Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?
Apologies if this is off-topic but the learning French thread got me wondering if anyone here is an artist in the downtime and has recommendations for learning materials when it comes to learning how to draw? I've tried Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and it doesn't do it for me. I've tried nma.art and that's like the closest I've come to what I'm after but currently suffer from paralysis analysis with too many or too few courses to choose from. Any suggestions? I'm hoping to be able to eventually draw people and landscapes, willing to pay hundreds of dollars potentially for the right course or instruction per month not really looking for like a udemy type thing.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 204 ms ] threadDoing nothing but exercises is not very fun so take the things you want to draw like people and landscapes and just get to work. You will probably be unsatisfied with your results but keep the fundamentals in mind and keep practicing.
This isn't a satisfactory answer but I think people who advocate for one basic creative program over another just found some fundamentals that clicked for them.
Here's what I've heard from artists: there's always a stage where you hate they piece, and you just have to push through (goes for writing too). Just push through, remind yourself no one else ever has to see it, and you'll get better with each one.
It also depends a lot on what you want to achieve (for example, do you want to draw people in a comic-like art style, or do quick sketches of people on the subway, or do anatomically correct nude drawings). Based on that, you can try to find a book or course that fits you. There's a lot on youtube, I would recommend that over a book today, as you get different angles and the process of doing it much better.
For good and extensive free anatomy lessons, check out Proko on Youtube. There are also "timed life drawing" or "timed gesture drawing" videos which will show you a sequence of nude/non-nude poses with a timer for quickly sketching. You should check out some gesture drawing instructions, e.g. by Proko, before that though, otherwise it might be intimidating.
If you want a more comic book like approach, check out David Finch on Youtube.
Good instruction books for most beginners are Andrew Loomis' books. He was a classical advertising artist.
Books on "urban sketching" can also be helpful, because they are based on doing things quickly and without too many tools. On Youtube, you can check out TeohYiChie, he has plenty of Urban Sketching videos, in a beautiful but very loose style that is inviting to imitate.
And the most important thing is of course to just do it and do it.
It teaches 3 critical drawing things 1) think in terms of lines.
2) every line is in relation to something (sometimes just the frame). An example of (2) would be, in the face, there is lot of relation between horizontal and vertical (relation to the frame) and for example, the eyes are in relation which each other via an expression, so you better draw them together, with one stroke to start with. Thats the point of relations: draw them at once or one after the other.
And 3) notice the diagonals and horizontal/vertical in your drawing.
I would say you would not really benefit from actual dedicated courses for the first 2 years (assuming you practice with hobby-time and not full time); you have so much to learn that y ou will do big progress just doing standard exercises. Dedicated tutoring is good, but it's probably easier to get decent feedback IRL as opposed to online courses (unless you pay a fortune, it's easier to get advice from good local artists). James Gurney and Nathan Fowkes are great references.
(For reference I post some of my stuff here: https://twitter.com/wooliondraws I'm not close to any mastery, but given the amount of time I can sink into this hobby since 2015, I'm now fairly happy.).
Although there's no miracle: FZD school claims to bring people from beginner to pro-level in 3 years, but at the price of heart attacks at 30 years old for some of them.
Its one of the reasons why people draw monsters (or furries) as they get started. You can make bad proportions, and if your brain doesn't recognize it as "human", your brain is far more forgiving.
"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is what worked for me, at least at a basic level. I think the "upside down human" and "upside down face" drawing exercises really worked for me.
After that, its just sitting down and taking the time to draw. As a beginner, you'll have to spend hours to master the strokes of the pencil to make something look kinda-sorta not that good. While a true expert will be able to sketch something quickly in far shorter time.
Just accept the fact that drawing/sketching will take much longer for you (because you're still a beginner), and work at it repeatedly. Over time, things get faster and faster.
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Landscapes are probably better to start off on, if you really want landscapes. Most humans don't see the errors in landscapes, so you can "Bob Ross" it to some extent. (All "mistakes" can be turned to look like something different)
Honestly, I wouldn't spend money on instruction unless it's in person - drawing is ultimately about seeing and it's hard to instruct that online. Other tutorials/lessons tend to be about copying existing work rather than drawing from life, which is the foundation of all drawing/art skills.
