Learning to draw, books, online, sketching, videos?

[heedicalking]

I always wanted to learn how to draw and thought it would be cool to learn how. I was wondering where to get started learning. Are there any good books to pick up. I have a book called "An Introduction to Art Techiniques" which my uncle found and gave me to look through, but seems more geared towards people who already know what they are doing.

I look up "how to draw" on google and get "how to draw cool barnyard animals for kids :)))) fairies and horsies!! i don't really want tutorials on how to draw naruto, spongebob, billy mays, or mario. i want a tutorial that will teach me how to draw in general, so i can create my own freestyle spongebob if i wanted to, not copy one from a tutorial.

anyone have anything that will teach me how to draw from the basics up?

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[Shell]

Try googling: How to draw *whatever you want to draw*, not just "how to draw"

[heedicalking]

Try googling: How to draw *whatever you want to draw*, not just "how to draw"

but i don't want to learn how to draw just one thing, i already said that. I want to be able to freestyle and understand depth, shading, perspective and such so i don't need to follow step by step tracing to make something.

[Nickelob Ultra]

I started off getting a basic rough idea of art by just looking at what I wanted to draw, then making very rough sketches.

From those rough sketches you begin to understand a concept and an idea of how to draw certain things.

[Shell]

I just practice, practice, practice. I started making characters with unrealistic circles for eyes and awkward smiles on their faces, but my art teacher taught us well; though I'm still not the best. I make bendy arms, strange poses, can never decide on a shape of a nose, but I listen to my art teacher.

[Flush535]

I think that this post by Tophius is really helpful. It got me pointed in the right direction.

I'm no expert on the subject, but I assume with repetition and knowledge comes the efficiency you're looking for. For example, I can draw any standing figure with relative ease and (I assume) a fair pace; I've drawn (and henceforth studied) enough standing figures that I seldom have to put much thought into it. However, ask me to draw a figure in mid-somersault and I'm going to forget up many times before I settle with something acceptable; I haven't practiced such a pose's rhythms and forces that I have to take the process slowly and put a lot of thought into my drawing.
  I guess it just boils down to the same thing: study and practice.

I recently found this really cool website stocked with figures from which you can draw from. You can set the time intervals between each drawing starting from as little as 30 seconds and also change a whole load of other settings - you can also choose to draw from animals, too. Even if figures aren't necessarily your forte you can still learn a lot along the lines of mass and motion, I strongly reccomend it: http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/index.php  [warning: some pages contain nsfw content, although you are warned and given an option of whether or not you would like them to appear]

As for art styles, I've always held the idea that it is very important to at least gain some knowledge and proficiency in drawing realistically before moving on to stylising your drawings. I also think it's really bad stuff to draw your influences from just one style rather than looking closely at many differing ones and building up from there.
 
Alas, I also suffer from so-called "artist's block", and I would be surprised if I ever find someone who does not. I usually begin drawing whenever I have a fancy idea that's been influenced by something I've seen or done. For example, perhaps after a few solid days of playing some TF2 or viewing some impressive fanart, I myself may start to draw some too. Recently I've come across an artist who's taken a scene or speech from a well known film and drawn it out in a storyboard/comic-like manner. The artist has a very, very expressive and lively art style and it makes for a quite whimsical result. It's very fun to look at and I'd like to see how fun it is to do it myself.
  We're all going to get awful results, especially if we venture into territory which we're not very well versed at. I can get ridiculously frustrated at times - more than I would like to admit because I pressure myself to do something which I simply do not know jack stuff about. I'd like to think it's about taking a step back and breaking down your failure so you can spot where exactly you've gone wrong and what you need to improve upon.

There I go again - I always get carried away If I'm explaining something! Apologies for the wall of text.

[Mega-Bear]

When I want to expand my creative atmosphere I just look at other people's art and pay attention to details. You'll find sometimes that very small glares or shading can go a long way, and the best technique to replicating these things is to just practice.

[blaman]

I refrain from drawing realistic looking people. It's just not my style of drawing and they always come out stuff.
I'm far far better at drawing scenes (places, basically) and anything mechanical. Mechanical to me isn't a strict sense of "hard edges and boring surfaces", as some may consider it. For example I recently finished a sketch of a fighter jet concept I came up with. It's a mixture of smooth curves and surfaces and hard edges.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is, not everyone can draw in every style. It may be a good idea to find your own style and work with that.

[carolcat]

I think that this post by Tophius is really helpful. It got me pointed in the right direction.

Must keep that in mind, thanks! ^^

I usually just look off of reference pictures whenever I want to draw something, or just pose myself how I want when I need to to get the basic idea.

Really, I've just taught myself how to draw, with a few art classes here and there.

I refrain from drawing realistic looking people. It's just not my style of drawing and they always come out stuff.
I'm far far better at drawing scenes (places, basically) and anything mechanical. Mechanical to me isn't a strict sense of "hard edges and boring surfaces", as some may consider it. For example I recently finished a sketch of a fighter jet concept I came up with. It's a mixture of smooth curves and surfaces and hard edges.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is, not everyone can draw in every style. It may be a good idea to find your own style and work with that.

Pretty much this.

I've found from my experience that I'm decent at drawing semi-realistic people, but not super realistic. I'll put in common details, like eyebrows, a few clothing curves, collar bones, but nothing super detailed like highly detailed hair and such.

[heedicalking]

i looked at the link toph provided and i wouldn't know where to start. i really can't draw at all so far, so moving on the posing isn't really going to get me anywhere if i can't draw more than a stick man.

[carolcat]

i looked at the link toph provided and i wouldn't know where to start. i really can't draw at all so far, so moving on the posing isn't really going to get me anywhere if i can't draw more than a stick man.

Use the stick man as sort of a base, then slowly build up from that. I started off only drawing stick figures.

EDIT: If nothing else, make the stick figures look good. I have a friend who draws only stick figures, but he makes them look good.

[heedicalking]

anyone know any good books?

[Camera]

Practice shading and perspective with cubes, and move on to other geometric shapes. Eventually you'll explore enough and try doing it with abstract shapes or random things.

[blaman]

anyone know any good books?

In my opinion, you will never learn to draw via books or tutorials. It's not that simple. You need to dedicate time and develop the skill.
You can only learn how to draw, by drawing.

For starters you can maybe look at pictures and do your best to recreate them, don't stress yourself over details right away, just do some sketches and whatever at first. Then brown townyze your work and look for areas you could improve on.

[heedicalking]

i traced something then tried to do it by hand. Im gonna keep trying until i can get the scale down