Uncomfortable

2014-09-15 17:52

I'll get us started.

It's hard to say when I started taking art more seriously - I guess it's always been a bit of a sliding scale. As with a lot of people, I loved drawing from a very early age (I remember when I was eight, insisting that I'd one day become either a cartoonist or a game programmer). Still, I'd say I started taking it seriously (drawing almost every day and posting things online) when I was thirteen or fourteen.

Unfortunately, most of that time was spent wasted, as I was almost entirely self-taught, and I came from a heavily anime-inspired background. I didn't start taking things truly seriously (doing studies and other things that were not directly intended to produce presentable works of art) until I was 21 years old, and that was largely because a friend of mine who lived in Los Angeles and attended an art school there introduced me to that world.

I joined eventually a group sketchblog that consisted of that friend and a number of her schoolmates, and it drove me to push myself much harder. The first thing I did upon joining was embarking on a personal challenge to do at least one study a day for 31 days straight. I managed to complete 36 studies in that time.

This was all while I was working as a game programmer for a studio that produced educational games (seems that I at least achieved one of my eight-year-old goals... sort of). Around this time one year ago (I was just short of 24 years old), I decided to quit that job, pack up my things and throw myself across the continent to Los Angeles, to attend Concept Design Academy, where I learned a lot of the things you'll find in my lessons. They are, of course, only a fragment of what my instructors there taught, because I could only absorb so much in the six months I attended. Unfortunately, tourist visas (I'm Canadian) allow for a fairly limited stay, and CDA, being a small private unaccredited school was not able to provide student visas.

Despite my short stay there, I think I made the right decision in spending one of the two terms completely focused on relearning my fundamentals. Up until this point, I had been drawing for nearly a decade, so it's safe to say I thought I knew how to draw 3D shapes and the correct proportions for a human figure. I was dead wrong. The best thing I did for myself was to temporarily tuck my natural arrogance into my back pocket and tell myself that I knew nothing.

So now, I'm back home, teetering on the brink of insanity as I finish off my portfolio. I intend to send it off to game studios in Toronto soon, in the hopes that I can get back to moving on with my life. The industry is extremely competitive, with an enormous number of skilled artists floating about, so it's not going to be easy. Frankly, I don't think I'm ready, but I don't think I will ever be ready. All I can do is dive in.

• Here's a gallery of my old work. Keep in mind these were all produced over the course of three years, with very little change in skill level. This was before I decided to start taking things truly seriously.

• Here's a gallery of my current body of work, between December 2013 and now.

mighty_bitch

2014-09-15 18:12

Hi! I just came across this sub few days back and have started on the home work already. Got a lot to catch up. Loved your style of teaching and find it very easy to follow.

Am 27 and love doodling, but never took up any art classes as such. So this is my first class as such. Art has been a hobby of mine - but want to take it up to another level.

This is one of the doodles that I made recently: http://imgur.com/BBgwdre

Looking forward to more classes and actively would participate in this sub.

freecandysketch

2014-09-15 20:06

Hi! I've been drawing since I was little but I haven't really taken it seriously since college. I do comedy and people have been asking me to help with logos and flyers lately. I want to start practicing again, and I want to start working on digital painting/sketching. When it comes to other things (comedy, karate, etc) I have a beginner's mind. But I've always been a little arrogant about my drawing abilities and now that I'm so out of practice it is not at all warranted. I want to cultivate that beginner's mind again.

Anyways, I lurk in /r/DigitalPainting and I saw a link to this and now I'm lurking here. I haven't posted yet. But I read the lessons very intently. I started to use the first lesson on my newish fancy computer screen, but then I realized the pen sensitivity was off so I'm working on fixing that.

Mihawker

2014-09-15 20:08

• I'm 20 years old and have been drawing on and off, not taking it seriously at all, for as long as I can remember. Regularly? No. I have these periods when I'm just like "Hell yeah I'm going to draw everything ever", but at some point I just stop. Mostly because I'm always too disappointed with what I draw. There's this disconnection between what I want done and what things actually turn out to look like, and I think it's because I've never actually learned how to do anything. Which leads to the answer of the next question.

• Aside from art class in school I've never been taught anything. And even there, people (including the teachers) were always like "Wow, you're brilliant" and that didn't help me learn anything. So basically, I'm self-taught. I see things, get inspired, and replicate them. This is another issue I have with what I do, it's just derivative. I wish I could produce something I can call my own that I'm actually proud of, but so far I don't think I ever have.

• I'm studying engineering, focused on industrial design. So even if art itself isn't the main thing, I need to know how to express myself creatively. Even now everyone says I'm great at it, but I don't think so, and I want to get better. Fame is a strong word, but I want to at least be known to be really damn good for something, even if it is by just a few people.

• Well, a couple I guess. Remember how I mentioned my art style is derivative? In brackets I'll link to the inspiration, and you'll see what I mean.

(2011)

Music Samurai (Eiichiro Oda)

Rainmaker (John Kenn Mortensen, Studio Ghibli)

(2014)

Panda Polaroid (I actually traced a photo of a panda because you hadn't taught us how to do anatomy at the time. Then I painted over it with my shiny new tablet that I have no idea how to use, and also had this as help because I can't do fur. The camera's all me though, so I guess I've got that going for me)

See much development in my skills? Me neither.

• I subscribed to /r/DigitalPainting when I got my tablet, and then I noticed this place. And I'm glad I did.

Maybe you weren't asking for this long-ass post, sorry.

baskarcoyote

2014-09-15 21:01

I haven't done a lot with this sub yet, but I want to soonish, got a lot going on.

I'm 28, and I've drawn off and on since High School. I had hopes of going to college but put it off and felt frustrated for various reasons. I did some oil painting back in high school, but nothing impressive. I taught myself photoshop afterwards, and I've played with Painter and Paint Tool Sai (getting used to that at the moment). But last year I decided I needed to fully commit myself if this is what I really want to do with my life, and I started reteaching myself fundamentals and soaking in any books or courses I could.

I have been scanning in my sketchbook from this year to imgur. I haven't been drawing everyday, like I wish to, but I'm working towards that goal. I'm pretty decent at imitating other styles, but my own stuff still needs a lot of work/drawing from real life/mileage.

naomi-nyx

2014-09-15 21:34

Hey! (:

I'm 25, and I suppose I've been drawing on and off my whole life. For as long as I can remember, people have been telling me I would grow up to be an artist. To their disappointment I developed an intense interest in science and understanding the natural world, which lead me to study chemistry at college starting about 7 years ago. I've never walked my life in a straight line, so even now I'm 18 credits shy of a bachelor's that I finally decided to abandon this semester. Now I'm home, working part time, drawing the rest of the time -- maybe I'm going to become an artist after all.

I'm essentially self-taught. I learned mostly by sketching around, reading, and copying other peoples' work. I took a Drawing 1 course at a community college just for fun, but by that point I had already developed most of what the instructor was prepared to teach me. I spent most of that course pretending to have a humble personality, all the while showing off in my homework. My classmates were always confused or disapproving when I told them I intended to be a chemist. I might've actually learned something in that time if I hadn't been so preoccupied with my own arrogance.

I'm here because when I look at the digital painting of so many artists, it touches something inside me. I want to be able to do what they do. Before that happens, though, I need to learn the fundamentals.

mihachris

2014-09-15 21:46

Hello!

First of all I'd like to say I'm really glad to be a part of this awesome community and it's the 100th time I say this, but thanks a lot Uncomfortable for your awesome job.

I'm 20 years old, currently studying computer engineering in a small country in Europe called Albania. I could always draw (more like copy) above average from reference (I was good at observing) but staff from imagination were REALLY bad and that prevented me from doing it regularly. Only thing I have drawn during my teenage years are some occasional doodles in school textbooks and a couple of A4 pencil drawings of statues for some school projects. Unfortunately I don't have them, but most of people who knew me were impressed as they had never see me drawing.

So I was really into anime about four years ago and as I was going through lots of fanart, discovered the Wacom tablet on internet and got the cheapest one asap (the Bamboo which I still have) as I thought it was this magic tool that created amazing art. How wrong I was... I drew a couple of staff which were more like copying, but they were pretty bad so I gave up. You can find them on my Deviantart. Only thing from imagination is that Christmas girl.

After December 2011, I didn't draw at all until this June when I decided to dust off my Wacom and buy a couple of sketchbooks. I really want to become a concept artist and I intend to after I get my engineering degree. I've started taking things much more seriously and drawing pretty much consistently both digital and traditional. I'm currently going through fundamentals. You can find some of my current work in my reddit account. I have to admit though that I still suck big time when drawing from imagination, especially if I have not browsed internet at all for inspiration. If I grind through my negativity and stop caring about what I produce, I might make it.

I found this subreddit through /r/DigitalPainting btw and I'm really grateful as I'm going through fundamentals right now.

SteamyTomato

2014-09-15 21:56

Im also just lurking, but ive been following the exercises.

