#art learning

[imgomis]

Screencap redraw from Jaya arc :)

#one piece #One Piece Fanart #monkey d. luffy #luffy fanart #usopp #op usopp #chopper #tony tony chopper #op chopper #redraw #anime #digital drawing #Illustration #nakama #skypiea #background #art practice #art learning #Fanart #op fanart

[barananduen]

Art Advice: The Misconception Behind "Study Realism"

Most people who draw anime/cartoons have, while asking for ways to improve, at one point or another been told to "study realism." A common response to this is, "But I don't want to draw realism!"

But, did you know that the purpose behind this suggestion is NOT so that you draw realism? They're not suggesting you change to a more realistic style. What, then?

Let's look at this through an analogy:

Say you don't know music yet and decide you want to learn how to play the Happy Birthday song. You're not interested in playing anything else, just the HB song, and you haven't started learning anything related to music at this point. OK, that's fine, and now we have our situation set up. Once you've decided this, you set yourself to learning the sequence of notes to the HB song. You practice and practice, and, after a while, you can play it really well without a hitch. After a few years, it starts feeling bland to you, and you ask, "How can I make my HB song better?" And someone tells you, "Learn all the other music notes," and "Study classical and other genres of music." And you reply, "But I don't want to play that type of music; I want to play the HB song!" (And that's FINE! It's valid; it's what you want to do.[*Footnote 1]) But without having learned all the other notes and other types of music, you can't make a remix of the HB song, or an "epic version," or a hip-hop-fusion version; you've capped at the end of the first paragraph of this story.

So drawing anime or cartoons is like playing the HB song, or any one song in our example.

And here's where our misunderstanding comes in:

"Study Realism" DOES NOT MEAN "Draw Realism"

Yes, you'll have to draw it to study it (not only your brain, but also your hand needs to learn the skill), but it doesn't mean that's what all your artwork will look like. It is meant to give you more tools to make your anime and cartoon work stronger, more appealing, and more unique.

How will it do that? The more music notes you know, the more types of music you understand and can play, the more original a remix /version of the Happy Birthday song you'll be able to make - and it will be unique. Because you will be able to take all that diverse knowledge and apply it to your song, making it stand out, and the next time you play the HB song, people will go, "Wow! This is a really cool version!"

So now we can be clear: There is a difference between learning something and performing it. You can perform whatever you choose, but by learning all the things, your performance of your "Thing of Choice" will be stronger.

What, Exactly, Will Studying Realism Teach You, Then?

I. VALUES

If you learn how to paint/shade with a full range of values (by learning realistic shading) that properly depict both volume and lighting, you will have no trouble simplifying that to cel-shading or gradient-shading in your anime or cartoon drawings, because you will at once spot when something is undershaded or the shadows are in the wrong spot.

On the other hand, if you try to do cel- or gradient-shading first, you are way more likely to a) undershade, and b) have an inconsistent light source. And when these things happen, you won't be able to tell *why* your drawing looks "off" or bland.

II. COLOR

By studying realistic coloring, you'll be able to learn how color varies across an item (say, a shirt) that is a "solid color." Example: you're drawing a character with a pink t-shirt, standing in the sun, at the end of the school day. The t-shirt is solid pink, however, the colors on it will vary from orange-ish to purple-gray, with some areas almost a bright red (and that's not even considering items around the shirt that would bounce light back onto the shirt and change its color). But you'll only know this (and how to do it) if you study realistic coloring.

Then you can apply that knowledge to your stylized artwork and make it stand out more.

Painting of a stylized pear, where I studied real pears to understand their coloring and texture. See how studying realism can enhance your cartoon work.

III. MAKE BETTER STYLIZED ANATOMY

By studying and learning realistic anatomy, you will be able to make stylized art that, for example, doesn't have one arm longer than the other, because you will have learned how to measure proportions, even if you don't draw realistic proportions. So that if you decide you want to draw unrealistically long legs (eg: Sailor Moon), you'll be able to make them look good and keep them consistent.

You will also be able to draw figures in any position, because you will have learned how body parts are made up and how they move, as well as foreshortening/perspective. Then, when you go to draw a pose you haven't drawn before, it will be WAY easier.

