(Part 3) Top products from r/learnart

For me using references to work off of is what fueled the most progress. While deviant art and Google image search are great for a broad scope books are invaluable if you find one in a category you want to refine. My personal favorite though is The Skillful Huntsmen. It's created by a handful of amazing graduate students in Entertainment design as they think up and design the visual universe for a classic Grimm Brothers fairy tail. Each page is filled with thumbnails with a variety of techniques and very practical advice. If you have any interest in environmental or character design I consider a must have.

In a similar vein the Scott Robertson books are excellent for inspiration if you have a focus on design. (His Gnomon video is well well worth the money, it's revolutionized how I draw manmade objects as in the last few pages.) Most of the books I have are purely inspiration and less the approach of art. What rests as a great mix of advice and inspiration of the Loomis set. His bread and butter book, Figure Drawing for All it's Worth, has been reprinted now and is a beauty. But all of his books are easy to find on pdf online. In general though look up what the book's about and if you think you'll like it you probably will- I have no interest right now in watercolors so I don't buy watercolor books.

Now for times that I felt like I wasn't getting better- it certainly happened. What helped me the most was keeping it always fresh. If your art isn't working get a new set of pens, draw in a different style, etc. Most of the changes in style were prompted by feeling I wasn't making progress. This video though is the most amazing thing I've ever seen at putting artist's block into perspective.

I can vouch for Leuchtturm sketchbooks, /u/cdnstuckinnyc .

When I sketch traditionally, I only ever sketch with ink (brush pen and ball point). Takes ink very well with absolutely no bleed through so far (except with alcohol based markers [which will almost ALWAYS bleed through on every type of paper] and the parallel pens with their standard ink...have yet to try them with different ink refill though) and absolutely minimal ghosting.

Only drawback, imo, is the pure white pages. Looks great with ink, really...but I know lots of people like the warm cream color of moleskine. Also, the Leuchtturm is expensive like Moleskine, but FAR higher quality. The other poster was right. At this point with Moleksine, you're just paying for the name. Used to be MUCH higher quality. Still have an unused moleskine from 2008-ish. Paper quality back then was insanely good. Not anymore.


I don't know how you treat your sketchbooks...if you use them to learn or to have something pretty to look at. If you're like me and use them to learn, then I highly suggest getting a Peter Pauper Press Blank Notebook 2-pack from amazon for 16 bucks. Lots of pages. Paper color is off-white, but not quite as warm as moleskine. Doesn't take heavy inks the best, but handles most pens fine. Would do great for standard pencil sketching as you wouldn't have to worry about bleed through and ghosting with pencil is a much less severe offender than ghosting with pens. Same aesthetic and size as moleskine books. All around a FANTASTIC and MUCH cheaper alternative to moleskine sketchbooks (2 books each with quite a few more pages than a moleskine sketchbook for cheaper than one moleskine).

If you want your sketchbook to be pretty to look at and flip through and need higher paper quality to prevent all bleed through and ghosting...then I'd go for the Leuchtturm. Unfortunately, getting a high quality sketchbook that won't bleed or ghost for cheap isn't really a completely viable option.

Again though...the Peter Pauper Press books are great and a huge value per dollar sketchbook. :)

This is a copied and pasted reply to someone I replied to yesterday wanting to learn anatomy, hopefully it'll point you in the right direction.

If you're gonna invest in any really helpful art books I'd suggest starting with something like Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet (I know that's the UK link but it gives you a preview that the US Amazon site doesn't). It covers all aspects of both male and female anatomy and it's really high quality, it even gives you transparent overlay pages over photos that show you how muscles lie under the skin. It looks like this but with a sheer sheet between the photo of the limb and its muscles, so you can flip between the two. It also gives you examples of famous artworks in contrast to a photo of a real person in that pose, to show you how anatomy can be distorted/transformed in art without it looking 'bad'. Anything like that will give you a brilliant understanding of how the human body is formed and it honestly will reflect in your artwork. As other people have said, life drawing sessions or even drawing the people you're surrounded with is an essential way to learn natural poses and lessen the 'stiffness' drawing can sometimes convey.

