Drawing - Teaching Others?

[l4justice]

***If this should be in the panels section, please move it***

Well guys, I'm an aspiring drawer, and I love to draw and all, but for some reason I just feel like even after looking at instruction books I'm getting no where. And I'd soon like to become an AA dealer. So I was wondering if anyone would do a drawing class meet-up or try and get a panel at NDK. I think it'd be a big hit, and would help many aspiring new artists come out of their shells and become great.

[Sakura Cherry Blossom]

This sounds like a good idea.  You may be a bit like me when I draw.  I tend to be a better copy cat than memory or instruction book artist.  I could give people a few tips and tricks, but I don't know how good I would be at teaching people to draw.  I have an associates degree in animation and I know one thing, I prefer traditional to computer animated drawing.  It's so much faster. 

[l4justice]

This sounds like a good idea.  You may be a bit like me when I draw.  I tend to be a better copy cat than memory or instruction book artist.  I could give people a few tips and tricks, but I don't know how good I would be at teaching people to draw.  I have an associates degree in animation and I know one thing, I prefer traditional to computer animated drawing.  It's so much faster. 

I'm the same, but I need to start learning how to free hand draw my own ideas so I can claim them as my own...

[Sakura Cherry Blossom]

Try drawing people from magazines or store ads.  Don't go after the people everyone recognizes, but the obscure ones.  I've done this for my Star Wars drawings.  I go looking for a person that looks like the character I want to draw and use them as the base. I then add the hair, clothes, etc. I want.  Here are some examples.

I found a pic of a couple (add for swim wear I think) and used it for this SW expanded universe pic
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Tahiri_Solo/Fanart/ANAKINANDTAHIRICOLORED_2005.jpg

This one I acctually used a head shot of a slightly famous actress then filled in the rest.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Tahiri_Solo/Fanart/LUSACOLORED_2005.jpg

Just play around with it and see what works.     Even famous artists used models.

[l4justice]

Try drawing people from magazines or store ads.  Don't go after the people everyone recognizes, but the obscure ones.  I've done this for my Star Wars drawings.  I go looking for a person that looks like the character I want to draw and use them as the base. I then add the hair, clothes, etc. I want.  Here are some examples.

I found a pic of a couple (add for swim wear I think) and used it for this SW expanded universe pic
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Tahiri_Solo/Fanart/ANAKINANDTAHIRICOLORED_2005.jpg

This one I acctually used a head shot of a slightly famous actress then filled in the rest.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Tahiri_Solo/Fanart/LUSACOLORED_2005.jpg

Just play around with it and see what works.     Even famous artists used models.

Thanks very much

[rini]

take art classes at your school. you'll learn the basics there far better than any meetup. you can't draw comic or manga/anime style without learning the basics. once you learn the basics, learn how the human body is made up. practice your figure drawing. practice live drawing.

don't copy what you see. best way to learn is live drawing. just sit and draw something in front of you. an example (this is really, really old, btw), i drew this during a lunch hour back a LONG time ago: http://nerp.net/~tangent/Sketch1.jpg it's not very good, i only had about a half hour to do it, but that's what you do, you just draw practice studies/figure studies, etc., whenever, where ever.

and practice, practice, practice. that's the only way to get better.

(you wanna see my one and only attempt at photoshop? http://nerp.net/~tangent/Ran2.jpg it's not terrible, except that ranma has scoliosis, his hands disappear, looks like a giant, and akane has a neck that should snap =PPPPPPP. and, to show you how old it is, i think this was photoshop 5.0)

[The Ronin]

take art classes at your school. you'll learn the basics there far better than any meetup. you can't draw comic or manga/anime style without learning the basics. once you learn the basics, learn how the human body is made up. practice your figure drawing. practice live drawing.

This.

If your school doesn't offer drawing and painting courses then look into local classes. Often times art and hobby stores will have listings of people offering small group classes for small fees. Learning techniques for all sorts of art styles will help so much. Personally I try to learn every style of art that I can get my hands on and it really helps in every aspect of my art.

[Sakura Cherry Blossom]

Yes, I agree. Practice makes perfect!  There are alot of techniques that seemed to take me forever to learn and now I find myself doing them without thinking. I am way better at landscape drawing then portraits, but I am getting much better at them.  You have to start somewhere, but along the way you will discover what you are good at and maybe even your own style. 

[Lusha]

as for teaching eachother how to draw, over my long years of trying to hone my skills, i have noticed that you can't really teach a person how to draw as apposed to teaching them little tricks or techiques or reminders of how to remember the tricks or techniques.  But as far as teaching, a person must really cultivate their own style.  Even after 8 straight years of drawing and getting progressively better at drawing  i am still a really rough drawer.   However when i learned new ways of drawing like cross hatching and stuff it really helped. 

