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Welcome to the /ic/ sticky Wikia

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This is an alternative sticky for /ic/ that will be made by d/ic/ks, for d/ic/ks, and hopefully one day replace the dated sticky that is currently in place.

How to use this sticky

This page is meant to be seen by those who want to get into the world of drawing and lack serious training, be it as a profession or a hobby.

You're not supposed to get all of the concepts and information here in one sitting. Take away what you need, one section at a time. If you're looking to grind experience, multiple sessions are encouraged to avoid overloading or burning out.

Each subject is briefly explained on the front page. Some concepts may have their own page with much more info and resources (to be decided).

Management of this Wikia (Legacy)

Current Suggestions for this Wikia

moatdd ten minute drawing techniques on youtube. Very good resource for a beginner

STRAWPOLLS FOR IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS ( please do not multi-vote) 65% is the cut off rate to get in.

http://strawpoll.me/6847671 Poll on adding Alphonso Dunn- no votes currently.

http://strawpoll.me/6817909 new one for auto-destruct - still close keep voting

http://strawpoll.me/6802974/ I/C Centric stuff has been approved, I added the section but there s nothing within it.

http://strawpoll.me/6782713 MOAT CAN BE ADDED, OVERWHELMINGLY -YES

http://strawpoll.me/6783574 65% is what is required to get through . No more voting required.

Here are the current problems of the sticky that should be addressed by this version:

no images, we need to start a discussion about images in the thread or here as this is the core obstacle at the moment. We also need to know where we are migrating to after Wikia.

is boring to read (get a fucking writer in here)

not concise/There are incredibly vital sentences hidden in the paragraphs.

Incredibly important information is hidden beneath drawing books that people really aren't ready to start until they practice the fundamentals.

Does not prevent people from making asinine threads/ Doesn't cover FAQs on the Question thread (it does take a copy and paste to solve multiple questions now)

Need more books (Added some books, needs review)

Add sources when possible

Introduction to drawing

So you want to draw?

Young, old, stupid, smart, able-bodied or paralyzed, everyone can learn to draw. Drawing is a skill which takes years to master, and "talent" is nearly irrelevant when factoring in time and effort. When it comes to art, it's a crawl (sometimes a lot of it), a walk, and then a run. You start off by learning the fundamentals. So how do we start the learning process? The fundamentals. The first mistake you'll make when starting out is called Symbol Drawing, and absolutely everyone has done it.

What is symbol drawing?

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Symbol drawing is drawing your idea of reality as opposed to what you see. It varies from the smiley face, to the sun in the corner, a tree that looks like broccoli, eyes without eyelids, and the dick hastily scribbled on every gas station bathroom wall. As long as you are drawing symbols, you will never improve.

Getting past symbol drawing

To improve past this point, you must observe reality. Visual reality is composed of 3 elements:

• Value - The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White being lightest value and black being the darkest.
• Saturation - The intensity of hue in a color.
• Hue - A color or shade.

By observing an object and neatly comparing angles, sizes and relations to one another, you can quickly learn to copy an image 1 for 1. For an exercise to help you with this, read up on the /ic/ guide For The Absolute Beginner.

While copying is an essential skill for artists, it's almost useless when drawing from the imagination. (Which is why some photo realistic artists are unable to draw a simple figure.) Once you've left the spectrum of symbol drawing, you can start doing what you really came here for: drawing from the imagination. For this, you'll need things like underlying form and gesture, perspective, color theory, composition, and more. Those you'll have to study on your own (UNLESS /IC/ WANTS TO GIVE THE WIKI A SEPARATE PAGE FOR THIS), we're just covering the basics here.

Effective vs Quantitative practice

"But I don't need this stuff, I only want to draw X!" Here's the thing, this is the effective way to learn drawing. You'll still learn if you draw nothing else than battling lolis as long as you are introspective about your art, however, you won't learn as quickly as someone doing the right exercises. This said, if drawing battle-lolis makes you draw 10 hours a day, but doing studies only makes you draw 1 hour a day ( or even worse makes you quit), go ahead and draw battle-lolis, it'll be more effective. A nice balance can be struck however, which is what most would encourage. Doing studies only won't be the most effective thing either, you need to draw from imagination and apply what you've learnt for studies to be worth while.

The importance of still lives

Still lives are absolutely vital when it comes to drawing from the imagination. Knowing how to properly construct and draw a still life is the only way to see in 3-Dimensions on paper. When you draw from a photograph, you move from a 2D representation to a 2D representation. When you do a still life, you transform a 3D object into a 2D picture. You are the camera. Drawing from imagination is simply the reverse of the de-construction of a still life. Instead of breaking down an object, you build one up. Build your still life out of simple geometric shapes. (Cylinders, cubes, cones, spheres)

Before you start doing photographic references, it is important to have a good background on still lives or everything you create will feel flat.

