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More from Tyrnn Eaveranth
Self-Portrait: Fear
Another piece I had fun doing, I had to draw myself in a fearful expression. What could possibly be worse than ending up in a McDonald's job? Would be the worst fate imaginable for me!
Bonus points if you recognize the pose and where I got it from.
Bonus points if you recognize the pose and where I got it from.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Portraits
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 952px
File Size 337.7 kB
Who says you need to sign up for school?
Out of all the smarts I've learned at college, most of it is publicly available via searching the internets, or I could have eventually figured it out myself.
But a big lesson I learned is that you don't need to know HOW to draw (eg, have the smarts) to actually draw. The more practice you get in, the better you get. A lot of top-notch artists can't break it down and tell you all the little ins and outs of how they draw -- they've just been doing it so long, they know how to move their hands to make things look good.
If you're serious about learning art, I can give you a few tips that you can follow for years, or a lifetime, before they tire out, and will speed you along in your learning. They're pretty obvious, but art is an odd thing that seems to impose weird rules on people's psyche, so they don't think of them.
Out of all the smarts I've learned at college, most of it is publicly available via searching the internets, or I could have eventually figured it out myself.
But a big lesson I learned is that you don't need to know HOW to draw (eg, have the smarts) to actually draw. The more practice you get in, the better you get. A lot of top-notch artists can't break it down and tell you all the little ins and outs of how they draw -- they've just been doing it so long, they know how to move their hands to make things look good.
If you're serious about learning art, I can give you a few tips that you can follow for years, or a lifetime, before they tire out, and will speed you along in your learning. They're pretty obvious, but art is an odd thing that seems to impose weird rules on people's psyche, so they don't think of them.
When discussing about art college, the votes are divided. Some say I should sign up, some say I don't need to sign up, but it will help me a lot, others, liek you, say it is a waste of time.
That lesson is also somehting I learned and I started drawing more at the start of this year. I've already made some good progress since then.
I am very bad at teaching myself stuff, so if you can point me in the right direction I will go. I don't even need to be pushed as I have the dedication to do something with my art.
I thank you for your time, your opinion and your offer. ^^
That lesson is also somehting I learned and I started drawing more at the start of this year. I've already made some good progress since then.
I am very bad at teaching myself stuff, so if you can point me in the right direction I will go. I don't even need to be pushed as I have the dedication to do something with my art.
I thank you for your time, your opinion and your offer. ^^
I may have given the wrong impression. Art college is certainly not a waste of time. But while it's not "necessary," I don't believe it can be argued that it DOES, in fact, help. An art college, even if it was a poor one, would most certainly help. It puts you in a supportive, encouraging environment, it teaches you things so you can save the time and trouble of researching it and finding it out for yourself, and it gives you a piece of paper that, for better or worse, people take to mean something.
My argument, which seems to have been poorly portrayed, was that it's not necessary to attend an art college to become good at art. Yes it helps things move along faster. If you applied the same level of dedication to learning art while attending as not attending, your level of skill would increase faster while attending school. My primary concern was if you were unable to fund art college (because it can be very expensive) you shouldn't be discouraged from learning art.
Anyway, some tips! I'm sure if Tyrnn is paying attention he can confirm these, or give others.
1) Use reference.
Were do I even start explaining this. If you draw something from observation, you will always draw it better than from memory or from imagination. If you're trying to draw a train, you'll draw it better if you're in a train yard looking at one. If you've done it recently, or a few times, then trying to draw from memory will be better than having never really seen one, felt it, or walked around it before. Especially not if you haven't tried drawing one from observation before -- drawing something while seeing it ingrains details in your mind in a way just looking at it doesn't.
Photographs are not as good as seeing the thing in real life. But they're better than nothing.
Of course, there's a number of ways to use reference. Lemme list the basic ones as they come to mind.
-Studies. This is basically drawing exactly what you see. Generally you don't create these to show other people, though if something turns out pretty awesome you may want to. These are used to learn the shape, form, texture, or whatever. Wanna draw tigers better? Visit the zoo and draw tigers. Or get pictures and check them out. Draw their stripes, draw their face, draw their teeth, draw their paws -- you'll end up with a bunch of garbage sketches that are primarily helping you to learn. It's like practicing a speech before you give it. It's also possible to use someone else's drawing as a study. But you gotta be careful with copyright on that. Copying the old school masters like Leonardo and whatnot is one thing. But if you decide to do a study of an existing artist by copying their works, just file the images away afterwards and don't show them off. I'm not talking tracing, either. I'm talking studying -- figuring out what lines overlap and intersect, how they did their shading, why the colors looks the way they do, and duplicate it freehand.
-Sectional. This is mix and match, use when needed, custom made reference. If you're making a car, and you want a specific kind of hubcap, go find it, take a picture of it at the correct angle for use in the image, and then reference it into the image. Need to know how a city building looks? Go out and take some pictures from the angle you need. Can't get the lighting right on a figure? Set up a light and have a friend pose for you. Need to get that alligator texture right? Go get a good alligator skin sample and draw it based on that.
2) Make lots of art, not Art. (note the case. lulz, I'm clever.)
