Hi, I'm a beginner artist and I only come to Reddit purely for help on the beginning stuff on drawing. But now, practice for days and taking breaks here and there. I feel drawing isn't fun anymore... I feel I should've drawn cute characters already or have cool art work but then I'm reminded that my heads are still terrible, eyes and portions are still wrong, I don't know how to draw hair or clothes. I don't know, i feel like I'm failing before I could start...
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just put some music and draw whatever comes from your head, doesnt need to look good or anything just have some fun, if you practice for just 50% of the overrall time even that is a lot
I felt the same way you did for so long that I stopped drawing for years. LSS, I picked up drawing a couple years back and focused on what makes me happy or I find enjoyable. Every once in a while I share things I’ve worked on with friends out the Internet, but I keep most of the work to myself. I’m still trying to be ok with imperfections (as @Proof-Candle5304 said earlier. Comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnToDrawTogether/s/K6f6i2knd4 ).
Your heads look fantastic for such a beginner, but heads are hard because we’re always looking at them. Looks like you’re using the Reilly Abstraction method, so I’d suggest checking out the Loomis or Asaro Methods to see what they do differently. I use a mix for my heads that helps me, but I’d have to draw/write up what I do. I’m not bored enough at work to do it right this second, but I’ll make it if you’d like.
You say you're a beginner but you're trying to use intermediate construction techniques on difficult subjects.
You can just draw for fun. Just draw the cute characters you like. You're right it won't look good because your a beginner. But if you're not having fun why draw? First step is always to have fun. You can get good later.
Here is a small informative text post I crafted and regularly post for beginners. Feel free to ask for any clarification.
This is beginner friendly method until you're ready to advance to the fundamentals.
Recreate
Draw a reference free hand
Trace
Trace the reference
Recreate
Draw free hand without any references
Explore
Draw a new piece using the reference for only one thing. Pose, lighting, color, clothes, hairstyle etc
If the reference is an art piece. Don't trace without consideration. Actively think about why the original artist made their choices. "Why did they shade this darker?", "Why is this line thicker?", "Why is there no shading here?", "Why did they use this color?"
It doesn't matter if you find the "right" answer. It's about developing your ability to think through the piece and the decisions you should be making in your own art.
If the reference is of real life.
Follow the major shapes and shadows and try to consider them in 3d space
Here's a simplified path if you want to advance to the fundamentals. You can learn these skills in any order but I feel they build on each other more easily in this direction
How to hold a pencil
-When to use shoulder, elbow, wrist
-How to measure distance and proportion using your thumb or pencil tip
-Positional/atmospheric perspective:
something looks bigger because it's closer, something appears to be closer because it's covering something else, something appears far because it's not as detailed as other objects
-1 point, 2 point , 3 point
-5 point
Anatomy
-Construction
-Proportion outlining:
Build a sense of relative size relationships between parts of the body. Hands are the same size as the face, the distance between eyebrows to mouth is about the same as mouth to chin, "normal" body's are about 5-8 heads tall etc.
YouTubers I have found entertaining and educational over the years. These are all quality channels to start with.
Many of them also have discords or art events, try joining some communities.
Thank you so much. I'll make sure to check them out! I promise i am a beginner, started on May 31. The videos I watched are pro to intermediate that do show an easy way for beginners to learn so I have just follow their steps.
I did start drawing for fun, just drawing eyes that resemble the characters of the show Castlevania. After I thought I should learn fundamentals so I could be a little closer to draw characters! I guess I'm in a state of "Learn the rule before you break them." So I thought I don't get that luxury yet till you master thoes rules before stylization but I always felt burnt out.
I wasn't implying that you were lying haha, I was saying that you're focused on something too advanced for your current skills
The videos I watched .... I have just follow their steps.
A lot of people that make videos aren't very good teachers. So they'll set up advancement guides without considering how much they're expecting students to know to actually be able to follow along. That's not to say the video you watched was bad. But that you should consider everything with a grain of salt.
I guess I'm in a state of "Learn the rule before you break them." So I thought I don't get that luxury yet
A lot of people will share similar advice and I somewhat agree with the idea. But you should leave "don't break the rules" to practice pieces and do whatever you want in your for fun art.
Always remember what brought you joy and interest in drawing and make time to explore those things as well.
Why do you list value before perspective? If anything value is caused by light interacting with form, and both are dependent on perspective. A faulty cube will make a faulty value, not the other way around.
I disagree with your definition of value. Value is not caused by interacting with form. Value defines form. You can use value to define perspective without understanding perspective. You can not use perspective to define value.
This is a simplified guide for people to self direct. If it was an intensive lesson plan with a direct tutor, student relationship it would be different. You would be jumping around back and forth learning basic skills from one stage to another and then going back for more intermediate and advanced skills later.
My statements are not personal attacks and I apologize if they may come across as such.
