Drawing... where do I begin?

[Twirly]

So... I am kind of stuck with pixel art at the moment and I decided to pick up drawing to learn the basics of art and even make my own original art someday.
My problem is though, where should I begin?
I really have no idea and I'd appreciate your help.

 

[NoNick]

If you mean manga there are many of guides that show the right mechanics and stuff.
I used this website to learn: http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/howtodraw ... s_all.html
it's pretty detailed and has plenty of guides.
You can also search for guides in deviant art, people post new guides all the time.

If you mean some other kind then you need to be specific, because there can't possibly be a guide for all kinds of drawings together..

You can also look at other people's work and learn from it.

 

[musti]

If you mean manga there are many of guides that show the right mechanics and stuff.
I used this website to learn: http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/howtodraw ... s_all.html
it's pretty detailed and has plenty of guides.
You can also search for guides in deviant art, people post new guides all the time.

If you mean some other kind then you need to be specific, because there can't possibly be a guide for all kinds of drawings together..

You can also look at other people's work and learn from it.

He asked for basics, Manga isn't basic :x

if you want to learn to draw the very first resource is getting your hands on Preston Blair's book, it learns you to draw figures from basic shapes (there are some pages on the internet), I would suggest after you grasp that to get Andrew Loomis' books (which are free to download from pretty much anywhere, as they no longer have any copyrights).

 

[Twirly]

Thanks musti andrew loomis has some great stuff!
Also, about preston blair: I can only find his stuff about animation, which is good too but how is the other one called? (the one about drawing stuff from basic shapes?)

 

[musti]

Thanks musti andrew loomis has some great stuff!
Also, about preston blair: I can only find his stuff about animation, which is good too but how is the other one called? (the one about drawing stuff from basic shapes?)

Blair only has one book, it's basically about animation(though fon't expect the book to actually learn you to animate) however if you take a lookat the pages which goes on how he builds the cartoon figures you'll see how intuitive and incredibly simple his explanations are.
imo it's better to start out with this book and then go onto acual anatomy to expand on your learning.

 

[Twirly]

Oh I see, thanks I'll give it a look.
But yeah I don't want to learn drawing characters only of course, basically i want to draw other stuff too ;o

 

[musti]

Oh I see, thanks I'll give it a look.
But yeah I don't want to learn drawing characters only of course, basically i want to draw other stuff too ;o

Well, if you want to go learning perspective, David Chelsea is your man.
He has an amazing book on perspective which teaches you one, two and three point perspectives, definitely one my personal favourites

 

[Alypt]

I guess a good place to start is to do some shading exercises, like shading spheres, cylinders, etc.; more so for you to get the hang of the materials that you'll be using. Pencil is really good for getting detail, but many beginning artists have a really hard time getting the shading to be really dark, whereas charcoal can get you those glorious shades, but is difficult to get great detail if you don't know what you're doing - pretty much why getting used to your tools and knowing how to use them is important to get a hang of before you start drawing the more complicated stuff.

Other than that, start practicing every day by drawing some life studies, of people, objects, etc. Always observe carefully what you see first and then start drawing. This is important because it trains your eye to draw what you see, rather than draw what you think you see.

There are many books (like the ones mentioned above) and classes out there that can teach the basics, which are great for teaching the right techniques rather than getting into bad habits (straw lines for instance). So while it isn't necessary to read books or take classes to learn how to draw, it will help you learn techniques that will help you learn faster.

Hope this helps.