Tips for a beginner

Hrududu

I've been reading this board on and off and it seems like a good place to ask this. When I was younger I was quite artistic, I drew a lot, it was something I loved doing as I just seemed to get lost in it. When I went to secondary school I seemed to lose a lot of confidence in the art stakes. As a result I more or less stopped trying. For the past while though I have been attempting to get back into it.

Currently i'm doing as much sketching as I can. Mainly hands and cats, and cats with hands. As I am seriously rusty some of these look like mutants, but every now and again I look at something i've worked on and am happy.

Now I'm not naturally talented like a lot of people here. But I do believe with enough practise you can become skilled at something. So with this in mind do you have any tips?

artieanna

The best thing you can do is keep sketching from life ... be aware of the line you use in terms of heaviness or lightness, you can use this to emphasise parts of your drawings...Be confidant you can draw anything...

buy or borrow the book 'drawing on the right side of the brain' by betty edwards as it has excellent exercises that will help you develop your drawing and seeing skills.

enjoy getting lost in it again.........................;)

Hrududu

I've seen that book recommended before so i will definitely check it out. Thanks for the advice.

Andrewf20

Heres a great tip I use:

If drawing a picture from a magazine say, what I do, is draw out a grid of 1cm x 1cm squares like in a Maths copy over the picture in the magazine, then I get my blank piece of paper that I will draw on, and draw in a grid of boxes, maybe 2cm x 2cm in size if i want to double the size of the original picture. I then number the boxes horizontally and vertiaclly, and then sketch in each box at a time. This gives high accuracy to pictures.

If you closely at the painting attached you can see where I have rubbed out the boxes around the car. Behind the picture on the wall, I did a portrait and you can vaguely see the boxes there too.

BTW, your absolutely right about practise. I was crap at painting 10 years ago, but Im coming along nicely after a few hundred paintings.

Hope this helps!

Andrewf20

Actually, heres a few more pics to further demonstrate my point. This technique works well on portraits because you need to be very accurate with faces. (Portrait is of Isla Fisher btw). Ive included my first ever painting from 1995. Its pretty crap, but it proves that with practice, we can all make improvements.

snorlax

they're excellent! your should add them to the portfolio thread.

Andrewf20

snorlax wrote:

they're excellent! your should add them to the portfolio thread.

Cheers. Im actually not massively gifted at art, so its taken many years to get to this standard with the aid of a few techniques. Ive been painting for 12 years now. I guess the best things to have for improvement in art is:

- An eye for detail (when you draw something and it looks wrong, be able to refer back to the original picture and find out why you sketch looks wrong, and correct.)
- Patience & interest to draw / paint etc.
- A few good techiques.


Where is that portfolio thread you refer to?

snorlax

2nd thread stickied from the top

Kold

Go look at some drawings in galleries near you. Drawing isn't just about photo realism. Try new techniques. Do a few cat drawings, then cartoon them, then try drawing the cat without looking at it, try using things other from pencils, some charcoal, try drawing with some black paint, do some mark making. Get some square pieces of card, twigs, anything that you can dip in some paint or ink and put to paper.

Through these methods, you can zero in on certain aspects such as tonality, negative space, proportion.

Loads of books on drawing, I've a few, haven't read one :S

Wibbs

Beyond the esoteric airy fairy stuff, it's a skill like any other and it gets better with practice, so practice, practice, practice. Now I know people will often say just express yourself in line etc. That's fine, but to truly express yourself you do need the basic skill to the best of who you are, otherwise you're not doing yourself and your expression justice. All of the greats had that basic skill and more. The best are always the ones to learn from. There are no shortcuts if you want to create something beyond the mundane and obvious. If you ever get the chance to look at the early attempts by Van Gogh, it should help your confidence. They are pretty rough and that's being charitable and he did alright. He practiced to an obsessional level(well he was a bit loopy). As Michaelangelo wrote, "Disegna sempre, e non perder tempo" - "always be drawing and don't waste time"*. In fairness Mick was pretty handy with the sketchpad too. he even sketched in stone!! Hows that for being a flash git?:D

I would say landscapes are a good place to start, followed by still life and then life drawing. Think about the volumes of the subject. The line contains and describes the volume. Maybe start from photos. The stillness makes it easier. Watercolours will also help to put your ideas down without too much editing. Plenty of books out there to help you.

*jeez, how pretentious am I?

gubbie

That books on ebay for a pound!