Hello, um. I'm going to sound really stupid/prying here. (Sorry). But, basically, I just found your blogger and basically looked through most of it. And I am kind of really inspired by the fact that you are mostly self-taught. Also, I really love your style!
So um. Can I ask you what books and things you recommend for someone who wants to get better at art by themselves? ;A; Errr. Thank you.
hiya!! hey it's not prying or anything at all, i'm actually super flattered and i love getting comments like these. thanks a bunch :)
okay now onto business! first here's a list of books i recommend and that i've been studying from
Figure Drawing --------------
Vilppu's Drawing Manual
http://www.vilppustore.com/manuals_rev1.htm
Glenn Vilppu is a draftsman who i beeelieve used to work in the animation industry, now he teaches about figure drawing. This was the first bonafide with-a-lesson-plan book i picked up when i was first starting to learn how to draw people. He introduces a very very very super awesome important figure drawing technique called "gesturing".
A gesture drawing is very simple- you don't draw the outlines of a figure, you don't draw what it looks like, you draw what it's DOING! and theres a whole sort of science to what makes a good gesture drawing and everything. if you read the first chapter and spend a week trying to gesture draw in his way you've taken your first big step to unlocking a "key" to art through having an eye for rhythm and action.
Further lessons go on to explain how to view the human figure as 3-D forms in space, starting with a beanbag sort of method and moving into box forms, then combining the two. If you say "okay, i'm gonna do this book start to finish and take a week on each lesson and draw for 2 hours a day and not be lazy or beat myself up if stuff looks bad" i promise you you'll notice such a super huge improvement in how you draw figures.
Annnd this book pretty much directly compliments vilppu's manual and i'll explain how in a second. OH first a little background- for me, personally, i am really horrible at learning things the loomis way (lots of measuring, focuses more on outlines and shadow forms) and much prefer the flow and construction that animators use to drawing figures. Anyway. So what is Drawn to Life... well it's sorta like chicken soup for the artists soul. It's this big book of notes on figure drawing and capturing "life" in your drawings by this guy Walt Stanchfield who was pretty amazing. Where Vilppu's Drawing Manual is more technical and has a concrete lesson plan, Drawn to Life will provide more moral support and teach you how to see, basically. the book is huuuge too, whenever i'm having a bad art day i just flip to a page, read something and bam suddenly remember how to draw again lmao
This is the more technical and advanced of the other two books. I'd suggest once you've spent about 3 months or so practicing vilppu to check out this guys figure drawing book and use it to polish up. Vilpuu doesn't really go into anatomy or landmarks (looking for bones and muscles to find points to create gestures etc) which is fine when you're starting out but at one point you're gonna want a more concrete way to figure draw for long poses etc.
(this post is getting long so um part 2 coming up-)
ONTO WEBSITES! now you've got a couple books under your belt but i highly recommend feasting on tutorials on the internet for art, cause if theyre recent enough you can email the artist for further help. SO, i really recommend taking a look at this blog:
Rad's How To
http://radhowto.blogspot.com/
seriously this guy is golden. Start from his first post in 2009 and work your way through and just get an idea of the sort of thing he teaches. He goes into gesture and construction just like vilppuu!! though his approach is more suited for a cartoony style- it DOES apply to realism but im sure as you know, as every artist says, gotta learn the rules before you break them. he likes to do studies from disney movies which is actually really fun and i think you should do them ALONGSIDE realism things just as a break you know? cause idk about you but spending a lot of time drawing real naked people is fun but sometimes you wanna learn how cartoons work too. ANYWAY, not much else to say about rad cause he explains everything better than i ever could.
The Art Center blog http://theartcenter.blogspot.com/
not really sure what your focus on art is BUT if you're into storyboarding and animation etc this place also has a fair amount of tutorials tho in recent months it's sort of grinded to a halt. rad has a tag there you should check out
he has some really quick and easy tutorials on how to approach figure drawing that is gesture involved but more in a michael hampton way rather than vilppu. i stress again, learn vilppu first before you get into really complicated gesture stuff only cause vilppu is easy and much more organic and will serve as a stepping stone.
BUT, i pointed out this guy more for his head drawing tutorials. This is how i learned to draw heads for the most part, from this guy and it's still how i approach drawing heads. He has a couple videos for 3/4th view and front view. He talks about blocking in shadows which ill explain in a second. So yeah, doesn't really focus on construction- but again as the standard, if you really wanna be ace at drawing heads loomis (even for not liking his approach very much) is like the end all be all with that.
