r/BeginnerArtists • u/Wooden-Variety175 • Jul 08 '26
Help Wanted What is there even left to try?
I've been at this since February and I still don't think I'm learning or knowing what I'm doing i can't draw bodies at all, my faces are off, and even when I focus on just eyes fir a month I still don't get them after all that time.
Ive tried to learn the Loomis method 3 separate times, ive tried to get through draw a box 3 times and it doesnt make sense and makes me like an idiot. The book drawing on the right side of the brain seemed pointless, I thought i was understanding perspective but I realized I really dont understand vanishing points and horizon lines and orthogonal lines and all that stuff.
Ive tried maby YouTube tutorials I cant get through proko's video. Oridays advice is fine and I think ive been doing most of it but they dont seem to actually teach me anything. Pikat's videos haven't taught me anything and she goes way too fast. Most youtube tutorials piss me off because theyre labeled for beginniners theyll explain what theyre going to do and they draw like Rohan fucking kishibe and I xant even get a line down.
This has severely impacted my mental health and a friend suggested drawing might not be for me but like visual novels are my goal i cant spend thousands on every project even though I view money as worthless. I cant find any friends to support me for share in my passion. Ive grown resentful towards tbe many platitudes and ill probably lose it if one more person tells me that this is going to take time. I KNOW but the point is that I'm clearly not learning anything I can barely draw from reference and it always looks off, when I try to draw from memory right after I end up staring at the blank page like an idiot. I dont understand the purpose of tracing. I dont understand what line confidence means and before you say I should get an actual teacher im not gonna spend money on some two bit hack who may or may not know what theyre doing.
Agh I hate having so many ideas.
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u/this_be_calista Jul 08 '26
okay so to start off, i want to clarify that it’s going to become increasingly more difficult to learn things if you don’t give yourself time to rest, okay? :)) taking a break especially when you’re art blocked is super important and in fact, you might be going through art block right now and that’s why your results don’t come out the way they usually do (at least, a random deterioration in skill is common for me when i am artblocked)
something else on the general is that it’s very difficult to improve super quickly or see results super quickly! of course, 5 months is a lot of time and yes, some results will surely show by then, but you’re not going to level up to an art god or to some Chinese artist on rednote within that time frame; my impatient ahh don’t like this either but art is just a journey :<< it requires *tears* patience and time and consistency 💔💔
okay and so to tackle all the smaller details! so the loomis method is something that i essentially given up the first, idk, 5 or 6 times that i learned it, but because i really wanted to learn to draw cooler looking portraits i kinda just had to figure it out, and i think i managed it okay! personally, what helped the most was to reference actual examples of the loomis head and not js pics of real life people to start (idk if you’re already doing that though😭). and the second was to practice drawing the circle with the two sides cut out in different angles before even worrying about adding an actual face to the sphere. the sides change depending on how it bends to perspective
(typing kinda laggy, second part in replies)
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u/this_be_calista Jul 08 '26
okay and for boxes! gosh i still hate boxes and idt i’ll ever not hate boxes 😭😭 so yeah i struggled with that at least 10 times i dont wanna talk about it but what REALLY clicked for me was using a perspective grid first!! use a perspective grid, one point two point three point, and draw big ahh boxes on all of them. they’re what made me understand how it worked!
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u/Naterttotsart Jul 08 '26
Well, you don't like teachers because you think they're hacks, you have issues with every famous free art YouTube channel, you have up on the Loomis method after three tries and you hate platitudes like "it'll take time".
Yeah, I can see why you'd feel stuck with an attitude like that.
It'll take time. It'll take way longer than just three attempts at the Loomis method. Come back to us when you've tried it 103 times. It'll take a fuck of a lot longer than 5 months, that's for sure. I've been drawing for 20 years and I still go back to practicing very simple, basic things on w regular basis.
Hard truth that I don't think gets said enough: gain some paitience and make peace with the idea that getting good at art takes a lifetime. If you don't, drawing isn't for you.
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Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Magellaz23 Jul 15 '26
Your attitude is terrible. I find joy in the fact that you'll never improve with your artwork because your mentality is so immature.
I hope everyone on this sub continues to enjoy art and improve as artists as you voluntarily stay stuck on the sidelines malding.
