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[cynicalsandel]

i want to get better at art

i did a thing a few years back where i did pixel art everyday. it didn't last very long. i guess im gonna try to draw everyday. mostly gesture drawings and lines and circles and idk how to really get better.



so i found out that part of the reason my lines are so wobbly is because my hand is anchored to the tablet/paper and they are really clammy so it sticks to it and can't sorta naturally slide across it. drawing without my hand anchored feels unnatural but maybe that's how other people draw.



also i have cubital tunnel syndrome so art is pain

also im red/green color blind

[Pfotegeist]

looks familiar.

+btw most of my drawing comes from the shoulder so cubital tunnel syndrome doesn't sound like it should matter
++ exercise is the way I usually heal my physical problems.

warmups

fill a page with 40 circles that are nearly the same diameter in 3 minutes. For this execise you shouldn't plan ahead or worry about result, think of it as dynamic cognitive training like trying to catch a ball. pretty soon you can easily draw round bunnies.

find things that interest you, order isn't important

vocab
you don't need to learn the vocab (seeing as I don't) but be aware that there's a vocabulary that only pertains to drawing techniques. You can find these by looking at videos online.

some free videos
https://www.ctrlpaint.com/library


creative
straight line generator http://www.mazegenerator.net/
rabbit vision: http://www.vgr1.com/vision/

[cynicalsandel]

thanks, ill try that for my warmup tomorrow! i probably don't have correct technique while drawing so i probably use my wrist and my elbow more than my shoulder.

here's some more from today

[Pfotegeist]

If you want to get good fast you can take on a challenge. I'm not really sure what level you're at so this one's easy.

draw a beanbag pumping iron and make a drop shadow behind it, like there's a really bright spotlight coming from behind the viewer. If you can't visualize it, draw nabstablook getting crushed doing benchpress (it's ok, he's a ghost).

[cynicalsandel]

well i accidentally left my stylus at my sisters house so yesterday was a little stilted. i did draw but not much

here's some of today's. ill edit this post as i do more. got no ac in my room. i tried having the pose pictures on my desktop monitor and then using the extents of my laptop screen solely for drawing (instead of canvas and reference both on one screen), but it's weird and my eyes have trouble adjusting so idk if im gonna keep doing that or not.




ive heard people say to study art you like but idk how really. just try to emulate it i guess?



so i traced a few and then i tried to just sort of simplify them into shapes, but krita is a mess and won't let me save a transparent background as white instead of black and then it crashed and im not happy about the whole thing

i tried drawing the bean weightlifting but i couldn't get the shadow even remotely correct. i suck



yeah krita now crashes constantly, so idk what im gonna do



yeah i probably shouldn't just trace stuff so this last one i just tried to get the gesture feel a bit

[cynicalsandel]

i didn't warm up before i did gesture drawings and boy did i notice a difference. felt like i sucked even more than usual.

[Bad_Dude 2017]

i dont know about usefulness of such pose sketches, always felt like recreative activity for artists. Many "pro" artists do it because its fun and you can post it on social medias and get the likes and pretend that art is not hard for you.

what helped me the most in understanding the line is calligraphy. Take a grid paper and start doing italic letter over and over again with ink, makrer, or really dull fat pencil.
as for poses, knowing classic proportions and some basic anatomy is more useful.
That if you want to study art for real and not have as fun activity.

[cynicalsandel]

i think the point is with a timer, is that it forces you to draw more instinctively kinda forces you to loosen up in order to draw within the time limit. and with 30 seconds or 60 seconds, the drawings just sorta add up. I think its more of a warm up exercise than anything. it might not be the most beneficial, but sometimes it's hard to just dive into a "real" drawing.

[Pfotegeist]

Your recent sketches have some foreshortening. You'll want to practice foreshortening simpler geometrical shapes, cylinders are good for human limbs.

Just to press the difficulty of foreshortening - You pretty much always will want a subject, a real model you can adjust, especially while learning. We have 3D software now, it is very easy to pose a 3D model and work from there...

i want to get better at art

ive heard people say to study art you like but idk how really. just try to emulate it i guess?

I think there's a potential that you want to discuss art motivation. That is why I'm about to say what I'm typing.

Start with a joke. Art, when we first recognize meaning and to last moment, everyone will know how to criticize it with words and shit.

There's the usual origin theory that art is an evolutionary principle. More things means there is evolution. Fewer things is only possible through extinction. Animals have language, so they make art to communicate, as an alternative to the widely recognized thing, probably.

When it comes to drawing, there was always something like sand, which ancestors could use when their words were inflexible. Considering how words evolve and get destroyed, there is no replacement for a map that guarantees human readability.

Of course, some animals dance around and it didn't have to mean anything, but they came out stronger, more popular, and yeah, meaning evolved. Also sports.


emulate - if you like drawing in general, then the "student" philosophy is to learn from every single teacher. That means you emulate other artists as well as studying/practicing your own theories, or a feeling. Studying in this way you'll still think of the techniques, sometimes it's just a hand movement.

draw what you like - this is different, I mean if you like music you could draw with some music playing. You could study musicians and draw how they might stand.

You drew someone holding a sword on the 14th. If you look at a real life swordsman, you have a better example, you can observe the weight of the sword, and the movement of their clothes, and observe the steps they take with their feet, which tells you which way their leg is turned. You will gradually understand what the swordsman does, and potentially you apply that to some other weapon user. If that is what you want to think about, then it's a good starting point.

