Has anyone here ever taught themselves to seriously be able to draw as an adult?

Occasionally in life I've had creative bursts when I've wanted to put stuff in my mind down to paper, but have been limited by having the artistic ability of a seven year old and the attention span of a rat when it comes to doing mundane sketching study without clear goals or an overreaching roadmap to becoming skilled.

Inspired by AJATT and my subsequent, fast enough that I don't get bored progress in Japanese through persistent, structured study (along with immersion), I was wondering if there were any stories online of applying a similar style to building artistic ability, especially in mind for the kind of person who's not naturally attuned to that sort of thing. Being awed by others' works is nice, but one day I'd like to be able to express myself too. >:

Perhaps try gridding on a small size? (8.5"x11" if you have no confidence)
Here is how: http://skimlines.deviantart.com/art/How-...d-45952372

Here's a thread about drawing - there might be something useful in there:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...9#pid78889

Urg, I really need to learn to at least scroll down the page, thank you. ;;

I didn't teach myself to draw as an adult (I've been working with art since I was a child), but I am entirely self-taught. That doesn't mean that I am necessarily good, but people tell me I am (and not just my mom).

Creative lessons or instructions are likely to do little to help you to draw things well. There are certain techniques you can use, yes, but from my experience, to develop these things properly takes more trial and practice than anything.

There are some very basic things you may need to know, such as perspective and that light typically does not come in all directions--it usually comes from one primary source, such as the sun. But learning how to draw well, more than anything, is simply about understanding depth, shapes, shadows and light and translating that into an image. This is a learned skill--you can't fake it.

Just practice. Every day. All the time. Instead of AJATT, ADATT--all drawing all the time. Just like with Japanese, you can't immediately go from beginner to fluent; with art, you can't immediately go from novice to expert. It takes years of consistent, repetitive practice.

I think part of becoming good at drawing comes from simply not caring whether you're good or not. Just like mirina, I hardly consider myself good at drawing, but I have frequently been complimented on my drawing ability. In my opinion, I'm not good, it's simply everyone else that sucks. And they suck because they never do it. And they never do it because they are too concerned with the results. I did insane amounts of doodling during school. In fact I really ought to be better considering the practice I've had. I remember in school, people used to be surprised that I could draw well and would ask me why or how, and I never new how to satisfactorily reply, because it was never a process I thought about actively, it was just something I did. I would draw whatever came to my mind and didn't care if it was something I knew how to draw or not, and if it ended up looking crap who cares. But so many people will stick only to what they know how to draw (usually formulaic pictures copied from other people), stick figures, smily faces, the 3d cube etc, simple patterns, flowers. My point is so many people draw by applying a formula, this is how you draw a smily face, this is how you draw a horse etc etc. What you need is to develope the eye/brain to see form/space/light and this ability only comes from confidently tackling the unknown without caring about the results. As for books explaining perspective/lighting etc. All of these are of course useful but only in the same way that grammar books are useful for learning a language. At the end of the day you have to spend time applying what you learn.

Ooo! Ooo! I know this one! I agree with pretty much everything that has already been said. (For what it's worth, I have an art degree.)

You should know that there are two kinds of drawing: both are important and valid.

1. One is 'academic drawing'. In one sentence: Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

This is the stuff you learn in art school: draw the still life, draw naked people from observation, never trace, never use photo references, don't work from memories of anatomical models. Those rules are broken all the time in art programs, btw, especially the last two, since they can teach you how to see things you wouldn't notice otherwise.

2. The other is 'illustration work'. In one sentence: Everything is a formula you can learn, but if you can't learn it, trace it.

This is how manga can be churned out at a chapter a week, this is how graphic designers put food on the table. Don't let anyone tell you to be ashamed of drawing this way: it is a powerful tool for telling your stories.

Examples:
Everyone has seen 'anime eyes', but they work just fine for communicating emotion. Even though you can reduce it to a formula from "How to Draw Manga". Copying the formula is just the start: you need to practice it again and again to learn what the different parts of the formula. You'll have a head start in figuring that out if you study academic drawing, but ultimately it's just experimenting by drawing again, and again, and again. Studying examples really, really helps: for eyes you need to study Kōsuke Fujishima and Tite Kubo. Fujishima makes very very small changes in the negative space around the iris communicate very specific emotions. Kubo uses a handful of shadows defining the muscles above the eyes and between the eyebrows to communicate different ones. They are geniuses, not for their artistic skills, but for figuring out how to get the most amount of power out of the least amount of lines drawn. Having crazy deadlines helps with that - a lot!

Truth time: nobody ever got any good at drawing things they didn't care about, UNLESS they liked light and dark, texture and form for it's own sake. This is where the academic drawing types are coming from. The people who loved the characters from the manga and comics they read - they are the ones who got really good at illustration work. Poke around in the extras for Porco Rosso and Spirited Away - there's some clips of Miyazaki sketching things. He makes it look stunningly easy, but that's due to decades of learning what things actually look like (academic drawing) and having to make stuff up quickly (illustration).

Advice time:
Only love gets around boredom. You'll need a favorite picture of a favorite character to start with. Go ahead and copy, line for line. Have fun with it. If you stop having fun, stop drawing that character, and pick a new one. Iterate. Go back the next day (not the same day) and pick the part you want to work on most. Take a second look at what you're copying and ask yourself, 'hey, how does that work? Is he using the exact same chin again? Does she really only use three poses? See what the shortcuts are, and take them.

If you love just losing yourself in the drawing and the seeing, that's a different kind of love. That love will help you learn academic drawing. Try the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" - there's a website here http://www.drawright.com/ that gives you a taste. You can skip the theory if you want, and just check off the exercises one by one. You'll find yourself seeing a world you didn't realize was in front of your eyes.

I started drawing a little while ago. I was a bit ashamed of it at first, but ruling a grid (lightly) and going from there is a great place to start. Let's you worry less about making everything in proportion, which is fiendishly difficult when you're starting out.

dizmox Wrote:Has anyone here ever taught themselves to seriously be able to draw as an adult?

Actually, I'm in this situation!

I really suck at drawing. I always have, so I've never practiced.

Then recently, I found an anime eyes tutorial that really struck a chord and now I can draw nice anime eyes. And nose and mouth, but those are easy. I'm going to work on hair next.

This is the tutorial: http://crysa.deviantart.com/art/Drawing-...l-27409024

Now all I need is a ton of practice, I think. (Which I don't have time for, but that's another story.) From the little bit of practice I've had drawing faces, I'm positive that I can draw anime/manga characters to my own satisfaction if I just practice. Part of my practice is going to be finding characters that I really like the style of and duplicating them over and over. Another part will be finding tutorials for things I can't figure out on my own, but the tutorial above has prepared me pretty well, I think.