Heeyyy birb lord do you know (or do you do?) any art tutorial stuff for people trying to get back into drawing? Idk where or how to look for anything.
I know you already found some stuff but I figured I’d throw in a little advice anyway! This is gonna be a bit long and include some links and technical + motivational help. Most of this is what I’ve learned at school + uni and from my years as a hobby artist.First of all, if you’re starting up again after a long time of no drawing (or even if you’re a beginner) I’d recommend:
Starting completely from scratch. It’s tedious, but it’s always good to start with the basics, sort of “relearn” drawing.
Drawing from life! Real life is THE BEST foundation to build on, before you focus on having a personal style. Try croquis drawing if you can, if you can’t you should check out some of the sites I’ll link to at the bottom of this post.
Studying proportions and anatomy!! A lot of the drawing process is memorizing proportions - it’s always completely necessary if you want to develop your own style. Simple help sheets can be useful! You don’t have to master anatomy to start experimenting tho, but there’s never an excuse to not study it. You have to know how the body connects before you can start drawing it!
Always focusing on what’s underneath. A problem with a lot of new artists is that they want to make something that just looks good on the outside. Try drawing “skeletons” and helplines for faces (links below).Tip: Try dividing the body into several different shapes. What I usually do is that I draw a circle from the head, line for the spine and plot in the hips and shoulders as shapes before I start on the actual figure.
Not undermining the importance of composition. As with proportions, everything in an art piece has its place. It’s all about individual pieces working together to form the whole. You can detail as much as you want, but the way you’ve composed the picture has a HUGE impact on how good it will look. Tip: study your pictures from afar - if it doesn’t look good, it won’t look good up close.Another tip: Use composition to create a focus point - this is what will catch the viewer’s eye and guide it through the rest of the painting. (here are some examples of how I create focus points, but it’s not very in-depth). Focus points can be created with colour, light and placement, often by using harmonic composition principles (links below)
Studying colour theory. Colour can be used in so many ways, and knowing very basic colour theory can really help you find colours that fit!Tip: Don’t use pure black and white for natural shading/highlighting, it often looks dull, shadows have colour too, and often in a contrast to the colour of the light source (see links).
Use references! There’s no shame in using references, they can be excellent to remember proportions and shading. Just remember to credit the photographers/models (unless it’s you) and don’t trace them and post your tracings!!
When it comes to getting back into drawing, here’s some advice that’s worth thinking through:
Try to understand why you quit in the first place. If it was anything but just not having the time, it’d be good to try going in a different direction than you did the first time, figure out why you quit.
Try finding a reason to keep going. I create art because it makes me feel accomplished and productive, it’s relaxing to work on (most of the time), and it’s a way I can make people happy. Make sure the positive effects outweight the negative. Try surrounding yourself with things that inspire you, you could for example keep folders of inspiring works (or watch speedpaints) that just makes you eager to start creating.
Challenge yourself! An artist should ALWAYS strive to improve. It’s a journey with no destination. You can never be perfect, which is both terrifying and comforting. Never shut out legit advice - the feeling of accomplishment will only last if you work for it.
Experiment! A way to stop feeling stuck or like you want to quit is to try out different and new techniques (i.e. different brushes, watercolour, charcoal, etc.) You might find a medium you really enjoy but wouldn’t consider working with before.
Keep in mind that drawing should be enjoyable in one way or another. It can be stressful and make you feel bad if things don’t turn out the way you want to. This is normal, but if it becomes a source of crippling anxiety instead of an enjoyable activity that makes you feel accomplished, it’s probably not a hobby you should pursue.
Be aware that things take time. Working on a craft will always be tedious - don’t lose hope if you feel like you’re not good enough, you can only get better with time and practice.
Here are some resources I’ve bookmarked and looked up (it’s not a lot but can be good to get started):REFERENCES AND GESTURE DRAWING:
ManStock - Reference pics of male models (contains nudity)
dAPoses - Reference pics of all models (contains nudity in some folders)
Posemaniacs - A LOT of 3D models of people you can rotate (sadly doesn’t take things like bodyfat into account, but is great for basic poses and proportions)
Posemaniacs Handviewer - 3D models of bodyparts you can rotate (contains nudity)
Pixelovely - Recommended site for gesture drawing, easy to customize and good if you wanna avoid slacking off!
Quickposes - Another timed gesture drawing site.
Hand Challenge - A LOT OF HANDS
UKhairdressers - Hair / facial hair / face references
SketchFab - A lot of different and sometimes stylized 3D models
ANATOMY AND PROPORTIONS:
(image) Shapes in human anatomy (male and female)
(article) How To Draw Proportions - Useful links and pictures from e-books.
(article) How To Draw Proportions 2 - An especially useful link from the previous article, with lots of pictures.
(video) How To Draw The Human Figure - 12 min video on how to build up the human figure, highly recommended!!
(video) How To Draw The Human Figure 2 - 22 min video on building up the human figure using the mannequin method.
COLOURS:
(image) Gradient shading tutorial - The importance of light sources (and creating focus points with light)
(image) Painting skin colours
(image) Colouring tutorial
(image) Simple coloured shading tutorial
(article) Itten’s Colour Theory - Basically the really useful stuff I learned at school.
(interactive tool) Colour Wheel - A very useful tool to pick colours that look good together.
(video) How To Choose Colors That Work - 40 min video that is very educational.
(video) Understanding Colour - 23 min video covering everything about colour. Looking up related tutorials on youtube can be helpful, just make sure the sources are credible (I’d prefer youtube tutorials to deviantart tutorials)
COMPOSITION:
(image) Composition tutorial - A very good tutorial about the different techniques used to guide the viewer’s eye in a painting.
(image) Composition tutorial (focus points) - Another good tutorial about composition using cross-section
(image) Composition Tutorial (values and shapes) - The importance of value when creating a composition.
(video) Understanding Composition - 30 min video, highly recommended!
I wish I had more links but I hope it helped at least a little! DeviantART has a lot of tutorials, but sadly a lot of them are bad or too stylized for beginners so it can be difficult to find useful ones. Youtube however has a lot of stuff made by professionals, and I’ve personally learned a lot from videos when I was a beginner. I hope most of the ones I’ve found can help you, and don’t be afraid to ask if there’s something specific you need help with.
