I'm really bad with a pencil, but I'm drawing and studying every day.

[alfredbaudisch]

Hello everyone,

Inspired by some topics where I could follow the progress of some folks that were in the same situation as me, I decided to start my own sketchbook topic hoping that it helps me not give up.

I've been trying to draw for some time already (3 years), but I always gave up after a few sketches.

But since 1/May I'm drawing from 1 to 3 hours/daily. So far, I already feel the progress on terms of anatomy/proportions, but on the pencil side and most of the time I feel like giving up forever for this. My lines are still very very bad, I can't barely draw from one point to another without blurriness/fuzziness/etc. But I like drawing and I have thousands of ideas (I'm a game programmer), and giving up is not my best option... I'm hoping to get better

Learning Tools

• Drawing-Tutorials-Online.com
• Andrew Loomis - Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
• Christopher Hart - Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy
• Michael Hampton - Figure drawing: Design and Invention
• Vilppu - Drawing Manual
• Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain
• Jack Hamm - Cartooning the Head & Figure
• Bruce Blitz - Big Book of Cartooning
• Draw Cartoons... Today!

Drawings from 01/May - 13/May

[Leonor]

Welcome to CA! I like your attitude.

Michael Hamptons's book might be a helpful one to add to your resources too. He teaches about gesture as a foundation for drawing the figure. I just started reading the book but he makes a lot of sense.

Loomis' "Successful Drawing" was just reprinted too and although not as popular as the figure drawing one, he starts off with perspective which is another fundamental you need to understand.

If you feel like giving up, don't. Ignore the feeling. It means nothing. There's no reason to quit, we can all learn this, we can improve. Go back to MindCandyMan's thread for inspiration.

You're dedicated. I look forward seeing your progress.

[alfredbaudisch]

Welcome to CA! I like your attitude.

Michael Hamptons's book might be a helpful one to add to your resources too. He teaches about gesture as a foundation for drawing the figure. I just started reading the book but he makes a lot of sense.

Loomis' "Successful Drawing" was just reprinted too and although not as popular as the figure drawing one, he starts off with perspective which is another fundamental you need to understand.

If you feel like giving up, don't. Ignore the feeling. It means nothing. There's no reason to quit, we can all learn this, we can improve. Go back to MindCandyMan's thread for inspiration.

You're dedicated. I look forward seeing your progress.

Thanks for the words and book suggestions!
I have Loomis "Successful Drawing" here but never opened the PDF, I'll give a look.

As for quitting: I've been quitting art for the last few years, but this year I'm inspired by Thomas Edison: “We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb” & “I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work”.

[Shad-]

Dude your attitude is awesome ! I'm coming back everytime I lurk on CA to check you out !

For motivational quotations, I also have Nikola Tesla's "I can only reach succes in my life with self-disciplin. And I apply it until my wish and my will are one same thing." (I translated it from french so sorry if it's not the real thing :/)
And two anonymous from people over the internet : "Every effort is worth being done" and "I didn't knew it was impossible, so I made it !"

Keep rockin those studies !

[Mistle]

Great start! That's a heap of studies. Keep at it man. Once you get more comfortable with figure drawing (Loomis is great) try out posemanics.com. Just focus on capturing the action and movement with few lines. It'll really help.

Keep drawing cartoons but never neglect realistic studies. Draw from life, find references on Google, etc. The more you know from real things/people, the better your imagination will be for cartooning.

[alfredbaudisch]

@Shad-: whoa, thanks! It's great to hear that you will be coming back
I loved this: "I didn't knew it was impossible, so I made it!"

@Mistle thanks At the moment I have all these Cartoon books but I'm touching them just sometimes, I'm afraid that if I focus too much on cartoon I may never be able to draw realistic. So I'm following what you said: realistic with some cartoon here and there.


14/May studies. The first one is from observation, the other from memory. (Forgive me the bad quality, taken with a Webcam. I'll be getting a scanner sometime).

[Mistle]

A good thing to remember- the legs are half of the whole body. The last drawing you did there, the legs only take up about a third.

Instead of the stick figure frame you used, you should really try and lock the Loomis frame (you drew it in the first post) into your brain haha. It's really not that complicated. You don't have to draw it perfectly, but it'll make sure proportions are always correct. I'd focus mainly on learning that frame now. You can work on bulk/muscles later.

