# Jumping into the deep end of the dream pool...(new artist needs guidance)



## Inmate_001 (Mar 12, 2016)

After many years of not drawing or doing anything creative outside music, I've just bought myself a mid-range i5 surface pro 4.  Why?  So that I could get back into my art and draw nature... that, and jump into the deep end of the dream I've had for years and actually start to learn to draw "figures" (meaning Human/Furry creations that are more anatomically correct), and then go from there in getting various disproportions.

The thing is, I don't really know where to start... As far say... what do I need to start practicing now to make that initial few steps easier?  I've spent the last few days just doing some initial tries at drawing faces and... yea, even with the basic circle and cross it looks terrible.  Thus I know I need practice on the basics, so... circles and lines are a must for practice that much I know, but... then again I might be wrong there too?

Where to start, and while art is art and thus certain freedoms are afforded, one still needs to have basic understanding and muscle memories of this and that before you can even begin to tackle realistic enough anatomy to be drawing figures on any level beyond stick figure.  Yea, I'm definitely at a loss on what to start with before delving into those little stick figure beginnings that every sketch of a figure starts off with... 

Like I know for anatomy, I have to be able to draw those stick figures for both proportion correctness and for the motion and/or flow of a pose... but yea I don't even know what to call this, so...

All in all, does anyone have any free web based resources for a fledgling artist such as myself?

(The reason why I want to do this is just that I can draw nature and such (trees, rocks, formations, etc), at a decent level, but character/figure drawing has always been a distant dream due to lack of ability, motivation, etc... and now I gave myself everything I need, even going so far as to give myself a digital touch screen + pen to draw with here.  So I now have no excuses, hehe    I would create and upload an image to show just how bad I am at faces n such, but it's just too terrible for anyone to see such a massacre of the arts.)


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## ratsxteeth (Mar 12, 2016)

I've definitely used youtube as a kind of resource when learning how to draw initially. Artists like Sycra, ProkoPenko, and Mark Crilley have tutorials for the form and stuff for beginners. 

www.youtube.com: Sycra (He's pretty diverse in terms of style, and his techniques were really helpful when i first started drawing)
www.youtube.com: Proko (He also has a skele phone app for poses and such, but im not sure if its free as i lack a mobile device. He also has a video on gesture that may interest you on breaking down the flow and dynamics of a pose)
www.youtube.com: markcrilley (More anime based than the former two, but he makes a lot of great points.)

You can also use figure drawing websites such as Art Models Figurative Nudes for Artists - Pose Space (Nsfw due to nudity, but can be filtered) and artists.pixelovely.com: Figure & Gesture Drawing Practice Tool

I mean, I hope this helps! There are tons of resources available, these are just a tiny handful in comparison.


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## Sforzie (Mar 14, 2016)

I'm also fond of Posemaniacs.com for pose ideas and references!


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## Kazibug (Mar 14, 2016)

I second Posemaniacs. Quickposes.com is also a wonderful reference resource. 

http://learnhowtoart.tumblr.com/  is a gold mine for general art tips and tricks, as well as nifty tricks in some graphics programs (I think it's 90% Sai, but there may be others hidden in there)

I can offer a few tips as well if you'd like  The big and obvious one being: practice! You will get discouraged and you will hate some of the things you draw, but don't stop. Art is a trained skill, and it does take time. Another thing you may want to try is gesture drawings. Instead of looking at a reference photo and going for full detailed face, clothing, hair, etc., just go for the basic shapes. There's no right or wrong way to do this. Some people just do a stick figure with circles for joins, others do bubbles. Experiment!

Random anatomy tricks you may find helpful:

The average body is between six and seven "heads" high. Once you have your head drawn, that will help position everything else.
The hand should be large enough to completely cover the face - heel of the palm on the chin, and the middle finger touching between the eyebrows. 
Your foot and your forearm are the same size
Your head and your forearm are also the same size!
Elbows should _just_ reach the top of the head when the arms are extended up
When down at the sides, the elbows should line up with the bellybutton
There should be enough space between the eyes to fit a third eye
The edges of the mouth line up with the middle of the eye.
At least these are the ones I find myself referencing the most  Happy art-ing!


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## Yarik (Mar 14, 2016)

If you ever have issues with your hand-eye coordination this site: Draw a Box: An exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing has really cool lessons / exercises that can help you.
That said, art is a profession like any other.  Of course there are artists that only live upon pure inspiration, but you're probably mostly looking to become an artisan. Somebdoy whom can "craft" their imagination into something. Every profession takes thousands of hours of practice and nobody gets around that, sadly. I'd wish I'd be better than I am right now too, but we won't get anywhere without a TON of practice :V

Good luck!


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## Zrcalo (Mar 15, 2016)

@Inmate_001 

what program are you using? I highly reccomend paint tool sai. Your pressure sensitivity SHOULD work on the surface pro. I think you need the special wacom pen though. 

with sai you have the option of pressure sensitivity and line stabilization, so I'd definitely go with that!

tbh, the stick figures are very misleading and can cause bad anatomy to happen. I say, learn to draw things with squares and circles. It leads to a much more structured image.


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## Inmate_001 (Mar 17, 2016)

Thanks for the replies.  I'm currently using Krita as it's free and helps atm.  Though I'll be looking into sai or clip when I get the money together.  Currently I'm working on the head and finding various tutorials on that (good to start with the human head and then work towards the furries right?).  I'm dabbling in the body but that will come after I get my muscle memory down with better line control for circles and squares and the proportion "iron man" head, and that kind of thing.

