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Nah nah, I have a few friends who are... phenominal artists (they'd all stab me if I told them that though ;.; ) and watching them with their many differant styles I've noticed something- they are almost always drawing! Not necessarily at the best of they're ability, but a couple of them doodle adorable little pictures all over their homework and papers while others pull out pics that they've been working on for the last day or two and just add a bit when ever they can... I think the key is to just draw as much as you can, you just naturally see your mistakes and correct them, but if you aren't born with gallons of natural talent (because everyone knows that natural talent is liquid and can be measured in gallons!) then reading tutiorals and practicing those styles can help- but strictly following another person's style doesn't do diddly you'll develope your own style if you draw enough >.> my only problem is I can never think of anything to draw XP anyway dat's my drawling drawing philosophy!~

XD

Thanks Chia, I'm going to give that a try, I'm going to go around tonight and sem-copy some of the breedables ^^

Well, if you're going for figure drawing ... here's some advice ^^. I took a Figure Drawing class a couple of semesters, taking another one this coming semester ... and one of our most frequent homework assignments was just to WATCH people and doodle them in various poses.

Draw from real life first, as much as possible. I'm not talking about getting people to pose for you, just sketch people doing everyday things. Sitting, eating, leaning on things, talking, etc. Even if it's just very messy, scribbly sketches. Which they probably will be ^^; Since people do move and you'll have to be fast to capture what you want.

But uhm. Yes, in general, the best thing is to draw a whole lot, even if not everything is perfect ^^. Tutorials help, but they aren't as good as real life. Probably the closest to real life would be to find an online gallery of nude photography (not porn, don't look at me like that >.> artistic n***s XD) and draw from those.

When we do get started in Figure Drawing, I'll try and scan some of my little sketches to show you what I'm talking about heart

^__^ No problem.

*eyes her post* Man, I sound like a teacher ... LOL xd

I'd say you're better off drawing from real life then copying someone else's work.. but sometimes you just gotta.. lol

You can only improve by practice. Draw EVERY SINGLE DAY .. even if it's only doodles and such.

In my figure drawing classes, we started off doing 1 min sketches, then 5 min, then 10, 20 and so on.. our sketches can be loose and not even look like more than sticks and circles, that's perfectly fine!
When you're doing quick doodles like that, it's more to get a better grip on proportion than anything.

I used to take my sketchbook to the mall.. or to a Barnes and Noble.. cause they have a cafe where I can sit and look inconspicuous. and just randomly sketch people...

but yeah.. practice, practice, practice.. you may not see a difference right away.. but save some of your earlier stuff and compare it to newer work after maybe a month.

Wow, Manda's post seems like it would be obvious but it's a really good idea XD I'm still working on figures (and everything else), I should try that!