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@thewirelessblade @taylorclogston

I’m pursuing getting an art(well, animation, but that’s still art) degree currently, and I’ve been drawing since I was, well, very small… and the best piece of advice I can give you is honestly just to practice. Over and over and over. No matter what you’re drawing, no matter what style you like, no matter what medium–just draw. I can draw realistic pencil drawings and traditional oil landscapes–but I can also do anime/manga styles, cartoons, graphic design, abstract, watercolor… the way to becoming good at drawing is to draw. Sure, reading books helps, watching videos helps–but the only way you’re ever going to figure out how to shade that one spot or how to create highlights correctly is to try. Keep drawing things over and over, until they look right. It doesn’t have to be the same thing(I’m not telling you to draw hands over and over and over again in the same poses in the same medium), but just sit down with a pencil/pen/paints and draw whatever you like. Landscapes, portraits, abstract–and draw it until you like it.

That being said, I recommend keeping a sketchbook. Strathmore multimedia sketchbooks are wonderful for drawing in all sorts of mediums–I’ve used them with watercolors, acrylics, colored pencil, markers… anything you can think of. I definitely recommend getting one to start off with.

Also, learn how to draw basic shapes like those shown above–spheres, triangles, etc. Everything you draw is based off of these shapes. Again, this doesn’t mean to need to fill a sketchbook with squares and circles, but perhaps, one day you try to draw a 3D building, and the next you draw Baymax from Big Hero 6. One is based off a rectangle/square, the second off of spheres/ovals. Drawing a variety of things like this will greatly improve your art, and also your range of art technique. Because if you can draw Baymax and buildings, you will also eventually be able to draw dynamic poses involving lots of movement because you know your basics. The basics are everything in art.

Lastly–references. If anyone ever tells you references are cheating–they are absolutely wrong. You can’t learn to draw something well if you don’t know what it looks like correctly. So use all the references you want. I like to find some nice poses and perspective references and then print them out and pin them up above my desk so I can always look at them if I need them. Also, references are great for learning movement. There’s lots of loose, fluid poses that you can copy to learn how to draw running, or jumping–or any movement you can think of, really.

So… yeah. Art is something that can only be learned over time and practice, but if you keep at it, you’ll become really good at it. And the great thing about art is that there’s always something new to try, something new to learn, or something to improve on. You’ll never be perfect with everything–but if you keep trying, you can become really good at about anything.

I hope this helped! Let me know if you have any questions about anything–technique, art supplies, etc. 😉