Like I mentioned in the studies bit above, not everything you create is going to be shown to the public. Some of your practices and studies may even get you in legal trouble if you do -- but they're perfectly fine to do as practice. Draw a ton of stuff with the purpose of learning, so when you do draw a nice finished piece you'll be even better. If you're going to spend hours making a piece look good, start by doing hours of dozens and dozens of studies to practice and learn and get ready to draw it. Quality is important when dealing with practice, but quantity of practice can almost never be exceeded, regardless of quality.
3) Learn.
Down at a distant third, reading up on how other people have solved situations is a good way to learn. Be careful with the drawing books you buy. The ones that tell you to draw circles and connect them have some sense to them -- but they don't actually explain the theory behind it. Unless you can figure out for yourself that dividing the body into geometric shapes based on soft/hard or movable/solid pieces, simplifying the shape, and other such things is what they're going for, then it really doesn't do you a whole lot of good.
I recommend this book to start with:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-R.....dp/0874774195/
I can name dozens of others that I've found invaluable, but they're all downstairs -- and that book is enough to keep you busy for a month solid, at least.
Best of luck. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. :)
My argument, which seems to have been poorly portrayed, was that it's not necessary to attend an art college to become good at art. Yes it helps things move along faster. If you applied the same level of dedication to learning art while attending as not attending, your level of skill would increase faster while attending school. My primary concern was if you were unable to fund art college (because it can be very expensive) you shouldn't be discouraged from learning art.
Anyway, some tips! I'm sure if Tyrnn is paying attention he can confirm these, or give others.
1) Use reference.
Were do I even start explaining this. If you draw something from observation, you will always draw it better than from memory or from imagination. If you're trying to draw a train, you'll draw it better if you're in a train yard looking at one. If you've done it recently, or a few times, then trying to draw from memory will be better than having never really seen one, felt it, or walked around it before. Especially not if you haven't tried drawing one from observation before -- drawing something while seeing it ingrains details in your mind in a way just looking at it doesn't.
Photographs are not as good as seeing the thing in real life. But they're better than nothing.
Of course, there's a number of ways to use reference. Lemme list the basic ones as they come to mind.
-Studies. This is basically drawing exactly what you see. Generally you don't create these to show other people, though if something turns out pretty awesome you may want to. These are used to learn the shape, form, texture, or whatever. Wanna draw tigers better? Visit the zoo and draw tigers. Or get pictures and check them out. Draw their stripes, draw their face, draw their teeth, draw their paws -- you'll end up with a bunch of garbage sketches that are primarily helping you to learn. It's like practicing a speech before you give it. It's also possible to use someone else's drawing as a study. But you gotta be careful with copyright on that. Copying the old school masters like Leonardo and whatnot is one thing. But if you decide to do a study of an existing artist by copying their works, just file the images away afterwards and don't show them off. I'm not talking tracing, either. I'm talking studying -- figuring out what lines overlap and intersect, how they did their shading, why the colors looks the way they do, and duplicate it freehand.
-Sectional. This is mix and match, use when needed, custom made reference. If you're making a car, and you want a specific kind of hubcap, go find it, take a picture of it at the correct angle for use in the image, and then reference it into the image. Need to know how a city building looks? Go out and take some pictures from the angle you need. Can't get the lighting right on a figure? Set up a light and have a friend pose for you. Need to get that alligator texture right? Go get a good alligator skin sample and draw it based on that.
2) Make lots of art, not Art. (note the case. lulz, I'm clever.)
Like I mentioned in the studies bit above, not everything you create is going to be shown to the public. Some of your practices and studies may even get you in legal trouble if you do -- but they're perfectly fine to do as practice. Draw a ton of stuff with the purpose of learning, so when you do draw a nice finished piece you'll be even better. If you're going to spend hours making a piece look good, start by doing hours of dozens and dozens of studies to practice and learn and get ready to draw it. Quality is important when dealing with practice, but quantity of practice can almost never be exceeded, regardless of quality.
3) Learn.
Down at a distant third, reading up on how other people have solved situations is a good way to learn. Be careful with the drawing books you buy. The ones that tell you to draw circles and connect them have some sense to them -- but they don't actually explain the theory behind it. Unless you can figure out for yourself that dividing the body into geometric shapes based on soft/hard or movable/solid pieces, simplifying the shape, and other such things is what they're going for, then it really doesn't do you a whole lot of good.
I recommend this book to start with:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-R.....dp/0874774195/
I can name dozens of others that I've found invaluable, but they're all downstairs -- and that book is enough to keep you busy for a month solid, at least.
Best of luck. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. :)
Sheesh, way to hijack my comments section, Stick. I think I'm gonna have to get my revenge by taking you back to Borders and forcing you to buy another dozen books! Muahaha!
Though in all seriousness, Stick and I go to the same school, and he knows his stuff even better than I do right now. I really couldn't put it any clearer. If you have time and money, go to school. If you don't, draw in your free time by observation, by study, and by rote practice.
Though in all seriousness, Stick and I go to the same school, and he knows his stuff even better than I do right now. I really couldn't put it any clearer. If you have time and money, go to school. If you don't, draw in your free time by observation, by study, and by rote practice.
