/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[Anonymous No.3583905]

How did you actually learn to draw?

Everyone shills loomis and boxes but you can fuck off if you expect me to believe everyone here learned like that. When did you start, what did you do, what were your milestones?

[Anonymous No.3583908]

I drew what I wanted and studied artists I liked and learned how they approached their work.

[Anonymous No.3583914]

>>3583908
Only loomis to learn the basic concepts. The real teacher is your dedication to do studies

[Anonymous No.3583915]

Start by reading the book Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Hale.

[Anonymous No.3583917]

>>3583905
started copying other artists that I like to the point that I can do cookie cutter poses based on what I studied. Then I realized I sucked so bad from doing any face and poses in different angles and that's where I found out about loomis

[Anonymous No.3583921]

>>3583905
doodling. And thinking about drawing and fundamentals and stuff when I am not drawing. Never done any grinding, just doodling from imagination and drawing from life once in a while, never copied anything.

[Anonymous No.3583935]

>>3583905
>Everyone shills loomis and boxes but you can fuck off if you expect me to believe everyone here learned like that.

That's because it's one of the easiest and most basic way to learn drawing. Boxes teach you about perspective and how to draw basic shapes from all angles. Loomis teaches you basic proportions for the face and body and gives you step by step graphs and how to build the features on top of those measurements.
Honestly with all the resources for /begs/ in /ic/'s sticky alone, let alone the internet, it'd be a miracle if you don't hit intermediate level within a year.

You know how people who didn't do Loomis/Boxes got good? They spent their high school and college years just drawing shit in their notebooks or tablets when they were bored, and the results after 4+ years is that they're about mid-quality /alt/ artist. Know what their milestones were that made them improve? When they stumbled upon "tricks" that studying fundamentals would've taught you anyway.

[Anonymous No.3583945]

>>3583905
If I had known about Loomis when I started I'd have started there.

I started with tutorials by Julie Dillon that were hosted on the how to draw manga site way back in the day, that and trying to copy other artists I liked.
I asked for a how to draw manga book for christmas, instead I received a Chris Hart book.
Still was pretty hype, gave me what I needed to start learning construction.

Then I kinda just did my own thing for a long time without any real direction, and by long time I mean somewhere in the ballpark of 10 years.
There was pretty much no studying outside of looking at a few tutorials here and there and trying to get what I could from analyzing other peoples sketches.

I improved in those 10 years, but I lacked a lot and still lack some very basic skills because I had no structure to my study.
When I decided to take studying seriously I pretty much had to start back from square one because the gaps in my knowledge were so deep.
Worse than that I developed a lot of bad habits that I'm still trying to fix.

Of course don't just grind fundies, explore a bit and have fun, you don't want to spend years grinding to find out at the end of it all you can do is draw boxes and copy photos.
As soon as you have some skills apply them.

[Anonymous No.3583956]

>>3583905
Can you define the treshold for 'learned' first?

[Anonymous No.3583961]

can you guys post your work?
in the least aggressive way possible, there are so many beginners on this board that worded descriptions of how you learned means nothing imo.

why is everyone so scared to post their drawings? i wanna see know how you learned, and actually see the results of your learning, so i know what it is your learning method helped you achieve.

[Anonymous No.3583974]

>>3583945
>>3583961
Here's my work.

[Anonymous No.3583981]

>>3583974
very nice work anon. shame you didn't study in those 10 years, how recent is the work, and how long ago did you start studying/ironing our bad habits?

[Anonymous No.3584013]

>>3583974
It's about 3 months old now, don't have much in the way of recent personal work to show.
Been focusing more on getting the rest of my life in order in the last 3 months.
Being pathetically out of shape was dragging me down physically and mentally.
So I've kept art to studies and doodles, a few hours a day, just enough so I don't regress.

I'm finally getting to a point where I can start putting art at the forefront of my life again.

I started studying in earnest around May of 2016, so just a little over two years now.
Pic related is what my stuff looked like before I started studying.

[Anonymous No.3584031]

I just happened to always be "that artsy kid" so I dropped out of normal high school to start with the art high school. It sucked and I hate drawing now, but I have to admit, if you're lucky enough to get into good one, they are going to teach you a lot of useful things. I remember crying like a little bitch because my works "weren't good enough" or "I could do so much better" but it only made me more tough and ambitious. Also, practice makes perfect + OBSERVE and THINK A LOT during the process of creating.
Or just always. Never stop analyzing the space around you. Draw on air with your fingers, squint your eyes and try to see things as figures before you see them as whole detailed pieces.
Also, "feeling" your art won't make it better. Let the audience "feel". Your job is to get shit done right and if you "can't", that only means you aren't trying hard or long enough. (At least that's what I was taught. Probably why I'm burned out.) *insert sad violin music here*

[Anonymous No.3584126]

>>3583961

I don't post my work much here because everything I've drawn in the last 3 months is weird porn.

This pic is several months old though. Could do it a lot better now, but I think it shows what I was capable of learning on my own. I have no formal art education and only discovered art books and tutorials worth a damn through this site last month. Despite that I think this pic shows I still at least tried to tackle concepts like lighting, perspective, and composition. Not gonna claim the execution isn't decisively /beg/ but this is where trying to learn on my own got me.