• im 22. Ive been seriously drawing for 5 months now. On and off in my lifetime. And it kicked off during college (2008). Had a downtime because of studies. Then kicked off again when me and my significant other broke up, fucking up my studies in the process (yeah, im immature. Nope, its not just the only reason why i fucked up. But im trying to change and drawing is helping me)

• fine arts is my course. But its all about advertising/ visual communicaion. Sooo, its not technically about art, but more on design and ideas. Soo yeah, not all of us know how to draw.

• i was hoping that this will be my line of work. Apart from video games, movies and all that, this is the only hobby i have. (Thinkin about it now, i think im now terrified of what will happen in the future lol.) Im a little pressured because i dont know if ill go concept art or more on the eastern style(anime). But my current works are leaning towards anime.

• umm this is my latest work.

• im lurking in /r/digitalpainting. :)

Anyways, your doing great work man! Im thanking you now, and i will definitely not forget you wherever i go (hopefully upwards) with this career!

[deleted]

2014-09-16 10:44

Hello guys, I'm 17 from Malaysia so I'm probably one of the youngest around here haha.

I drew a lot when I was very young, mostly picture of cars from the magazine as it was my favourite subject to draw at that time (or maybe I just sucks at drawing organic object :P). However, I stopped practicing after I entered primary school because I had a hard time with watercolours, still hate myself sometimes for doing that. Anyway I started to take art very seriously this year, after I drew a (rather shitty)Frozen fan art for my one of my friend I found myself fell in love with art again.

I took Art as my high school extra subject but it's absolutely useless because there's no drawing or general practice session at all, all we have to do in the non-existent art class is memorize the text book... Currently I'm grinding all the art knowledge from the Internet because it actually helps me tremendously. Other than these there's nothing else, don't have a real life art buddy either. :(

As of now I afraid I'm too young to make any decision about my future but I would love to do something related to art, or at least I would love to push my skill near or if possible, to the professional level. Right now I have no access to digital media because I don't have a tablet yet, so I'm working with dry traditional media like graphite pencils, colour pencils and pastel (still need a lot of practice with pastel). Watercolour is too hard for me right now, although I would love to try it again in the future. I also have 0 experience with acrylics and oil painting unfortunately.

Here's the crappy Frozen art I've mentioned before, looking at it makes me cringe ><

and here's the work/study I'm working on right now

Right now I'm alright with figure, face, cars and simple buildings, but I still need to practice landscape and plants a lot more in the future because I sucks at it. I also want to try drawing anime or other stylization later.

Oh btw, I stumble upon this sub from one of the threads in /r/learnart. I found the lessons here very helpful :)

Thanks!

[deleted]

2014-09-16 20:30

Hey folks, just wanted to say thanks to Uncomfortable for starting up this project and for everyone else for participating and motivating me to pick up the course.

I'm 20 years old, and I've been drawing since I was... 15? Maybe? somewhere around there. I started off tracing characters from games/movies and coloring/shading them with colored pencils. My drawing sucked so I copied the form and felt like it wasn't cheating because I shaded and colored in the forms. Obviously that's not a good process, but I was a freshman in high school, so most of my decisions were pretty bad.

The next year, I took an art class at school. We started with the fundamentals, but it was a public school's level I art class so it was a joke. However, it did get me formally interested in the arts. Later that year, I signed up to study under an amazingly nice local artist, who sort of became my mentor for the next few years. I learned mostly oil painting, and got decent at it. However, my fundamentals were still extremely lacking. I could paint some pretty decent landscapes, but couldn't draw objects or people or anything that had a distinct form. I didn't know how to recreate life, I only knew how to create imaginary landscapes that obeyed my own rules.

I studied under the local artist for two years, 5-6 times a month, until he moved to a different city. That put me in my senior year of high school. During this period, I was applying to colleges and trying to decide what to do with my life. I had always been a big gamer, so I considered the idea of going to a game design school, but I'm not too great at the programming aspect, and people around me always told me that it was a dumb idea to pursue a childish thing like games, so I was forced to reconsider. My state college is known for having a great engineering program, and I had always been good at science/math, so I made what I thought was a compromise: I'll study architecture, half art and half engineering, right?

Wrong.

After graduating high school and going to study Architecture, I hated every aspect of it. There was so much history and so little design, the professional prospects and competition literally made me nervous as a freshman, and 95% of our "creative" outlets were simply copying the work of previous architects. It sucked. Hard. I learned nothing of use in that year other than how many ways a T-Square can get bent and give you imperfectly straight lines. I dropped out of the program, and felt my passion for drawing and the design world had been damaged in a way. I nearly quit drawing forever after how terrible that time period was.

Over the summer, I looked around for other career choices. I looked at engineering, at writing, at medicine, but nothing really piqued my interest. Then I found that my state school also had a good animation program. Something just felt right, so I applied without hesitation. I got in. That was 2 years ago.

Now, I am studying 3D animation, and have stumbled into another conundrum. We learn every aspect of the 3D side of animation, from modeling to rigging to UV'ing and texturing, with lessons in framing and storytelling and animation studies. What we aren't learning is 2D. I feel slightly out of place amongst some of my peers, who can storyboard and draw beautiful figures and scenes by hand in mere minutes. They are either self taught, or have had past experience in traditional arts. While being able to draw isn't absolutely necessary for me professionally, it is a passion I have always wanted to pursue (and it definitely doesn't hurt your resume!) I find it odd that we only have a small handful of classes available on 2D, and they're almost all higher-level courses that require a very strong grasp on fundamentals.

So here I am. A fledgling animator hoping to enter the gaming industry, with some experience in the arts but little 2D, looking to round out my skills and become better in an area I know I need work in.

I found this subreddit via r/digitalpainting a few days ago. I made a promise to myself that by the end of this year, I was going to become a much better 2D artist. I started taking learning better drawing very seriously about 6 months ago, and have been trying to draw/digital paint every day since then. This subreddit is pretty much a gift from the gods at this point in my life. I'll post some of my other work in an edit a little later after class, I just felt the need to tell my story right now. I also just submitted my first homework assignment if you want to go check that out! It's a good feeling to be taking steps in the right direction.

Thanks everyone for listening, and I can't wait to see all of your work in the future! This place has the potential to become something amazing, I can feel it.

jabberdoggy

2014-09-17 20:41

I am 48, so maybe the oldest one here?

Doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I always wanted to learn how to draw, but there was always some scheduling conflict when I was in school. This summer I decided to make time for it, and took an introductory art class, which I enjoyed a lot.

The other reason is I've started to think about what I want to do after I retire, and I think I would like to do a web comic. I've got some scripts I've been kicking around.

I have a few years to see how far I can get with it. If I can't get to the level of proficiency needed for a web comic, I figure it would at least help me learn to "speak the language" well enough to work with a real artist.

And if nothing else, learning new stuff keeps the old brain sharp.

Edit to add: Here are some sample pencil sketches.

grizz1yberry

2014-09-18 03:14

I'm 22 years old and have enjoyed drawing ever since I was younger. Everyone in my family enjoys arts and crafts, so I was kind of born into the creativity.

Unfortunately, I was never really able to take any classes. I went to a small high school without an art department and lived too far away from any larger cities to take classes elsewhere.

When I graduated high school I went to a community college to study graphic design. The only traditional class I took was Drawing 1, which I really enjoyed, though I felt very far behind a lot of my classmates. I was complimented on my line work more than anything else, so I guess that's my strength if I have one. :P

I just want to use drawing as a hobby. I have quite a few hobbies already (I know, "Jack of all trades, master of none"), but drawing is something I would really like to improve upon and obviously something I will need if I ever plan on furthering my graphic design education.

I don't really have any previous work to show. All of my sketches are on paper and I'm too lazy to take pictures (and they're not very good). The majority of my graphic design work is vector based, so I feel that's kind of unrelated.

Like most others, I found out about this sub through /r/digitalpainting, which I discovered after obsessing over some of the crazy work people do over at /r/redditgetsdrawn.

Looking forward to diving in and tackling some of these lessons! Thank you for doing this. :)

bivoauc

2014-09-18 17:48

I am 37 and used to enjoy drawing when I was a kid. I ended up falling out in high school after a commercial art class that put me through the ringer. After that I transitioned into music, electronics & computers for many years. After over 10 years as a software developer needed something besides code as a hobby. With a family maintaining focus in that regard is tough.

At the beginning of the month decided to do a year of drawing. Still very new do drawing, but enjoying the challenge this time. Talked my 9 year old into the year challenge with me. So far she has kept up with it. I have a 2 year old who is also using the opportunity to color and draw with us. That is why sometime you will see thing of mine get more colorful.

I ended up finding this thread in search for more direction on improving my skills. My goal is to be able to be able to draw what I see with some level of competency. I would rather not have my sketches look like something from my 6th grade sketch book.

captainfuckmyanus

2014-09-18 18:22

I guess its a bit late to comment on this thread but hey why not?

1.) I am currently 20, going on 21(woot), I've been drawing for at least 7 years in total, about 5 and a half in traditional and 1 and a half in digital.

2.) I don't know if going to a studio counts as an art class, but I was mentored by a traditional artist who was skilled in both watercolor and pen and ink.