[Shad-]

I agree with Mistle. Loomis is a great way to start and spending time studying from him will always pay off !
Keep going : )

[alfredbaudisch]

Thanks again Shad and Mistle On the last two days I sticked to Loomis and I'm seeing improvement. Too bad I still didn't get a scanner.

Meanwhile this is one the best videos I watched so far regarding drawing. It may be stupid, but the way he teaches to hold the pencil solved my frustations. With it I'm managing to do organic forms more naturally than with the tripod grip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-abYvstUo

My problem is that my hands hurt when I'm holding a pencil/drawing (all those years programming – could I say that I needed to handwrite less than minutes per day in all those years?).

Also if I start a line and go to the left, it's fine. But at the moment I have to go to the right, doesn't matter where the starting point is, I can't move the pencil without flickering/blurring (I don't know the right word – English is 2nd language).

[Frostblade]

When I was taught how to draw, I was told to work on mark making before anything else. It makes sense because marks are like the alphabet of drawings. (much like knowing which programming language you have to use for that project)
I highly recommend some mark making exercises.

The look of the line is important and you have to train your hand to be able to draw different variations of them. Soft/ hard, thick and thin control of the line makes a huge difference. When you can express marks/lines/strokes that are accurate then you can work on using them to make pictures that look like what you want them to look like. At least it will be easier.

Have you seen this? http://chiseledrocks.com/main/musing...old_the_pencil

If your hand hurts, maybe it's because of tendon strain from keyboard use. Have you ever seen a physiotherapist about that? Do you do the health and safety stretches that they sometimes tell people to do while on the job?

I think drawing is like debugging in programming, you need to find that bug and sometimes it's the simple things that cause errors.

[bodied]

As others have pointed out, your attitude towards learning the basics is great!

Here's my advice. A lot of the studies you have been doing are straight from the books. That's great and those are essential, but I'd like to see you try out some of the things you learned on people in front of you. Could you find a friend to sit for 10 minutes and draw them? It's a different beast using the proportions and landmarks you are studying on an actual person, but it really helps turn those abstract concepts into real practice. Heck, get a couple of full length mirrors and try it on yourself!

I really like the way you are going with gestures, but they have a certain stiffness to them. Don't worry, it's natural to use straight stick figures when first starting out. I recommend using curves to get the flow of the body down. After all, hardly anything in nature is perfectly straight! If you don't have people willing to sit for you, I recommend using Pixelovely (http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php) and setting the timer to one minute per photo. It really forces you to look at what the figure is doing very quickly.

Good luck and nice work!

[alfredbaudisch]

I'm posting anything I find helpful in my new Tumblr: http://drawingjourney.tumblr.com/. Also I don't have anything to show here, not much have changed since the first posts. I'm keeping drawing everyday tho.

Also thanks for the comments!

When I was taught how to draw, I was told to work on mark making before anything else. It makes sense because marks are like the alphabet of drawings. (much like knowing which programming language you have to use for that project)
I highly recommend some mark making exercises.

The look of the line is important and you have to train your hand to be able to draw different variations of them. Soft/ hard, thick and thin control of the line makes a huge difference. When you can express marks/lines/strokes that are accurate then you can work on using them to make pictures that look like what you want them to look like. At least it will be easier.

Have you seen this? http://chiseledrocks.com/main/musing...old_the_pencil

This is my main concern at the moment. I was following that article and I'm still trying to find the most comfortable/useful position for me and then train in each one of them.

If your hand hurts, maybe it's because of tendon strain from keyboard use. Have you ever seen a physiotherapist about that? Do you do the health and safety stretches that they sometimes tell people to do while on the job?

Yes, I do them all the time, I think I'm just untrained with a new tool, and as so everything is "new", including for my body.

I think drawing is like debugging in programming, you need to find that bug and sometimes it's the simple things that cause errors.

That's a good and well pointed analogy!

As others have pointed out, your attitude towards learning the basics is great!

