Learning the basics of art

Kalliel said:

Look up beginner tutorials on YouTube. I recommend Marc Brunet and Samdoesart. You can reference their roadmaps and apply them, or just do what you want.

At the beginning, you'd want to tackle the fundamentals, one by one, bit by bit. Don't go too deep into one topic at once. Do a little bit of perspective and form with boxes. Do some gesture drawing. If you want to do complete pieces, go ahead.

People learn differently, but some general advice that always applies if you want to get good: Be consistent and draw what you like.

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JayDirex said:

Stick figures! practice your shapes, body movements. get accustomed to drawing ovals attached to skeletons so that you can get the composition down. by using stick figures you get the basics of "spatial placement," anatomy, how a person sits, stands. how pretty girl would sit, how an action man would stand

Stick figures and shapes FIRST. Get anatomy down first. then the rest will follow (learn perspective at the same time)

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worldismyne said:

If you go on google and search "[insert subject] photography" you'll weed out a lot of AI and boring references. Collect a bunch that look like they'll be fun to draw. I personally like dance photography as a reference, since there's lots of movement and a focus on the body instead of clothes.

Best thing to start with is drawing from real life. In art class, the professor had us do 3 weeks of drawing as much from life as we could without erasing (it was just practice after all). It really helped get out of the headspace of every drawing needed to be perfect/finished.

Once you find the areas you're weakest (hands, feet, or body proportions are often difficult), zoom in on those. Have a day where all you draw is hands or different eyes.

Having a decent foundation on realistic anatomy will make it easier to draw people in a more stylized way. Same goes for animals as well.

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gaylolis said:

pretend that you're drawing while you're writing your notes or something. there's something like using the whole arm to do it and if you can find the most comfortable position it can also work similarly while drawing :D

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greyblob said:

why learn art when ai can do it?

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McPhoenixDavid said:

Because AI still thinks a hand is a collection of ten noodles, and I’m not ready to live in that timeline yet.

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greyblob said:

why learn art when ai can do it?

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Shorgoth said:

I have a legitimate answer for that as someone who has learned art and uses AI to make things (not the text, adding images and music to my story)

Because learning art gives you a sense of what you need to ask the AI, how to guide it, and how to compose images and structures. When you don't know the subject, your art direction is limited and unskilled. It makes generic, simplistic slop. If you know what to ask, specific cinema frame, image composition structures, body positioning, specific styles and techniques, colour composition theory, symbolicism and so on, you can create something much better than a simple prompt. You need a clear vision and the vocabulary to execute that vision. If anything, using AI requires more technical understanding and the vocabulary to go with it. You can't just go on instinct; you need theoretical knowledge and have firm tastes, or you'll get swayed by anything vaguely ok looking to your untrained eye.

So, while yes, AI is a shortcut to make "something," nothing beats hands-on experience to learn the ropes because it requires more initial effort and therefore gets a better result to internalize the lessons.

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