How long does it take to get good at illustration / graphic design?

[Guest Pennywise]

illustration is a very precise art, there is very little room for expression and personal creativity.

 

 

that is true in some cases but there are surely some commissioners who will like you because of your own personal style and creativity. i think it would be cool to do (i know its cliche) maybe childrens books, tshirts or cards etc as a side project. that sounds pretty naive but its worth a try.

 

just realised i said childrens books and my avatar is a child murdering clown, might change it to quentin blake or something

[Siegecow]

yeah, and everyone is going to develop their own personal style regardless. But just in general, the kind of illustration hes talking about is pretty limiting compared to most other styles of drawing, except maybe generic super hero comic books and anime haha

[keltoi]

Drawing is a practical skill, and you can learn how to do it just like you can learn how to play an instrument.

 

You need to learn how to draw straight lines, how to figure draw (copy something that you look at exactly), how to foreshorten, how to do perspective, and how to mix colours. These are all fairly simple things that get better with practice.

 

in my experience certain people are unable to grasp the theories/techniques which others find so simple... so the 'you've got to be born with it' argument is interesting, especially when it comes to proportions, perspective, technical or anatomical drawing.

 

i could draw pretty accurate representations of buildings and bridges at an early age but my dad was arty and may have passed something on to me.

 

i think the more instinctive elements of 'art' like expression and colour are more universal but the technical skills and confidence take time and effort.

 

[Root5]

Drawing is a practical skill, and you can learn how to do it just like you can learn how to play an instrument.

 

You need to learn how to draw straight lines, how to figure draw (copy something that you look at exactly), how to foreshorten, how to do perspective, and how to mix colours. These are all fairly simple things that get better with practice.

 

in my experience certain people are unable to grasp the theories/techniques which others find so simple... so the 'you've got to be born with it' argument is interesting, especially when it comes to proportions, perspective, technical or anatomical drawing.

 

i could draw pretty accurate representations of buildings and bridges at an early age but my dad was arty and may have passed something on to me.

 

i think the more instinctive elements of 'art' like expression and colour are more universal but the technical skills and confidence take time and effort.

 

In my experience, people who can't grasp these concepts are either mentally handicapped (so to that extent I guess you need to be 'born with it') or they just don't fucking care. The dude obviously does care, he went to the extent of posting about it in an online message board, so there is no reason why he can't develop the fine motor skills needed in drawing straight lines (I'd recommend drawing perfect grids freehand) and learning the simple concepts of foreshortening and perspective (and if he is born with the inability to grasp these things, I would seriously suspect that he puts his pants on backwards half the time).

 

[pcock]

some extremely intelligent people cannot learn to play a musical instrument because they do not have music in their heart/are tone deaf.

 

 

[cichlisuite]

you want to start with basic anatomy, studying the muscle structure and proportion. even if you can't draw well, consider your character as a composition of basic 3d shapes like tubes, boxes, spheres,...

 

 

i use this fella even today. it's a good way to start. you can place it anywhere and shape its pose as you like. after a lot of practice you will eventually remember the proportions and will be able to draw some figures by memory.

 

illustration is basically story telling. even if you draw a simple male head portrait it's about defining recognizable strokes that define the character. so it's either you're a good observer, or you have the talent to capture the "essence" of a character with less defined lines, but more expression. this might sound pretentious or scarf-wearing, but it's not. it really gives a value to your drawing, and it's much easier to find your style here.

[Guest idrn]

as with any type art discipline, the talent decides how quickly you learn and how generative the end results are. anyone could scrape a living off istockphoto if they had the time and will. but who wants to be a hack?

[keltoi]

Drawing is a practical skill, and you can learn how to do it just like you can learn how to play an instrument.

 

You need to learn how to draw straight lines, how to figure draw (copy something that you look at exactly), how to foreshorten, how to do perspective, and how to mix colours. These are all fairly simple things that get better with practice.

 

in my experience certain people are unable to grasp the theories/techniques which others find so simple... so the 'you've got to be born with it' argument is interesting, especially when it comes to proportions, perspective, technical or anatomical drawing.

 

i could draw pretty accurate representations of buildings and bridges at an early age but my dad was arty and may have passed something on to me.

 

i think the more instinctive elements of 'art' like expression and colour are more universal but the technical skills and confidence take time and effort.

 

 

 

In my experience, people who can't grasp these concepts are either mentally handicapped (so to that extent I guess you need to be 'born with it') or they just don't fucking care. The dude obviously does care, he went to the extent of posting about it in an online message board, so there is no reason why he can't develop the fine motor skills needed in drawing straight lines (I'd recommend drawing perfect grids freehand) and learning the simple concepts of foreshortening and perspective (and if he is born with the inability to grasp these things, I would seriously suspect that he puts his pants on backwards half the time).