I drew a lot as a kid but it was nothing special. I only started trying to draw again when I got a digital tablet 2 years ago, and even then I only really started using it in the last year. Up until recently, everything I know was learned through passive observation or mediocre guides online. If I'd known about Loomis and shit when I was trying to get back into drawing I would have started there.

I'm sure most people on this board would call me shit but I really don't care. I'm making an effort to learn now and nobody improves instantly. A lot of people on this board seem to scoff at any art that isn't a serious study or box grinding if you're a novice artist. But at the end of the day drawing is supposed to be about fun for me.

[Anonymous No.3584136]

>>3584126
Love the mood.

[Anonymous No.3584153]

>>3583905
when I was like 4 I used to draw people with wing arms. And then my mom showed me how to draw hands.

"Loomis" wasn't as much of a meme in the 90s either. When I took art classes and stuff they still taught the loomis technique but there wasn't some autistic cult emphasis on it.

[Anonymous No.3584290]

I drew fairly regularly from around kindergarten to the end of high school. In middle school I got into my school's magnet art program and did art assignments for three years, plus stuff outside of class. Fundamentals weren't emphasized (I mean, it was middle school), but it was valuable in the sense that I had some guidance from a teacher and being around other student artists encouraged me to keep drawing.

By college, though, I all but stop drawing. Since first grade I had always wanted to do something art-related, first an architect (thought it would allow me to draw and make money), later I wanted to get into animation. But I got a pretty clear message that you'll starve doing art, so I didn't study anything art-related and stopped drawing for 8 years, besides some notebook doodling. Plus, I thought I just didn't have much talent for it--my stuff was mediocre while some people my age or younger were doing amazing stuff.

Then, March of this year, I discovered /ic/ and learned you can actually improve at drawing, same as with anything else. I fell in love with it again and drew every day, though not always as much as I'd like. Didn't have much patience for Loomis, but I did learn what he teaches from other sources.

I mostly draw people, but my problem lately is that I've hit this wall where I can draw the figure in more complex poses and angles with photo ref, but I struggle to make them convincing from imagination. So I'm trying to draw more from life and internalize gesture and basic bodily shapes in tougher perspective rather than just photocopy.

Here's some recent stuff I don't currently hate, and some stuff from April for comparison. Middle is photo-reffed, right is imagination (see, an easy straight-on pose). I'm still not close to where I want to be but I think I can get there. The best thing I did is to draw from life--particularly lots of my own right hand. If you can draw a good hand, you can draw any body part, just a matter of internalizing it.

[Anonymous No.3584371]

>>3583905
Honest answer: I had gone to school and all that, but I still kinda sucked. I was good at intricate ink drawings, but lousy at figures and anatomy. So... I started a comic. Nothing like having a regular project to work on to keep you on task. I only did 3 issues, but improvement in drawing between page 1 and page 66 was vast.

Big, consistent projects are a definite way to force yourself to improve, as long as you're willing to learn on every page.

[Anonymous No.3584376]

>>3583905
>boxes
I'm sorry, your Majesty, didn't realize we were in the presence of someone too good for what works for Vilppu.

[Anonymous No.3584386]

>>3584376
I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying that a lot of people who learned to draw learned it without loomis and box grinding. I want to know how they learned. Everyone recommends Loomis but I want to know why that and not they way they learned. I want to know how they fucked up learning.

[Anonymous No.3584388]

What's Loomis and boxes ;-;

[Anonymous No.3584584]

>>3584290
>But I got a pretty clear message that you'll starve doing art

Is that why every one of my around 500 graduating class has a salaried job related to the arts, now? Huh.

I'm so sick of this meme, artists tell it to themselves so they don't have to set high expectations for their work to get them anywhere, then they can be "freelancers" aka lazy assholes. You can do A LOT with a bachelors of Fine Arts, or Design. I agree though that animation wasn't a good idea to get into if you weren't ready for hourly grinds every day, the degree is also not as widely useful, too specialized and your skills would be limited, but there are jobs for animators from any level doing commercials, man. Keeps you busy.

[Anonymous No.3584588]

>>3584386
you're going to find that everyone who "learned" without some kind of fundamentals instillment still needs them. There's no excuse to not use them. Would you not bring your notes to an open notes test? It gives you advantage.

[Anonymous No.3584821]

>>3584584
I don't disagree with you. It's just that the path to being a professional artist is not as clear cut as with other careers, and society has a way of making that abundantly clear--the whole "I see doctors and lawyers" mentality. Never artists, writers, and musicians. I mean as early as first grade I'd gotten the idea in my head art meant poverty and I was settling for architecture. Where'd that come from? We respect artists when they create good stuff, but we kind of don't expect anyone we know personally to succeed at it. I bought into that and had some so wrongheaded ideas about art in general, so I lost eight years.

The dream isn't dead in me, but most days I wake up feeling retarded, like I'm just drawing aimlessly. I know how to improve my skills, I have an idea of what I'd like to do (illustration, comics maybe), but the business side of it daunts me, even with the resources on it. I enjoy it enough that I'd do it for its own sake though.