Look at other people's work as much as you can and also try to critique it in your head! What perspective are they using? Where's their lighting coming from? Does said lighting affect their colour palette? Are their proportions right? All of this will become automatic if you do it enough and it's a great way to learn techniques you might not have noticed before, that you can later apply to your own artwork. It's a cliche but the more you look at other people's work/draw the better you'll get :)

Sorry this is super long, I hope it helps. I'm in no way a professional artist but I started drawing with a tablet when I was 12 (I'm now 23) and all I can say is the more you do it the better you'll become. Draw whenever you can using whatever you find, all practise will help whether it's on the tablet or not.

Two good, beginner "how to draw" books for folks interested in cartooning are:

• The Preston Blair Animation I book. It's cheap if you buy it - $8 on Amazon - or you can see scans of pretty much the whole thing at animationresources.org if you look for the $100K Animation Course there. You'll learn how to construct a drawing from basic forms and draw around shapes so you're drawings will feel more three-dimensional. These are valuable lessons no matter what style of drawing you're interested in pursuing later.
  
  
• The Famous Artists Cartoon Course. The whole Famous Artists series is amazingly good instruction no matter what, but the Cartoon Course is very instructive on it's own if you're interested in that style of drawing. You can download the whole thing in PDF format at ComiCrazys; at the end of each post is the link to the PDF version of the scanned pages. The section on lettering might seem a little dated, now, in the time of digital lettering, but all the other lessons - drawing, inking, backgrounds and props, drawing characters of different ages, drawing clothing and folds, etc.) are golden.
  
  (The full Famous Artists course is worth looking for at some point, too; I picked up a full set from the... late 60's? early 70's? something like that. They're these 4 giant binders full of goodness; I paid about $100 for the set and it was totally, totally worth it. If you follow that link to the ComiCrazys site, he's got scans of the Famous Artists chapter on color theory. It's one of the best all-around lessons on the subject I've ever run across.)
  
  There are other resources for drawing people more realistically that you might want to get into later, but for just basic "learning how to draw" those are two good places to start.

The art spirit is a good book that touches on this

Yeah you laid out perfectly the three things you need to attack.

Using references - give yourself fake assignments that an employer might request that would require use of references - when you say "using reference" - to what end?

creating sci characters? historical? or just general stuff to widen your portfolio?

what kind of references? live or photograph? both have benefits and drawbacks

a way to branch beyond drawing people is to take a character sketch and expand the surrounding region

"ground" the character by giving them a world to live in

or have them holding or doing something

but do you feel like you have to draw more than just people or do you want to?

some people make a whole career just on drawing people, or spaceships, or landscapes

and some make a career combing all of the above

this leads into your third, and hardest issue

you will struggle with this your whole life

"finding" yourself, developing, growing, all can bleed into expression

and that right there might be your starting point - art is a means of expression but you said statement - that is a very active word to apply to the arts - what kind of statement?

CONSUME!! - you got the creation skill - now consume what others have created - this can make one feel shitty about their own level (it sure does for me) but try to look past that and ask

"how did they do that?" - Look for the brush strokes, the camera angle, the shortcuts vs the fine detailed renderings


More importantly this is the best way to become inspired to express yourself


ramblings at work sorry

post some work!

post your "best" work if you dare >:P

First thing, stop insulting your art. Especially if you want to do this as a profession and not a hobby. I know it's hard when you're first learning and especially when your eye develops over your ability to make things.

To quote Joseph Fink,
> Hey, if you're submitting anything to anyone for any reason, never preface it with "It's not very good, but here goes" or similar. Because here's the thing: If you don't think it's good, why are you asking anyone else to bother with it? Either stand behind it or don't. You may think it sounds endearingly humble. But if someone has hundreds of submissions and they see "this is not very good" from the artist then they'll say "oh, ok" and delete it. The artist should know, after all. Either stand behind your art enough to say "this is worth your time" or don't ask anyone to put any time into it.

It isn't humble and it doesn't come off that way to others, it comes off in lacking self confidence and being self pitying and it will really hurt you as an artist career wise and growth wise. I'm serious. Destroy this habit before it takes root right now.

Also, there is plenty you can ask for in tips on this. Study clothing folds and how it moves before jumping into the full outfit. Here is a free chapter on more realistic clothing and folds for free and if you have some money to spend Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery is my personal favorite book on clothing. Don't work off mannequins on clothing because clothes will often lay on them somewhat unnaturally and stiff. When I was back in early drawing classes one of our first assignments was to draw clothes balled up on the floor to practice organic shapes and folds. Then we moved onto clothes on people, especially people in movement of some sort. Keep practicing on it, especially if you feel you need to improve.

