Need advice on improvement
highgear56 | 07/23/2008 @274 | edit post

I'm unsure about which style I should take, but I would like to become a better digital artist in general. I know this sounds amateurish, but I was drawing since age 3 on ANYTHING I could set a pencil against to. I always enjoyed various anime styles but I also would like to paint realistically. Right now I use a tablet for my Photoshop to draw on, any site/book/video that can show tips on improving your images? This is my work for now: http://highgear56.deviantart.com/art/A-Face-Finished-92524661 I was thinking about taking some Graphic Design courses during my sophmore year of college to hopefully recieve tipsand guidance on how to improve my style. Is the real solution practice makes perfect? My question is: What should I Improve on, and how? (assuming from my piece I linked) ------------ P.S. I've never had training but I've taken some art courses in High School. Not much help I'm afraid, except Flash Animation courses. So this Photoshop illustration is something I've done with basically what I know myself.

Re: Need advice on improvement
Crow | 07/23/2008 @324 | edit post

I'm not sure how much graphic design would help you to learn to draw. I studied graphic design and we just did vectors, typography, posters etc. It had nothing to do with learning to draw. Don't get me wrong, graphic design helped my art a lot because it taught me a lot of shapes, colors, readability, human perception, clients, simplification.. but it wasn't education of how to draw and paint. If I was you, I'd start drawing a lot on my free time. Study anatomy, draw from life, paint paint paint and never give up. That's the way to do it. Stop looking for shortcuts, there are none. If you accept this, rest is easy because you know what you need to do, and you won't make any excuses anymore why not to draw and paint a lot. Read books by Andrew Loomis, look for quality tutorials if the process is a mystery to you. Go to forums.sijun.com and find the speedpainting thread and get inspired, maybe you'll join us there one day. You can learn a lot from just observing what other artists do. Oh, and keep posting your work and get advice. Go to conceptart.org forums, they are the best for getting feedback.

Re: Need advice on improvement
Jie | 07/23/2008 @693 | edit post

Looking at your drawing, it seems to me that what you need the most is a better understanding of light and shadow. As someone already sugested, the books by Andrew Loomis would be a good place to start. http://www.artcone.com/forums/andrew_loomis_books_downloads-t1772.html In the meantime, one thing you can do to get a better understanding of lighting is to arrange some fruit on a table, add some lights and try to draw what you see, keeping an eye on the highligts, the shadows, and how they interact to give volume to the various shapes. I hope that was useful. --Jie

Re: Need advice on improvement
bstsk | 07/23/2008 @721 | edit post

From what you posted, I agree with the previous posts, you should heavily undertake anatomy drawing. One piece of advice: Don´t focus on copying cartoon drawing, focus on reality. Once you really get how things are, you can draw them any way you want, cartoony, realistic, whatever. Study light, surfaces, how it reflects, spreads, how it tints objects. Above all, don´t stop drawing, it´s the only way. People say we drawing freaks´re talented. That´s a lie, it´s all just work, and observation. Learn to really see things. Besides Loomis, you really could use "Drawing with the right side of the Brain", by Betty Edwards. It has some really helpfull exercises, that help shaping your thinking process to focus on drawing. Keep on it!!

Re: Need advice on improvement
HectorOrtiz | 05/29/2009 @545 | edit post

I agree with the rest of the people. You got to start drawing from life and forget about photoshop and all that. Keep drawing with a pencil and that's it.