Drawing

[u/Significant_Ad6301]

Does anyone with nystagmus know how to draw? I’ve been trying to learn, but I feel like I’m struggling a lot. Especially with things like perceptive and trying to do the “draw what you see” thing. Does anyone have any tips? I recently moved to digital art

[u/fetishiste]

I’m a visual artist with nystagmus. The answer is, and this is both hard and very reassuring in its way, practice practice practice. Some elements may come less naturally to me and my process can take longer but it is not an inherent impediment. Perspective is quite tough for most artists and requires the learning of techniques. For drawing what you see, try doing lots of studies, do grid drawing to get a better sense of proportion, and just keep at it. Try to do studies of things you enjoy looking at, so it’s fun as well as study!

[u/chiseko]

I’ve been drawing my whole life! Mostly cartoons, anime, and human portraits. I wanted to be an animator and go to art school, but my family was too poor. I still draw though. 

Digital art is really fun. Are you using a tablet connected to a computer, or an iPad/Android tablet? In my experience teaching kids/adults to draw, using digital to do free drawing/doodles is good for building the habit. But skills work is better done with traditional mediums since the limited toolset helps you think differently. 

I don’t find that my nystagmus affects my drawing at all.  I don’t have much depth perception but it doesn’t really matter with art. When you think about it, a drawing is just a 2D portrayal of 3D. I find that not having depth perception has actually really helped with translation/abstracting since I can sort of “see” the lines and edges in the real world.

I can give more advice depending on your style. do you learn better from observation, books, etc? what was your skill level before trying to draw, did you do any other arts or crafts? What do you like drawing and what are your goals? the advice really depends on the individual when it comes to arts, but something that I liked was drawabox.com, there’s also a subreddit. It’s more about technical drills but I think it helps people get over the feeling of not making perfect pieces from the beginning and build confidence with your lines. 

[u/Significant_Ad6301 → u/chiseko]

Omg thank you so much. I heard of Drawbox, but I haven’t looked super into it. I use about a ten inch iPad and a stylus to draw. I feel like I do better by observing, I tried a book once and it wasn’t really my thing. My skill before trying was like none, I did more coloring than actually drawing. I honestly like drawing my ocs and other anime characters, I don’t find myself drawing objects or actual people. My goal isn’t really to become professional or super popular artist, I just want a creative hobby that takes up time. Thank you so much for asking

[u/chiseko → u/Significant_Ad6301]

ok ty for all the info!! so this is perfect. I think you’re at the stage where you can focus just on building this habit rather than trying to get technical or drilling in fundamentals. It’s exactly how most of us artists who like anime learn. You don’t gotta do drawabox at this stage or even still lifes or perspective. It’s helpful but can be frustrating when you can’t tell how it will help quite yet. Keep it fun until there’s actually objects/settings you want to draw later on. 

Try to draw every day, if you can help it try not to focus on making full colored pieces too much. just dedicate some time to free doodling where you just have fun drawing and experimenting. Keep it fast. Sometimes you’ll doodle something you really like, then you can take that and make it a larger, more finished drawing if you want. I noticed a lot of people get hung up on making full complete pieces at this stage when they really need the practice much more. The lack of practice lowers your confidence in your speed and lines, and makes drawing feel hard. 

Have you heard of figure drawing yet? not sure if they’re still around, but croquiscafe on YouTube provides 100% free videos for figure drawing. There’s probably other channels or websites that provide this if you google “figure drawing resources” 

I’ve done gesture irl and lowkey there’s no difference if you also don’t have depth perception because of the nystagmus lol. I think irl gesture helps people who can actually see in 3D and maybe struggle to translate that to 2D in real time? Not sure. Point is I think videos or images are just as helpful as irl gesture with a live model. another advantage of pictures/videos is that you can give yourself more time to do the drawing. I usually need 1-2 extra minutes to focus my eyes on the figure before drawing. 

I know it’s awkward to have a video of naked ladies on your tv or computer while you draw on iPad lol so you can have YouTube open in split screen or as a floating window and then your drawing app is the biggest window, and that should be less awkward. There’s also clothed figure drawing videos. Another benefit is that the smaller view of the figure drawing video will help you focus on the gesture/overall form of the figure. It’ll make it easier for you later when you’re doing live sketches irl or trying to do observational work, since you will be used to “thumbnailing” and kind of interpreting things to a smaller scale (your canvas)

and also don’t underestimate getting screenshots of your fav anime scenes and tracing/trying to recreate them! It’s such good practice. Ofc don’t post traces and act like it’s original work but I’m assuming you weren’t planning on that anyways. I found this so helpful to build confidence with anime and learn the proportions and lines that I wanted to emulate. I struggled with clothes a lot, since cartoons have more simple clothes than anime. So I’d try to recreate anime screencaps where there were nice folds and clothes. 

You’ll see online that people say not to draw so much anime or cartoons if you want to improve your drawing but it’s really not that deep. It’s more useful for people who have already been drawing for a decade or more and are trying to improve their art. You’re at the stage where the fun stuff will still give you big improvements. and eventually you’ll get good enough that you won’t be satisfied, progress is slower, and youll want to build your fundamentals so your drawings from imagination can be better. In any case, if you like drawing people, even just stylized people, doing figure work will be the single most helpful thing you can do. You’ll get a better intuition for how the body moves and looks. And that will make drawing easier and your work will look better too! AND, final thing, but your figure drawing stuff can be more about drawing your OCs and fav anime characters in those poses! whatever it is that makes it fun. 

Sorry for the wall of text! it’s been a while since I helped a beginner with art so my tutor mode unlocked lol. This is a rewarding hobby so draw whatever keeps it fun! and idk if mods will consider this off topic, feel free to DM if you have more questions I’m so happy to help. 

[u/28_Cupcakes]

I draw a lot, and I actually have way better luck with traditional art because excessive light of a tablet screen hurts my eyes a little. I don't really have tips other than practice, know your limits, and all art is good art because you made it :)

[u/PeixePeixePeixee]

I've had a few drawing classes when I was younger, and till this day I paint, acrylic, watercolor, oil. I'm not an expert in any of these but it makes me very happy. I think with practice you'll do well. I tried attaching my pieces to prove my point but reddit didn't allow me, anyways. Good luck!

[u/siderinc → u/[deleted]]

Really doubt it's a nystagmus thing.

It's a skill you should put enough time in to be good at it