Elements in Drawing?

[Sky Warden 2,243]

Hello there everypony! Wardy here, asking you great artists some questions about drawing.

I'm always interested in arts. Drawing, music, writing, etc. I'm terribly suck at drawing anything in 3D, seriously. I can't play any other instrument other than piano, and I'm not very good at it. I just know the basic of music, but I can listen to every element of a song and appreciate every single *ding* of a music. Even though I can't play music, I ridiculously put a high standard for musics in my playlist.

I'm aware that everypony has their art. For me it's probably writing. Even though I don't even have the time to write between my business (*code* *code* *code*), I want to try my hoof hand at drawing. I'm also interested in music by the way, but have no instrument to play with. Maybe there's a good but free composer software for Windows? I sold my piano some years ago, so please don't ask.

Then here are the questions. What are the basic elements in drawing? How do you make it works? How do you make it 3D? (ridiculous question I know, but it's serious)

How do you make all of those glitters? Those shadow? Those lighting? Dark and bright? Heavy and light? That 3D effect? That awesome sky space I can see in a 2D paper? Like a window to another world?

In writing, I have some guide lines on how to make my writing works like my desire. For example, I know how to bring people to the world of writing, invoke their imagination and feeling, make them understand the characters, etc, but in drawing? How the buck do you do those magnificent things?

To wrap things up :

• How do you make proper lighting and shadow in your drawing?
• How do you make the perfect proportion of a 3D object?
• How do you make proper perspective?
• How do you make that "3D ball-like" effect in an object?
• How do you make that soft outlines around an object?
• How do you make those lighting effects? All that glitters, etc.
• How do you colourize thing? (yes, laugh. Even a six-years-old girl beats me in this)

I will add up when I remember. I forget things easily. Please don't curse me. Told you I'm a total newbie in drawing. Well, thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Wardy.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Sky Warden

[nooneimportantwashere 705]

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Edited February 10, 2022 by nooneimportantwashere

[lardbobobo 1,591]

You know, here's what I've found to be the honest truth about art: it isn't about years of practice, its about fixing what's wrong. This is why prodigies manage to exist while grown adults still draw stick figures.

 

I'm probably not the best one to answer this, but I'll give it a crack anyway.

1. Analyze where the light is and where the objects are and just shade accordingly
2. Analyze the approximate size of the thing and sketch it. Once the sketch is finished, just erase and add to it as needed. It's near impossible to get the proportion correct the first time, and if you want a famous example go look at David (seriously those hands are way too freaking big!)
3. Kind of the same thing as above. Typically people don't get it right the first try and will go over it again.
4. Shade it. Unless you're doing actually 3d art, your drawing is gonna be 2d and unless you toss in some shading everything's gonna come off as flat. Once again analyze the light and how the light would affect the ball. It wouldn't hurt to actually look at how light will affect a ball in real life.
5. There's a couple ways you can do this, although honestly I don't really dig the whole soft outline thing. For traditional art I'm guessing you could just use a lighter shade around the figure, but if you're doing digital art (which by the way is a lot easier because you can just ctrl-z pretty much everything) you can apply a whole ton of effects
6. Well, if it's traditional you can literally draw the effects of you can run it through with something else like literally putting glitter on it. With digital just look around with whatever program you're using and there should be some effects you can muck around with
7. Just color it. If a color sucks, don't use it. If it's traditional art you're doing test the color on another piece of paper first because unlike digital art you can't ctrl-z the thing.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Lord Bababa

[Sky Warden 2,243]

@.

 

Shame on me, shame on me. I can't even name things right.

 

Well, I see. So it's like put a light bulb behind your object and see the shade. Got it. Not Photoshop by the way. I'm going to draw traditionally. I always code when on computer.

 

You know, here's what I've found to be the honest truth about art: it isn't about years of practice, its about fixing what's wrong. This is why prodigies manage to exist while grown adults still draw stick figures.

 

I'm probably not the best one to answer this, but I'll give it a crack anyway.

*snip*

I introduce you myself. LOL.

 

Well, I see. So, make the first sketch, then edit it right here and there, erase the crappy part, do until it perfect. Got it. Maybe it's just me, but pretty similar to writing.

 

I will be very grateful if you can direct me to some guides on sketching. I believe you guys make a kind of skeleton thingy, then flesh it out. In some tutorials I've read, it didn't give me the theory. It was just "First, make lines like this, then flesh it out like this." while I'm expecting something with more details and explanations.

 

About shading, I always have problem with shading too much. I understand now with that "where the light is" thingy. So it's like we darken the part in the other side. Am I correct?

 

As for the soft outline, is it something like "lighter where it meets the light" and bolder in the shaded part?

 

For glitters, how? Are they just like a blank white space which looks like shining between dark and colourized surrounding?

 

By the way I'm going to do traditional art. Heck, I even can't draw well with pencil. How am I supposed to draw with mouse?

Edited February 28, 2013 by Sky Warden