No Art Classes D:

[Zahrah]

I know ya'll know that I love to draw, but did you know that I never took an art class? My high school years were all about dancing and singing and band. I only started really getting into art around my last year. The rest of my years in high school it was just a minor thing. I really wanna take art classes now and I want more people to like my art. I don't get a lot of commissions and I always have the same people posting in my art topic and on my submissions on FA. I'd like to see new people posting in my art, not because I'm posting this, but because they like my art. If you wanna commission me and you only wanna spend a certain amount, just tell me. I have iron artist stuff going for $5-$10 and chibis and avatars going for $5. And the prices for a full shaded art piece are:

$12
+$4 for each added character
+$5 for simple background
+$10 for complicated background

I do mature and tame, feral and anthro, and I'm willing to try some new things if they're part of your fursona. I'm willing to even lower the price of a full shaded to ten with no background. Its just that cheap. All commission money goes to dental expenses, loan payments, and getting my stuff up here. The more commissions I get, the sooner I can take art classes. All of my family has taken art classes and I'm the only left to. I wanna take drawing classes, sculpting classes, etc. I wanna be able to match an animal picture perfectly or at least close as possible. No this is not really me trying to sell my art, its me wanting to take art classes and get better to the point where I have more people liking my art. All I'm saying is that the commissions will help me get closer to that. I also wanna get back into performing and dance and sing and play my flute and piccolo again. It always made me so calm and relaxed and have a good day. I hate not being able to do these things.

[Self-sain]

I could of sworn I responded to this...

Anyways I guess *repost*


I'm not totally sure what you are looking for, so I guess here are some comforting words. Yea your not the best artiest on here the one with all the people who comment/praise/commission (not hating on them either ). Yet you still have a some what steady fan base. When I post art I might get a comment from someone every other post, and that's when I'm lucky (and grateful). To have a steady fan base is something that you should be very happy for, becuase that isn't something easy to come by, and those watchers are the ones you should appreciate and value. Not just some person who randomly commissions you.

Also your not the only one with no art training

[Self-sain]

I feel you there, I love art, and would love to take a class. That just takes money, something not easily found :<

[.: ♥ Kiniia ♥ :.]

My advice is practice. and practice alot to get better. ask for tips off different artists and apply them to your work. do some personal art as well. treat yourself, that way you can also try new styles and methods. Commissions will roll in every now and then. But if you want the custom. Then you need to practice. My girlfriend got to the standard she did with no classes, just practice and advice.

[armagre]

I can tell you the rules my teacher made himself in order to make a perfectly proportionate head.
and the rules can apply to animals and other stuff as will with a little self modification.

Its call check lineups (lots of steps)
- draw a line in the middle of your paper
- now using your head as a reference or one from a magazine (make sure the head its just as big as the paper) take your pinky finger and your thumb to measure the top and bottom of the head.
- now in the middle of the two new lines(that marked the head size) make another line going across the paper. (so you should have a cross shape on your paper)
- now to make the eyes, take your pointer finger and place it on the right side of the vertical line while being on the horizontal line at the same time. Make a mark on the right side of your finger.
- now take two fingers, and place them on the other side of the line you just made and make another mark on the right.
- one more time place two fingers on the other side of THAT line and make a mark. (so on the horizontal line you should have 4 marks.)
- repeat on the other side of the vertical line.
- now you see your first two marks on both sides? the first two on the right and left is going to be your eyes. take your pointer finger and place it directly on the horizontal line. Your going to make the top and bottom of the eyes. make a mark on both sides of your finger. so there should be lines that almost form a box (if your confused i can draw it out for you cause I'm not so good with words)
- repeat on the other side.
- one last thing the eye brows. A finger above your box and make a line, your eye brows are only as big as your box for your eyes (if you know what i mean)

- there now you have a basic set up for eyes. now make some quick foot ball eyes to represent them being there because most of your line ups will come from the eyes. (but don't keep the football shaped eyes cause they look tacky, its just there for line up)
- the nose is halfway between the eyes and the chin, so make a mark that's between the eyes and chin on the vertical line
- now using the football eyes as a key, the inside of the lines, line up with the out side of the nose. So, knowing that make a mark that lines up with the inside of the eyes right by the mark for your noes.
- now you made a basics of a nose (remember, when you go to draw the nose, don't draw the bridge of it, that is all shading)

-mouth time! Ok using the mark on the bottom of the nose place your pointer finger below it and make a mark on the bottom side of your finger. That will be the top of your mouth.
-the at the bottom of THAT mark, using the same finger, make another line (there should be two finger spaces left for the chin)
-the sides of the mouth is tricky because you use the iris as a reference, so basically line up the sides of your mouth with the iris of your eye and make a mark on both sides (so now you have lines that form a box for your mouth now)

- ears. Are lined up with your eye brows and bottom of the nose (a majority of the time, some people may vary)
- make a two lines on the sides of your face,one for the bottom of the ear and top. They line up with the brows and your nose line.

- forehead, last step i don't really use this much. take 3 fingers and place them below your top line for your head, they should line up or be close to your eye brow lines. if its too big then fix it, same with being too small.

-draw the basic out line of your head, mouth, nose and ears and then you can start doing details!


Ok I'm done. If you need a step by step (doesn't blame you) then i can make one easy . Its really not that hard, the words just make it that hard is all. The same rules can apply to animals. But you have to make your own rules using the ones you learn from drawing a persons face.
so if you know the eyes are in the middle of the animal, then check and see if its nose lines up or where there ears stand.

I kinda forgot how to do 3/4 view and side view. But these are rules my teacher made, personally.
I can also teach you how to shade as well.

Oh well, i hope this helps you =3 PM for questions anytime.

[Lizzy]

I agree with Kiri, you just need to draw to get better at drawing.
Classes really aren't going to do anything for you that you can't do for yourself.
The class is just going to force you to draw more and to get critiques from others (take this from an art student).
Also tips and Critiques from other artists really do help. sometimes other's see what you missed.

For my part i always sketch and then digitalizes afterwards i find it easier to do that way.

(armagre: i'm gonna try out that processes later.)

[armagre]

Only problem with this is I'm doing digital drawings and don't do head shots.

well you can draw it on paper and then edit it on computer... i donno

your kinda crippling your self if you only do digital art.
things i learned in drawing, i've done in digital. Really its just a exercise to teach you things that line up. you would eventually wouldn't need to do it once you understand. I said it can go outside of head shots.

PS: bodies of humans/ furries are 7 1/2 heads tall, if you know what i mean.
there that you can use in digital art X"D hehehe

nah, i keep reading this response and it makes me come of like i know more....hmmm, i dont mean to

[Lizzy]

I don't do a lot of sketches on paper because of the erasing of unneeded lines. My full body pictures don't cover whole pages so the erasing sucks.

Can i say something with out it coming off as rude b/c that's not what i mean it to be but a bunch of the stuff you say that you don't really do is the stuff they're gonna ask you to do in art classes.

[Lizzy]

I wanna learn how to draw a different way than I am right now. I wanna be able to do better with stuff on paper too.

I can dig that. Doing sketch studies always really helped my mate Eli when he wanted to try something new... They were never much my thing though.... but he is better than me so... you know. idk.

[Xywolf]

To be fair sweety, here's my advice;
If I'm completely honest, I don't think you're anywhere near to the standard you should be for opening commissions. Artists who are popular and get alot of attention have amazing artwork. They can sell art all the time as they've been drawing for years, and that's all they've been doing. People have commissions because they have refined art and they have practised their style and researched the animals they have drawn.

I'm not trying to sound harsh, I'm just being honest, because everyone has to start somewhere. Though whenever I take a look at your threads involving art, all I see is you asking for commissions. This reminded me of myself a few years ago when I first started doing furry artwork, I realised however, that to become better I needed to take time away from it all and stop commissions. I needed to practice and hammer at myself to draw and get things right. I got myself to the standard I am now just by practice. I joined an art class, but only in the past year. The point I'm trying to make is through practice, staring at pictures of different animals for hours at a time, trying to get the details just right, and getign everything spot on. And only after that can you start adding a different style, making sure you know the anatomy of the subject

[WingedZephyr]

@Xywolf: It's a personal decision as an artist to decide to sell your artwork or not. It's not very fair to say that only people who have perfected their style and/or are popular have the right to open commissions. You are correct, however, that sometimes it is better to step away from it for a while to work on personal stuff as practice. Drawing every day is guaranteed to make someone a better artist, and you don't have to have a commission every day to do that.

