Advice for a young artist

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  • SleeplessWolf
    Registered User
    • Jan 2016
    • 3

    Advice for a young artist

    Hello PencilJack forums, I'm a beginner and I'm a bit overwhelmed with how much there is to learn.
    I figured what better place to ask for advice than a forum with a load of talented and skillful artist.
    I've heard that I should start with the basics, but my question is:
    What are the basics?
  • Pencilero
    Tactical Dingus
    • Jan 2005
    • 7155

    #2
    - Draw. Draw. Draw.
    - Go to local life drawing, be it free drawing at schools or at Doctor Sketchy groups.
    - Don't be afraid to copy from your heroes until you get comfortable.
    - Don't be afraid to screw up a lot.
    - Don't avoid the hard/boring stuff.
    - If you want to draw comics, start drawing them now. Learning how to fill a page, and mastering visual story telling is a different muscle than pin-up drawing.
    - Attach a price to your art and get to selling it.
    New and improved for 1996!
    Instagram: Pencilero

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    • SleeplessWolf
      Registered User
      • Jan 2016
      • 3

      #3
      Thank You!
      I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

      Comment

      • Smitty
        • Mar 2007
        • 3156

        #4
        Drawing is magic. It's a couple of tricks followed by decades of practice.

        Perspective is the #1 trick. EVERYTHING you will ever draw is governed by perspective. Some say light and dark but, light and dark are governed by perspective. Some say anatomy and construction but, anatomy and construction are governed by perspective. Until you can speak and think in "perspective" everything you draw will be wrong.

        Ernest Norling's "Perspective Made Easy" is the place to start. Many books offer examples or lessons but none match Norling's book for explaining how and why perspective works. (Andrew Loomis "Fun with a Pencil", "Successful Drawing" and "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" are all considered bibles for aspiring comics artists and all have excellent chapters on perspective as well. FWIW Loomis tells us to truly understand perspective, start with Norling.)

        Originally posted by Pencilero View Post
        Don't be afraid to screw up a lot.
        This is HUGE! The one thing that separates the artist from the audience is the artist's willingness to take a pratfall in public. I'm not talking slapstick, Jerry Lewis, fall down on purpose for a laugh. I mean Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty in Ishtar. These guys didn't sign on the make the worst film in Hollywood history. They tried their best, bombed in front of the world, picked themselves up and went back to work.

        You WILL screw up. A LOT! That's OK, we learn more from failure than success.
        PaulMartinSmith

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        • CyberLord
          • Oct 2010
          • 1281

          #5
          Back in the 1970's I submitted some pages to John Romita Sr. He was gracious enough to respond to my primitive attempts with a letter advising me on the five areas I failed. I submit them to you, to the best of my memory, as "the basics:"
          Perspective - Yes, Smitty was right,
          Anatomy,
          Faces,
          Environments,
          Storytelling.
          You indicate you are a "young artist" so I will keep my book recommendations to a minimum.
          "Draw Comics with Dick Giordano" Impact, ISBN 1-58180-627-2. This book covers EVERYTHING! Because it covers so much none of it is exhaustive. Still, for a new artist I am lost as to what would be a better book for learning how to create comic books.
          I used to recommend "The Five C's Of Cinematography" by Joseph V. Mascelli, but that's an old book intended for those making motion-pictures. A better book is "Framed Ink" Design Studio Press, ISBN 978-193349295-7.

          Good Luck.
          CyberLord
          Smashing 37 arch-villains into raisins with his bare-hands since 1971!

          Comment

          • SleeplessWolf
            Registered User
            • Jan 2016
            • 3

            #6
            Wow!
            Thank you, guys.
            I really appreciate the advice.

            @Smitty and @CyberLord
            I'll be sure to pick up a copy of these books.
            Thank You for the recommendation's.

            Comment

            • ssss6eight1
              • Oct 2010
              • 1208

              #7
              One thing that comes in handy is "learning to draw everything."
              That always seemed very intimidating and douchey to me. What, you have to know how to draw everything? That's a mandatory prerequisite for getting good? Your only hope otherwise is a crow-avoiding "It could happen if you do it that way, I guess..." obligatory response? Get the **** outta here.
              I learned a different way of looking at that, though. It's not necessarily about getting everything down, it's about learning how to draw a lot of stuff. More specifically, how you like to draw stuff. You can like to draw people one way and like how it looks and feels, but you may find that you don't enjoy drawing plants or metal that same way and don't enjoy how it looks as much. You don't learn to draw everything, but to affix your style to cars or trees or whatevs.
              It can help yous out a lot. I still prefer to encourage starting out with what you like, though. You can learn all that other shit later.

              Also, drawing all day, every day can help you get better, but it's not the hugely important step to improvement that a lotta people say it is. All doing that really does is show that you're dedicated, and it doesn't facilitate an intrinsic artistic improvement as much as it does keep your skills sharp. Unless you're borderline-autistic, being a workaholic helps nothing.
              Hayao Miyazaki even said that Otaku are ruining comics and cartoons because they have no life experience (a fair assessment.) I don't think there's not a connection between that statement and the idea that it's strongly encouraged to spend all your time training and working on your form if you wanna be a good artist.
              Point being: get life experience. Regular training can be a convenience, but don't be afraid to experiment with cocaine and to shoot some people. Maybe get into graffiti. Talk with your buddy and go like, "You wanna swap girlfriends/boyfriends?" Try cutting yourself a few times if your life's heading more in that kind of suicidal-direction (mine did.)
              You're young (I'm assuming), so if there's ever a time to do this, it's now. Stephen King wrote a big thing about that in the preface to the Dark Tower books.
              Crying over never-made sequels to underrated movies. All day, every day.

              DA
              PJ
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              Twitter

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              • Inkthinker
                Living in Canadian Paradise
                [SUPPORTER]
                • Nov 2001
                • 22577

                #8
                Take the long view... know that it takes years of practice to get good, years more to realize that what you thought was "good" wasn't all that great, and then more years to teach yourself to stretch beyond that into creating even better stuff.

                It's not gonna happen quickly. It's like learning kung fu, or guitar, you can't just start waving your arms around and get anywhere. You gotta practice at it, and you're gonna spend a long time being bad at it, and getting better in just little steps, and in time you get kinda good at it, and with more time and practice you might just be really great.

                But it doesn't happen quick. And that's pretty normal. Just keep at it.
                Last edited by Inkthinker; 01-22-2016, 11:53 PM.
                ONLINE PORTFOLIO
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                "If something's getting made, then someone's getting paid."

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                • michaelsammler
                  Member
                  • Sep 2015
                  • 258

                  #9
                  Thanks for asking SleeplessWolf. I'm a newbie as well and now know what books to look for after i finish my anatomy books.
                  michaelsammler.tumblr.com

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