Pratice Daniel-son.
I've always been drawing.. well not alot for the past few years, but Im starting again. Thats the only real way to get good. Classes help cause they teach you technique and design rules and such. But its all about your determination and drive.
Then practice I shall! and my names Brian....
The funny thing is even with a lot of training, an art form like Manga & Anime is so easily learnable... that anyone can pick it up. And I mean pick it up and even master it within a year if they put their minds to it.
Manga & Anime is not fine art. It is and can be fine art, however in general it a simple structure tool to showcase someone's imagination. I was watching Howl's Moving Castle the other day, and was just amazed at how much story can be told just from the simplest lines and color.
But what I'm trying to say is, teach yourself this style, and learn the basics. And then teach yourself how to draw normally and apply that back into your Anime work. You'll find that it greatly influences it, because the details you pick up from real life observation only serve to enhance your imaginary images.
This is the difference between any okay drawing and a better one, the amount of details, and how those serve to create a certain style.
Good luck.
LJ
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Pratice Daniel-son.
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Then practice I shall! and my names Brian....
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Please tell me he's joking and he actually gets the reference, because if Brian doesn't, I'm going to feel really old.....
I get the reference! 
How funny would it've been if his name was Daniel!!
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Learn to draw so darn well? I would lik to start so I can draw some ideas I have for some heroes. But I suck. I don't really want to go through an art class (complicated reason. Don't want to get into it). Were you all just self taught. Are there any books or websites you can go to?
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Hmmm. First: For me, like any kid, I scribbled and drew all the time. But then, in Jr. Highschool (7th grade) I first tried copying a comic book cover. (It might've been one of Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel covers, can't quite remember) That what really got me going. Lots of practice, sure. And yes, quite a few art classes! (from Jr. High, Highschool, and college) Thus, I am not self taught. But I do continue to learn every day, with or without instructors. But (and I'm using a lot of "buts") I must say, the classes and instructors (well, most of them) were all very helpful & I'd be waaay back without them.
Today, you are lucky, tho! There are indeed tons and tons of helpful art instructional resources that I didn't have back in those early days. There's plenty of internet websites and art forum/communities out there just waiting for you.
Threedy.com is a good one, and not just for 3d modeling either!
I always like to recommend the book "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" by Betty Edwards.
The Drawing On The Right Side website
Another recent book I got that I rather like is ""Action Cartooning" by Ben Caldwell.
I do think solid, basic foundation is a really key thing -- and add a heavy dollup of practice, practice, practice. But also: Desire. I had a friend who said he wanted to learn, but got bored and frustrated in days and never continued.
You don't have to go to school to learn, and not every "art teacher" is good. But a truely good art teacher is GOLDEN! But Gill Bates is self-taught, and he's fabulous!
There's another book I like on cartooning, its a red-cover paperback - but I can't remember the name right now.
and hey! there's people on this forum who'll gladly offer you help!
But first and formost! you gots to let go of this:
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But I suck.
[/ QUOTE ] cuz, like, dude! You don't. Everybody starts somewhere.
EDIT: also, just type "Learning to draw" in google and look at all the websites!
Everything zobragas said plus:
LOOK.
Seriously look at pictures and think. try and imagine how it was done and even more importatly why. Why is there a shadow? why is it blue? Look at paintings . When you walk in the street look around. Look at the perspetive of the building lining the street . look at the folds of a dress. LOOK.
I know it seems silly bu a great part of learning to draw is learning to look.
....
... well also to listen but that is another topic.
Proud Member Of the Paragons of Justice
Kidraid, Golden Guard, War Emblem, Eridani, Greymist, BabyTank and more many more.
My Gallery (There I am KidRaid since Greymist was already taken)
I second pretty much most of what the above say... except for one.
I'm always saying "I suck." I'm always breaking my pieces down, and analyzing what could've been improved upon.
It's what keeps me going as an artist. It's what fuels my fire so to speak.
Knowing and acknowledging my own skill level, Actively seeking out better artists and comparing myself to them. Adapting styles, tools and mental processes to compete with them.
