Sweet Dreams

If you're ever wondering what happens when you've been reading nothing but American Vampire and Locke and Key comics all week, this is it. This atrocity that my tablet's sketch app helped to create. It's some sort of eerie take on the Cheshire cat watching a child sleep, apparently. All I knew when starting this sketch was that I knew I wanted to create a picture with some of the tension that I enjoyed so much from these two comic series. 

Nap, anyone?

Gabriel Rodriguez, the artist behind the Locke and Key series has this tension perfected in his work, and when I asked him on Twitter what advice he had for someone who wants to learn to draw he replied with, "The only possible advice: draw a lot, all the time, as many different things as possible. And try to have as much fun as you can."

See, I told you.

If you're into comics, and especially horror, you'll want to check these two comic series out. One focuses on a vampire in the Wild West (with a back-story from Stephen King!) and one focuses on a mansion hiding dark secrets and reality-shattering keys. I'll let you guess which is which.

This sketch really brought Gabriel's advice home for me, as it most definitely isn't the best thing I've ever drawn, but it's something I had the most fun with. I can't be the only one that loves creatures lurking in the shadows and nightmares being more than figments of our imagination, can I?

If you share my love of horror, let me know! Are there any films, books, games, comic series or more that I might be missing out on?

The Cutting Edge

Another week (an actual week this time, I'm as surprised as you are!), another drawing exercise. This week's exercise is another Contour Drawing Exercise, but this time you're actually allowed to look at what you're drawing.

In that respect it felt like a more useful drawing exercise than any before it, as I was able to focus on what I was drawing. On the other hand, it was also more stressful than any before it too, because I was able to watch my awful attempt at drawing one painful line after another.

Here are some helpful tips from the article itself:

"Choose a small kitchen or office object, whatever you have handy. Pieces of fruit, and natural objects such as plants or leaves, are the easiest. Making your drawing the same size as the object is helpful when you are learning. Just pick a point on an edge of the object and continue along with your eyes, letting your hand copy the shape on the paper. If there is a strong line, such as a fold or crease across the object, draw that too. Sometimes it helps to squint your eyes so you can see the 'silhouette' of the object. This is the basic shape you are trying to capture."

The idea behind this exercise is again to focus on the outline of an object, getting your hand and eye to work together. It wasn't an especially exciting task, and one that I found as boring the subject that I chose; a pair of scissors.

The aforementioned scissors.

Almost identical, right?

When you are first overcome with the urge to learn to draw, it is probably inspired by some masterpiece in an art gallery, or, in my case, a mixture of diverse characters and environments brought to life on the screen of anime or the pages of comic books. What you don't have in mind is drawing the different objects around your desk. That, however, is the reality, and you have start small to get to a place where you can create your own worlds, which may inspire someone else in the future. That's the dream, anyway.

For now though, I'm just happy that next week's exercise seems to let me choose my own subject... I'll do my best to make it more exciting than scissors, which surely can't be that hard?

Getting Hands-y

Since this week's exercise (Drawing Blind) focused on drawing the contours of my hand - blind, may I add - it made sense to me that my Random Sketch should also feature a hand. That's just how my mind works. An eye for an eye, a hand for a hand, or something.

A few months ago, when I went to London's MCM Expo - a glorious convention full of games, films, comics and everything else that a geek like myself could enjoy - my friend bought a Japanese entertainment magazine. I had a flick through to see if there were any interesting anime films or games coming out, and stumbled across a section devoted to drawing anime. Naturally, I slowed down to read this section to see if I could pick up any tips for an aspiring 'artist'.

Here's what I found:

How to Draw Hands

"Drawing hands is tricky. They're one of the most complex parts of the human skeleton, and our expectations for hands to look accurate is second nature. Hands exhibit a wide range of poses, and some of the limitations of how they move and bend aren't always immediately apparent. If drawn correctly, however, hands can be just as impressive and impactful as the character's face!"

"The hand is made of 17 parts; 15 for the fingers, and two for the palm. The palm can be represented in two parts; the main area, and the section at the top connecting the four fingers. Each of the digits (including the thumb) has three sections. The lowest part of the thumb encroaches on a large part of the palm, and can cause the whole palm to curve. Always all of these parts when drawing the hand, even when some parts have been obscured."

 My attempt, using my tablet.

I was quite happy with how it turned out - happy enough to put it on Twitter, actually, where I may have received a tweet saying that it was good... I don't like to brag or anything though.

 Why not try drawing a hand yourself using the handy tips above? That was awful, and I'm truly sorry, but you should still give it a shot. 