[Anonymous No.3584991]

>>3583905
I just kept doing it until I started getting decent.
Never looked up any guides or studied any books, but I did spend 10 years doodling between the margins in school and being dogshit. Eventually I stopped being dogshit.

[Anonymous No.3585010]

>>3583961
>why is everyone so scared to post their drawings?

Because there are a lot of people here who are only interested in tearing others down, and will scavenge any art posted for a mistake so they can make themselves feel better about their own skill-level.

However, I will post some of my work as a comparison between old work and new. The thing that really unlocked my abilities as a digital artist was getting a Cintiq. Made a huge difference.

[Anonymous No.3585013]

>>3583905
Everyone I know who is successful as an artist started off drawing for fun, doing things like copying comics or drawing crappy fan art. The more serious studies of anatomy and perspective came later, and usually were done to troubleshoot specific problems. I don't think I had ever seen anyone "grind" aimlessly until I came here. I also never met anyone so upset at drawing they spat on their walls until I came here either.

[Anonymous No.3585014]

>>3583905
todays warmup lol
i don't actually normally do cartoony stuff

i learnt perspective in school when i was like 8, and i had a book on animation which had a loomisy kinda method for construction, so i use that when necessary. i also had a very good book on sketching which i love, and more recently i got a very good book on light. and that's it really, aside from art school, i also did the brague plates and a similar kind of exercise where you do the alphabet in perfect proportion with perfect curves and such in ink, i don't think i've seen that mentioned here before but it's a common way of developing like the physical part of draughtsmanship.

[Anonymous No.3585015]

>>3585014
it's one letter per like 5x5inch page, not like penmanship, you use like a ruler and a compass and such

[Anonymous No.3585820]

For me it was simply wanting to draw all the time while growing up. I never took it seriously, but literally every class at school I would doodle in my notebook.

After I graduated and got a job, would grab the paper towel from the bathroom and draw on that during breaks or lunch.

I never did any of this to "Git gud," it's just when I'm bored and not at home where I can just play games, drawing was the next best thing. Eventually when you draw enough, you end up wanting to draw more so I'd spend time at home drawing on non-work days.

After a couple decades, you just pick some stuff up. I would still recommend Loomis if your goal is getting better because it's simply quicker, but if you care about drawing and enjoy it, you'll naturally want to find out how to do things you wish you could.

Let's me draw waifus so I'm pretty happy. My painting and color is lacking though since I did very little of it; I'll figure it out at some point though.

[Anonymous No.3585827]

>>3583905
I'm just starting but game grumps, a photoshop class I took once, and me autistically determined to draw the metatron with 72 wings like almost everyone else who draws him is too pussy to try. Now I just need to learn how tf im gonna shade this thing.

[Anonymous No.3585829]

>>3585827
>>3585694
Bc it won't upload the pic anymore

[Anonymous No.3585834]

>>3585820
Here's a recent cheesed leaf brush painting I did.

[Anonymous No.3585835]

>>3583905
You go to art school to get trained properly. Or you can pretend a NEET fantasy where you grind from torrents off CGP to make it (not gonna happen).

[Anonymous No.3585839]

>>3585820
And a couple little sketches of the same character, just so you can see roughly what someone who just doinks around with drawing over a decade without Loomis.

[Anonymous No.3585846]

I don't remember a time when I didn't like to draw, desu. At around 12 I started actually using some tutorials like videos and DeviantArt refs. At 17 I started preparing for art college entry exams. At 18 I went to art college. At 21 I started working as an llustrator. I'll be turning 23 this year
Pic related

[Anonymous No.3585849]

>>3583905

I've always been drawing. I used to draw as a kid. There was a small break between when I was like 15-23 and I've been drawing after that. I still think that It'd be a good idea to learn drawing from somebody like Loomis. Or you know, drawing boxes.

I got some useful information from the shit I did as a kid but it's so much easier to do this shit when you know the technicalities of how crap works.

[Anonymous No.3585864]

>>3583905
>mom is an artist so always around art and drawing shit since a child, no training though, just occasional dabbling
>start drawing more in class in middle school because class is fucking boring as shit, technique is absolute shit
>try harder to not suck in high school, improve somewhat, still no studies or training
>discover what art I actually like and become influenced by francis bacon, rodin, dali, etc.
>go to three 3 hour figure drawing sessions first semester of college, it has a significant impact, but like the lazy piece of shit that I am, I stop there
>continue drawing, mostly in class still
>take lsd for the first time sophomore year, make a huge drawing while listening to beethoven, become heavily influenced by my hallucinations
>take 2C-E later that year, the post-trip depression revives an attraction to darker subject matter
>take shrooms for the first time junior year, become much more influenced by nature and the textures of natural objects, style crystallizes
>all of this is still primarily doodling in class and in free time (maybe 60/40 split)
>reach a point where I feel substantially limited by lack of fundamental knowledge/technique, particularly of the human form, and realize I can't go further without going there, which is not attainable by just fucking around
>shit gets busy and I end up in a 3 year dry spell, may finally have some time now to properly dedicate to it, god willing
pic related, a nearly finished drawing that was stolen along with my laptop 3 years ago

