Learning to draw, online

[frugalone]

I'm so frustrated. I just signed up for an online drawing course "Back to Basics" thinking I would learn to draw (that's the way it was advertised). What I got was a few minutes' demos with the teacher showing how she did a contour drawing, pencil sketch, etc. Basics, yeah. REALLY basic. Nowhere does she actually tell the student HOW to draw. She just kind of says, "Here's how I do it" and lo and behold, she draws. With her 40+ years of experience, I'm sure it's real easy for her.

I feel like I got ripped off. I'm also starting to think no one can teach you how to draw online. They have to be there to help correct your mistakes. Or, maybe there should be some sort of forum where you post your work, and get feedback.

What do you think? Can you learn to draw "online"?

[JaneV2.0]

I think drawing is a matter of learning to see, plus practice. I have a few drawing sites in my Newsfeed, and the work they turn out is awe-inspiring. Sometimes they provide before and after pix from when they started and now. If you don't already have it, I recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards--you can get it at the library to take it for a test drive. Keep looking.

ETA: There are a number of YouTube videos to get you started.

[Dhiana]

I think drawing is a matter of learning to see, plus practice. I have a few drawing sites in my Newsfeed, and the work they turn out is awe-inspiring. Sometimes they provide before and after pix from when they started and now. If you don't already have it, I recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards--you can get it at the library to take it for a test drive. Keep looking.

ETA: There are a number of YouTube videos to get you started.

+1 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

I just read the book and did the exercises, and practiced! It really worked magic for me. Picked up my book from a used book store, absolutely worth it!

[frugalone]

I have heard many good things about that book. I will look for it in the library.
Thanks!

[flowerseverywhere]

I am an artist. The most important thing you can do is draw. Everyday. You don't need a lot of money. A sketch pad and a pencil. Fancy pencils can come later. Draw trees, flowers, flowerpots, a chair, pets, fruit, shoes. Pay attention to perspective and proportion, and negative space. I agree with the book, but take out all the drawing books as you go on.

Here is as fabulous website that shows how I aspire to draw.
http://valwebb.wordpress.com

[iris lilies]

There are hundreds of "how to draw/paint" books published every year, really great and inspirational ones. Look into what your public library has.

[Gardenarian]

There are also tons of drawing tutorials available on Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/). Just enter what you want to draw - for example, "flower tutorial". My daughter loves that site.

[frugalone]

There are also tons of drawing tutorials available on Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/). Just enter what you want to draw - for example, "flower tutorial". My daughter loves that site.
Didn't know that about Deviant Art. I like to visit there to get free Photoshop brushes. Thanks!
Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions! I just got a book out of the library today called "Your Artist's Brain" that talks about why it can be difficult to translate what we see into what we draw.

[artist]

As a gallery artist and instructor, I can tell you that learning to draw is as much about about learning to as it is learning technique. Basics such as contour and blind contour drawing are essential to learning to see. Understanding tone,value contrast, perspective, composition and shading are what will make a drawing three dimensional.

Generally speaking the only way to learn to draw is to actually get some real basics under your belt and draw. I have students ask me all the time what the secret to learning to draw is. I tell them drawing is the only way to become better. I draw something everyday, even if just sketching and not working on a piece for a show. In fact I often find that sketching for a few weeks between doing finish work will result in a much better composition.

The best way to learn to draw is in a studio class with other students and an instructor. I recommend group lessons because the imput and feedback you get from other students and what you hear and see of their work during a class critique is just as valuable as the input of the instructor. Contact your local arts league tr artists society and see of they offer workshops or basic instruction. Theses are working artists who are currently showing their work I exhibitions. Costs usually runaround $125-150 for a 6-8 week course.

[Gardenarian]

+1 artist

My life drawing class in college was a life-changing experience.

[catherine]

My story as an "artist" (in quotes because I do not consider myself worthy of the title):

My mother was good friends in high school with a woman who eventually set up an art school in our town. It was really for adults, but because I had an "in" and my mother convinced her friend that I was talented, I got to go to art classes on Friday nights--the only 11 year old among adults.

I remember sitting there, doing what I was doing, and then getting bored, and then out of boredom, working on my drawing or painting a little more, and listening to the adults, and seeing what they were doing, and then Mom came to pick me up. So that backs up artist's post--the only way to learn to draw is to draw.

I remember so many "boring" Friday nights where it was "well, I might as well finish this drawing because there's nothing else to do."

When I look back, it was such a great experience my mother and her high school friend gave me. (Except for the Christmas party, when they were all eating hot peppers and they taunted me to try one, and then laughed hysterically when I ran to the bathroom to spit one out--I think turpentine or linseed oil would have tasted better!).

[sylvia]

I agree perhaps you could join at your local rec center or classes through the park district, tracing pictures like on coloring books and practicing contours. Everyone draws differently too technique is important and style is different like a voice in the song. Dont give up and maybe you could get a refund from your online course. Youtube is good on videos too.I am an artist went to art school got a degree in illustration but I just dont draw it's a strange irony.

