(Part 2) Best products from r/Art

Well drawing for me started out as a coping mechanism when I was a kid and still is for me today (especially these days). I had a lot of problems with depression and anxiety as a child coupled with a fairly ignorant father that didn't recognize these things as mental problems. I was forced to try to find a way to deal with hordes of feelings and emotions that as a mere child I was incapable of understanding and drawing helped me do that. Around the time I was about 13 or so some close friends of mine started drawing and where WAAAAY better than I was, so that pushed me to start working on things like technique and different styles. I really liked Dragonball Z at that age so I started drawing pictures I printed out from the internet regularly and started drawing in an anime style and eventually began coming up with my own characters, my friends were really good at drawing in anime styles so they taught me a lot about it.

When high school rolled around (I'll say sophomore year or so) I took basic art 1&2 but I never really did too much because the course material was SO rigid that it didn't interest me. Ms. Huelett (the art teacher) felt like I had a lot of talent and took me under her wing in a big way. She knew A LOT about art and helped me learn and meld multiple styles together in order for me to create my own. She taught me a lot about anatomy and how to draw people/characters in different poses, how to properly shadow characters and apply light sources to my pieces, creating expressions and applying drama through a characters poses, she poured as much knowledge into me as she could and I couldn't be more grateful for all she taught me.

I know it isn't much (you've also been given some great advice already I see, which is fantastic) but I'll give you a few links to some books that really helped me learn more about various styles and techniques (I still have most of these books and refer to them fairly often, even now)

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954561&sr=8-9&keywords=how+to+draw

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Urban-Sketching-Location/dp/1592537251/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954800&sr=8-19&keywords=how+to+draw+graffiti

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Art-Doodle-Book-Outside/dp/1856696820/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954800&sr=8-28&keywords=how+to+draw+graffiti

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Head-Figure-Perigee-Jack/dp/0399507914/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954902&sr=8-28&keywords=how+to+draw+books

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Manga-Mark-Crilley-drawing-ebook/dp/B006WUD10S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954990&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+draw+manga

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Bodies-Anatomy/dp/4766112385/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954990&sr=8-6&keywords=how+to+draw+manga

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Cutting-Edge-Anatomy-Reference-ebook/dp/B00G8ELT2K/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1404955084&sr=8-10&keywords=how+to+draw+comics

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Comic-Book-Action-Garbett/dp/1440308136/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1404955084&sr=8-14&keywords=how+to+draw+comics

I think that's most of the books I've got, at the very least it'll give you some ideas to practice with and all of those books together isn't too bad of a price and it's a good way to get experience in the things you want to learn (I think) if you're not able to afford the classes you were suggested.

Good god this post is long as hell and I apologize for that, I'm just trying to be as helpful as I possibly can with what I know (call it a flaw)

I'll leave you with a few pieces of advice that help me out regularly and that I feel have gotten me to the level I'm at now (though I think I'm just ok at best truthfully)

1. Sketch whatever idea you have in your mind for something as fast as you can and just let your ideas flow through you. Don't give yourself time to say this part sucks I have to redo it, just go for it and you'll be surprised at what can come out of it.
   
   
2. Try to take inspiration from artists you admire but don't try to copy their style. What worked for me was incorporating my inspiration with various artists and merging them with my own ideas which eventually lead to me developing my own style(s)
   
   
3. Do your best to not look at your art as inferior to another persons artwork. Absolutely, have those people you look up to want to be like artistically and draw inspiration from, but do your best not to doubt yourself. It's YOUR artwork and YOUR ideas, the only person's opinions that matter are your own. If you're truly happy with what you've created and feel you've done the best you can then I promise SOMEONE out there WILL like your work as well, at least in my opinion.
   
