Learning how to draw?

Hashiriya Member

From: Georgia Registered: 2008-04-14 Posts: 1072

you could always mine sentences from Japanese art books and hope you pick up something useful...

Pauline Member

From: Sweden Registered: 2005-10-04 Posts: 134

Nukemarine wrote:
However, just like he's not drawing the same picture over and over, I'm not reading the same word or sentence over and over. The SRS allows consistency and variety without thinking too much about it. So, use that aspect in drawing in various ways. SRS introduces variety of pictures, you draw it, press 'easy' and go on to the next picture. That picture will pop up again in a few days, but you don't care till that happens.

Perhaps it would be better to use the SRS as a prompt to practice the basics of drawing. Most tutorials stresses the need to practice drawing geometric shapes, but that tend to be neglected for drawing more interesting things. For example the SRS would show a picture that you break down into basic shapes and draw.

magamo Member

From: Pasadena, CA Registered: 2009-05-29 Posts: 1039

This thread reminds me of this awesome video:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1077399

Here's Youtube version if you don't have nico account:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2RX1ajocz4

The video shows what exactly the artist is doing to color and draw finer parts of this from a rough draft:

If you're interested, it seems his blog has some more video instructions:
http://doubleegg.blog89.fc2.com/

It seems some Japanese artists are very open and answer questions from beginning artists. I think it's a good idea to read your favorite artists' blogs to hone your drawing and Japanese skills at the same time (Does this count as using an SRS to learn how to draw?). For example, some random guy asked a doujin artist how to draw and color checks on clothes with folds and he gave a step-by-step guide on his blog:

By the way, my brother was a huge fan of manga when he was a kid and went to art college to learn design. He said he had improved various skills related to drawing and design a lot faster at school. Maybe formal education and/or tutoring are very good to get good at drawing quickly.

Last edited by magamo (2009 November 24, 7:14 am)

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bebio Member

From: Lisbon Registered: 2008-08-19 Posts: 94

nest0r wrote:
shirokuro wrote:
OK, since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'm going to recommend taking a look at Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's interesting because it takes a psychological approach to teaching drawing, trying to train you to see things differently (e.g., to improve your copying, just copy the lines as you see them, don't think about what you're actually drawing).
Oh yes! Forgot to mention that. (Or "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", as it were. With workbook.) There's also that book by Nicolaides about the natural way to draw, I think that's considered a classic. I used condensed tips taken from those that were included in another book a long time ago.

I definitely stand by Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain. We did these exercises at university, and after some initial frustration with doing ultra-slow exercises, it did wonders for me. I had been drawing since I was a kid, but learning how to see things... that was something that I was really not good at, before doing the stuff on this book.

After training your brain to see things in the right way, you then need to train the dexterity of your hand, wrist and arms, so that the things that you see in your mind can accurately be translated by your body into an accurate and confident line on paper.
For that, you really to exercise... there`s no way to escape that.

The next level, after drawing realistic objects, is to be creative with your drawing skills, and for that, no book can teach you. You have to take that route by yourself by perseverance and by a lot of experimentation with different mediums and ideas.

good luck definitely try it!

yukamina Member

From: Canada Registered: 2006-01-09 Posts: 761

Nukemarine wrote:
Go for amount, and not perfection, hence the reason I say go for simple pictures that can be drawn fast. Based on various articles that were linked on these forums, AJATT and CrossFit, the fact that you're drawing a lot (say, 1 picture every 5 minutes, 10 pictures a day for 30 days) will trump going for perfection (draw 1 picture perfectly an hour a day for 30 days). What results can show is the guy mass producing quickly drawn pictures at the end just produces better products.

If you want to do more than sketches or simple cartoons, you'll need more than 5 minutes per picture! It could take a few hours to draw a nice still life, without putting too much time into perfecting it. I usually just do sketches, since I find still life boring, but I know it's important to good drawing skills.

For the video magamo posted, the art program Opencanvas can record drawing sessions, so you can download and watch the 'videos' artists make on the Opencanvas website(you watch them in the art program itself).

Last edited by yukamina (2009 November 24, 4:09 pm)

ruiner Member

Registered: 2009-08-20 Posts: 751

I can't draw feet.

TheVinster Member

From: Illinois Registered: 2009-07-15 Posts: 985

As somebody who also tries to constantly become better at drawing, I've noticed drawing faces has become slightly better for me. Why? Because I keep trying again and again. Something fun to do is to draw your friends, and at least you have some motivation to show them and they might enjoy it. You can also try to draw your favorite actors, actresses, etc. I keep trying to draw Mao Inoue, since she's incredibly cute.

My biggest advice is to take formal classes. Often times, teachers introduce you to different mediums, whether it's charcoal, plain pencil, or countless other mediums, you'll want to find the one you enjoy the most. For example, I hate painting because I feel I have no control, and I hate charcoal because it's a mess. I hope to take some art classes that help me draw people, since I like drawing people the most.

And to end, I just want to reiterate what I previously said, as well as others. That is to practice, practice, and practice some more. Find some relaxing music (if you want some Japanese music I recommend Halcali or Kat McDowell) to listen to while drawing. Even podcasts are nice to keep you focused to some extent. Have fun with it, and try to impress other people since positive feedback is a great form of motivation to get better.

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Nukemarine wrote:

nest0r wrote:

shirokuro wrote:

Nukemarine wrote: