Hello

[MagneticScrolls]

Hello, I'm 31, from Houston, Texas. I decided to join this forum in order to get help since I'm having a lot of trouble learning even the most basic things about drawing . I started taking drawing seriously back when I was 20. I ended up going to a local university for classes. I primarily wanted to study drawing but ended up taking painting, digital imaging and, graphic design as well. This did not go well at all. These classes were nightmarishly bad but, in the opposite way of how most people online talked about their art courses. Instead of having professors who would tear up work or yell at students, every class I had was with ones who would refuse to critique and simply told everyone they were doing fine. Very little was actually taught in these classes and the handouts had minimal information. I tried hounding them for answers but, they simply told me I was doing fine.  By the time I graduated I had a bachelor's degree in art yet, made absolutely zero progress towards any of my goals. I have heard of the degree not mattering but, i had hoped to at least learn the skills needed to get started. Instead, I learned absolutely nothing about drawing to spite my best efforts. I had no contacts and found no local communities that have even remotely similar interests. Worst of all my prospects for getting any sort of job in the field were abysmal. I even tried classes outside of college. My experiences with those were even worse.

I have also had a hard time with books. I recall going through the exercises in Betty Edward's "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and just ending up confused. Supposedly it was intended to help with symbol drawing but, I was not able to put anything from it into use. I'm lost on how to improve.

I checked out the Daggers discord but, I don't feel as though I'm anywhere near the skill level that the people who post there are. I'm still stuck on some very basics concepts. 

[John]

I believe Amit gave you golden advice on how to jump start your craft.

I checked out the Daggers discord but, I don't feel as though I'm anywhere near the skill level that the people who post there are. I'm still stuck on some very basics concepts.

I think you missed the point of that place. Even though I personally treat it as a place to horse around, I think it's made precisely for any artist on any level to connect and help each other, just like this forum. I don't think anyone there is that arrogant to dismiss anyone's work as unworthy.

I do hope you put yourself through the wringer Amit setup for you. It's pretty much a 'wax on wax off' kind of ordeal, esp. draw a box and the accuracy training, but I think they will pay off eventually.

Hey man, hope you stick around. Post more work! Have a daily drawing regimen! Welcome to the Crimson Daggers!

[Artloader]

Hi there MagneticScrolls, welcome to Crimson Daggers :).

You're off to a good start there with those Loomis head sketches and I see you've already received some great advice about drawabox.com and accuracy training (Dorien Iten is excellent). I have studied from those resources myself and can say that they have boosted my skills hugely.

One thing that I am learning from my own art journey at the moment that I hope may help you is to focus more on process than on result.

I am trying to pour more energy into understanding the process, practicing it and eventually I hope to master it. Each time I start worrying about my end result, I re-focus back onto the process. In this way my process is slowly improving. I am finding that this approach minimises the fear that my end result won't be good enough because often, a good process will lead to a good end result. The more I experience this, the more confidence it gives me in the process.

Hope that helps, if not please disregard.

Also, good move on starting a sketchbook thread. The folks on here are very helpful and you should pick up some great tips and encouragement.

Good luck!

[xelfereht]

welcome and hope you just go harder dude, pretty sure this place is to get better at, better for you to be around people that are a bit ahead. more likely you will improve faster that way.
feel free to reach out if you need some help with anything.
everybody still learning and we all get discouraged from time to time.
dealing with the mental exhaustion and frustration/discouragement is something you have to practice at as much as the drawing side if you wanna be and artiiiiiiist