How can I improve?

[XionOfHearts]

How can I improve my art?

Firstly I love sketching so I wanna know how I can improve my sketching/hand drawn style of art and shading? Any hints and tips?

I use Paint Tool SAI for my digital art and i'm not very experienced in drawing digital art so how can I improve and are there any tips or tutorials you would suggest that would help me? :3

I do take commisssions but I want to improve as I know my art isn't perfect.

edit: my site xionofarts.deviantart.com

[Lina]

are you looking for specific tutorials on drawing ponies? this one, by AnnieMsson is amazing for beginners, i think. ^^
the ring structure she uses is very helpful, especially for digital art. by now, i have developed my own way of placing these rings...

[XionOfHearts]

Thank you :3
I'm looking for general art tips as well as pony :3

[AmberMarie]

The best and biggest tip that I have ever known of for beginner, professional and everything in between- just sit and do it.

Draw everyday. Every way. Draw whenever you can.

DeviantArt people also put up a lot of nice tutorials. May check them out.

[gravitationaltim]

I know it's the tip everyone gives, but drawdrawdrawdraw! The more you practice, the better you get. Take a notebook with you wherever you go and draw all the time! Here's a fantastic tutorial on developing your style: http://whitetrashpalace.deviantart.com/art/UNDERSTANDING-YOUR-STYLE-1-169660607
http://whitetrashpalace.deviantart.com/art/UNDERSTANDING-YOUR-STYLE-2-169660702

[Griffin]

Great advice so far, I agree with everyone above.

I took a look at your gallery and I think you're off to a great start already, you certainly have a lot of potential! And not only potential, some very nice drawings, too - love those Pokémon drawings especially. ^^ However, I couldn't help but notice that your references and inspiration mostly come from other artists, anime/manga in particular, and animation - am I right? Which provide great inspiration, but I think at this point you should add real life and 3D objects to your source of references in order to get some variety and to take your art into the next level. Perspective and light/colour studies may seem boring but they really help you to improve your art, whether your style is cartoony or realistic or anything else or in between. The most important thing is to learn how to see, then learn how to transfer what you see onto the paper (which is definitely easier said than done!). Try sketching both inanimate and animate objects from life, quick croquis style sketches are a good way to learn how to capture motion and how to depict something in just a few strokes. When practicing, try to concentrate on the most essential parts, a few key shapes, rather than going for a detailed, finished picture.

Learning anatomy is very important, even if you only wish to draw in a cartoony style. Even basic anatomy knowledge will help you stylize your characters, human or animal based ones, so that they remain believable despite exaggerated proportions.

As far as digital art and programmes go, I can't help you much, as I mainly work in traditional media myself. But there are a lot of tutorials in DA, like AmberMarie pointed out, that will offer tips for lineart, colouring, shading and more.

Keep practicing, and, most importantly, enjoy. ^^

[ashes]

My advice is if you have the time, to take a life drawing class.  That will help you improve like nothing else.  The skills you learn from drawing from life will help you in whatever medium or style you choose.

[sirithfin]

I know it's the tip everyone gives, but drawdrawdrawdraw! The more you practice, the better you get. Take a notebook with you wherever you go and draw all the time! Here's a fantastic tutorial on developing your style: http://whitetrashpalace.deviantart.com/art/UNDERSTANDING-YOUR-STYLE-1-169660607
http://whitetrashpalace.deviantart.com/art/UNDERSTANDING-YOUR-STYLE-2-169660702

Great advice. And that guide/essay thing rocks! I can't even think of anything to add. ^-^

[Arkillian]

On the life drawing subject, I took 2 terms of life drawing a few years ago.


...


It was at an animation school. DON'T BE FOOLED. Animation students ALL do certian amounts of life drawing. they have to. To visualise an object on many angle, you have to draw them on many angles. If you want to draw a My Little pony, draw a horse first. You want to draw a human face? Draw from a real human face. NOTHING in art should be blamed on by style. Style is something you do on purpose, not because you don't know any better.


IF you want to improve, learn to draw from reality. When you can do that, THEN you can super deform/ cartoonise the subject as much as you want cause you know where everything sits. It's the difference between pretending you know where everything sits and knowing. If you know, your artwork will look confident and fluid.


Sketching is a totally under rated stage of art. The sketching stage is the basis of all art. A strong layout and composition can make a HUGE difference to your professionalism. The sketch stage you should develop to almost the lineart stage, where you know where everything sits and making it look how it should look. My sketches usually look a little like this :-


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Its a little hard to see, but there's construction lines and all sorts of stuff there. There's tips and tricks you can use to make drawing real objects easier. The best is simplifying the human face down with simple shapes. For instance, the nose is a cube sliced by it's diagonal, the eyes sit on a straight line. One eye is the same height as the other. The top of the ear is the same height as the eye (on average), and the ear is the same length as the nose. The perfect face on human head can be measured by the width of the eye. Approximately.