Knowing how to think in 3D on paper is the difference between having ugly, un-impressive drawings and creating professional grade art.

Essential Videos before learning to draw

• Shading Light and Form - Basics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3WmrWUEIJo)
• Structure Basics - Making Things Look 3D (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uEtdDvK6Xo)
• How to Draw Gesture - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y)
• How to have good lines and circles - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDNDOKnArk)

Common mistakes

Drawing with the wrist

How to Hold and Control Your Pencil - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMC0Cx3Uk84 - This video addresses mostly all the issues regarding drawing with your wrist vs drawing with your whole arm, but here is a quick summary of it.

When drawing we tend to use only our wrist, this forces you to make smaller lines, as the range of it tends to be restrictive. In order to fix this we draw with the shoulder instead, this is done by separating our wrist off the surface (the video addresses using a different grip yet this is not possible while using a pen, the principle of this hover grip is the same), it won't be easy at first so you will need practice.

Drawing with the wrist is still useful for smaller details and when drawing on small surfaces such as drawing tablets.

Why is drawing with a pen important?

As we start we tend to overthink a lot every single one of our lines as well as erase a lot, in order to become much faster and stop doing scratchy lines (also known as chicken scratching) we need to get rid of the option of erasing.

There are some things you should take into consideration, such as ink globs (we recommend using a tissue every certain number of strokes) and smearing. And some rules to it such as avoiding multiple lines which consists of correcting a line by doing a new one, this will only make your previous line darker.

About Style

A lot of new artists believe they have a style because they are drawing in a stylized way, sadly, this can hurt the artist ( A LOT). Why so? There's a difference between veteran having a style and a newbie having one. The difference being: The veteran is aware of what he is stylizing and why. You need to understand realism to stylize. Which also means you'll end up learning realism along the way, even if you want to draw anime.

Checking for mistakes

While you draw, your brain progressively ignores more and more mistakes, in a beginners work, this can often create major slanting. To counter-act this, you have to either come back the next day or ask a friend, but there's another trick! If you flip it ( digitally or with a mirror) you see your work with a new eye. Warning: Disappointment guaranteed (every single time.).

HELP! I'M NOT IMPROVING

How to Break Through Artist's Block - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0g_gWrNf8 - Here's a video by Sycra addressing the subject

We know, drawing is hard, it takes time, you may not like what you draw now, you may never like what you draw. The level of your eye constantly surpassing the level of your hand. You may feel demotivated, you may not see the improvement. But trust this piece of arbitrary text, you ARE improving if you are drawing an hour a day. However, you need to practice effectively and to a purpose. So before you post on the forums asking for motivation, remember this: Discipline > Motivation.

One good way to keep track of your progress and shake this feeling out of your head is to keep your old sketchbooks and skim through them every time you don't feel confident, you will (normally) see a huge difference between your first drawings and your current ones.

Recommended tools

Why should I buy the most expensive materials?

This has been an endless debate for a long time, while some people sustain that you should buy expensive material as it has more quality to it and so is way more comfortable to use, the truth is that using expensive materials won't make you better, just as buying the books we recommend here won't give you knowledge instantly. We highly advise you to find the middle ground between expensive and cheap, such as using printer paper and a good pen to do studies. Unless you're loaded, in which case, do not pay attention to such trifling concerns.

Drawing programs

Program	Price	Versatility	Ease of Use	Stabilizers	Painting	Details
Krita	Free	Medium	High	X	X	Open source. Has some stability issues with Windows, but as far as free programs go, it's the closest features-wise to Photoshop.
MyPaint	Free	Low	High			Open source. Very lightweight. Great for sketching but not much else.
PaintToolSAI	$47.02	Low	High	X		Has arguably the best brush stabilizers for smooth strokes. Painting ability is sub-par.
Photoshop CC	$10/mo	High	Low		X	The industry standard. Definitely the most useful program, but also the biggest resource-whore. Make sure you can run it before installing.
Manga Studio 5	$47.99	High	Medium	X	X	Self-explanatory. Comes with tools that help with panels, effects, and toners. Ok for painting.

Drawing tablets

• [tablet recs with descriptions]
• The Wacom Intuos is the standard tablet series by Wacom ( the largest drawing tablet provider), it was the cheap go to choice in the past due to it being the only tablet without batteries in the pen. They range 60$-250$ American
• Huion 710 pro

Screen tablets

• Cintiq is the go-to brand for professionals that do not have the time to learn drawing tablets. They are the art world equivalent to tactile screens. No other provider reaches their quality at the time of writing this (2016). However, they are by far the most expensive as they range 1k to 3k. Most professional illustrators on screen tablets will use this model.
• The Surface series by Microsoft is the best computer/screen tablet currently on the market. Some people prefer them over the companion ( the mobile version of Cintiqs). Every iteration has been noticeably better than the last, you can expect the future to be much more inclusive of the surface as an art tool.