   Sorry again for the book, I just hope I was at least a little bit helpful with the advice I was able to give and didn't come off as arrogant sounding or anything
   
   Best of luck and I can't wait to see what you do in the future :)
   
   

Here's my suggestion for motivation:

Surround yourself in art. Look up artists. Look at forums online where people crit each other's stuff. Go to a museum. Read an art history book. Watch an animated film. Spend some time practicing drawings from instructional books, a good example is Andrew Loomis. It's hard to be motivated about art when you're not actively looking at it. Good art makes you want to make good art. See if your city has local art galleries and check those out. Hang out with other artists. Find people that are interested in art and share your stuff with them. See if you can get your stuff in galleries, or make it a goal to do so within the year. I sometimes wake up and wish never to see another piece of art again, but there's an undeniable magic to beautiful art that always brings me back. Just a perfect stroke of paint or a phenomenal composition can be enough to wake my inner artist up. Don't be too cynical about art. It's an adventure. You have to suck to get good. You have to make mistakes to learn rules.

But more than anything, you need to make art. Never get stuck on one piece for too long. Never get down on yourself. If you can't think of anything worthwhile to draw or paint, do a landscape. Do a still life. Do a master study. Draw some hands. Paint some eyes or noses. You don't learn much from art when you spend 6 months doing one painting. Try to be fast, just knock 'em out like there's no tomorrow. Work small, it helps. Do color studies. Do value studies. Do anything! Just keep on doing it.

The truth is that every famous artist has hundreds of finished works and thousands of sketches that nobody has ever seen or would care about. The same must be true for you. Don't make one piece and stop because you think you did a good job. Do a better job on the next one. If you can't, fuck it, at least you struggled through it, you'll be a better artist for it.

I don't think anyone save a few prodigies wants to paint every single day of their damn lives, but that's what it takes. My professor has one brilliant quote that I have written on every sketchbook I own:

You're supposed to enjoy this.

Don't make yourself hate it, you've gotta find what it is you like, you've got to make marks that are pleasing to you. Draw something you're interested in. Study an artist you love. Nothing is more instructional than working out a painting on your own, just straight up copying the damn thing. You might think you understand your favorite artist's work a lot, but there are so many subtleties that slip by you if you ignore studies.

Get motivated by never getting bogged down. Move on to the next piece. Always move on to the next piece. You'll know when you've created something fantastic, but even when you're done with that one you should just start another. And another. And another.

I promise this works, it's hard to get yourself in that mindset, but a little willpower and a lot of inspiration will get you there.

And one last quote from my professor:

There is no substitute for hard work.

• Pose: Pose tends to break down when lots of musculature is detailed on a figure. Some of this has to do with the number of intersecting lines and other shapes within the figure. The other factor is that the various small convex shapes on the silhouette of the form will make it less bold and clear. basically it is unclear what the pose is and what the figure is doing. Making it more dramatic or accentuated if the figure is in motion (or static) can help combat this.
  
  
• Composition: You've chose some very odd crop points for the figure and composition as a whole. For one it's strange to put a figure so close to center but ever so slightly askew (the back makes it seem heavy towards the right, the "masses" aren't balanced). Going in the center is a big risk, usually the 1/3rd or 2/3rd line is more successful.
  
  
• Cropping: Cropping of body parts or objects is a way to decrease their importance within and image. But doing it unintentionally can spoil and image. I like the fade-out you have on the arm, and the cropping of the leg feels fine. But for the head the crop line juuuust above the mouth makes an odd tangent. It looks like you ran out of space rather than planned that.
  
  
• Anatomy: The anatomy is clearly the focus of the pose and it's decent. But with how predominant it is here I would implore you to edit the tricep so that it is more representative. Even on a thin male the triceps will make a noticeable bulge in the arm in that pose. And the proportions make this figure see very muscular as it is. Honestly it feels like an omission or error the way you have painted the tricep here. In any other context the anatomy here would be outstanding, but in this one case I would implore you to fix it. On a side note the face is devoid of musculature here and I find that to be a shame; the musculature of the face is fascinating (This is currently the definitive book on the subject)
  
  
• Background: The changing intensity of the background hue and the distance between the lines has an implication of speed and direction and I rather like it. It may be the photography but orange stripe just in front of the nose feels too dark in hue and breaks the flow (it feels darker than the stripes on both sides of it. Over all the background is working and implies motion but the stiffness of the form breaks it for me. If it was leaning forward or diving it would be much more successful in my opinion.
  
