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[GlyphGryph]

Good a reason as any.

[Grek]

My best advice for learning to draw good:

Look at the thing you are drawing and draw it exactly as it appears. If you are drawing from imagination, close your eyes and picture what you want to draw. If you are drawing from a model, look at the model. Do not look at your paper or at your hands. If become tempted, cover your paper with something so you can't look at it. At first your drawings will look bad (because you can't see what you're doing), but as with typing, you will eventually be able to draw without watching your hands move. As a result, you can completely focus on getting anatomy and lighting correct, making your art become that much more realistic.

[Solifuge]

I think the barrier you're hitting is in learning to draw things as you actually see them, rather than what you think the thing looks like. Most people learn to draw the same way they learn to write letters; from a library of memorized symbols that they can use to convey information. And learning to change that takes a good bit of practice and self-awareness.

It's a little dated, but one of the foundational books that helped me pick up that skill was Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". If you don't want to pick up the book, and don't mind listening to the way she drones on, she also produced a web series that conveys similar information. Either way, this book helped me recognize the library of symbols I was using to represent objects (what I'd memorized an Eye or a Face or a Hand looks like), and helped me break those down, learn to draw the visual data my eyes were actually processing, and use that to rebuild my mental library of symbols in a way that more closely approximates reality.





Some tips to help you break the symbolic drawing habit: Take a busy photograph with lots of objects, and draw it. Then, flip it upside down, and draw what you see again. Compare the two. Also, drawing from life is great practice; start with a collection of unusually-shaped objects; kitchen implements, sculptures, crumbled paper, etc. Your goal is to try and draw them exactly as you see them, not as you Think they look. Also, a lot of those "How To Draw Comic Book Anatomy" type books can be really good resources for rebuilding your visual symbols. But it's better to use those once you've broken the habit.

These exercises involve breaking down a lot of the things we learn, so don't be upset if they don't look great at first. You've got to rebuild your drawing habits from the ground up.

[Vector]

My family has like five different copies of that book.  No worries.

[Ogdibus]

You might have heard this from your family already but, you'll have more control if you use your entire arm, up to your shoulder, instead of just the hand and wrist.  Drawing on the floor or an easel might help make this a habit because you can't rest your arm in the same way that tables and desks allow for.  I'm not sure if easels are stable enough for drawing, though.  I've never tried them.

[Solifuge]

My family has like five different copies of that book.  No worries.

Might not be the issue then, but I've also never seen your work. It's usually where I start when people ask me for art advice. Drawing from references is huge.

In addition to some of the other suggestions here, this is one of my favorite exercises: when either in a moving vehicle, or when seated near people or things that are moving, I like to try and speed-draw objects. I try to quickly conceptualize and memorize the way a passing tree's branches are arranged and how its leaves are shaped, how a building is shaped, or how a person's limbs are arranged when pushing a shopping cart, opening a door, etc. I use this mental snapshot to make quick, scribbled gestural sketches that convey the volume and motion of an object. Doing that a lot is good training for the brain, and helps build a foundation whether you want to do realistic art, or more stylized illustration.

[Pnx]

My biggest issue right now is getting myself to draw, once I'd finished my drawing class I just stopped drawing... every time I want to I feel to nervous about doing it...

[Darkmere]

Fun with a Pencil by Andrew Loomis

This deserves to be mentioned twice, I think.

I've learned more and had more fun in a couple of hours puttering with this than I did in every "art class" I ever had in public school. Many thanks for pointing this out.

[Tally]

Damnit Life Advice, why do you have to be so helpful? I've been wanting to learn to draw for many years, and I always got frustrated with the way my drawings turned out, then stopped.

You guys make it sound like I could have potential to learn, and be good at this. I always lacked the direction and, more importantly, the persistence and patience with (lack of) quality. I know it's not impossible, either. I've watched a very good friend from Australia go from being a terrible artist, technically, to a great one. Not professional-grade quite yet, but he had received good remarks from art school admissions, and to my recollection, got admitted into it.


Time to throw more of my precious time into a new hobby when I have more important things to do. And despite the jokingly complaining tone of the post, I do mean this as a thanks. It's great to believe that new talent is possible again.

[GlyphGryph]

Fun with a Pencil by Andrew Loomis

This deserves to be mentioned twice, I think.

