Tips for an aspiring artist

[Spirit]

I haven't made a thread in a long time, but this is something I need help with.

As the title suggests, I want to be an artist. Only problem is, I am completely hopeless. Drawing is in my blood, and my mum has always been amazing, but I just can't seem to be able to draw. It's not that I have unsteady hands, I'm always playing with sensitive things.

I think my problem is that I know what I want to draw, but I can't translate that to something in my mind that can then put it on paper. I've always wanted a tablet but I was afraid that I'd never be able to use it to it's potential, but I guess practise makes perfect.

When I go to TAFE in the next month or so, one of my subjects will likely be digital art. My question is - what are some things I can do to help me draw?

A link to some tutorials would be fantastic and much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Jade]

Best advice is just practice practice practice! Generally the more you do something the better you get at it. I understand what you mean, I'm a very vivid thinker but I have trouble putting it too paper. When I do get stuff out and on paper or on the computer im never happy with it so I'll scrap it or just leave it unfinished.

Try Deviant Art for tutorials and the like, I'm pretty sure they have all sorts of advice/guides on heaps of different art styles!

Hope I was helpful and best of luck in your artist endevours

 

[ballucanb]

I don't think Hi tech is your answer, go Low tech, and see if you enjoy it, too many people are gadget happy, if I only had a gadget that would do this, or that, I would be happy.

If you want to be an artist start out with a peice of paper and a pencil.

I was quite good at it at an early age, but as I got older I lost interest, I became a car nut instead.

You don't need an expensive peice of equipment to lear how to be an artist, I know a kid, well he isn't a kid anylonger, who was constantly drawing he was quite good at it, he lived in my area I knew his father well, he now works for Disney, he didn't have a computer just a paper notebook and some pencils.

 

[Woollyneck]

Yeah, but having a tablet and being able to draw on the computer opens up a whole new door of possibilities. As far as tutorials go, check out DeviantArt; there are loads of helpful ones there, and I learned a lot myself from them. If you just look around a little bit, you can probably find a tutorial on exactly what you want to do.

I think the best advice is just to practice. The more you draw the better you will get at it. Also, classes help. I've been taking art class for the last two years and I've improved dramatically.

It seems like your biggest problem is seeing what your subject actually looks like. In most cases, a good artist is not necessarily someone who has a very steady hand, but who sees things as they are. Seeing, rather than the physical processes of drawing, is the problem that many aspiring artists face. Most people, as they grow up, subconsciously attach symbols to words and their images. For example, when you think of an eye, most people picture a certain, cartoonish image of a circle inside of a kind of oval shape, but that is not what an eye actually looks like.

There are exercises to help you start seeing better. One is to recreate a line drawing (such as this or this) upside down, while looking at it upside down (as they already are in the linked images), to help your mind focus on the lines that make up the picture rather than the picture as a whole, so that the subconcious symbols do not come into play.

However, the most important thing is to keep drawing. As you draw, you will get better at it, and the way you see will naturally improve. Once you can see like an artist, many more artistic possibilities will open to you, and you can focus more on developing your own style.

So, in short, practice practice practice, and work on seeing things as they actually are rather than as the symbols that have come to represent them.

 

[Roland]

Good excersize :

Pick up a pencil and pen. Defocus your mind from anything else, and just draw any random line/design on the paper that will spring to your head. Eventually, you might end up drawing intersting sketches that if detailed can create good pieces of art.
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I do the same for writing lyrics. I just write any words/phrases that are in my head and then eventually most of them are picked up to form a few songs.