3.) Right now art is a gratifying hobby, I would love to do it professionally as a concept artist some day, but I am currently pursuing a degree in computer science.

4.) I have plenty of previous work to show over at /r/DigitalPainting

5.) I mainly found this subreddit from the side bar over at digital painting.

I would be willing to offer basic help on this subreddit if /u/Uncomfortable would be alright with it. I also enjoy seeing other people's work.

Mumrama

2014-09-18 23:16

I'm 21 and I've been drawing for about 1 month lol. I am a complete beginner but having a blast! This subreddit is exactly what I've been searching for. I never had an art class in high school so I'm late to the party but I might as well start now!

I've never taken formal Art classes but I have found a community art center in my town that I plan on joining soon. Most of the informal training has been from youtube videos. I was lucky to find a Vilppu art manual but that has been a daunting task (vilppu don't play)

Most of my "previous work" includes gesture stick figures but beyond that just circles and cubes.

I found out about the subreddit in a post a few ours ago. I think it was on /r/animesketch.

Im glad I found you guys though! I've been looking for structure and a way to get a routine going and this may do it!

Natsumachi

2014-09-19 01:45

Hi everyone,

I'm 22 years old and a fresh college graduate working as a software developer. I've been drawing on and off for a long time, but back when I was a teenager I took the totally wrong approach to learn drawing - I really wanted to draw anime styles and I used to believe that using a reference was "cheating". I still have sketchbooks from that time, and even though they are crap, it's still a nice memory to look through them.

More recently since college I've started taking drawing more seriously, but for a long time I had trouble getting over the "repeated failure is required" hurdle. I took a couple drawing classes during that time and worked through some of those fears.

I'm really passionate about learning and personal growth in almost any area, and right now in addition to my job I'm taking two psychology classes (one online), learning Japanese kanji, and working on art here and there, and I love all of them. (I'm desperately making up for the times in my life where I didn't take the initiative to work on the things I care about.) I would love for art to become a strong hobby or maybe an eventual "night job" if I became good enough. My ultimate career goal is to become an I/O psychologist specializing in employee training, so that has top spot for me.

I happened upon this subreddit on a break at work, and joyfully stopped and bought some drawing pens on my way home in the evening. I've just started my first few pages of the first exercise, but I'm looking forward to learning along with everyone!

mabeybaby

2014-09-20 00:47

I'm 33. I found this sub through a post on r/learnart.

I have been drawing for maybe 3 months. I had been thinking about starting to learn to paint for months, but because I wouldn't be very good at it, why bother?

Then I suddenly realized that I didn't need to paint to have a show or be a brilliant artist, but that I could just paint for the fun of it. So I bought some paints and brushes... and quickly realized that drawing is a big part of painting.

So I bought some sketch books and pencils, but before that I had literally not drawn anything since it was a mandatory part of school. So I'm not great, but I don't need to be. I just want to make something out of nothing. I haven't taken any classes, but that might change.

I just really want to be able to make something look like I want it to - instead of what is limited to skills (which obviously at this point is difficult)

My painting at this point is really just learning how colours and brushes work. I want to make something more detailed but everything that I've tried just looks flat. A couple things I've done so far.

AyaWind

2014-09-20 07:57

Hi, I just stumbled across this subreddit yesterday. I'm an undergrad and had been doing on off drawings, especially when I can't sleep. Recently, me and my friends have decided to do a daily sketch routine and I was browsing the net to look for ways to improve, especially to show 3D objects like in your second lesson. I'm pretty new to drawing and I hope I can learn here together with everyone else despite being a greenhorn.

I mostly draw anime and cartoon using ref pictures but I do hope to be able to up my game with your help :)

I'll be submitting my first homework soon too! Hope I can catch up in time

[deleted]

2014-09-21 03:29

Age - 22

How long drawing... Do you need an exact number? I'm sure I have held a crayon in my hand before I can remember. I've always been fascinated with pictures.

Art classes? Nothing past standard school curriculum. I did consider taking up something in art instead of music. But my musical passion is just that little bit stronger.

Why I art... For me. I want to create things that I would enjoy. If ever I were to be paid for doing the things I love, I would certainly not complain. But it will always be something I do for myself, and not for others.

I'm not quite ready to show the world my work. But perhaps some day.

Where did I find this specific sub?

Right here.

I'm actually a fan of /u/Uncomfortable's work, and RES shows up a bright orange name when things scroll past my reddit front page. So I get to see a good amount of it. It makes me happy that it brought me into an interesting sub such as this.

Additions? Well, hopefully this isn't the last of me in here. =] Hello to you all.

akwardstreet

2014-10-01 17:59

Started reading through this thread during my Heat and Mass transfer class and thought I might post also. I was struck by how many people were in a really similar situation to me and I thought it was pretty neat!

I'm 20 years old, currently a junior studying chemical engineering. Up until my senior year of highschool I totally intended to go into art. I had signed up for art schools on my SATs and got mail from them regularly and was preparing my portfolio and everything when my mom put her foot down and said that if I went to art school, she wouldn't pay. So ChemE it was! I don't ~really~ regret it, although I think I would have enjoyed art a lot more, I'm not really certain how I would have dealt with it as a serious major instead of a serious hobby (if that makes any sense). Regardless, I took AP art in high school and, it was pretty funny actually, because there's this stigma there and I couldn't fit into either stereotype that I 'belonged' in properly - too artsy for the nerds and too nerdy for the artists. (When people found out where I was going to school they used to ask if I was actually in AP art or if I had just spelled my schools name wrong). But anyways.

Art is one of favorite hobbies. I've always been an avid reader and attempted to write but never really got into it. I've always favored graphite over everything else, probably because I like to be constantly working. The only art classes I've taken are in highschool, AP art being the highest level. The portfolio I submitted for that included some of my favorite works (although not as good now that I look back on them), which were all graphite. I found this subreddit while browsing /r/weeklystudy (I believe?)

but this sub seems just perfect to me - I've always looked up tutorials but had a hard time gaining interest in them, but the ones here really pull me in and make me want to learn more and improve! I never had a large variety in anything I've done previously, so I hope I can learn to leave my comfort zone of pencils and pencils and more pencils..

nervously pushes large pencil drawings under bed

as for my previous work -

most of it can be found on my tumblr but I rooted through to pick my personal favorites that took more than 30 minutes...

here's the graphite work I mentioned centered around 'control'

and here's some other random stuff that I've done just for fun!

theranganator

2014-10-26 13:21

Over a month late but hayy

• I am almost 16, and have been drawing as long as I can remember. I especially drew a lot when I was 12 and 13, but stopped for almost 2 years. Recently I've picked it back up again an am SO glad.

• I took a painting class for a few weeks when I was 8-10 years old, but my mum pulled me out. I was kind of hyperactive. Aside from that and learning art in school, I've got nothing :P

• I don't know what I want to do with art. I definitely know that it is my passion, and a part of me would love to be drawing for the rest of my life. That part wants to be an illustrator, but I've never tried digital art before and I feel like traditional art wouldn't be as accepted. Another side wants to go to uni, study psychology, sociology, history or something like that and get a normal job. I have no idea what career I want to have after school and I'm so worried that I'm never going to make it as an artist if that's what I choose. All I know is that for now, drawing makes me happy.

• As of now, no. I'm still trying to learn the basics and develop an actual style before attempting anything big. It's the first time I've drawn for a very long time and my older stuff is just godawful o_o i'm filling out sketchbooks with ideas instead. once I get better, I'll start spamming r/drawing for sure :D

• The teacher(?) linked to here from r/drawing

• I am so happy this is a thing.

[deleted]

2014-11-09 14:52

[deleted]

[deleted]

2014-11-10 05:34

[deleted]

therealshu

2014-11-12 03:19

I'm damn near 30. My interest in art started with Graffiti. I started drawing and doing other art a year ago.

I have never taken an art class (I actually failed my first semester of art history [funny story])

My aspiration with my art is to be able to make a living with my art and travel the globe

my site is http://therealshu.tk and Im on http://instagram.com/therealshu

posting on r/learnart

opkluu

2014-11-12 05:51

Hey guys! I'm an 18 year old that has been doodling since I was 11, and trying to seriously study art for a couple of years.

In high school I took a couple of art classes at my local community college, and a painting class over the summer, and I am currently enrolled in an art college to pursue my passion further!

I'd love to become a professional concept or games artist working in the game industry. Not really sure exactly what I want to do, but anything that has to do with video games sounds good to me!

I've got a bunch of stuff if you care to look. I have a bunch of old pieces from when I first started on deviantart dating back to 2008 if you dig deep enough. I should probably compile a nice document without all the cringe crammed in there. I also have an album with pieces from my portfolio and some digital things I did that I liked.

I found out about this from your post on /r/learnart that you posted about 5 hours ago. I can't believe there was even a digital painting sub that I never knew about. I feel like an idiot, haha.

Even though I'm currently enrolled in an art school at the moment, I want to improve so much that I'll slowly work my way through the assignments on here as well in addition to the assignments I have to do for school. I've heard of the Concept Design Academy that you attended, and apparently it is a fantastic, magical place that comes with hundreds of recommendations. Therefore I would like to absorb some of the knowledge you gleaned from there for myself ;p.

