I WANT TO DRAW BETTER!!!
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Any books, tutorials, forums, classes, strategies, or fundamental skillsets that anyone can recommend?
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The svs learn subscription model.
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SVSlearn and for anatomy Proko
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If you're having a hard time with proko, you can combone svslearn with newmasteracademy.
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Awesome. We are all getting better and it can be a very isolating experience. I personally spent days in a room trying to improve. The nice thing about these forums is there are some helpful people that are trying to do what you want to do yourself, get better.
I would say with out knowing where your at in your drawing journey is practice. You might want to try going outside with a sketchbook and drawing what you see. I find that having subjects/people coming in and out of view to make myself concentrate on gesture and fundamental stuff like line and shape.
If you show us an example of your drawing, people might be able to give you some better advice.
This also might be helpful. I came across it on YouTube.
How to improve your drawing skills quicker -
Watch every video on SVS and do the assignments. This is the best figure drawing book I've ever read that actually made me understand how the body works http://www.figuredrawing.info/book/ other than that just keep drawing and it will come.....I always had trouble when I was younger because I think I didn't have the patience to work on something for 40 or more hours if that's what it took to get it done the way you want. Now that I'm a little older I'm able (sometimes) to take my time and just keep doing it over and over until it looks like what's in my head. And then a lot of times I look at it the next day and still thinks it's garbage.....so I don't think the learning ever is done but but you'll improve if you put in the effort and in a week, a month, or a year you'll look and notice just how much you've improved.....and then you probably still won't be satisfied with the results...lol....
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This was my last picture.
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Thanks for sharing.
You definitely have a good grasp of rendering. You captured the likeness very well.
It seemed a bit disconnected to me though. I'm no teacher so take what I say with a grain of salt. I think if you tighten up the underlying shapes it might make for a more compelling image.
I was having similar issues with my drawings too. I found a lot of answers I was looking for when I started watching the videos here at SVS. They might help you too.
Another art community I found a great place for feedback is ConceptArt.org. They are more concept/fantasy art focused. If you haven't checked them out you might want to.
I know how tough it can be when you are reaching for greatness in your Art and keep on missing it. Though each time you aim for getting better you get a little closer each time. -
I wouldn't really recommend conceptart forum. Why? It lacks the professional/experienced artists it had in the past in comparison to now. Of course that's just my opinion.
On the other hand, I can recommend you to a different active community called "The Art Posse" created by SamPetersonArt. There is a handful of good artist on their as well.
From what I can see, you're aiming for caricature. If you are, then it wouldn't hurt checking out SVS videos. After you're done with SVS, head on over to Schoolism.
One thing I want to ask is, what exactly do you want to get better at? Its good to know what you want to get better at, that way you're able to hone down to a more specific source of learning.
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Caricature, whether live or illustrated, is a skill I want to have but I want to be highly skilled in artmaking period. As much as I study Loomis or Hampton, I still feel like I'm rushing into my work especially in the beginning stages. I was told quality is better than quantity so sometimes I feel making a bunch of sketches with no goal is a waste at times.
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@Durrell-Odom Its not. It just develops a different skillset.
Sketching and drawing a lots of rough drawings will broaden your shape, subject library and speed. Its the best way how to improve your drawing from memory. Character designers doodle pages of silhouttes and rough sketches before they get to finished design. Sycras method of learning involves iterative improving of one subject by doing 20 improved drawings per page, so you also have to go sketchy and rough.
Long drawings on the otherhand develop rendering."Artmaking" is so broad term. First decide what is your goal. Just watch Lees course on how to make many doing art, there are great pointers on what to specialize.
Anyway, you can always study the fundamentals if you want to get better in general:
Perspective
Anatomy
Color theory
Composition -
@Durrell-Odom I love your drawing skills.
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@Durrell-Odom Maybe you just need to keep taking things to a full image more often? I remember seeing this image on here like 6-8 weeks ago and if that was your last final image, maybe therein lies the problem?
Take care, I love your drawing style.
Ace
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It's obvious from your art that you've already come a long way, great job!
To me, Bob Szesnat has some good points regarding the underlying shapes.
You say yourself you might rush past laying the groundwork a little, but who doesn't
All the work that you've put down into rendering skills etc is going to make you level up all that faster once you put work into the basics.My experience the last ten years comes primarily from making art in the games industry, so my caricature skills are lacking, however I think it's the same principles that apply for most artists.
These are my five cents:
Draw a lot (duh... But let me elaborate a little)
On one hand, quality practice (really thinking about perspective, looking up anatomy that you have problems with, maybe following some good tutorial) is better than doodling while you're on the phone, but that doodling still is better than not drawing!
When reading books/looking at tutorials, my experience has been that looking at someone else drawing/painting is good for picking up certain techniques or workflows, but it can never replace working with the basics (perspective, perspective! I really like Scott Robertson's book "How to Draw", and if Proko follows the Watts course structure, I'm sure he has some amazing stuff about that as well).
The reason all the really great artists are great is IMHO all the knowledge that lies beneath technique. They could probably create as compelling images with other mediums and techniques.I have for sure wasted waaaay too many hours watching tutorials, when I could have focused on more important things to further my art.
I hope any of this makes sense.
Personally, I find the tutorials and books about the basics are the ones I re-read every other year or so and really learn something new from every time because the stuff I learnt before matured...Thanks,
Joel -
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I just been going through a bit of a setback for the last 2 months. It just remind to NEVER quit or give in.
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For fundamental skill, figure drawing seems to be important. I like the DVD course offered by Glenn Vippu (vippuacademy.com or vippustore.com). For books, I like Figure Drawing for Comics and Graphic Novels. Also, Movement and Form by Samantha Yousseff is quite good (studiotechnique.com). If you want to draw from the figure, I like the Live Model series of books and DVDs (livemodelbooks.com). There are many good sources of information. Of course, it depends on what you want to draw.
