Learning To Draw: What Worked For Me

A close friend of mine is looking to pick up drawing after a long time, and complained on Twitter, that good advice and tutorials online are hard to come by... and I agree. A lot of artists and pseudo-professionals put out things on how to draw and its mostly a mix of bad advice with good intentions.

So to avoid doing that, and to contribute to some of the good advice online, I'm going to just give you my story. This is what worked for me, pick it apart and do some introspection to see what might work for you.

Where I'm from and where I'm going

I have never had a real firm grasp on what I wanted to do with my life. As a kid, I never had a dream job to aspire towards; my interests were always on the move, and as a fairly hyper little boy, so was I. As I grew up some, I settled on different occupations at different times... a radio personality/producer, a writer and poet, a youth worker, a musician, a cartoonist, a philosopher, and a web-designer.

Unlike many people who swap their dreams in and out, I luckily, got a chance to play with each of mine before setting it down and aspiring for something different.

2D Design Projects, Part 1

School's in session and since I'm taking 4 studio classes, I'm putting out quite a bit of work lately. Since that stuff cuts into my blogging/writing time, I figured I would share with you what I've been up to and explain some of the concepts I've tried to execute on each.

Feel free to provide feedback and critique. That's why I'm sharing these with everyone on the internet. If I didn't want/need feedback, then each of these would be selling for rediculous amounts and I could drop out of school and do this for a fucking living.

But since no one is throwing money at me, I'll assume that I'm still learning and can use some feedback.

Support Your Artists

I don't make much money, in fact the part-time job I have pays minimum wage. I don't have much in a savings or checking account, partly because rent and utilities are kinda high... but also because I'm bad at budgeting what I do have (confession: I'm an impulse videogame buyer). There is no shoebox under my bed with emergency funds in it; honestly, the most physical money I have is a bunch of change in a Coca-Cola piggy-bank on my desk (and I use most of it for laundry).

But there is one thing I will always stretch my funds to spend money on, even if it means shorting myself a meal or waiting for a sale to get the game I want: the fruits of your creative labor.

Why? Because, as artists and creators, I truly believe we must to support each other.

How Art Teaches Logic

This past spring was my first semester as an Art Student, but it wasn't my first semester as a college student. My previous collegiate life was enjoyed as a Philosopher. And even though they don't have a lot in common, it kept coming up like a case of deja vu you can't quite kick. Case in point: the further I got in my Drawing class, the more ties there were to Symbolic Logic.

I mentioned this to a friend and fellow Philosophy BA and he demanded I explain. That was months ago and I'm just now getting to this post. So, I won't doddle any longer... how does art teach logic? Well, there are a few key similarities, or perhaps overlaps...