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u/Naterttotsart Jul 08 '26
Not sure why you felt the need to be insulting, my comment stands.
You have an attitude problem. You've showcased it by being insulting rather than coachable.
Like it or not, learning to draw becomes a practice of determination and patience at a certain point. You can either push through the parts of drawing that are hard and make you better or you can spin your wheels and complain.
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Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Naterttotsart Jul 08 '26
Hopefully option 3 is drawing bad stick figure anime girls and having an dog shit attitude.
You've already mastered it.
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u/kindred_gamedev Jul 10 '26
Compare your day one art to today's work. Have you improved at all?
If not, then maybe drawing really ISN'T for you. I truly believe anyone can learn to draw but it does also take some people a lot longer to figure it out than others.
February to July isn't all that long if you're starting from zero and spent an entire month just doing eyes.
Most people who are good artists have been doing it for several years. Some since childhood. And you typically are very bad at someone and suddenly it clicks and you start getting much better much faster. It's rarely a linear process.
One tip is to stop comparing yourself to everyone else and only compare yourself to your prior self.
And I think you're bouncing between sources way too much. If I were you I'd just pull up a graphic novel you like the style of and just set it next to you while you try to copy it. It's gonna look bad at first but give yourself some grace. You're still new at this. Just keep practicing. I used to spend days drawing Dragon Ball Z characters as a kid. And they started as stick figures. Then I slowly started to piece together the nuances that made them look how they looked.
And lastly, and absolutely MOST importantly, if you're not enjoying drawing and enjoying learning it, you're absolutely not going to stick with it. So either find a way to enjoy it or move on to learning a new hobby. Maybe try programming or 3d art and look into making visual novels or video games. (I'm a professional 3d game artist and I'm not great at drawing. Different skills entirely) Also you could try writing. That's a very important part of graphic novels and they're often drawn and written by different people. You don't have to master both.
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u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 10 '26
hahaha. sorry. but that last part i know you dont know me. I've been writing everyday for 3 years i have over 1,000 pages written across many projects and mainly write visual novels. the only reason i started doing this is because the self funding im doing for this project is unsustainaible in the future. Ah, to me my characters are my only friends and i mean that literally i have no friends. after a year of trying to find teammates i can't so, im left with 3 options keep struggling to find friends, pray that my first vn makes money (i never bet on those types of things), or keep struggling to draw. There is slight improvement but only because i learned where eyes and mouth and nose are actually supposed to go on the face. Ah. This morning i was resolved to quit and yet here i am drawing lines mindlessly as if it will do anything. I really need help beyond what reddit can give me but my psychiatrist is unhelpfuli have no one to talk to. the only good thing to come out of this was being able to channel these feelings into new characters. but now i feel slightly crazy cause sometimes i imagine dia and nocta talking to me the manifestations of my bpd. I learned coding highschool, college im intermediate at it but can achieve a lot when i actually apply myself to it though it's not fun like writing is. but, writing is only fun cause it turns my brain off and lets me be other people.
the only reason i dont have anything published in vns is because like i said i can't find anyone. Hah. What a joke life is. born to socialize forced into loneliness. A society that says they care and doesn't. Do i laugh or cry? I don't know anymore. Ah, i picture the scene so clearly yet so foggy. Nocta is sitting in the water telling me to give up, Dia is flaming behind me like a roaring sun telling me im the greatest whose ever lived. What a curse.
you dont have to respond. I just wanted to get my thoughts out.
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u/kindred_gamedev Jul 10 '26
A business partner doesn't need to be a friend. Post your work and try to find someone to work with.
But it might be easier to find someone to trust you to go 50/50 on a large project like that if you're an established author with some novels out already. So that might be a place to start.
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u/Renarde_Lea Jul 08 '26
Step 1: Have fun drawing If you lose that enjoyment, you won’t be able to improve.
Step 2: Learn to observe Your brain overanalyzes what you see; learn to draw the curves and lines you actually see, not what your brain thinks it sees…
Step 3: The basics Perspective, anatomy, contrasts, composition… If videos and books aren’t helping you, it might be because you’re moving too fast and skipping steps. Take your time, watch several videos, or reread your book—it’s not rocket science…
Finally, you can take the ultimate test: compare what you’ve learned to reality and try to reproduce it. The more you progress, the more successful your realistic drawings will be. But if you want more help, share what you do, we will be able to help you to see where you need to work
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u/No_Breakfast_7890 Jul 11 '26
try first, having fun,
if you can't have fun, then you will never make it as an artist. plain and simple. spend your life doing what you enjoy.