[Borneo No.3585873]

lots of anime doodle shit

started getting more serious in the past couple months since i got gifted a Cintiq like looking at how to colour

i made up an 'oc' just to have something to draw thats not fanart, but fanart is the only thing that gets attention on social media so i can see why people do it

i was briefly caught up in the 'grind shit' hype on /ic/ but then i realised i just like drawing cute anime shit after a few aborted attempts at a 'daily grind'. now i draw cute shit erryday with the occasional study of something i find interesting or that i want to learn more about

[Anonymous No.3585874]

lots of anime doodle shit

started getting more serious in the past couple months since i got gifted a Cintiq like looking at how to colour

i made up an 'oc' just to have something to draw thats not fanart, but fanart is the only thing that gets attention on social media so i can see why people do it

i was briefly caught up in the 'grind shit' hype on /ic/ but then i realised i just like drawing cute anime shit after a few aborted attempts at a 'daily grind'. now i draw cute shit erryday with the occasional study of something i find interesting or that i want to learn more about

[Anonymous No.3585878]

>>3583905
who the fuck said i ever learned to draw
i literally throw random brush strokes until something looks right, or copy from a reference directly

[Anonymous No.3585895]

>>3583905
Self-taught with a bit of still-life mentoring on the side. Was at least good enough to get into this pretty exclusive summer camp in HS (20 chosen/600 apps) and I credit my art at least partially to my getting into a good uni. It's my inability to just be "okay" with a work so I just do things to it till it looks right. Additionally I taught myself a variant of the triangle method so observation is ezpz

[Anonymous No.3585915]

>>3585874
Can u do shading for... weird... shit? Maybe you can help me shade my first attempt. >>3585694 . PLZ HELP IM DESPRITE!

[Anonymous No.3585916]

>>3585874
Oh, u don't shade. Nvm.

[Anonymous No.3586187]

>>3585915
>>3585916
yeah lmao fuck rendering
maybe you can find a texture brush to go over stuff?

i can barely put together a decent colour palette but good luck with ur shit

[Anonymous No.3586194]

>>3586187
Wtf is a texture brush

[Anonymous No.3586205]

>>3586194
most art programs have a 'texture brush'

i used one to make the bloodstains in this piece
clip studio paint is what im using and they have texture brushes for leaves, flowers, etc

[Anonymous No.3586318]

>>3586205
I'm using 3 adobe programs on a iPad.
>adobe sketch
>adobe draw
>adobe capture
I wish they would combine sketch and draw but their artism is astounding.

[Anonymous No.3586588]

>>3585010
I like it dude, I don't come hear often because it's too negative but please, digital is so soulless, get drawing or painting my man.
It'll look way less cheap and teach you layering without tech buffers.

[Anonymous No.3586708]

I’m not great by any means but I think making yourself draw fast and trying to figure out ways to fix mistakes without erasing (painting over or making something else out of the messed up lines) kinda helps you get more comfortable. Don’t be afraid to mess shit up

[Anonymous No.3586711]

i drew things from life, comics and cartoons that i liked

[Anonymous No.3586715]

>>3585835
i graduated with one of the best degrees in europe for art and honestly was taught hardly anything that i couldn't have learned online

[Anonymous No.3586745]

i learned probably 10% from classes, 40% life drawing, and 50% just drawing whatever i wanted and analyzing what worked and what didn't. one thing i learned was almost everyone can learn to draw realistic, but i think it takes real talent to interpret realism into something exaggerated and abstract. as long as you keep sketching whatever you see, and analyze what makes it look good and what makes it look bad, you'll get better.

[Anonymous No.3587294]

>>3584386
That's like learning without a textbook full of information all because people learned math/english/whatever similar concept without it.
Just because they did doesn't mean using that book isn't the most efficient way to do it. You're looking for an answer to this when these people have drawn their whole lives and had mentors to teach them.

So the answer you're looking for is getting a mentor who has already gone through the trial and error that you would be able to skip now that you have art books like Loomis'.

[Anonymous No.3587295]

>>3584821
>Architecture
Domics?

[Anonymous No.3587365]

You don't know how much I wish I could go back in time to when I first begun learning about figures like Bridgman, Loomis, back when I scoffed and thought "Eurgh! How ugly and dull! Nobody needs that! I'll keep drawing from my wonderful imagination only!", because I'd punch myself in the fucking face.

Picture on the left is what I drew back when I refused to study and would consistently draw only from what I believe I knew from my imagination (note the distinct lack of HANDS AND FEET), and on the right was what I drew yesterday, long after I'd realised that I'd finally had enough and finally began studying.

I'm not saying I'm great now, or even good. There's still many holes in my understanding of light, shadow, value, anatomy, perspective, lineweight, colour etc., but it's only because I'm studying that for the first time in my life I can say that I'm genuinely improving.

So to answer your question, no not everybody here drew from Loomis and boxes. Only the good ones did. You skip this shit now you're going to find yourself butting your head against a technical brick wall in the future and you'll leave yourself with a lot of regrets. Hard work now, reward later.

[Anonymous No.3587472]

The anatomy proportions Loomis gives in Figure Drawing for All Its Worth are actually useful.

[Anonymous No.3587489]

>>3583905
>How did you actually learn to draw?