His site also has a few painting tutorials but they're not realllly like for learning so much as technique? It requires already knowing color theory and stuff but they are worth poking around at.
here's some more stuff on drawing the human head. if youre not comfortable with loomis this will probably give you the insight you need. uh the website is as old as time so its a bit tricky to navigate- for his tutorials click on the "learn" button on the sign post, then scroll to where you see "Guest Artist Ron Lemen Constructing the Human Head on Paper"
NOW, gonna stray from figure drawing for a second to give you a few links on value studies and color theory. Also in anticz tutorial list is "Understanding 3D Form on Paper". If you want to learn how to paint and get a better idea on grasping values you need to start out with this thing right here, cause it explains what a core shadow is and how value scales work and all that. Just knowing the stuff in here and doing some grayscale paintings will help you with rendering a lot more. i feel like a lot of people jump right into painting wanting to pop out this amazing eye catching oh my god blue dragon fighting a fire lord!!! thing and start throwing crazy blues and reds around whennn actually its not about the color when youre painting (for me) so much about the value scale and using contrast.
BUT THERE WILL BE A TIME... when you want to learn how color and light works.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
ive been reading from this tutorial for like the past 3 years and i still am learning things from it. it talks a lot about rendering, how light bounces, using contrast and how to suggest different surfaces. it's really important to read if you wanna render skin nicely.
im really blabbing a LOT... there's so much i can go into cause there's so many sites and books ive studied from here and there over the past years. there's a few tutorials on perspective and composition i know of that would help you with that, but i dont want to pile on too much...
alright let me wrap this up. if you can, email me: mokou[at]miluda.com
i feel like i can help out a lot more if youre not anonymous haha cause i wanna be able to see your work and where you're at skill wise to provide some feedback and etc. please dont be shy or anything at all as you can see by me typing for about 20 hours i love to talk and share stuff especially if someone is eager to learn!
lol, nice post!
ReplyDeleteHello, um. I'm going to sound really stupid/prying here. (Sorry). But, basically, I just found your blogger and basically looked through most of it. And I am kind of really inspired by the fact that you are mostly self-taught. Also, I really love your style!
ReplyDeleteSo um. Can I ask you what books and things you recommend for someone who wants to get better at art by themselves? ;A; Errr. Thank you.
hiya!! hey it's not prying or anything at all, i'm actually super flattered and i love getting comments like these. thanks a bunch :)
ReplyDeleteokay now onto business! first here's a list of books i recommend and that i've been studying from
Figure Drawing
--------------
Vilppu's Drawing Manual
http://www.vilppustore.com/manuals_rev1.htm
Glenn Vilppu is a draftsman who i beeelieve used to work in the animation industry, now he teaches about figure drawing. This was the first bonafide with-a-lesson-plan book i picked up when i was first starting to learn how to draw people. He introduces a very very very super awesome important figure drawing technique called "gesturing".
A gesture drawing is very simple- you don't draw the outlines of a figure, you don't draw what it looks like, you draw what it's DOING! and theres a whole sort of science to what makes a good gesture drawing and everything. if you read the first chapter and spend a week trying to gesture draw in his way you've taken your first big step to unlocking a "key" to art through having an eye for rhythm and action.
Further lessons go on to explain how to view the human figure as 3-D forms in space, starting with a beanbag sort of method and moving into box forms, then combining the two. If you say "okay, i'm gonna do this book start to finish and take a week on each lesson and draw for 2 hours a day and not be lazy or beat myself up if stuff looks bad" i promise you you'll notice such a super huge improvement in how you draw figures.
Drawn to Life - Walt Stanchfield
http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961
Annnd this book pretty much directly compliments vilppu's manual and i'll explain how in a second. OH first a little background- for me, personally, i am really horrible at learning things the loomis way (lots of measuring, focuses more on outlines and shadow forms) and much prefer the flow and construction that animators use to drawing figures. Anyway. So what is Drawn to Life... well it's sorta like chicken soup for the artists soul. It's this big book of notes on figure drawing and capturing "life" in your drawings by this guy Walt Stanchfield who was pretty amazing. Where Vilppu's Drawing Manual is more technical and has a concrete lesson plan, Drawn to Life will provide more moral support and teach you how to see, basically. the book is huuuge too, whenever i'm having a bad art day i just flip to a page, read something and bam suddenly remember how to draw again lmao
Figure Drawing and Invention- Michael Hampton
http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819
This is the more technical and advanced of the other two books. I'd suggest once you've spent about 3 months or so practicing vilppu to check out this guys figure drawing book and use it to polish up. Vilpuu doesn't really go into anatomy or landmarks (looking for bones and muscles to find points to create gestures etc) which is fine when you're starting out but at one point you're gonna want a more concrete way to figure draw for long poses etc.