[Williamsmith]

I used to draw wildlife as a young man but once I started my career I never went back to drawing. I never learned from anyone, but I recall taking out books from the library and being inspired. Now that I am retired and have been stricken with an unknown illness that limits my time outside.....I want to get back into drawing. Reading these opinions has helped.

id like to know if anyone here thinks artist ability is inherited or learned. My father was amazing. He liked to draw caricatures of people and cartoons.

[Zoe Girl]

[QUOTE=flowerseverywhere;168852]I

Here is as fabulous website that shows how I aspire to draw.
http://valwebb.wordpress.com[/QUOT

I like the course on drawing horses, it would be great to work on drawing dragons and the horse body would be perfect practice.

[JaneV2.0]

I used to draw wildlife as a young man but once I started my career I never went back to drawing. I never learned from anyone, but I recall taking out books from the library and being inspired. Now that I am retired and have been stricken with an unknown illness that limits my time outside.....I want to get back into drawing. Reading these opinions has helped.

id like to know if anyone here thinks artist ability is inherited or learned. My father was amazing. He liked to draw caricatures of people and cartoons.

I think everything is inherited--well, almost everything (see studies of identical twins raised apart) :idea:--but you can build on genetically encoded skills. I guess with no inherent talent, you could study and work toward proficiency in some chosen field, but having an inborn head start and a natural inclination certainly helps.

[kib]

I remember an advanced version of show and tell in high school, where one talented young woman set out to show us how to draw. She sat down and said "I'm drawing a pencil here". And drew a photo-perfect pencil she was holding in her other hand. We asked, "but how do you do that", and she was mystified. "You just draw what you see!"

I think it's possible to learn technique and tricks and to eventually become quite good at drawing. But I also believe that "drawing what you see" is an innate talent for eye-hand translating, or maybe for filtering out logic (a circle is round so even if I'm standing to the side of it, it should be round) and following what your eye really sees and not what your 'educated' brain wants to tell you.

-- I can sculpt what I see, and I can carve reasonably well, but I can't draw for beans. Apparently for me, feeling a shape under my fingers is completely different from drawing a shape.

[JaneV2.0]

I took high school art classes with two individuals who--effortlessly, it seemed--drew like professionals. One drew perfect fashion illustrations and the other focused on landscapes. I doubt either of them spent much time at it; one dedicated himself to music mostly. Meanwhile, I struggled on.

[Mary B.]

i love "drawing on the right side of the brain," as others have mentioned. It was life-changing for me. I recently took a drawing class with an instructor who used some of the exercises, and some of her own, and it was big fun. (Nice to be in the company of others learning.)

I am not a big believer in biology/genetics as responsible for things like drawing. It really does seem to involve a shift in perception to transform the three-dimensional, moving world into the still, two-dimensional image. Some people seem to blunder into it as little kids, while others need to have it shown to them.

The thing that surprised me in the drawing class was perspective drawing. I hadn't tried it at all, and found that, lo and behold, there are rules! And it's actually quite straightforward to just make the basic shapes of a basic image using it!

[Gardenarian]

I agree that "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a really helpful book, though not all the techniques worked for me. Doing the exercises in the book does teach how to actually see, rather than think you know what you are looking at. Chris Hart has some good drawing books; they are geared toward kids but have a lot of useful tips.

A lot of it is just practice - working on making your darks truly dark, finessing the light areas, learning your tools (different pencils, charcoal, pens, erasers, stumps, papers, angle finder, rulers, etc.)

A less frustrating way to draw is to get a photo of what you want and trace it (using a light box or holding it up to a window.) The basic layout and proportions are the hardest part to get right, and this gives you them right off the bat. Then you can focus on lights, darks, textures. Photos from calendars are good for practice. If it is hard to trace because there is writing or another picture on the back, make a photocopy of the drawing and trace that. A lot of artists I know work primarily from photos.

But it's good to practice to use your eyes. It's better to have a drawing that has some life to it, some of yourself in it, than to try and make something look like a photograph.

It's also helpful to pick up some pre-cut mat boards in different sizes. Sometimes just holding the mat and framing your drawing (or re-framing it - taking just a section) will make you see it differently.

I think anyone can learn to draw. Some people have more of a natural instinct for it, but the basic drafting can certainly be taught and learned.

[sylvia]

My high school art teacher once told me that she wanted to be an art teacher and she had no "Talent" but had to learn the techniques and work twice as hard while I just did naturally.I agree that if you want to start drawing tracing from things that are technical like coloring books or furniture manuals anything with an outline first to learn contouring then shading. But practice is essential.Just stick with the tool that is most simple for you, i can pencil sketch anything but painting is a challenge, watercolor is very hard for me I have to work at it.I even tried Japanese ?Chinese paint bruh techniques but was too impatient however its worth pursuing since its very sophisticated minimalist and simple yet profound. Then there is the challenge that you are your own worst critic while others are absolutely impressed. So it's a complicated way of self-expression.