Easy.
>Draw what you love
>Looks like shit
>Try again
>Still looks like shit
It looks like shit because you've seen better. So...
>Look at fav artwork
>Study it, see how they draw the shape of the body, head, eyes, etc
>How can you apply this to your personal work?
Still confused? If so...
>Study the real life version of what you're studying
>Study it's Proportions and try to give it Form

See, easy.
Now draw like shit for at least 10,000 tries. Remember, your brain to your hand is a muscle that needs work when drawing. Even if you draw a FUCK ton of cringe, you're exercising that arm to help make a stronger communication from your brain. It's like when you first study a language, you were telling hand from your brain how to write the letter A, B, C, etc.
With drawing, it's no different but it is more difficult since it's much more complex shapes in this case.

A good way to tell if you're obtaining knowledge from what your studying is: when copying favorite artwork, try drawing what you're copying in a different poses by simply using the references in front of you.

As for the books like Loomis, Vilppu, Hampton, Proko, etc etc etc...
They simply only offer you tools to help you on this drawing adventure. Will Loomis help you? Maybe. Will Vilppu help you? He helped me.

And speaking of Vilppu, it's like he always says, "There are no rules, just tools."

Example of tools: Hampton uses an Egg to remember the proportions of a Rib Cage and most use a Box to understand how and where to draw the pelvis. Do YOU have to do this? No. But these tools helped these artists out, so it might just help you.

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous No.3587491]

>>3583961
>why is everyone so scared to post their drawings?

good or bad some dude might claim it as his own or something

[Anonymous No.3587510]

>How did you actually learn to draw?
i did enormous amount of croquis. i have sketchbooks towering about 1.5 meters high. it's all croquis. however i did it infrequently and ineffectively. so I have wasted a lot of time. but it helped building internal visual library. i spent about 5 years if i count years that i've actually tried to learn something. plus about 5 adolescent years doodling random shit and not going anywhere.

>loomis
i didn't read any art books.

>When did you start
technically i started to draw when i was in an elementary school. it was shit and ever so slightly better than average joe. I think I've actually started doing something meaningful since 19. i'm 23 now.

> what did you do,
I drew what I wanted to draw and kept doing that. 99 percent croquis. as a result I have a very skewed, unstable set of skills. i can't paint, i can't make caricature, i can't draw scenery.

> what were your milestones?
drawing pretty girls actually pretty. / drawing from imagination. / making comics.
I'm quite sure my drawings are not in ugly state, and drawing from imagination is not perfect but satisfying, and currently making comics.

[Anonymous No.3587639]

Started by copying hentai artists until I somewhat get how cute anime face should look like. Did some anatomy studies to know what goes where too. Can't say I'm very good though, I need to learn a lot more, but I'm too lazy.
I'd say loomis and boxes would be a better way to learn how to draw lol

[Anonymous No.3587653]

>>3586715
What kind of things? Im guessing its not fundamentals.
And do you mean online paid or online free?

[Anonymous No.3588186]

This is a neat topic, kinda surprise there isn't more replies.

[Anonymous No.3588201]

>>3587365
Blog?

[Anonymous No.3588762]

>>3587365
Interesting, as I have the opposite feeling.
I've gone through Proko, Hampton, and Vilppu. I enjoyed my studies a lot and continued to find methods on how to draw figures better, as well as understanding perspective (even took figure drawing classes for a good 6 months to draw from a live model).

After 3 years of doing this, studying 3 - 8 hours a day and even getting professional feedback, I regretted about 90% of it.
I would actually go to my past self and slap him silly and tell him "fuck the studies, draw from imagination, bitch!!" and go about it from there. I truly regret my study path since, all it did was made me better the quality of my studies, when my goal was simply to draw what was in my head. And all those figure drawing efforts did nothing to do that, and I'm no where near my goal.

Now, drawing from imagination, sure it looks cringe, but it's a lot more fun and I actually feel like there's way more to work on then simply doing studies all day. But then again, we all have our own ways of learning, so mine just might be very different from yours.

[Anonymous No.3588872]

>When did you start?
If we're being technical, I've been drawing since elementary. I remember making shitty paintings and portraits, it was fun and sometimes I was better than my peers so I gained some confidence. Started drawing nothing but cartoons and doing little animations because Flipnote Hatena and Pivot videos become super popular in my middle school years, was basically drawing only stick figures and mushrooms before upgrading to Adventure Time and Scott Pilgrim style people since that ended up the next popular thing. Wasn't 'til 10th/11th grade where I got influenced by stuff like Skullgirls, Fire Emblem, and Kill La Kill and I started drawing more anime thus more realistic figures. Was all still shit tier, wasn't til early-mid 2016 after I graduated highschool that my art started looking decent enough to post in /alt/.
But let me emphasis, I didn't quite know what I was doing. Looking at those old sketches again, all of them were chicken scratch and guesswork. My work was very hit or miss and I didn't know how to make it hit. Early 2017 took a Drawing 1 class at my community college, thought it wasn't for me, found /ic/ in the summer, and began practicing fundies for the rest of the year.

>How did you actually learn to draw?
>What did you do?
Like I said, I found /ic/ a year ago and learned about fundamentals. Revisited them all and learned about these concepts and components about art that for years I didn't know about. Began to study anatomy, proportions, perspective, watched Proko, read Loomis, practiced Drawabox, all the essential basics for a couple months.

