How can I draw as well as you do?
This is always a tricky question to be honest, because the answer is pretty much what everyone else already said a million times already, and usually not what people want to hear: practice, draw every day, study techniques, etc. Also to add some perspective, I am currently 28 years old and I’ve been drawing since childhood and more seriously since I was around 13 and drawing digitally in a more dedicated way since I was around 16. To be honest, I am nowhere near done learning, I still have a long way to go even though I’ve learned a lot and like how my art is currently.
So you see how this question always bugs me a lot - there is no shortcut, or magical tip or trick, you will learn the thing only if you do the thing, and do it again and over and over again.
WOO a FAQ thingy kinda happened idk.
> Alright but where do I start?
People always say to start from basic drawing, drawing shapes, shading those cones and boxes and spheres, and that’s probably the best way, I think. I never did any of that, I went straight into trying to draw humans and animals and all of that, and that probably fucked me up in the long run, lol - I honestly should be a lot better in anatomy and backgrounds and perspective than I am now, and I believe I suck at all of those things precisely because I skipped all the basics, so please, don’t follow my lead on this. There are a lot of books and channels on YT you can learn from like Andrew Loomis (books), James Gurney (books and YT)and Stan Prokopenko (on YT). Information has never been easier to get, so take advantage of it. Read and watch all the tutorials and videos you can find and think of - even if they are not the style you like, or aspire to have, even if they look kinda amateur, if they are long, if they are short. I am literally a tutorial hoarder/addict, sometimes I realize I watch way too many art videos. But like, enjoy the thing, try not to stress a whole lot about getting better all the time, at practicing all the time, god only knows I’ve drawn more fanarts and the most bizarre crossovers of stuff I love simply because I wanted to. Do that.
> How can I find motivation to draw / to draw everyday?
I’m literally the fucking worst to ask that, mate. Don’t follow my lead on that, either - I am the most undisciplined, de-motivated person in the entire universe. I literally am typing this at 6AM because I have no sleeping schedule, and that’s only the beginning lol. Usually I only draw when I am not motivated when it’s work related - I force myself to do it, and it always works to be honest, the worst part is beginning anything but once you are doing it gets a lot easier. So yeah, I think that’s something, you can’t rely on ~the inspirationTM~ to come, sometimes you have to do stuff even when you don’t want to (and I do this more times than I want to admit in many areas of my life, and it usually ends up being good that I did the thing, for example going out to see people and etc (not flashnews but I have a lot of anxiety and depression comes and goes often)). Try leaving drawing materials and tools at hand, in an easy place for you to gather and start drawing right away, that also helps.
> Hm… but I don’t have the proper materials / tools.
Already answered that in a much more elaborated post. TL;DR, you don’t need fancy shit to draw, I literally love to draw with ballpoint pens and colored pencils on printing paper. If you can do stuff with cheap tools, than you are good with anything else really. Same goes for digital, while some tools like a tablet makes things easier, it certainly shouldn’t be the deal breaker (I only got my first tablet in 2009, I was painting with a mouse before that). Also, there are tablets out there by Monoprice and Huion that are like 50 USD, that’s a good start yo.
> Yeah, but how do I find my style?
Beginners don’t have an art style, period. I certainly didn’t have one until like years later, and I am constantly changing that bitch because I get so easily bored over doing the same things on the same ways over the time. Style is also something that happens over time, you get the way of drawing noses of this artist, drawing eyes from anime/manga style, you draw animals in a Disney-esque style, and that keeps changing as you get different perspectives and find different artists. Don’t stress about it now, it literally is not the time to think about it, focus on learning the basic stuff first.
> But where do you get your inspiration from?
From where everyone takes their inspiration from - from their things they personally enjoy. I don’t think anyone wants to hear how much I love Within Temptation or Harry Potter or William Bouguereau or the mythology of bizarre-looking angels and gods with multiple glowing eyes, animal body parts and holding expressions of a seizure-looking trance, so yeah, here it is, I like fantasy, I like music, I like women, I like animations, I like dark, mysterious themes, I like glitter. I have a Pinterest, in case you wanna look at the things I think are cool.> How do you paint X / can you show how to paint Y / can you make tutorials of Z?
It’s very unlikely I will do any tutorials anytime soon, because as you see, I am garbage to explain things lol. Specially in a more clear, organized manner. I have speedpaints on Youtube and I have some old walkthroughs [X], [X], they are super old and outdated and cringy af, but they might help you.> But how do you draw so fast?I would hardly say taking 9 up to 50 hours in full paintings is fast, but I guess you might be referring to my 3h-ish portraits - that’s because portraits are a thing I love to paint, and I’ve been doing them for over a decade. The more you do the thing, the faster you are doing the thing.
TL;DR: There isn’t any, read the goddamn thing jfc.
Well, I guess that’s it? As I said I am literally garbage to explain things clearly, but I think this was helpful somehow in some weird way.
