The guys that draw Cyanide & Happiness and XKCD make a living drawing stick figures.

Yeah, but it's not about making a living, I Wanna put my ideas into actual pictures.

I'm saying that stick figures isn't a bad medium to use to put your ideas into for the time being. Do it just to get it on paper then redraw it when you get better or can find someone to redraw it for you. That's pretty much what story board artists do. They draw stuff with stick figures to convey a story then some guy comes in with a camera and make a movie out of the ideas.

Thats kind of like me: I think of a good idea, but is too hard; I think of an idea of what to draw, but don't know how to draw it well.

Me too buddy

www.ctrlpaint.com/tag/unplugged/
Work your way though this, bro! Video order is from the bottom up.

www.drawspace.com/lessons/
This one is good, too.
Do the lessons and then do variants of them on your own.
Throw in the occasional bigger project to liven things up but don't expect the world.

NB: It may well take weeks or months of daily practice to get anywhere near Not Shit level alone.

The tatoo sux

Is this okay?

Thanks perfect

His*

This is as far as I got last night in about 45 minutes before I passed out.

Not gonna lie... that kinda bums me out :(

Let me put things into perspective for you : You seem young, like 19 at the oldest. I'm 28. I've been a comic book geek my entire life and have always loved drawing. So by this point I'm probably gonna be a little bit better than you. If you're the same age as me then here's the tough love : Work harder. Because I actually suck at drawing and if you aren't at my level at this age you need to work to get better (although just a pure love for art is better than anything). You seem young man, so don't get sad because I can make a couple of lines on a piece of paper look prettier. You're probably drawing about as well as I was at your age.

I'm 18 :)

Thanks though, that makes me feel a lot better.

If you have a photo as reference, turn it 180 degrees and draw what you see, not what you want it to be.

Here's a little cheat I do when it comes to failing a certain part of a picture.

I copy the picture to paint and brush over what I'm struggling with, with a red brush to see the outline better (Although you may want to use a cyan colour since the whole picture is basically reds)

I don't understand.

I'm doing it in pencil btw, in case you're talking about digital work.

I know, I'm just saying outline it from paint and once that happens try drawing it on the sketch board. Just a suggestion.

Let's see what you have so far? Or is it the pic that you posted 'cause everything looks fine to me on it.

I could upload the body I have done, but I've erased the head a million times over so currently there is nothing.

Well I was hoping to see what you had done with the head so I could see what issues there were.

Sadly I keep erasing it because it looks terrible. If I could just figure out how to do the face (eyes, nose and lips) I could probably get the rest worked out.

Hm well lemme see what you have then and I will see if I can work anything out

From what I can tell from tinkering with it, you have proportion issues. This is because you were trying to draw the picture as you saw it without actually putting down guidelines or sketching out the body as a whole first. Always make a rough outline of the body so you can fix proportion issues, which in turn affects how the overall picture will look. You're having trouble drawing the face because no matter what you do, overall the picture will still look "wrong" to you because of this.

Is there any way I can fix it or should I just start over?

I'd start over. Just very lightly do the entire body first so proportionally it all looks good. And once that's done start filling in the detail and it should fall into place a little better. Lemme see if I can sketch her out from that pic really quick, gimme a few minutes.

Okie doke.

This is what it should look like in the beginning (sorry I had to take the pic with my phone). Everything looks okay proportionally so you can move to filling out details and such, and because it's all lined up when I start to detail the face I should be less frustrated overall.

Hmm. Yea okay, that's a really good idea. And seeing your guideline will help a lot I'm sure.

Any help on the face other than that though? I was having so much trouble with it, and I don't think it was -solely- because of the proportions.

Everything is connected yo. Once you have the body fully outlined, the head should be proportioned to the rest of the body, and with that in place you'll be able to fill out the hair, eyes, etc and make it all look right. Outside of that it just comes to practice. Lemme see if I can draw the face really quick.

Alright, thanks. I'll wait. :)

I really rushed this. It doesn't look right to me cause it doesn't match the picture, but I also tend to stylize pictures I draw. But proportionally it looks pretty correct so it's easier to fill in everything. And a friend of mine also told me once that a real artist will never be happy with their work.

That looks really good, actually. I like how you did the nose, I might steal that from you ;)

I really appreciate all the help man. This is supposed to be a surprise for a friend, she absolutely loves Mad Moxxi, so I want to do a good job on it. Thanks a lot!

