How to draw tutorials by emerald?

[loreinbook]

Do you think you could make an online how to draw book? Or maybe one that could be purchaced with emeralds? what do you think?

[Emerald]

lol, I have been asked that before... its very flattering. But I honestly don't think I'm the best one for it. I might teach everyone the wrong stuff.

I can draw, and I don't mind giving general advice... but I don't really have a "method" for drawing. I had a style of my own, and then eventually went to two different types of art school and was taught two more methods... but I really don't know which one is best.

In some cases we where supose to break things down into basic shapes, use "action" lines, or capture volumes. But I really don't use any of those methods. I just look carefully at what I want to draw, compare the sizes the various parts look and plot out the ones I think will give me difficulty. I'm sure its not the best method, but it works for me However I always use reference now, and lots of it.


*****

I think that the following are the most important things that I have learned. And some of them, like using reference properly I didn't do until very late. I wish I had started much earlier.
 

-Use Reference!!! Its probably the most important thing you can do. If you are drawing a horse, either go somewhere where there is a horse to look at, or have 10 good pictures of different veiws around you as you work.

-Practice... lots. There is no way to skip that. It doesn't take a few hours to get better, it takes thousands. So every day is best. And practicing from life is better yet (draw your pets as they sleep or your siblings and friends while they go about their day).

-Focus on the big picture first. So if you are working on people playing sports, don't draw their gear first. Work on capturing the movement of their bodies. Its very hard to do (and again it takes practice), but once you have that... the rest of it is simple.

-Draw/sculpt/work in more than one medium. When you draw, you need to flatten things in your mind, and some times its easy to lose track of what the thing truly looks like. When you sculpt, (with anything really) you have to think about the whole shape. That will improve your drawings.

-Pay attention to the little things... when you walk around, try to figure out how things are made or put together. If you understand the parts of an engine or the seams of a dress, you will have an easier time sketching one.



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Thats about all I can offer... and I don't use myself as the best example of any of it.

But when I went to school and fell in love with a classmates work, they had reference everywhere and sketchbooks full of drawings done of people on buses and in parks. Without fail, they also had half finished models of realistic human heads and bodies, and their life drawing practice was normally almost scribbly looking (drawings done in a few seconds or a minute) but the characters had so much movement and life they looked like they would fly off the page.

I think people with that kind of dedictation and focus on practicing from reallity, really do end up being the best of the best.

[loreinbook]

I aggree with all of that. I can't draw anything if I don't have a reference. I also get very mixed up when how to draw books have you start with the basic shapes, Never can get em' in the right spots or in the right places. 

(I know this is probibly too much to ask ether you or boo, but would it be possible if I put together some how to draw pages from different users and such. and you guys could put it into some kind of online tutorial type book?)

[Booradley]

I think the best way to do something like that would be to gather a collection of links to helpful web pages and list them in a forum post. We would be happy to sticky a helpful post as long as the links all point to sites that kids can look at safely.

[loreinbook]

thats going to be hard to do...Lol most HTD sights are [not great].

[Booradley]

When Emerald is feeling better she'll try to find some good links.

[Moonstar]

tell her to feel better
 ^ ^
   . .
  ~.~
   __

heE heE a Cat with a mustash!

[Emerald]

Thanks, and I will start looking for some links...