(this post is getting long so um part 2 coming up-)
ONTO WEBSITES! now you've got a couple books under your belt but i highly recommend feasting on tutorials on the internet for art, cause if theyre recent enough you can email the artist for further help. SO, i really recommend taking a look at this blog:
ReplyDeleteRad's How To
http://radhowto.blogspot.com/
seriously this guy is golden. Start from his first post in 2009 and work your way through and just get an idea of the sort of thing he teaches. He goes into gesture and construction just like vilppuu!! though his approach is more suited for a cartoony style- it DOES apply to realism but im sure as you know, as every artist says, gotta learn the rules before you break them. he likes to do studies from disney movies which is actually really fun and i think you should do them ALONGSIDE realism things just as a break you know? cause idk about you but spending a lot of time drawing real naked people is fun but sometimes you wanna learn how cartoons work too. ANYWAY, not much else to say about rad cause he explains everything better than i ever could.
The Art Center blog
http://theartcenter.blogspot.com/
not really sure what your focus on art is BUT if you're into storyboarding and animation etc this place also has a fair amount of tutorials tho in recent months it's sort of grinded to a halt. rad has a tag there you should check out
alright now for a huge link dump
Fresh Designer
http://www.freshdesigner.com/category/tutorials/figure-drawing-tutorial/
he has some really quick and easy tutorials on how to approach figure drawing that is gesture involved but more in a michael hampton way rather than vilppu. i stress again, learn vilppu first before you get into really complicated gesture stuff only cause vilppu is easy and much more organic and will serve as a stepping stone.
BUT, i pointed out this guy more for his head drawing tutorials. This is how i learned to draw heads for the most part, from this guy and it's still how i approach drawing heads. He has a couple videos for 3/4th view and front view. He talks about blocking in shadows which ill explain in a second. So yeah, doesn't really focus on construction- but again as the standard, if you really wanna be ace at drawing heads loomis (even for not liking his approach very much) is like the end all be all with that.
His site also has a few painting tutorials but they're not realllly like for learning so much as technique? It requires already knowing color theory and stuff but they are worth poking around at.
http://www.anticz.com/anticz.htm
ReplyDeletehere's some more stuff on drawing the human head. if youre not comfortable with loomis this will probably give you the insight you need. uh the website is as old as time so its a bit tricky to navigate- for his tutorials click on the "learn" button on the sign post, then scroll to where you see "Guest Artist Ron Lemen Constructing the Human Head on Paper"
NOW, gonna stray from figure drawing for a second to give you a few links on value studies and color theory. Also in anticz tutorial list is "Understanding 3D Form on Paper". If you want to learn how to paint and get a better idea on grasping values you need to start out with this thing right here, cause it explains what a core shadow is and how value scales work and all that. Just knowing the stuff in here and doing some grayscale paintings will help you with rendering a lot more. i feel like a lot of people jump right into painting wanting to pop out this amazing eye catching oh my god blue dragon fighting a fire lord!!! thing and start throwing crazy blues and reds around whennn actually its not about the color when youre painting (for me) so much about the value scale and using contrast.
BUT THERE WILL BE A TIME... when you want to learn how color and light works.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
ive been reading from this tutorial for like the past 3 years and i still am learning things from it. it talks a lot about rendering, how light bounces, using contrast and how to suggest different surfaces. it's really important to read if you wanna render skin nicely.
im really blabbing a LOT... there's so much i can go into cause there's so many sites and books ive studied from here and there over the past years. there's a few tutorials on perspective and composition i know of that would help you with that, but i dont want to pile on too much...
alright let me wrap this up. if you can, email me: mokou[at]miluda.com
ReplyDeletei feel like i can help out a lot more if youre not anonymous haha cause i wanna be able to see your work and where you're at skill wise to provide some feedback and etc. please dont be shy or anything at all as you can see by me typing for about 20 hours i love to talk and share stuff especially if someone is eager to learn!