Improving Art Skills....

[Dreddz]

Ive chosen Art for GCSE, and Im pretty much crap at it. Well, only the drawing part. Im pretty good at sculpting and making stuff, but I need to improve my drawings somehow. I know I cant instanting get better by posting this, but is there ways to practise, or slowly improving ways to draw......
I know it souds silly, but help will be appreciated....

[Skarr]

i can only say practice...back in 8th grade i wasn't that good...but me and my friends spent hours drawing dragon ball z pictures...it helped...and over time i learned how to draw...i'll post some of my drawings and comics as soon as my scanners installed...i've also been drawing comics since i was in 4th grade

[Shimeng]

My experience is that you should try to draw things that you really enjoy, if you find it hard ^^ That'll keep you motivated, even if you fail the first hundred times (like I did - and sometimes, still do).

Start drawing simple scetches. Try not to shade before you're sure that you've got the proportions/anathomy/pose right.
And if you're the least like me you might be thinking that you don't have a style of your own... I use to look around on all the great artists at elfwood (where I joined as a beginner artist) and think that they had it all figured out! They knew exactly how theire pictures should be composed. You never doubted if an artist really drew all the pictures in his/her gallery, 'couse they all hade the same touch.
Well - that touch is something that comes with time. And I have found that I can't really control my own ^^' Heh... it has just developed on it's own.

Give it time. Give it patience.
Good luck.

[Craig]

Or, just don't do much drawing. Okay so I'm sure it would help to be able to draw, but take advantage of what you're good at. You say you're good at sculpting? Sculpt.

Now that I look back on my GCSE Art, I really didn't do that much drawing.

When you leave school, do you plan on going to college? If so, and you plan on doing a specialized course (not A levels) do one that involves what you are skilled with. Same with University, if you plan on going to that.

[Jess]

To improve on drawing, try doing still life drawings, or copying other art peices. When your drawing starts to look more like what your looking at / copying then your improving!
Good luck, by the way. ^_^

[Laugh at face of Danger]

Copy other people, it really helps, if you want, trace first and see how they did it

that's how i manage to do it, that's why i can't do poses properly

but ah well, i suppose i'm in the same boat as you

first project : still life [dead on floor]

[SNOOZER]

If you can, try to doodle at least 30 minutes everyday. Even if it's just stick figures. My theory is, you make 1 million mistakes before you make a flawless piece. Once you hit 1 million mistakes the rest of your art should be perfect. Sort of an optimistic way of practicing.

Though I don't fully agree with copying everything you see verbatim, it is good to use other artwork as refference pieces. Copying will only make you good at one thing and one thing only and that is copying. It can only take you so far.

A good foundation is everything. Basics, basics, basics! I recommend books by Andrew Loomis. His books are quite rare and hard as hell to find so I will provide a link: http://www.saveloomis.org/

Get started and start posting on the quick sketch thread yo!

[Dreddz]

I think my down fall is the fact that I give up, I try to draw sumin, then about 5 mins in, I take a good look and come to the conclusion that its crap, then I feel like this is pointless and go watch tele or sumin....I am trying to draw stuff out of Old FFIX guide. Some of the art in there is great......

[Rye]

I used to be so bad at drawing. I started out practicing drawing from FF guides. Now I guess I'm kinda good sometimes at it. I'll compare what I used to draw 2 years ago and what I can draw now (the drawing I included is a few months old):

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ryeryechu/gp.jpg

So practice and patience.