Dorf_Midget

2014-11-12 09:56

I'm a 24 (25 next year) old guy who has almost zero experience in arts. I'm currently studying software engineering which is pretty damn far from anything artistic. I've wanted to learn to draw for years now but I've always thought of it as "It's too late now. I'm too old to make a career out of it."

I have about 1 year left on my current school so I've given myself that time to learn to draw on some level. If I manage to do that then after graduation it's (hopefully) off to art school. I would love to become a professional. Games are very close to my heart so working in the industry would be a dream come true. Comic books would also be great to work on. Maybe more interactive comics with branching stories. Soft of like Choose Your Own Adventure books but with comics and deeper characters and plot. But that's my engineering side butting in :P

I know it's going to be a lot of work and especially in the beginning kind of boring. But my first program was a Hello World and not HL3 so I'll try to keep that in mind when drawing lines that look like I have 5 thumbs.

Cruel_Summer

2014-11-13 09:21

Hi! I just discovered this thread and I'm really excited to get started on the exercises. Hopefully I can catch up!

• I'm 21 and I've been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. My parents encouraged my drawing from a very young age and it has been a huge part of my life ever since. Crudely drawn stick people turned to tracing my favorite Pokemon characters and then a fascination with anime followed around 13, which thankfully was only a short phase. I now primarily draw graphite portraits, a bit of digital, and occasionally paint and sculpt too.

• I'm mostly self-taught. Unfortunately the only art classes I've taken were in high school, which were, for the most part, a joke. Very few students in said classes were serious about learning and only took it for an easy credit. Now I pretty much just draw from references, but I'm hoping to get out of my comfort zone and build those creative muscles as I don't have the imagination I did as a child.

• It is very important to me to make art my career. Specifically I want to be a tattoo artist, specializing in photo realism. I've looked into apprenticeships but I feel I need to build my skills (anatomy and perspective are some of the things I struggle with, having no real education in the fundamentals) before I'm confident enough to "sell" myself to a willing teacher. I also don't have much of a portfolio.

• Here are some of my portraits, some

  mixed paintings and digital work

and some drawings and paintings on skin

• I was browsing some art subs when I came across a post mentioning your sub.

Thank you so much, /u/uncomfortable, for sharing what you've learned! Your work is beautiful! I've been looking for lessons like this, and having an active community for feedback and critique is a wonderful bonus :)

[deleted]

2014-11-13 10:17

I'm 20, and have been drawing on and off since August and still consider myself a total beginner, haha. I had a period when I trained a lot during the summer but as school started I quit, and I didn't really start again until now.

I haven't taken any art classes except the ones required in high school.

I think of art as an hobby, but something I want to become better at.

I found this (marvelous, absolutely stunning, fantastic) subreddit in a comment somewhere :)

I made this in October, after not drawing since August. Imgur

Dee013

2014-11-14 04:50

Hi. I just came across this sub really and I'm only now reading more into it, finding that it also has a curriculum. Just at the right time too because I really need to go back to basics.

I'm 20 years old, and I've been drawing since I could eat a crayon (literally). I've taken art throughout high school, and tried to major in it in college, but found that I didn't have enough time to finish. I decided to take up an Olympic sport instead. Look at me being an over achiever huh? While I don't hope to base my career off of drawing (that's what my sport is for), I do hope to get better at drawing. It's one of my favorite past times and I even use it when I'm at a competition to help focus myself instead of overthinking.

I've been touching on digital art a little with "realism" and cartooning:

Leo

Fun

Though I find myself more comfortable with pencil drawings and I learned that through this piece I had to do in college:

St. Michael Vanquishing the Devil

And lastly, I found this subreddit after my boyfriend encouraged me to post some work on a different subreddit and I told him that I wasn't quite ready because my digital painting needed a lot of work. He said that there were other subreddits that were meant specifically for teaching so I went on a search and here I am. I'm ready to start learning and will be doing my best in my busy schedule to try out the homework. I'm super excited!

I'm also sorry if I mess up the link process - I'm really new to this site.

bruxadosul

2014-11-15 00:59

Well, I'm kind of embarrassed, because I started to like it about five years ago. I am 29, now.

I've always found amazing how people could do these stuff and make it look so easy, though I know that it wasn't true.

So, when I became interested I started to take a weekly drawing class, but they're almost purely based on copying material. Never did anything really original, but here are some of my studies.

Since, I'm a bit old to use it as a career, I've been taking it as a hobby (though sometimes I daydream about doing it professionally.

A few days agor, I saw this subreddit at r/learnart and decided to take a look. I hope to start posting the lesson on the next days.

hugs_for_honus

2014-11-15 02:52

This is amazing, I wish I had found this subreddit sooner!! Thank you so much for putting all of this together!! I'm 19 and have been drawing since I can remember. I love to draw and paint and all, but unfortunately i'm not good at it. Besides the art classes i had to take in elementary school, i've never taken a formal class. I've always wanted to, but i've never found the time to do it. I'm kind of at a crossroad in my life right now. My dreams kind of fell through and I spent so much time and energy focusing on my previous goal that i wasn't able to do the things that I really wanted to. Now's my chance! My aspirations are pretty simple. I love to draw and paint, but I need to improve my techniques (read: actually learn the techniques). All I want is for the paper to actually resemble the picture I have in my mind. I mostly do crappy fanart and imitation stuff. I haven't really found my own style yet. :/ And i stumbled across this sub because I was looking for ideas on what to do with the 36"x48" canvas that i've had sitting in my room for two months. Now I guess i'm gonna push that off for a bit! I'm super excited to start going through the lessons!

HeavyMetalJoe91

2014-11-15 04:23

I'm 23 years old and I've been drawing off and on (far more off than on) since I was five or so. But because I have taken such large breaks between drawing (years at a time) I am basically a complete beginner.

I took a drawing class during my freshman or sophomore year of high school, which was about 8/9 years ago now. I also took a ceramics class during high school as well, though I don't remember which year that was.

It's always been something I've wanted to do. When I was little it was my dream to be a comic book artist, an idea I got from reading those 'Captain Underpants' books. I recently decided to take drawing seriously when I was watching a clip from an interview with a movie director who was talking about the characters in his movie, sadly I cannot remember the name of the director or the movie. When talking about one of the characters he mentioned how she had all these ideas but no way of expressing them as she wasn't good at art, writing, or any other manner of creative expression and he mentioned how it is a terrible way to live. This really resonated with me as I go through my day daydreaming about characters, scenarios, stories, etc. but I have no means of expression and I decided that it was time to change that and start drawing.

I don't have any previous work to show, any old sketchbooks of mine have been thrown out long ago, hopefully in time, with help from these lessons, I'll have new art to show.

Your post over in /r/learntodraw brought me here.

[deleted]

2014-11-15 12:35

Hi, I'm 46 and I have been drawing all my life but I only started trying to learn how to properly draw in the last 6 years or so.

I have three kids and a wife so I have learned from books in fits and starts and have taken no art classes.

This is just a hobby for me and something to do with my children and to help my oldest who is most interested in drawing well.

I have previous work but the quality varies wildly. I'm pretty good at copying a sketch after much erasing and redrawing. If I try to go on my own the work gets a little wonky but it has been looking better.

I found this subreddit from r/sketchdaily which has it in the sidebar.

RezaVinci

2014-11-17 04:25

Hey, I'm 19, and I've been drawing for just about a year.

I was in college for a bit for game development at first trying for the programming/design stream but I ended up loving the art stream. despite only having drawn occasionally. It's something I'm going to do professionally. It was basically a rush course. Three months later, dropped out and drawing from Loomis and Hampton books. Kinda learning but kinda not since I've been copying the pictures.

Now in a portfolio workshop to try to get into animation or illustration or niche pixel art.

A couple of the better pictures I like from last week drawing farm animals:

Alpaca and Cow drawn in dollar store blue marker that's been running out.

Found out about this subreddit from the sidebar of the DigitalPainting subreddit.

tskdale

2014-11-17 16:20

Hey, I'm 25 and I've been drawing on and off (mostly off) for about two years.

I'm basically self-taught. I've never really used references, tutorials, or books, and because of that I've been stuck in a rut for a long time. I started out with traditional art (pencils) and then quickly moved on to using a digital tablet, which I adore.

I draw almost entirely from my imagination and honestly lack any foundation in the basics. With luxuries such as unlimited undo and a reverse-tool eraser, my style has become extremely erratic, inconsistent, and flat.

At this point, continual practice and forward progression are my aspirations. I lack method and I suppose that's what I need most.

[deleted]

2014-11-22 23:27

[deleted]

[deleted]

2014-11-23 00:21

[deleted]

HalleyOrion

2014-11-23 03:39

OK, so, I have not yet begun these lessons, but I'm working on it (running into issues finding a felt tip pen, actually).

I have been drawing extensively since I was a toddler, with a focus on animals. However, I have never taken any art classesunless you count making coil pots in middle schoolthough I've attended a number of life drawing events (which did not come with any instruction). I've definitely missed out on the basics.