>What were your milestones?
Deciding to focus on anime since that's what I want to draw, started doing photo studies more, studying my favorite artists more thoroughly, learning how to construct and design anime heads and figures, began drawing daily, finding pens I loved drawing with, focusing on digital.
Here's a warm up sketch I did today.

[Anonymous No.3588896]

>>3587510
Really like your work dude, got a link to your blog or those comics you're making?

[Anonymous No.3589149]

>>3583905
Was raised by an artist mother, and was drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon. I drew constantly - when I hung out with friends, they'd want to build models or play soldier - i wanted to draw.
Once I hit formal art classes in middle school, I rocketed past everyone else, and stayed that way until college. I was doing oil and watercolor in my junior year of high school, and had a teacher who offered an advanced course who taught us things like perspective and figure study.
I was so familiar and confident with a pencil, by the time i hit formal classes, it was like breathing. My "grind" was just drawing all the time - and still do. I've rarely had to force myself to do it. I always have a sketchbook and a pencil with me, wherever I go.

[Anonymous No.3589156]

>>3585013
It's not so much fun, but the people who become artists are just the people who gravitate towards it, and get it, and jump in. In all my life, through school and college, and in the professional world of illustration (and design), I never met a single person who had to 'grind" anything, and who didn't love the simple act of making something. Every single one of them, myself included, would do it regardless if we got paid or not. It's part of us - and I know I go a little crazy if I can't make art at least a couple of times a week, even if it's a simple sketch. We need it, like we need food or water.
I feel bad for the people who are forcing it, and don't have the perspective to see that it's not gonna happen for them. I get wanting to do something, but at some point, you have to own that you're spinning your wheels, and I'm sorry of if this upsets you - if you have to force yourself to draw...art is probably not for you - at least not professionally. If you just want to draw porn or cute anime girls for yourself, that's cool - but don't kill yourself "grinding" for 12 hours a day. This isn't an MMO.
You have to love art, and every aspect of it, to truly become one. That goes for anything creative - acting, music, art, writing - if you don't get satisfaction from the sheer act of doing it, and don't look forward to being able to do more...I doubt you'll make it that far. And maybe a little far is good enough, and you should put your energy into something else.

[Anonymous No.3589384]

>>3585013
Having explored various /ic/ discord channels and non-/ic/ art channels, the mind set is day and night. And more so how you pointed it out.

/ic/ brings up problems no other art communities have, like the whole "how many Boxes do I need to draw" or "how much fundies do I have to grind to draw X".
It's so odd, but it makes sense. I guess the sticky was both a blessing and a curse on how to start our art journey.

[Anonymous No.3589409]

>>3589149
Can you post your work? Out of curiosity.

[Anonymous No.3589570]

>>3583905
i just did it and went by the gut feeling

[Anonymous No.3589712]

>>3583905
>How did you actually learn to draw?
I just kept drawing what I wanted to draw

>loomis
Never read it but I hear from everyone that it's helpful

>When did you start
about a year and a half ago

>what did you do
Most of my drawing when I started out were shit and just fanart for this webcomic that I liked

>what were your milestones?
Never really had one, at first I just wanted to become popular but that didn't happen, so now I just do studies so I can draw my own comic one day.

[Anonymous No.3589717]

>>3583905
Im pretty much self thought
i lived in africa for the first 10 years of my life, and i just copied what i saw, and if it didn't look good i tried again
and when i moved to america, i got access to the internet and i can say i've improved a lot

[Anonymous No.3589719]

>>3589717
my most happiest milestone was when i drew a full human face, with shading in pen.

[Anonymous No.3589804]

In my high school freshman summer vacation, I drew sonic characters for fun. They were really hard. Did it on normal printer paper. That summer I got Mark Crilley’s booknafter watching a couple videos and only got to drawing clothes and outfits part, because everything after that was comics and shit and I was wasn’t ready for that. So I just searched YouTube. Never heard of Loomis until I came to this thread. Still learned it tho, because of YouTube. Just got a laptop and a tablet last Christmas but I just started digital work last week or so. About to start my senior year in high school and I have animation class so it’s going to be lit! A couple of Youtubers I can say are good for beginners that helped me are Mark Crilley, Draw with Jazza, Lavender Towne etc. Once you’re more intermediate, try Sycra, Sinix, Whyt Manga, Kieran Lafferty, and Plague of Gripes. Those are my teachers lol.

[Anonymous No.3589810]

>>3583905
>Everyone shills loomis and boxes but you can fuck off if you expect me to believe everyone here learned like that.

That's true, people didn't start with loomis and boxes. People tell you to get on loomis and boxes because they wish someone had pointed them in the right direction instead of fumbling around for like a decade before figuring it out.

[Anonymous No.3590159]

you draw, and when you get stuck on something, you look it up and read relevant material.

It just so happens that most beginners get stuck on shit that Loomis teaches decently.