  So many of those things aren't really anything you can change here and I understand that. These are things to think about in the future or if you intend to continue with this painting. I just thought it would be more helpful to have a formal critique than to have someone else say "It's not bad but it is a little boring". ;D

I wouldn't critique this if I didn't like this-- so, disclaimer. I also realize it is a doodle, but you posted it on the internet, so I'm assuming you would like feedback.

A little more fluidity and variance in line weight would be nice. Your anatomy needs some work-- even if this is supposed to be stylized. The jaw is very square, more characteristic of a male face, and the eyes and pupils are not pointed the same directions (A good way to help with this is to look at the drawing in a mirror, ocular dominance can be a bitch). The mouth and the nose are too high up on the face and could be pulled down a little further. I don't think the lines for the clavicles were necessary-- they pull my eye away from the face. You did a really nice job shading most of the nose, but the rest of the face lacks structure and I'm not really sure where your light sources are going, especially with the reflections on the eyes. Maybe emphasize those a little more.

I did a really quick redline here to better illustrate my points.

Some good books to help with the fundamentals that are causing these issues:

• Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck
  
  
• Color and Light: A guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney
  
  Keep up the good work!

Try to join a good atelier that focuses on teaching classical drawing techniques. If you can get a hold of David Kassan, he would be a wealth of knowledge.

There are a lot of art forums online that can help you out. Most of the people and threads can be a great help.

Even if classical technique isn't your interest, you should still do it. If you're classically trained, you can create just about any type of art with much more skill.

EDIT: I would highly recommend buying Charles Bargue and Jean-Leon Gerome: Drawing Course. If you follow the instructions and practice copying the plates, it will definitely increase your skill. It's the best art instruction book I've ever owned.

I had a very good anatomy teacher in art school. His name is Steve Hampton, but he uses his alias, Michael Hampton, for his anatomy books series. I highly recommend his book because it's made for artists and animators. He even has a comparative anatomy series for drawing animals and creatures. If you're interested here's the book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0615272819/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474488275&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=figure+drawing+design+and+invention&dpPl=1&dpID=51t3mG6LCXL&ref=plSrch

And his website:

http://www.figuredrawing.info

Here's also a great site for figure drawing practice:

http://artists.pixelovely.com

I still have yet to dive in to all of his teachings, but I had the rare opportunity to learn from him in person, before he abandoned us to work for Blizzard. I'm not salty...I'm not...I swear.

Copics are good, I like PITT art pens which come in different tip sizes, and I think my favorite to play with would be brush pens. If you go on Amazon, you'll see the Pentel version, which is fairly cheap and if you work delicately you can get some neat thin lines, as well as vary your pressure for different line weights. It uses cartridges, which you can buy seperately and inexpensively.

https://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Pocket-Brush-Refills-GFKP3BPA/dp/B002LJRKN8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1483849627&sr=8-5&keywords=brush+pen

I'm also interested in what a good beginner's drawing tablet is that's relatively inexpensive. I'm no pro artist but I like to mess around with drawing with GIMP and whatnot and it would be easier with a tablet than a mouse.

I recently looked at the following one on Amazon and it has good reviews. I'd be interested in any other opinions on it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010LHRFM2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=EYUB2S948M6V&coliid=IHOODHSVPOTOD&psc=1

conceptart.org has some good stuff, they make DVDs too. You could probably pirate them, were you a person of low moral fiber.

There are some good books out there too, which you can probably get from the local library. You might need to use interlibrary loan though, my local libraries have a poor selection of art books, but there isn't anything they haven't been able to find at another library.

Color in Contemporary Painting

The Art of Color

Mastering Composition

Abstraction in Art and Nature

The Art Spirit

Some people don't care about theory, but personally I find it inspiring. Art in Theory 1900-1990 is a good collection of writings by artists, critics, and the like. If you're weak on art history you might want to study some of that first, History of Modern Art is pretty good.