I've learned more and had more fun in a couple of hours puttering with this than I did in every "art class" I ever had in public school. Many thanks for pointing this out.

I'll probably check this out myself honestly...

[Tiruin]

You guys make it sound like I could have potential to learn, and be good at this. I always lacked the direction and, more importantly, the persistence and patience with (lack of) quality. I know it's not impossible, either. I've watched a very good friend from Australia go from being a terrible artist, technically, to a great one.

* Tiruin stabs that self-doubt and labeling of the skill.

Learning to draw is like all aspects which use the mind. It develops with use, or develops with study and observation. I couldn't draw anything until my 4th year in HS, and only then did I take up drawing with a passion.

...And now people say my art is good :v

But really. It is easy to learn. It isn't dependent on 'quality' and all that shtuff [that is actually a personal scoring note--quality is in the eye of the beholder ;P], and what standards you put to your art are generally yours.

Anyone can draw.

It just needs work.

[freeformschooler]

Well shoot, that thing with the photograph is pretty intuitively excellent advice, Soli. Trying it now, and it seems kind of like the real life version of digitally flipping a drawing horizontally and frowning at the results.

[nenjin]

Damnit Life Advice, why do you have to be so helpful? I've been wanting to learn to draw for many years, and I always got frustrated with the way my drawings turned out, then stopped.

You guys make it sound like I could have potential to learn, and be good at this. I always lacked the direction and, more importantly, the persistence and patience with (lack of) quality. I know it's not impossible, either. I've watched a very good friend from Australia go from being a terrible artist, technically, to a great one. Not professional-grade quite yet, but he had received good remarks from art school admissions, and to my recollection, got admitted into it.


Time to throw more of my precious time into a new hobby when I have more important things to do. And despite the jokingly complaining tone of the post, I do mean this as a thanks. It's great to believe that new talent is possible again.

I'm stating the obvious, but everything takes practice and commit. Even naturally gifted people do not get away with not honing their skills. For those that have to learn to draw before they draw, it's very important. You have to commit to drawing and more importantly, you have to commit to the drawing you're doing. Everyone starts drawing something, becomes dissatisfied and moves on to something else. But that's really the moment you need to drill down even harder on what you're drawing, change it, experiment or just complete it.

One of the best drawings I've ever done started while I was sitting on my couch doing something, and I was suddenly struck by how beautiful and perfect this thing was....and I just had to draw it.

4 hours later, I had what I consider a real piece of art. It wasn't something I planned on doing that afternoon, it just sort of happened. Those are the happy times, when your inspiration is fired and drawing isn't a chore, it's fulfilling a need you have. Sadly, that inspiration is very rare and so you often have to make yourself draw...and the results probably won't be pretty. But every completed drawing is just one more skill notch in your belt, regardless of how it looks in the end.

[Solifuge]

I'm one of the people who don't believe in "natural gifts" in that sense. I believe that we may be predisposed towards activities, which causes us to practice them more. I believe there are different body-types and brain-types that may be differently adept, and have different activities that come more easily... but there is no innate "Good At Art" genome. You may not be physically able to do things with the grace and control other people can, much like you may not have the height to play professional basketball. That doesn't mean you can't do it, and find a niche within that field, where the kit of abilities you have excels.

Hell, I know an artist; she's legally blind, and has to draw huge, cartoony artwork with her nose pressed against the page just to be able to see what she's doing. And she makes a living doing illustrations; in fact, her incredible attention to detail (created as a byproduct of the way she has to work) sets her apart from most other artists. A biology teacher and mentor of mine had a best friend who lost both his arms in an industrial accident; I learned that all the beautiful landscapes that decorated the teacher's room were drawn and painted by this friend, using his mouth... again, because it took so long for him to work, the detail was incredible.

There is no "natural talent" that just makes people "artists". It's a product of time, access to adequate tools and training, and a willingness to spend the time necessary to become good using the equipment and dispositions you have.

[Tiruin]

There is no "natural talent" that just makes people "artists". It's a product of time, access to adequate tools and training, and a willingness to spend the time necessary to become good using the equipment and dispositions you have.

This opinion holds true in any thing people do. The sense of 'natural gifts' only acts as how people see others with the affinity (or..passion?) towards a certain act that makes them seem so competent in that right. The second sentence speaks for all those who wish to learn...anything, actually.

Nobody is naturally gifted in this sort of work that they didn't try to achieve what they can do.