Topic: How do people become good at art?

I have lots of ideas of stuff to draw but whenever I actually pick up a pencil my "artwork" has the consistency of a first grader. I was just curious about what tips any of you have used or suggested to others to actually become decent at art since I want to give those ideas form and possibly upload them here onto the site.

thegoonguardian said:
I have lots of ideas of stuff to draw but whenever I actually pick up a pencil my "artwork" has the consistency of a first grader. I was just curious about what tips any of you have used or suggested to others to actually become decent at art since I want to give those ideas form and possibly upload them here onto the site.

I would say tons of practice? Maybe art school?

I'm not an artist, and I can't do anything better than stick figures.

You can trace but never show it to anyone, it's one way to learn some stuff but never publish it.

Still try to replicate by hand without tracing as well: poses, clothing, etc.

There's a lot of guides for specific things on YouTube, etc.

I would recommend not trying ASAP to upload on e621, focus on getting good with your art, find your style, maybe uploading it on inkbunny or furaffinity first.

TL;DR Practice, Practice, Practice...

Practice of course. The big thing with practice though is you need to do it consistently and you need to be patient. Results only show over time.

It's important to maintain your interest too. You can't just study drawings or look at tutorials all the time. Find whatever method or strategy works for you. Do whatever keeps you interested and engaged.

Personally, I've used a combination of books and youtube tutorial to learn.

Learning how to draw or paint what you see in your head, becoming fluent in another language, playing Flight of the Bumblebee, all those things require several years of training and practice almost every day. Just remember that the people you admire whose work inspires you had to start from the bottom just like you, and if you start now you could be inspiring others after enough time.

Only thing that I think needs to be added is that training needs to be at least mildly structured (without going crazy on the training; only some of your drawing time should be training.).
For me, even though I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book Nicolaides 'The Natural Way to Draw' to others, following the curriculum in that book did broaden my knowledge and get me to solve important problems (eg. impatience -> avoidance of making longer drawings;fussing about details before establishing the 'big picture read';..) that I would have otherwise taken much longer to address.

One book I *would* recommend that can be made into a curriculum is How To Draw by Scott Robertson. Few people love working on drafting and perspective, but he explains and illustrates it clearly in this book, and gives a pretty exhaustive list of techniques. Good way to grasp what you are 'saying' by putting lines in any particular arrangement. One thing this book should help with, that I think is especially good for beginners, is to grasp the difference between an object in perspective and orthographic views of that object -> being able to work out the proportions of something without also needing to immediately put it properly into a perspective view.
You could also use the free 'DrawABox' course as the curriculum while using HtD as more of a reference to consult, as DrawABox is a 'sort out your drafting skills' course.

Of course there is much more to art than drafting. But I would say: drafting skills are what helps you the most in being able to understand whether your drawing matches or mismatches the model; or if you are looking at someone else's drawing, to identify the main things going on accurately.

EDIT: on the question 'how to structure your learning', I'd recommend this reading list , which breaks down common misunderstandings about 'how to learn' while giving counter-examples.

Those who regularly peruse these forums probably already know that I have a couple of quotes ready at hand to answer a question like this. Naturally, the first mirrors what everyone above have already answered:

Yogi Berra said:
(When asked on how to get to Carnegie Hall.)

"Practice, practice, practice."

There's a good reason for this.

Chuck Jones said:
"Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them, and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out."

Yes, that means the more you practice, the more your skills improve and the less bad your drawings look. If this seems daunting, remember this: all artists have to go through this process. The difference between you and Ratte, Jollyjack, Moody Ferret, and your favorite artists is that they've already taken the time to get rid of a good chunk of their own bad drawings. Which means you can do it too.

Chuck Jones said:
"You've got a million bad drawings in you; you better get started."

Nothing comes without effort.

relevant topics that could be helpful:
topic #56519
topic #60967
et cetera

lots of practice
supplemented by a bit of study
but then more practice!
the hardest part is just doing it, there's no right way to learn but avoid doing stuff you're not having fun with otherwise you might not keep at it.

thanks everyone for the advice. i think i'll check out some books, maybe trace a bit as practice (might try tracing album covers, maybe mkve onto rotoscoping later) and also ask some of my more artistic friends on advice as well. lots if the furry-based ideas i have are judt animals i havent really seem too much of so assuming i learn to draw somewhat decently then i'll try uploading on furaffinity. i really appreciate all the advice fr.