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This is an ideal situation though. It's good for practice, but rarely does a human face look straight at you perfectly. Exercises like this will help you start to see humans in 3D form. The biggest thing you can do for yourself is DON 'T PANIC. There will always be someone you think is better than you at art so don't let it get you. Compare your now art to art 1 year ago. THAT is your competition. Your art when you're as good as Divinci is will look nothing like it, so why bother comparing them? It's the same with any artist. IT's a hard thing, but the more you enjoy drawing the easier the whole process will be. Just draw, and draw correctly. Don't keep drawing incorrectly. It's ok to not get it perfect, just make it the best that you can do. Try out new things when you draw. Experiment. If you don't like the result, atleast you tried it. The beauty with art is that using professional art material doesn't make you a better artist. That is something that is up to you. Not your materials.

As for the Sai thing, I'm not going to get into my traditional art versus digital art rant cause that's another threads rant, but if you enjoy using digital medium, then do it. If you prefer to sketch with pencil and have to hold yourself back from rendering it further in pencil, then to me, that's tell me that you like pencil media more. Don't chose digital medium cause everyone else is. You can do beautiful art with any medium. Most of the art that I have done in my life has been by pencil or coloured pencil. I use artist grade pencils and coloured pencils now (cause it's better quality and actually CHEAPER in the long run!), but even when I used the cheaper pencils, I was still able to make art that was really good, like this (made in 2009. It was the last student grade coloured pencil picture I ever made before I got my Polychromos)

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I think this was the exact set of pencils I used for it. They're stationary store quality pencils.


Anyways, what I'm basically saying is this- Learn in a medium you enjoy using. If Sai if your thing, then go for it, but don't let the undo button determine what medium you use. I  see alot of artists throw aside traditional media cause 'digital is easier'. No media is superior to another. Use the one you like.


I hope this all helped I don't mind giving further advice via PM if you want, or via DA. I'm Arkillian on Deviantart also.

[ZennaBug]

I think those are all fantastic tutorials and ideas!  All I really have to add is just practice, practice, practice!  I like to flip through magazines and just sketch out the pictures for practice.  Let's see if I can pull a couple up to show you 

Clicky, sketch ladies in undies

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Or, I'll draw something sitting near me, like the flowers in my windowsill or in my garden.  Anything I see.

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[MissSleepless]

Practice, as often and as much as you can! Even if that means doodling here or there for a few minutes day.

Experiment, don't be afraid to stray from your comfort zone! It limits so many artist with so much potential.

Take a course or two, but make sure they're for you! Me and my fella are both artists with an art 'education' and they were the most miserable years of our lives. Now we're on another course, that we looked into properly (Met the tutor, saw the space etc.) and it's perfect for us, and we've learned for in a few months than in all the time we were on the other courses.

It's easy for art blocks and other things to knock your confidance. There is no sure fire way to make the unhelpful things leave either. But don't give up.

And finally, never let it stop being fun, or something you love. Loving it makes it easier.

Sorry, bit of a lecture there!

[Arkillian]

Ah, yes- ladies in undies. I'm no pervert, but they're great to practice with, and look great to the eye.    Looking good Zenna! I love the pretty tiger cub too   


Magazines are great. I google image search my references, or look through DA stock photos. Be sure to link back to the original image if you are copying another image (it's polite)


One other thing I just remembered, don't be afraid to stop drawing an image that isn't working out. You'll know if you don't like an image cause drawing will be hard rather than fun. Don't fight it. Just stop. Try again, and figure out an image you like the feel of. I have 3 x 100 leaf clear file books filled with sketches that never got past the lineart stage. This doesn't include the 4th 100 leaf book for just comic pages and ones I've  shredded due them being so uninspiring for me that I had to give them the paper equivalent of a viking funeral. My kill rate out of 10 images, 1 use to be gold, two were good, and the rest were crap that I finished or didn't finish. After ditching images that didn't work for me, my image kill rat changed to 60 / 40, and now my rate is more like 70% of my art is finishable, and 30% gets scrapped. This may still seem crap, but out of that 70% that do get finished, my excellent rate is more like half of that now rather than 1 picture. IF in your brain your standard is higher, your output will be higher. This is for final art only. Don't do this if you're practicing


And keep ALL your old art. I have art that's over 20 years old now. I like to look back on it alot and see how far I've come, or get old inspirations. Looking at my old art reminds me what I was thinking. I still remember my thoughts with art that is 20 years old now. They're some of my earliest memories.


Hope this  helps too

[rayechu]

I'll second the anatomy and draw every day advice. Anatomy is what gives me the biggest problems.

[ZennaBug]

Ah, yes- ladies in undies. I'm no pervert, but they're great to practice with, and look great to the eye.    Looking good Zenna! I love the pretty tiger cub too   

I will specifically tear out pages of the Victoria's Secret catalogs if there's a model in a pose that I like.  I don't draw people that often, but I do like to work on them now and then to make sure I don't lose all ability to draw NPA    The little snow leopard cub came from a Nat Geo I believe    I've done sea turtles from the ocean conservancy too, though they're more detailed than just a "sketch."

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And I'm going to agree with arkillian, if something's just not working... ditch it.  Sometimes a drawing turns out fantastically, other times it bombs.  Don't torture yourself over a doodle that's not working out.

[sirithfin]

And I'm going to agree with arkillian, if something's just not working... ditch it.  Sometimes a drawing turns out fantastically, other times it bombs.  Don't torture yourself over a doodle that's not working out.

That reminds me of an old art teacher who used to say "98% of everything you're going to do will be crap". She meant it's just to try, try again. To most pics that I show here I usually have a couple of unfinished sketches that just didn't work.