improvement

[texas]

ok i make a lot of threads in software help.
basically i am sick of drawing and i want to basically just focus on improving to the point that one day i will be able to enjoy it.
until now ive just been drawing everything absolutely wrong.
so what is the most valuable aspect of art to begin at? should i study anatomy first? i have a little pose doll thing, and i drew it a lot and that didnt really help me. im not in college and as far as i know there arent any good art classes around, so how can i go about learning the basics of the human body? should i buy a book about it? can i go to a website of poses and just study those?
i know i have a lot of questions and im not exactly sure what i expect to see from you guys, but what im basically looking for is the best way to improve my art independently, not in a class (for now).

[rtil]

pose dolls suck. the best way to learn human anatomy is to draw at nude figure drawing sessions. if you can't find an art school that does them, try asking at art museums big and small. many in this area do them on weekends for as little as $5 for 3 hours.

[lenko]

break down these fundamentals and learn about them but most importantly practice them

-anatomy
-colour
-balance
-composition
-values
-texture

loomis's books are great for anatomy, posemaniacs.com is pretty much free life drawing classes too

the more you understand anatomy the more you will enjoy drawing because you will be able to make shit look natural whether it be cartoony or realistic - you'll slowly learn the workings of bodies and how you can distort them etc etc

however as important as anatomy is, so are the things listed above. you could draw a technically perfect woman but if she's sat down, not doing anything, with dull colours, people arent going to take much notice of it and it will be much less fun to draw

once you learn more about colour you'll suddenly love colouring your pieces and wont want to stop because you'll be trying loads of crazy things, especially regarding contrast

aside from all that i guess the best advice is to just practice as much as you can

[rtil]

posemaniacs.com

the idea of this site is good but the execution is horrible
don't ever waste your time here
the 3d models suck and the camera angles are even worse

if you really can't leave your computer to draw nude models, look it up on deviantart and you will find a lot of excellent photographs to work from

[lenko]

speaking of nude models if you're going for realism its pretty handy to draw your character 'naked' before adding all the clothing - that way it'll look like they're actually wearing it instead of some sort of weird attatchment of their body

[creamcorn]

yes go take nude figure drawing lessons. if youre stuck go look at other peoples art and see how they do it
for colors you could get a good book or just experiment with stuff. look around you, and see what the sunlight does with the color of the objects and learn from that

also if youre fed up with your style, try doing charicatures of people, youll notice that you cant use the same style for every face so youll be trying different styles for every person you draw.

but most importantly keep drawing and keep looking around you in a 'how can i draw this/how can i make something like this' way

[shura]

buying a cheap anatomy book, or simply looking at people in ads in magazines has helped me a lot with anatomy. you could try that

[emanhattan]

^I would do this but everytime I go to my local bookstore everytime I talk about buying drawing books they show me "draw manga style" and such.

[tmk]

if I remember right loomis' books are no longer in print, but bridgman shouldn't be too hard to come by

if you can't find them anywhere you could just buy them for cheap online or find one of the many sites with downloadable .pdfs

[rtil]

loomis' books have been out of print for quite some time, but pdf's of them are available online for free

[The Good Ole Ant]

gettin back to the point about not enjoyin drawing anymore, why not just drop it for a while then come back to it
i did and now im actually fathoming making animations again


just throwin that out since you mentioned that first

[tmk]

at first i was gonna be all "wtf rtil I just said exactly that" but then I realized the wording of my post might have made it sound like I meant only bridgman's books were available online.

here's a link to make this otherwise useless post helpful: http://alexhays.com/loomis

[The Good Ole Ant]

try drawin more weismans!!!

[DrRumack]

ook it up on deviantart and you will find a lot of excellent photographs to work from

excellently GAY photographs

featuring men with scarves

[billy]

heh lookin for a nude model???????????????????

[rtil]

ook it up on deviantart and you will find a lot of excellent photographs to work from

excellently GAY photographs

featuring men with scarves

scrib don't put 'nude men' in the search what are you a fag????????????????

[DrRumack]

ook it up on deviantart and you will find a lot of excellent photographs to work from

excellently GAY photographs

featuring men with scarves

scrib don't put 'nude men' in the search what are you a fag????????????????

fuc u!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[texas]

ok thank you all for the help and im slowly improving at life drawing and anatomy
but i dont really have any guidance with lighting and shading and color. are there any books that are specifically about those sort of things? i know i should learn to look at the world and learn lighting and stuff from that, but i was wondering if there was any book that could help me in the same way that loomis's books help with anatomy
well now that i think about it i kind of would like to find books for these five things lenko listed:
-colour
-balance
-composition
-values
-texture
all the books ive read about drawing talk about perspective and anatomy, but they dont cover any of these very much

[cutdick]

******************special annoucnement you are gay*

[texas]

ok this is my official asking questions thread
i think i know the answer to this and just want to hear it from someone else but
for as long as im just working on improving my art, should i forget about originality? i always get really concerned that if i keep just drawing from life ill never be able to one day be a unique artist. am i right to think that if i get pretty good and solid at the core aspects of drawing, i will, as a side effect, be able to produce more original art in general? or will abandoning the drive to make original work for a while limit my abilities to do so once ive improved?