Ah, thank you very much.
I'm still pondering on wether or not to take art classes. But that mostly comes down to being uncertain about what to do with my life as a whole. There are a few choices right now and none of them seem solid. But let's not talk about that, whatever I am going to do, I'm going to keep drawing.
The first tip I am aware of, and I keep telling other people them as well. I try to use reference whenever I can. ^^
The second tip actually never crossed my mind, but now that you say it, it makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to take a saturday off sometime to go downtown and just draw stuff. Cars, buildings. people, everything.
I'm not really fond of reading. And I hate buying stuff over the internet as well. Is the book really to big a help to ignore or can I ignore it?
I thank you for these tips. I'm completely busy for a week, but I can start to draw again after that. However, I got so many things to draw and so little time to draw it...
Again, thank you! ^^
I'm still pondering on wether or not to take art classes. But that mostly comes down to being uncertain about what to do with my life as a whole. There are a few choices right now and none of them seem solid. But let's not talk about that, whatever I am going to do, I'm going to keep drawing.
The first tip I am aware of, and I keep telling other people them as well. I try to use reference whenever I can. ^^
The second tip actually never crossed my mind, but now that you say it, it makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to take a saturday off sometime to go downtown and just draw stuff. Cars, buildings. people, everything.
I'm not really fond of reading. And I hate buying stuff over the internet as well. Is the book really to big a help to ignore or can I ignore it?
I thank you for these tips. I'm completely busy for a week, but I can start to draw again after that. However, I got so many things to draw and so little time to draw it...
Again, thank you! ^^
Your local bookstore should have that book. No reason to buy it over the internet. Every bookstore I've gone to always has five or six copies of it -- more than twice as many as any other art book they carry. As for whether it's worth reading... well, the amount of copies the bookstores keep in stock may say something as to the value of it. It's one of those life changing books that makes you realize you've been looking at everything the wrong way.
I am glad you use reference! It's a really touchy subject for some people, but I haven't met a professional who hasn't specifically recommended it as a key point.
If you don't like reading, a good way to learn is to study other people's artwork.
For example, Ivybeth has fantastic colors. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1180035/ Want to learn how she does it? Easy, just look at it! All the secrets are right there in plain sight. Contrast: lights against dark to separate forms. Look at how the wings look like they're behind him as they pop out behind his shoulders. Varied texture -- most of him is smooth, but she took a special brush with some noise and gave it some life in the shadows and edges. The big thing that makes her stuff look great and gives her distinct style is how she handles lighting: a main, softer light source, colored crest shadows, and a bright and hard secondary "rim" light opposite the primary light. It's entirely possible to take those principles and apply them using your own artwork and end up with something that looks like a totally different style from her, but retains the awesome she puts into her pictures.
On a random note, I'm particularly fond of the ink and color method used in the new webcomic Phoenix Requiem. http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/viewc.....c.php?page=370 The style is somewhat similar to can be found in Lostyboy's wererat picture: http://lostyboy.deviantart.com/art/.....itty-105303003 Nice, hard edges where the surface changes enough and on the outline of the figure, and then smoothly defined interiors. Just a little person taste I have.
Taking all the styles and tricks you like, and pulling them out of your toolchest when you want a certain look is a wonderful way to do things.
Have fun. :D
I am glad you use reference! It's a really touchy subject for some people, but I haven't met a professional who hasn't specifically recommended it as a key point.
If you don't like reading, a good way to learn is to study other people's artwork.
For example, Ivybeth has fantastic colors. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1180035/ Want to learn how she does it? Easy, just look at it! All the secrets are right there in plain sight. Contrast: lights against dark to separate forms. Look at how the wings look like they're behind him as they pop out behind his shoulders. Varied texture -- most of him is smooth, but she took a special brush with some noise and gave it some life in the shadows and edges. The big thing that makes her stuff look great and gives her distinct style is how she handles lighting: a main, softer light source, colored crest shadows, and a bright and hard secondary "rim" light opposite the primary light. It's entirely possible to take those principles and apply them using your own artwork and end up with something that looks like a totally different style from her, but retains the awesome she puts into her pictures.
On a random note, I'm particularly fond of the ink and color method used in the new webcomic Phoenix Requiem. http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/viewc.....c.php?page=370 The style is somewhat similar to can be found in Lostyboy's wererat picture: http://lostyboy.deviantart.com/art/.....itty-105303003 Nice, hard edges where the surface changes enough and on the outline of the figure, and then smoothly defined interiors. Just a little person taste I have.
Taking all the styles and tricks you like, and pulling them out of your toolchest when you want a certain look is a wonderful way to do things.
Have fun. :D
I'll keep an eye out for the book, then. ^^
I think Ivybeth's work is something I 'could' reproduce.
I've been studying
thorndraco's art, and I was thinking of trying a few things out that I have spotted.
I will always have fun when I'm drawing... ^^
I think Ivybeth's work is something I 'could' reproduce.
I've been studying
thorndraco's art, and I was thinking of trying a few things out that I have spotted.I will always have fun when I'm drawing... ^^
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