Art aid thread

[Ando333 135]

I'm far from being the best artist but I've studied for a couple years and still study from time to time so if you are new into this kind of art and want some feedback or any kind of recommendation, I'll just reply with what I've learned so far.

 

This is not only about me. Other good artists are welcome to give advice and feedbacks and all if you want. This is just to help the very beginners... or actually pretty much anyone that needs help as long as there's people that know and want to help. 
 

 

 

 

 

TL;DR If you just started drawing and want to get better and are not sure what are you doing wrong in your drawings and are open to feedback, just ask here.

[Once In A Blue Moon 894]

Ok, I have a question.

 

It's not so much a case of what I'm doing wrong (plenty of things, I am well aware) but what direction I should be trying to move in in order to improve. I've been working my way, slowly but surely, through OC requests for.... hmm.... close to a year now, and I can't honestly point to a significant improvement made in that time (link: https://mlpforums.com/topic/146833-free-sketches-open-slow-and-steady/)which does rather undermine the conventional wisdom that practice is all you need to get better.

 

As luck would have it, I'm expecting a bit more free time soon, so what would you suggest I work on improving?

[Ando333 135]

Ok, I have a question.

 

It's not so much a case of what I'm doing wrong (plenty of things, I am well aware) but what direction I should be trying to move in in order to improve. I've been working my way, slowly but surely, through OC requests for.... hmm.... close to a year now, and I can't honestly point to a significant improvement made in that time (link: https://mlpforums.com/topic/146833-free-sketches-open-slow-and-steady/)which does rather undermine the conventional wisdom that practice is all you need to get better.

 

As luck would have it, I'm expecting a bit more free time soon, so what would you suggest I work on improving?

Practice is amongst the most important things you need, but not all, since you can develop a bad habit on it. You must learn how to practice, since there are better and worse ways to do it.

 

From your drawings I'd say you lack the fundamentals of gestures and getting rid of symbols. The drawings you show in that thread are all front faces only though, but still.

 

Gesture is what you do before doing the actual drawing. Gestures can be "skeleton" or action lines that determine what your drawing is doing with more fluenty and a couple other things. Most beginners try to start from the last steps, like, starting with lineart (or an attempt to), ignoring all the other steps. 

 

Since we are talking about pony fanart here, I'd suggest you to watch a lot of fanart and make a list or just save your favorite styles and try to understand their anatomy and perspective, which leads us to "symbols"

 

Symbols are a kind of a hard thing to explain but they are basically what you identify as 2d shapes when they actually arent. Beginners usually draw noses like a little triangle or half circle, because that's how they look for them from the other drawings they see, but they actually aren't just a little triangle or a half circle, they are a 3D shape that in 2d from one perspective may look like a little triangle or half circle (these are just mere examples). You need to get rid of symbolism by understanding the 3D form of what you are trying to draw. You must visualize it in 3D in your mind. If it's all 2D for you, you will be stuck into drawing the same angles and profiles and stuff forever because you won't be able to adapt it to any other perspective because you wouldn't know its 3D form. 

You can fix this by practicing new angles of perspective of a same certain thing, many times (requires time and dedication). Don't stick to what it's easy for you. 

This video might be very helpful for this situation (I recommend subscribing to this guy)

 

 

You can learn gesture by books or videos. Sycra (the guy from the above video) explains gesture and more things very well too so you can see his explanations on this too

 

It's not that I don't want to bother explaining here, but a video (especially his) makes it easier.

 

 

I've been drawing ponies since 2012 and I'm understanding styles and making my own just now (took time but it could have been way faster if I dedicated a more decent time to it though).

 

 

 

You can see here how I symbolized their snouts and cheeks, and they don't make much sense. The connection between the eyes and the cheeks and the snouts in general were placed just where I though it was correct, but it was just a guess, because I didn't know how these things might look in 3D.

 

 

 

And this is a newer drawing where I understood the shapes in 3D more than before. You can see how the whole shape of the face now makes more sense and the eyes are well placed and the snout is not just some little line placed over there.

 

 

 

 

 

This would be another example of symbolism vs no symbolism (the face). I put for example the nose in kind of the middle of the face first, because I had a poorer perception of perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

You need to learn anatomy and proportions too if you want to do full bodies right. It's not only about Gesture and getting rid of symbols, but they are fundamentals I think you should start with, and then focus in anatomy and such. The anatomy depends on what you want to draw. I wouldn't bother in learning the name of every muscle and such. Some artists prefer that, some not. Learning literally everything about anatomy helps, but I don't think it's the most effective and fastest way to learn. Cartoons are a deformation of reality. Human cartoons, no matter how unrealistic they look, they are based on realism, it's deformed realism, and same thing happens from horses to ponies, although in this case ponies also represent human features when it comes to expressions and some hoof movements and such, but this is part of learning too. Mixtures can always exist.

 

 

I see in your drawings that you need to practice these things first. The ears, snouts, hair, the articles and other stuff are symbolized.

 

 

This is an old method to draw human faces, but you can apply it to anything as long as you know the correct measurements for what you want to draw. There are more methods for drawing faces too, and you can always try to apply them into your art. I for example tried to understand the measurements and proportions of the faces of ponies of fan-artists to try to understand their real and 3D shape, and it helped.

 

 

You must know what you are doing, and with the proper steps. Don't try to guess and go with spontaneous conclussions because that will make it harder for you and will improve very little over time.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Ando333

[N.W. 3,619]

@@Ando333 I have moved your topic to the Photo Finish's Magics (Resources) section where it can get proper attention as an art aid thread.