Here's my advice. A lot of the studies you have been doing are straight from the books. That's great and those are essential, but I'd like to see you try out some of the things you learned on people in front of you. Could you find a friend to sit for 10 minutes and draw them? It's a different beast using the proportions and landmarks you are studying on an actual person, but it really helps turn those abstract concepts into real practice. Heck, get a couple of full length mirrors and try it on yourself!

Yesterday I tried to do some life drawings instead of books, they were AWFUL. But I get your point. I'll keep doing them to get better and better with my eyes and get the right proportions/angles.

I really like the way you are going with gestures, but they have a certain stiffness to them. Don't worry, it's natural to use straight stick figures when first starting out. I recommend using curves to get the flow of the body down. After all, hardly anything in nature is perfectly straight! If you don't have people willing to sit for you, I recommend using Pixelovely (http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php) and setting the timer to one minute per photo. It really forces you to look at what the figure is doing very quickly.

Good luck and nice work!

I had the site here on a bookmark but haven't tried it yet, will give a shot! I really need to get loose.

[Grey Astute]

This is my first post on CA after stopping by occasionally over the last several weeks. I am a rookie, probably more so than you. Excellent start, keep it up and you should improve. Whatever time you find to draw and share your experiences with us is gold. So keep posting as much as you can!

I am experiencing similar challenges getting the pencil to behave how I want. From my teenage years I always had a fascination and awe with drawing and felt "I wish I could draw like that". My confidence among a multitude of other things let me down each time I became motivated to draw and it never lasted long. I thought I don't have the "natural talent" required to draw. Yet the desire to draw always finds me again eventually.

A few months ago I became re-motivated and since have become absorbed searching through all the drawing information and resources that are available online; what is art, drawing fundamentals, the various of areas and mediums of art - figure, landscape, photo realism, digital painting etc. Searching for a way to get from point A - someone who can barely control a pencil - to point B - reaching a degree of control and mastery to be able to express myself through a pencil (or other drawing medium). At the moment one of the things frustrating me the most is my pencil control. The quality of my lines. The fluidity of my drawing and my hesitation before putting down lines. In the beginning (ie a few months ago when I restarted drawing) I was focusing on learning to see, as drawing is seeing. I feel I made allot of progress and gained much confidence with that but my pencil control is discouraging.

Thank you for sharing your journey. Most of the work on CA is at a really high level and its refreshing to see someone on a closer level to me. Keep up your attitude because that is most likely what will get you where you want to be. Enjoy the journey's process.

EDIT: So far this video tutorial has helped me the most with pencil control http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1MSipj56IE, I improved allot from it but it wasn't conclusive (in my case). A tattoo artist and painter teaches various pencil control techniques.


If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
- Michelangelo

[pixel cheetah]

Post it up man, don't be shy. Also, don't grip the pencil very hard, actually try to hold it as loose as possible. Don't use your wrist, either use your elbow to move for long lines, or I use my fingers for short ones.

[JiR]

I know how it is to start after a (big) break..relax and you will improve
If you already draw every day ... I will watch you progress, so keep it up ;D

[alfredbaudisch]

This is my first post on CA after stopping by occasionally over the last several weeks. I am a rookie, probably more so than you. Excellent start, keep it up and you should improve. Whatever time you find to draw and share your experiences with us is gold. So keep posting as much as you can!

I am experiencing similar challenges getting the pencil to behave how I want. From my teenage years I always had a fascination and awe with drawing and felt "I wish I could draw like that". My confidence among a multitude of other things let me down each time I became motivated to draw and it never lasted long. I thought I don't have the "natural talent" required to draw. Yet the desire to draw always finds me again eventually.

A few months ago I became re-motivated and since have become absorbed searching through all the drawing information and resources that are available online; what is art, drawing fundamentals, the various of areas and mediums of art - figure, landscape, photo realism, digital painting etc. Searching for a way to get from point A - someone who can barely control a pencil - to point B - reaching a degree of control and mastery to be able to express myself through a pencil (or other drawing medium). At the moment one of the things frustrating me the most is my pencil control. The quality of my lines. The fluidity of my drawing and my hesitation before putting down lines. In the beginning (ie a few months ago when I restarted drawing) I was focusing on learning to see, as drawing is seeing. I feel I made allot of progress and gained much confidence with that but my pencil control is discouraging.

