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Comment by Teever | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone recommend some good online resources to learn how to draw?

It's a skill that I've always wanted to improve but I don't know where to begin.

My brother, an artist who has not forgotten how to draw, immediately gave me his copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain when I asked the same question a few years back.

https://www.drawright.com/

Also, Keys to Drawing, by Dodson is really good, with more of an emphasis leading to painting. The Natural Way to Draw, by Nickolaides, is really good for life drawing.

Another good one: Fast Sketching Techniques by David Rankin

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/fast-sketching-techniques-capt...

A good option is to start by precisely copying simple drawings: while (precise) copy is of little to no artistic value, it's immensely useful to learn the craft.

For a beginner, I would recommend a two-fold plan:

1) spend 80% of your time copying well-chosen works (things you like, and that are at your current level);

2) spend 20% of the remaining time, first getting a firm grip on perspective, and then experimenting, sketching around from life/memory/imagination, etc.

Perspective is foundational[0].

Balancing copy with experimentation is essential: when sketching around, you'll make mistakes and confront yourself to various problems: you'll then be able to look for solutions in the works you're copying.

For 1), perhaps consider Bargue plates[1]: they were precisely designed for beginners, by experienced artists/teachers. There are numerous tutorials (e.g. [2]) on the Internet covering the details, as the plates are used by essentially all modern "ateliers".

A final note on preciseness: it has two main advantages:

1) you can "easily" self-evaluate (as it gives you a clear goal);

2) you're more likely to notice subtle, fine details you would have otherwise missed with a hastier approach.

[0]: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/46915/pg46915-images.ht...

[1]: https://barguedrawing.wordpress.com/

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZm7qih71-w&list=PLOxIqHbLWH...

If you want to have some value, precisely copy from photographs.

Note that a camera (predictably) loses information: working exclusively from photographs can ingrain bad habits to unguided beginners. Furthermore, drawings are often simplified in various ways, stylistically, but not just: trees for instance are more believable, and more efficiently rendered, as vague masses, rather than painstakingly detailed.

For the same subject, a drawing/painting and a photograph contains similar information, but with different (lossy) filters; getting to know "artistic" filters is one thing a beginner wants to practice.

It's not a bad idea to work from photographs, it's actually very useful, and an interesting technical exercise, but one generally will want to compensate for the camera filter, so as to make the end result more appealing.

Incidentally, this[0] was posted a few hours ago, and precisely "illustrates" those points. You also have those "famous" pictures[1] demonstrating how difference focal length distort faces.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WpqmQTmnxs

[1]: https://imgur.com/gallery/kUBPKTy

Consider what drawing means to you, or what style really is important.

Sketching is very much vibrant, alive, well and creative. With many, many books dedicated to that direction.

Life drawing same things.

Which "drawing" direction attracts you?

This is pushing it a bit but there are lists like:

https://webneel.com/different-types-of-drawing-styles-techni...

https://finearttutorials.com/guide/drawing-styles

A more likely approach is to consider which artists you like and what they do. If it is perspective in travel sketches that interests you, then don't waste time on classical anatomy.

"If it is perspective in travel sketches that interests you, then don't waste time on classical anatomy." Mild disagreement here. I'm personally more interested in landscape drawing and painting, but for practice I turn to faces and figures, preferably life drawing. It's much harder to tell whether your perspective drawing is a little off than to sense that there is something wrong with the proportions in a life drawing or a Bargue exercise.

That's interesting. I do both city view landscapes (from nature, on site) and life drawing sessions and short portraits and to me the two are so different that I don't feel the skills transfer. And "quick sketches" on the street are different still.

For life drawing, IMO we have super sharp intuition for a face or body being "wrong" in its proportions. And except if you are an american superhero comic book artist we have only a little intuition that shape detail is not quite right. And getting that perfect is seriously hard - that's classical anatomy drawing territory. I pay attention to proportions but I sure don't obsess about modelling except where it "defines" the person - like sharp cheekbones or chin perhaps. And that's not classical anatomy stuff - just the basics. For landscape by constrast for me, it's about being able to abstract it while not making a blatant perspective mistake. And I don't feel that's an intuition problem for most people. More analytic. Anyway :-)

Draw a box - exercise based set of lessons.

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