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

Apologies if this is off-topic but the learning French thread got me wondering if anyone here is an artist in the downtime and has recommendations for learning materials when it comes to learning how to draw? I've tried Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and it doesn't do it for me. I've tried nma.art and that's like the closest I've come to what I'm after but currently suffer from paralysis analysis with too many or too few courses to choose from. Any suggestions? I'm hoping to be able to eventually draw people and landscapes, willing to pay hundreds of dollars potentially for the right course or instruction per month not really looking for like a udemy type thing.

Looks like a great start to what I'm after will give it a shot thanks!

Look at the book Drawing Space, Form, and Expression by Entice and Peters. Its ideas are extremely deep and insightful. Some nice practical advise too. It's not for everyone, though.

People and landscapes are quite different things, maybe pick one and focus on that.

It also depends a lot on what you want to achieve (for example, do you want to draw people in a comic-like art style, or do quick sketches of people on the subway, or do anatomically correct nude drawings). Based on that, you can try to find a book or course that fits you. There's a lot on youtube, I would recommend that over a book today, as you get different angles and the process of doing it much better.

For good and extensive free anatomy lessons, check out Proko on Youtube. There are also "timed life drawing" or "timed gesture drawing" videos which will show you a sequence of nude/non-nude poses with a timer for quickly sketching. You should check out some gesture drawing instructions, e.g. by Proko, before that though, otherwise it might be intimidating.

If you want a more comic book like approach, check out David Finch on Youtube.

Good instruction books for most beginners are Andrew Loomis' books. He was a classical advertising artist.

Books on "urban sketching" can also be helpful, because they are based on doing things quickly and without too many tools. On Youtube, you can check out TeohYiChie, he has plenty of Urban Sketching videos, in a beautiful but very loose style that is inviting to imitate.

And the most important thing is of course to just do it and do it.

Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad if you’d like to try a book.