Any advice for beginners just learning to draw? I gave up for a long time but seriously want to try again, but I have no idea where to start ^^;
Glad to see you back on Tumblr! I remember I used to watch your drawing streams on here ages ago! Hope youre doing well ♡
SORRY A LOT OF TEXT!!!! but I like giving actual advice to here are some tips that worked for me and people I've taught before! (I'll be adding some imgs from google as examples, click them to see the sources) The best advice is "You need to learn the rules in order to break them" I'm not sure if you are going for figure drawing or background art, as both have different approaches! For figure art what I recommend is trying to understand a bit how the body works. You can search for references or look at your own body. For example, you need to draw an elbow but you are not sure how it folds: you can look in the mirror and look at it from different angles to understand the shape. Understanding the placement of everything is key to applying that knowledge. You don't need to have forensic understanding of how the body works, but it's very useful to at least know some basics of realism before jumping into stylization!
Of course, this is not an strict rule, but as I said you need to know them before breaking them. When drawing Plus size people, for example, a rule to keep in mind is that skeletons don't grow!! and also that fat falls down! Both figure drawing and background art is all about simplifying shapes first and building detail from there step by step! Don't jump into detailing a body-part if you are still not done conceptualizing the pose, or a building if you are not sure about the overall structure. My art teacher always advised us to blur our vision so we can see those shapes easier and strip away the details! If you can draw 3D shapes, it's better than 2D shapes, in my humble opinion, but some people just draw 2D shapes and don't use volumes when first sketching.
For drawing stylized characters you just gotta play with the sizes of the shapes or the shapes themselves!
^^^^ This creator has some very interesting tutorials, I follow them mostly for background ones tho! All the above rules apply not only for full body drawings but also for heads and faces!
(I couldn't fin the source of this image but it's signed as "RAM Studios" ) You can simplify/sketch the eyes as spheres and the nose as a tilted piramid! The best way to learn is live painting, but if you don't want to/can't leave the house, I' sure you can find videos of people posing online or watch a video that has a bunch of movement and try copying the poses. If you don't mind going out, you can just go somewhere and paint people passing by. The drawings don't need to be perfect!! They have to be QUICK
When drawing more dynamic shapes (so people not just standing up) try starting with a "line of action". This is basically the line that marks the direction and shape of your character's movement! You can add lines of action to anything else you need like the arms or hair. This helps me a lot visualizing the pose and movement before starting to sketch and helps with the composition!
I'm better at human figures than buildings and perspective and landscape, so if you want a tutorial on that too I can try but I don't promise much!