I hope you feel better and your practice goes well this week. :)

Ok, realistically, if I started again from zero but had knowledge of how to learn here's what I would do:

Go on amazon and buy these 4 books (technically 5 but yeah):

1. Figure Drawing: Design and Invention
   
2. Scott Robertson's How to Draw
   
3. Framed Perspective Vol1 and vol 2
   
4. Richard Schmid's Alla Prima
   
   I would read those books cover to cover, do exercises in them, copy their drawings, etc. I would also listen to Feng Zhu's youtube channel while I'm eating dinner or whatever. I'm a pretty experienced artist now so I know what books are good and what books are bullshit. Those 4 books I listed have really good content. Scott Robertson's book teaches you technical 3D drawing, that figure drawing book teaches you anatomy in a 3D sense, the Framed Perspective books give an intuitive yet thorough introduction to perspective (arguably the most important skill in art), and Alla Prima gives a great introduction to laying down colors.
   
   I would also get into anime, because anime relies on art to make money so their artists are really really good. I would copy and study the paintings of Kazuo Oga, Yoh Yoshinari, and look and study the backgrounds of Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai films

> Do they blotch like ballpoints?

Can you give me an example of exactly what you mean? I don't think so...in my experience, they make a clean consistent line without a blob at either end of it, if that's what you mean. I would also suggest using them on smoother paper...not the typical sketchbook type stuff with the grain. That's because a decent amount of texture on such a fine tipped pen can disrupt the line semi-easily. I've only seen this be a problem on the .25mm though.

If you want a sketchbook suggestion to use with these pens (I researched this a TON looking through different notebooks trying to find something that's cost-effective per sheet and still maintains a decent quality paper)... I personally like the Peter Pauper Press Essentials Blank Notebooks.

As you can tell from the link, you can get them in 2 packs. They have higher quality paper than current moleskines (I have one from ~2008-09 and the paper quality of the modern ones is GARBAGE compared to back then...it's garbage even compared to today's cheap-o sketchbooks..or on-par depending on the sketchbook.) The paper is still a little thin, but it's still thicker than moleskine. It's a nice slightly-off-white, and the texture is nice and, for the most part, pretty smooth. It's 8" x 5.5" ...so I don't know if that's too small for you, but it's my preferred size. At that price, the cost effectiveness is really great, too.

I second both books posted by Sykirobme.

The first one I got was Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings and it was great for someone like me who have zero background on drawing and painting. Started out slow and super basic and I noticed myself putting more and more effort as I went along the projects.

Then I got Acrylics for the Absolute Beginner, a landscape instructional, which was fun to follow and I learned a lot. I kept getting "you painted that?" reactions lol very encouraging and I have to make clear the paintings were not originals and I followed tutorials from a book.

I purchased Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide as a reference for tools/theory/techniques. And I like it so far but haven't read in depth because I keep getting distracted by other books I find at the library and attempting some originals.

I hope that's helpful. Also, reiterating that this is from the perspective of a beginner (5 months in!). Folks with more experience might have different/better suggestions. Happy painting!

That sounds about right. The most important thing is to stay loose while you draw. Doing so will allow you to lay down neat, confident lines.

A good thing to practice are large strokes and loose circles and ovals. That way you can avoid chicken scratching (admittedly I am guilty of this, oddly enough, only when I'm trying to sketch something out of imagination)

Anyway if you haven't already looked into, you should check out drawing from the right side of the brain. You may have heard it in some peoples rants/posts (negative or positive), but I found it to be quite helpful. In fact, I would recommend the workbook over the text

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Workbook/dp/1585429228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368044031&sr=8-1&keywords=drawing+from+the+right+side+of+the+brain+workbook

Anyway, god speed dude, and I hope to see some of your stuff here or on any of the neat art-related subreddits :)

Ah yes, this is frustrating. The thing about ink drawing, is that you must pay extremely close attention to line weight and contour at all times. Because you do not have color or value, you must be extremely creative in how you vary the two aforementioned elements.

First, lets take a look at how the old masters tackled this with ink. Here is Durer

See how he doesn't actually draw folds on the inside of the cloth, but merely takes a fine tip and draws parallel cross contour lines?

Here is a da Vinci
Do you see how much Durer learned from da Vinci? Very similar handling of the contours. What I recommend for you, is studying drapery more, so that you can more effectively predict where the big folds are going to be.

