Hi! I'm new here... though I've scribbled a few things. They're really not fantastic, but I do very much want to improve. I keep hearing about this tutorial but I've looked all over 2draw and I can't find it. (Ack!) Can anyone give me pointers, very much in particular to life drawings. I'm not even very good with pencil and paper, so I realise even if you advise me till your fingers fall off from typing, I'm not going to get better until I open my eyes and observe more carefully.

Or.. simply point me to this fabled tutorial. ^^;; Ehehe.

Thanks muchly!

Oooh! Here I am to wreck the day!

There IS infact a tutorial page (which still might be underconstruction) on 2draw wiki. Oh ho! Who would'a thought that 2draw wiki would come back to haunt us. Here is the link:

http://www.cellosoft.com/2draw/wiki/index.php/Applets

Note that only the lascaux sketch tutorial is the only one thats available at the moment. =] Contribute to the 2draw wiki! Anyone can~! The usernames and passwords on 2draw wiki are the same as the ones you use on 2draw.net

Hee hee SEE someone besides me posts that link!! ^5 Kai!! hehehe

Thank you for the link! I really appreciate it!

XD~~ Davincipoppalaq! I shall remmeber you always as the first one to ever comment on anything I did on my own <3.

n__n You're wonderful Dave.
Heres another tutorial since you stated that you're not even very good with pencil and paper.

http://www.cellosoft.com/2draw/wiki/index.php/How_to_draw

I suggest you watch the animations on some of the better drawings on this site (note, some drawings do not have animations). Animations can help you learn the basic process of constructing a good drawing. Observe how the artist starts his/her drawing, concentrate on the process of structure and color choice. Life drawing in general just takes time to learn, you need to become a great observer.

A great way to learn how to improve your life drawing skills is to set up a still life and draw it 5-10 times. Draw the still life and then look over your finished drawing, look for mistakes, try to observe what part of the drawing is working and which parts need improvement, then draw the still life again and critique it again, repeat this process 5-10 times, I'm almost certain you'll improve your drawing skills. When choosing what to draw, try to draw something that looks hard to draw, the higher the level of difficulty, the more opportunity for you to learn. Of course, you don't want to get burnt out on drawing things that are difficult to draw but usually, this process will improve your drawing skills and challenges will become more appealing to you.

Practice is the best solution. In art school/college, most art teachers/professors suggest you have a sketch pad on you at all times throughout the day and you should draw something from life everyday, sort of like a life drawing journal. I know many artists who go through 100 page sketch pads in a matter of weeks, it's the best way to keep their hands and minds trained.

I carry one with me always, practice is the key, yup, good instruction clox. :}

Well, Clox pretty much covered the pointers, but I'll try adding some more here.
When you draw anything from any sort of reference, it's all about accuracy in the shapes and space to get a product that looks like the reference itself.Paying attention to positive and negative space is necessary to do this, but most importantly and especially with portraits, you need to get the placement right.Placement is important in portraits because if you get the facial features misplaced, you won't be drawing the person you want the picture to look like.Make sure when you look at placement, you ask yourself questions like:How far is the right eye from the roots on his/her head?How far is the right eye from the right ear?Is the pupil lined up vertically from the corner of the mouth?(of course makind rough eye estimates but this takes some practice too).

Hope this helps some...

mhmm what Gig said. He helped me see that in one of the portraits I did. Before that, I never really though about measuring things up with other objects of the face (or whatever else).

Wow, so many replies! Thank you guys so much. I think I'm learning more here than in the average highschool art classroom (well, owch.). Especially Hakai and Cloxboy. I can feel the sincerity from the sheer volume you write! I agree with the second article, and i truly regret not spending more time on my life drawing when I had the chance. *pain*

Gigandas, that's a really good tip, especially for me. I tend to chose pictures with harsh, contrasty lighting simply because it's easier to measure everythign up O_O...

And Anna.. I just.. love your work. Whee!

**forgot to add. I think using a tablet really slows down my thought process and helps me observe more. I'm just too impatient (AHA!) with a pencil and paper, meaning I become very general and lose detail.

id like to add some profound advice, but sadly no. cloxboy hit it on the head. observe, learn, practice and experiment. keep that sketch book, if a thought or inspiration arrives doodle it down etc. the lucky thing for artists is, that as we practice our sub conscious mind picks up information we may not. overtime corrections and improvements happen naturally. still ... go with the above mentioned, they speed it up.

Or you can just be born with it like myself....because I'm the greatest man that ever lived.
You should be thankful that I took the time to say anything to you at all. For instance, if I
should say to you "Go make me some toast and hurry up about it." You should say "Oh
thank you, thank you for speaking to me at all." and go do it.

I understand Solve... looking back at the nonsense I was drawing during my teens. Ai. I should have been practicing life drawing instead of anime and manga... though that really gave me the encouragement and quick once over... I guess it wasn't a waste? It's art too, right? XD

And uh...

*hands axil toast*

Dan, that is why you're the greatest....as per what you said.

This thread has helped me a lot. Ive been meaning to ask for advice for a while now, so thank you clockwork and all the great pointers from the wonderfull artists. :o) And Clockwork, your work is fantastic already.

anime is a close relative to realism. both involve knowledge of human anatomy, light and shade techniques, perspective, etc. etc. realism just goes more in depth. yet, some anime artists have moved anime next to realism with their detail and talent.

im sure i can speak for the rest of the people who helped by saying its no problem at all to help.
above examples are what make 2draw such a great community.