Hello everyone, I'm learning to paint with James Gurney's Color & Light book. How does this acrylic set from Liquitex look? It seems like Winsor and Newton is the other big name, but I've only ever used their watercolors. They're a bit more expensive, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it in the beginning stages.
http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-basics-acrylic-colors/#description
Another day in my Playstation 1 crusade.
This time, I remade Mighty Switch Force in 3D.
I made retro PS1 art. Because doing CGI all the time can be exhausting.
So, I'm kinda full of myself right now and I wanna share this and I suppose this would be the better place to share it so here's somewhere around 5 or 7 years of progress (I can't remember when I did the first one but I have dates on the later ones):
seeing the original right next to the most recent version is kinda nuts, that and a big part of me wants to deny any and all kind of skill bump hardcore >.>
I was watching a video on the game Gravity Rush 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G964jckD-Rg
I am very impressed with the art direction and how they managed to make it look "anime" even during gameplay. I've not seen that before.
How exactly are the rules for shading, shadows and outlines when getting this look? I keep trying to draw relatively simple characters but they don't get the anime look- I think the tonal colors, the way the shadows are layered and so on are difficult to nail.
I've tried researching and googling how to draw anime, and it's not specifically that- I'm just trying to get a sense of the technique and methods they use.
In one way it looks super simple. Like the coloring and shading is one simple color with no hue or variation, and other times it seems like it has a two-tonal shift with shadows.
The Wind Waker was another game that looked gorgeous and where they managed to nail the simple aesthetic.
I am trying to figure out what makes cel shaded, cel shaded and how I can take that knowledge and use it to make things in say- After Effects. But the resources for cel shading is sparse.
NOICE!! W2G! Thats encouraging, I can't draw for shit!
It makes it really difficult to give you feedback, especially pointed feedback when we can't see how you're progressing.
As far as understanding the head, face, etc. the order of learning the structures goes from Large to medium, small to detail. It sounds like you are doing that already, but I would make absolutely sure you can get the gross anatomy down first.
I'm sure someone has recommended proko already. He's great for breaking down anatomy on at least a digestible level with the helpful accompanying visualization.
Another thing you must try your hardest to do is attend life drawing. If you *absolutely cannot* attend a life drawing class, do some online substitute. (the names of these sites escape me but Google will help you out here). But the online stuff is never a suitable replacement for the IRL thing so try your hardest to do that.
Life drawing is important because when you do it you are practicing multiple things simultaneously. You are a)studying anatomy, b)learning to draw what you see and what is in front of you c) forcing your brain to parse the three-dimensional body in front of you (perspective) d)learning to draw quickly and decisively. Life drawing in this context means going to a class with nude models btw, but drawing your friends/family when they are watching tv or browsing their phone is also excellent practice. Your first few attempts will suck but push past that.
Well your post inspired my first drawing on this thing. Attempted a basic sketch of my hand:So I've been drawing nothing but hands for like a week.
Still can't get it down. Hands are goddamn hard lol. It's like once one little joint or angle is off, the whole thing is ruined.
I admire people who can draw good looking hands.
Now to go through this thread and look up useful resources.
Hey guys, I've really been enjoying looking through this thread. There's some amazing stuff in here.
I've become really interested in film and comic books, and realized that a general ability of drawing would probably be beneficial to me in the future (storyboarding, getting ideas across, etc.).
I've been looking through the OP, but what would be anyone's suggestions for resources or tutorials that will help me?
Whoa, I've got to check these out. Thanks for the heads up.DEATH;239333109 said:I think I mentioned it alot in the OP but Proko's vids are always a great starting guide. Then get Loomis books if you could. Also Vilppu Drawing Manual too.
The rest (Bridgeman, Bammes, Richer, Fagarasso, Hogarth, Anatomy and Drapery etc) you get later on when you want to step up your game a bit.
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Speaking of which... GREAT NEWS
I just discovered that Richer's La Femme and Bammes' Die Gestalt is FULLY TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH AND SOLD.
DEATH;239333109 said:I think I mentioned it alot in the OP but Proko's vids are always a great starting guide. Then get Loomis books if you could. Also Vilppu Drawing Manual too.
The rest (Bridgeman, Bammes, Richer, Fagarasso, Hogarth, Anatomy and Drapery etc) you get later on when you want to step up your game a bit.
