Learning to draw

I was incredibly bored today so I went to a crafts store and after looking around for a while I decided to try some charcoal paper and pencils.

Here's my first 3 pictures





I can't draw very good but I'm hoping with practice I can progress to drawing faces at an angle like the first pic except more realistic.

Great job for starters. Keep on doing it. Don't lose faith in yourself.

a reply to: Staygaf

Like everything else;

"Practice does not make perfect.
Only perfect practice makes perfect"

-Vince Lombardi

Pretty good start I'd say. If you want to learn some fundamentals in a self learning way Here is a good place to go. It gives you "classes" and "homework" to do to help.

Good for you. For a first effort they are great. Hope you keep it up.

a reply to: Staygaf

You are going to hate my answer because it flies in the face of a lot of people's misconceptions these days about what art is supposed to be. But here goes: if you really truly want to learn how to draw, how to do it really well, and want to learn the basics relatively fast, then what you do is you copy.

That's right, I said copy.

Find a really good book with LARGE reproductions of drawings, and COPY them slowly by hand, using a PROTRACTOR to MEASURE DISTANCES (the relative proportions of things like the features of a face).

A really good book to start out with for basic explanations and a boatload of terrific reproductions to copy from is www.amazon.com...

Another is www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463313588&sr=1-1&keywords=rendering+in+p en+and+ink

There is so much you will learn by copying that will take you months if not years of fumbling around on your own to figure out.

You sit down and copy like a thousand "old masters" drawings, and heck you will be awesome. You will be able to draw just about anything with a pretty good level of precision and competence.

Good luck!

And remember: Darker darks, lighter lights, and greys make the edges turn!

a reply to: olddognewtricks

WOW,.. i couldn't agree more. Copying.... that is pretty much the method..

Also great "first" samples.. keep on keeping on!

Not bad, but you are generalizing features when they do not in life look this way. Eyes do not look like footballs and mouths and lips are very complex with differing shapes. You should learn to use your charcoal a lot more lightly so if you make mistakes they can be easily erased and fixed and also this will help you when building value.
Try harder to draw what you see, not what you think you see. That goes for everything seen and imaginary.

a reply to: Staygaf

When doing faces,I recommend drawing a cross to measure the areas where you want the height of the eyes to be(horizontal line) and the center of the face (vertical line). I notice their features are slightly misaligned.

As for the facial features,draw out basic shapes in the eyes,lips and cheek bones.
You want to start out with a crude looking face and sculpt it out with further detail,like eye lashes,the lacrimal gland inside each eye,detail to the forehead(wrinkles and deformities) and under the eyes.

You also might want to be a bit softer with the charcoals,sort of sketch out most of your stuff that way when you make any mistakes erasing won't smudge your work. Other than that noses and hair look pretty good.
I also suggest using a reference images for practice, I do it all the time it's good practice if you're having trouble drawing a certain aspect of a character or object.

Great work for someone just starting out though, definitely have some potential for sure hope to see more from you soon!

Thank you for sharing your first creations.

Making art is personal and very awesome. I am an artist with literally dozens of pieces spread around my city right now, it feels wonderful. Selling art is now a very viable option to me.

Your motivation for why you want to create should answer your question of how you should create. Your best advice for everything will always stem from this, "why do you do it?" I create because I see beauty in the most odd ways, and love to invent new combinations to share, and would LOVE to support myself doing this. I borrow from many of my influences, but I'm almost never aware of it. This is I think what great artists are striving for; they pay homage to all the greats without copying them directly and still look like fresh, timeless work.

Many artists just have so much fun creating work after seeing others' works, they aren't remotely aware they are just creating fresh random work, it's the moment of having fun just creating because you are inspired.

But I have a point, just have fun, and do whatever it takes to be inspired. Be open, like water, to flow with whatever idea sounds cool at the time and draw it, paint it, smear it, own it. Invent yourself in a colorful, powerful way, make up a new medium, just always be inspired and have fun doing it and eventually you will MASTER it, and yes, copying others work is the EASY way, but it makes it harder to just be PURE and do what is in you... don't trust me, trust yourself friend.

Your drawings have some great intensity, not anatomically awesome yet, but that's not really needed to be awesome overall, so YES just keep going, because you got intense nailed like a pro, esp pic #3.

If you can't get inspired (which I doubt) you can always go to local museums and galleries/artwalks etc, and look at what is being done (and what has been done for centuries), and look for the areas that seem 'missing' and try and CREATE that which is missing for your current time, and that is what makes you famous and important and puts you in books.

