One of my goals for the summer is to start drawing regularly. I have never really done much drawing, although I've gone through the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." My goal for the summer is maybe to spend 20 minutes or so every day drawing. I was wondering if anyone new of a place or book that had helpful daily prompts for beginning drawing.
Also, is anyone interested in joining me? I know there are probably communities out there I could join, but since I already know you all I thought I'd ask.
Sure! Most of my friends can draw anime characters in a snap. I wonder why Ive never invested much time in trying to do so. Though I have started drawing at least 1 cat silhouette a day.
Maybe you could just name an object (like the daily challenges) and we'd try to give our take on it?
I want to join you Marisa! And I do also need help with it. I used to draw when I was young, but I have been drawing very few in the last 10 years, so I lost lots of practice. I am REALLY willing to learn how to draw, or at least doodle, in my new tablet, although the idea of keeping a sketckbook again is also very tempting.
If any of you knows where to find ways to learn how to draw quality stuff with a Wacon tablet, please let me know.
Oh! That sounds like fun!
Yup, yup! It's fun to watch how different minds can work, even when one is not participating.
I really want to learn how to draw/paint/create women's faces and to a lesser extent bodies. Nothing hyperrealistic, more whimsy-folkartsy. I think they make nice focal points to an art journal page.
To learn, I bought a cheap sketchbook and a few different mediums to play with. I've tried regular sketching pencil sets, copic markers in a range of flesh tones, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, and watercolors. I've had zero luck in producing anything human looking.
When I got my iPad a few months ago I bought some art apps and have been practicing pretty nearly daily on it. I've done both "tracing" over reference photos (my preferred painting program is Procreate and it has layers like Photoshop) to learn proportions and shading and just attempting to freehand draw and sketch faces.
I'm not even close to good yet, but I've seen decisive improvements over the past couple of months I've been doing it. I find myself more willing to work on my faces regularly because it feels like less of a chore. Thanks to layers I can have my initial sketch on it's own layer and delete it as I refine new versions. There's no endless erasing of stray marks or while perfecting the shapes of things or the shading. And there's no sense of something being wasted or destroyed when I start a new drawing. It's stupid, but whenever I start a new project, whether it's an art journal page or a sketch in a cheap book that I bought for that exact purpose, I always feel a little guilty when I make a mark on a pristine white page.
I'm not sure if that's something you'd be interested in or not, but if you have access to a digital means of drawing, maybe look into that?
Hi Marisa,
We got a book in at the Library Mastering sketching : a complete course in 40 lessons by Judy Martin. It looks really interesting, I will pick it up tonight and check it out. I would be interested in joining you.
I would love to draw again. I was quite good when I was very young - even had a couple pieces on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (a pencil sketch portrait and an abstract painting). I have a hard time now because of carpal tunnel syndrome - even my handwriting which was quite nice has really gone downhill.
Oh yes! I'm interested. With all the scrapbooking designing I have been doing I have not been keeping up with my drawing. My advice would be to get some pencils (really!!) 1b, 2b, 3b and 4b to start with, the higher the number the softer the pencil. A good putty rubber and a good quality cartridge paper sketch book. I like to take the A6 size if we are out and about, the A5 size I use most. I can always find wild flowers to draw. A good subject for serious drawing is your own hand! You have always got it with you!! The softer pencils are useful for shading. Some people find drawing cartoon characters easy (I don't). The best advice I can offer anyone wanting to draw from life/nature is the spaces in between are as important as the item itself, it helps you be more accurate.
Well, I've gotten my sketch pad and some pencils, and I've even drawn a couple things in it. Still working on setting up a dedicated schedule.
Drawing hands has always been a nightmare to me... They say you can see if the person is experienced on drawing human figures by the quality of the hands on the picture...
If it helps.
http://craftside.typepad.com/craftside/2011/01/how-to-draw-cute-illustrations-of-crafty-ladies-from-the-book-illustration-school-lets-draw-happy-pe.html
http://craftside.typepad.com/craftside/2010/09/how-to-draw-12-facial-expressions-from-the-new-book-illustration-school-lets-draw-happy-people.html
I think the best drawing advice is practice, practice, practice!
@Lorien: true, so hard to draw hands. i need to take my own advice and practice on them!
@Wren: When my sister wanted to draw faces, I advised her to start by tracing pictures. I made a tutorial in my blog that you might want to check out. Even the famous painter Grandma Moses used the tracing technique "She traced the contours of figures and buildings and incorporated them into her compositions, carefully saving the clippings for future use."
@Peggy: Thanks for the tracing tip. I've been doing a lot of tracing in Illustrator to get used to my tablet.
There are also some wonderful drawing and sketching tutorials on Deviantart.
I can barely draw on paper but do a lot of it in Paint Shop Pro. I love vector drawing and the fact I can hit undo as many times as needed without making a hole in the paper. hahaha I even write tutorials for drawing and painting in Paint Shop Pro. http://www.doodlesbyladyfox.com/. I like the idea of a daily or weekly challenge theme to draw. I have been in groups where we had a shape to make into something and it was such fun seeing what everyone did with the same shape.
I used to draw a lot with a pencil but can't get used to digital drawing at all.
Did you try a Wacon tablet Elizabeth?
I've been wanting to get back into drawing and sketching daily. I used to draw ALL the time when I was in high school, but in the last 10 years my art has really suffered because I haven't made time for it like I used to. Now, I tend to just do a lot of colouring/painting with my Wacom in Photoshop. I trace a lot of photos to make basic line art, change it up a bit, and the colour it - mainly because I just have become too lazy to sketch the whole thing out from scratch; I just want to colour. lol. The nice thing about digital art is that I don't have to cough up all the cash for supplies like I do when I am working with other media.
I've always been terrible at drawing, and even worse at digital drawing. I think i could learn from tracing though, over time.
I've been having some good luck tracing in Illustrator. It helps you practice the movements without thinking about what you're doing.
Tracing and copying are two ways that have proven successful. Sometimes I trace over photos using a stylus and my iPad.