@Terra: I'd also strongly suggest taking an anatomy class along with your art classes. I don't know what the art classes you plan on taking are like, but classes I've taken never really ended up teaching me exactly the things I wanted or needed to know. They were helpful, definitely, but not always in the way you expect them to be.

[Xywolf]

well, you know. I didnt mean to mean harsh. or horrible.
but its just was i deem the truth really. You the one who said you wanted to get better, and when i feel like i'm not moving anywhere. I take a step back from everything and just practice. I never said you were bad at art, and i never said you didnt practice.
I'm no here to make you angry, i'm only here to help. Its just im my experience. And a lot of artists i know's experience's. Thats just the best advice i can give.

Is all~

[armagre]

I could learn how to shade better and draw objects and people better. I could take other types of art classes too like one for sculpting.

well if thats what you want to do... i know you hate drawing on paper but your going to have to
what colleges want to see, and what also will make you better is, drawing from life!

shading isnt hard, really. Just get some pencils that will help you easier. Find pencils that are 4H, 2H, BH, B2, B4. Thoughs are the starting pencils that make drawing different shades of gray easier
H4 Is the lightest its a harder led
while B4 is soft lead and will be more dark.
This way you dont have to push  on your paper with your normal pencil to make things darker, or lighter. you know?

Drawing from life will help, learning how to check line ups will help. Drawing the same stupid object over and over again will help.
im telling you stuff that most people learn in college and im in high school.


Again shading isnt difficult. Do what i do to teach myself before i had a teacher.
draw something (lets say a tiger) ok you got that sketched out
now ink it with pen and erase the pencil.
now you can draw a circle in the sky to represent sunlight and test your shading with pencil on the tiger. This way you never loose your figure and you can experiment with shading
Look online also for shadows and how they bend and move, why do they do that? What time of day was it?
look around while your walking too and ask the same questions.

Another way to learn shading is to take one day off ok.
Set up a place to sketch near a window or outside (im sorry you hate to draw but you have to learn hear in order to take it to a computer, unless your computer is a laptop then have at it)
now pick a area to draw. maybe its the trees over there or that mail box, it doesnt matter pick something simple to draw.
Now each hour go out there and sketch the same thing again and again and note the time down on them. And when it gets dark take your pictures inside and look at them you can see that shadows change depending on what time it is.

I donno what to tell you i just had a teacher that tought us a college level and made us do things we HATE!!!!
but doing the things i hated made me better cause i could take that to the things i liked, and do them better.

I know I need practice and I always stop to practice anatomy.

Watch your boyfriend and how he moves, that's how i learned. I watched people and looked up reference allot.
If you watch allot then you will remember, once you remember then you wont need the pictures to help you on anatomy

and a free tip i gave out before, if you want human sized furry drawings.
measure the head from top to bottom.
the whole body(unless its a midget or kids) will be 7 1/2 tall.

hands go past the hips at 3 1/2 almost 4 heads
and your feet will be the 1/2 (can sketch this out for you)

[Lizzy]

I learn by watching and doing. I always watch the way my mate moves and I've asked him to pose for me once.

I didn't say I hated drawing by hand, I just don't like the erasing. I do random sketches if I don't have the computer. Its not just the drawing classes I wanna take either, its also any type of art class I can. I wanna do as many things as possible. I have those pencils by the way. I'll scan the sketches I did with them later when my mate gets home. I was looking at a how to book when I drew them.

If i may say so i think there is a slight communication issue here. I don't think anybody here questions your commitment to art, I think we can all agree that you do try hard and practice but everybody (armagre especially) is just giving advice that has helped them in the past. For me i believe that Classes can do no more for you than what you can do for yourself. Don't get me wrong it's a good thing to strive for but you can do it all for yourself. But Really i don't think anybody is trying to say you aren't trying or don't practice enough it's just that practice, observation, and repetition is really all we have.

[Lizzy]

Oh no no! You got it all wrong. I know no one's questioning it. I'll take any advice for drawing, but I also need to be shown how to do things. That's just how I learn. I'm sure I can learn something useful from art classes and I've been getting better at drawing. I just need a little help is all.

Well my mistake then.