bought for me as a gift because someone knew that I drew pictures. :P

[venom-dragon7799]

i doodle alot when i feel like it and sometimes i take some commisions often just for free of other's characters(busy right now with one so ill probably make a commision thread soon as i finish this one) and over time i just learned to draw just by glancing at a picture or object for a few minutes.

[meepsa]

*sings like dori from finding nemo* just keep drawing, just keep drawing.

but seriously, trail and error is the best exercise, my room is LOADED with doodles, not to mention my comp is filled with WIPs.

and about books, well, I got allot, but only one REALLY helped, 'twas about anatomy (my anatomy was REALLY bad before I read that book), the rest? meh not so much, mainly use em for reference.

[Frosthide]

Well, there are a lot of things that happen to make you a better artist, but the following are what I recommend to you:

#1 - Finish your work: I'm completely guilty of starting a drawing then at some point just not finishing. Sketchbooks are lined with a lot of half done doodles. The other half are the ones I picked up again and finished. You may surprise yourself how great something looks if you bothered to finish it, which means I really have no clue how nice the unfinished halves really are.

#2 - Practice: Makes perfect.

#3 - Yes it looks bad: For every good drawing you'll have 7 to 20 really awful drawings or sketches that you never want to see the light of day...

#4 - Library: I have been building a library of reference for a little while now. Books, photos, books with photos, things like that. Anatomy books for artists are also excellent if you can stomach looking at nudes in some.

#5 - Maturity: Tying into #4, art often likes to go look at socially unacceptable areas of the body. You may need a level of maturity for these awkward bits or important anatomical studies.

#6 - Critique: Its not bad to receive constructive criticism. Just tell me what you think and it makes my day as long as its not the deconstructive and unhelpful sort of criticism. Likewise I will offer you my thoughts on what you did well and what you could improve on. Share your work. Have connections. Grow.