(Part 3) Top products from r/learntodraw

If you want to draw characters, my advice would be to get a figure drawing and/or anatomy book, and draw people.
Draw them daily, draw them a lot, and when you're drawing, reference the parts of the body that you don't understand and/or take the pose yourself in the mirror, look up that part in your book and see how it works, understand what is causing the shape you're seeing.

Eventually, all those little pieces that make up a human figure are going to click and you'll naturally start applying that to your own characters.

There are a lot of books out there so I'll leave it to you to research a bit to find something that appeals to you, but my own recommendations would be:

Figure Drawing Design and Invention by Michael Hampton

and/or

Classic Human Anatomy by Valerie Winslow

Hampton will teach you gesture, form, and how to break the body down piece by piece and use simple shapes based on muscle groups.

Winslow will teach you more traditional artistic anatomy.

Regardless of what book you have, take it slowly, go back and review things constantly while you're drawing, anatomy isn't something you just copy out of a book, it's reference material to be used actively.

If you find yourself thinking "I can't get X right", get your book and work it out.
Break it down into small understandable pieces and shapes, and then fit them together.
If after that you still can't figure it out(and trust me that's quite common), put it down for a while come back in an hour or two, and look at it again when you've cleared your head, learn to manage the frustration that comes with art because it will always be there.
Drawing is a logical process if you let it be.

Either way, understanding the human form takes a long time, and you're learning to translate a 3d form into a 2d representation; it's not an easy task for any artist, and everyone struggles with it.
People spend weeks, or sometimes months focusing on specific body parts, drawing them meticulously, hundreds of times.

Don't get discouraged, take your time, and be consistent!

Set aside some time each day to draw, even just 30 minutes, but do it daily. Even when you don't want to, draw something, anything!

You're building a technical skill along with your knowledge, and often times your eye is way ahead of your hand, you know things don't look right because you know what a human figure is supposed to look like, but your ability to produce it aren't at that level yet.
Take every thing you've done and put it aside, at the end of the week look at it again and try to identify your mistakes, ask online, or take a figure class and ask a teacher if one is available in your area.

Everything nsio mentions in that list are things you're going to need eventually to draw great characters, even the simple basics like spheres and boxes, perspective, and design elements; there's no magic book that's going to teach you everything, and they're all equally important.
However, as they mention in the "Mastery Levels" section, they're not things you learn in an order, they are all things you need to come back to over and over again, you're never done with them, you just get a little better at them each time.

You're on a long journey, best of luck, and have fun drawing!

Drawing with the right side of your Brain by Betty Edwards is a great book. She took the time to do studies and research to figure out how the drawing process works and it will help beginners get into the mode of the drawing that you need. After that you can branch off to drawing techniques like lines, perspective, shadows and light logic, texturing, then color.

I know you say free but I started using a copy from my local library. If you do not like that resource or are lazy... then look to the right under the "subscribe" button and there are 3 links with resources there.

Note: You do not need a lot of materials that she asks you to get! I am not sure if she recommends a grid but I personally hate grids so I never use them... But I do recommend in getting a GOOD ERASER! A white one and a knead eraser! Especially the knead... I love mine to the fullest! After you have a good eraser then look towards getting 2-4 good pencils where the range is quite large. So a nice 2H pencil, maybe a 2B, 4B, and 8B or something. Doesn't matter when you start out.

And a tip! DARK LINES! Do not scared to make things nice and dark.

You have a good sense of gesture, but you would benefit from more underlying structure.

Try to see and draw the elements of the figure as simplified geometric forms, three dimensionally solid and less flexible than what you have.

The flexibility is between the forms; the basic elements themselves are not so bendable. Your rib cage is a bit collapsed, and your arm and leg sections a bit too curved at times. It helps to see the hips as a block to which the legs are attached.

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In particular, try to see the sections of the arms and legs as three dimensional geometric shapes, basically tapered and slightly curved cylinders. Get the proportions of those shapes right — without the distraction of detail — and it will then be easier to build your more detailed forms on top of them.

https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/john-buscema-figure-and-head-lessons-7.jpg

https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/john-buscema-figure-and-head-lessons-6.jpg?w=529

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gB64U1Dy7eU/S8QfbgasgJI/AAAAAAAAA5o/InikIWqx2CY/s1600/facc_05_figuredetail_009.jpg

https://dbclemons.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/famartfig4b.jpg

This book may be helpful in that regard: https://www.amazon.com/Draw-Human-Figure-Step-step/dp/0832709018/

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It can sometimes help to work with an artist's mannequin, though their range of position can be limited. The basic ones are inexpensive and are enough to help with proportions:

https://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-hardwood-manikin/

https://www.dickblick.com/products/wood-manikin/

The more elaborate ones have more realistic forms and a greater range of motion:

https://www.dickblick.com/products/art-s-buck-anatomical-models/#photos

I'm not really sure why you want to work digitally if youre opposed to computers/internet being part of the process, that's kind of a big part of 'digital'. The cheaper tablets are not going to have a screen, they're going to function basically like a mouse connected to your PC and move the cursor around with the pen. Even the best of the best Cintiq level tablets basically act like an extra monitor you can draw on. There are cheaper tablets similar to cintiqs but they still need a PC running Photoshop or some other art program.

Something like an iPad or other tablet doesn't have to connect to a PC but it basically is a self-contained computer itself. I use a Samsung galaxy note, it's an Android tablet that works without being connected to a PC. You would need WiFi to install art programs from the app store but other than that you don't have to use internet on it. It lets you draw directly on the screen which was my main priority. Investing $200+ might be a big ask if you're just starting out though. If youre interested in this make sure you do your research. Samsung has tablets with the 'S Pen', which have more levels of pressure sensitivity than a normal touch screen and works much better for digital art. You want to find the most sensitivity within your price range.