If you like how I did the nose, look up any work by the comic artist Michael Turner. He was a hero of mine that passed away a few years ago in his early 30s.. really sad story but he drew some of the most beautiful women in comic books. But I tend to try and style my women after his work. The pic is of Supergirl that he drew.

Wow that's amazing. I love that style! I'll definitely check more of him out, thanks for the info.

I'll also show you the finished product when I get it done since you helped me, if you'd like ^_^

One more tip, if you're drawing a gift for a friend..dont do it on lined paper. =\

Oh... yea I suppose that would be a bad thing :/

I have an actual sketchbook I bought yesterday, I suppose now would be as good a time as any to put it to use.

Word yeah I'd like to see it. Good luck.

I always just listen to music (preferably final boss music, or anything that sounds epic and inspiring) to get some ideas, and to encourage myself to draw.
Then again, I'm still kinda in your position, dude. I had a good general idea for a comic series that I wanted to do, but I can't put together an entire story with it. It's so time consuming to think of all the plot twists and stuff, and I'm rather impatient.

I never want to draw anything. If I'm not drawing, I just plain don't want to. But once I force myself to start drawing I always enjoy myself.

I just can't even get to the "force myself" part. I'm supposed to do 8 pages of a comic for a friend and I'm 3 and 2/3 in...and he gave me this project 6 months ago. Sigh.

www.posemaniacs.com/

Practice the human figure in different poses; this particular website provides a full a large assortment of human models that you can change the camera direction on to practice with.

My honest opinion, spend AT LEAST 1 hour a day practicing the shapes required to make the figure (DO NOT START OFF TRYING TO DRAW THE ENTIRE BODY) and after you start getting better, start adding on musculature and definition.

Studying anatomy helps, my science teacher in high school suggested that to me. you get a basic understanding of the human form, including muscle structure.

I'm not sure what else to suggest, since you're kind of vague. I often use references to help with my poses, starting with a basic sketching, and then refining the image with the reference.

Your mother nude

HERE YOU GO.
censored dick for obvious reasons.

That's one mental image I don't want to be implanted in my mind for the rest of my life.
Anything but my mum naked. oh god

Well, that's slightly more barable.
Give me a couple of minutes.

Re-examine the divider line down the center of the body, it's off, considering that your character's body looks like it's trying to be directly aligned with the head. Remember, the human body isn't flat, it contours and rounds at numerous points and the same goes for clothing, the right side of the image, the pattern looks excruciatingly static and flat. If we're supposed to be looking at it from a heavy angle, it should stretch and appear longer and thinner.

Thank you. I will try to bear those lessons in mind for my future drawings.

this
is
amazing

Why, thanks! Those are my first attempts to design plate-ish armor, so they are still kinda sloppy. This is more about an idea rather than execution - i'm pretty sure I could do better with anatomy and the like. I might finalize those one day.

:3 one day i'm going to draw this with yours as an example, i'm studying anatomy to draw it at the moment and i must say it's not good yet but i'll keep this drawing in mind for when i get better ^__^

*cough* I also have this...homoerotic RPG fantasy drawing of mine. I must say I, I was grinning like an idiot the whole time while drawing it.

hah, i've been smiling like an idiot while drawing fanart shiping of Transformers Prime xD it was a commision though

I'm curious beyond imagination. Share?

but it's NSFW?

Even more so. Why must you peak my curiosity like this? How would transformer sex even work?

"lessons in leadership" explains it all. You can see it on my dA though. I'm ScreamForStarscream

cant really find it. In which section do you keep it?

screamforstarscream.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d59t3q1

here you go ^_^

I am not sure how to feel about this.

hehe

Is it a dick or a vagina
Im so confused

vagina

I am so checking it out.

lol, you'll have to search through my Slenderman rule 34 first xD but that's not really nsfw, just a little romantic

I'm going to tell you straight away, don't EVER ask someone to do something like this for free. If you're looking for professional grade art on your book, you need to pay someone for their work, if not, you're cheating them out of money.