In all drapery, there are what I like to call major and minor folds. Major folds are the ones that define the form and cast the largest shadows, and the minor folds are all the other tiny ones in between. When inking, its all about picking and choosing a few major folds to give the illusion of cloth.

I prescribe this book to you. Hogarth was an ink artist as well, and while his drawings are always exaggerated, they make a lot of sense. Spend some time copying his work out of the book, and cloth should become second nature to ya.

Guess I can mention something that hasn't been said.

Master studies. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Just like with photos and movies as mentioned by others. Find works of art you like, do your own "version" and ask yourself the same "why" questions. Pay attention to darks vs. lights. negative space. All those art clichés. They start to make sense after a while.

Also, for a quick run through of what works and what doesn't.

Picture This: How Pictures Work
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587170302

Not an amazing mind blowing book. But a good reference for a lot of plain fact. Things we may not consider that much but seriously, they are simple and they are true and they'll give you something to look for in masterpieces, movies, photographs, you name it. Things to look for and understand. Trust me. It's very clever in its simplicity.

Drawing on the right side of the brain is a good start, there's a reason people keep on recommending it for you!



Andrew Loomis's books is also good (all free there in digital form)

Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgeman

Imaginative realism by James Gurney more about painting and finishing, better for more advanced stuff.


Other than that, just draw things! Just anything and everything, it will help!

I'm going to play devil's advocate and not recommend Drawing on the right side of the brain.
The exercises are standard introduction to drawing exercises, which are fine, but the text is ... really debatable.
She took "Quit drawing symbols" and applied all kinds of psychology to it, when it's important to just stop drawing symbols.
The book's exercises itself are great however, if you can get your hands on the workbook instead, I would recommend that because it's just all the exercises with 5% of the text.
The most important part of drawing is actually doing it, especially when you're just starting out.

Also, I've heard good things about Keys To Drawing

I have Scott Robertson's How To Render, but I haven't started working with it yet, as I'm still focusing on some other fundamentals. It's a very exhaustive book that's very information dense. Not for the faint of heart. It's essentially the follow-up to How To Draw, which is one of the most recommended art books on the internet. This one builds on that.

Framed Perspective Vol. 2 by Marcus Mateu-Mestre is similar, but is more basic (and also a bit more accessible) and focuses more on how to shade characters. There's a section in chapter 3 that's devoted to the major plane changes of the human body and how that affects shading.

Both books assume you know the basic principles of linear perspective, which they teach in their respective predecessors.

Someone more knowledgeable about teaching art as a subject may have recommendations that are more appropriate. I'm still a learner myself, but the teacher in my weekly art classes often pulls exercises from these books (usually in a more simplified format for us novices :P).

Last time I tried to give advice on drawings the person got upset and quit reddit, soooo, please don't do that. My suggestion if you're absolutely serious about drawing is to absolutely learn the fundamentals.

Fun With A Pencil: How Everybody Can Easily Learn to Draw https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857687603/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ijZZDbCWDFEAQ

Drawing the Head and Hands https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857680978/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AjZZDb0B3RBPF

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857680986/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OjZZDbW37G79H

Successful Drawing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857687611/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4jZZDb95Z0W96

Creative Illustration https://www.amazon.com/dp/1845769287/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ikZZDbFRJYAJD

And after the basics


Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist (Volume 1) (James Gurney Art) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0740785508/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_alZZDbZW0Y1P4


Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (Volume 2) (James Gurney Art) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0740797719/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_DlZZDb676AWT6



It doesn't matter what medium you use, learning how to draw and understanding what you're doing will help out the most.

It sounds more like you want to do drawing based things. You probably want to learn about character design at some point. There are two basic schools of thought on it. There is the overall silhouette concept artist style. One of the books that you can study from for that is The Skillful Huntsman. This style of drawing creation is also used by a lot of concept artists for games and special effects. The other school of thought is the shaped based drawings. You can learn about that in Creating Characters With Personality. This basic breakdown is used by a lot of the more cartoony styled artists. They both relate to each other and the shape breakdown helps you turn a character in space. It is essentially a more detailed version of the Preston Blair method.

Either way, you won't get too far if you don't understand your anatomy, life drawing, and drapery. So if you aren't there yet, and you can never get enough of that as a traditional artist, you may want to do the remedial learning to draw things such as Drawing on the Right Side Of The Brain and hand copying an Anatomy for Artists Textbook of your choice.