Drawing Blind

This is the second exercise on the site that I found, teaching complete beginners how to draw, and it once again focuses on getting your hand to co-operate with your eye. It's called the Blind Contour Exercise.

The idea behind it, similar to the wire exercise from my Feeling Wired post, is to keep your pencil on the paper without lifting it off and follow the outline of what you're looking at (In this case, I chose my hand). You are encouraged - nay - ordered to avoid look at the paper while you're drawing, as you are meant to be letting your mind capture the outline of your chosen subject in all its detail.

It's harder than it sounds. And it sounds hard. When you can't draw while looking directly at the paper, looking in the other direction seems completely crazy, and it probably is, but I did it anyway.

My hand. My subject. My lover - just kidding...

My blind contour result. Or maybe E.T's return.

Sure, it doesn't seem like I'm learning much from this exercise, apart from how to make my own hand seem horrifying, but it must be doing something. If nothing else, it definitely got me thinking about the little details that make up something as simple as a realistic hand, such as wrinkles on the palm. 

Wrinkles. That's something, right?

I'm alive.

It happened again, didn't it? I disappeared.

I won't spend too much time chatting on about why my newbie-drawing skills haven't been gracing the pages of this blog recently, but it involves being very busy and a lack of motivation to add large volumes of sharpening pencils and erasing sketches to the end of long days.

However, I'm not one to quit, so I'm back again, to upload some more drawing exercises I've been trying and possibly a sketch from my tablet too!

I know, you're furious, and you have every right to be. I didn't write. I didn't call. You've been worried sick. Let's take a deep breath, and channel that anger into a well-sharpened HB pencil. Yes, when you've finished drawing you may drive it into my neck. Happy now? Good.

And who knows... It was only about a month until I returned this time, so maybe my absences will become shorter and shorter until I'm actually posting weekly like I want!

Face My Shame

I've always thought that tablets seemed pretty useless. Why would I want something similar to a computer/laptop when I already have a computer/laptop?

Long story short, I now have a Google Nexus 7, and this is the first thing I drew on a sketch app.

I actually don't think it's that bad, although hair was out of the question, apparently. Unfortunately I have a couple more sketches to upload and they go downhill from here. Enjoy.

Feeling Wired

The first few pointers on the website mention the kind of pencils and paper you need for different effects, such as shading or drawing darker lines, but as I'm a complete beginner - and want other complete beginners to be able to join in - I'll be using whatever pencils I find to draw on whatever paper I have lying around.

Let's begin!

The first exercise is simple. So simple, in fact, that I couldn't help but think 'What's the point?' as I was doing it. But there is a point; to get your mind and your hand working together to create what you see in front of you.

All you have to do is take a piece of wire and twist it into any sort of shape. Then, without drawing anything else around it, draw the shape of the wire on a piece of paper. That's it.

 My 'wire'. I didn't happen to be in a workshop at that second, so I used my iPod cable.

The result. A disembodied line on a piece of paper. Impressive, right?

That was pretty much it for the first exercise. 

Don't focus too much on it. Don't try to add detail. Draw.

The First Step

So, almost two months ago, when I first started this blog (and also when my last post was, but we'll ignore that), I searched for some source of online help for aspiring artists.

This is what I found: http://drawsketch.about.com/od/learntodraw/u/learn-to-draw.htm#s2

It is essentially a website that takes you from the very basics of drawing, including the tools of an artists and general drawing techniques, to the complexities of shading and the human form. My plan is to go through each lesson, exercise and tip and share each one with you right here - along with my own progress, of course!

With that in mind, get ready for the start of my journey with my next post, showing the first few exercises!

Erase the Last Couple of Months

Wow, I did it again.

I committed myself to learning to draw, even set up a fancy-schmancy blog to force myself to keep going (on the off-chance that anyone started paying attention), and it's been almost TWO MONTHS since my last post.

Does that make you feel a little bit sick? It does for me!

Yes, I'm on a new internship that keeps me pretty busy, and yes, I'm looking for a job, and yes, there's even a girl I like, but none of that is any kind of excuse for not posting regularly about learning to draw. What's even worse is that I stopped learning to draw...

No matter. Erase all that, blow the little bits of the paper that it leaves behind (you know what I'm talking about), and let's start again. I still have some drawings from before that I will post later tonight, both of me learning to draw and a couple random sketches too.

Then, I will be posting at least once or twice a week, every week. Stick around, because I'm back, learning not to suck at art, and this time, it's happening.

Random Eye Sketches

There will also be a section crammed full of any random sketches that I happen to draw alongside learning to draw, and will hopefully show my progress with things that I actually want to draw. For now though, they're pretty awful so you may want to avert your eyes...