[Anonymous No.3590169]

i have the loomis head and hands and it doesn't teach you how to draw eyes at all. the nose is easy but the eyes has so much detail i cant copy it. I also can't copy pictures 100%. god i miss drawing anime but knew i didn't get better after 4 years of copying and trying to learn. i just feel like i haven't gotten better drawing realistically but i do feel a small improvement its just when i am learning something it slips my mind after a few min's and i can't do it again without looking at the picture

[Anonymous No.3590199]

>>3590169
What is it about eyes that you struggle with specifically? You are visualising their form accurately? A lot of the problems people run into with eyes is the perception of them being a flat surface devoid of depth.

[Anonymous No.3590207]

>>3590199
i just can't draw it.i don't know how to do inside/outside details or copy the loomis style of eyes. its like an enigma for me. I think i have an easier time with body then faces

[Anonymous No.3590220]

>>3583974
I'm nothing compared to you atm, But that back should be a bit more curved.
More dynamic, it just stuck out to me.

Get gud plz

[Anonymous No.3590235]

>>3583974
so...do i need to read loomis to learn animu. can i just get a animu book and learn

[Anonymous No.3590261]

>>3583905
>Loomis?
No, I didn't use Loomis, but I studied a lot of drawing stuff in high school from all sorts of sources. I probably didn't learn as much as I should've, though, I still feel like I'm not too good an artist.

>When did you start?
I've been drawing since like middle school but I didn't take it seriously until my Freshman year of high school, which is like 6 years ago now.

>What did you do?
Studied all the stuff art people will tell you to study. But not very much, because I liked drawing my own stuff more. I actually wound up signing up for a figure drawing class for every Sunday for about two months. I was proud of some of my work there, but it didn't do much for me stylistically.

>Milestones?
Learning about thumbnail sketches. Drawing something tiny helps me a lot in finding some good poses or ideas.

[Anonymous No.3590469]

>>3583905
>be 12 yr old me
>get inspired by Dali from a book from art class
>none stop drawing
>fastforward to me in highschool
>draw shit tons of cubes, animal heads, and random human parts slammed together
>graduate highschool with the same problem every other pleb has
>all render
>no fundamentals
>do online college cause moron
>classes show me the wonders of fundamentals
>drop out
>attempt to continue improving art through internet
>READ LOOMIS
>can now draw human figures that isn't complete shit and know what and where I need to improve, rather than stumbling in the dark

Having an interest in pre-contemporary fine art inadvertently got me drawing things that gave me a small understanding of fundamentals that then gave me an edge vs other beginners and peers, but all my drawings lacked form and structure. Until i got nitty-gritty with the college courses, but didn't learn how to apply the fundamentals in creating original art. Which changed when I read Loomis, which I read only because I was stumbling around /ic and read the PDF one night.
Thanks Loomis shills.

[Anonymous No.3593410]

>>3590235
For starters stop calling it anime. Anime literally translates to animation. And no, how to draw manga books will not teach you about anatomy, form or perspective.

[Anonymous No.3593775]

>>3583974
Can't imagine being a Western man drawing this at 35 lol

[Anonymous No.3593850]

Okay but digital or pencil/pen first?

[Anonymous No.3594970]

>>3583905
I stagnated for years in begshit level until I started doing the exact opposite /ic/ told me to do, and I improved a lot in the last 6 months.
Just fucking draw man, art is never supposed to be a mindless grind of artbooks and gestures. Those are supposed to complement whatever you want to do. Paint or draw stuff and finish your pieces.

[Anonymous No.3595416]

Hoooooly shit art has been a journey.

I originally started doing art as part of a collab comic thingy that I wanted to try out. I've never really done art seriously prior (okay, maybe a little pixel art for a game project) but eventually I found myself kinda drawn to it (HEHE). I did a bunch of tiny doodles for fun during that time, though my friends also provided me with plenty advice and tips on getting better. There's a huge leap in quality from Feb '16 and Mar '16 when I was tossed in another comic collab for example.

Eventually I started learning about the usual stuff- perspective, anatomy, construction, all those things that people shill around here. This means my drawings were less static front views and could actually kinda exist in 3D space. All was well and good until I plateaued. I got frustrated at the lack of reception my drawings got and the lack of progress I made with my art, and eventually quit for a few months.

I kinda got back into it during Spring '17. I started an art chat on /i/ early this year and that was an absolute blast. I didn't do much studying, mostly just drawing whenever I felt like it. Occasionally I got frustrated with art again, and went on long hiatuses from it, which caused my skill to stagnate at points.

Today I'm kind of on the right track. There's still a long distance for me to go art-wise, but as a person who kinda started from nothing, I can say I'm doing pretty well.

[Anonymous No.3596198]

I taught myself, so far im doing better than kids who have art teachers.

[Anonymous No.3596207]

>>3593775
Post work. You probably suck in comparison, crab

[Anonymous No.3596473]

>>3583905
I had taken basic drafting in middle school and started applying what I had learned there to drawing figures. I also had a really old chinese book by a japanese artist that was only examples of disney-style cartoon drawings which showed basic construction, but had no explanatory text or method outlines. From that and my own knowledge of geometry, perspective, and basic observational art class in high school, I was able to formulate a lot of my own figure drawing rules and processes.

It wasn't until much later that I discovered Loomis and other animation and construction-oriented books, and found that much of what I had deduced had already been formalized, which was incredibly annoying. I had spent a long time coming up with methods for myself that had long been discovered, and I feel my time was wasted because this kind of drawing wasn't being taught in highschool at all.

