# Learning to Draw



## rune (Jun 30, 2005)

Of those who are artists here.  How did you learn to draw?  Did you do a course?  Did you learn from a book?  Or are you really lucky and have natural tallent?


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## Eradius Lore (Jul 1, 2005)

i took GCSE art and got a C, by that u can tell im not a amazing at drawing but i was one of only two to ever take a full Photoshop exam in our school. i am a lot better artist on computer than i could ever hope to be on paper


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## rune (Jul 1, 2005)

I've often wondered if you can learn the basic's about drawing from books?  What do others think?


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## Eradius Lore (Jul 1, 2005)

i did a lot of learning from books. books are very importent for you to get a spark of insperation


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## rune (Jul 2, 2005)

Eradius Lore said:
			
		

> i did a lot of learning from books. books are very importent for you to get a spark of insperation


 
What about technique though.  Can you learn that from books?


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## Eradius Lore (Jul 2, 2005)

not really you do need someone to show you how its done or a lot of trial and error


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## aurelio (Jul 2, 2005)

I learned every way that I could:  teachers, books, museum trips, schools, other artists.

Some great books to study:

_Composing Pictures_ by Don Graham.  This is the best book on composition ever written.

Any of the Jack Hamm books:
_Drawing the Head and Figure_ 
_How to Draw Animals_ 
_Drawing Scenery_ 

A great book that is very hard to find is _The Art of Animal Drawing_ by Ken Hultgren.  He tutored the Disney artists back when they did _Bambi_. 

I recently read  _Art & Fear_ by David Bayles & Ted Orlando.  It is about approaching the creative process rather than lessons on drawing, but I found it pretty insightful.

I studied at an art institute for a couple of years too.  It lead to a long career as a professional artist.

The best education is experience, especially where drawing is concerned.  Zoo trips are good.  Just take along a sketch pad and draw from life.  The more adept you can get at drawing things in various poses and from various perspectives, the better your artwork will be.  Drawing is the backbone of everything else, so once you can draw all the rest comes easier.

Hope this all helps.


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## Calis (Jul 2, 2005)

I suck at drawing but I wish it was a talent I had. I cant even do stick figures right.


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## aurelio (Jul 2, 2005)

People argue this, but I believe anyone can learn to draw.  You may not end up a great artist, but you can learn the skills.  The biggest problem is that people think it should be easy (it's not) or that you have to be "born with it."

It's like, everyone can learn to write and spell, but that may not make you Shakespeare.


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## scalem X (Jul 3, 2005)

well learn to draw, I can agree. But learn to color with crayons, don't even try to pursuade me.


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## aurelio (Jul 3, 2005)

My parents were smart, or maybe just cheap , but they wouldn't allow us to have coloring books when we were kids, only blank paper and stuff to draw with.  We always had to create our own drawings from scratch.  The result is that everyone in my family can basically draw.  I was the only one who made a full time career of it though.

Not crayons, drawing.


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## rune (Jul 4, 2005)

This as been my thoughts for a while that you need to have some tallent and unfortuantely I can't even draw stick folks    I've had to do some drawing this past two years for my OU course, and it's been a nightmare.  I've had to but more labels in my drawings just in case the poor tutor couldnt recognise what I was trying to draw  

Saying that though I've always admired artists and my Mam was a good drawer, naturally tallented.  My Step Mam is artistic, she draws, paints, makes pottery, clothes.  And here's me with little artistic flare at all!

I would love to think that you can learn the basic's from a book, and there does seem to be drawing books available for beginners.  So just wondered if anyone had tried them and how affect they were


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## Maggie (Jul 12, 2005)

I draw all the time, the more you draw the better you get. I have never had any art lesson well apart from 3 years general art lessons from the age of 11 to 14. I love Fantasy there fore I draw fantasy art Fairies, Vampires Pixies etc. I do not own any reference books I mainly rely on my imaginagtion and the internet for insteresting poses. I would love to earn a living at it one day 



Have a look at my pics if you want the are here: http://www.photobucket.com/albums/b338/Magsian/


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## rune (Jul 13, 2005)

You just posted that link to your pics to make me feel envious didnt you Maggie    You're works lovely, you wouldnt mind sending some of that tallent my way


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## kyektulu (Jul 13, 2005)

I think anyone can have talent if they are willing to devote time and patience to the study, I suppose it is like any other task really, practice makes perfect and all! 
Although I must admit a little bit of talent is a most usefull thing indeed, much to the envy of my friends he he he


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## Maggie (Jul 14, 2005)

Thank you Rune, Im glad you like it Sorry I didnt mean to make you envious and if I had any real talent you would be more than welcom to a share


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## Aliena (Jul 17, 2005)

I believe that anyone can learn to draw.  I think the trick is learning how to see.  If you're trying to draw from life or from some sort of reference, the key is being able to see the lines of the form and reproduce them.  There are lots of measuring techniques that can help you reproduce proper proportions simply by holding out a pencil or ruler and measuring the object with your eye.