What I was referring to with stick figures is just getting the basic "skeleton lines" down for pose drawing and flow of motion or whatever it's all called.  (lol, still in the newb faze where I'm learning my terminology again heh).  Yea they can mislead for proportions, but they work for getting the idea at the least.  Or so I hear?  It's what a majority of animators use for the first lines that get erased/deleted... or so I hear?

I got my pen working with sensitivity, lol... as always, had to install a trial of photoshop and everything worked right, then worked on the pressure curve in windows.

Now I've just got to learn how to get individual parts of the face right to a degree... like basic lip lines, nose lines, stuff like that.  Got to get to where I can do it mostly right and do it fast you know?  Instead of hours getting the iron man proportions (planes of the face) right, I should be able to sketch it in seconds or minutes depending on the degree of realism one is going for heh...

(The way things look right now is just... abysmal.  Things while in "porportion" are just... way off.. lines and curves are just not right atm... but it will come with time and practice ... one hopes)

I'll be giving those sites a look-see when I get home tomorrow, as I'm heading off to bed in a min.  But this Is a wealth of ideas to work on so thank you very much.... now, the next goal after proportions?  blowing them out of proportion >... that's going to be a whole 'nother ballpark... (like how to size the muscles right compared to the size of a person to make a guy furry look unrealistically strong... or Give a woman unnaturally large ... curves...  and everything in between for good practice)


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## Inmate_001 (Mar 18, 2016)

forums.furaffinity.net: Sketchbook: - First Human Form Sketch... ever.

Welp, here it is.  My first try at the male form... Drawn from a photo of a guy posing from pintrest... changed the hair as I don't like the ball-cap for this one.


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## Xheshire (Mar 23, 2016)

In order to draw I feel that people can draw better if they teach themselves so if you are looking to teach yourself and not have classes then the best thing is to try to illustrate somebody else's art (make sure to put the original artists name since it's not yours) once you draw down somebody else's art you can start to develop
 your own style. Well that's what helped me, but if that doesn't work there is always tutorials online.


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## AlfieOmeg (Mar 25, 2016)

One thing I have learned from art school is to stop drawing what you *think* a nose or an eye or a foot should be, but instead draw what you actually see, no matter how silly it may look. Once the pic starts coming together all of those weird,  imperfect forms will create a unique likeness rather than a cookie cutter figure that everyone has seen a thousand times.


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## SodaBubbles (Mar 28, 2016)

@AlfieOmeg is right- the book I learned that from was Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (though the concept of right vs left brain is outdated, the book is still HELLA useful)...

A lot of high end artists will share step-by-steps with their audiences, and you can see how they turn out something brilliant that starts out looking rather silly. One of my favorites is http://sheridan-j.deviantart.com They have a lot of step-by-steps, and some of their starting points are just very silly. 

Also! Try sitting in on Livestreams, especially ones where the artist starts from a blank canvas and draws. A lot of time you can learn really well watching people draw, rather than looking at a book. Some people have some interesting habits with their construction forms, and some use no construction form at all, and just build as they go.


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## RailRide (Apr 11, 2016)

Couple of quickies:

--The phrase you're looking for is "Line of Motion". Google-Image that and find a wealth of examples

--Best places for watching streams are Picarto.tv and Tigerdile.com, The first has a broad array of categories (including furry), the second is run by a member of the "community" and is furry-specific. Both have chats, but you may need to register (free) in order to participate--some streams have guest chat disabled at the discretion of the channel owner. You'll learn rather quickly that CTRL-X is a digital artist's best friend.

--Using Krita, you pretty much have all that SAI will give you--SAI just happens to have the cachet of being one of the first applications especially geared toward digital inking and painting that the fandom got wind of, and therefore "all the cool kids use it". If you want to experiment with more digital painting apps before laying out money (or cheating)  for SAI, you can also try MyPaint and Smoothdraw*, which both have similar feature sets and are both freeware (the first one also being open-source)

---PCJ, a part-time Surface Pro user (albeit a SP2 (one step below top-spec), cause I was being cheap when the SP3 was coming out)

(*Smoothdraw requires Microsoft's .NET if your system doesn't already have it installed. Links are provided on the download page)


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## rjbartrop (Apr 11, 2016)

First off,  you don't actually "need" a touch screen to learn how to draw.  A pencil and a stack of cheap paper will work just fine, and frankly, if you can't draw with that, you won't be able to do it with tablet and graphics software, no matter how good they are.   In fact, I would suggest the price of a tablet would be better spent on some of Andrew Loomis' how-to books.  Written in the 40s, they're still some of the best books on the subject.
Aside from that, if you want to draw trees, go outside, look at trees, and draw what you see.   Like AlfieOmeg said, it's really about learning how to look.


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## MostlyTeeth (Apr 14, 2016)

Wow.  So many great comments here.  Especially about Posemaniacs (thanks Sforzie).  I didn't even know that existed.  What a resource.

I would only add that I find a lot of my growth comes from copying other artists' works (for practice only, not publication).  I find this especially true for anything that isn't intended to be fully realistic.  The further from realism it gets, the more exaggerated and dynamic poses and features become and the great artists have distilled it to a science which bits and pieces to emphasize for maximum effect.  And doing basic copies of the old masters, even just for tone structure and composition can really impact how you put your own pictures together.

Personally, I'm doing a lot of copying from anatomy and strength-training books (the ones with illustrated musculature) atm.

I think the most important thing, though, is to just sit down every day and do something_.  Anything.  _


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