Traditional tools

• Kooh-I-Noor makes pencils and other traditional tools with a very good price/quality ratio. Perfect for practice.
• Staedtler pigment liner is a great felt tip pen for anyone interested in ink drawing.
• Pilot G-tec-C4 good balance between a cheap and a expensive ballpoint pen, doesn't tend to form ink blobs, is NOT waterproof. There's a similar version of this pen which is the Hi-tec-C, which is technically the same pen.
• Pentel brushpen is (as the name suggests) an ink pen with a brush tip, allowing for inking without the need for dipping the brush in ink. It is one of the best brush pens available (used by many great artists like Kim Jung Gi and others) and for around 10$ it's a steal. Be warned that this is a more advanced tool that requires a lot of practice to become proficient in using it. It is however great fun to use even for beginning artists.

Resources

Pose reference websites

• [Quick Poses](http://www.quickposes.com/)
• [Fine Art](http://fineart.sk/)
• [Sketch Daily](http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en/)
• [Pose Maniacs](http://www.posemaniacs.com/) (if you go into the hands for drawing section theres 3d models)
• [Pixel Lovely](http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/hands-feet-practice/)
• [Photo Reference For Comic Artists](https://www.photo-reference-for-comic-artists.com/photo_sets/search/premium/1/standard/1/thumb/small/orderBy/chronology)

What are some online resources to help me learn

• [Proko](https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV) - Anatomy and form tutorials
• [Sycra](https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra) - Artistic Journey and varied tutorials
• [Vilppu](https://www.youtube.com/user/glennvv/videos) - Gesture Drawing
• [ctrl paint](http://www.ctrlpaint.com/library) - Introduction to digital art and rendering
• [draw a box](http://www.drawabox.com) - Introduction and full year course on form
• [New Masters Academy](https://www.youtube.com/user/NewMastersAcademy/videos) - Demonstrations and lectures of traditional art

Some book recommendations [no more than 7 books, that's bordering ridiculous]

• Keys to drawing - Bert Dodson
• Fun with a pencil - Andrew Loomis
• Figure drawing for all it's worth - Andrew Loomis
• How to draw - Scott Robertson

(Visit the book thread on /ic/ to find any of these and much more)

Art as a TRADE

Correctly pricing your work and never working for free

An important part of art as a trade is knowing your worth. A lot of artists often say things like :" I'm closing commissions". But this should never happen. When an item cannot be produced at the store, they don't close it. They increase production or raise prices. Sometimes, people won't commission you because you are charging too little! Imagine if a doctor was charging you 16$ an hour... Would you think this is a real doctor? It's the same with art. You need to try different combinations to see what pays the most, is it better to get 5 commissions at 200$ or 25 commissions at 125$? Getting 2 or 3 2000$ commissions? How much work are you putting in? Is it better to work as an instructor, flat or per hour rate? Freelance or in studio? Which ones give you the most artistic exposure, freedom, press, following, pride?

Some companies will try to coax you into working for free, always say no. Working for free lowers the market value of artists as a whole, is a waste of your time and will never lead to paying work or so-called exposure. Here is an infographic on working for free http://i.imgur.com/w0PJYaG.jpg Here's a video on never working for free ( link the faggot that always gets linked TTon i/c)

How to sell yourself and advertise

So you want to get your name out . Maybe your commissions are running low, maybDeD you want to boast, maybe your dad is disappointed at you but if you only had that hundred thousandth follower he'll finally approve of you. A big part of getting known is posting EVERYWHERE. What is everywhere?

• Hentai foundry - Tip: Post hentai

• fur affinity - Tip: Post furries

• Art station - Tip: Post highly rendered w.orks

• Deviant Art - Tip: Post my little pony

• Reddit - Tip: Act overly humble and bad paper studies and cross-post and repost

• Tumblr - Tip: Post fat, black, hairy girls

• Facebook - Tip: Post sFtupid inspirational stuff that people will share

• Instagram - Tip: be a pretty girl

• Pixiv - Tip: post hentai or highly rendered anime

• Patreon - Tip: Have good reward tiers and have every single post on every platform link to your Patreon
• Forums such as i/c on 4chan - Tip: post frequently
• ADD more if you know about them

These strategies, may, however, hurt your reputation as a noble artist if that`s something you care about. But they are undeniably effective in the short tm.

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