I love these works! There are three children's picture books created with Gonsalves' work, the first of which is Imagine a Day. They are unique in that unlike most picture books, the book was written for the art rather than commissioning art for the writing. They are wonderfully creative!

I have heard good things about the Yiynova. However, I have not used it personally and really haven't heard anything other than "it is a great alternative to the Cintiq", from a teacher of mine. I'm thinking I actually may buy one soon though. For $600 it is pretty tempting.

Here is a video with a guy briefly using it. Skip to 5:58 to see him make tiny strokes really fast to show there isn't any lag etc etc.

Check out some comments on Amazon. And keep googling, cause I'm sure there are others.

I think you have good instincts and talent, you just need to get out of your own head a bit.

First, stop crosshatching. It usually ends up looking messy no matter what you do. Try using pencils to draw https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Sketch-Drawing-Pencil-Set/dp/B078J6ZRRG/ref=sr_1_4?hvadid=77927929569536&hvbmt=be&hvdev=t&hvqmt=e&keywords=drawing+pencil+sets&qid=1573083581&sr=8-4

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As for your shading, try drawing light lines that follow the contour of the object, drawn very close together and all in the same direction. Then go over them with a stump or brush to soften them up. Second, I would recommend drawing things from life until you get the feel for the proportions of things in general. The human brain has a tendency to want to turn things you see into icons rather than what's actually there. For an example, say you want to draw your friend's eye. Your brain goes "hey that's an eye" and draws a picture of an eye instead of your friend's eye. So you end up with a generalized shape of an eye, but not what you wanted to draw.

The way around this is to trick your brain. Try getting a photograph of something, turning it upside down, and then drawing it. This keeps your brain from recognizing shapes and trying to draw an icon of the image and forces you to actually 'see' what you're drawing.

There's a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain that I think would be an excellent resource for you

https://www.drawright.com

I hope this helps 😀

Never be afraid to go further into a piece, or wipe away large sections out of fear of losing what you have (which is great btw). You'll learn so much more that way and it will show in your work. As someone who moved from digital art to painting I totally understand how jarring it can be to make the switch to something so much less forgiving. I'd recommend this book to any artist as it addresses many problems artists come across as artists: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fear-Observations-Rewards-Artmaking/dp/0961454733

Apologies for jumping down your throat over a small comment, I just think that's a great book for any artist. Also another great resource for oil painters: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/problem-solving-for-oil-painters-gregg-kreutz/1101890506?ean=9780823040971

Hi guys, I would like to get into digital art (I am alright but haven't done as much as I'd like in the last few years). Is this a good place to start?

Check out [Bargue's Drawing Course] (http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Bargue-Jean-L%C3%A9on-G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me-Ackerman/dp/2867702038) . The original course was put together by Charles Bargue and Jean Leon Gerome in the 19th century intended for training students at french academies / decorative arts schools. The book consists of many plates of lithographs made after famous greek/roman sculpture and drawings by various masters.

It teaches the artist how to begin a drawing such as this one by blocking in simple shapes and gradually refining those shapes, eventually into light and dark. The final drawings can be quite complex.

There is zero concern with perspective in this approach, which is entirely devoted to developing the artist's ability to draw from his or her visual field. Objects are not seen as 3 dimensional, but as a collection of 2 dimensional shapes that the artist must reproduce. The course is also concerned with instilling s classical taste in the student. It is also a great prelude to drawing a physical cast.

I have two types of pens that I use. The first is the Pilot V5 which is a gel ball point pen http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Precise-Stick-Rolling-Extra/dp/B00006IEBI

The second type is Sakura Micron pens which an assorted set can be found here http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-30062-6-Piece-Pigma-Micron/dp/B0008G8G8Y/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370448156&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=macron+pen

Hope this helps and good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Yiynova-MSP19U-Monitor-Windows-Solution/dp/B009QQ7BG0
I got my Yiynova a couple of years ago and have no complaints about the tablet sensitivity. The monitor itself isn't great, and you have to uninstall any Wacom drivers to get the tablet to play nice, but it's serviceable as an inexpensive Cintiq alternative. Good luck!

