I get a small but steady trickle of hits on my blog from people looking for various 'how to draw anime-style' tutorials. How to draw hands, girls, clothes, shoes, hair, stuff like that. No big deal; I definitely prefer hits from aspiring artists to hits from aspiring pedophiles. Anyway.
That being said, you'll notice that I don't have any tutorials on my site. That's because, you know, I'm a really incredibly mediocre artist and no one in their right mind would want to learn anything from me. Well, okay, it's also because I find art tutorials to be generally either useless or extraneous.
Don't hit me. You see, it's like this. When I was first starting out as a fanartist, I did indeed go out and track down tutorials and devour them like so much candy. And just like candy, they felt like empty calories; I came out the other side of these tutorials not really that much wiser than when I started. I've also flipped through those 'How To Draw Manga' books in the comic store. Again, empty calories, at least as far as I'm concerned. (I'm sure that a lot of other people have benefitted amazingly from online tutorials and artbooks, but not me. Personal bias, of course, not general Rule For Living. I'm Tactile-Kinesthetic, can you tell?)
But I did, somehow, learn and start to get better, even though I have miles and miles to go before I sleep, so to speak. And therefore, this is my tutorial for you:
Learn to see. Break that picture down into its components, stare at it until it loses all meaning except shape and color. Analyze the placement of shadows and the flex of the muscles, note the actual colors used, study the placement of wrinkles, understand the shape of fingers and eyes, learn the ebb and flow of hair. And then see if you can't replicate that effect.
I'm not just talking about tracing or copying the artwork, here. While copy/trace is definitely one way to learn, and a good way at that, it's also largely beside the point. (Tangent: and never ever copy or trace an existing artwork and then claim it as your own work, you little bastards. Okay. Tangent over.) Copy/trace will teach you to look without teaching you to see.
Which is, after all, still important. Just don't depend entirely on copy/trace to teach yourself. It's a dead end.
Can you tell I majored in art history? No, didn't think you could.
The exception to this rule is the odd tutorial meant to teach you something technical about computer programs. Technical stuff is a completely different ballgame, and tutorials for that are worth their weight in silicon. I'm talking largely about learning to be artistic. In the grand scheme of things, this is something no one and no tutorial can teach you; it's something you must find within yourself and within the artworks that somehow speak to you.
Grasshopper.
Replies: add your comment: currently 7 comments
Couldn't agree with you more, Moonie. I learned everything I know (admittedly beans) from staring in awe at American, Chinese, and Japanese fanart sites. Actually, I should probably credit them somewhere for their information... but the list would take too damn long. XDD
Posted by Becca Ming @ 04/08/2002 07:49 PM EST
Agreed, in full. I never learn what I want to know from tutorial sites, since most just cover faces, hair, hands, etc. What about perspective? Proportion? That funny effect that happens when the character's hand is near the camera and their body isn't? How to make your characters not look stiff, or to prevent them from appearing abnormal (I'm guilty of this often)?
I've found the best teacher to be other pictures in almost every case except perspective. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
Posted by Saikou @ 04/09/2002 12:34 AM EST
I must also concur. Of course.
Art tutorials generally are not that good, generally because it can depend on WHO is making said tutorial. People have different views and opinions on how things SHOULD be done, for there is no one way they SHOULD be, or ARE done. So they can be biased, yes, and while you CAN learn from a biased view, for something like art, you should have multiple angles.
Some artists are also so full of themselves that if you do not do EXACTLY as they say, then what you do is "wrong", and that certainly is most likely NOT the case. Quite the opposite, in fact. They also KNOW that people most likely will not be ABLE to follow their instructions to the letter, and they certainly will not be able to create art like the creator does. Well, perhaps by learning the above-mentioned Copying Method, or Trace-and-Copy Method, it's sometimes possible. But that usually is NOT put into tutorials...Of copurse, people do figure it out for themselves.
I would not be able to make a tutorial either, because I think I'm overall a no-talent artist, and I still have almost an infinite number of things to learn. Artists themselves, even if they are "masters", will still tell you that they themselves are still learning things, and if they are so full of themselves that they are not learning, they say, then they are full of shit.
I would be very poor at giving a tutorial. I mean....I can't tell sonmeone how to draw something. You have to incorporate your own style. Look around you, at life, and at other artists. If you really like someone's style, then study it and become a "student". Also follow Moon';s advice, by studying its elements. Yes, copying can also work too, because as I have probably mentioned before, as the saying goes,
"The Key to Originality id Often Imitation". I have learned that, certainly. I still do learn that even now.
Saikou also brings a good point about tutorials mainly focusing on people and their parts (...), not other things, like perspective. While people are important, so are other things in nature!! I can really only draw people, so I have this problem too....
Posted by Wolf @ 04/09/2002 04:21 PM EST
I noticed I have some typos. Sorry....Heh. Like "id" should be "is", of course, in the second-to-last paragraph.
No relation or reference to the Xenogears character, or that portion of the mind...
*_*
Posted by Wolf @ 04/09/2002 04:24 PM EST
I concur--I'm not much of an artist, but I think the same is true of writing. "How to write" advice is usually worthless, compared to what you can learn by reading books.
Posted by Emily @ 04/09/2002 08:44 PM EST
I have to agree that "How to Draw" tutorials always focus on the same things over and over, which is never very useful... but I do enjoy going through people's "How to Colour" tutorials. For some reason, those are all extremely different from each other, and as a result, very useful-- so long as you don't take them as absolute Gospel. I learned my usual colouring technique by combining Chomo, Dillon, and Elf-Dude together as one. I *heart* semi-transparencies.
Also, Polykarbon is King of Useful Tutorials. He actually bothers to mention foreshortening and such like. (Gasp!)
Posted by Piper @ 04/15/2002 05:43 PM EST
I have some issues with Polykarbon that I won't discuss here.
http://www.scottmcdaniel.net/ has some perspective tutorials.
Posted by Tim F! @ 04/16/2002 05:55 PM EST