IV. UNDERLYING SHAPES

Although this is one of the least-mentioned aspects of art-learning, it is, in my opinion, one of the most important, because when you learn to see underlying shapes (the quasi-geometrical shapes that build up a figure), coupled with learning how to measure a form using other parts of the same form as reference (measuring the length of one body part by the number of times another body part fits in it, as mentioned in Section III, above), you will be able to DRAW. (Period.) You won't be able to draw just people. Or just wolves. Or just cats. You will be able to break down a new subject into its building blocks and come up with a very reasonable likeness. And whatever's different, you'll easily be able to make relative measurements to spot why and fix it.

Once you learn to identify underlying shapes and how to measure proportions in anything, you will also be able to pick up and reproduce any existing style without much trouble.

[link to Tumblr post with this artwork]

For example, this was my first time drawing anything Peanuts. I didn't have to do practice sketches for it (though there's nothing wrong with doing that). But I knew, from realism, that to achieve a good likeness, you need to measure body parts relative to other body parts, so I looked at Schulz's drawings and was able to determine: OK, Charlie Brown's head is roughly this shape, his body is so many heads tall, his eyes are this % of the head, the ears are this far in, the arms reach down to here, etc. I knew what to look for.

V. FOR THOSE WHO WANT SEMI-REALISM

If you want to do "semi-realism," you'll have a way easier time of it by learning realism and then stripping it down as much as you like, than by starting off with "100% anime" and trying to build it up without knowledge of realism. People think the latter is easier, because it *seems* less intimidating, but it's like trying to drive to a store you've never been to without knowing its address: you'll be driving around forever trying to find it, and it will be frustrating. What people call "semi-realism" is stylized realism, and you can't really hit it without knowing how realism works.

CLOSING NOTES

It also doesn't mean you should stop drawing anime/cartoons and focus solely on realism for X amount of time - you can do both concurrently. In fact, the most fun way to study realism is to do so on your favorite subjects; you can even turn your reference into your favorite character!

Studying realism is also one of the best ways to help develop your OWN, unique style; one which, when people look at it, say, "Oh, that's [your name]'s work!"

[*]Footnote 1: It is fine as long as you are drawing for yourself. As soon as art is a job and you're drawing for an employer, you have to draw in the style they tell you to. So, in this case, it's to your advantage to be flexible.

I hope this was helpful and helps clear up a common misunderstanding people go through when receiving feedback. 💞

MORE ART ADVICE ARTICLES

You can find the index to all Art Advice Articles [here] including:

How to Deal with Art Block

How to Have a Positive Outlook

How to Develop Your Own Style (coming soon!)

etc.

#art advice #art tips #art help #art resources #art learning #artists on tumblr #art #how to #art tutorial #anime art #cartoon #semi realism

[2dmax]

2013 vs 2023: ten years of art improvement

#digital art #art improvement #manga art #anime art #art learning #anatomy #how to draw anime #i was 17 in 2013 also

[voidoffline]

I’m tired of people saying this or that about what ways are bad to learn for drawing or coloring. Everyone learns differently man. If Becky learns best by eye dropping her colors from her reference, that’s how Becky fucking learns my man. If Darrel finds it easier to learn proportions and how to draw humans by tracing, and as long as they don’t claim the art as their own, that how Darrel can fucking do it. Stop trying to force different learning styles on people when the way you seem fit doesn’t actually work for them. I learn to draw different from the way people would consider to be ‘right’ and I’m doing just fine. I’m still learning, technically.

And no Christina, not everyone used this specific tool/method when they were art babies and learning to draw themselves. Don’t call someone a lier just because they learned differently than you did.

Everyone learns differently, and this includes art. You need to find whatever method of learning how to draw works best for you, I’ve quickly found that and have started improving quite a bit in the past year simply because I stopped listening to the people telling me not to learn a certain way. Go out there, look for different methods that help you learn. Find different tutorials, shift through them and find what you agree with and what helps you the most. Don’t listen to the people telling you to do things ‘by the book’ or whatever.

Learn your way.

#art #digital art #traditional art #talking about art #talking about stuff #I’m putting as many tags as I can so people can see this #it’s important and more people should know #thoughts #learning #art babies #art learning #people learn differently #seriously #stop telling people they do things wrong #it just stops them from making progress #we all learn differently #people are people #creative differences #important #this is important #learn your way.