Ya gotta go into it acknowledging it. "So yeh, I suck... but it's not going to get me down."
Never say Die and DIY.
Me 2 bits,
-CJ
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The funny thing is even with a lot of training, an art form like Manga & Anime is so easily learnable... that anyone can pick it up. And I mean pick it up and even master it within a year if they put their minds to it.
Manga & Anime is not fine art. It is and can be fine art, however in general it a simple structure tool to showcase someone's imagination. I was watching Howl's Moving Castle the other day, and was just amazed at how much story can be told just from the simplest lines and color.
But what I'm trying to say is, teach yourself this style, and learn the basics. And then teach yourself how to draw normally and apply that back into your Anime work. You'll find that it greatly influences it, because the details you pick up from real life observation only serve to enhance your imaginary images.
This is the difference between any okay drawing and a better one, the amount of details, and how those serve to create a certain style.
Good luck.
LJ
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i'd have to disagree here.
I think you should never set yourself to learn a specific style. You should Find you own style, whatever it may be. If you stick yourself to one style, you might just never mature the excellent creator inside of you. Experiment! Draw! And Draw some more!
I speak from experience.
Learn your craft. If you're serious, it's gonna be a hard long trip, but well worth the ride to get there.
And the amount of detail is never what makes or brakes great art. Art is the act of illusion. You're only hinting at things with a drawing. I've seen some spetacular drawings formed from just a few pencil strokes. Art that will make you cry with joy at it's simplicity! Some of the best animation is founded upon that.
If you copy a style, you really need to understand it implicidly and completly. But if you create your own style, the understanding part is already done...because it's you.
But this is only an opinion.
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Learn to draw so darn well? I would lik to start so I can draw some ideas I have for some heroes. But I suck. I don't really want to go through an art class (complicated reason. Don't want to get into it). Were you all just self taught. Are there any books or websites you can go to?
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Every artist sucks, my friend, it's the drive to improve constantly that motivates us all. I don't think any artist worth their pencil lead will tell you that they're so excellent, they can't learn anything more.
So the sucking? No, you don't. you're learning...
I took art classes, but I really was self taught. In fact, I can really say that I fought many class lessons, and did my own thing...which is what art is really about.
Now for books. I'd avoid any book that wants to teach you "how to draw" in a specific style. Someone mentioned Drawing on the right side of the brain. Excellent. Books on figure drawing, to learn the human body, and learn WHY muscles are where they are.
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The funny thing is even with a lot of training, an art form like Manga & Anime is so easily learnable... that anyone can pick it up. And I mean pick it up and even master it within a year if they put their minds to it.
Manga & Anime is not fine art. It is and can be fine art, however in general it a simple structure tool to showcase someone's imagination. I was watching Howl's Moving Castle the other day, and was just amazed at how much story can be told just from the simplest lines and color.
But what I'm trying to say is, teach yourself this style, and learn the basics. And then teach yourself how to draw normally and apply that back into your Anime work. You'll find that it greatly influences it, because the details you pick up from real life observation only serve to enhance your imaginary images.
This is the difference between any okay drawing and a better one, the amount of details, and how those serve to create a certain style.
Good luck.
LJ
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i'd have to disagree here.
I think you should never set yourself to learn a specific style. You should Find you own style, whatever it may be. If you stick yourself to one style, you might just never mature the excellent creator inside of you. Experiment! Draw! And Draw some more!
I speak from experience.
Learn your craft. If you're serious, it's gonna be a hard long trip, but well worth the ride to get there.
And the amount of detail is never what makes or brakes great art. Art is the act of illusion. You're only hinting at things with a drawing. I've seen some spetacular drawings formed from just a few pencil strokes. Art that will make you cry with joy at it's simplicity! Some of the best animation is founded upon that.
If you copy a style, you really need to understand it implicidly and completly. But if you create your own style, the understanding part is already done...because it's you.
But this is only an opinion.
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Miyazaki didn't just sit down one day and say "I'm going to draw anime!"
He's an artist.
