[eye]

i can form all sorts of ideas in my head, some really neat things i can picture them very vividly. however, when i go to drawl them, they come out all splurged and messed up, so i just pop on adobo photoshop, and take advanteage of the filters, give it a half-assed coloring job, and call it quits. so i was wondering, is there a way i could train my self? (i was born with only half the motor skills that normal people do so i coulden't drawl a stright line to save my life, no joke)
any help would be great, thanks.

PS. sorry to wast your time, but i really am despretly in love with the pictures i form, and would love to be able to make them.

[jcFIG]

At the risk of sounding rude, I will have to say that THIS TOPIC BELONGS IN 'Digital Art Discussion' or in the 'Random Musings' section of the forum. Aside from that, the best way to teach yourself is draw from life because once you know how to do that drawing everything else will come easy. Buy a sketchbook, some art books, Blah blah blah, take a SERIOUS drawing class with a professional artist preferrably, and Practice. Sorry for sounding like a reverend. Later.

[Sumaleth]

(Moved to Discussion)

[Steven Stahlberg]

Your question is a bit like a thin guy asking "What can I do to become muscular?" Only one answer to that, what jcFIG said.

About learning to write, someone said: "The first 200,000 words will be crap, the sooner you get through those 200,000 the sooner you'll start writing good stuff, so just sit down and start, and KEEP at it". The same goes for drawing - your first x000 drawings will be crap, so just get through them as quickly as possible.

[c]

i have to disagree with you there steven, but only partially .

yea, there is nothing like practice. but just banging away at something will result in progress, but very slooooooooooow progress.

with proper instruction you can accelerate your learning by quite a bit. where does it say one has to make all the artistic discoveries by oneself? where would math and science be if every dude had to start from scratch?

[Steven Stahlberg]

I'm not putting down teachers and books and instruction and friendly c&c and such, that's needed too, all I'm saying is you get nowhere without the slogging. I guess that's another thing you get from an instructor - the "whip" held over your head to do the boring work when you'd rather be doing something else...

[ October 10, 2001: Message edited by: Steven Stahlberg ]

[eye]

i'm a strong believer that a good artist is born, not made. my sister for excample, she is simply outstanding at it, a great artist.
i just want to learn how to use technology to fix the fact that i can't dwral a stright line.

i can write pretty good, but i would rather have people be able to see what i am feeling, not read it.
so as soon as i can feagure out how to post a picture here, the sooner i can post some of my stuff for crit thanks for all your advice, and thank for putting up with a newbie hehe

[Steven Stahlberg]

Being born with talent is great, that's like winning the genetic lottery. But it just isn't enough. The most important ingredient is motivation.

Even these winners of the talent lottery have to do the slogging, perhaps less than others, but slog they must. And for that they need motivation.

If they don't, they end up like my mother, stopped drawing and painting at around 15, who now at 65 has picked up the brush again and after a few years is getting damned good - but I bet she wishes she'd been painting her whole life.

You think Frank Frazetta got that good without training? He's famous for his anatomy - but when he was young, his anatomy was off, until someone told him so and he sat down and went through a whole thick anatomy book, copying every single illustration on every page in one night. Now that's motivation.

Do you have motivation? What I mean by that is, do you have a burning desire to learn how to draw well? Would you walk on hot coals for it?
You can learn how to draw a straight line in Photoshop with 2 mouseclicks, but without the motivation for endless practise you won't get anywhere. I'm not trying to put you down, or rain on your parade, or stop you, I'm just trying to help you, it's better you find out these things now. I sometimes wish someone had told me this when I was starting out...

[c]

ah, yea steven, slogging is a good word .

"i'm a strong believer that a good artist is born, not made. my sister for excample, she is simply outstanding at it, a great artist."

hehe i couldn't disagree more. you dont give people enough credit. if society can teach people to become rocket scientists, poets, and contortionists, but not artists, then society is at fault.