Realistic drawing for beginners?

Seriously, an ordinary wooden #2 pencil, a pencil sharpener, and a stack of cheap white paper.

snickelfritz said:

Seriously, an ordinary wooden #2 pencil, a pencil sharpener, and a stack of cheap white paper.

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quoted for truth. learning to draw is learning to look. Anyone can draw, but it does take time and practice. Don't confuse the issue with technology, that can come later.

snickelfritz and lucidmedia are absolutely correct, their suggestion is spot on. You just need to "jump in". Use a graphite pencil, challenge yourself by foregoing any eraser, or go to pen and ink, be fierce about it, just draw at all on a regular basis and your skill will develop on it's own, despite your conviction that you cannot draw (if you need a "straight line" get a ruler).

I would add - ditch the "I can't draw" position completely, it is unproductive, and it is clear that if one can write a letter, one can draw.

Before the advent of cheap cameras, everyone did draw routinely, but one of the things that marketing has succeeded in doing is making people think that they cannot live without manufactured devices (other than Macs).

Macrovertigo said:

I would add - ditch the "I can't draw" position completely, it is unproductive, and it is clear that if one can write a letter, one can draw.

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I completely agree with this. The main difference I see with creative people is that creative people say they are creative. 'Uncreative' people do not.

Maybe you should consider dabbling in a bit of 3D modelling. I developed an interest in it about 7 years ago, and I can't draw terribly well either, but if its realism you want, it can be achieved very easily with 3D. It takes practice, as does drawing, but once you have the forms of your desired image created, you can simply hit "Render" and the computer will do the rest of the work in visualising the final image, sometimes to the extent of photorealism.

aurius said:

Maybe you should consider dabbling in a bit of 3D modelling. I developed an interest in it about 7 years ago, and I can't draw terribly well either, but if its realism you want, it can be achieved very easily with 3D. It takes practice, as does drawing, but once you have the forms of your desired image created, you can simply hit "Render" and the computer will do the rest of the work in visualising the final image, sometimes to the extent of photorealism.

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How should one start if they are interested in this?

A good way to get into 3D modeling is to get Blender. It is a free/open source 3D program.
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

It has a pretty steep learning curve but a strong community that can really help you out. There are a ton of free tutorials available online. Here is just one place
http://blenducation.org/wordpress/
a google search will find you countless more.

http://www.drawright.com/ read this book.

Check out the Andrew Loomis books, starting with Fun With A Pencil. They're available for free in my link.

I'll add my voice to the broken record and say get Better Edwards' book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Can't be beat.

...that is, unless you're talking strictly about digital stuff, but even then if you have a tablet it'll help.

It's not really drawing, but check out Bert Monroy's Pixel Perfect podcasts. They are mainly about creating photo realistic images from scratch in Photoshop. There are hundreds of them and he is very good.

Have to add my voice to the chorus.

I'll also add, with what everyone else is saying, go out and draw from life. Go to the mall, or a park, and draw the people, animals, everything.

You dont have a tablet. Mouse movement is not the same as tablet movement, with a mouse you "push" the cursor around which is not how you draw on paper, with a tablet the active area is a scaled representation of your screen so where the pen is on the tablet is where the cursor is on the screen which is how you would draw on paper. Besides a trackpad is way too small.

Melrose said:

I'll add my voice to the broken record and say get Betty Edwards' book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

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^ This.

This this this.

Using a computer won't make your art any more realistic. The best thing to do is to just go back to basics, pick up some books on basic drawing from your local library, and start wearing out those #2 pencils.

Also, as others have mentioned, all human beings have the capacity to draw. Your skill level largely depends on how you were conditioned by your parents/teachers/etc. when you were young.

In order to get started down the right track, you have to reject the notion that you can't draw. You simply haven't been taught how to view the world as an artist would, and that can be learned.