There are quite a few 'anime' artists that are fine artists. Yoshitaka Amano comes to mind. Anime art is a dime a dozen, same with most genres. What sets apart the good artists from the bad are those that understand the basic fundementals of composition, layout, color, anatomy, perspective, and character.
Anyways, how did I learn? Line mileage.
Just draw and keep drawing. Draw what you see and not what you think you see. That mantra was instilled in me by my old dearly departed eacher, Frank Sardisco.
We draw things as icons. An icon of a hand. We recognize it as a hand because it's attached to an arm, but does the artist understand the underlying musculature? How a hand moves, how far the fingers can flex? That's the difference.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, as mentioned, is one of the best books out there to start understanding how to see and how to draw what you see.
Drawing is observation. That's what it really boils down to.
Style is something that comes naturally after you get the fundementals down.
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Anyways, how did I learn? Line mileage.
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I love this quote! You speak truth, brother!
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Anyways, how did I learn? Line mileage.
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I love this quote! You speak truth, brother!
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*koff* Imachick *koff*
Heh. Glad to be of assistance XD
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Anyways, how did I learn? Line mileage.
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I love this quote! You speak truth, brother!
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*koff* Imachick *koff*
Heh. Glad to be of assistance XD
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eh...soul sistah?
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Anyways, how did I learn? Line mileage.
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I love this quote! You speak truth, brother!
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*koff* Imachick *koff*
Heh. Glad to be of assistance XD
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Stop with the LIES!!!! Yer a goat, damn it... a GOAT! *runs away screaming... but not before typing the following*
To the OP, how'd I get where I am? About 28 years of practice with some schooling along the way... and I still have a loooooooong way to go. As was mentioned earlier, learning art never stops, ever. The moment you stop learning, the moment you sit back and say "damn, I'm suppa good... better then anyone else, the best I can be, ya!" is the minuet you cease being an artist and start being a blue dog painting hack.
I'd also have to second The Goat and Atomic Knight... and a lot of others who've posted but can't remember (it's 4 in the bloody morning, cut me some slack!) don't set out to learn a style! if your serious about wanting to be an artist,, that will only hurt you in the end... and you'll have a lot of unlearning to do. As has been chanted again and again, start with the basics.. start with life, what's in front of you. In fact, if it's figure art you want to do, you are your own best model. Start drawing self portraits again and again and again.
Since your against art classes (not gonna ask) you'd do good to start posting your work to various art forums for critiquing. After all, a lot of times you are blinded by what you think you did to see what you actually did... or are just too close to the work to really see it. It helps immensely to have some good quality feedback that really dissects your work.
Also, get out in the world and really look at art. Seeing it in person is far different from seeing it reproduced on your monitor (unless it's a digital piece XD) or in a book... but if that's all you got, that's all you got. Study the history of art and of the artists that have come before. There is a wealth of information to be learned from their lives and their work... and the lessons they learned.
In the end, though, you have just gotta want it so bad you will give up everything else for it. A friend of mine once said while we were talking about what it took to be an artist, "If you want to be an artist, you have to be one before anything else, before your a son, daughter, wife husband, lover, friend, or employed." In other words, you have to work at art, all the time, continuously... it must be the most important part of your life, all other things come second.
Oh, and never give up or quit. Like any skill, it can be forgotten. I have seen so many people with serious talent quit for this job or that, because they started a family, because they felt they were inferior to artist x, because they couldn't stand any critiquing what so ever... it's really sad. you have to stick to it no matter what.
That's about all the advice I can give... everyone else already gave you all the good points... I'm just regurgitating here. It's 4am, I'm aloud to do that! 
Draw from life. Lots. Draw everything you see. If your eventual goal is to do anime/manga, great. But don't start with it. Anime/manga "works" because the artist understands basic human proportion, and is able to distort it properly to achieve that style. There are anime artists out there who do NOT understnad basic human proportion, and their anime drawings look really bad.
So draw people. Draw objects, walls, buildings, plants, cars, everything you can see. Draw SLOWLY. Draw QUICKLY! Learn to do gesture (fast!) and contour (slow!) drawings (go google those to see examples of what they are). That will help 'loosen you up' for drawing.
