#learning to draw
Inktober 2017 Deep
“Down in a cold dirty well and I cannot climb out” - Justin Nozuka
I don’t listen to pop often, but when I do I go all the way!
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Inktober 2017 Cloud
My hand is still way to shaky for drawings like this. But I feel like I’m getting better.
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Inktober 2017 Filthy
So this one was special to me. I didn’t have any internet access or reference pictures or real life pigs around me, so I had to draw one out of my head. I think it turned out pretty good, considering the fact that I live in a city and don’t see pigs often or ever.
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Btw this is what my original sketch of the warrior girl of my inktober drawing looked like.
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Inktober 2017 Run
Between understanding how perspective work and using them correctly there is a very long road I’m currently very much “enjoying”.
How did you learn how to draw believable backgrounds fast? Any feedback would be helpful.
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Surprise, surprise, I’m still alive. I took a long break from drawing for several private reasons, but I think I might be back soon.
I was actually drawing quite a bit over the last few weeks, but didn’t feel like posting anything.
I was focusing on learning figure drawing, so almost all my drawings were sketches and I really felt down because most didn’t even look anything close to good. I know I’m making progress, but I don’t feel comfortable posting anything yet and I don’t want to stress myself. I still hope I’ll be able to to more here in the future. I really liked blogging.
I tried something new today. My first painting attempt since I left school (which was about 20 years ago). I’m kinda happy with the outcome. It’s harder than it looks tbh.
I’m doing an online course and the first assignment was to draw any character of my choice from my mind. As it usually is when you need it the imagination is all blank. So I drew a devlish manga angel girl. When I finish the course I will have to draw the same drawing again with all the knowledge I acquire by then. Let’s see how it goes.
I’ll let you know if I liked the course as soon as I’ve done some chapters and/or finished it.
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I always wanted to learn digital drawing/painting; so here we are, my first step towards this goal.
I’ve finally bought a good computer and tablet and installed Gimp to test if digital drawing is even my thing. And yes I like it.
It has taken some time getting to know all the technical functions (and this is not even Photoshop). But now that I understand the basics, I’ve tried a lineart drawing of my newest obsession Ying Kong Shi from Ice Fantasy.
Not really a manga this time, more like comic meets manga thing. It’s not perfect, but I love how clear my lines are sometimes. Compared to real drawing I must say I really love, love, love the undo, resize and the layer functions! But I miss the feel of the pen on paper and it’s quite difficult to draw details digitally. Also so many technical settings to be aware of all the time… At the end, it took me longer to do this lineart then any of my other ink linearts did. Well, it seems it will be long a road utill I’m able to paint. But I’m not giving up.
Looking from the technical point of view, I think gimp is ok, but I’ve already found some functions to be quite complicated, which seem to be a lot easier in Photoshop and co. So I’m thinking about changing the software. But I don’t want a monthly fee. So not sure yet.
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7. Exercise - Doodling
Use as: can be both, but more suited as an exercise
Purposes:
- increasing focus and endurance
- learning to draw details
- helps learning to draw texture (which will be very important later on)
How to:
There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:
- prepare a template page full of boxes
- fill out each box with different forms, patterns, shapes or little drawings
Tips:
- the overhand grip will not work in this case (I believe this at least) stick to the tripod grip
- do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the counterclockwise direction)
- you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes, but try to keep the patterns in the same size and form as possible
- relax!
My humble experience so far:
I’m bad at this. I get bored too fast and reall don’t like drawing little details. So basically this is a perfect workout for me! I could imagine this to be a great exercise for many. This does indeep help you focus and endurance, which are both very important if you want to draw good texture (e.g. skin, fur, gras, leaves on a tree…) later.
With digital drawing tools, this might not be too important, but as soon as you take a pencil and try to draw a picture with a grassfield on half of the canvas you’ll know what I mean.
I also believe that if you get better in doodling you will also be able to draw faces better, as they tend to have a lots of fine lines wich make the difference between recognizable faces or weird 3-year-old-face-drawing.