You've got a very graphic design here, but your shapes are not at all picked for emotional impact on the viewer.

You have some rounds, a lot of sharp edges, horizontals and diagonals without seemingly much purpose. As viewer, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be feeling when I look at this. It's a cute design, but all the hard edges make it somewhat uninviting and harsh.

May I suggest picking up Picture This, a book on shape language. I think designing purposely to evoke particular emotions in your viewers will really take your beautiful work up a notch.

Oh, and it's already been said, but the sheep isn't working as indicator of a dream. It's all too definite. Dreams are fleeting, surreal, soft - the hard borders in your dream path just read as path.

I used to be an art zero, had the worst stick figures on the planet and I've had several shows in galleries. I knew someone who's hands permanently shook but was a kick ass painter and you'd wonder if other people were safe when she used an x-acto knife..

You need three things:

1. A mentor who can give you tips. That or youtube.
   
   
2. Practice. My god, the practice. I went through an art degree... oil painting? 1 painting a week... for 16 weeks. For two semesters (32 weeks total). Shoot a roll of film and develop it a week for 3 semesters (48 weeks). Drawing, 2 semesters, 3 drawings a week. Lots of practice.
   
   
3. Critique. I cannot emphasize enough how important a good critique is for helping you grow as an artist. Start posting to /r/ArtCrit
   
   Additionally, your inner artist like a child. A child, to reach it's maximum potential, must always be challenged, must always play (that's a child's job), must be protected from the assholes of the world, and must not be given false, positive encouragement (they need to be told when they're not doing well enough... no trophies for the losers). You must practice. Don't ask your friends and family for art advice or critique. Ever. People who don't support you should not see your art. (Read The Artist's Way, Art & Fear, and The Art Spirit)
   
   Ninja edit: Do not be afraid to use projectors and lightboxes until you get a firmer grasp on proportions and compositions.

Will Weston recommended this book , Anatomy for Sculptors. I think I got it for $40, surprised the price increased so much. But it's a pretty good book for reference and shapes, lots of clear images and overlays. https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Sculptors-Understanding-Human-Figure/dp/0990341100/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=anatomy+for+sculptors&qid=1566355226&s=gateway&sprefix=anatomy+for+sculptors&sr=8-1

Instead of drawing realistic things, bring the joy back with doodles. Doodling (freeform scribbles) and noodling (drawing and adding onto those freeform lines) is good exercise.

Bert Dodson's book is the best drawing book I own because it brings back the fun for me and lets me draw ugly on purpose. I give myself permission to draw weird and "bad" so I draw more often and get better.y

https://www.amazon.com/Keys-Drawing-Imagination-Strategies-Confidence/dp/1581807570/ref=pd_sim_b_7

I looked up Disney concept art and just tried to see how those artists did it. The artist I looked at the most was Glen Keane.

Also, I ordered this book and while I personally can't sing it's praises(since it hasn't arrived yet lol) I've heard from the internet that it's pretty useful to learning cartoons.

Hope I helped point you in a good direction :D

Maybe "can you suggest any tutorials/artists that I can learn from?" would be a better question than what you've typed above, because I don't really understand what you're asking for in the original.

If you're looking for things like books, I have recently enjoyed Dream Worlds by Hans Bacher and Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. They're not really 'how to' books, but they're good for demonstrating composition.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drawing-Nude-Structure-Anatomy-Observation/dp/184797824X I've been to anatomical drawing classes with this chap: very good teacher and his methods are easy to follow.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751334413/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=184797824X&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=067W0FP0AR8HPZJV1KMF
Written by an amazing artist who teaches at my old art college.

The book Making Comics by Scott McCloud is great for any comic newbies, or even more experienced folks. Very insightful and fun to read even if you never follow the advice. Probably can find it cheaper than on amazon with a little digging.

They come on a CD with the book Extreme Perspective for Artists by David Chelsea

Great book, great reference.

Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook
this is where to get it and this is what it does

You are now Super Saiyan, enjoy

I did something similar when I went to Europe and I think it's a great idea. You will cherish that sketch journal more than any number of photographs you take.

How about something [like this?] (https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Sketcher-Techniques-Drawing-Location/dp/1440334714/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61b8Jz5saOL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR242%2C320_&psc=1&refRID=26SKFV821GS7C0C53T6T)

Caveat: I don't own any urban sketching books, so this recommendation does not come first hand. However, I know a few people that do the ink sketching style, usually with watercolor added, and this looks very similar in principle.