 

there's different types of intelligence you know. it doesn't mean someones retarded if they can't grasp something you find straight forward.

 

 

[Guest idrn]

thing is, retards make pretty good art.

[keltoi]

art maybe. technical/anatomical drawing i doubt it.

[pcock]

the best transcriptive illustrators at my school were the seriously intelligent, studious 13 A star type students, but while they could draw a pencil image of something theyd seen with an astonishing level of realism and beauty, when it came to creating something from scratch they fell short of the potheads. I went to grammar school mind you, even the potheads werent exactly stupid, but yeah.

[cichlisuite]

well it's like a plumber fixes your pipes, an illustrator draws you a picture. usually such person inhibits certain observational skills and sense to transfer images to paper. doesn't need intelligence as doing math or anything... i've seen kids do drawings that far surpass some pretentious intellectual, who'd probably first study a whole shelf of highly articulated art criticism books and do a mess...

[keltoi]

doesn't need intelligence as doing math or anything

 

representational drawing is maths... whether calculated consciously or not. (like the old music is maths thing - shouldn't music be felt?)

 

 

 

 

[Guest tidbit]

id say about 15mins.. and corporates will start calling

and 35mins ..and idmweblabels start calling

[Guest assegai]

As everyone said, lots of drawing.

I got a masters in fine arts, and currently work as a 3d animator.

School was 3/4 drawing/traditional art, they barely taught you any programs because "you can learn those yourself". Which is true, anyone could learn a program in a month with some good tutorial videos. The focus is on your ideas and how you express yourself. If you go to a job interview and they see you're a boring shithead or a pompous jerk but your drawings are fairly accurate you'l get bounced in favor of someone who's more of an ideas/creative team player who can bring your company into the "next" big thing. With that being said, it's also a highly competitive field and a lot of people I went to school with can't draw for shit and seemingly don't have the "eye" for it, I'm not sure if it's not caring or "cant" grasp it. It's def not just a "job" but a lifestyle and something you have to constantly be interested in and ahead of the curve.

[cichlisuite]

doesn't need intelligence as doing math or anything

 

representational drawing is maths... whether calculated consciously or not. (like the old music is maths thing - shouldn't music be felt?)

right, but you don't actually need to implement complex equations and stuff like that. that's what photoshop/illustrator does pretty well so i don't have to.

[Guest mrcopyandpaste]

i feel a boc attack coming on

[Velazquez]

I only draw with ink, I like the consistent flow and it adds pressure not to make mistakes. I made the most strides in my drawing whilst working as a security guard at The Metropolitan Museum of art ( I drew from the collection constantly), and taking life drawing classes at the Art Students league, so generally 5 days a weeks I'd draw for 8 hours or so, in addition to painting . I did this for a year, as a matter of study. A very helpful thing is anatomy for figure drawing, learn it well. But the most important thing is to develop your eye whilst drawing, or even when you're not... look at thing critically - and draw it inside your brain, i do this all the time... once you get basics down you will get confident, then comes facility, style and so on.

[chaosmachine]

ten years.

[Guest tv_party]

dunno coz i was born a genius.

 

http://www.posemaniacs.com/ this site is good

 

good stuff, I'm such an introvert I hate asking people to pose for me. I'm well out of practice.

I just find pics from the web and use them for reference which does have it's limitations and dangers.

 

I think that almost anyone can be trained with some effort to produce workman like pieces, but most will probably lack the ineffable flair of those born with natural inclination. I drew from the time I could hold a crayon onward and do pretty well.

Even those naturally talented can despite my own initial doubts, learn a trick or two from school.

 

edit: life drawing was my all time favorite class

[Guest tv_party]

damn editing time limit...

 

...and taking life drawing classes at the Art Students league,

 

wish they had something like that around here in this piece of fuck city, I'd be all over it.

[Guest Chromatic]

You can most definitely learn techniques and practice habitually which will help, but having a natural affinity for the area drastically increases the likelihood of success and enjoyment you'll procure. I'd say the first steps to take would be paying notably greater attention to detail to things than you usually would when you're drawing something, and being strict on yourself with things such as proportionality of an object/person and the accuracy of outlines in your illustrations. I think this could really help you.

[Guest Hanratty]

it takes 5 years (no beers).

[Guest mrcopyandpaste]

tone deaf.

exactly. if you can never develop that 'skill', then whos to say you cant never develop another, such as drawing?

 

also, whoever said that once you get good you eventually develop your own style, this is bullshit. all you do is create a hybrid style from the people you learnt from. for example, i love drawing with a pen, but im not very good or anything, and all i can ever do is switch between the styles of the latest designer ive found out about and loved.

 

 

 

 

develop develop develop style style style

[Guest abusivegeorge]

shit shit shit