This has never been a major problem for me, as I ended up pursuing a career in science rather than art (though everyone, when I was younger, was trying to get me to study art). However, I've fallen sideways into a mini art career anywayspecifically, making 2D and 3D game assets.

Unfortunately, I'm not pleased with the speed and skill I've developed thus far. I also need to expand my repertoire. Most of my experience is with drawing people and animals. I'm much weaker with landscapes, fabric, non-organic objects, texturing, hair and fur, etc. I'm also pretty shaky on perspective, and my lines could stand to be a lot cleaner and bolder.

I'm most used to drawing on paper, but most of the work I do now is on the computer. I'm still not very comfortable using a Wacom pen, so I hope to do these lessons in both analog and digital. It's really hard to get myself to practice digital drawing because it feels like such a big step backwards. (Sometimes I cheat and just scan and tweak something I drew by hand, but the results aren't great and it greatly slows me down.)

Here is a smattering of pictures I've made from references:

• Male model (from life; colored pencils)

• Female model (from life; watercolor pencils)

• My partner (from life; pencil)

  I know the proportions look weird, but he's over 6'6 and his shirt is really loose.

• Self-portrait (from photo; tablet in SketchBook Pro)

  I can't do hair!

• Fruit (from photo; Intuos in ArtRage)

  ArtRage is really good at making short, wobbly lines look intentionally painterly. It's a dirty lie.

• Plastic greyhound (from life; Intuos in ArtRage)

  More feeble line work (most apparent in the dog's outline).

• Rat (drawn from photo; Cintiq in ArtRage)

  The color blending around the wrinkles looks forced and scratchy. Not sure how to avoid that.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but the work I've done without a reference isn't nearly so good.

Unfortunately, most of the assets I have to make now don't get the benefit of references. So I really need to work on committing visual concepts to memory. (You wouldn't have any tips on how to do that, would you?)

Here are examples of my work without references:

• Goblin kidnapper (Intuos in ArtRage) Facial expressions are too stiff, among other issues here and there. This was intended as an experiment in skin tones, though, and it was a big breakthrough for me on that front.

• Tapir-horse creature (Intuos in Photoshop)

• Log Lady (Cintiq in Photoshop)

  You can tell I rushed the planning stage on this one.

• Woolly wallaby (Cintiq in Photoshop)

  A (mostly failed) experiment in rendering fur.

• Wildebeest (Intuos in ArtRage) Ugh, that twisted back leg is especially embarrassing! A number of other flaws, too, but at least the image is vibrant, eh?

[deleted]

2014-12-08 05:06

Hi, I'm David. I've been doodling on and off since childhood, and sketching on and off for a couple months. Today I made a real effort to draw/color a poinsettia and the creative process gave me an interesting chemical rush from my brain. I want more of that, so I'll probably be back here tomorrow to take in what you have to offer. Thanks for setting it up!

Ajynn

2014-12-10 00:21

Hi there! So because I'm planning to stay on this subreddit for a little while (or even longer) I figured that it would be a good idea to introduce myself.

I'm a 21 year old graphic design student (this is my first semester, I have been studying psychology before this, but.. well, after 2 years I decided to leave and "chase my dreams") and I work as a QA tester in a game studio at the same time. And as you probably have quessed by now - I want to become a concept artist at some point in my life (better sooner than later).

I began drawing at the age of 2 or 3 - my very first scribbles formed something resembling a guy siting on a giant lizard. After that I just couldn't stop - I drew Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z characters, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and armor/weapons from various video games. Unfortunately I stopped doing this at the age of 10 - after my parents signed me up for a drawing/artistic course in our town. I realy hated it - I didn't like the other kids there and I always did things my own way (which was completely different from what the teacher was expecting).

So I left and just kept on doodling for years to come, never realy thinking seriously about it.

At the age of 20 is struck me - I want.. no, i NEED to become a concept artist. I read all there was about this career path, I started drawing more often and I took some private lessons. At the start of 2014 I bought a Wacom tablet - and being a complete noob, with no clue what to do and where to start, I joined an Indie Dev team, drawing stuff for their game in my free time (my concepts are quite obviously awful, but they don't pay me, so... :D)

And then I started graphic desing (partialy because I like it, but mostly so that my parents won't nag me that I'm wasting my life without a degree) and found a job in a game studio. At the same time, I focus every free moment on learning how to draw.

So, hi again. Here I am, eager to draw everything you throw at me :)

Mero1

2014-12-15 02:47

Hey there!

I'm a 20 year old student in communication working in advertising as a designer. I've always liked to draw during my childhood, but somewhere along the way I started believing I wanted to work with math as an engineer, programmer or something along those lines. I got into Computer Science right out of school, but the heart wants what the heart wants and I ended up as a designer and still not knowing how to draw. The last time I've really picked a pencil to draw must have been almost 10 years ago.

Now I want to make up for the wasted time and I've found this subreddit really organized with nice lessons that are simple to follow.

I hope we all have a good time together in this!

[deleted]

2014-12-23 19:04

Hi everyone!

I'm 28, and my background, schooling and job are all in math and science, so I never took any sort of drawing class. While I've always been the type of person who loves to draw, I've never had any classical or formal training so I never really felt like I was progressing. I dove into various reading material, kept practicing and eventually decided to start making comics which became my realm to experiment and try things out, but I'm still missing a lot of foundation. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at drawing, but I want that to change.

I want to get better at drawing in order to improve my comics and my story telling. I want to be able to draw anything with confidence.

dth0807

2014-12-24 04:39

I'm 22. I started drawing back in march. Never really did it before then but I decided to start because I guess it's something I always wanted to try. I took a figure drawing class recently, this was my progress starting bottom left going counter-clockwise. http://i.imgur.com/92PftC8.jpg

I don't really know what my aspirations are, I just want to improve at the moment. I have never done a finished piece. I can't remember how I found out about this subreddit, maybe from looking at a list of related subreddits on another one.

Golden_Crane

2014-12-28 14:54

Really, I think I've been drawing my whole life, or at least from a very young age. When I became 13 I discovered the wonderful world of Anime and manga and fell in love with it. I started watching a little anime and read tons of manga. I decided that I wanted to become a mangaka (I still cringe at this), even though I only drew like once a month. So, I was copying from different manga and I don't think I improved, but I don't think I noticed that copying one drawing once a month would not help me.

A month after turning 15 I, for some reason, went on r/learnart for the first time and I found this post where someone was asking for some help on becoming a better at drawing manga. I opened it because I thought "Hey, I also want to become better at drawing manga". It sounds cheesy, but reading the replies changed my life. Basically they said to start with realism, and I remember reading someone that suggested Mark Crilley and another user replied with "I want to punch you in the dick for suggesting mark crilley". After reading these replies I nearly felt "enlightened", I realised that I actually did not find Mark Crilleys drawings any good, and that to learn I had to start with realis and that I had to draw more.

From that day on I started drawing an hour every day. Which is not very much, but it was a complete change for me. I was very motivated to do it too, so I never missed a day. All I did was drawing from life. I discovered ctrl+paints which helped me get better at drawing for life. My imagination work also improved, not so much because of drawing from life, but simply because I was not drawing flat "manga drawings" and was thinking more in 3d.

Now unfortunately, Summer break came and I went on vacation to france as we do every year, and my whole drawing schedule got messed up. When I came back again I had a hard time drawing an hour a day, for the rest of the year it was sort of on-off with serious drawing. Meaning I could have periods of two weeks where I would draw 1-2 hours a day and have 2 weeks where I would raw 1 hour for only two days. I was just drawing from life and improvement was slow or non-existent which made me quite sad and angry at my self.

Right before turning sixteen I was in middle school (10th year) and I had to apply for high school. For 10 years I had gone to a relatively tough private school, but all high schools were public ones. I thought "Sweet, these will be 3 easy years" and was looking forwards to it because I thought I would have time to draw a lot more than I did before.

From around that time I started feeling more and more clueless as to how to become better. I stopped drawing as much from life and wanted to focus on drawing from imagination so I bought Scott Robertsons "How to draw" book and Michael Hamptons figure drawing book. So for the summer before starting High School I just copied every image in Hamptons book (did not help a lot).

When it comes to my aspirations, I want to one day do it professionally. I can't think of anything that I would like doing other than drawing, because if I end up with some "normal" job I'd probably put a bullet through my head.

I absolutely hate going to school, I do not really like my teachers, I find all the classes to be very boring and uninteresting. I've never been to happy with my life, but I think I've never disliked it so much before. I'm actually a very good student, but that means nothing to me because school means nothing to me. Even though I say this, I still work very hard with school work, Why? I don't know. So School is taking up a large part of my time, and also because I procrastinate a lot I have a hard time actually drawing. I usually have some time to draw, but it's so hard to get in the "zone", I am not able to "put" my mind in a drawing mode, because I am constantly thinking about school. It's like this during weekends too, I'm not able to be completely "art minded", and everything I produce is shit. I need a long break to be able to really draw seriously. I'm looking so much forward to when I'm done with high school (in 2 and half years) so that I can finally just focus on drawing.

