Never drawn before, but wanna start. Any tips?

[Zekromic 1,054]

Hello guys, I wanna start making fanarts, problem is, I never drawn before, not even on school out of boredom. So, any tips for starters? guides? how to start making amateur draws of humans and ponies? which program I should use for drawing in my PC? 

[Derpaholic 1,155]

Couple of tips for you:

1. How about trying out traditional materials first?
I mean, sure, you could jump to digital means straight away, but I'd still advice you to start with something like a pencil, or sharpies to get the feel of the thing.

2. Study human and animal anatomy. I can't even begin to tell you how many aspiring artists go straight into the manga/cartoon world, and as a result, royally fuck up the proportions on their characters.
Sure, you can draw manga, but you still have to have a good grasp of the human anatomy in order to make your stuff look believable.

3. Carry a sketchbook with you at all times, no matter where you go.
Draw studies and sketches of absolutely anything and everything around you; buildings, vegetation, animals, vehicles, et cetera.

4. Don't just focus on one subject (Like ponies for example) and disregard everything else.
Your skills and understanding of lighting, shadow, and depth will benefit tremendously from drawing inanimate objects, for example, and you can then later apply what you have learned to your other work as well.

If you at some point feel like trying out a program of some sort, a good beginner's bet would probably be SAI, Gimp, or some other program like that. They're all free, and basically just stripped down versions of Adobe Photoshop, but for the love of all that is good and holy, do us all a favor, and *DO NOT* under any circumstances use Microsoft Paint.




 

Edited November 19, 2013 by Bron-Yr-Aur

[Zekromic 1,054]

OK, I'll be sure to start with those, thanks

[SasQ 1,380]

If you want to draw vector ponies, then Inkscape is a nice software with lots of useful features, and it's completely free. You will find many tutorials of how to use it on DeviantArt (look at MLP Vector Club for example).

 

If you prefer digital painting, then any software with paint brushes, layers, unlimited undo and filters could do. Personally I use GIMP. It's also free.

 

If you're asking about the techniques for the very process of drawing or advices about the art of drawing itself, then here you have some from me:

1. Learn to observe.
   The art of drawing is the art of observation. You learn to watch carefully what you want to draw, and then you draw it on paper or canvas or computer screen. Pay attention to the details. What are the proportions between different parts of your subject? How the lights and shadows lie upon it? How it influences the color?
2. Proportions are crucial.
   If you have them right, everything seems better. If you have them wrong, your work will seem imbalanced or skewed. Proportion makes harmony. The beauty of nature is all about proportion.
   
3. Cheat.
   Our sense of vision is based on illusions, and our perception isn't perfect. Ever heard of optical illusions? Visual arts are all about them. Perspective is an illusion, since the paper (or srceen) is flat, it doesn't have depth. Learn how to make the illusion of depth by manipulating proportions. Make something smaller or bigger in comparison to something else, and it will appear nearer or farther. This is also related to the illusion of mass and motion. Pictures doesn't move (unless you make animations). But there are ways to create an illusion of motion in still pictures, and they're related to proportions too: If something (e.g. a pony, or human) walks or even runs, its body leans more and more forward, and becomes more bent in the direction of motion (walking/running is an art of continuous falling forward and avoiding hitting the ground at the same time). Even if there's no gravity in a picture, our brains can imagine it there, using the same hints they use in real life: they imagine centers of mass of objects and whether they're balanced over the supporting part (e.g. feet, hooves etc.), and if they're not (see imbalance in proportion again), our brains conclude that there's motion involved.
   Also, you don't have to draw something 100% accurate to make it look realistic. A good bad example is Titus from one Polish comic, who had to draw a hedgehog and he begin from counting how many needles the hedgehog has to be able to draw the same number of these needles in his drawing ;-) That's what you need to avoid. Notice how our brains are skilled in filling the gaps. Draw two dots and a curve and they will see a smiling face, even it is far from a picture of a human face. Sometimes you can just make some colored blots to make the impression you want. Cartoons make wide use of that. Ponies are not photorealistic, but we still see them as ponies.

Edited November 19, 2013 by SasQ

[Zekromic 1,054]

seems like I got a long way to go, but thanks guys, I'll start someday and keep those tips in mind

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,354]

 

 

Sure, you can draw manga, but you still have to have a good grasp of the human anatomy in order to make your stuff look believable.

Oh, this times a thousand; there is an entire generation of artists out there that has been ruined by those crappy How-to-draw-manga books .

 

But, yeah, everything he said.

You can find anatomy books in most libraries and all you'll ever need for ponies is this:

 

I'd also advise to create an art thread, its a good way to measure your own progress and get feedback.

[HoopHoof 137]

Study human anatomy just so you have a basis when it comes to drawing cartoon characters.

 

Also, check out this Youtube channel called Proko. Trust me, it's way better than anything you'd get out of an art class

[Solar Shadow 13]

Don't start out with super complicated drawings if you so you'll get overwhelmed and want to stop. Start small work your way up. When I start I put a goal for myself at 10 pages of random sketches a night then added more pages and then added themes for each night.

[ShadOBabe 19,027]

I never draw on a computer. I always draw by hand on paper.

I scan in my art later for when I'm going to color.

 

Hmm... Well first big tip: Get materials you're comfortable with using.

Find the pencil you like best and some erasers that leave your paper clean when you use them (cruddy erasers will just smudge your pencils)

 

DON'T PRESS YOUR PENCIL INTO YOUR PAPER.

Until your picture is looking really close to how you want it, don't press down hard. Jamming your lead into your paper will just make it harder to erase when you make a mistake.

 

I learned to draw by imitating professional art.

Like copying the official art of Sonic characters that were in Nintendo Power magazine.

 

But here's the important part about doing that.

Using references like that so you learn what the characters look like is useful.

You DO NOT copy that art line-for-line and claim it's yours. Just like you wouldn't copy/paste some really nice fan art and tell other people, "I drew this."

You also shouldn't KEEP doing that forever. References are to be used until you memorize what the character looks like and how to do the various poses. The point is to get to where you can do it yourself.

 

Like when I was in middle school, and I wanted to learn how to draw Shadow the Hedgehog. He was the most complicated character in the series. So I used the art of people that knew what they were doing to teach me. But if you asked me to draw him now, I could do it for you completely from memory.

 

Basically what I'm getting at is "don't take credit for other people's work" and "resources are good learning tools, but don't use them as a crutch".

Edited November 25, 2013 by ShadOBabe