But draw lots of people. Draw lots of human heads. Once you get a good foundation down, you can then learn to go off into whatever 'form' you want. Anime, cubism, surrealistic, whatever. :P
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, yes, very good book. Go get it. Go read it. Twice!
Doodle -everywhere-. It doesn't matter if it's "bad". Just do it. You can't learn what's "good" If you don't know what is "bad".
And yes I'm still an amateur at all this. But, you too can go from this to this to even this.
Wow, thanks for all the tips everyone. And yes I get that Karate Kid reference. I was just kinda messing around. I have plenty of free time on my hands so I guess I can just set aside an hour each day or so and maybe draw some simple things to get a hang of it. I'm going to be trying to learn how to draw comic book kinda stuff. I'm not much into the anime style of drawing.
Even comic book artists learn to draw people first, then are able to distort them properly into super humans and monsters and such, while still maintaining proportion.
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Draw from life. Lots. Draw everything you see. If your eventual goal is to do anime/manga, great. But don't start with it. Anime/manga "works" because the artist understands basic human proportion, and is able to distort it properly to achieve that style. There are anime artists out there who do NOT understnad basic human proportion, and their anime drawings look really bad.
So draw people. Draw objects, walls, buildings, plants, cars, everything you can see. Draw SLOWLY. Draw QUICKLY! Learn to do gesture (fast!) and contour (slow!) drawings (go google those to see examples of what they are). That will help 'loosen you up' for drawing.
But draw lots of people. Draw lots of human heads. Once you get a good foundation down, you can then learn to go off into whatever 'form' you want. Anime, cubism, surrealistic, whatever. :P
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, yes, very good book. Go get it. Go read it. Twice!
Doodle -everywhere-. It doesn't matter if it's "bad". Just do it. You can't learn what's "good" If you don't know what is "bad".
And yes I'm still an amateur at all this. But, you too can go from this to this to even this.
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/agree with Rowr >.>
I started out trying to focus totally on anime/manga stylings...
Recently; I've gone back and focused on a more fine-arts approach. The reason isn't that manga is inherently *bad* - far from it; rather, its that manga is a sub-specialization.
You can't perform the subspecialization well until you've picked up the basics that all art forms are rooted in; Ie: understanding anatomical principle, proportion, perspective, etc... I'm the first to admit I'm *not* a good artist; and alot of it is because I didn't pick up the basics early.
That said - I'm going back to the basics now, and I'm quite happy where its going... I think when I return to my anime work, I'll actually be significantly better at it.
As with any craft - its all about practice. In writing, there's a saying - every writer has 500,000 words of *bad* prose before they ever put out the good stuff.
The same is true of art - you've got "line mileage" (Sayterra that was a great one) to go through before you see anything good.
Just practice - and make sure you're practicing the right stuff (ie: don't skimp on basics >.> You'll get to the part you want to specialize in in due time - but learn the cornerstones first! <^_^>
Just keep trying and never EVER give up. I'm 6 years+ into my artwork, and I still suck - but I'm not quitting. So keep at it <^o^>
A Warrior's Friend: ID 335212 - Help Infernal save Valkyrie from Battle Maiden.
Above Mars Part 1: The Wellington: ID 159769 - Save Mars by destroying a monstrous battleship from the inside!
>.> My DA page, where I attempt to art.
Well.... the good ones do...
I have to say, while I agree with the obvious "practice, practice, practice" saying to yourself that you suck is not the best way to go. I think I am a great artist. I don't say to myself I can't improve, and I don't think I am better than artists that are just that, better, but I don't look at my art and say "Wow, this guy sucks because his deltoid is slightly too low". I take note of that, but looking at your artwork in such a pessimistic light is not the way to go.
And never shackle yourself to a style. Sure, you can try for anime, but really, anime is so widespread and so cheap that it is incredibly hard to be noticed as a particularly expressive artist through it. I'm not saying it can't be done, but do as others said, learn how to be a great 'traditional' artist, and than switch. Just look at picasso. In 1905 he was painting perfectly proportioned people. After that his art became more and more abstract. And the reason it is great is because he *could* have done perfectly. He could have done whatever he wanted, but he chose to make his art cube-like. And because of that (and because he did it well) the artistic community took notice.