On the other hand, I feel I do have a strong grasp of construction and design because I learned this through trial and error myself, instead of a book. But I would still tell any newbie to do boxes and spheres, as that was still the foundation of what I did.

[Anonymous No.3596900]

Lots of drawing on desks on high school classes and trying to mimic the cartoons animes and games i liked. Most of what Loomis and Edwards teach you in their books can be learned intuitively if you just draw a lot everyday, but it takes way longer than actually studying art for serious. It's how most weeb artists on Tumblr learned, i think.

[Anonymous No.3596946]

>>3596900
so if im 20 yo and i never draw in my life (draw like you say) is too late for me?

[Anonymous No.3596953]

>>3593775
Compared to a 60 year old japanese man's drawing?

[Anonymous No.3596954]

>>3596946
Of fucking course not. The way i described takes years because it's drawing not taken seriously. If you actually study with the intent of improving you can compress the wisdom of those 3~5 years of doodling and fuckng around into one year of serious learning.

Also it's never fucking late in general to learn anything in life, ffs. Da Vinci was over 50 years old when he painted Mona Lisa.

[Anonymous No.3596957]

this thread has been nice. lots of good advice

>>3587489

[Anonymous No.3599236]

>>3583905
Loomis is pretty shit, desu. I learned to draw just by copying shit like anime. From that, I got pretty good at copying, and started copying portraits. I learned to see and shade values.

But that was just a stepping stone to actually learning to illustrate. Once I had the basic skills of copying and being able to see value, then I had to learn about form and drawing in 3d. From there, it was short step to figure drawing, and trying to draw my own anime shit and applying what I've learned.

If you understand the theory behind drawing, then you'll know the steps.

[Anonymous No.3599344]

>>3589804
what kind of high school do you go to that has animation classes?

[Anonymous No.3599347]

Don't know where to asks this, but I'll use your thread OP: why does every other board have relatively tame ads, but as soon as i entered /ic/ i've got porn gifs shoved into my face? When i get back to, say /tv/, I still got the old casino ads and nothing lewd.

[Anonymous No.3599353]

>>3599347
This is a red board

[Anonymous No.3599573]

>>3585864
Lol burnout retard

[Anonymous No.3599630]

>>3583905
>How did you actually learn to draw?
I DIDN'T

[Anonymous No.3599884]

>>3583905
I drew for fun until i decided i wanted to stop sucking. then i started taking pointers from here. im more comfortable with my art now and it doesn't take me an hour to draw a simple body.

[Anonymous No.3599957]

>>3588762
Why don't you just draw your imagination using reference, since now that you have the technical skill, it should be much easier.

[Anonymous No.3599959]

>>3583905
I learned to draw by doing "my style" and copying others. Then I found out about Loomis and became good.

[Anonymous No.3600023]

>>3583974
Link to your stuff?

[Anonymous No.3600123]

>>3585820
please fix the knock knees

[Anonymous No.3600991]

>>3600123
I know I didn't do it any justice (mostly because I was lazy and just mirrored the boot despite the different angle/rotations of the legs), but it's meant to be a pose, not that she has a pigeon-toed physical deformity.

[Anonymous No.3601021]

>>3583905
it takes a fuckton of time
focused practice is a myth
most people suck at teaching
you will hate yourself

that being said, it's as easy as moving your pen. a healthy mix of acquiring knowledge and drawing from reference seems to be the fastest way to improve

also, since you mentioned loomis, pic related on the left is a very angled zygomatic arch, which is usually build from a horizontal. The more sources you learn from, the better

[Anonymous No.3601035]

>>3601021

[Anonymous No.3601039]

>>3601035

[Anonymous No.3601064]

>>3593775
I plan on drawing anime & realism & whatever I want until I die. What, are you going to stop doing things you like because you feel like a loser doing them? Off yourself.

[Yeetle No.3601356]

>>3583905
Hey Anon
I started drawing when I was 8
didn't do anything more than copy pokemon characters out of the shitty pokedex books they shill out every year or so.
I started with tracing then free handing that shit. I think from that I learned howto fluidly draw. You can buy a book and learn anatomical information and techniques, but I think drawing first comes from figuring out your hand first. What's the information worth when you can't work your tool. I've never used loomis or whatever the fuck anyone's been telling you. You just have to dedicate yourself to working at it. Find an artist you enjoy or a certain aesthetic you enjoy. Find your way to approach that work. Do what you want. Fuck books learn your own way my guy.

[Anonymous No.3601538]

>>3599957
Do you mean drawing from imagination then using references to fix it up? If so, lately I've been doing that with some really interested results. Also been copying favorite artists to understand more appealing proportions to apply it to my work.

[Anonymous No.3603886]

I know the answers people usually give you are standard and uninteresting, but it's true. I don't even remember when I started drawing exactly, but I do remember I just wanted to draw and did it regularly, mainly because I was a weird kid. Anime helped everything along, and being the weeb fag I am I got tired of the waifu look and went a different route. I'm the kind of artist that tries different styles because everything is fun. Just do what you want, dude. I think talent in art is only in places where you can somehow work better faster than other people - other than that, drawing is all about persistence and practice. Believe it desu, OP chan.