Beginning to draw can be really hard, so let’s come together and come up with some good tips for people who are interested in art and just starting out.
My main advice is just to actually draw. It’s really hard to improve without actually practicing the skill you want. Whatever you do won’t be your best work, but you’ll keep improving the more pieces you make. Just gotta get through those awkward phases of feeling unskilled or uncomfortable to test out new things and become comfortable drawing.
I always recommend studying both real pictures for anatomy and art styles that you like to learn more about anatomy and how it works in art that isn’t realism.
Do you guys have any other tips? also someone let me know if this thread is a duplicate, I thought I saw another one of these
Practice practice practice. And don’t be afraid to try something new and step out of your comfort zone! For example, if you usually draw in anime style, maybe try realism (and vice versa)! Make sure to study color theory, anatomy, and composition. I know some people don’t like getting technical with art, but it will pay off in the future!
Also check out speedpaint and process videos from reliable artists on instagram or youtube.
Another thing: if you’re not too comfortable with drawing from scratch, maybe try editing! It’s how I got into art and I think it’s a pretty good starting point
Oh and friendly reminder: Tracing is OK if you are just starting out and want to practice anatomy, shading, etc. Just make sure to give FULL CREDIT to the original artist if you ever post it publicly, since it’s not your art. Keep in mind that they’ve spend hours, days, weeks, sometimes months on their art. Some artists explicitly ask for you to not trace or edit their work. If this is the case, please respect what they’re asking for.
Draw something you enjoy drawing, it’ll be more fun
Ask other people for advice, they usually notice stuff about your art which you wouldn’t notice yourself
I think people above have already summed up almost everything, so I’ll talk about how you can improve on coloring and shading.
First, make sure the colors match. Stick to a small number of colors, don’t go too overboard. It looks pretty bad if you use too many imo, but don’t only use one or two. Try to balance them out. If you have trouble finding the right colors, there are always color palettes online, or you can try extracting colors from an image. To make the colors look better, place a transparent, solid color layer over the drawing to change the hues a bit and add dramatic lighting
As for the shading, figure out where your light source is. Make sure to place the shading in the right place. Honestly, you really do have to study how shadows work for this. Never shade with black and white, use different colors, even ones that contrast the base color. It looks so much better.
I’m pretty bad at explaining but I hope someone understood-
Ummmm I would say definitely mess around with anatomy for a while. You kinda gotta draw stuff that you like and it doesn’t necessarily have to be realistic. Figure out if you like a more cartoon like style or a realistic style (cartoonist vs. realist)
Definitely try and develop your style, you might not find it right away, or you might keep the same style for years, it depends on the individual.
Try different shading techniques until you find one that you like, try to avoid dark harsh shading.
COLOURS. So so important. Look up colour schemes, palletes, complementary and such. Colours are what makes a drawing pop. Make your colours match a theme that you create.
Mess around with different brushes if it’s digital, and even if it’s traditional you can still mess around with things like bullet nibs, brush nibs, chiseled nibs, etc.
Use different mediums (different paints, markers, watercolours, coloured pencils, pens etc.)
I tried to start drawing regularly and, as a beginning artist, I really tried to follow the tips and there are a lot of them. But now, my tip for beginning artists is to not put too much pressure on yourself with practising and finding time to draw every day, it will just make you hate drawing