Learn about the basic elements of art (line, shape, color, value, form, texture, and space) and the principles of design (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity) and look up exercises to practice them all.
Most people only care about "line" when drawing (forced perspective, outlining the subjects, etc). This is a trap. Think about "drawing through the object" (don't outline and then fill in later, etc) and utilizing all the other elements of art.
Draw still life setups/landscapes/people from real life. A lot. Do long drawing sessions (4+ hours with the same subject). Short time boxed ones (15 mins max, 30 mins max, etc). Draw the same setup every day for a week. Draw every day.
If you want to copy other works, start with copying drawings/sketches from the "masters".
If possible, find a group drawing class to get IRL feedback.
Once you do this for a year or two you should have a pretty good foundation for pretty much any drawing/painting discipline.
Ultimately it's about repeated practice. Make it a daily habit and you'll see big improvements.
Source: art school, drawing/painting for 15 years.
For me it works to draw what is constantly on my mind. It could be some thoughts about latest DC movie, a tv series or something going on in the news. Then I try to envision a background for example in case of Ukrain invasion, I am currently thinking of dark grey buildings in the background with smoke and ash falling from sky (scene could be inspired from something else like Chernobyl tv series). Then I introduce some story element since the point of sketch is to tell a story. I'll have a character in the foreground. That character can be sitting alone with a dog or with his/her partner to evoke feeling of tragedy and yet some hope.
In this way the thing which I sketch will be unique. It's hard to draw everything from scratch. So I think of the line from inception movie - never copy entire areas. Copy only small details like a lamp-post or a building or lighting. So I use any reference image to draw that particular detail. Even professional artists do that. Also, I post my work on instagram, this gives a finishing line otherwise I am never happy with what I have drawn.
Maybe also check with art schools. Years ago, my mother wanted to learn oil painting and one of the big schools in Manhattan hooked her up with a woman in her neighborhood that offered one-on-one and small group classes.
Would "Making Comics" help with that? If not, if anyone has any resources for stick figures, please mention them in a reply to this post.
Here are some of my recommendations/thoughts:
1. Bring a sketchbook with you everywhere and draw and observe what you see. There are shortcuts and techniques but like anything else it takes practice and time.
2. Humans are the most difficult because they are what we're experts at. We see and react to human faces from the day we are born so it's tricky to get right. Don't be discouraged.
3. Writing your name is drawing a picture. You've probably practiced it along with the alphabet numerous times. This is drawing in it's essence.
4. Learn what a core and cast shadow are if you don't already know. This will quickly improve your rendering.
5. Youtube. There is a higher level of skill in art then at any point in history and you have access to it. Just like any other field the knowledge passed down improves year after year.
6. Don't worry about the outcome. Drawing is intimate and doesn't need to be shown to anyone ever.
7. Drawing is a beautiful skill. You're creating something out of nothing.
Totally agree. A few thoughts:
1. I watched a show once on TV that used a grid pattern approach that appealed to my engineering aesthetics. They made a transparent square grid pattern that was placed on the desired picture as a temporary overlay. You then create a scaled up grid in very, very light pencil on your desired sketch piece of paper. You finally, started to work the large outer boundaries first and then iterate inwards to the greater details of the face. By doing this, your proportions relative to one another stayed pretty spot on (almost like bumper rails) and yet you could then start to take more liberties with how to express the smaller details:
- light vs. heavy shading
- smudge vs. crisp
- solid vs. wispy, etc ...
While not the fastest way to begin sketching, it gives you confidence and made me better with each one.
2. I've learned that natural forms like Human faces never have well-defined lines - otherwise it looks too cartoon-like. Whether its because of bad eye-sight :-) or the 3-dimensional view, most boundaries tend to be fuzzy, gradations of tone and soft boundaries.
3. After the rough outside boundaries of a face, I focus on the eyes first and foremost. I will obsess on building out the eyes until they "look right" to me. I won't move past this until they feel right. I've found that neglecting or deferring the sketching of the eyes ... has always resulted in a face that I wasn't happy with. I can't express it precisely, but the entire mood, expressiveness and essence of face is evoked by the way you represent the eyes of a face, human or otherwise.