Think of it like this, you're going to be making money for the publishing of a book for every copy sold, while the artist gets nothing. Doesn't seem very fair, does it.

sorry, didn't think of it like that. i wasn't even aware that my book would give me money

what is the book about?

metallic sentient predators defending their territory because their 6 kings weren't supposed to meet before the crowning, but they did and fought big time.
^_^ little bit sci-fi

Wow. I'm sure there will be a FJ-er that makes art in this genre.

well i got the design on how to make it but i suck at detailed drawing. I may have a talent for drawing frontal but my design is seen from the side and i have no feeling for perspective

Show it, I can make some improvements or give some advice.

i didn't really draw it, i got the idea in my head

maybe you want to do the start design (rough sketch) and pass it on to the next person here. Then the result goes to another for some adjustments and another till something special comes out of it.

i've tried sketching it, srsly, i tried so hard but i can't make my 2 kings come out awesomely

Show it, details come later, first need the composition right.

...
gonna try but i'm a hobby artist so aaahh, don't expect much professional stuff lol

That's ok, it will be when it is finished

i made a small rough sketch but it sorta...disappeared O_O i can't find the paper

you better find it, first sketches are normally the best.

it's my second sketch, first one sucked because it was made 4 months ago at the beginning of my book and every month i learn new things about drawing so my 2nd sketch was a little bit improved

you just broke the first rule

First rule of what?

i just lost

mewtwo with his armour on

Give me two sci-fi space fighter craft swerving in between a couple of asteroids with a larger ship in pursuit behind them

Draw Jesus playing the flute beside Master chief.

im not a big halo fan, how about something other then masterchief

Uhh... How about PewDiePie?

im not a big pewdiepie fan either...

What are you a fan of then?

most things... accept for those 2 things and mlp

How about Light from Death note?

nah... i like deathnote but just no...

Okay You choose the person, i just want Jesus playing the flute beside them.

with Pinkie Pie playing her gypsy tambourine.

Do the text by hand, it looks less forced.

Small world, I have my own Anime Idea, what's your about?

A prince that gets banished from his kingdom by his father for being a lazy shit. the prince and a servant that donated his right eye to the boy find their way to a city, where the citizens are rebelling against all authority, so even if the current king dies, the next one would have to put up with a brewing shitstorm. the king dies and the boy steps up to take the throne so that he can exact his revenge upon his father.
What about you?

Very nice idea.

My idea is a world where super-natural activity happens and the government has a secret army called 'Intel' that risks their lives to stop it. (Kinda like Men in Black, only these are monsters, not illegal aliens)

Did you make that cover/drawing?

Yes. Here's proof.

And did you seriously write in japanese on it?...

Yes.

Title say's 'Super-Natural'
below that say's 'The world shall never be the same'

are you japanese?

No, but I do love the culture. The person below me was right when calling me a Weeaboo.

dude, naming something you make in japanese is like the final stage of a weeaboo.

there's a manga called muhyo and roji bureau of supernatural investigation that sounds a bit like that, except this is a government organisation (that an the ominous glowing around some of the hands and eyes)

erh. merh. gerd.

Not sure if good or bad response because of small writing but hey here's a more complete edition

Do something about that physical stature, no human being aside from Michael Jackson can stand like that. Even if it's supposed to be an anime/ manga (whatever, I see those as junk, personally) you still have to obey the rules of human anatomy. Plus his face looks like a lizard or something.

Why is he standing in the pose though

because he can, he's a strong, independent man/boy(?) that don't need no anatomic structure

oh, alright

woah, that's actually pretty cool

Well, it doesen't look like a manga.
I'd call it a comic book.


also you're not from japan, so no manga 4 u

true dat but where's the reasoning in "If you're not japanese you can't draw manga", It's like saying if you're not italian then you can't make pizza

Nope!
You're wrong!
hahahaha
Manga = Comics from Japan
so if you're not from japan you can't draw manga.
You can copy their art-style as much as you want but it will never be a manga (desu)

Manga does not mean comics from japan, manga = a style of comic art that originated from japan

Workin' on it, dude. I do a lot of boring practice work but really I'm just a beginner!
Here have a WIP study thing.
Disregard the annotation, I talk to myself a lot.

I'm weird at it, I'm not a massive fan but I don't want to draw regular sized humans most of the time, truth be told I'm not "Bad" per-say at drawing people, I'd like to sink my time into drawing landscapes and maps and concept art for my game projects, but alas I really can't do it, and have no idea where to start with things like landscapes/etc without drawing like I'm six.

