First off, that's so thoughtful!

I'm no expert by any means. I am very much a beginner with not much to show for it, but I got into watercolor in a roundabout way through calligraphy and hand lettering. Now, despite only putting in some months experience, I have poured hours into finding a nice starter set for myself, so hopefully I can shortcut some of this for you.

I respectfully disagree with the other commenters. As convenient as national chain hobby shops are, they are pricey for that convenience, and I rarely find people who know a lot about one thing versus a little about a lot of things. The only exception I've found to this near me is Jerry's Artarama, but that might be different where you are. If I'm in a pinch and I can't wait the two days for shipping, I will only go into a Michaels or Hobby Lobby if I am armed with one of their 40-50% coupons. Even then, 9 times out of 10 it is more expensive than ordering via Amazon for the materials I am looking for. Additionally, since they can only carry so much inventory, I only find (1) the most basic (cheap in price and quality) items or (2) very famous names.

Watercolors can seem very expensive if you're measuring price per mL, but remember that high quality pigments are meant to be diluted with water, and a little bit goes a very long way. Watercolors are also meant to be mixed! Your SO will want to learn about color theory as she goes (tons of great youtube classes on this too), so that also means to start she doesn't need a massive set. So long as she has most of the primaries she will start coming up with all the colors she needs for her project. Additionally, as she gets more into it, she might find that while she likes her set from X brand, she likes the burnt sienna from Y brand, and the french ultramarine from Z brand. Getting tube colors + an empty watercolor tin will give her a strong base to start painting right away but the flexibility to add her own colors piece by piece as she plans more projects and paintings. Also, when tube paints dry in the tin (you can rewet them/reuse them later), they become portable, giving the same convenience of pan sets.

This was my starter set from [calligraphy] (https://www.amazon.com/Kuretake-Picture-Letter-MC20-36V/dp/B001MPA6W4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511058329&sr=8-1&keywords=kuretake+gansai+tambi+watercolors). I love the pigments, but in retrospect I could've gotten by with WAY LESS colors. In retrospect, I should've gotten something like this with a tin. Remember, the tin doubles as a mixing palette. Daniel Smith is a very popular American brand, but surely not the end all be all. Windsor & Newton, English brand, is also popular, and they have a fairly good "student" grade line called Windsor & Newton Cotman where you can save some money but not skimp out on too much quality.

Watercolor is almost exclusively done on paper. Now, since water and paper generally don't mix, you'll be concerned with the "pounds" of the paper. For everyday practice, many watercolorists are comfortable with 140 lbs spiral bound pads of cold press (meaning it's a bit rough in texture, not smooth). I like spiral bound because you can flip through and work on a few different concurrent projects (for the love of god, make sure they're completely dry first though q.q). These will buckle and warp with very heavy water application. Final projects, or anything meant for professional scanning and printing or super heavy wet work, you will probably be buying 200 lbs+ paper as needed. These can be bought in blocks/pads or as single sheets. As the pounds go up, so does the price.

Brushes! These can also get very pricey, but as with the pigments, there may be some sense in it. Higher end brushes are affixed with either natural or synthetic (or a mix) of hairs that (1) hold more water than cheap brushes and (2) keep the hairs from falling out into your paints or painting. I personally use Windsor and Newton brushes, but I don't have a lot of different types yet, and that seems to be fine to learn on. A round brush goes a long way, as you learn to put down a lot of color or very fine lines depending on how much pressure you put on the paper. As a starter set you might get two round brushes in two sizes like a 4 and a 12.

Finally, while there are lots of artists in Art Fundamentals, I might post this specifically in /r/learnart or /r/watercolor for more insight. Most of us here are working on constructional drawing with pen and paper, not necessarily painting.

Get the 40% or more off coupon code at Michaels, you can use your phone. See if you can get 40% off all, instead of just one item. Otherwise bring a friend and use it on the expensive items.

• 15$ to 30$ - Paints like Winsor & Newton or Reeves or Prima I would avoid Artist Loft's paint as I have no experiance but other Michaels stuff is hit or miss. I think cakes is easiest to start with.
  
• 2$ - Palette or something to mix on. Dollar Store is probably good enough, otherwise like 5$.
  
• 20$ Paper - Canson or Strathmore make good tear off sheets. Make sure it says watercolour. A pad of paper is easier to start with then a bound sketchbook. These are usually on a buy two get one free type sale.
  