---------
Speaking of which... GREAT NEWS
I just discovered that Richer's La Femme and Bammes' Die Gestalt is FULLY TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH AND SOLD.
I was referred to this thread after making my own asking for drawing advice. That's certainly a comprehensive guide, but I was wondering where would be the best place to start from zero experience.
Assuming I can graduate from the bare minimum process of drawing a circle, what's the best roadmap to moving up to drawing characters (as in people, be it manga, comic, or maybe even my own style)? It looks like there's lots of guides that cover shapes, limbs, faces, etc, so I just wanted to know the recommended order.
there is no recommended order, the only thing I'd stress is the basics. Do the generic cube, cylinder, cone stuff with shadows/lighting a bunch of times. After that you can go to whatever point you want, I personally went to faces and spent a few years trying to get the hang of it (I'm still working it too). Mark Crilley's How to videos helped me immensely (his videos are primarily done in manga style but the ideas apply to everything). The "roadmap" is whatever you want it to be.
edit: Actually, I would recommend going hardcore into perspective and backgrounds. 1pt and 2pt and 3pt
Cool, that seems like the best way to start.
When it comes to shades and shadows, though, is it still best to do that with a traditional pencil, or through digital means (or both)?
I'd pare that down since you also might wanna try and copy artists which you like. try to really nail down how they translate their inner image or what they see into something aesthetically pleasing.I don't think it matters too much. I'd lean a bit toward traditional to get into that "measure twice, cut once" mentality but, overall, I'd say go with the one you are most comfortable with.
edit: Oh! To add onto my initial post, whichever route you go after the basics (or even including them) always, always, always study/draw from life.
Are they really good books to learn about anatomy? If so, I might need them in the future when I learn how to draw.
Ooo this popped up at just the right time.
I'm looking into making watercolor art soon. I'm slowly gathering supplies due to budget and I have two questions:
1. Does anyone recommend any books or online resources about watercolor painting?
2. Any advice on a brush set that balances price and quality? I don't want to go in full tilt yet, but I want something decent to get started with.
Thanks!
DEATH;239462409 said:Sorry I actually cant answer both since I got no experience with watercolor...
I don't think it matters too much. I'd lean a bit toward traditional to get into that "measure twice, cut once" mentality but, overall, I'd say go with the one you are most comfortable with.
edit: Oh! To add onto my initial post, whichever route you go after the basics (or even including them) always, always, always study/draw from life.
1) I've not looked into many watercolor tutorials but I think this is fairly solid as it dabbles into two techniques (wet on wet, wet on dry). Teoh Yi Chie is pretty good too as he has quite a few videos on materials and such iirc.Ooo this popped up at just the right time.
I'm looking into making watercolor art soon. I'm slowly gathering supplies due to budget and I have two questions:
1. Does anyone recommend any books or online resources about watercolor painting?
2. Any advice on a brush set that balances price and quality? I don't want to go in full tilt yet, but I want something decent to get started with.
Thanks!
Thanks, I'm starting to get a better picture (ha ha) of where I should start.
Just a couple more questions:
1. As a beginner with huge hands, is there a certain type of pencil that works best? Or just stick with a standard no.2 and a standalone eraser?
2. When people talk about drawing "from life", does that also include photos? Or is it always best to have things occupying the same space as you?
3. Lastly, what's the recommended amount of time I should be practicing in order to "level up"? How many hours a day, how many days a week, etc?
1. Get a few individual pencils of various hardnesses, say maybe 2H, HB, 2B, and 4B or 6B, and test them out. The softer the graphite (the B range), the darker the mark. The hardness scale goes 9H, 8H... -> HB, B, 2B... -> 9B. You will probably never need anything harder than a 2H.Thanks, I'm starting to get a better picture (ha ha) of where I should start.
Just a couple more questions:
1. As a beginner with huge hands, is there a certain type of pencil that works best? Or just stick with a standard no.2 and a standalone eraser?
2. When people talk about drawing "from life", does that also include photos? Or is it always best to have things occupying the same space as you?
3. Lastly, what's the recommended amount of time I should be practicing in order to "level up"? How many hours a day, how many days a week, etc?
1) I've not looked into many watercolor tutorials but I think this is fairly solid as it dabbles into two techniques (wet on wet, wet on dry). Teoh Yi Chie is pretty good too as he has quite a few videos on materials and such iirc.