This is a little guy I doodled to make into a 3D model a few weeks ago

Bitch, I studied anatomy for two years, from bones til' muscles, I know the human face structure by heart and attend hour long 3min sketching sessions every week in our Uni.
I don't post my work here, however, because I don't need butt pats from people who know little about art. I can just point out mistakes and give advice that everyone will probably ignore because it's not a generic "good job, just needs more practice!"

pic related - it's a charcoal portrait I did for my studies.

Then you're of the awesome few that I can relate to, thankfully. Fantastic portrait, by the way, I wonder, did that take multiple modeling sessions to complete or was it a rather fast completion?

Two sessions = 6 hours, if I remember correctly.

P.S. I never though I'd meet someone who dislikes anime too.
I think It's an animation student thing =)

Oh god, you dislike anime also!? THIS IS A MAGICAL MOMENT THE LIKES OF WHICH THE INTERNET HAS NOT SEEN YET

I'm gonna get thumbed down, but... I despise it. Most of it. It's a cheap moneymaking mockery of animation. There is barely any movement, the characters are all flat and cliche most of the time, it relies too much on overused plot devices and the only thing I can respect it for is pretty backgrounds.

Also I hate the art style, but that's my personal thing

I feel exactly the same way, anime is a pretty atrocious "art" form. Although I do respect Hayao Miyazaki for his immense talent, everything else is practically crap. I can't stand that you could look at two completely different series with two different teams and lead artists and find that half of the characters look nearly the same or that the themes in the shows are practically the same. There's no variance in it at all.

I find that although Western Animation is usually used to spoof pop-culture and is meant for a younger audience, it's still vastly superior in almost every fashion.

Miyazaki's characters felt alive, they had facial expressions, for Christ's sake! And the stories were quite engaging too. Oh my God, Spirited Away was one of the most original things ever, and no, it's not overrated, it really is great.

Too bad they don't make big-budget animated films that are not CGI. Although, the French still do that once in a while. Have you seen The Illusionist? If you haven't, WATCH IT, it's absolutely amazing.

The Illusionist was absolutely brilliant! It's really a shame that most studios these days prefer to rely almost solely on CGI animation in films and shows. I know it sounds stupid, but I've had a dream for the past several years now that as soon as I can finish college I want to start up an animation studio to bring glory back to traditional animation.

You can't blame them, it's cheaper, faster and easier.

Good luck with that then =) I had the same dream several years ago, but I figured I shouldn't hurry, there are other fields of art I would like to explore and I can't decide between film or gaming industry.

I feel so inferior. However, I wouldn't mind a constructive critique from an experienced person like you.

EXCLUDING PEOPLE WHO ARE LEGITIMATELY GOOD ARTISTS, YOU GUYS ARE GREAT AND I LOVE YOU.

Well, there's no rule that states that the artwork has to actually be "good".
I do hate it when some sloppy fan-art receives more attention than an original work, though.

If we're talking digital art, maguswaffy basically hit the nail on the head. Here's a WIP of Iron Man I'm doing to prove his point. As you can see, all of the actual armor was drawn in its own layer (probably could have done some rougher sketching, but oh well), while the original sketch of the body is sitting at a lighter opacity below it.

If you're talking about pencil and paper, the best you can do is just be careful about pencil pressure... and make sure you're drawing on actual drawing paper, I suppose. Make sure your edges are hard so that light erasing will only take out the guidelines.

But honestly, as long as you have your edges well-defined, I don't think you should worry about how the guts of the sketch itself look. I mean, the idea is that you're going to go over them in ink, so it shouldn't be your main concern, right?

Well, there's a way to do it digitally, using one layer for the sketch and the second one for inking over the sketch. Then removing the sketched layer once you're finished inking. Idk about paper, though, besides the method you mentioned.

hey magus can you heelp me?

Hm?

i once asked for someone to give me a meet 'n' fuck account password did you write it to me?

Yeah, I remember telling you about that. Did you see the comment, or was it deleted before you could find it?

yes too bad but it got deleted it would be very excelent if i could get it now please

http://www.ulmf.org/bbs/showthread.php?t=14171
Look around this thread. If you want to get the most up-to-date version of mnfserver, it's not in the first page. You'll have to search around for it starting from the last page.

I dont have kim jong rights so i cant do it?

There's other places to get it. Just google "mnfserver download" or something like that. I could upload the one I have right now. However, it doesn't have all of the latest games.

They're artists. An artist will see every little flaw in every piece of work, and it'll mean a lot. Trust me, the hardest part about art is knowing when to stop.