r/learntodraw Jan 08 '19

Welcome to /r/learntodraw! Here's the sidebar and rules (read this first if you're on mobile or use Reddit redesign)

557 Upvotes

New to drawing? Let us help you learn how to get started!

Drawing is a skill, not a talent. It doesn't matter if you can draw or not, with practice you can be the best. We welcome you to our community. Learn with us, the future artists of reddit.

Good luck!

Practice trumps talent!

Message the mods

  • Questions

  • Suggestions

  • request or nominate someone for "Quality Poster" flair (poster gets a blue flair)

New to Drawing?

DAY 1: First day of Drawing? Start here!

DAY 2: Grid Drawing

DAY 3: Still Lifes

Beginner's book: "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" (referral link to Amazon)

Learn drawing cartoons in 30mins: https://www.ted.com/talks/graham_shaw_why_people_believe_they_can_t_draw?language=en

After day 3, have fun and set goals!

Also check out drawabox.com

FAQ

Quick & Dirty Drawing FAQ

  • Do I need talent?

  • How do I develop a style?

Free Resources

Loomis:

Free Art Books on drawing humans (pdf)

Recommended books:

  • Beginners: "Fun with a Pencil"
  • Intermediate: "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth"

Proko:

Free Youtube Tutorials on Drawing Humans

Proko paid courses

Ctrl+Paint:

Free tutorials on digital art

Drawing Discord Chat: open for suggestions!

Leave comments for other posters. Have fun!

Rules

  1. No HATE

  2. No SPAM

  3. No porn, extreme gore, hateful/political art

  4. tag NSFW for nudity/gore after posting

Filter by Flair

Critique

Just Sharing

Tutorial

Question

Challenges and Sketchbuddies

CLEAR FLAIR

Related Subreddits

Doing Art:

/r/ArtFundamentals [QUALITY RESOURCE]

/r/RedditGetsDrawn/

/r/ArtProgressPics

/r/DigitalArtTutorials

/r/Drawing

/r/Work_In_Progress/

/r/ArtBuddy

Seeing Art:

/r/SpecArt/


r/learntodraw 13h ago

Ripped this up last night from emotional breakdown

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1.3k Upvotes

I feel like I just lost all ability to draw. 🫩 Ever since school started it’s like when I sit down I don’t know where to start. I went ahead and did this last night and ended up hating it. Sorry Howl


r/learntodraw 6h ago

Question Why do they look so much different each time i draw them?

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246 Upvotes

I've been continuosly drawing anime character faces for a couple of weeks because I hated how much different they are each time. But even after all this time i still cant draw them consistently. The difference is even greater when i try to draw them from different angles


r/learntodraw 9h ago

Question I don’t understand

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273 Upvotes

I don’t know how to blend the colors and shadows at all and I feel the shadows are too hard or stiff I’m unsure how to describe it.
If you have any tips please help!

If you have any unrelated tips please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m at a level where nothing said can be too harsh (evidently).


r/learntodraw 7h ago

Just Sharing 12/15yrs 3 year improvement

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113 Upvotes

r/learntodraw 7h ago

Zero progress

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90 Upvotes

I don’t know how to improve, and have considered quitting at times (or at least taking a break)

I’ve been drawing for around a year or two and I’ve made some progress since I started I think but I just feel like Im not yet good enough to make anything ā€œgoodā€ or at least something I think is cool. Pretty much everything I’ve drawn has been these kinds of figure drawings and almost all of them are from reference. I feel like I know nothing bro.

Even if I am able to somewhat accurately copy a reference, I just feel like it doesn’t matter if I don’t know what I’m looking at and I’m just copying it line for line.

I feel like the only reason I’ve drawn for as long as I have is just the mindset of ā€œbe ok with being badā€ which has been a pretty useful mindset for me most times, but sometimes improving feels impossible when I just know nothing. Especially when I see people who have been drawing for less time than I have and are literally three times better than me. Don’t get me wrong I love appreciating other people’s art, but there’s always the part of me inside that’s like ā€œthere’s literally no way I’d be able to draw something like that, how the frick do they do this.ā€ And it’s so discouraging. I’m also just have such low motivation do draw a lot of times, and drawing for me recently really feels like kind of a burden.

If anybody has anything to say that might help with anything at all I’d really appreciate it, or if anyone just has similar experiences to share. Thank guys :]


r/learntodraw 6h ago

Just Sharing Daily Sketches to Improve #1-20

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49 Upvotes

Trying to learn anatomy and get more confident in my sketches and my foundations before actually diving deep into making the illustrations I want to make-- and to do this, I've started doing a daily sketch where I try to breakdown and recreate poses I find on the internet.

I tried this challenge before, and got burnt out in the 200s, but I don't think I was doing it as seriously before, and by the end of it, I wasn't putting in nearly as much effort as I should've.

Currently on Day 26, and hopefully it only gets better from here. Hopefully I'll still be at it so I can post again by the time I hit Day 40 lol


r/learntodraw 19h ago

Critique Preferred art

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578 Upvotes

Hello everyone just sharing some posters I drew in different styles which one do your prefer 1 or 2 (Pls vote in comment section)


r/learntodraw 1h ago

Critique Hardest Drawing I Have Done, Need Feedback.