2) I've never bothered with brush sets but the Grumbacher synthetic goldenedge brushes are pretty good and they are what I use. The larger brushes can be pricey (most expensive one I have is a 1" wash brush which was $30 iirc), always go in with coupons (Michaels is great for this, they're also where I got my brushes). Winsor & Newton Cotman brushes are fine as well though I only have one, but it has served me well thus far.
Those instructions are too aimless. They're right to start you off with exercises that build your ability to control the pencil, but you also need to be developing specific skills like drawing straight lines, C curves, S curves, and later, ellipses. These are the basic components of all flat shapes, and all forms in perspective. Of course you can doodle as much as you please in between your focused sessions.So, like I said earlier, I was doing drawing exercises from this website here:
https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-learn-to-draw-stage-one-manual-skills--cms-23304
And I just wanted to know if this is a good way to learn the basic steps of drawing.
The latter one was a great practice to combine various things like negative spaces and perspecive/vanishing points.
Those instructions are too aimless. They're right to start you off with exercises that build your ability to control the pencil, but you also need to be developing specific skills like drawing straight lines, C curves, S curves, and later, ellipses. These are the basic components of all flat shapes, and all forms in perspective. Of course you can doodle as much as you please in between your focused sessions.
Your goal for now should be to get the pencil to do what you want it to do. Go to DrawABox.com and spend a lot of time on the earliest exercises. Drawing straight lines point-to-point with the ghosting technique, drawing multiple intersecting straight lines through a single point, drawing arcs through a series of points, and accurately drawing over any of the lines in these exercises multiple times. Do these whenever you have a spare minute.
The purpose of all this is grow comfortable laying down the lines and shapes you'll need to draw from life. You shouldn't even begin to worry about accurate measuring, correct angles, or anything else until you can handle a pencil or pen without having to try really hard to keep it under control.
The basics you should learn, in this order, are:
1) Clean and accurate straight lines (parallel and intersecting), C curves, and S curves
2) Clean and accurate squares and ellipses
3) Clean and accurate basic forms in 1-point perspective (always drawing through a form as though it's a wire frame model or a glass paperweight): boxes, cones, pyramids, cylinders, spheres (with an ellipse on the horizontal axis, and another on the vertical to get your 4 hemispheres, which define the sphere's orientation in space)
4) Contour line practice on the basic forms mentioned above, and also lots of random squishy blobs with bands and nets of contour lines all over to give a good firm sense of their shape and weight. (DrawABox.com has lessons for this, and the later lessons show you how to apply the forms and blobs to drawings of actual things.)
This might sound like a lot of tedious nonsense, but it's super important to nail this stuff down so you can draw from life without struggling with the basics. Trust me, you can waste a lot of time if you skip ahead without putting in the work to figure these things out.
Once you get your hand trained and you're good at drawing lines and forms, drawing real things befomes a relatively straightforward matter of building objects out of basic forms and then sanding down some edges and softening plane breaks where appropriate. You work out the scaffolding, then layer on some surface finish that conforms to the contours. But good line drawing is really about good construction.
Sure!Thanks for the tips, monocle. Probably gonna head over to Drawabox this evening. The drawing instructions are listed in name just like you listed them, right?
Sure!
The drawing instructions are arranged by lesson, with each lesson broken into sections that contain a set of exercises. The site is aimed a little more toward intermediate students than absolute beginners, but the first two lessons should keep you occupied for quite a while if you take enough time to build the skills you're meant to develop. Don't worry too much about the perspective stuff. Work on your line accuracy first.
The exercises I suggested actually come from a handful of different sources:
DrawABox.com, Lessons 1 and 2 - straight & parallel & overlapped lines, curves, ellipses, form construction
Dynamic Sketching Demo 1 and Demo 2 by Peter Han - straight & parallel & overlapped lines, curves, ellipses, form construction, contour lines
Various Scott Robertson videos (I think one of his old Gnomon Workshop classes goes over some of the basics I've been talking about). I know that How to Draw by Scott Robertson, pp.15,19 has brief directions for practicing parallel & intersecting lines and ellipses.
Of the sources I listed, Peter Han's demos are probably the single best source for basic exercises.
A little later, you might want to check out:
The Vilppu Drawing Manual - form construction (with scattered notes on C curves, S curves, and contour lines)
Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton - a couple pages on straight lines, S curves, and C curves, and lots of info on form construction as applied to figure drawing.