And, if it ever stops being fun, I just change medium. I primarily use oils (like all the masters, just sayin, but yeah $$ but they keep well) but have been doing tons of acrylics, and may need to try something new like pastels or rattlecans, it really doesn't matter as long as it's fun and inspires new work.

Keep creating, and serious kudos for sharing!

It took me awhile to put this together for you, I know this is in oil paint but it is step by step of sketch to finish and thought this may give you ideas of how to start constructing better pieces. I hope it helps you my friend.

a reply to: Brotherman

Nice!!!

I am planning on doing a stop motion of one of my abstract creations over an existing artist's work (thrift store art), just have to bribe the camera person with some art first

a reply to: Aliquandro

Thats awesome, I have been hoping you were going to post new things soon, that would be great to see bro!!!!!!!
I just finished my peach oil painting and now I am working on designing a new short comic book and have work I have to dump here for the one I am already doing but that process is slow.

a reply to: Staygaf

I am currently working on drawing the girl you drew step by step using the same media, I want to help you be better anyway I can =D

a reply to: Thalestris

Thanks for the link. I was just going to figure things out as I go but seeing others art in steps seems to make me feel as though a drawing can improve as you progress.
I find myself getting discouraged quickly if I press this charcoal stuff to hard and draw and ugly line. Once that happens I feel like I'm spiralling into an abyss.

a reply to: Staygaf

I sent you a u2u but that don't matter here you keep drawing and always keep working a piece even if it is hard and you dont like it always work the piece and never stop, learn to really LOOK and record what you see or feel, attention to detail (what you see) is very important

I just tried to draw another face...
I took a picture and tried to copy the rough idea and lines but did really crappy.

I've never done much drawing in my life though. I traced and doodled mostly.

Here's my 4th drawing.



I think I might try to draw basic shapes with pencil first then use the charcoal.

Ive been using my finger to smudge a lot. Is there anything smaller I can use to smudge with?

a reply to: Staygaf

Yeah you can smudge alot more precisely with a tool called a blending stub.

In order to learn how to draw, if you are striving for realism, you must first learn how to see. Keep in mind that everything is in 3 dimensions. Pay attention not just to the contour of something, but to the depth and shadows and proportions. Drawing the Human Head by Burne Hogarth is an excellent book on the subject. If you read only one book on drawing heads, make it this one.
A few tips:
When drawing a head, start with an oval. The top of the crown to the tip of the chin are top and bottom. The eyes will hit right at the center. This oval is not just the face. Many people put the eyes too high. You did well on your 1st, 3rd and 4th drawings!

The eyes are actually eye balls... spheres draped in skin. Look at your eye, how you see your eyeballs curve back into your head at both corners. You can see a vertical side to the inside and outside curve of your eyeball. Look at how your eyelid skin is draped over that sphere, and how it adheres and follows the form of the eyeball. The book mentioned above has illustrations of things such as this.

If you are looking at your drawing and something doesn't look right but you cant put your finger on it, turn it upside-down and all becomes clear. You are accessing the right side of your brain when you do this, the side that recognizes shapes and forms. The logical, analytical left brain gets in the way sometimes by labeling everything, and seeing things how it expects them to look. By turning it upside down, you no longer see eyes, lips and a nose, but lines, shapes and details. This trick works well with many things in life.

With drawing, practice is more important than other artistic mediums. When I was in college, majoring in art, it was highly suggested that drawing be taken every semester, all the way through. You get rusty quick, and will improve with continuous practice.

One final thing to keep in mind, is that good art is not always realism. Some of the greatest artists of all time were not realists. Good art is so much more than being an identical copy of something. Good art should convey a feeling, an emotion. Looking at your work, I feel that your 4th drawing conveys exactly that. Very nice!! This man has a personality and the drawing has a certain mood about it. He is quite compelling, and I feel drawn to study him and wonder who he is. THAT, is art. This is very impressive for someone who is just beginning. Keep it up!!

I'm going to have to see if that craft store has a blending stub. I'm finding the charcoal goes on pretty dark no matter how lightly I press. Then it's a pain to get rid of the line after smudging. Oh well I'm new to drawing so I guess it'll take a while.

I just tried another one but this time tried pencil and charcoal.

I was reading about a place called Kelowna.
Pronounce Kuh low na but I butchered the word and got K-lown uh...