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RoninDude
RoninDude

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Pinup Sketch (January week 1)

It's Zelda, doing some kind of dance at the beach! Lol, this one is completely random. I just wanted to draw something from imagination, this time. Gotta keep my skills balanced! Drawing from reference strengthens my understanding of forms, but drawing from imagination keeps me from becoming too reliant on using reference. I like to switch off, from time to time.

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~Ray

Pinup Sketch (January week 1)

Comments

She looks great! Shame Nintendo don't take your initiative and dress her a bit more naughty :)

Michael

You can do it! :D

RoninDude

*Attack on Titan style salute* Thank you sensei! I will try to keep myself motivated!

Christopher S. Hicks

Oh yeah? Thanks! Good to know. :D

RoninDude

If you want some tips on how to learn, then understand that you need to develop your fundamental skills before you do anything else. Don't worry about style or anything like that. Style comes later. I suggest starting with sketching on paper with a pencil. Draw things that you see, like a pair of shoes, a towel on the floor, an apple, etc. Do your best to make it look exactly like what you see. The goal in these sorts of practice is to make drawings that look like a photo at first glance. By doing this, you will gain skill in fundamental skills such as hand-to-eye coordination, creating form and shapes accurately, space-awareness, shading/lighting, etc. Of course, it can get boring to do these sorts of studies all the time, so to keep it interesting, allow yourself some "freestyle" sketching sessions where you can draw whatever you want. I recommend doing your photo reference studies 2-3 times a week, and the rest of the time drawing whatever you want. Draw once a day for at least an hour. However, the more time you spend, the quicker you will grow. I know it can be difficult to decide what to draw, even when doing photo reference studies. However, this is another hurdle you must learn to overcome, by forcing yourself to make decisions. Drawing is all about making decisions, so get used to it. Even the masters have days where they can't decide how to draw what they want to draw, so get used to that! You just have to struggle through it. XD I hope that helps!

RoninDude

I've loved all your stuff up to this point, but I do have to say I enjoy your free-form character drawings the most!

redguard153

Well thank you very much for the reply. I do enjoy doing it, and I have plenty of things I'd like to draw. My only issue really is that I never know where to start. I get to that blank white page and I don't know where to go. I am going to start actually forcing myself to practice more though.

Christopher S. Hicks

Hey there, Christopher! That's a tough question. Motivation is something that comes from within, and I really don't know how to advise someone to be motivated. For me, I am completely self taught. I never went to any classes. My learning came from exactly what you said: Repetition and practice. I am an extremely self motivated person by nature, so it was easy for me to find the energy to practice on a regular basis. If you find that you aren't very motivated, then you might be bad at keeping to any kind of self induced practice schedule. This is where a school might help. Of course, you still have to do the work! Art is a very focus oriented, passion fueled activity, and it takes years and years of practice. I've been seriously trying to improve since I was 12, which means I have 20 years of skill behind my work. Now, I probably learned a lot slower because I was self taught, at least in the early years. Now that I am fairly competent, however, I have a pretty good idea on what to tell people to focus on if they are interested in improving a bit faster. Of course, if motivation is your issue, that's something you are going to have to look inward to find the answer to. I draw because it's my favorite thing to do. Even when I was bad at it, I loved doing it. I never needed motivation, as the activity itself was a reward. If drawing isn't your favorite thing, that's ok, but ask yourself if you enjoy it enough to make time for it. That's the only way you will learn, in my experience.

RoninDude

If I might ask, how did you learn? I've been trying to teach myself from books and just practicing, but admittedly I'm rubbish. Did you take classes of any kind? Yeah I know that repetition and practice is all part of it, but I have a hard time motivating myself to do it. Any advise?

Christopher S. Hicks


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