Art tips!

[sharksweetheart]

I thought it would be nice to have a place where we can share some simple general art tips!  :thumb:

I, personally, never took art classes because I was a stubborn twat who believed it wasn't necessary. The result of that is I know lack a lot of common art-knowledge.  :tongue: I figure this could be quite useful to people in the same boat, or people who only started drawing recently.

A kind fellow suggested to me that I begin a drawing/pixel/painting/whatever the fuck with shapes and blocks of colour rather than going line-by-line, and already my art is much better! Yay!

 

[Despain]

The thing with me is that I am horrible at drawing (pretty solid spriter though for some reason), even though I know all the rules and principles that should theoretically help me be really good. I know why, though, it's because I rarely really practice. So that's my first, and biggest, addition to the topic. Knowing all the rules and tricks and tips doesn't mean shit unless you practice a lot and learn how to use them well.

 

[sharksweetheart]

Yuuuuuuuuuuuup. I barely touched a pencil all 2007, and I basically slipped back to where I was around 2005, it's only just recently after drawing madly every day for a couple of months that got back to where I left off. o3o

 

[Avadan]

Perspective and angle of the drawing... thats sacred, always try to innovate with that, draw things from new and diferent perspectives, and your drawings will always be originals

Its like taking a photograph at a child, most of the time its from a front or a high angle cuz thats the easy way(and minimizes the kid), but you dont "usually" see a picture of a child taken from a low angle.

And angle the horizon line, that will give some movement sense... like comparing war documentary camera shots with classic sitcoms

 

[Yoshine]

shading- diferent layers of lighting from depending on where the light source is and the perspective
shading makes any drawing good!

paterns: if you are making a reptile give it scales ect...

wrinkles: clothing and skin wrinkles  you have to remember just because paper is flat doesn't mean your drawing has to

isometrics: yes like avadan said its all in the perspectives making something look 3D isn't that hard as long as you know what your doing

Inking: the darkest of the shades complete black done at the place farest away from the light source this of course is done with ink...

Color: not so important till you are done I suggest not to color until the end because it gets a hell of allot sloppy otherwise I also suggest coloring your drawings in photoshop rather than using markers, colored pencils ect...

 

[Venetia]

When drawing a human/humanesque character, start with a single, vertical line, that bends somewhat. If you want to character standing, make a not-very-bent line, and if they're doing an action pose, that line'll be more of a hyperbole.

That'll be your line of symmetry. Then, block in shapes for where the head is, neck, shoulders, torso, arms, fingers, waist, hips, buttocks, legs, feet. THEN add in a line of symmetry for the face, make a conical circle where the chin meets the end of the line of symmetry, THEN fill in the details.

Guaranteed to make more symmetrical, natural-looking poses.

 

[Gebbethlord]

Step 1.
Go to your local library
Step 2.
Clear out the art section of everything drawing related (or whatever you're into)
Step 3.
Read every single page of every book. 5 times.
Step 4.
Go back and try to copy (free hand, not tracing) what ever the book did.
Repeat.

Other than that, just practice. Over and over. And over.
Books will help you learn new techniques, which is great and all, but in order to get good, it takes a lot of time and effort to do stuff like the people who post in the forums below \/
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=d4e42aec1c52d3ec6bbd71cd629f7db1&f=5