• 15$ - A brush set or Waterbrush if she travels with it (if you get this get it on amazon its overpriced in store) aim for something soft and labelled student or professioinal. Basically not Crayola.
  
• EDIT a WATERPROOF Sharpie.
  
  Depending on sales you can probably get everything for 50$. You might be able to get under 40$ but it'll be damn hard. The drawing pencils and kneaded erasers are cheapest at an art store where they will be sold loose for a few dollars, however with Christmas coming up also keep an eye out for sketching sets as they will use a like 5.99$ one to get all the art students back in stores and tempt them with other things

The first tablet I ever had was a Wacom Bamboo that I got for $70 with a student discount, and it was always pretty reliable. I haven't had one in a while, but Wacom still sells cheap tablets for people who want to start out with digital. Looks like the Intuos is their new cheap tablet and it comes with free downloads of art software. It's $100 on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Small-Bluetooth-CTL4100WLK0/dp/B079J2FSQ7
Again, I haven't used one of these in a while since I got a Cintiq, but Wacom is usually considered to have the best tablets.

There are a couple different ways for people who struggle with thinking of drawing prompts. I am one of those people as well so don't worry! I am in the same boat!

​

Anyways, the first would be simply to get a drawing prompt book such as:

Piccadilly Sketchbook, 500 Drawing Prompts Notebook

​

Another one would be to simply use a random word generator! You can find them pretty much everywhere if you just look it up and they give tons of great prompts such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Simply if the word is not an object, base it around what it is. Like if it is "Sad", well, draw a very sad scene. Maybe get a verb and a noun and make something out of that. There are literally endless possibilities!

​

Hope this helps you out as I struggle with coming up with ideas as well! Good Luck!

​

*Edit* A word.

I spent most of the day yesterday doing this exercises, so maybe like 6 or 7 hours... I didn't use any other resources, there's a great book that I have, and I have read in the past about animal constructions:

I'm using Uncomfortable's aproach on the exercises, but there are some great constructions there. One difference is that the guy from that book masses the whole shoulder area together.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Animal-Drawing-Construction-Action-Analysis-Caricature-Instruction/0486274268

In some time I plan on giving that book a re-read.

Thanks for the suggestion. I poked around on Amazon a little and found these for basic reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-Premier-Illustration-Markers-Assorted/dp/B0026HZ4BK

https://www.amazon.com/Copic-Multiliner-Black-Ink-Marker/dp/B002UCYCBE/ref=pd_sim_201_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B002UCYCBE&pd_rd_r=APY9S9XG2Z4F9J6D2TX8&pd_rd_w=Yzhmc&pd_rd_wg=HOwnY&psc=1&refRID=APY9S9XG2Z4F9J6D2TX8

Simply put, since I don't understand sometimes the jargon between pen, marker, etc... would you say both these products would fulfill the general requirements here on this subreddit about the type of felt tip pens to be used? Thanks.

Fun character, I'd say it's a good starting point!

My suggestion is to draw the character a few more times in different poses and scenes. For character design it's useful to put them through several iterations.

For some tips on drawing figures and improving your skill, check out Proko on YouTube.

I also found this book to be a fantastic first entry point for me into figure drawing. I've modified the approach to a way that suits my style, but it's upped my game a lot.

"Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators" https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385346239/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PqzZCb8P77XNX

Look in your local library for a book titled: "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards.

You don't have to read the whole thing at first, just try doing some of the first few exercises. If you feel like you can work that way, it's a good way to go.

You don't need the workbook and materials kit. just the book and your own pencil and paper. The older editions are just as good to start with as the newer ones.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774241/

Few links for you

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Color-Light-Realist-Painter-Gurney/dp/0740797719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525359997&sr=8-1&keywords=light+and+color+book

Moderndayjames https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8GDFj5BQCQrSHITFebzkA

Marco Bucci https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcCJ2CU-bFw&list=PLLmXZMqb_9sbNLM83NrM005vRQHw1yTKn

Found all of the above useful :)

I committed to a 365 creative challenge to do this. There are places onine that will give you a prompt or you can get Noah Scalin's book and just do drawings.