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I have to say, while I agree with the obvious "practice, practice, practice" saying to yourself that you suck is not the best way to go. I think I am a great artist. I don't say to myself I can't improve, and I don't think I am better than artists that are just that, better, but I don't look at my art and say "Wow, this guy sucks because his deltoid is slightly too low". I take note of that, but looking at your artwork in such a pessimistic light is not the way to go.
And never shackle yourself to a style. Sure, you can try for anime, but really, anime is so widespread and so cheap that it is incredibly hard to be noticed as a particularly expressive artist through it. I'm not saying it can't be done, but do as others said, learn how to be a great 'traditional' artist, and than switch. Just look at picasso. In 1905 he was painting perfectly proportioned people. After that his art became more and more abstract. And the reason it is great is because he *could* have done perfectly. He could have done whatever he wanted, but he chose to make his art cube-like. And because of that (and because he did it well) the artistic community took notice.
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I think this is very much a good way to look at it.
I will however say this too >.> Some people (obviously it varies by individual <,< aren't looking to be "amazing artists" in the overall sense - they just happen to want to do it as a hobby, maybe some budding animators even.
I still think basics first is the best idea <,< just saying; not everyone is out to be an 'artiste'; (I'm not quite sure where I stand honestly... I'd love to find I have real fine-art talent... but I've pretty much set my eyes on novels and maybe graphic novels >.>
That all said <'x'> for myself; I'm very good at pounding myself over the head with my own innadiquacies... Hmm... actually...
I have a picture you all need to see >.> I shall post it in another thread because I think it'll be amusing in and of itself.
A Warrior's Friend: ID 335212 - Help Infernal save Valkyrie from Battle Maiden.
Above Mars Part 1: The Wellington: ID 159769 - Save Mars by destroying a monstrous battleship from the inside!
>.> My DA page, where I attempt to art.
If you do it as a hobby (I'm young, so I don't know where I'll go, it will probably always be just a hobby for me) that is an even better reason to not look at your art as inadequate, and simply as 'where it is'. If it is just for the fun of it, than you have the freedom to simply know you can get better, but not put it in such a self hating way as "I suck". Rather, "I can get better". And don't forget to add "I am so awesome, it is simply unbelievable" A little arrogance never hurt.
And, yes, basics are always first. Stick figures followed by quick gestures (like this)
are the best way to get better. Plus, I just love figure drawing, so gesture are always fun . Oh, and a great artist once said that an artist spends 75% of the time observing, and 25% actually drawing. Honor him. Do that.
Unless you don't. Another way to practice is to take a pen (screw that pencil! When you use it you always are holding back the freedom of your hand because you expect the finish product to be 'good') and just draw. Fast. Don't worry that much about the final product (though if it looks good, hey, that is great) just draw. Find a nice pen too, one that glides over the paper and try those gestures. You'll get better fast.
Oh, and if you find that hands start screwing up your beautiful pieces, well, the only way to fix that is to draw a lot of hands. I basically spent a summer on more-or-less hands, and that gave me the basis to easily draw them. If you don't spend a lot of time just on the hand (or just on the head, or any other part of the body that is a bit complicated) than you may get frustrated by it.
Anatomy books can help. I can recommend "Human Anatomy made amazingly easy", though I didn't end up using it much. I just love looking at the nice anatomy pictures
It does have some nice drawn reference pictures that are simple and easy to understand. However, nothing beats (especially for hands) just looking at your own. Look at your body, base drawings off that. They may not have the perfect ideal natomy, but that can come so easily later, by just lengthening a limb by a hair, or widening the neck, whatever.
Learn to draw so darn well? I would lik to start so I can draw some ideas I have for some heroes. But I suck. I don't really want to go through an art class (complicated reason. Don't want to get into it). Were you all just self taught. Are there any books or websites you can go to?