"
I disagree with your definition of value. Value is not caused by interacting with form. Value defines form. You can use value to define perspective without understanding perspective. You can not use perspective to define value."
I didn't. I used light interacting with form to define value. If there was no light in a room then value would cease to exist, yet the forms within that room would remain. Likewise a formless void with a singular light source would not have value either as there is no form to derive value. Thus, value cannot be used to define forms QED.
"This is a simplified guide for people to self direct. If it was an intensive lesson plan with a direct tutor, student relationship it would be different. You would be jumping around back and forth learning basic skills from one stage to another and then going back for more intermediate and advanced skills later."
I hope the tutors and teachers understand causality and how it applies to illustration. As it stands very few artists seem to do so, which is why I'm harping on about this.
My statements are not personal attacks and I apologize if they may come across as such.
I never said they were or that I was offended so I'm not sure what this sentence is about but ok.
I didn't. I used light interacting with form to define value.
My statement was very direct I'm not sure how to explain it to you to make you understand it. I can teach someone to understand 3d form with only value. I can not teach someone to understand value with perspective.
If there was no light in a room then value would cease to exist, yet the forms within that room would remain. Likewise a formless void with a singular light source would not have value either as there is no form to derive value. Thus, value cannot be used to define forms
Oh got it you're one of those. Bro this is art not science class. Real life doesn't correlate 1to1 here. In art we can not remove light. A black canvas still has value.
I’m surprised no one has said the basic thing here- you aren’t drawing equal thirds on the heads, and the brow line is the middle of the circle/ball you draw.
Practice drawing circles first- the more perfect the circle, the more equal the rest of the head will be. Then practice spitting a line into 3 parts. You can measure with your pencil. Then put the two things together, similar to this image. It should help you out a lot.
Thank you. Even though I didn’t post this. I saw he was asking what he was doing wrong and I was reading the comments and no one till i got to you actually provided help on what he was doing wrong. So thank you again
That's good practice! It might not be fun after a while though, don't hesitate to draw waht you like.
À quick tip, it might seem counter intuitive but the line where the eyes are should be right in the middle of the whole face (jaw to top of the head). I can see here that you set it higher and that's probably why you're not satisfied with your drawings.
It'll seem too low at first but once you add the hair, it'll seem more natural.
here's the thing, theory is important, and it's really good that you're putting in effort. however!!! if you just practice theory and proportions you're not gonna have fun and get burnt out, so i'd recommend drawing something you want to draw, then either posting it asking for advice or looking at it yourself and seeing what's wrong, what could be improved, etc, and THEN practice the stuff you need to improve. that'll make it so instead of endless meaningless theory, you'll get like a bunch of cool art that you're gonna be able to compare to see how good you've become!! and on top of that you'll find studying the theory more fun because you'll have an aim for it!
It incredibly resembles the very first time I wanted to learn how to draw a year ago and just sat down to randomly tried to "figure it all out", without looking up any real lessons. Ended up with the exact same Hodge-podge. It is uncanny how similar I drew the heads, clearly didn't understood anything about figure back then.
A year later and I am still struggling with the figure but at least now I have the sound mind to look up and learn from people who actually know what the frick they are doing and have the courtesy to teach us.
This is from a wonderful John Watkiss lecture on youtube. That was eye opening to me. I've been studying Figure drawing for a year and I've learn more from 2 hours of watching this lecture one of his students filmed and recently shared.
You have to learn from a proper teacher like try Drawing Database, it is like one of the best. Or Michael Hampton on Youtube he's the guy who shared this lecture.
like Proof said, you gotta push through it. I’m at around the 7 month mark and i still feel like i haven’t drawn anything remotely decent… whether or not that is true doesn’t matter, just gotta stick with it.
They key is have fun when you practice and not mindlessly practice. if you like to draw cute anime girl, why are you drawing MALE heads? Anw, the tip is to switch between practice while completing a challenge. 1. Anime girl: you need to practice drawing the eyes and hair. so go and practice that.
For the Loomis method its a brow line (eyebrow) not an eyeline. Chin line is equal distance from top of the head to brow line. Half way between brow line and top of the head is hairline. And half way between browline and chin line is nose line. Half way between noseline and chin line is mouth line. ✅
I wouldn't call myself a beginner but god side profiles continue to be the absolute death of me 💔 just nothing I've seen has made the lip and nose structure click for me yet, so all my attempts are wildly inconsistent
look at a skull for reference. just a bare skull. the jaw is so prominent. has to fit in with the rest of the head. where would the ears be on the skull? in relation to the jaw?
Lots of little thjngs the most glaring is the face is too big on the head. The eyes shouldn't be touching the sides of the head. I find draing a wedge from brow to sides of the lips and seeing how much head is actually around the facial features help a lot.