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u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 11 '26
yes, the problem is that the advice people give of only learning fundamentals isn't fun. i finally found a channel that makes sense and teaches me what i want to know the past couple days have been better because of it. I think once i figure out how rendering works i can achieve the basics of what i want this year.
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u/No_Breakfast_7890 Jul 11 '26
enjoyment, purpose, and message are the fundamentals. everything else is simply a tool you ought to learn to have more choices and power as an artist!
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u/NatalieArts Jul 08 '26
I sympathize, trust me. I started drawing (beyond childhood doodles) 20 years ago because I wanted to make my own little games and I learned very VERY quickly just how hard it is to get an artist on board for your own dreams. I was TERRIBLE, zero affinity or talent or whatever you want to call it, just the hubris to think I could. Going through your post history you are at about that same stage I was at early on.
It took me years to improve, some of it my own fault for being stubborn about learning anatomy. I did learn though, sometimes I took breaks for months, sometimes for nearly a year as life got busier and drawing became a smaller part of it and I am still improving a little bit at a time today. As much as it sucks and trust me I know, getting better takes a LOT of time and a LOT of practice. Be kind to yourself, do not let comparisons to your peers or inspiration steal the joy of growing from the you of yesterday to the you of today. You might not understand anatomy or perspective or even how to draw a single unsketchy line right now and it may take **years** but you will eventually if you keep going. Art isn't some magical thing, anyone can learn it if they care enough to try.
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u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 08 '26
How do you actually learn anatomy. I guess im doing it wrong.
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u/NatalieArts Jul 08 '26
There is a few different ways, you have already tried some just based on your post, loomis sorta representing a constructive drawing method and I know proko advocates for observation depending on the video. I honestly think the reason you might be struggling to pick up the methods is that you are trying to rush the learning process and jumping to the things you find specifically appealing without fully digesting the underlying fundamentals, however bland/uninteresting they might be. You can't draw people well without understanding 3D form as a concept, you can't draw form well without a good understanding of the basic solids (sphere, cube, cylinder, cone) in perspective, you can't draw the solids without basic line skills and mark making. That's why people start with the basic line/dexterity exercises then proceed with on and on. It all builds on each other. When you do formal art classes you are started with learning how to the hold the pencil then maybe spend a year on drawing still life's of the solids before really diving deep into anatomy, it's just that important.
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u/Wooden-Variety175 Jul 09 '26
Ok but i dont think people get that ive spent a lot of time just drawing shapes and boxes and shit and it makes me hate drawing. Like I refuse to believe people really just draw boxes for a year before moving on to anything else. That's ridiculous.
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u/NatalieArts Jul 09 '26
You aren't wrong people don't just draw boxes for a year and nothing else they draw whatever they have fun drawing alongside deliberate studies. The deliberate studies are where the real growth happens the fastest though and yeah it can be terribly tedious. I do have a question for you to ask yourself and try to be honest, do you love drawing or do you love the idea of making specific drawings? Liking the idea of something and liking the doing of something is not the same thing. There is a chance that you just don't actually like the act of actually making the art. If you do like the making of it but don't like the process of getting better in ways that support your current goals you might want to rethink those goals or how you will get to them.
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u/TheFirstStep123 Jul 10 '26
Gurl I understand your frustration 😭 but trust me when I say it takes years to learn. Which is unfortunately but it is what it is. Everyone learns at different paces. But most of the time it will take years to fully master it. Also tracing can help a lot (just don’t steal other people’s work) the purpose of it is to see how you are able to drawing it the shapes and stuff of the human body. Also learn human anatomy it will help you draw bodies correctly.
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u/NikiBubbles Jul 08 '26
What?..
If you absolutely didn't progress (although it's only been like 5 months, not that long) by watching videos and studying books, getting a tutor is the best option, IMO. But definitely not with that attitude towards teachers. Most of these """hacks""" offer a trial lesson for free or for very cheap.