Drawing Lessons
Now, a lot of people have looked at my drawings and said "I could never do that!" Sorry to disprove all of you when you say that, but you CAN do that with practice and hard work. I'll show you how I started in 2003, and show you how you can go from drawings like what I used to do to what I do now with almost as much hard work!
Example
This was done in 2003. Now, take a good look and think about your body. What's missing? What's wrong? If you think and look carefully, you'll notice 1. no hands, 2. no ears, 3. no shadows, 4. the hair looks like a wig!, 5. the body proportions are totally wrong!
Now, look at this one of July 2007. Notice the differences? She has ears, earrings too! She has hands, shadows, too! Her proportions are leaning toward fashion figure proportions, but they're still correct. There's even a shine to her hair.
Now, I'm not saying jump right in with watercolor and draw her, but she is a good example to work from. The dress isn't too shabby, either, huh? That, for me, is the difference between 2003 and 2007. I'm not saying spend almost every day for 5 years drawing, though it wouldn't hurt, it is time consuming. I'll try to break down 5 years of work into simpler lessons that my college Life Drawing teacher used to help me immeasurably! 12 weeks and my drawings were well on their way to looking like they do now. Classes are helpful, but practice and research have paid off for me. I have a pretty good sized library of reference books and I'm always looking for the next one that may help in some form. Now, how can I show you these easier methods of character art? Simple: I'll start with the basics.
What are the basics? Some sources say simple shapes, others offer boxy structures. Me, I'm only offering one concept that has worked for me and since evolved. So, to start with, I'm going to introduce to you something that's very familiar to everyone who's ever picked up a crayon and tried to draw people: the stick figure. From the stick figure, humans may evolve on your paper! We will try to create the human figure from this basic structure.
What these tutorials are based on
I'm also going to keep this set of tutorials similar to the Life Drawing classes I took at Lake Tahoe Community College. Starting the same way my teacher did when I took beginning Life Drawing Winter 2006. I'll continue through the classes from Fall 2007. David Foster, I know you know about this site, send me ideas and stuff that'll help encourage people to enjoy drawing. I'm basing these tutorials off of your class!! If I miss something critical, please let me know!