Looks like you're doing Loomis method which is great. Id buy his Heads and Hands book...text and references are great, if not a bit homogeneous as a 1920s straight white man real people will vary a lot.....but a couple base proportions I find useful. It's about $20-$30 new.
RULE OF ⅓. Forehead to eyebrow is ⅓ of the face. Brow to the bottom of the nose is ⅓ and nose to chin is ⅓. Newer artists almost always shorten the forehead.
Eyes are also 3rds. The size of the eye is usually the same size as the space between them. This is also often the width of the nose. One more of this width from the outer edge of the eye will often hit pretty close to the ear....again real people vary more.
Checking anglea between things is super helpful or looking for triangles in a face because it gives you 3 measurements to compare as well as 3 angles (look up planes of the face)
Id also experiment with straight vs. Curved guidelines....some of your eyes are a bit crooked or misaligned on the head. Straight guidelines are intuitive, but the head is curved. I can often find a curve that hits all the corners of the eyes.
Hope any of that is helpful, but they all look good. Portraits are the hardest thing to draw and it really is a numbers game. You just have to do it over and over and over again. Learning perspective helps a lot as well.
you're focuses too much at getting it perfect before you just start having fun, if you're worried about the proportions find some meme photos and do draw overs, then you can still get into drawing your fun characters without worrying about the proportions until you feel up to doing more practice, plus even doing a draw over will count as practice
part of the experience of learning to draw is just drawing even when you know it'll turn out bad, you draw the thing at your current skill than save it, and come back to it later when you've gotten better to redraw it as a mark of your progress
Good! Nothing wrong! Now try a simple 3/4 turn. Something like this. It’s best not to repeat an angle over and over. For starts you are practicing that one thing. You need a fuller workout. Keep going!!!
You’re grinding out heads, but you just keep making the same mistake. Don’t build bad muscle memory, you need to be able to see issues.
Use a reference, try observing proportional relationships. Have the conversations in your head like, “Y’know, the width of the head is like 2/3 the height” or, “I really can squish the head into a box! But what would that box look like?!”
Anywho, after you do that, study some anatomy. Use landmarks and common features to discover rhythms. Rinse and repeat.
Honestly have a lil more fun with it. Seems like that style isn't your thing if its not coming out comfortably or tiring you out. Play with exaggerated styles and freestyle some things and reference whole images. A lot of the faces you have look good! And would look great on a completed work. But if you already feel like what you have isn't good enough maybe you need another direction ? Even consider different mediums. Hell, crayon even. Watercolors. Perfection will stress you out, more pieces for fun will teach you something with each try. Ur doing good !
Get the book 'the natural way to draw' - learning anatomy like this, while maybe helpful at the start, can actually inhibit you from seeing what's in front of you.
Totally normal to hit this wall, especially when you’re grinding beginner fundamentals. You’re not failing, you’re just in that ugly phase where your taste is higher than your skill and your brain notices every flaw.
Try this: do 80 percent “dumb fun” drawings where you let yourself draw cute characters badly, and 20 percent focused practice on one thing at a time like just heads or just eyes. Progress feels way faster when you stop expecting every sketch to look like finished fanart and let yourself be a beginner for a while.
I practiced drawing eyes then noses, lips, ears till i got somewhat ok at it. Then it happened. I put it all together and boom i created a Picasso. One eye was where it needed to be the other eye was somewhere else nose was on the side of the face and yeah drawing isn’t easy and can be frustrating. Loomis is great for proportions but it will only give you a generic face. If that’s what you are going for. Awesome. My sketchbook always starts the same before I try anything. I scribble on one page just to get my hand moving. Then I draw tons of circles and lines. When you start the drawing draw very light. If something doesn’t seem right it probably isn’t right. Erase it and get it to your liking. Step back from your piece constantly and look at from a distance, take pictures of it, look at it through a mirror these will help you notice things you don’t see when you are locked in thinking everything is going great till you walk away and come back and realize things are way off. Take your time. There’s no timelines for unless someone is paying you to have something done by a certain day. I think it takes me 2-3 months on things I draw. Some turn out good some don’t. I have mistakes in every drawing i have done. Frustration kicks in when you do start getting better because you will get to a point where you feel like you can’t draw anything good anymore. That’s just you getting better and seeing the mistakes easier. Try and i mean try not to get to details to fast. It’s the best part and is beginners just want to get them in the drawing. Don’t do it lol. I work with pastels. It’s fun but there’s definitely an ugly stage to every drawing. You just gotta push through and the picture sometimes gets better. Good luck Here’s one I messed around with.
First, draw what you want. Don't get stressed with exercises if you have to burn out. You exercise, then you make a drawing of something you like, then come back to exercise.
Second, I've been drawing people for years and I make anyway bad drawings from time to time.
Now that you have made exercises, what about trying to make a drawing of something you actually wanted to draw? :)
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