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I always feel embarrassed to tweet things like this, but I’ve been asked about how I spent 2 years learning art, so I will explain my my daily routine, and how I study/practice in this thread.
Please understand I have no formal art education so this is just my own thing
Please understand I have no formal art education so this is just my own thing
My first attempt was drawing Orie and Bulbasaur, but I quickly found that Orie was too hard for me, so I spent about a month drawing Pokémon because they were made up of basic shapes for me to get used to. I learned to shade spheres and very basic lighting.
After I became comfortable drawing basic Pokémon, I started practicing human hands and eyes every day. This is an exercise I have done daily for the past 2 years:
Every morning, I warm up by drawing 6-10 hands doing random gestures, and 5-10 sets of eyes showing different emotion and from different angles. I do this because hands and eyes are so hard but very important, and I want to always practice them.
I studied human anatomy for about 3 months, and stopped coloring. I just drew the body shape of woman and studied the proportions, and focused on that, and delayed coloring for later.
When I became more comfortable drawing anime eyes, I began to draw head shots, then busts
When I became more comfortable drawing anime eyes, I began to draw head shots, then busts
Shading human character was very difficult, so I decided to focus on line art, and used crosshatching to learn basic shading without worrying about colors. I practiced where the shadows would form, and used crosshatching for about 2-3 months to learn basic human shading
When I became more familiar with anatomy and shading, I started studying poses from artists like shunao, Hong, INK, AkaiRiot, Mews, etc. I also began to use colors to shade and studied color theory while I was resting my hand from drawing.
After that, I threw out crosshatching altogether and began to cel shade and use lighting based on what I learned from studying other artists. I tried (and still do) using different blending methods, brushes, etc for different drawings.
Then I began practicing expressions and drawing things that I didn’t want to try like mechs, frills, skin shading, etc.
I also studied fashion a bit to try and not make Orie look like a fashion wreck.
I also studied fashion a bit to try and not make Orie look like a fashion wreck.
Each day, I spend about 5-9 hours drawing with breaks every hour or so. During the breaks, I’ll either eat, workout, or study art. Sometimes I’ll actually play uni or watch anime but that is rare
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I workout to not kill my body since drawing for long hours is really bad for you
I workout to not kill my body since drawing for long hours is really bad for you
Lastly, my biggest secret to improvement is my critics. I have a friend who I trust as well as my partner who is also an artist, & the 2 of them tear up my art every time I draw. They tell me the arm is awkward, the hip is too short, the color is weird. They help me tremendously.
They also provide encouragement, and help me to keep trying since art can be incredibly discouraging, especially mixed with social media.
Anyways, my goal and motivation for improvement has never changed. I love Orie and think she is the best character ever, and want to get better at art so I can one day draw something that will show other people how godlike she is
If anyone read this far, I hope you can find a thing or two that was useful. Enjoy drawing and draw what you love, and if you share your art on social media, appreciate the ones who cheer you on, and try to forget about the ones who want to tear you down.
I’m going to delete this thread later because I don’t want these pictures to be all over my media tab!