Thank you for sharing your journey. Most of the work on CA is at a really high level and its refreshing to see someone on a closer level to me. Keep up your attitude because that is most likely what will get you where you want to be. Enjoy the journey's process.

EDIT: So far this video tutorial has helped me the most with pencil control http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1MSipj56IE, I improved allot from it but it wasn't conclusive (in my case). A tattoo artist and painter teaches various pencil control techniques.


If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
- Michelangelo

Thanks for your words.
What you expressed about the pencil: "At the moment one of the things frustrating me the most is my pencil control. The quality of my lines." – is exactly what keep bugging me.

And I'm glad to find someone close to me. I'm always somewhat down when I see someone posting "My Sketchbook, but I'm a noob" and then I see that his "noob" drawings are already amazing pencil lines – and then I think, "if is him a noob, then I'm garbage".

Also this video is amazing, the kind of info I needed.

Post it up man, don't be shy. Also, don't grip the pencil very hard, actually try to hold it as loose as possible. Don't use your wrist, either use your elbow to move for long lines, or I use my fingers for short ones.

Thanks! I'm trying to use the elbow/shoulder, but it is a hard task

I know how it is to start after a (big) break..relax and you will improve
If you already draw every day ... I will watch you progress, so keep it up ;D

Thanks!

[alfredbaudisch]

As per recommendations, I ended up buying two books about gestures:

• Michael Hampton: Figure drawing - design and invention
• Vilppu - Drawing Manual

... and they just turned out to be AMAZING. I'm getting a huge improvement thanks to them.

To be honest I'm still not confident with the pencil/lines, but I'm getting better in seeing things. Way easier to see by gestures than the Loomis way.

Also the way Hampton decomposes the body's structures is very noob-friendly.

[ATP]

You're going very well with your studies here! If you're feeling confident, try looking at doing a study from a photo here or there. It'll mix things up nicely and it's something different. It's also an opportunity for you to play with landmark measurements, forms, anatomy, and a lot of other good stuff too. Keep at it for the time being though - you'll get where you want to be!

[alfredbaudisch]

You're going very well with your studies here! If you're feeling confident, try looking at doing a study from a photo here or there. It'll mix things up nicely and it's something different. It's also an opportunity for you to play with landmark measurements, forms, anatomy, and a lot of other good stuff too. Keep at it for the time being though - you'll get where you want to be!

Thanks! Everyone is telling me to try life drawing/photos and I tried them, but the result was just too awful

I also tried: http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php
I think I have to try Hampton a little more.

[ULFR]

the result WILL BE awfull for a lot of time but if you take Anime/manga/cartoon drawing seriously you will keep practicing until you get the proper skill...

[dierat]

Great studies so far, that's great that you're throwing yourself in there and tackling the basics. I personally would like to suggest that you try drawing everyday objects from life and focus on accuracy and control. The thing is, you're trying to learn several things at once right now - you're learning to draw, you're learning to control your medium (pencil), you're learning perspective, and you're learning human anatomy. A lot of beginners start with human anatomy not realizing how complicated the subject is and how difficult it is, even for an experienced draftsman, to master. Training yourself to draw on simpler objects from life will really help you when it comes to tackling more complex objects, like humans, since even the most complex subjects can be broken down into simpler shapes that are easier to understand in terms of perspective, lighting, color, texture, etc. In any case, keep up the good work, and good luck!

[aks9]

something i recommend to everyone is to practice drawing basic 3d shapes
cubes, spheres, cones, etc. i guess this follows from dietrats advice.
dont do them too quick or too slow, but try and make them accurate, and do a page everyday

theyll really help in thinking about drawing and getting things right, and are a crucial foundation

the shape/perspective section on this page is good
http://www.autodestruct.com/thumbwar.htm

you have a great attitude, keep practicing! (even if that attitude disappears sometimes)

[ATP]

but the result was just too awful

Hey man, that's cool. Nobody's going to get this 100% right the first time they take a crack at tit. All you can do is look to improve by little margins - bit bybit your understanding will start to build up and you'll be able to draw better. Like the other folks in this thread have already said, start with the basics like boxes and spheres, learn how to build in perspective, cast shadows and things like taht, and keep at your anatomy practice. It'll all come together just when you need it.