I've always doodled...for most of my life, not very well, but it was fun.  In the last 2 years, I've really started to sit down and develop my skills.  Sometimes I seem to improve in spurts, sometimes in very slow, very small baby steps.  BUt all the time, I'm having fun.  I wish I had had formal training, but I'm self-taught.  I've just looked at books - I got an anatomy book by Jack Hamm that really gave me some basics.  And I look at magazines.  Sometimes I'll just study a face in a magazine and discover something about proportions - like there should always be one eyelength in between the eyes.  And if you divide a face into 3's, the bottom third line is where the mouth goes and the top third line is where the eyebrows go.  Or ears should extend from the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose.  Just little observations like that.  Other than that, I've just learned by doing and by making mistakes.  Usually, I'll hand a picture over to my husband and get him (a different pair of eyes) to tell me what's wrong with it.

With coloring and shading, backlighting and all that sort of thing, I've learned by observing what artists I like do.  I guess, it's been a lot of observation, a lot of practice, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of constant reminders that no matter what, I want to be having fun with it.  

I'm getting comfortable with proportions, so I'm trying to work on fluidity, light source, and backgrounds more now.


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## ThulsaDoom (Aug 1, 2005)

I was never really taught how to draw in school (The art teachers were unfortunately of the "Those who can't, teach" type!) I had to teach myself most things, and cobble together bits of knowledge from books where I could. 

As for learning art... I think _everyone_ can be taught technique, but that is somewhat of a separate issue. I do think there has to be an instinctive talent for proportion and colour. I've seen people that when I was younger could crush me into the ground with technique. However, they couldn't draw a face or building in proportion to save their lives. (and these were people who drew a lot) Once I'd started looking at what they did, and figuring out their techniques and merging my own, I was able to surpass them.

I think the first time I was ever genuinely 'taught' a few techniques was when I studied Product Design, and had lessons on the techniques used for fast efficient product rendering skills.


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## Jaxom_Ruatha (Aug 1, 2005)

Sometimes I am inspired to draw from stories, I learned to draw from tutorials found all over the internet. My favorite style is anime/manga and little chibi are really fun to draw here's a link if anyone's interested: http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial.html I do find it rather hard to color sometimes though, since I am Red and Green colorblind  . Hopefully I'll get better when I am able to get photoshop so I wont have to rely so much on crayons and colored pencils.


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## rune (Aug 2, 2005)

I've noticed you can get sketch by numbers now.  Do you think that will help me get artistic


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## darkwolf (Jun 26, 2007)

Hi Rune,

The key to learning to draw is the same key to learning to write: do it and do it often. You can learn techniques from books, but art, like anything else, takes practice. Don't get disappointed, because it will take a long time. Yes, there are some folks who are born with a talent and others who learned to do just as well.

Start simple. Find various objects, and just do line drawings at first, don't worry about shading, etc, in the beginning. Once you feel that you have the line drawings down, then begin to practice shading - this is where the books can come in handy, because they can help with shadow and highlight techniques.

At first, use reference items or photos and just draw what you see. If you want to do a picture of a unicorn, find a picture of a unicorn and sketch it exactly as you see it. You'll be amazed at how much you'll learn that way. It's the same technique that art teachers have been using for what seems like forever.

Once you can draw what you see, you can begin to draw what you only see in your mind...and even then it makes things easier if you have reference photos or drawings to help get things into the proper shapes. Don't be afraid to use other people's work as reference material, especially in the beginning. Almost every artist that has ever lived has used some form of reference material. Just don't plagarize and you'll do fine.

Darkwolf


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## Diana Levin (Sep 24, 2007)

I think the best way to learn to draw is from life. Books help for practice, but if you really want to learn, take a figure drawing class with a good instructor. My theory is if you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Oct 21, 2007)

I had natural talent which exhibited itself early. Accordingly, I am essentially self-taught. At ten years of age I began teaching myself perspective drawing and human anatomy, so by the time I began serious art instruction in my freshman year of high school it was all fairly redundant.

Ideally, the personal drive and the opportunities for instruction need to be combined for the best outcome. Lacking that, show me a person with natural gifts and ambition and he'll beat an unmotivated, but well-trained individual any day of the week. My proof? Ask around: Ninety percent of all successful artists are self-trained, self-propelled men.


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## creativeflow20 (Jun 18, 2009)

i remember when was about 3-5, i used to draw on a huge big of scrap paper all kinds of stick figures. i think it was natural for me.


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