11-04-2014, 11:14 PM
Edit: Got double ninja'd! Some repeated info in here d:
You seem to have a pretty good intuition for the fundamentals at the moment. Most of what you need to know about the fundamentals you can simply learn from observing the real world and from studying photos and masters as you're already doing, however there are some good resources to give that extra step forward and help you along
I always recommend Scott Robertson to learn the very technical side of art (perspective, values, medium techniques etc). His current series of books ("How to Draw" and the soon to be released "How to Render") will probably cover juuust about everything there is to know about the fundamentals, besides anatomy. If you can afford dropping ~100$ for those two books you can pretty much say that you have the fundamentals covered. How to render isnt actually released as of yet, but How to draw was absolutely perfect so there is no reason this one won't be as well.
For human anatomy, definitely look through Burne Hogarth and/or andrew Loomis books and do studies of those. In my opinion, Hogarth's books are great for learning the way the body moves and how the pieces all fit together, while Loomis is more suited to learning proportions and realistic/semi-realistic (ie stylized) depictions of the human form. I have to say though that neither is exceptional on its own. They complement each other, but more importantly they help you study real life anatomy more accurately than just by guessing or copy-catting!
As for what to do, really just do whatever you enjoy doing the most. Definitely set aside time every single day to do studies for at least 2-3 hours, but also spend time using those studies in your own work so the knowledge isnt wasted. Literally every artist ever copies other people's work. What sets aside the good ones from the bad ones is that the good ones use the knowledge they discovered in the study in their work, to push it further. If you like drawing animals and creatures, do that. If you like drawing portraits, do that. if you like cars etc etc... Get good at something you like doing and someone somewhere will recognize you for it
With that said, It's also important to leave your comfort zone frequently so you don't end up in a rut. It's self evident but The more you push your art boundaries the more you'll be able to do, and the more likely you'll be able to discover what you really like doing and thus be hired for it at some point. I used to think characters were the only thing I'd like, and so avoided environments for a long time, but at some point I did one anyway and ended up liking it more than characters!
Hope that helps, if you have questions feel free to ask here or in the shoutbox, loads of helpful people around here :)
You seem to have a pretty good intuition for the fundamentals at the moment. Most of what you need to know about the fundamentals you can simply learn from observing the real world and from studying photos and masters as you're already doing, however there are some good resources to give that extra step forward and help you along
I always recommend Scott Robertson to learn the very technical side of art (perspective, values, medium techniques etc). His current series of books ("How to Draw" and the soon to be released "How to Render") will probably cover juuust about everything there is to know about the fundamentals, besides anatomy. If you can afford dropping ~100$ for those two books you can pretty much say that you have the fundamentals covered. How to render isnt actually released as of yet, but How to draw was absolutely perfect so there is no reason this one won't be as well.
For human anatomy, definitely look through Burne Hogarth and/or andrew Loomis books and do studies of those. In my opinion, Hogarth's books are great for learning the way the body moves and how the pieces all fit together, while Loomis is more suited to learning proportions and realistic/semi-realistic (ie stylized) depictions of the human form. I have to say though that neither is exceptional on its own. They complement each other, but more importantly they help you study real life anatomy more accurately than just by guessing or copy-catting!
As for what to do, really just do whatever you enjoy doing the most. Definitely set aside time every single day to do studies for at least 2-3 hours, but also spend time using those studies in your own work so the knowledge isnt wasted. Literally every artist ever copies other people's work. What sets aside the good ones from the bad ones is that the good ones use the knowledge they discovered in the study in their work, to push it further. If you like drawing animals and creatures, do that. If you like drawing portraits, do that. if you like cars etc etc... Get good at something you like doing and someone somewhere will recognize you for it
With that said, It's also important to leave your comfort zone frequently so you don't end up in a rut. It's self evident but The more you push your art boundaries the more you'll be able to do, and the more likely you'll be able to discover what you really like doing and thus be hired for it at some point. I used to think characters were the only thing I'd like, and so avoided environments for a long time, but at some point I did one anyway and ended up liking it more than characters!
Hope that helps, if you have questions feel free to ask here or in the shoutbox, loads of helpful people around here :)