... got tired from writing bbl

[cynicalsandel]

it's less about motivation and more just worrying about which form of practice would be the most efficient. i'm just impatient and want to be better now, even though i know it's unrealistic and i gotta put in the work.

i'm slowly working through the ctrl+paint videos, and right now the "homework" is on real paper and i don't have a scanner. just letting you guys know i'm still working on stuff. i wish any of the art classes i took in grade school/middle school/high school would've taught about the way to hold a pencil for sketching, because my ovals and circles are already better just by switching grip. however, i don't think i can hold my tablet pen like that.

[Pfotegeist]

I think if you retain what you learned you will improve. Try as many things as you can that lead you to your goal.

Relaxed, Controlled, Focused, Repetition is good for muscle.

[cynicalsandel]

[cynicalsandel]

i was out shopping today and walked by the apple store so i decided to try one of those apple pencils on those dang ipad pros but there's a lot of lag while drawing even if you can look where you are drawing. not than i can afford to upgrade from my intuos, but since i was passing by i figure it couldn't hurt to test it

i suck at drawing hands




also i forgot that feet disgust me

[Pfotegeist]

Don't worry about hands for now. it's detail.

(This is very important so I moved the edit up here
edit: What you want to master is form. If you can convey form through images it becomes clear what you draw. Although there are many possible things to learn, without a foundation in form you will end up drawing puffy clouds. Not that there can't be some technique to it, but it will have the least applicable meaning without form.)


Ok that was a week of warmups and I hope you're still interested. There's not much difference between amateur and expert drawings (besides experience).

Generic. The solution to setting up every drawing requires measuring out the empty space with lines and then adding placeholder shapes. Once it's been set up the details are added in gradually and then the negative space is filled out.

Human figure drawing. This may be confusing but the best way to draw humans will be to use a reference. Human references are easy to find! Practicing with quickposes is the rote method to train drawing accurately, but you should always have a reference.

Drawing anything. Reference. Alter what you reference to fit the image. Pretty similar to concept art.

Concept art. One way is to begin with a reference and branch out or morph the object until it sparks your interest.

More generic. When everything looks like it's done, really dedicated artists tend to keep adding detail and refining a single art piece, which is something they think is necessary but someone else probably doesn't see a point to.

Art rarely ends with a definite final step, but an artist will take more steps than the person who isn't willing to try anything.

If that makes sense cool. So now that you've been at this for a week I suggest you add a vanishing point and keep everything in perspective. I really recommend you do the following:

3 minute warmup of circles
additional practice routine: Training 3d perspective
http://thevirtualinstructor.com/twopointperspective.html
I find it important to understand these things:
1. You can only see the bottom of something if the bottom is above the vanishing point ( center of your view usually). Vice versa for top of object.
2. On the vanishing point. Everything is as close to 2D as possible. Shadows are invisible.
3. IRL the vanishing point is always in the same spot on our eye, although I can't be sure if that's the center. We don't need to follow this rule. For example you may draw a much larger image and cut it in half, the vanishing point moves like that.

quick poses, gesture drawing, involving the human form for up to 15 minutes. generic tip for training anything, time and focus is more important than quantity. Quality is a given if practice is done right.
 
don't exceed 30 miniutes in one sitting (that is what I determine to be the maximum comfort span of time to focus). Try to relax your mind for 10 minutes after.

[cynicalsandel]

jeez thanks for uh spending so much time writing me advice. it kinda feels wasted on me, but i appreciate it.

working on perspective a lil. haven't practiced this in a while. there are a few little bits that are off, but it feels like a good starting point.




erasing afterward is the hardest part when you do it digitally. i didn't think to use separate layers until after i was already done because i just tried to do it the same way i would in a physical medium.

[Pfotegeist]

I want you to shade those polygons. Use a hatching pattern. If there's anything really concerning I'll point it out.

The point of the perspective drawing is to get a feel for foreshortening. If you draw something 3D correctly it is foreshortened, and in perspective to the vanishing point.

In the future you'll be able to make a decision whether you are using 2D or 3D effects all in one image. But for now I want to see more 3D effort.

[cynicalsandel]

this time i included my extra lines so you can see mistakes i possibly made with the perspective. my arrows pointing where the light source is aren't the most accurate but i hope the shadows make sense. i'm bad at hatching. the red is supposed to be the "not actually visible according to the perspective parts" and just there for context



ok so this next one i just started losing my mind and i honestly don't know what i'm doing. the solid blue is what i think the shadow should be i guess but its 1:38 am so maybe im just tired and can't think straight and it'll be obvious in the morning.



ok i stared at it longer and im pretty sure i know what i did wrong now



please excuse the artifacting i think i should go to bed now

[Pfotegeist]

I only meant you should draw a shadow on the polygons you've drawn. Something like the second image in previous post is fine. Keep the hatching lines straight and you can practice straight lines like that.

When checking your work observe how dark the side looks after you finish. You should start to intuit how the hatching texture "feels" by how dark the side is.

It's ok to grade yourself. But this is going to be applied to things that aren't strictly edges and vertices later so how straight the lines are only matters for architecture (using a ruler). Pretty much any larger scale drawing is not appropriate for practice, so keep them simple.

[cynicalsandel]

things in 3 pt can get really warped based on the vanishing point placement. probably mostly because of the one on the bottom. i guess if it was centered more, maybe it wouldn't be as bad. also, they're probably all too close together.



so my ctrl+paint "homework" was contour line drawing, and he said pretty much just draw the outline but don't sketch it out first and to do it really slowly. honestly, it felt weird. i could feel my lines wobbling all over. i guess i did a few non-outline parts unconsciously.

[cynicalsandel]

i can't keep my hand steady for the life of me