4. After practicing with just pencil sketches first, I then found pastel chalks to be a fun next step to take your finger smudging and shading to a whole new level.
5. Eventually, after some practice and experience - your eye for proportion gets so good that the grid becomes mostly unnecessary. You are then able to freehand other irregular body features much better like closeups of hands and legs as well as animals in general.
FWIW, I found male faces/bodies are somewhat easier to get away imperfections since they're generally more rugged
- Don't get caught on the nerd treadmill of tools-before-effort. You can draw with whatever is in your junk drawer. You can draw well with $40 of different hardness pencils and kneaded erasers from an art supply store. Beyond that is a waste.
- As parent said, practice practice practice. Which means finding time to practice. For which a portable sketchbook and basic portable kit is a huge help.
- (Disagree with parent, here) Find someone(s) who won't hold back to judge your work. You need someone who can say (and who you can handle hearing say) "This part sucks." Because you need to hear that, and work on it, until it doesn't. In professional training this is "jury." One-directional courses (them to you) aren't going to help here, as you need feedback.
- Start drawing from life, because you have an infinite supply of content that all obeys the laws we assume to be true (perspective, lighting, gravity, etc). And you'll be able to tell if it looks correct or not.
- Drawing from pictures can help "freeze" a moment. This is especially important for outdoor light and shadow, as otherwise the sun angle will change while you're working.
- Learn to draw what you see, not a representation of what you see. This means don't draw a symbol of a house, but draw the house in front of you. Focusing on details and working through them methodically helps avoid symbolism. E.g. draw that line, or that corner, not the whole thing.
- Draw with intent: every drawing should have a concrete goal when you're learning. It doesn't have to include everything. Consider including or excluding lighting and shadow, which takes a huge amount of time to get right. E.g. circular mass studies, perspective line work, proportion. Think about what you want in this drawing, and then practice only that.
- Find an art buddy or community. This is the opposite of jury! ;) Where you go when you're feeling like your work sucks and you'll never be good, and they'll remind you of all the ways you're awesome.
Edit: 110% agree with sibling comment re: grids for proportion work, when you're learning. Inability to maintain proportion across the work is a huge source of beginner "doesn't look right"ness. Eventually you'll internalize it, and get better at relative proportion with other things in the drawing, but they're a good crutch to start with.
Paid courses by Proko [1] are also said to be of very high quality. I have never bought one, though.
I would also suggest that you look into digital art. Sketching/painting/drawing paraphernalia is expensive with time-consuming upkeep and hard to carry if you travel. OTOH, drawing on Krita, Photoshop with drawing tablets & stylus (even $60 ones) or an iPad with pen is low-maintenance and you can find other uses for them even if you don't continue drawing.
Digital art and conventional art have many overlappings, but they are different media with neither being higher or lower.
[0]: https://drawabox.com/
[1]: https://proko.com
I think it builds sort of slowly, and you need commitment to get through to the part where you're drawing "the rest of the owl" so to speak, aka the fun parts that aren't just endless pages of boxes in perspective.
But, there really isn't a shortcut anyway, and it's worth it, and this course is presented really well, for no money.
Drawabox proved to me that it's a LOT to do with mark making. The difference between a line drawn straight, with confidence, and one that is wobbly and not confident, is huge. It makes a big difference as to the quality of the overall drawing. Just a page of boxes drawn in 3D space, with each line drawn confidently and straight, can look impressive.
In regards to digital art, I recommend the opposite. A sketchbook and a few pencils can be had for far less than the cost of a drawing tablet or iPad, and the physicality of drawing with analog material is, for some of us at least, part of the appeal.
Lastly, try to draw every day: from life, from memory, from imagination. Take whatever classes appeal, for sure... but in the end, the time you put in, drawing things that interest you visually, is what really makes the difference in the long run.
It's very doable to do it yourself, but having somebody there to show you when you're screwing up is immensely valuable. Once you've got the basics and know how to learn then you can take more time to study on your own.
Hope you found a way to still do art on your own!
It's an endless road but it's a damn fun one.