Speaking of eyes, what did I tell you? I draw them all the damn time. Again, apologies for the picture quality. Until I can find my camera they will all be painfully blurry.

Pretty creepy, right?

Look at them.

LOOK AT THEM.

Ahem - sorry. If you want to see why I draw so many eyes, check out the Why I Draw Eyes post!

I have a few more sketches to upload, and believe it or not, they're not actually all eyes!

Other Artists

I will dedicate a category to anyone who is learning to draw, or can already draw, and feels like sharing something that they have created. Together we can create a blog full of doodles, sketches, drawings or outright art that may inspire others (including me!) to carry on drawing when they feel they aren't getting any better.

If you've got something to share, don't be shy, either let me know or post it in a comment!

Why I Draw Eyes

There's a very good explanation to why I only ever seem to draw eyes, as I mentioned in my first post, but if you didn't see it, it is this. When I first decided I wanted to be able to draw - a few years back - I found a website that taught people how to draw anime. The website, which I've managed to find again, is called Manga University.

It teaches people how to draw anime characters, the Japanese language and even how to cook Japanese food! Though the drawing lessons were free when I found it a few years ago, there are now only a select number of free tutorials, so any plans I had of returning to this website have been destroyed. I'm trying to learn how to draw for FREE so that anyone else could do it too.

Anyway, here's the 4 pages worth of eyes that I began and ended my first attempt at drawing with. Let's hope I do better this time!

My favourite is the 2nd eye in 'Trapezoid'.

 

I hate how this guy looks from the side, but that's what tutorial said to do. Honest!

More damn eyes.

I guess I was told to draw half a woman's face... I don't remember why.

It's like they're all looking at each other. CRAZY.

I like the sleepy eye here, but I hate that guy. Could he be more smug?

Bottom left eyes are my favourite here. The rest don't have much detail.

I personally don't see that much difference between them, but they know best!

I like the top-right eyes here. They're some cool eyes.

And here is the last thing I drew before I gave up on trying to learn!

Shame that you kind of want to punch the person in the face.

Starting tomorrow I will be uploading new drawings as I start my long, painful and probably embarrassing journey to learn to draw. Stick around!

Moved home!

Okay, so I said making a blog would force me to keep drawing regularly... and then I disappeared for 8 days. Good job. But here's the thing, I finished university and moved home! If that wasn't enough of an excuse, maybe the mess that is my bedroom will make you sympathise and forgive me.

No? Well, then maybe the first few pictures of me learning to draw will do it! After all, that's why we're all here. The pictures aren't great right now as I'm having to take them with my phone. The pictures will be better when I manage to find my camera in the tornado-aftermath that is my belongings right now.

Any volunteers?

A rough outline...

I've wanted to be able to draw for a while now. Quite a while, in fact. For years I've dabbled with random sketches, or sought out online help. The closest I've ever gotten to following one of these online 'courses' is when I found an site that promised to teach me the art of drawing anime characters. I love anime, which may be where my desire to draw has come from, and so I was excited to learn how to draw these characters.

How did it go? Well, I have about 4 pages full of notes, scribbles and eyes at different angles in a notebook which would answer that question. Not very well. It's not so much that what I'd drawn was bad, but rather that I had a short attention span. These 4 pages were my attempt at the first exercises on the Manga University site (I can't find the site again, so this name is a guesstimate), designed to teach you how to draw eyes. I'd only gotten about halfway through before I was thinking 'when am I going to draw something besides eyes?'. The answer it seemed, was never, as I stopped drawing altogether. Instead of finishing the section on eyes and moving onto the next section on, say, faces or bodies etc, I just stopped. That's probably why, to this day, the only thing I feel I can remotely draw is eyes. If I feel a burst of creativity and a pencil and paper is near, it's an eye I'll draw. Do you know how unnerving it is to have a notepad next to you with eyes staring out all day? Unfortunately, I do.

After recently buying a few comics, and seeing all of the different art styles and delicately crafted settings and characters, my love for drawing has been rekindled, and I have decided it is time for me to put the time and effort into becoming a better drawer. The idea of this blog is to force me to keep going, and will be a place where I show the drawing exercises I have been doing, my progress, include any tips I found useful, and hopefully be able to include anyone else who is interested in learning to draw, or feels like showing something they have already drawn (and rub their talent in my face).

That's probably all I can say for now, so I'll let my drawing do the talking. I hope you follow me as I finally stick to it and learn to draw. And if you feel like it, get involved!