They had/have a song called "On Sunday" about burning a church down.

http://www.amazon.com/Trashman-Shoes-Shoulders/dp/B000006LYL

Fantastic band, nice guys, a little like Tom Waits.

Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet. Helps you better understand how the body is constructed = better drawings

http://www.amazon.ca/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X

This is also a really great book, you can download a PDF too :)

Well they're going to be in a coloring book next year hopefully. :)

Edit: I do have a previous coloring book as well.

like drawing with really nice fine paint brush
http://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Pocket-Brush-Refills-GFKP3BPA/dp/B002LJRKN8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458173050&sr=8-1&keywords=brush+pen

A book called anatomy for the artist

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X

I had it at my college library and it was pretty good.

I'm going to butt in here real quick. If you're interested in books about anatomy, check out Burne Hogarth, he used to draw the Tarzan novels. He's also done many books on anatomy one specifically of hands, the rest of his anatomy books can be found on amazon as well.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732

I'd also recommend looking through the gnomon workshop for lectures about perspective, color theory, anatomy, composition, positive negative space, tangent lines, etc etc etc.

Art isn't an exact science but it's definitely close.

Figure Drawing: Design and Invention is a great figure drawing book used in a lot of formal training.

Thanks. It's all just a black fine point rolling ball pen around the paint. I think it helps bring the colors out when watercolors can get muddy and lack contrast.

His books are a goldmine for these types of mind-benders. My personal favorite is "Imagine a Day".

Here is a good, relatively cheap, book I would suggest.

I would recommend any combinations of the following items:

[Cotman Watercolor pan set] (http://www.dickblick.com/items/00337-1059/) maybe with an extra brush as the one included is teeny.

Copic Multiliner Pen Set

The Art of Urban Sketching

100 Things Every Artist Should Know

Souce (Pfft): Art courses and worked in an art supply store for 5 years

I'll say Tue same thing I said to you in /r/ArtCrit.

I see some orangutan hands going on here. Measure the distance from the wrist to the first knuckle joint at the base of the fingers and compare it to the length of the fingers themselves. See the problem? Go to your library and get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Dynamic-Hands-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823013677
http://thedevildraws.tumblr.com/post/20445414784/robfunderburk-grim-natwick-anatomy-studies#disqus_thread
http://thedevildraws.tumblr.com/post/18993893591/anatomical-studies-of-the-hands-and-feet-as-done#disqus_thread
Now do this, go get a straight edge. Take the straight edge and place it against your brow and lips, see how those line up? The brow sticks out because it forms the socket that holds the eye ball, and the lips stick out because of their jaw structure and muscle and fat. But notice here in your drawing that the brow ridge is very flat and the angle of her face shoots out as her lips and jaw protrude? That's a facial aspect of large apes like gorillas not humans. http://www.igorilla.org/assets/images/who/skulls4.jpg okay yes it's not quite as prominent as a gorilla, but you get the idea.

The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expresson by Gary Faigin

if you draw faces or anything that looks like faces this is the book that answers all of your questions.

I have always lurked reddit untill now and love colouring, these are images stolen from this book http://www.amazon.com/Between-Lines-Expert-Level-Coloring/dp/1495337111/ref=pd_sim_b_5/175-7254389-0545460?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W7X22MX6YJ4KCYPRAEM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009QQ7BG0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009QQ7BG0&linkCode=as2&tag=frenden-20 Is probably the least expensive one I've seen.

Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck is nice. It covers the bones, muscles, and surface anatomy (fat, hair, veins, etc.). It also has sections ( smaller than the three above though) on proportion, equilibrium and locomotion, differences of age, sex, and race, and facial expression. It's 279 pages, will take a while to read, and can be exhausting if you're not interested. http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Anatomy-Artist-Stephen-Rogers/dp/0195030958

Charles Bargue http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Bargue-Jean-L%C3%A9on-G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me-Ackerman/dp/2867702038

Godfried Bammes "Die Gestalt Menschen" http://www.amazon.ca/Die-Gestalt-Menschen-Gottfried-Bammes/dp/3862300013 or Der nackte Mensch