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Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#31

Post by noahbradley »

There are a lot of decent books out there and obviously a million good online resources, but I think if you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest you look for classes at a local community college or atelier. Avoid anything that looks too "artsy". Self expression is great but find somebody who will teach you how to draw. An atelier would be an ideal option as they tend to have very good technical instruction and you can avoid forming bad habits early on.

It's very doable to do it yourself, but having somebody there to show you when you're screwing up is immensely valuable. Once you've got the basics and know how to learn then you can take more time to study on your own.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#32

Post by nrjames »

I recommend looking to see if there's a nearby art school and whether it will let you audit Drawing 101/102 classes or enroll in a non-credit program. I did this about 15 years ago and it was amazing to have in-person instruction and to be in a class with people who also were learning. My skills progressed much farther than I suspected they would over the course of 18 months of taking classes.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#33

Post by ebbflowgo »

lancesells wrote: post #28

I'm a self-taught artist and count drawing as a skill of mine. I wouldn't say I'm a "natural" at it and would have definitely benefited from some structured learning. Here are some of my recommendations/thoughts: 1. Bring a sketchbook with you everywhere and draw and observe what you see. There are shortcuts and techniques but like anything else it takes practice and time. 2. Humans are the most difficult because the…

Awesome list, thanks

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#34

Post by analogtom »

Robert Laszlo Kiss on YouTube is very good. You gotta know the basics of perspective (single point, two point ans three point perspective) to advance in drawing / painting. Everything is a box in perspective. Then you fill in the details from there.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#36

Post by woolion »

noahbradley wrote: post #31

There are a lot of decent books out there and obviously a million good online resources, but I think if you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest you look for classes at a local community college or atelier. Avoid anything that looks too "artsy". Self expression is great but find somebody who will teach you how to draw. An atelier would be an ideal option as they tend to have very good technical instruction an…

Oh, I never imagined you'd have a hn profile. When I started learning your "Don’t go to art school" post was also quite an inspiration to learn diligently. I had spent one year in art school which was the most useless I ever had and disgusted me of art for quite a few years (and made me switch permanently to math/CS).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#39

Post by rococode »

Charles Bargue's Drawing Course ("cours de dessin" - it's a book) is a classic from the 1800s. It's also in the public domain!

https://archive.org/details/C.BargueDrawingCourse/page/n23/m...

The idea is to slowly progress through the book by copying each plate accurately (the sizes are scaled down in book form, so zoom in!). I found it very effective for practicing lines, tones, and form. It's nice to pick up fundamentals first before delving deeper into a specific style.

And the #1 most important thing is to just draw as much as you can. There are tons of before-and-afters on social media where people with awful beginner drawings have shown that they can improve to become very good artists by simply practicing a lot. Much of drawing is raw mechanical precision - and it can and must be trained like any other physical skill.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?

#40

Post by ralusek »

If you are looking for realism, the single best advice I can give is that you need to practice drawing what you see vs what you think you see. Humans think in terms of icons and memes, but resist the urge.

When you see a nose on a face, you'll want to draw an icon of a nose, with an outline. But resist, and really look at what you're seeing. A camera or a printer doesn't draw a nose, it prints a series of consecutive values that look exactly like a nose, and so should you. Outlining should be for reference and nothing else.

If you get into the world of color, the same thing happens. When it comes time to color skin, for example, you go reaching for the meme color of skin. But really look at it; you're a camera. That skin right there actually has blue in it. And yellow. And red. Stop seeing what you think you see, and see what is actually there.

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