I'm not much of an artist, but I have clear designs in mind and it drives me crazy to be able to see them but not be able to show anyone else. I don't want anyone else to draw them either, because I know no one can see them like I can. I can sort of draw (at least faces), but anatomy, especially drawing people in motion or of various body types, is just a big struggle and I've tried going through so many tutorials to little or no avail. My goal this summer is to actually learn how to draw, and I was wondering if anyone here has any tips or resources that might be of help.
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Use references! My art is always noticeably better when I use one. I find that SenshiStock is a pretty good place to look, but sometimes I just google "Male/female model" and that usually turns up some good drawing material.
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A tip for drawing arms that saved my life (works for legs too)
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Assuming you're not already, break the body down into shapes. It makes it a lot easier to get a drawing that's anatomically correct. So like here's a sketch for one of my drawings. (If you look at their arms and legs you can see where I used the previous tip lol. A ref was also used for this as well).
and here's the completed image, if anyone wants to see it. It's kind of huge so I'm linking it
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Practice a lot, but focus on the stuff you struggle the most with. You've mentioned you struggle with anatomy and dynamic poses so maybe try just doing some figure sketches a few times a week.
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Experiment with different styles and techniques. Find some artists you like and figure out how they do stuff. You don't have to copy them, but the main reason why I draw eyes the way I do is because the way I previously drew them made it hard for me to convey facial expressions. I started looking through some stuff by artists I admire and noticed a lot of them used wider, rounder eyes for their characters. Haven't gone back since.
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Sorta tying into the above point, but realism isn't for everyone. It's good to learn it so that you can learn anatomy, but not everyone is cut out to make photorealistic masterpieces. THAT BEING SAID, just because realism isn't for you doesn't mean you can't be a great artist. I'm only really saying this because it's something that I wish someone had told me when I was trying to improve my art. Go onto DeviantArt, tumblr, any other site where you can share art. There are lots of amazing artists who use more cartoony styles.
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Last point, but don't be discouraged if you don't see an improvement right away. You're not going to get better overnight, but that doesn't mean that you won't improve ever. And hang on to your old drawings so that you can remind yourself how far you've come (this is why I don't delete anything from my DeviantArt. I know few people who do because they're embarrassed of their old stuff. And like, I am too, but it's satisfying to see a that much improvement).
And actually, redrawing old stuff can be a great reminder of how much you've improved. I have this one drawing that I redraw every year
And every year I'm like, "Whoa, so much better than last year."
Anyways, sorry for the long post, but hopefully some of that helped :)
Thank you so much! Those are great tips!
The arm one was especially interesting. I haven't seen that one before, and bent arms are something I have a lot of issues with, so it's helpful for sure.
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