On Instagram #100dayproject kicks off today/tomorrow (depending on where you are in the world)

You can grab an ArtBuddy over at /r/ArtBuddy

I set up an Beeminder account that will deduct $5 from my credit card if I do not post my daily art to a site because I was really serious about doing this - and yeah up to day 286 and no deductions yet ;)

It was something i had trouble with as well. However, if you keep doing it repeatedly, you get used to it.

i highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Pen-Ink-Comikers/dp/1569709173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536128314&sr=8-1&keywords=pen+and+ink+manga


I did some of the exercises in it and it actually makes drawing straight lines with these lessons very easy for me. The first lessons have you drawing straight lines over and over again. Apparently when manga students in Japan learn to draw some of them draw thousands of straight lines. One student does at least 100 a day.

If you can just keep doing it and pushing through and going back to strengthen your weaknesses when you need to, things get easier over time. i don't know about other artists, but art just seems impossible to me until i start doing it.

You can practice curves or arcs in the same way you practice straight lines. Make lots of them! You goal should be to make fluid, confident strokes from your shoulder. Lots of books go over this including this one from Scott Robertson or this one from Andrew Loomis. Also check out this From Foundation Patreon.

Drawing is about technical skill as much as it is about learning how to observe. I can't teach you how to draw, cuz I just don't have the time. However I can recommend a book that really helped me out! It's called Drawing From Observation by Brian Curtis. It's gotten way more expensive than when I bought it so I recommend looking for a better price, maybe buy it used if you can.

drawing from observation

I recommend getting Steve Huston book on figure drawing. It helps me a lot in my beginning year. https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Artists-Making-Every/dp/1631590650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535985514&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3ASteve+Huston

Start with this botany coloring book to learn the parts of a plant. Knowing the anatomy of a plant and flowers will help immensely. Forcing yourself to color them in detail may help you with your patience with studying and drawing the details.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud can easily be applied to what you're talking about.

Seriously buy this book ($14 on amazon right now)- such good info storytelling/design in "panels" and in general

I would strongly agree with that; IME the longer you go at a continuous stretch making the same kind of effort, the more you suffer diminishing returns -- work harder, make more mistakes, while learning less.

The program of study I'm currently 180+ of 450 hours into, only schedules any >1h block on a single exercise in a single day, in schedule 11, "Long Study of Drapery"; Every other schedule (there are 25 schedules) balances 30 minute, 15 minute, and 1 hour studies within a day, splitting any sustained (>1h) study over multiple days. I have found this pretty effective.

I would also say that different types of study have different 'sweet spots' in terms of time, that more or less match their 'speed' (eg. it is natural to do gestures quickly and vigorously, and natural to build models gradually and carefully. If you do the converse, you tend to lose much of what is good about the exercise.)

Sharpie - Fine Point Pen (less than $5 for 2 pens)

i'm 16! and i can see why your friends think like that; so did i when i started drawing. and i regret it hugely. i wish i learned the basics from the very beginning. that's why i'm using drawabox now.

i started drawing when i was in 5th grade, so 10-11. i learned from a how to draw manga book (this one) my little sister had borrowed from the library. it has got to be one of the worst ways to start drawing. if i could go back in time i'd go with drawabox or find an art teacher.

as a kid i wasn't aware of flaws in my drawings. like your friends, i just drew what interested me and learned only what i needed to accomplish that. i also avoided anything difficult, so i have pages and pages of headshots, all facing forward or 3/4s view with mild expressions. i was impatient. i started drawing digitally at 11, using deviantart's muro on an ipad with my fingers or on my mom's computer with a mouse. a year or two later, i pirated paint tool sai and bought a drawing tablet. so i was able to move on to digital art without even understanding how to draw traditionally. oh, and i drew entirely from my wrist.

as a result, i can give you half-decent anime style portraits all day. but i'm lost when it comes to anything else. backgrounds, anything below the shoulders, animals, objects, plants, ears, hands, expressions, perspective, poses, characters interacting, different angles, lineart, etc. i have no foundation to stand on.

it's extremely frustrating and limiting.

i know a lot of people are tempted to start drawing stylistically, especially if that's their end goal. i get that. the anime art style just appealed to me, as it does to most little girls. it's still my preferred style, actually. i love how expressive and pretty it can be. but i would much rather have started out drawing from observation then developed a style.

sometimes people my age tell me, "i wish i could draw like you" or "i could never draw like you" and i always tell them about how much time i wasted dicking around and how little i actually know. then i tell them if they avoided my mistakes and applied themselves, they'd be at my level in a year, traditionally at least, no doubt! especially since they're around my age, so they won't struggle with a child's wobbly hand and lack of self-awareness.