I need to learn how to draw...

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I have heaps of drawing books at home, but none of them can help me draw better. It's impossible for me to draw from imagination, so I have to copy everything. But that's the thing; there's only certain things I can copy. I want to draw myself as a Red Mage, but I don't know how. Is there some kind of secret to drawing properly? If there is, I must know it!

It's hard for me to explain without pictures, but I'll see if I can get some basics down for you in about 45 minutes from now if you'd like. BTW, what are you using to draw with, and what style of drawing (anime, realistic, abstract, etc.)?

That'd be cool.

Do you have anything that you can post or email to me so I know where your skills are?

I'm the most artistically impaired person I know. I'm lucky if I can draw a stick figure that doesn't look deformed.

Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book is the only book that's ever helped me at all with this. By precisely following the directions in there, I was once able to duplicate a few doodles in a form that looked merely bad, as opposed to visual-spatially ret*d.

Alright, I can't do this with pictures, so I'm going to set up some video lesson-thingy and put it on youtube. It'll take me an hour or two, and I'll email you the link to the video when I'm done.

there is nothing wrong with having to look at something to draw it. The mere fact that you are spending a lot of time copying stuff means you are getting lots of practice. Very few people can just sit down and draw stuff out of their head, at least at the beginning. But every time you look at an image of, say, a horse, and copy it, you are looking at all the lines and proportions as you draw, and those concpepts are being put into your head.

Juggernaut said it well. My drawings skill gradually developed over 4 years to what they are now.

I can't do good drawings, but my sister is better, she says her secret is practicing.

She got traumatized at kindergarten when kids told her drawings were deformed. She stopped drawing until she was 13, when she began to copy drawings and anime pictures.

Then she bought drawing books, and continued practicing. Here's a gallery with her drawings:

http://mshk-msng.deviantart.com/

You should think her drawings are lame. But it's her old gallery. Now she's 18 (almost 19), and here's her new gallery:

http://zednan.deviantart.com/

The difference is obvious, if you want to improve your drawing abilities, you need "practice".

I think there's a difference between practice. When you say practice, I think "Keep doing it till you're sick of it, and then keep going, despite the fact your skill aren't going up because you're too beaten down by it." I know that's probably not what you meant, but my form of practice is drawing for the fun of it, gradually getting your skills up, and stopping when you feel. That's probably what you meant.

And if you still draw like s**t after a ton of practice, call it modern art and get yourself a million dollars!

Juggernaut and Saxen said it well, there's no secret, the only thing that will make
you better is:

practice,
practice,
practice,
and then,
practice some more


Look at inspiration by seeking artists or drawings in styles that you like,
visit sites like http://drawn.ca
and http://illustrationmundo.com to see many many styles, and COPY,
everyone needs to start somewhere, and by copying you can see
what have you been doing right and what needs to be corrected.

Don't try to start doing complicated stuff first, start with simple
things like a drawing a rock, capturing the light in it, using just paper
and a pencil.

when done, draw a glass, and when done, draw an orange.


but again, practice is "the secret".

I highly recommend, if you can, to take some art classes, that way you'll
know "mediums" (pencil, chalk, conté, acrylics, oils, even some sculpting),
and having a teacher to assist you is highly recommended.

Anyway, if you have questions, just ask, there are some artists in here
that will gladly help you

I took some classes while studying my career (graphic design), and will gladly help you

I'd gladly help, but to make practise enjoyable do it only when you WANT to and practise drawing things you WANT to practice on and use objects you FEEL like using for practice. That's how I kept my sanity.

Yes, that's true!

If you do something you don't want, you can get annoyed.

RedMage, could you show us some drawings?

I don't have any to show, as I don't keep them.

I need to learn how to draw, as I'm going to learn how to computer graphics which requires that skill. I can draw certain things, but I think they're bad and throw them away. I'd love to take drawing lessons, but no one does that sort of thing where I live.

BAD, BAD, BAD!! ! Never throw anything you drew away! You can't improve if you don't have anything that you can look back on. I still keep mine, but I keep them in a locked file cabinet, and only look at them when I need to remind myself of progress.