Not only do I have problem with time, but I also have problems with my arm/wrist. Since summer I have had, problems, possibly tendonitis/carpal tunnel syndrome. I think my work suffers because of it and it's really annoying (and somewhat painful)

2 months I "discovered" this subreddit, and I'm really glad that I did, because now I feel I know how to proceed, and how I should go on about studying things. Thank you for making this subreddit, making great lessons and giving great feedback.

2015 is approaching and my goals are to stop being such a bitch, become much more productive when it comes to school work so I have more time to draw, and draw more and more seriously.

TL;DR: I hate my current life, I don't like my drawings, but I love drawing.

Edit: Heres the post I was talking about.

Heres the comment

ffflay

2014-12-30 10:29

Hey!

I'm a 23 year old graphic designer from Sydney, Australia. I graduated with a graphic design degree from a good course at the end of 2013, but although it gave me a good general knowledge of design and composition, the course wasn't focused enough to make me an expert in any field. I'm freelancing as a motion graphics designer at the moment, but my dream has always been to be a concept/production artist. Even though I've been practicing on and off for years I still feel like I have a long way to go. I'm taking this year to study fine-arts at a reputable private school, and try to gradually shift my focus from one industry to another.

My blog -

My website

jonathansty

2015-01-02 17:10

I'm 18 years old and starting drawing in september 2014. I started studing 'Digital Arts and entertainment'. A special course in belgium. I started doing it because I wanted to learn programming while keeping games in mind. But for that I have to learn drawing as well. I really started liking drawing. And I've been trying to draw everyday and follow these lessons although I'm just lurking around but doing the exercises but not submitting. I'm also kinda shy to submit it. I never think it's good enough :p. I don't really have much work to show yet.

I made an digital ear study here

and this is my first task for the preproduction part of my course you can find it here

I know it has some perspective problems and proportion problems. This was after 1-2 months.

I want to improve my drawing and possible start doing more concept art and designing. Mostly for games.

I found out about this subreddit through the digitalpainting subreddit.

RottenShield

2015-01-03 06:06

Greetings! My name is Sam and I'm 21 years old.

I've been drawing since I was around 4 years old, but I decided to take art seriously around my sophomore year in high school after I had bought my first sketchbook! Since then I've been trying to improve my drawing and rendering skills and I thought that taking art classes in high school would help improve those skills even further, I did after all want to become a professional illustrator and concept artist for the entertainment industry!

Up until that point I was mostly teaching myself how to draw and I believed that high school art classes would boost up my skills, which wouldn't be the case at all. Plus it didn't help that I rarely experimented outside my typical mediums, which at the time was mostly pencil. It was only after enrolling at my local community college as an art major that I noticed visible "upgrades" in my sketchbooks. But, it was there I learned that the school offered a Dynamic Sketching class. I was very giddy about enrolling in that class since by that point several of my art classmates had attended that class and considerably improved they're drawing skills to shocking levels.

Much to my disappointment, however, I discovered that it wouldn't be offered anymore, due to budget restraints and the fact that the one professor who's teaching it will be moving over to another community college in Fullerton. In a last ditch attempt to find and enroll in a Dynamic Sketching class I searched the web for some classes. I found the CDA but I couldn't attend in person or online for logistical and financial reasons.

But lo and behold I found this class! And I must say I'm deeply grateful that you're taking time out of your life to teach us! Thank you! And I wish you the best of luck on getting accepted!

Here's a gallery of a compilation of my works. I am however still new to both Imgur and reddit, so do forgive me if the link doesn't work!

http://imgur.com/a/6UEC2#0

Nyaungh

2015-01-04 03:34

I'm Nyaungh, and I'm 20-25. I've been drawing on and off for about a year. I've taken classes on animation and cartoons.

I want to be able to express myself in really poetic ways, hence wanting to get better at sketching.

I got nothing to really show, but hopefully, I will.

hahah. thats actually a lie, I actually do have some stuff, but I'm not comfortable sharing it, even anonymously.

I found this subreddit through /u/uncomfortable post on r/learnart

ambrdst

2015-01-07 03:42

Now that I've done a couple of the lessons I figured I might as well introduce myself.

I'm 25, and have been drawing for as long as I can remember, if little kid drawings count. Back then, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I got more serious about it in college because I worked for the uni theatre and had to do costume renderings. I got paid to do art for the first time last year (not that I would actually consider myself a professional, not at all).

Not counting elementary and high school classes, I took a couple art classes in college. The most relevant one was Visual Design in 2D, which was more focused on color/form/collage than drawing.

I like doing this as a hobby, but since I've always dreamed of being an "artist" I want to get good enough to make some money here and there on commissions or whatnot.

I'm one of those unfortunate people that got into drawing anime style. I tend towards a sort of cartoony/semi-realistic mishmash, that I fully accept as horrible a lot of the time. Feel free to look around my facebook page for a nice range of bad to ok, but here are some of my favorites from the past year:

Some fluffy dog

sometimes I draw in the dark to force myself to not get caught up on details

typical semi-anime thing

the game that I worked on, which got me back into art last year

and a cat, just in case

I only really have recent examples unfortunately, so there's not much to compare. I found this sub from the side-column on another one of the art subs, though I'm not sure which. I'm here because I want to not be disappointed in my work as much as I usually am.

I'm looking forward to all the lessons. I've said it before, but thanks /u/Uncomfortable for organizing this!

mabasakura

2015-01-12 03:57

• I am 22 and I've never really drawn seriously before in my life. I've done little doodles here and there but I was never serious about it.

• The extend of my "formal" art education is in high school when I had to take Art 1 as part of my curriculum.

• My aspiration is to become a decent enough artist to be able to create my own manga/comics. I have tons of story ideas with massive feels-factor. I just don't have enough skill to illustrate them. Art is a hobby for now.

• Previous works...hrm. I've uploaded some stuff on my DA. http://maburaho26.deviantart.com/

I mainly do copies and although it isn't recommended to copy since not a lot of learning come out of it, I still do it just as a form of relaxation/play.

• I found out about this subreddit form the sidebar of /r/learnart

[deleted]

2015-01-12 20:01

[deleted]

furrysparks

2015-01-14 06:10

Hey, I guess I should do this thing... might make me more hesitant to back out or give up if I feel more connected to the community.

I'm 21, and I've not really been seriously drawing at all... I've tried to do like one thing once a year for probably like 5 years, but I never put any real effort into it. The art classes I've ever taken were in middle school and high school, but those don't really count and didn't teach me much. I don't want to do it professionally, its probably a bit late for that as I'm about to graduate, I just would like to be able to do it as a hobby. Plus to be honestly I don't think I'd be able to have the focus and drive to get that good.

I don't have any drawings I'd be willing to show... pretty sure I've shredded all of them, because they were bad. I know that's to be expected, but the subject matter was slightly embarrassing too. If I had them in my hands again right now, I'd probably do the same thing again. I will never let those see the light of day... although this is now making me feel like I should have used my alt account for these lessons.

I'm not really sure if now is the best time to be starting these lessons as I'm kind of under a lot of stress right now, but if I keep putting it off I'll never start it. I'm hoping within a year I'll have kept up with drawing and be able to draw something that's not total garbage a straight line, but that may be too much to ask =P.

gustamos

2015-01-15 05:20

Looks like this thread's still alive, so I might as well join in.

I'm currently 20 years old and have never created anything that would pass as a recognizable drawing in any of those years. My dad went to a very good art school, (and then did nothing related to his degree afterwards) so I feel like I must have some of his ability within myself. I took art lessons for a little while when I was a kid, but I had too much ADD and too little patience to stick with it for long enough to make any kind of improvement, so I would still consider myself a rank amateur. I'm currently a physics student in college, so I don't think knowing how to draw will have any impact at all on my career. That said though, it always helps to have as many talents up your sleeve as possible. I found out about this subreddit by typing "learn to draw" into the reddit search bar. I'm really excited that this place exists because I believe very strongly that mastering the fundamentals of any given skill will allow you to improve very quickly.

AlphaAsPuck

2015-01-15 19:48

• Im 29 years old and havent been drawing at all for at least 15 years. Before I just messed around with different looney toons characters but not in a serious matter.

• Never followed art classes except the ones which were mandatory at school which isnt very much.

• Art is something which I struggle with im that guy who always wants everything to be straight, even, symmetrical etc. I think drawing/art is a great way to think out of that set box and develop new skills. As for now its just a hobby but I really want to see were it takes me.

• Draw these a few weeks ago before I found out about this reddit thread: http://imgur.com/a/ekBVE

• Stumbled on it while googling "learning to draw" which linked me to the general art reddit were I saw this thread.

MightyRoops

2015-01-17 09:37

Hello.

• I'm 21 years old and I liked to draw since I was 16 or 17. However I never drew regularly and mostly it was just little doodles and sketches. Only in the past two years I have gotten the wish to learn actual techniques and skills to improve.

• I never had art classes, I did tutorials from websites every now and then but looking back, they probably where way above my skill level and I basically just copied the steps without understanding the reasoning behind them.