As for the idea of helping others come out of thir shells it would most deffinately.  Also, i think that this would be a really good idea for a meet up so its a bit more one on one rather than trying to talk to an entire room.  However either way it is a very good idea.  Why not do both?  Also, as far as copying goes, do you mean like tracing or looking at some thing and recreating it?  I used to recreate a lot and still do, but i have learned that if you use small parts of a peice as a refference to creat your own idea then it works out well.  And actually a lot of manga artists will go out with cameras and take refference pictures. 

[Sakura Cherry Blossom]

I think re-creation is the better term not something that suggests tracing.  I realized while trying to draw live models that I am really good at hands and feet.  Porportion, not so much.    I agree one on one would be much better.  I have made my friends pose different ways to get a picture I was looking for.  I even used my roomates picture to get an awsome Jaina Solo.   

[Lusha]

nice.  Hands feet and proportion are some thing that i havent mastered yet either my self.  and having your friends pose?  i never thought about that XD  (Oh. sorry, i kinda pulled off topic a little... sorry)

[The Enigma]

Most art instruction books are worthless. Especially anything declaring it can teach you "how to draw manga." Stay away from that junk.

Ronin and Rini really hit the nail on the head. Working on your own is great, but there's nothing that can compare to focused, educated instruction. If you want to be a good artist, it's probably not going to happen from random meetups. You need real teachers who teach real principles in order to hone your skills. People usually charge to teach things like that, and rightly so--these skills are acquired after a lot of training and hard work! So take some art classes. Pay people to train your eye. They'll help you dramatically in ways that nothing else can.

That said, I do like the idea of meeting up to draw. It could be a lot of fun to have a chance to apply what you know and have learned with other artists in an informal drawing session. So I do have a suggestion, if anyone would be more interested in just doing drawing sessions without necessarily the "formal instruction" part. I've been to a number of different clubs and classrooms where you can just walk in, sometimes for a fee, and draw a live model with other artists. I always thought it would be really fun to get a cosplay model for figure drawings, just because of how... well-styled they are, how unusual their costumes. And, if there's anything that would be both useful and fun for artistically inclined nerds, that would be a good place to start.

I don't know how suitable or possible it would be for a panel, but if anyone wanted a meetup on some Saturday or something, I would be there.

[Kamakru]

That's a really good idea, it'll get the spark for drawing going, but even so it takes more than one hour to learn how to see things when drawing. I had 9 weeks worth of classes for life drawing (perspective was an entire different class!) and I constantly feel I still need to go back and attend classes to catch up on anatomy. Those who mentioned professional-taught classes are 100% on the ball. No matter what you want to learn or what style, ALL drawing starts with basic anatomy and perspective. Heck, when I started college I had to fill 20 pages worth of drawings of spheres, cubes and cylinders!

If you absolutely feel you need some sort of drawing guide, I suggest a book called "Cyclopedia Anatomicae". It's like my drawing bible lol.  Also, put all of your "how to draw anime" and "how to draw manga" in a box where you won't see it for a very long time. Looking at those books is a sure way to put yourself in a rut later on. Trust me - it's the worst way you can possibly learn how to draw - even if you plan on drawing manga or anime someday.

I think a meet up at NDK would be cool, and I'll totally attend if I can.

[Tamine]

I am pretty good at Drawing soooo, I would be happy to Do a little Meet up thing at NDK and teach some Basic Drawing stuff. I am really good at Chibi Vocaloids though! xD But, If there is anything you guys would like to see, Let me know.  ^^

[The_Envious_Elric]

Look at drawings that you really like. If you have a DA account favorite artwork that you enjoy. Now, ask yourself, why do you like them? Is there a particular style throughout all the pieces? Do the lines, shadows or character poses resemble each other in one way or another? Chances are, they do.

Study the drawings you like most and practice drawing them. Practice, practice (even the best artists and musicians have to do this). Eventually, you'll start developing your own style, and it may resemble the styles in the artworks you studied. And even them you still have to continue practicing to fine-tune your skills.

Sometimes it might take years to develop a style, but don't fret - everyone learns at their own pace.

I hope this helps.

 

[artistjosh]

I'm with Squidworks and we'll be doing a few panels and one of them is Pin-up anatomy secrets. It should cover some good information about drawing and help you get started.

I'll be sitting with some of the guys at Squidworks this year, so stop by and say hi.

Here is some art I did recently: