# How do I get good/better at drawing?



## VoodooDolls (Jul 30, 2013)

copy the style of your favourite artist until you know intuitively how to trace every line, don't worry about your style because it will shape itself unconsciously even if all you did was copy until that moment you couldn't recognize who were you copying anymore. in other words your style will be the failed attempt at syncing perfectly to your muse.


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## incision (May 23, 2010)

Depends. Do you want to reproduce what you're perceiving or do you wish to create art? If it's the former, take a course or few, fixating on details, proportions, line quality, use of negative space and perspective. Or better yet, use your camera to reproduce. If you wish to create art, let loose deep inside, particularly on the symbolic level.


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## Lunacik (Apr 19, 2014)

Sybow said:


> Not really familiar in this place, but there most likely are people here who can draw wonderful things.
> 
> I would like to know how I can get better in drawing.
> I drew a bit last week, but I really seem to suck at it. I sucked at it on school aswell. I would like to become better at it.
> ...


Youre a T, so...analyzing has helped me as a T.
Break everything down to basic shapes.
If you can draw basic 3d shapes from any angle/perspective, you can draw just about anything.

use references.
and more references.

heres one everyone misses:
think in 3d.


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## Wisteria (Apr 2, 2015)

Practice by drawing still life, maybe go to an art class because you improve faster when there is an artist who can tell you how to improve. 

Also find your favourite medium and subject matter, something that suits you. A lot of artists are best at something in particular, such as drawing with pencil, sculpting, or painting.


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## starvingautist (Mar 23, 2015)

Drawing people in coffee shops & on the street, really helps you get posture down, and basically any life drawing is the best practice. And then drawing things without any reference at all.

Also, breaking visual appreciation into the most basic elements really helps understanding the form and beauty of physical objects, because a pleasing abstract image is based on the same visual principles we use to process physical things and figurative paintings (for example). So when constructing a face, say, you're using the same ideas as when you try to make squares harmonise. It helps you get a steady hand, too, if you go freehand.

Edit: You can actually use basic shapes to cause any basic emotion you like, probably. So in there are the fundamentals of expression.


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## Denature (Nov 6, 2015)

Sybow said:


> Not really familiar in this place, but there most likely are people here who can draw wonderful things.
> 
> I would like to know how I can get better in drawing.
> I drew a bit last week, but I really seem to suck at it. I sucked at it on school aswell. I would like to become better at it.
> ...


Welcome back to the forum!

I'm not an artist but maybe this puts me in a good position to understand where you're coming from.
I'd focus on trying to draw things from the internet. Either by just copying/recreating what you see or by watching tutorials for drawing online.

I recently drew a cat based on an online picture and it surprised me how well it turned out despite my below-average art skills haha.

I'd recommend breaking up pictures into manageable pieces. So instead of looking at the picture as a whole, look at the big shapes first, draw those, and then fill in the details once you've got the base down.

Good luck!


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## shinedowness (Dec 11, 2017)

In order to get better at drawing, you might read books, look at what you are doing with a relaxed but healthily focused attitude, develop a repetitve muscle memory where you absorb in what you are feeling with your hands, don't give up too long, and feel like you're thriving from this activity.


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## XionZa (Oct 27, 2017)

I am also trying to get better at drawing. I think I'll give that book a go. I mostly try to reproduce things I see, such as landscapes but also some scenes from my dreams that are particularly vivid.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

VoodooDolls said:


> copy the style of your favourite artist until you know intuitively how to trace every line, don't worry about your style because it will shape itself unconsciously even if all you did was copy until that moment you couldn't recognize who were you copying anymore. in other words your style will be the failed attempt at syncing perfectly to your muse.


It's so interesting and pleasing to me that you say this because I did precisely this for years and years simply because I loved certain artists and characters and styles so much. And it's exactly as you say. The attempts to replicate fail and personal style emerges, a phoenix from the ashes.


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## cooliosos (Jan 12, 2017)

One of my favorite websites is line-of-action.com. Set the timer on the pictures for 5 minutes, then 2, and so on. This will force you to get over any fear of messing up and just focus on working to get the image down as quickly and accurately as possible. It's also something you can fit into your life every day since you can make this as short of a thing as you want it to be.


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## Hexigoon (Mar 12, 2018)

You gotta suck first before you get good at something. I advise you get used to drawing with shapes. If you can draw basic shapes you will have the basic building blocks to draw pretty much anything. 

Get a whole bunch of cheap sketchpads and just draw draw draw. Fill em all up with what will probably be crappy, rough drawings. Who cares if they're bad, no one is going to see them, don't worry about it. Just find any excuse to practice. Use references or tutorials, consume other people's art. "Steal" from other people's styles that you like. Take what you like and make it your own thing. 

Most importantly, enjoy it!


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## TryptamineDream (Jun 22, 2016)

Draw from life and practice everyday. If you’ve been practicing since you posted this thread, you’ve probably seen some massive improvement


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## dulcinea (Aug 22, 2011)

I think it was touched on, but one of the first steps to drawing well is really seeing what's around you. Sometimes drawing a complex thing can be very intimidating, but it's not so bad, when you realize all complex shapes contain simplier shapes. Anything you look at, you can see circles, triangles, rectangles, paralellograms, etc., so if you can break down a complex shape into simpler shapes, it makes it easier to draw. You start with the simple shapes and you build on them, especially if you have a good eraser, lol. This is espeically important when drawing people.

This is how I draw people. This might not work for everyone, but it works for me. I spend time drawing out the shape of the face and each part of the face. I just practice until I have each part of the face looking right, like on one day, I might focus on the eyes, or another day, focus on the nose, or the hair, etc. Then when I put it all together, I start with a little barebones face, with simple shapes and the outlines of where each part of the face goes, then I build the face on top of the shapes. The hardest part, I find is shading it just the right way. It's sometimes hard to tell where the shading begins or ends, especially if the face has soft contours. It helps to pay attention to the light source and what direction it's in.


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