Hello everyone! I’m going to learn how to draw and decided to make a thread in order to share my progress and learn. I have my tablet and procreate ready to learn so feel free to share advices and tutorials!!!
Honestly I'm not a digital artist so I don't know how to help you there, but my biggest advice?
Use REFERENCES. No joke, just use them for everything you draw. Save pinterest boards or photos full off references for whatever you might think will come in handy. I can't begin to describe how useful that has been for me.
One other thing. Ig this is probably more of a traditional art thing but practice drawing lots of shapes, lines, and even sketches without erasing. This has made me more confident in my art skills and its really fun to just sketch sometimes, makes good practice. It also helps you get better at drawing straight lines and free handing shapes.
I'd like to add more about references. When I was practicing drawing hands and asked for advice, Mistreil (the meme queen) suggested I take photos, turn down the opacity, then trace over it! This is so I could get a better understanding of the shapes of the hands and know where the lines are. After that, I use the traced drawing as a reference and try to draw on my own. It has helped me quite a bit and I'm using this technique as well when I'm drawing cars.
My point is if there's anything you're not used to drawing, tracing over the reference helps you get a better observation of how that object is composed, if there's perspective involved, etc. I hope this helps!
Mistreil has given a detailed answer on another thread https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/art-book-recommendations.593030/post-10013554
I don't know whether you are just starting out or what but I'd say the most important thing is have a solid foundation. "fundamentals of art" is something you can easily google (and i'm sure they teach it in school?)
And to add to this, knowing your medium is pretty important. Like, get to know procreate, get familiar with the tools it offers.
This isn't advice on how to get better at drawing, more advice on how to improve faster - after drawing, spend some time evaluating your piece and identify what's not good enough and focus on just one thing to work on the next time, don't try to do too much at once, it'll slow down the process and you might get frustrated.
These are just general advice, if you have specific things you have questions on I can get more in depth about it. you can ping or PM me if you're looking for hard critique >.>
-first thing I noticed is the really clustered lines. This is probably due to the brush you used is really fine! turning up the thickness will give your lettering more visibility and minimize the feathered lines around the eye (unless you were going for a look, then nvm)
-you used a textured brush for the BG, that's great! using different brushes is an easy way to mix up the appearance of a drawing and give something texture
-don't be afraid to use the undo button (or erase). you went over "free" with something (another pen?) and it's kinda hard to read haha. Because you have chosen to use a digital medium, you don't need to worry about mistakes as much as if you were on traditional mediums. you can undo the sh-t out of everything. I would like to mention that with most programs, the "history" is lost once you exit the canvas. so with procreate if you go into gallery, you won't be able to undo anymore.
I am definitely following this for tips! Honestly I am no artist (sorry Dunq it’s true ) but digital art is very forgiving. I am just practicing all the time and at least now my drawings are recognisable.
My first attempt at digital was for the Blue’s Clues flag It was awful and I have deleted so can’t even post to show you how bad my first attempt was. Although I still can’t do anything hand written so I think you are better than you think
I have two tips!
One: don’t draw too slowly. What I mean by that: if you want to outline something and you drag your stylus veeery slowly it’s very hard to control the line and it will probably end up wobbly. Quick strokes, like a flick of your wrist, make the lines a lot smoother and more dynamic looking! It requires practice - but ultimately made me a lot more confident in my lineart.
And two: Something that sounds like a small thing but has a big impact:
flip your canvas!!!
I keep flipping/mirroring my image to make sure it looks “right” from both sides. It makes all the difference! Sometimes I’m completely oblivious to how weird my proportions are until I flip the image.
I’ll also follow this thread - there’s so much I still need to learn
This is really good! Especially for a flat style look, the proportions are spot on, and you used different brushes and different sizes! Although subtle, I noticed your shading stokes are kind of all over the place, making it a bit confusing on where the light is coming from. I'd suggest looking up how light and shadow behave on different shapes to get a better understanding of where you should place darker and lighter colours, it'll help make a drawing appear more consistent as well.
Also I really dig the speckles in the the hair! idk if it's just the brush you used but the different opacity make it look like glitter >.<
For procreate brushes: I don't really have any specific recommendations for you because I generally use whatever I feel is appropriate. So I'd just say experiment and see what you enjoy using/what you think will give you the look you're trying to achieve.
It's beneficial to understand how the brushes behave irl but for now, off the top of my head: for more blend-y, smooth transitional colouring - "wet paint" brushes, watercolour or airbrush ones are good. And on the other hand for solid, very pigmented colouring - go with "dry paint" brushes, charcoals, something in the drawing, or inking section.
But yeah, just experiment.
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Hello everyone! I’m going to learn how to draw and decided to make a thread in order to share my progress and learn. I have my tablet and procreate ready to learn so feel free to share advices and tutorials!!!
