The IDEAL Forum

Hey folks,

This one is directed towards the guys in here who work as designers. I think there are some around or at least people who are into art. There are some questions i would like to ask. First of all i used to draw a lot as a child and teenager with main focus on prehistoric and surreal creatures. That's because i loved dinosaurs above everything and dragons were fking cool too. One thing that always bothered me doe was that i was fixed at drawing 2D. A slight change in perspective was doable, such as a head pointing towards the viewer of the picture but as soon as i tried to apply it to the whole body i ended up having weird propotions that weren't natural. How do i improve myself here? There are plenty of guides for human, anime and *cough* MLP *cough* "characters" *cough* but not particulary what i would like to draw. I could make a quick sketch and upload it later if required.
The second thing is that i am still relativly new to drawing at the computer. I bought myself a graphic tablet 3 years ago but never really had the time to get back at it so the only thing it was good for was as a dust catcher. Luckily it still works perfectly fine. It's this model:

Bamboo CTH-460

I think it's ok enough for a non-professional like me. As software i am going to use PS CS6. Do you guys prefer something else? If yes, why? Is there something you want to recommend me?

And last but not least:

Where can i present my works? I'm talking about a plattform that will hopefully give me a chance to get some criticism from viewers on things that i could improve. I tried my luck at deviantART but the constant flow of new images drowns the site and makes it almost impossible to draw attention to you. Especially while having dozens of MLP images being uploaded at the same time which magically get all the viewers... I mean come on, no one clicked on this image with which i tried my luck:



(The image is 6 years old, i used a different tablet back then but it broke shortly after which forced me to take a "break". It was one of my first attempts ever of PC coloring)

Is there some other website i can use? I bet the situation isn't any better than it used to be, probably even worse. I'm not after the whole cake but at least some crumbs would be fine.
I would like to thank you guys in advance.

Draw ponies, get views. Easy. Or draw weeaboo shit. For instance Hentai. Or Loli. The nerds dig that.

Here as addition to the first part, a quick sketch on paper. I'm not happy about the leg :/

tough decision, i was never into arts cause i think its a waste of time besides of the own detraction which i could accept hobby wise. but all dudes who have this source of inspiration most likely engage their expressions in more than one field so you probably should try real drawing with colours or hands.

Im practically in the same situation, i even own the same tablet.
I draw really rarely so its just a fun hobby for me. To become actually better, only one thing is needed: practice, shitload of practice(what i lack). Fuck the guides, not usefull at all, you can develop your own tecniques and stuff with experience, so yeah. Practice.
Here is an example of shit i do:

Looks like a girl with a doge face

DkNs wrote:Im practically in the same situation, i even own the same tablet.
I draw really rarely so its just a fun hobby for me. To become actually better, only one thing is needed: practice, shitload of practice(what i lack). Fuck the guides, not usefull at all, you can develop your own tecniques and stuff with experience, so yeah. Practice.
Here is an example of shit i do:

i'd do her

This is beautiful and an Inspiration at the same time. Thanks for sharing DkNs. Just as you i barely have time to practice. I thought i could do so in lectures just like back in the school days but they are actually very informative and i don't want to miss out content.

Real men draw with mouse and MS Paint.

Bowser_nl wrote:Real men draw with mouse and MS Paint.

Real students spend their time hand drawing instead for studying

Someone said hand drawing?

Bowser_nl wrote:Someone said hand drawing?

Spoiler:

Tried to redraw the owl.

Yeah, practice is pretty much most of what is needed to l2d. Id say that guides and such shit will mostly just teach you how to copy the shit that they show you and not actually develop much of a general skill. But i guess some guides/tips can be valuable. I studied industrial design and as such was drawing at the university in different courses for 4 years. Id say i dont draw that well anyway. Why? because i didnt ever in my life bother to draw outside of what was required of me. And the times i sketch/ed something for work/personal use it would be mostly what could be called diagrams. I have this bad habit of having everything in my mind and using written or drawn instructions only as very simple clues that allow me to reconstruct the whole picture in my mind (kinda like having a mathematical equation that can have many applications). The unfortunate thing is that after some time i might simply forget too much and my "clues" no longer make sense to me. But i guess that has nothing to do with the topic.

But i did like rendering stuff and modelling stuff either in various software or with my hands.

That looks cool. Did you guys build it too?

BoogieM wrote:

Spoiler:

a group project with which we had insane fun, just trolling around and coming up with some ridiculous shit for weeks and then finally coming up with it all and actually making it happen during basically a weekend

That looks cool. Did you guys build it too?

yeah, a simple mockup, even found some photos in my mail

Awesome. Outlandish design!

What you guys have posted has motivated me a lot. I realised that i need to start over with some basics again like references from other pictures to get a feeling for how it has to look like. Oh and ofc practice, practice and even more practice. This is the best i can produce so far with my pencil:



It's far from being perfect but it's something i can work with. I consider it as a sketch. During the week i will use it to get familiar with pc coloring again and try out some different techniques and brush presets.
Thanks again for sharing your stuff guys, this is the kind of inspiration i need.

frankly speaking i was amazed enough when i was nearly able to draw a circle and a straight line while study since we had to do so much engineering drawing.

i disliked drawing and singing music for me being so bad at it as you need alot of patience and training and i never had the dedication to train for that.

on the other hand doing stuff with CAT or MAYA really makes fun, i am probably just a nerd who needs technical support as much as he can

Brati007 wrote:on the other hand doing stuff with CAT or MAYA really makes fun

Brengland detected.