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Trying to improve my drawing

Aridane Avalon

Hilarious Lunatic

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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:56 pm

♦ So for my new years resolution I vowed to improve my drawing and not let my lack of self esteem and self worth get in the way of it, which is what I say every year. This time I'm trying to draw for an hour in the morning with a sketchbook and an hour at night with my cheap tablet.

The issue is that while I can draw eyes traditionally fine, it's not translating well digitally. That and I'm using Paint Tool Sai so it's confusing looking at a lot of the tutorials and not realizing how to work it. I'm not going to get discouraged by it like I would in the past. I'm just going to keep trying until I do get it. Or just move on to doing headshots with different eyes, maybe then it'll go better.

Anyone have any tips or anything like that?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:29 pm

I used to draw a lot , and then I tried drawing digitally. It was so hard. I hated drawing eyes, because the second eye always looked so weird.
I had this weird paint thing downloaded and it had a copy and paste thing, so I just used that when I gave up and flipped it horizontally. I uninstalled that thing though, so I don't know what it's called.
But you can try drawing one line of one eye, and one line of the second eye until it matches. I just keep switching between the two eyes with each stroke, but it depends on the angle of the head I guess.
Or maybe try starting with the eye you start on second, like for me, I always start with the right eye for some reason. So I started with the left eye once, and it was easier for me to get the right eye to match the left, but maybe that's just me. Not sure.
Also, you can try just drawing two equal rectangles at where the eyes are supposed to be located, then slowly make the shape.
If it's just because you're not used to drawing on tablets, then I'm not sure what to do. Maybe get those styluses. Like get the better kinds that aren't just a roundish rubber tip.
I'm not that great of an artist, so I don't know if anything I said would have been of any help, but I hope it did. Also, hope you can improve your drawing skills.

pandabear206

Fluffy Bunny

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Madeleine Heilburg

Colorful Sweetheart

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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:03 am

Aridane Avalon

Hello there! Being a professional freelance artist I think I might be able to hand you a few tips here and there biggrin I actually do have an art post here in the forum, so you can have a look at my drawings if you want to?
And yes, I am a digital artist. I haveactually switched from traditional to digital because I find it easier.

Here´s my tip.
Practice, practice, practice!
I know this is one thing one hears a lot when asking "what can I do to get better". But it is the simplest, yet hardest way to get better. A good way to start drawing, and learning how to draw eyes is simply just find various reference photos, paste them into Sai and try to draw them. Study them! Look at their shapes, because eyes come in many different shapes after all. From hooded, almond, round, monolid, up turned, down turned and so on.
Another good thing to do is simply just take a blank canvas in Sai and draw eyes. Loads of them. various types, realistic, semi realistic, cartoony, manga/anime, and just keep going. Draw them expressing various emotions, draw them from different perspectives and views. That is how I normally do things if I need to try and learn to draw things. The best you can do is simply just make study drawings, which is what I referred to.

Just to give an example, here´s two study drawings I made a few years back.

Hands and action lines.

Expressions, but mostly focus on eyes.

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 7:32 pm

I'm not an artist by any means- my artsy skills can be described best as "lumpy potato people" emotion_facepalm The only advice I can give is....well, what other posters have said. Practice and more practice. That's universal advice, for anything from musical instrument to skateboard tricks. mrgreen

And believe in yourself, don't take it too seriously- just do it for fun. That way you don't get all stressed and bummed out. Only compare yourself to...well, yourself. When you're feeling down and like you're not making any progress, go back and look at old, old drawings you did and you'll see how much you've improved. And be proud of your progress! And remember, you can do it!