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What I did to Improve in Art - in depth
4 days ago
Howdy, hope y'all are well!
For a very long time, I had the incorrect idea that "just draw"-ing would be sufficient to naturally improve at art. This caused me to plateau very quickly, and improve very slowly. Although, I do understand that improvement is not everyone's goal. Plenty of folks draw because it's fun, and that's cool too. :3
I wanted to format this as a kind of "What I would tell my younger self who is struggling to improve". Maybe, just maybe, if I can help others get out of a similar rut that I was in, I think that would be really cool!~ So let's begin!
Very important and fundamental
- Form: Breaking down an object into simple shapes, learning to draw those shapes in different perspectives, then combining those shapes back together before adding detail. Now I know what you're thinking "pfff, I know how to draw shapes, what am I 6??" But little man, no you do not. This is as fundamental as it gets, and if you don't understand the principles and dedicate a little practice, drawing anything from imagination will be very very difficult.
Resources: https://youtu.be/6T_-DiAzYBc?si=CE3UerlI-Llm8GyB https://youtu.be/BKiopm83L8c?si=Qhrl3ds3Gn6fq-xf
- Gesture: You're drawings are looking so stiff, and this is going to be a problem for yearrrrs, so let me save you some time. Artists don't draw characters exactly as the human form looks irl, they exaggerate and bend the form in ways that look interesting and express emotion, while still appearing natural. You learn this skill with gesture drawing. I know it looks stupid and like it wouldn't help, but trust me.
Resource: https://youtu.be/2fl5LYouyoY?si=GrQIMhbG0pn8NyIC
- Reference: If you don't know how to do something, stop guessing and calling it "good enough". If you want to learn to draw interesting characters and settings, you need to expand your visual library. You're drawing a cat? I know you think "I know what a cat looks like" but unless the image is right in front of you, you're mind cannot properly translate what you see in your head onto the canvas and it's going to make a lot of incorrect assumptions along the way without references.
Resource: https://youtu.be/4rN_Yg81tPY?si=xJm4Zylqt4eyhGFi
- Critique:/ It's very very difficult to see your own mistakes, which is why that "deliberate practice" stuff you're doing right now isn't working. Your friends can draw very well, but they are not instructors. You can ask them for critique, but as your future self, I'm just telling you right now, there are better ways. Watching a character design master critique the works of artists closer to your level has been insanely valuable and eye opening. They find mistakes you've never considered, then show you in real time how much better someone's art can be when you consider these changes.
Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkR.....HCQV8m7zp2NJm7
Leveling Up
- Color Harmony: Please, please, please, learn about color harmony before color theory. Learning how to make colors work together is much more valuable than learning what colors theoretically look good together. https://youtu.be/4LhcNbFMkTw?si=wGxzSbcZDB_ZQltA
- Implied Lines: My guy, this is going to be our secret weapon, and it's so simple. Not every "line" needs to connect. You can erase the middle of a line, and the viewers' eyes can connect those two lines automatically. Why? It makes a drawing look more interesting. Don't ask me why, it just does. https://youtu.be/ZpKMAeackQ4?si=q4J7et_isQDSN-Zm
- Master Studies: Gather a bunch of art from your favorite artists, then copy them. You like how this person does a feint white outline around a character to make them pop? That's our technique now. You like how this artist draws heads? Literally trace a bunch of their heads until you get consistently confident.
- Line art dynamics: Your line art sucks and always looks worse than your sketch because you don't know what you're doing. Line art seems so simple and straightforward, but nowadays it's where we use a lot of creative energy. https://youtu.be/7m3wGbPMSUY?si=gDIW50rs3_t6fjT4
- Composition: Instead of flying blind and guessing how to compose a drawing, you'll be shocked by how much a little bit of planning can transform a drawing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQr.....f5&index=3
Don't Bother
- Anatomy: I promise you don't need to know the names and shapes of muscles, just learn form, it's all you need. If you learn complex muscle structure before form, you'll never be able to implement what you've learned. It's like a chef learning how to cook a steak before learning how to turn on the stove. https://youtu.be/GNXgCgD_R_Q?si=9x0lj0B7Z4YCO6Zv
- Character Design: We're not character designers, we draw other people's characters. A lot of the advice in that field is not applicable just yet. At least not as important as everything else listed above.