I used an Intuos 3 for...a decade or so? It's a solid tablet but requires a PC to use and doesn't let you draw directly on the screen. I guess the modern day version of that would be something like this, which seems like a pretty affordable pick for getting your foot in the door with digital art.

Hi :) ... So, the anatomy is quite off. Specifically, his face looks concave, when it should be more convex. The placement of the facial features is off. His shoulder width is too small considering the volume of his neck. The arm sticking out is too thin and too short. His torso narrows too much at the waist. Men have a more | | shape going down. The leg on the left has the knee pointing toward us, but the foot pointing sideways. The thighs could also use more volume. Anatomy/figure drawing is definitely a really tricky subject. Youtube should have some good videos that can help you. Also, this book is extremely thorough and a great start to learning how to draw people. It's probably the best figure drawing book I have (and I have a lot :P)! amazon link

Loomis is linked in the sidebar. The copyright expired, they're free! Start with "Fun with a Pencil" - it starts with cartoons to teach you the building blocks of constructing faces. Then go to "Drawing the Head and the Hands". That book is more advanced so you want to finish "Fun with a Pencil" first.

If you prefer hardcopy, you can buy them off Amazon or check your library.

If you prefer video, check out Proko's channel (also linked in the sidebar).

So one thing you can experiment is instead of giving yourself a lot of time to get the gesture just right, time yourself and ELECRTOFY your speed. It will basically put you into a panic and you will have to draw as fast as humanly possible. It's sort of stressful at first, but it gets across the speed of gesture drawing an translates it into flow.

Here are a few gestures I did some years ago with some students. The time was one minute. You can see that I'm not even putting down forms at that point, just action lines in some cases. That's how you need to see the figure in a gesture, a series of landmarks and suggestions.

Learn anatomy from books, there are several good ones. This one is my favorite. Copy the more critical drawings, do studies on the relation of parts, read all the information in the book.

Good luck! Keep it up.

I constantly try to everyone I can about these two books, Drawn to Life Vol 1 & 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. They are super heavy in terms of theory, and took me a few years to read through both volumes fully, but no other book has impacted the way I think about and practice drawing then these two.

https://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519436955&sr=8-1&keywords=drawn+to+life

Framed Ink has been really helpful for me in beginning to understand the art of sequential story telling, and the thinking behind different framing choices.

https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/dp/1933492953/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Add into that David Chelseas book Perspective for Comic Book Artists. It explained (and continues to explain) perspective in a way that makes sense and is incredibly detailed. (I alone would buy the book for how he explains the hanger method of sizing characters of the same size but on different planes in the correct perspective.)

https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Comic-Book-Artists-Professional/dp/0823005674/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519437238&sr=1-1&keywords=perspective+for+comics

These are just a couple from the top of my head, but if you'd like more recommendations, or ones on specific topics I can see if I have any that would fit your need.

My favorites are "Human anatomy for artists" by Eliot Goldfinger & Constructive anatomy by George Bridgman.

Goldfinger is very accurate but can be quite dry to read, Bridgman isn't as accurate but is great at describing structure and retaining the gesture.

May I suggest you take a look at this post and its comments?

In particular, you might want to read my replies there since I felt the same way you do for a very long time.

You can get out of that state and learn to draw. It's totally doable.

Edit: also, I think a book like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain might help you.

I'd like some critique of my work.

The book I followed to create this was Basic Figure Drawing Techniques.


Also here's the reference.

Getting a drawing book specially about animals should have a section on fur. I think you have a good start on the fur.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1581807287/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1452282716&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX220_SY330_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Draw+animals&dpPl=1&dpID=51mlMfll83L&ref=plSrch

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0823023796/ref=mp_s_a_1_18?qid=1452282716&sr=8-18&pi=AC_SX220_SY330_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Draw+animals

I picked up this book Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/1402766785/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_AXcNzb6626FC3 to learn anatomy. Is that good?

Will Eisner is a classic. Comics and Sequential Art, and maybe his Expressive Anatomy.

If you want to try before you buy, find library copies at http://worldcat.org

Have you thumbnailed your concept out on paper across several small thumbnails first? It's a lot less intimidating and you'll be less tempted to get caught up in details or such at that stage. Once you have a set of thumbnails for your animation idea, then you can redraw those thumbnails and then start working on getting those set together on their individual key frames and see how it appears. If there isn't enough transition between frames to make it look right, then go back and start drawing the in between frames based on the one before and after. This allows you to go from an overall concept for your animation with quick thumbnailing and then refining into details. We had done animatics back when I was in college and we just had a sheet with small 3 inch thumbnail squares to draw into and were told to write a few lines next to each of them on what was happening at this point of the animation.

For example, I had done a silly training scenario animatic for my class back then and started off with thumbnails, then scanned them and redrew them onto flash frames. Then, added the in between frames to get this silly animatic prototype for my concept and in fairly short time.https://www.deviantart.com/sykotifachan/art/Animatic-Complete-146822334


Also, a good recommendation on animation study material:
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/


I'm not an animator, it was more a hobby for me, but I studied alongside and worked with animators and this was often used for their studies.

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Human-Anatomy-Motion-Dynamics/dp/0770434142

This is my go to Human Anatomy/Figure Drawing art book. It breaks down each part of the human body. This includes muscle and skeletal structure. 10/10

this book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Caricatures-Lenn-Redman/dp/0809256851