Good luck! I was really, really terrible at drawing. Then I got some tips from a book (don't exactly remember title, but had to do with using right side brain). But the best tips I got from it were to
- draw/ "see" just the negative spaces
- flip the image you are drawing upside down
- practice "seeing" the way things are lit or shaded and how it affects colors, practice shading
- practice perspectives using guides
I found the book - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The negative space practice was I think what helped me the most. Now I'm not really, really terrible at drawing. Now I've achieved the "meh" stage, which I'm really proud of because hey, it took a lot of work to get there, lol!
Sketch + Layers.
I don't have much digital drawing experience, but based on what I have seen, most artists sketch first (pretty much just guides and outlines/lining) and than lower the opacity, and then start on a new layer. On this layer, they start neater lines to get a better picture of what they're drawing. Sometimes they doing this a second time or as many times needed to finalize it.
Sketch + Layers.
I don't have much digital drawing experience, but based on what I have seen, most artists sketch first (pretty much just guides and outlines/lining) and than lower the opacity, and then start on a new layer. On this layer, they start neater lines to get a better picture of what they're drawing. Sometimes they doing this a second time or as many times needed to finalize it.
Good luck! I was really, really terrible at drawing. Then I got some tips from a book (don't exactly remember title, but had to do with using right side brain). But the best tips I got from it were to
- draw/ "see" just the negative spaces
- flip the image you are drawing upside down
- practice "seeing" the way things are lit or shaded and how it affects colors, practice shading
- practice perspectives using guides
I found the book - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The negative space practice was I think what helped me the most. Now I'm not really, really terrible at drawing. Now I've achieved the "meh" stage, which I'm really proud of because hey, it took a lot of work to get there, lol!
When I first started (only several months ago), I just picked the brush that was the easiest to use (also gave the cleanest lines), which I guess is the solid brush that tapers with pressure sensitivity.
I really like brush you used with the blue hearts. I think that would look really cute at a smaller size to line art with.
I find the solid brushes and the pencil brushes the easiest to use, because you don't have to worry about the opacity of the brush, and layering different lines over the top of each other (like the watercolour brushes).
I don't have anything particularly helpful to add, but keep up the good work!
I think you have the potential to make some very good/interesting art, so here’s my advice:
1. watch videos or look at tutorials that help explain how procreate works if you haven’t already. Start with the basics/ beginners guide. It’s an easy app to navigate you just need to know what does what because it can be a bit overwhelming at first. I’ve had the app for a year now and I’m still learning what the certain features are for/do.
2.You’ll practice drawing shapes until they become muscle memory, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start drawing now instead of just draw shapes until you forget why drawing is fun so just start drawing what inspires and you’ll improve the more you draw.
3. one of the features on procreate are I really appreciate is the press and hold feature. You draw the shape and before you lift up your finger you can press and hold and edit the shape. This is very useful for moving it around or adjusting the shape how you need it.
4. learn how you can use shapes to construct your art. If you draw something you like; study what shapes that character has within it, this will allow you to draw it again, draw it at different angles, and make improvements to your concept. You can create your own reference while using a reference. My examples are below. Like others have said lower the opacity and draw over it in a new layer once you lay down the ground work. Use lines to help direct you to how the body/shoulders/hips will be positioned. Think of the line down the middle like a spine.
5. Although you don’t really need a fancy brush to make good art and procreate has some good ones already. I’ve only just started looking for different brushes online, but I regret not doing it sooner because there’s some good ones for free online.
6. you can edit existing brushes to do the functions you want and it gives you a practice pad to see if you like the adjustments if you like what you did you can duplicate the brush and name it. That way you don’t have to mess with it later because it’s already set for the thing you want it for. The original brush can be set back to its original settings so don’t feel like you’re messing anything up by experimenting. I’ll try and share a brush I edited below if you’d like to use it. It’s one of the calligraphy brushes that I edited I like the tapered end but you need to flick it towards the end a little to get the tapered part. I also have the stabilization set to about 50% it gives it a bit more flow so your final line art comes out a bit cleaner.
7. my final advice that I wish I knew sooner (maybe I’m just an idiot for not knowing this sooner, but that’s ok I suppose) Is to make your art bigger. It’s easier to adjust to make it smaller without loosing quality than to have to make it big later. I use the canvas that’s just fit to screen and you can set the dpi by going into crop/edit canvas. I like to set it to 300 not really necessary if you don’t plan to print your art, but It just looks better to me. Also when sharing your art using png gives you the best quality as far as I’m aware.
anyway, I hope any of my ramblings was at all helpful.
) but digital art is very forgiving. I am just practicing all the time and at least now my drawings are recognisable.
It was awful and I have deleted so can’t even post to show you how bad my first attempt was. Although I still can’t do anything hand written so I think you are better than you think 
Although subtle, I noticed your shading stokes are kind of all over the place, making it a bit confusing on where the light is coming from. I'd suggest looking up how light and shadow behave on different shapes to get a better understanding of where you should place darker and lighter colours, it'll help make a drawing appear more consistent as well.
