Drawing beginner, need some targeted tutorials

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7 comments, last by GamerzEdge 10 years, 7 months ago

I reviewed some of the stickies in this section and the drawing resources has a few links to some sites with tutorials but I don't think any of them are a good starting point for me.

I want to learn how to draw adequately so I can start doing some of my own game art. I was hoping someone could provide me with a good source for some real beginner tutorials to help define good habits when getting started. I am not going for full on photo realistic portraits, but in the end I would like to be able to perform some sketched out concepts for art in the game.

Any ideas where I to start, some targeted tutorials would be very helpful.

Thank you!

I'm just a guy - that's it.

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Well, buy a sketchbook, some decent pencils, a good eraser, and start practicing all the time. Practice is everything. I would look at generic drawing tutorials (not the "learn to draw a puppy!" kind) if you don't have much art experience yet, since it sounds like you want to do concept art rather than creating art assets (like sprites or textures).

I would consider buying a book, since online stuff is always so hit-and-miss. I bought this one and thought it had some great stuff and it was certainly less dry than a lot of classic tutorial-type books. Books are also nice since you can pick a comfy spot away from interweb distractions.

And finally, I wrote this article that has a lot of various "gotchas" that personally haven't seen spelled out other places when it comes to drawing.

Good luck!

-Mark the Artist

Digital Art and Technical Design
Developer Journal

Prinz, thank you for the advice, I have already ordered the recommended book through Amazon and should arrive by Tuesday! Your article is amazing, so full of information, it will take a multiple reviews to let some of that sink in.

I was previously familiar with the concept that a typical human proportion is about 7-8 heads in length, how do you utilize that when you are drawing? Are you constantly aware of this while you are sketching, or is something that new artists should be aware of until they are comfortable sizing up their sketches without measuring? Obviously the proportion is based on the look the artist is going for, but if one wanted to keep things proportionate, do they measure each drawing?

I'm just a guy - that's it.

Glad you like the article!

I don't really do figure drawing, but when I do I start out measuring things very carefully but after a while it becomes more and more intuitive. For really important things (like for a client rather than a sketchbook-type thing) it's pretty standard to make a few practice sketches and then be very careful in keeping things "right" by actually measuring with a ruler, etc. if necessary. But the idea is to get to the point where all the rules are just natural to you.

-Mark the Artist

Digital Art and Technical Design
Developer Journal

I have a "heads" tutorial over on deviant art. http://sunandshadow.deviantart.com/art/8-heads-anime-male-proportions-92661062 I'm an anime/cartoon artist, I made my tutorials (this one plus some others) as a style adaptation of the more realistic proportion guide by Andrew Loomis:

http://sarah-hesketh.blogspot.com/2012/01/andrew-loomis.html

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

Thank you Sun! I have watched a couple artists demonstrate some of Andrew Loomis's techniques, particularly with drawing the heads proportions, and I did find it very useful. I think I have forgot them now, so maybe I should pick up a copy myself!

While it's not my goal to necessarily be able to draw still life (trust me that goal would be far far away anyhow) I have read that in order to draw anime, and other none proportionate styles, it is important to understand the proper physical proportions. Something about drawing anime is a form of abstraction, taking away from what would normally be there, and you cannot properly abstract from a drawing without understand what should be there to begin with.

This scares me since I am a complete beginner, and my motivation is to create my own game art since I am doing a solo game project which has no artist. I support I just have to be patient and practice, and nothing I do right now has to be perfect anyway.

Love anime btw.

I'm just a guy - that's it.

Glad you like the article!

I don't really do figure drawing, but when I do I start out measuring things very carefully but after a while it becomes more and more intuitive. For really important things (like for a client rather than a sketchbook-type thing) it's pretty standard to make a few practice sketches and then be very careful in keeping things "right" by actually measuring with a ruler, etc. if necessary. But the idea is to get to the point where all the rules are just natural to you.

Your article was really awesome and well written. When I was reading it I was thinking wow just because of how complete it was. You could tell it wasnt rushed and you knew what you were talking about. Im puzzled to why I didnt know about it sooner.

@JustAGuy Drawing a still life is generally considered much easier than drawing anime style, unless what you actually meant was life drawing or photorealism or something. Drawing a still life just means you sit there looking at an object or arrangement of objects and draw what you see. Drawing a still life is a typical beginner activity in drawing classes for both children and adults.

As far as drawing people goes (and worse, animating them), this is generally something a beginner cannot do well enough for a game. (Well, maybe if it was a game that used stick figures; there are some pretty good indie games out there that do this.) But between a realistic style of drawing humans and a stylized one like anime or western cartoons, there's little difference in the difficulty of drawing a convincing person. People are something viewers are instinctively very picky about because we are used to reading meaning from details of people's facial expressions, body language, clothing/hairstyle choice, and those little details that communicate ethnicity and health. On the other hand if you are drawing flowers you can get away with all sorts of things like putting tulip leaves on daffodils or putting trumpet lily flowers on calla lily stems or leaving the middle parts out of a flower entirely. A lot of people have never looked that closely at a flower, and if it happens to be a fantasy game you're allowed to make up your own flowers anyway. But even in a fantasy game the audience will object if you manage to give a character two left hands in some drawing, or if your female characters all look like they have male faces, etc.

That stuff about understanding realistic proportions being important as a foundation for using stylized proportions is true; there are shortcuts though, for an artist who has no interest in drawing realistic people.

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

@Sun, Yeah I was talking about life drawing. I am not at the point where art is required, I am still working out the mechanics in the code, and I am just using blocks and so forth to represent the characters. I understand what you are saying and I don't expect to be able to draw quality character models by the time art is required, this is something I am doing for my own interest to see if it is something I enjoy, and if so will continue to work at it. If I give it some patience and time I think I will begin to enjoy it, I just want a way to express some of my thoughts on paper as I feel artistically stuck. I am dabbling in different mediums, writing, drawing, etc to see what appeals the most. I use to be able to draw somewhat in school but seemed to have lost a bit of that over the years. That is the frustrating part, being able to visualize something in detail but not being able to reproduce that on paper.

I'm just a guy - that's it.

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