Hey thanks. I’d like to recommend a book - The Urban Sketcher by Holmes

More rigorous resources for the serious artist:

Scott Robertson's How to Draw

Feng Zhu videos

Gnomon videos

Alla Prima if you want to paint

Other than that, lots and lots of practice. Also study the artists you look up to - how they draw, what line weights they use, what colors they use, etc.

> Really, my main focus right now is to be able to draw figures and characters considering that's my weakest point.

Anatomy for Sculptors is a good look into how anatomy works from a 3D sense. Again lots of practice required

> If it's any consolation, my goal is to be able to move my methods to digital.

There's really nothing different between pen and pencil and digital other than colors. You're better off sticking with pen/pencil until you get good because moving to digital may incur a lot of distractions that have nothing to do with actually being able to draw well with is the most important skill. If you can't draw well on paper, then your digital drawings/paintings won't look good either

Follow lots of artists on twitter, look at front page of artstation for inspiration, etc

You might be interested in this book: http://www.amazon.ca/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y/181-1157278-5783305

Gesture is really about design. Simplifying the big movements into a beautiful shape.

I've been using Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensible Guide as my main guidebook. The author presents some basic information on acrylics, tools, etc. at the beginning, touches on color theory, using medium and some other good stuff, and then has several sections on how to paint a wide variety of textures.

Learn to Paint Acrylics With 50 Small Paintings is one I've heard a lot of good about, and I'm thinking of picking it up eventually to fill in any gaps in my technique with some more hands-on guidance.

It seems like someone named Lucas Falco made that reference, and he got it from this book.

There's probably some references from that book on the internet or Google search :)

When it comes to drawing made-up creatures, practice drawing the anatomy of real animals first. It will help make your creatures make more "sense". One of my favorite books growing up was How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm. Once you kind of understand muscle and bone structure, you'll be able to build on that knowledge and go crazy with it. Just keep drawing! That's just my two cents.

I still don't know what I'm doing either, but I've been working through the super-accessible and helpful book "Learn to Paint Acrylics in 50 Small Paintings" by Mark Daniel Nelson: http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Paint-Acrylics-Small-Paintings/dp/1631590561

Don't be sorry - it was very interesting for me. :)

I'm considering looking in to this book instead, as there is a lot I'm unimpressed with in the current book.

I think I'm going to spend another week or so practicing from this book and maybe continuing a little bit on the previous book and if I continue to see almost no progress, I'll message you with what I have. It's sometimes very discouraging because I'm basically the furthest-removed one can be from an artistic background and it means a lot to get off the ground with this. Again - I want to thank you for the in-depth advice. :D

Check out The Natural Way to Draw, the early exercises are very similar to The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, minus the left brain/right brain mumbo jumbo, and it has enough further exercises to keep you busy for your entire artistic career. I think Nicolaides does a better job of explaining the right way to approach the exercises as well.

He mentions in the introduction that if you practice three hours a day, five days a week, you should get through the book in about a year. I don't know many people that are willing to devote that much time to drawing, but it gives you an idea of how much material there is, and how important it is to just do it over and over, without spending a lot of time worrying if the results look 'good' or not.

'Lose your first 100 games of Go as fast as you can', is a proverb that comes to mind. Your first 100+ drawings will not be good, no one's are.

A person (including you) shouldn't judge your initial efforts and exercises in art any more than they would judge the worth of a mathematician on the practice problems in his old algebra textbook.

That being said, don't let your perceived lack of ability keep you from tackling projects you're interested in because you feel you need more practice first. Keep practicing but don't be afraid to say what you want for fear of technical ability.

Some books:

The Natural Way to Draw

The Art Spirit

Art and Fear

If you want to learn more about composition, I suggest to buy the book Dream world by Hans Bacher.
https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Worlds-Production-Design-Animation/dp/0240520939/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468600283&sr=1-1

This book really helped me with the same problem I was having. I think it's generally not about what you can draw from your imagination but how you can take what you see and use it to make your own creation.

[Making Comics by Scott McCloud!] (https://www.amazon.com/Making-Comics-Storytelling-Secrets-Graphic/dp/0060780940/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)

Extreme perspective

Read this book and your questions will be answered.