• For me art is a hobby. I'm not the most imaginative person but every now and then I get a really cool idea and I become frustrated because I don't have the skill to put it on paper the way it looks in my head.

• I don't really have much to show you but here's a drawing from a photo I did a year ago and here's a little character I drew a week ago.

• I found out about this subreddit from the sidebars of lots of other drawing subreddits. I lurk in a lot of them because I like reading about the techniques and skills but my problem is that I never really know how to practise them.

This is the main reason I joined here, because your (/u/uncomfortable) homework gives me some clear goals so I can practise efficiently.

Miss-Jeanni

2015-01-22 09:35

Hi! I am 24 years old and started drawing in elementary school by copying anime like DBZ and digimon. I tried taking it more serious a couple years back but life got really crazy fast. Now I'm finding more time and am looking to step away from the anime style for something more semirealist. I'm so happy I found this (I believe it was in learntodraw) because I know I need to start from the basics! I can really only draw anime people and I know that won't get me to my dream of doing this professionally.

I've only taken the one required art class my school had, and that wasn't much more than playing with colored paper.

I did this the other day to show where my skill is at and hopefully come back and improve. http://imgur.com/a/Y2tx8

I will start doing lesson one tomorrow and look forward to everything you have to teach.

BetoGSanchez

2015-01-26 21:22

Hello, I'm 26 old and in 2 days I'll turn 27 old :D (beers!!!!), I studied digital media on college and work on videogames and interactive media. I like the field of work but I'm not doing what I love, creating ideas and making them into images as a way of storytelling. I have taken some art classes, here and there but mostly they turn out to be mediocre, here in my city (Monterrey, Mexico) art it's not view as something valuable and my family didn't help on my first years of self-taught. Now I'm taking the course of Level up! on CA.org and it's great, but when I saw this sub I knew I have to participate on this community.

I knew I wanted to make art for a living since I discovered Marko Djurdjevic artwork back on 2008, and even when I keep drawing I didn't have a organize aproach and also a big deal was my mental situation just didn't allowed me to accept my failures and f**k (just in case) perfection, I struggle with severe anxiety. Since last year I realize being part of a (art) community it's important, to be part of something larger than me, helpt to improve and to not lose hope, to keep pushing. Now I'm also part a figure drawing club with awesome people here in my city. Art for me is pivotal on my personal expression (even though I can hardly do something from imagination), I want to work doing art, meaninful art, something that will inspire someone like other artist inspire me, to let them know it's achievable.

Here's my DA! where you can see some of my work, even when the work of other artist inspire me, different mediums inspire me more like books, music, nature, cinema.

I found this subreddid on google, and I found this one the most helpful.

LarryFman

2015-01-31 09:30

I hope it's not late to join this community :)

So I'm 19 years old student, I'm studying mathematical and geographical subjects. When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect or a graphic designer, my lack of physics subjects disallowed me to become an architect. I've been drawing since I was a kid but problem is that I stopped drawing like 5-4 years ago. In school I was sketching in my notebooks and most of those sketches were awful but there was always this 1 out of 100 that I was really happy about.

I've never taken any art classes and I really regret that, I wanted to but in my town there aren't any and I was never into studying through the Internet until now.

My aspirations... Hmm... to be honest I do not have any. It's hard for me right now because in next 4 months I'm going to take a test that will decide about my future and going into university and I'm not sure If graphic and drawing will be my hobby or job. Right now It's definitely hobby that I enjoy!

Not really. My previous works were mostly done in Photoshop, Illustrator, GIMP and similar software on my laptop but HDD was damaged and I couldn't save much. I have some doodles in my notebooks, most of them are games character, fast food, people, shapes etc. and similar teenage stuff but I don't think it's worth posting.

I found this sub because yesterday I decided that If I want to draw something more than doodles and shitty sketches and I need some practice. I've never been a fan of teaching through Internet but I think that I will just give it a try.

Also I want to change many things in my life and I think that drawing lessons will teach me discipline that I lack. I'm addicted to things that I don't want talk about because it's embarrassing for me, I've some complexes and problems with being confident. So I started to work out, getting more confident, fighting with my addictions and get a hobby that I like to get some self-discipline. And it's going good :)

I just want to know that this subreddit is one of things that are changing my life, thanks friend:)

anthemlog

2015-02-01 10:29

Here I am now, hoping to learn to really draw. And here is a lot of words;

I am 25. I first wanted to learn to draw about 4 years ago. I was interested in Adventure Time. A comic called Black Adventures is what really got me interested in drawing. I learned about tumblr and say that there were a lot of artists that drew cartoons as well. So I got my first sketchbook and thus the pain began.

I thought it would be easy to get into drawing. I knew what I wanted to draw. I could see it in my mind. But it wouldn't come out of my pencil. I found that every time I tried to envision what I wanted to draw it seemed like it was moving too fast to see. Every time I tried to picture it I found that I knew less and less of how it looked. Even if I had seen the subject many times, over years.

As the years went by it got worse and worse. I would hit peaks of inspiration or motivation and then I would get shot down by my own inability.

I talked to a lot of people online about drawing. A LOT. As far as I can say, I mostly got helpful information. But the more I asked around the more the information conflicted. Most people say to use reference. Some say they never used reference. Many went to art school or took art classes and spoke of how much they improved from them, while at the same time defended that classes weren't necessary at all in order to improve.

Some people couldn't comprehend that I could be of this age and be incapable of drawing, so I was called a troll by many. Many seemed to believe that drawing was an inherent ability on some level and refused to believe that I was unable. Again, I was called a troll. There was even that one person that refused to offer me any advice. She believed that the path to becoming skilled at drawing was meant to believe a long, hard, and painful one. To better develop my own personal style, she said. I have also been told to give up on many occasions.

I've come across different definitions of "art". I liked the one that told me that everything, including the shit in my toilet (They actually said this) was art. That made me chuckle.

All along the way, a wall seemed to develop. Picking up a pencil was like being tied to a chair. I felt paralyzed when I looked at a sheet of blank paper with the desire to draw. I seemed to develop a perfectionist view, before I had even gotten anywhere. I understood(and still understand) that no one starts off as a master, but I couldn't bring myself to draw poorly on purpose.

I've been told that I must first get all the mistakes and useless garbage out of the way. But drawing mistakes and useless garbage isn't fun. I was told to enjoy it, to enjoy drawing regardless of the outcome. But after a while it only got more difficult. How could I pick up a pencil and draw when I understood that the very thing I was drawing would turn out to look terrible? Before I even start a drawing, I knew it was going to turn out bad because I just wasn't very skilled. It's like that with any skill. When you first start out you suck. I was told not to think like that but no matter how much I tried to put my mind away from that the fact remains that if you are unskilled in something you are going to outright suck at it. There is no avoiding it.

I have read many books. Gone to comic-con a few times to talk with the comic book artists. You'd be surprised at how many professionals don't know how to answer the question, "How do I learn to draw if I have never drawn before?" You'd be surprised at how many ask to see my "work" right after I had told them I had never drawn anything before in my entire life. It's not their fault. They've been drawing their entire life. They don't remember beginning.

And I discovered that in a way the artists that have been drawing their entire lives haven't had to work very hard for it at all. Don't get me wrong, time and hard work got them to where they are. But they started as children. They didn't understand how bad they were at drawing. But they kept drawing and by the time they were able to judge themselves they were already quit skilled and had a lot to show for their work. But when you begin when you are older and find out that you have about 10 years to go until you get to where you want to be, it get's hard and discouraging.

That's all that, I supposed.

I have never taken any art classes. And I don't foresee myself ever taking any. The college in my town doesn't offer any art classes, let alone any free art classes. And the next closest college is a drive away, if only I had a vehicle.

My aspirations seem to range from cartoons, to spec. art, concept art, digital art, fantasy art. A lot of things really.

As for previous works, I don't hold onto much and the things I have held on to aren't that great anyway. I have no decent camera to take pictures with. Also I seem to be incapable of drawing anything unless it's a direct copy from reference.

I found this sub through reddit's digital painting sub.

I apologize for the long post.

[deleted]

2015-02-02 00:02

[deleted]

George_Shrinks

2015-02-15 03:15

OK! I'll keep this short.

I am currently studying industrial design. I was an art major for two years before I made the switch.

I guess I'm here because I know my skills aren't as solid as they could be. I always need more practice!

This year I started doing a sketch-a-day thing to force myself to practice everyday. I have definitely made some progress, but I haven't been really good at doing a drawing every single day. Here's what I have done so far. Again, just quick sketches. Not really indicative of what I could do with 3 hours of spare time. But that's mainly what I want to develop in doing this. My quick sketching abilities have been fairly average up until recently, and in ID that is probably one of the most useful skills.

Alright, on to Lesson One!

[deleted]

2015-02-17 16:48

1. I am 21 years old. As far as an anime style goes, I've been doing that since I was 12. But as far as learning to draw realistically and going back on the fundamentals, I've been doing that off and on (but I'm serious now) since I was 18.