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• Upvotes

This is the most challenging drawing i have done, as Iam still new to drawing.

I think this is because of a lot of foreshortening. At first that made me draw much worse shape, but then i utilized negative space much more and it became like the picture which is much better. But I know it is still far from perfect, so feel free to give feedback!


r/learntodraw 8h ago

Stippling exercise

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65 Upvotes

This an assignment my professor assigned us. What do you think? Any advice or critique?


r/learntodraw 7h ago

Question What is this camera angle called?

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39 Upvotes

I'm trying to find pose references for this particular camera angle but couldn't find much. High camera looking down directly at the character, very close to the face, with the character staring directly at the camera. Any ideas?


r/learntodraw 4h ago

Just Sharing Redraw of an old artwork

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14 Upvotes

Did a redraw of an old artwork I made in 2019 :D


r/learntodraw 9h ago

Practice sketchs

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40 Upvotes

r/learntodraw 8h ago

Critique i enjoy the process of drawing, but rarely like the finished result.

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26 Upvotes

the first piece doesn't have a specific light source direction, i just wanted to test out a messy rendering style ! at first i was already thinking about what i should do next time i try this rendering style again and was a bit detached as always, but i kind of started to like it yet i also feel detached at the same time

i made a recent post on never being satisfied with any of my work which i got some great advice on that i will work on,, but since school is starting again my progress will be slow, considering ive already stopped doing art for ~2 years until a few months ago.

i realised i get enjoyment from doing the process of anything creative, etc bracelet making, crafting. but i'm strangely detached to the finished piece. i mean i can still tell which pieces are stronger technically, but still no feelings come.

oddly enough when i started to take art more seriously start of this year, i could appreciate what i draw. now i cant. same went with bracelet and keychains i made, never liked them, yet people genuinely thought they were pretty and bought them.

i understand that it's normal for artists to not always like their work. but is it common to just be detached from my work, even when i enjoyed the process?

to clarify: by enjoy i also mean i get excited about finishing the piece and stay dedicated to finishing it (not that i want to get it over and done with). and i only get like this with pieces i know will turn out well

edit: in cooking and bracelet making, i continue even if the outcome is uncertain


r/learntodraw 1d ago

Question Where is the Horizon line and vanishing point in this image ?

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676 Upvotes

r/learntodraw 11h ago

Just Sharing fort

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39 Upvotes

r/learntodraw 7h ago

Just Sharing References are good

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17 Upvotes

They're not meant to be copied to the exact line, I find them more as a way to test yourself and find a way to draw it in your own way. It'll take multiple tries but eventually you'll find the exact shapes and lines to draw em in your own way.


r/learntodraw 12h ago

"You call that begging? You can beg better than that."

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43 Upvotes

New artist. An homage to one my favourite scenes from Kill Bill.


r/learntodraw 6h ago

Critique I’ve been practicing drawing here and there whenever I get inspired and I made this OC recently. Thoughts/ Advice/ critique would be appreciated.

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11 Upvotes

I’ve been having such a blast drawing lately and I’ve been really inspired to make these anime characters based on ideas I’ve had in my head. I haven’t studied anatomy much so I kinda just winged it and made adjustments as I went.
I’d love feedback on her proportions, silhouette, clothing design, and overall visual appeal.


r/learntodraw 11h ago

Critique How did I do with this one?

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24 Upvotes

Repost because I want to get some feedback. Art and reference included.

This started as a sort of study on perspective and even though it wasn't perfect I decided to go in with colors just to see what it would look like. It came out better than I expected, but I know that a lot could still be improved. I want to go back in and add more details but I want to know what I could do to make it better before I do that.

I know the sky is a little too dark. The lights could be brighter, even though I don't know how to project that brightness in that color without it looking off or too bright. The trees in the back could be darker. The perspective is a little off. Is there anything I'm missing? How would you make it better?


r/learntodraw 1d ago

Critique Please please please give brutal critique I’m begging

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389 Upvotes

I just want to be good at art but everyone keeps trying to be nice to me it’s driving me crazy. I feel like I’m not improving at all


r/learntodraw 2h ago

Question i dont understand the perspective of drawing cubes

4 Upvotes

this sort of exercise centers around one vanishing point and i understand that each cube is tied to it. but it seems like there are no other things which connect the other cubes. each cube has its own other vanishing point (or points for the 4 in each corner.) i just dont understand how youre supposed to know at all where these points lie. i thought 1/2/3 point perspective can describe a scene but it seems like it can only describe an object within a scene

help! how do i figure out where to put the vanishing points of each square! i have no clue how to correct myself when i do this exercise!


r/learntodraw 9h ago

Just Sharing Day 1 of getting back into drawing

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14 Upvotes

Found some reference of pinterest and tried to re-draw it with some small personal tweaks. Will add to this page day by day and try to be consistent when I can push myself too 😃(šŸ’”)

Also forgive me for the debatable colouring, I mostly used to stick to grey, charcoal and pen... 🐢

P.S. last drawing is not mine but the ref!


r/learntodraw 6h ago

Just Sharing picked up a pen after a few months

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8 Upvotes

facial anatomy is hard

open to all comments and critiques!


r/learntodraw 21h ago

Critique Is this drawing flat?

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122 Upvotes

This is my best work yet