Alrighty, go get 'em kid! Oh and hey, as soon as you hear about Dogecoin, buy as much of it as you can afford and sell it on May 7th, 2021
For a very long time, I had the incorrect idea that "just draw"-ing would be sufficient to naturally improve at art. This caused me to plateau very quickly, and improve very slowly. Although, I do understand that improvement is not everyone's goal. Plenty of folks draw because it's fun, and that's cool too. :3
I wanted to format this as a kind of "What I would tell my younger self who is struggling to improve". Maybe, just maybe, if I can help others get out of a similar rut that I was in, I think that would be really cool!~ So let's begin!
Very important and fundamental
- Form: Breaking down an object into simple shapes, learning to draw those shapes in different perspectives, then combining those shapes back together before adding detail. Now I know what you're thinking "pfff, I know how to draw shapes, what am I 6??" But little man, no you do not. This is as fundamental as it gets, and if you don't understand the principles and dedicate a little practice, drawing anything from imagination will be very very difficult.
Resources: https://youtu.be/6T_-DiAzYBc?si=CE3UerlI-Llm8GyB https://youtu.be/BKiopm83L8c?si=Qhrl3ds3Gn6fq-xf
- Gesture: You're drawings are looking so stiff, and this is going to be a problem for yearrrrs, so let me save you some time. Artists don't draw characters exactly as the human form looks irl, they exaggerate and bend the form in ways that look interesting and express emotion, while still appearing natural. You learn this skill with gesture drawing. I know it looks stupid and like it wouldn't help, but trust me.
Resource: https://youtu.be/2fl5LYouyoY?si=GrQIMhbG0pn8NyIC
- Reference: If you don't know how to do something, stop guessing and calling it "good enough". If you want to learn to draw interesting characters and settings, you need to expand your visual library. You're drawing a cat? I know you think "I know what a cat looks like" but unless the image is right in front of you, you're mind cannot properly translate what you see in your head onto the canvas and it's going to make a lot of incorrect assumptions along the way without references.
Resource: https://youtu.be/4rN_Yg81tPY?si=xJm4Zylqt4eyhGFi
- Critique:/ It's very very difficult to see your own mistakes, which is why that "deliberate practice" stuff you're doing right now isn't working. Your friends can draw very well, but they are not instructors. You can ask them for critique, but as your future self, I'm just telling you right now, there are better ways. Watching a character design master critique the works of artists closer to your level has been insanely valuable and eye opening. They find mistakes you've never considered, then show you in real time how much better someone's art can be when you consider these changes.
Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkR.....HCQV8m7zp2NJm7
Leveling Up
- Color Harmony: Please, please, please, learn about color harmony before color theory. Learning how to make colors work together is much more valuable than learning what colors theoretically look good together. https://youtu.be/4LhcNbFMkTw?si=wGxzSbcZDB_ZQltA
- Implied Lines: My guy, this is going to be our secret weapon, and it's so simple. Not every "line" needs to connect. You can erase the middle of a line, and the viewers' eyes can connect those two lines automatically. Why? It makes a drawing look more interesting. Don't ask me why, it just does. https://youtu.be/ZpKMAeackQ4?si=q4J7et_isQDSN-Zm
- Master Studies: Gather a bunch of art from your favorite artists, then copy them. You like how this person does a feint white outline around a character to make them pop? That's our technique now. You like how this artist draws heads? Literally trace a bunch of their heads until you get consistently confident.
- Line art dynamics: Your line art sucks and always looks worse than your sketch because you don't know what you're doing. Line art seems so simple and straightforward, but nowadays it's where we use a lot of creative energy. https://youtu.be/7m3wGbPMSUY?si=gDIW50rs3_t6fjT4
- Composition: Instead of flying blind and guessing how to compose a drawing, you'll be shocked by how much a little bit of planning can transform a drawing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQr.....f5&index=3
Don't Bother
- Anatomy: I promise you don't need to know the names and shapes of muscles, just learn form, it's all you need. If you learn complex muscle structure before form, you'll never be able to implement what you've learned. It's like a chef learning how to cook a steak before learning how to turn on the stove. https://youtu.be/GNXgCgD_R_Q?si=9x0lj0B7Z4YCO6Zv
- Character Design: We're not character designers, we draw other people's characters. A lot of the advice in that field is not applicable just yet. At least not as important as everything else listed above.
Alrighty, go get 'em kid! Oh and hey, as soon as you hear about Dogecoin, buy as much of it as you can afford and sell it on May 7th, 2021
Really good and concisely put advice and good on you for putting it out there! I bet a lot of artists could benefit from this (and I hope they do). I just wish you'd been around to write this back when so I could read it then, but that's hindsight at it's best I suppose ^^
But hey it's never too late to go back to fundamentals!
The main thing is that you didn't mention that no need to study all of this at one time.