2. I am currently doing a BA in art. I've taken Watercolor, Oil painting and a few drawing classes. I'm also taking ceramics, which is something that really interests me. At the moment I'm kinda using my BA to buy me some time. With the amount of credits I have left, it's going to take me until at least 2018 sometime. Hopefully by then I will have had a freelance position by then.

3. I would eventually like to be a successful freelance illustrator. I've wanted to pursue art since I was little.

4. I have a lot of crappy sketchbooks, some of it filled with Naruto fan art. I still love Naruto and do a bit of fanart, but most of my time is now devoted to doing serious studies as well.

5. I don't remember how I found out about this subreddit.

tranzalorebreech

2015-02-19 09:31

How's it going.

1. You can call me Lou, I am 33 and pretty much just started approaching drawing in a serious fashion, And by that I mean really starting to draw. I have always been fascinated with the act of etching my own cave but found the process elusive. I chalk it up to lack luster approach from art classes in High school. They only seemed to show interest in kids that appeared to have potential. Compile lack of direction with the self perceived lack of natural ability, I believed drawing was just not for me. I decided to go to college for a BFA in Photography but found out that I needed to take other forms of art as well, Oh Noes! I can't even joke about it, this is an exact excerpt from my conversation with the head of the department, "My interest lies in photography and digital media, however my drawing and painting abilities are less than exceptional. Would this present an issue?" I was reassured that the classes were taught in a ground up format which eased my fear, a little.

2. I am currently in a drawing 1 and photography 1 class.

3. I already do photography but it is mostly weddings. The pay isn't bad at all but I'm in it for the art so wedding shoots are not that frequent and are usually something I do for close friends. I enjoy art and am looking forward to the other classes as well. I really appreciate the direction provided by the professor, tools are handy to have but understanding how to use them makes all the difference.

4. The only works I have are just assignments we have done so far.

Charcoal on 18x24 newsprint 2 point linear perspective box project , We are encouraged to perform in class critique on our homework assignments after speaking about our own works. Everyone was surprised to hear that this was my second serious work I've ever done. There were issues addressed by the professor but feels when he let me know that if I kept working at it I could be a good candidate for further drawing classes warmed me through and through 1st Hand assignment , This is using some of the help provided about using greater emphasis on source light direction and cleaner(less lines) line work. 2nd hand assignment and my deviant art for my photography

5. I found out about this subreddit on the sidebar for r/learnart.

Based on what I have encountered in my first drawing class your lessons are spot on, maybe a little bit more intensive but practice doesn't hurt at all. I picked up several sketch books, I have one for each major section; hands, head, and torso. I do rough sketches on the odd sides and work on completing a full sketch on the evens to complement my understanding of anatomy. It is tedious but understanding how parts of the body work in conjunction with each other even in the hand alone is a pretty complex task. The two hand assignments above taught me that.

ShinyTile

2015-02-22 11:40

Hey!

1. I'm 24, and I've... basically never drawn before. That's a little bit of a major lie, though. I'll explain that in...

2. I'm a senior at university, in a design major. I've taken low level (100s) art classes, but I never clicked and basically have no real skill. Honestly, I'm more of a designer than an artist, and I truly just blew off drawing. My teachers were grad students who were great artists, but poor teachers. This, coupled with my lack of desire and effort basically means that I, for all intents and purposes, didn't learn much / get any skill from them. Sad, but true.

3. I don't want to do art per se professionally, but in the design field, it's embarrassing to me that I can't just sketch out quick ideas. I should be better at ideating on paper than I am. I don't intend to be an amazing artist, but it's important to me that I get competent, at least. Digital painting, etc, isn't my thing. I'd be more in the wireframe / sketching logos / sketching and exploring product design concepts, etc. I just want to visually explore my thoughts, on physical paper.

4. I do! Here's my portfolio. In regards to #2, I don't have any saved drawings at hand, but they're essentially skill-free.

5. I think I saw a link from /r/learnart

I'm currently working my way through L1. I'm trying not to speed through it, because I'm definitely aware this is more of a "The goal is to spend the time, not just bang it out and be done with it." I definitely know that the 'learning' comes from the time spent, not you marking me complete after I just rushed through it and barely put in effort.

Really, thanks much for all the time you're putting in.

indiakaitlin

2015-02-23 03:14

Hi everyone!

My name is India and I am 19 years old. I've dabbled with drawing in high school but my main focus at the time was photography. Now that i'm in college and I've changed my major to architecture, I've become more serious about drawing in the last 3 months. I am currently taking a Beginning Drawing class at my university but since it's only once a week, I found that this subreddit will be my main class in addition to the studio class.

Art has always been a passion of mine and no matter how I get it, art will always be a huge part of my life. My current focus is architecture and I hope to become a better drawer/sketcher so I will be able to accurately draw the world around me. (i.e people, buildings, animals, sceneries, etc)

Other than architecture, I enjoy drawing the human body and drawing gestures on my spare time.

Here are the photos I submitted for my architecture portfolio (I had to submit my drawings of a group of shoes, a bike, and a group of chairs

So far i'm getting a great vibe from this subreddit! I'm really happy my boyfriend found this and showed it to me

[deleted]

2015-02-23 03:57

[deleted]

[deleted]

2015-02-23 18:54

[deleted]

lost-in-technicolor

2015-02-26 12:03

Is it too late to post in here?

I've loved to draw since I was really little. I liked to draw people the best, but occasionally would draw things like fictional landscapes. I never did much painting until high school art classes. I remember painting in oils for the first time and falling in love with it, just the process of it. I don't know why I never thought of making a career out of art when I was younger, even though it was what I loved doing most. When I was little I always told people I wanted to become a doctor, but I think that was just because it was what my family wanted me to be.

In university I studied science. And for the first couple of years there I stopped drawing / painting altogether (mostly due to lack of time, because the program I was in was very intense). I would occasionally doodle on the side, but that's about it. I graduated last June (I'm 23 now). During the last few years of undergrad I realized that I didn't really want to be a doctor, so I decided to go into research. But after working at a few labs, I realized that while I loved the idea of being a scientist and the theoretical side to things, I didn't really like doing research. But also during this time, I found myself drawn back to drawing and painting. Like it was something I needed to do, if that makes any sense. And finally things sort of clicked, and I decided that I wanted to go into art professionally.

For now, I'm thinking of going into medical illustration. Maybe. Maybe I'll do something else, I'm not really sure yet. But either way, I need to brush up on my fundamentals. There's so much I need to learn. That being said, I'm really glad I found this sub :)

Wow I wrote a lot... Anyway, here is a link to my deviantart (I don't post very frequently though), and here is a blog I've recently started (I made it to keep myself motivated mostly).

MintGreenTeaLeaf

2015-02-28 05:03

Hi Im 22(Ill be 23 in about a month) Ive been drawing as a hobby since I was 14 but I only really started getting serious about it when I was around 20. I took art classes all throughout highschool and got an A.A. in art. In college I mostly took basic drawing, animation and digital art classes although my BA degree is in something unrelated to art and I continue to practice daily.

My work is mostly portraits copied from photographs drawn with a grid although I have currently stopped using a grid I primarily draw by copying reference. I would like to start being more creative in my drawings. Do you have any advice for an artist switching from just copying references to being more creative? I practice drawing from imagination for about an hour every day but this is still something struggle with (I also practice other things everyday as well like value and anatomy).

My aspirations are to do more illustrative and creative works and then to move on to concept art illustration or animation. I would like to try to go professional one day.

Heres a sample of some of the stuff I have done so you can get a frame of reference for where Im starting from: http://imgur.com/a/MFdie#iBJ7Rhf

I found this subreddit by looking up digital art forums on Google. Im glad I did the information on here seems really helpful.

[deleted]

2015-03-01 15:12

[deleted]

ThatGamerGrl

2015-03-12 02:50

Greetings all! Let's see, what can I tell you about myself? For starters I'm 31 and once been drawing since I was little. I remember being in first grade and having a sketchbook in my backpack all the time. A tradition that continued well into my late twenties. I took art classes in high school and was put into the advanced studies program. Took a few more in college including some architectural drafting classes for theatre. Nothing too intensive though since I was a medical science major and got my degree in massage therapy. Most of my works from high school are somewhere in my parents' attic and the stuff from college got lost in my many moves since then.

As stated in my lesson 1 comment, I tore up my wrist (dominant hand) really bad about 5 or 6 years ago which has killed my massage therapy career. (This may or may not be a forever thing, still need lots more physical therapy to find out.) Lots of other stuff happened that kept me too busy to have time to do any art at all. Thankfully, now I'm able to pick it back up.

My goals are to first rebuild my eye-hand control and retone my arm muscles enough to get the basics back. Then, I'd like to work on my realism (a topic I always struggled with). Eventually, I hope to perhaps make a little income with my art. The creativity is there. I need help getting the hand to follow.

I have some work on DeviantArt (link: http://lree.deviantart.com/ ) under the user name Lree. Some subject matter is very NSFW so please be mindful. I always welcome critiques so feel free to say anything as long as it's helpful.

I found this subreddit by searching for art fundamentals in reddit. Pretty straight forward. ^_^

So there's my wall of text. Nice meeting you all!

Edit: link added