Conclusion:
A workout for everyone - can work as a warm-up as well, but I’m not relaxed enough for such a tourture ;)
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6. Exercise - Circles between two lines
Use as: can be both, but more suited as an exercise
Purposes:
- loosening the shoulder
- preparation for proper sketching
- learning to sketch circles
- preparation for drawing circles in one stroke
- learning to use different grip variations (all art teacher tutorials urge you to draw with the overhand grip for fluent lines without interruptions)
How to:
There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:
- prepare a template page with horizontal lines with different distances from each other
- draw seveal circles within two lines (the circles can overlap, but try to draw real circles and not ovals, also make sure that the circles touche the lines but don’t cross them; try drawing the circlesin both directions and try using both the tripod grip and overhand grip)
Tips:
- the overhand grip works way better, the bigger the forms get and most tutors insist that you should only focus on it if you are a beginner or want to improve your sketching skills (I find it hard to do small circles and lines with the overhand grip, so I tend to switch to the tripod grip when the forms get too small, but if you can do it all the way through you should try to stick with it)
- do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the counterclockwise direction)
- you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes out of your shoulder, but still make sure to draw circles and not ovals
- try to touch the lines as good as possible but don’t be too slow, you need to draw all the circles in one stroke if possible
My humble experience so far:
Nice focusing exercise. I’m really bad at drawing fluent circles, so this exercise is like hell for me. But I believe if I get myself to do this exercise freaquently my circles will improve eventually. So, yes I would recommend this work-out.
Conclusion:
Good cirlce workout - does not necessarely work as a warm-up
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5. Exercise - Ovals in circles
Use as: can be both, but more suited as a warm-up or exercise for real beginners
Purposes:
- loosening the shoulder
- preparation for proper sketching
- learning to sketch ovals and circles
- preparation for drawing circles in one stroke
- learning to use different grip variations (all art teacher tutorials urge you to draw with the overhand grip for fluent lines without interruptions)
How to:
There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:
- prepare a template page full of different sizes of perfect circles
- fill in the circles with several ovals; ovals should be facing all sides and should touch but not cross the circles; try drawing the ovals in both directions and try using both the tripod grip and overhand grip
Tips:
- the overhand grip works way better, the bigger the forms get and most tutors insist that you should only focus on it if you are a beginner or want to improve your sketching skills (I find it hard to do small circles and lines with the overhand grip, so I tend to switch to the tripod grip when the forms get too small, but if you can do it all the way through you should try to stick with it)
- do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the counterclockwise direction)
- you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes out of your shoulder
- try to touch the circle lines as good as possible but don’t be too slow, you need to draw all the ovals in one stroke if possible
My humble experience so far:
I liked this as a warm-up, similar to the “circles and ovals in triangles” exercise I was writing about before. I wouldn’t necessarely say that my drawing abilities will increase by doing this, but my mind, hand, arm and shoulder loosen up while doing it and that helps focusing on learing any actual skills later on. I will definitely do this one as a
Conclusion:
Good and easy warm-up; altvernative to the "circles and ovals in triangles” exercise
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New obsession, new favourite character. 444 or Black will be the death of me. I just can’t manage to get the sketch to look anything like he actually does. Well, back to basics I guess.
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Yes I have a thing for sword fighting gloomy looking guys from saeguk dramas. But to be fair Kwak Dong Yeon did look and act his best as Kim Byung Yeon in Love in the moonlight.
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Btw this is the sketch for the inktober drawing. I felt quite confident drawing leaves. It’s a good feeling.
After inktober is over, I’ll go back to draw things that are challenging to me, like human body parts. I feel that I’m improving the best when drawing things I’m really bad at. But at times I need to draw things I like and I think I’m good at, just to keep myself interested. Is it the same for others?
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Inktober 2017 Fall
You were expecting something different, weren’t you? Well, I used this inktober day as an opportunity to learn drawing leaves. So here you have a bunch of leaves without composition or anything.
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