I want to get better at drawing!

LiosStudiosLiosStudios Member Posts: 53
in Art, Graphics, Music and Sound
I am almost done with my first app. I am really proud of my it. I just wish I was better at drawing. I use a bamboo tablet that I am more than happy with. I use PS CS6 Extended Edition to work on my art, I am also happy with that. I was just wondering if you guys have any other softwares you use, Or any tutorials that could help further my graphic design quality. Thanks!

Tpapa

Comments

  • DjipDjip Member Posts: 45
    I could also use some tutorials, i also have a bamboo tablet and PS CS6 ^_^
  • LiquidGameworksLiquidGameworks Anchorage, AKMember, Sous Chef Posts: 956
    Well, software isn't going to make your art better, at least not beyond what you're already using. If you want to try expanding into simple vector style art, SpriteAttack has offered some useful tutorials. http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/33009/spriteattacks-art-tutorials/p1
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  • GeniusbearGeniusbear Member Posts: 107
    Well the best thing you can do to improve your art it using Adobe Illustrator, its a great program to make vector art (resizeable without losing quality). My tip is always draw on paper, scan this into your computer and redraw it with the pentool thats how I do it.

    Gr. GeniusBear
  • SpriteAttackSpriteAttack Member Posts: 524
    It depends on your skill level and your passion for drawing... If you enjoy drawing, get a sketchbook and draw, draw and draw some more (don't expect it all to be perfect and usable in your game - it's for fun and practice only).

    If you have a hard time drawing and a stickman is already a major challenge I would suggest inkscape (as it's free and great to try out vector art) and read my tutorials either here on the tread the @LiquidGameworks pointed out before or on my blog '2D gameart for programmers' http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.com.au/

    @Geniusbear - I tend to disagree... Illustrator is a) very expensive (and don't tell me it's easy to get a free version) and b) rather cumbersome when it comes to e.g. editing nodes, working with multiple pages, working with gradients. It's ability to seamlessly work with photoshop on the other hand is a major plus. For beginners I personally find the learning curve a little too steep.
  • GeniusbearGeniusbear Member Posts: 107
    @SpriteAttack, well I had many problems with GIMP I dont understand it also when I checked out your tuts I wasnt able to remake them. And I've a bought version of Illustrator
  • mrpacogpmrpacogp Member Posts: 400
    Draw for me its the same to do music.
    You can learn how to do it, but have the "art" its a little more hard.
    I have Just do it some graphics, with a good technich, but SpriteAttack are showme how to do it better.


  • LiosStudiosLiosStudios Member Posts: 53
    @SpriteAttack your tutorials are great and have really inspired me. I'm super excited to look into vector art instead using pixel art! Thank you lots!
  • LooseMooseLooseMoose Member Posts: 224
    What I've recently done is found an art style that really inspired me then brought a how to draw book for it. Then just get practicing with pencil to paper.

    I use my bamboo with illustrator as I often find myself needing to resize my art, also if you have a scanner it can be quite helpful to scan in hand-drawn art then go over the lines on your pc with your bamboo.
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  • SpriteAttackSpriteAttack Member Posts: 524
    @Kyukon - With decent cameras build into mobile phones you don't really need a scanner when you want to paint over a sketch. Snap a photo and use it as a background in a locked layer and draw on a new layer above it.

    I you do very detailed pencil or ink work and want to use that with just a bit of smoothing and cleaning up then a scanner is the way to go.
  • old_kipperold_kipper Member Posts: 1,420
    Much sense has been said by @spriteattack. There is no substitute for practice and this I believe is best done on paper (drawing with a tablet is like drawing with a lipstick, and a mouse- like a bar of soap). The old adage that we can all become an expert after 10,000 hours is probably true but that is not to say that we can get usable results after far fewer. So just draw, and draw and draw. It's frustrating, fun, and useful. A cheap note book that you can shove in your pocket with a pen, and can use to practice, experiment, amuse yourself, develop an idea is more than valuable. I have a house full of paper and a bin full of dead fibre tips (A point 0.3 fibre tip lasts me about 4 days, but at about $3 a very cheap tool, and a $5 note pad- about a month). If you want to get flash with your drawing materials you can upgrade your paper to something like Letraset bleedproof marker pad and enjoy a paper that will allow your pen to glide over the surface and produce a really nice line. OH JOY!... It is lovely stuff... (drawing on the wrong paper is painful and reduces the fun).

    On actual drawing there are a few things that might be said.

    Things are made up from lines and shapes. @spriteattack demonstrates this in all of this tutorials. Think small and simple and put lots of these simple things together to make something complex. It may take time, but there is no short cut.

    Trace and revise until you can draw without revision. And then you might still want to trace and revise. But sometimes there is something in the style of an early freehand drawing. If this is the case- Don't loose it. Its probably what your after.

    If you find a process, a group of sketches, a character, an idea, things are working. Use them, develop them, play with them.

    Try drawing big, small, any size, with any material that comes to hand. It might just be that place that works for you. Mervyn Peake who wrote and illustrated Gromangast, spent a lot of time in his bedsit doodling on the walls (which were old and cracked and with his additions made fantastic landscapes). While I would not advise it, I have to admit that I spent most of my school career, embellishing desk tops and text books.

    Look at stuff that floats your boat. Lunatic illustrators have been around since cavemen. And a lot of them have done really cool stuff. As kid I looked at old maps, plans for aeroplanes and ships, diagrams of how to put furniture together, cartoons in Mad magazine, engravings. Just anything that I thought was cool. Its all still knocking about in the murky depths of my fuddled brain and turns up in distorted combinations that spew out of my pen... and surprises me still.

    Its not just enough to make something that does that job. If you can put in something that delights. This can be detail in helicopter or strange noses on aardvarks. Herge who did Tintin was stunning in his precision on technical detail of everything, while the interaction of the background characters in Giles cartoons kept me amused for hours. It's entertainment.

    And so old kipper rambled on... buy mostly he was just trying to get others to enjoy drawing, and get them to the point where they drew things that amused others.

  • SpriteAttackSpriteAttack Member Posts: 524
    @old_kipper - been missing that sort of 'rambling'... nice one!
  • TesseractEngineTesseractEngine Member Posts: 180
    Excellent advice from @SpriteAttack and @old_kipper! All I can do is echo it. There's only one way to improve your art skills:

    Practice. Practice. Practice.

    If you want to be able to draw, you must draw.
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  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772
    Agree with the comments directly above, if you truly want to draw better you just need to practice drawing, anything and everything. When practicing it does not really matter what tool(s) you use as you should be more concerned with your drawing technique and vision/style as opposed to the tools you are using.

    Once you are able to draw what you have in your mind then you can worry about learning the ins and outs of Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.

    There are a ton of online drawing lessons, the first I found on Google was:
    http://www.drawspace.com/

    http://jamie-cross.net/posts/   ✮   Udemy: Introduction to Mobile Games Development   ✮   Learn Mobile Game Development in One Day Using Gamesalad   ✮   My Patreon Page

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