[betterdrawing]

colored pencils are the most suitable and inexpensive medium for drawing high resolution images. The use of colored pencils can be difficult if you use very smooth paper.This article covers colored pencil drawing ideas for beginners. Colored pencil drawing ideas

#illustration #digital art #painting #artwork #artists on tumblr #drawing #sketch #art #colored pencil drawing #coloring #coloring pages #coloring methods #colored pencils drawing ideas #art lessons #art learning

[hopefullydrawingdaily]

Day 2:

Moved to ms paint for drawing today because I find it easier than hand drawing tbh (though I would still like to learn how to draw by hand at least a bit). I ended up drawing the iconic shot of Sadako from the original Ringu film

#not great but im trying #i might try drawing a few different horror characters especially ones that either dont have as human features #or their features are more covered like eith sadako #because idk i figure maybe itd be easier to try to learn how to draw features. i dont want to try badly drawing real people #but a lot of characters arent human or not quite so it might be easier #could also try drawing horror characters with masks since masks also have humanish features sometimes #art learning

[kbmart]

Sketches and doodles, and hand drawing practice.

#art #artist #artists on tumblr #art anatomy #hand drawings #artwork #portraiture #art learning #art practice #ukartist

[mollsiewallsie]

Just finished a new art video about the fundamentals of character design! This is part 1, I'm still working on part 2. I hope everyone enjoys it and gets some cool new knowledge from it! 😄❤️

#character design #character art #artist advice #art tutorials #art inspiration #character artist #character drawing #character art tutorial #art fundamentals #art learning #Youtube

[millaparky]

#painting #learning #art learning #art #acrilicpainting

[hellyeahheroes]

The Solution To Art by The Masked Man

#thought provoking #art advice #art learning #341/365

[beastthesheep]

This is from last night. Its been at least 6-7 years since i last drawn anything but i want to reclaim that part of my soul lost long ago.

#art #artwork #art learning

[brye-sketch]

Boxer face study

#small artist #art study #digtial drawing #art learning

[2dmax]

skretches from today

#still life #portrait #shadow #doodle #warmup #sketch #pencil #art learning #roughdraft

[remixed-night-fever]

I get asked a lot to teach art, but that always uneases me, the way I see it, the moment the student lays their eyes on on their teacher, their art career is decided. Too big of an impact on a stranger’s life.

#art learning #teaching art #teaching #becoming a sensei #art thoughts #thoughts

[adamads]

🎵Step by Step🎵 (Et s’il se trouve des amateurs de CDZ Abridged par ici, ils auront surement chantonné ce titre dans leur tête)

Pour une fois je ne suis pas à la bourre ! \o/ 

Ce n’est pas parfait et niveau texture on y est pas du tout, mais que les puristes me pardonnent ou aillent voir ailleurs si c’est au dessus de leurs forces : ce n’était pas l’objectif poursuivi. 

Voici un petit exercice d’auto discipline ayant pour but la création d’un “process” de dessin.

Warning !  Petit pavé en approche ⬇

Quand j’étais jeune (et mal informée), je me figurais que le dessin et la peinture étaient le résultat d’une inspiration tombée du ciel et de barbouillages heureux. 

Ah. Ah. Ah. Que de temps bêtement perdu. 

Ensuite, petit à petit, et à force d’être abreuvée de tutos hors sols sur youtube (à l’époque des tutos hors sols, j’entend, distillés par des artistes dont on sentait à l’époque qu’ils-voulaient-bien-donner-une astuce-ou-deux-mais-sans-prendre-le-risque-de-voir-fleurir-la-concurrence-faut-pas-déconner-non-plus) j’ai compris qu’il y avait un truc quelque part. Et certains de ces artistes, parmi les plus généreux et les plus honnêtes en conseils, parlaient de leur “process” de création.   

Bien évidemment quand j’ai vu ça, j’ai testé mille et une sauces pour assaisonner mon bordel et lui donner plus de gueule et de consistance. 

Et devinez quoi ? Ben ça ne m’a pas avancé à grand chose.

Et pourquoi ? 

1 -  Encore une fois je testais des conseils trouvés sur internet sans comprendre comment et pourquoi les appliquer 

2 - Je n’ai aucune patience 

Et la patience et la compréhension ce ne sont pas des choses que l’on trouve au fond d’un paquet de lessive. 

Pour comprendre pourquoi on fait les choses d’une façon et pas au petit bonheur la chance, il faut commencer par réaliser une chose sur la vie : le talent à l’état brut ça n’existe pas. Le talent c’est ce qui arrive éventuellement quand on arrive déjà à un certain stade de son travail, quel qu’il soit. Le talent c’est avant tout le résultat d’un travail. 

Le jour où j’ai compris ça, j’ai commencé à vraiment progresser, parce que c’est le jour où j’ai commencé à remettre en question tout ce que je croyais savoir, à arrêter de comparer mon travail à celui des autres et surtout : à remplacer mes croyances par des fondamentaux. 

Tout s’est alors mis en place, et j’ai même gagné en patience, parce que plus j’apprenais, plus je comprenais l’utilité de petits trucs tels que “prendre son temps”, “bien regarder”, “étudier”, et plus fort encore : “s’amuser”. (Parce que oui : il est possible de s’amuser en apprenant, si si)

Mes dessins ne sont toujours pas parfaits et me connaissant ils ne le seront jamais. Je suis la plus intraitable de mes critiques, au point que je dois parfois m’auto piéger pour voir mes dessins par surprise et avoir un peu de recul sur mon travail. (Oui, je suis grave). Je me laisse encore régulièrement avoir par mon impatience et mon perfectionnisme (quand les deux se rencontrent en général ça fait des étincelles et pas dans le bon sens), mais quand ça arrive je finis invariablement par me rendre compte que je n’arriverais à rien avec un tel état d’esprit pressé et exigeant. 

Le dessin doit être un plaisir, pas une souffrance. En ce qui me concerne en tout cas, je vois le dessin comme ce qui devrait toujours être un moyen de me détendre, une façon d’épurer un peu mon quotidien du poids du stress ou de la routine. Pas une source de frustration supplémentaire. 

Et moi pour ne pas être frustrée, aussi paradoxal que ça puisse paraître, j’ai besoin d’apprendre et de comprendre. Et j’ai besoin de progresser. Doucement, en laissant sur le côté du chemin cette intraitable peau de vache perfectionniste qui, de toute façon, ne fait jamais rien d’autre que me ralentir. 

o/ 

Entre parenthèses, je remercie tous les artistes passionnés et amoureux de l’idée de vraiment transmettre leur passion. J’ai collectionné les livres, les tutos et les astuces au fil de ma vie parce que je ne pouvais pas avoir accès à de véritables cours. Mais ce sont des artistes et youtubers que j’ai découvert il y a une toute petite poignée d’années de ça qui m’ont permis d’avoir enfin le déclic dont j’avais besoin pour avancer. Ceux-là n'ont pas été avares de vrais conseils et m’ont permis de sortir de cette croyance qu’ont beaucoup de gens selon laquelle l’art serait une chose innée pour laquelle on serait ou pas doué. 

Ils m’ont inspirés et transmis leur énergie et grâce à eux j’ai enfin pu évoluer et me sentir progressivement de plus en plus à l’aise avec mon travail. 

Et c’est pourquoi je me permet le conseil suivant : 

Si vous vous sentez perdus dans votre recherche de maîtres et de professeurs : choisissez ceux qui vous motivent à vous dépasser et à empoigner votre crayon. Les conseils de type “comment rajouter du bling bling” ne remplaceront jamais la curiosité, une solide motivation et de bons fondamentaux. 

#artists on tumblr #procreate #oc design #my oc art #perfectionism #art learning

[puzzleglum]

Wanted to make a quick post for any artists following me, before the art course flash sale on Aaron Blaise's site is over, cause it's a great deal! just 5 bucks for any course of your choosing, and there are other sales too. I just got the TV storyboarding one. As of this writing, there's a day and 8 hours left, so go check it out if you're interested in great art courses for cheap! link here: creatureartteacher.com

They've also got ANIMATION courses, so for any aspiring animators, now's a good time to start learning!

#art resources #artist resources #art courses #animation resources #art learning