While I do study drawing, improvement is coming really slowly. I want to speed things up a bit. You know, people like Mit here are only 18 and can still draw far better than me. I don't know if they used to study 24 hours a day or something. If not, what gives? Just natural talent? Then there's these people from 500 years ago like Da Vinci and pals, who where able to make hyperrealistic human beings at said age. I wanna be like them too, but the only explanation I can find of them being so good is that they were obsessed with these stuff (I tried googling this. Did not find much info). I've got a few books, but all of them have a different way of drawing things up. I have to go from one book to the other and that makes things quite confusing too. Would also like to add that I've been drawing since childhood. It's not like I'm starting today. I just don't want to finally draw the human figure right when I'm 60 years old. What do you guys do to speed up studies of drawing?

If there's a more elaborate answer than "just draw a lot", I'm definitely interested in hearing it too. But I doubt the answer will be much more elaborate than that.

[quote="Mr. Saltman"]While I do study drawing, improvement is coming really slowly. I want to speed things up a bit. You know, people like Mit here are only 18 and can still draw far better than me. I don't know if they used to study 24 hours a day or something. If not, what gives? Just natural talent? Then there's these people from 500 years ago like Da Vinci and pals, who where able to make hyperrealistic human beings at said age. I wanna be like them too, but the only explanation I can find of them being so good is that they were obsessed with these stuff (I tried googling this. Did not find much info). I've got a few books, but all of them have a different way of drawing things up. I have to go from one book to the other and that makes things quite confusing too. Would also like to add that I've been drawing since childhood. It's not like I'm starting today. I just don't want to finally draw the human figure right when I'm 60 years old. What do you guys do to speed up studies of drawing?[/quote] Well, keep in mind that Mit's going to an actual art school and has taken courses. Everybody learns at a different rate, and I think he's probably more qualified to answer your questions.

just draw a lot. go outside and draw what you see and draw a lot of that. believe it or not but compared to my peers i feel like i'm fairly behind in terms of technical know-how being that i held off taking figure studies seriously until my junior year of high school, and that's being generous. a lot of the drawing i did both prior and during then was me just using style to get me through knowing how to do things right. studying figures is less "technical" knowledge at first and more mechanical knowledge. you do eventually get into the thick of the technicalities like musculature and bone structures, but just forcing yourself to learn easy techniques to scribble stuff out efficiently and easily is way more useful when you're finding your footing. having someone around to help guide you is also always a great help, sometimes the only thing standing between you and taking a huge step forward is a sentence or two. taking art classes and going to an art college and whatever is really not necessary unless you're not capable of putting yourself in that kind of setting on your own (which is my problem). if you can force yourself to go around and draw stuff from life outside and in public then that's a huge help and a lot of money saved, assuming you're going for just drawing and not something like animation or editing or something.

Well I do have my personal art professor. Though she also draws things her own way, which makes it even more misleading. And yeah, I'm interested in animation and stuff, but that's another story. Da Vinci and Pals sure must have been obsessed with the thick of technicalities too, aside from just doing "easy techniques".

thinking of drawing in terms of "their own way" is a really bad way to look at things when you're trying to learn, because then that usually results in you doing the opposite of what you set out to do. even if you're drawing cartoons, you've gotta try to get some grasp on fundamentals. some things may be better for you now but in even a year you'll quickly outgrow bad habits if you allow yourself to open up and move past them. trust me, i know, as this is why i didn't bother learning anything until junior year. if someone's trying to lead you to teach you how to draw, then follow them. you need to know how to draw before you can start questioning the artistic choices of those guiding you, because at least once you've made it to some semblance of being in their position, you can understand why they make the choices they make.

I still have no practical knowledge of art and I draw everyday. Yet I still think I've improved. I guess Not is right that it takes knowledge to draw, although it's good to develop your own style at the same time.

You should practice drawing what you see, and keep trying to see new things. Then you can take what you understand about real life and, if you wish to, stylize it. Taking classes to guide you along helps of course, but art can definitely be self taught.

Fastest way is study > apply. Study what you want to draw by copying something, and then apply what you've learned in a drawing from imagination. This applies to pixel art, traditional art, any art. These skills are entirely based in your knowledge of real world physics (which includes color theory, subsurface scattering, light sources, material behaviors, reflections, etc), muscle memory, anatomy, and your ability to visualize 3 dimensions. These skills can translate over to any medium - if you're adept at painting on paper, your skill will similarly show in your photoshop and pixel artworks. Algenpfleger put it best: http://www.saracasen.com/tag/algenpfleger/ He went pro with just 2 years of studying. [i]Some train for decades to get as good.[/i] He knows what he's talking about. For beginners, just do gesture studies. Lots, lots, lots of gesture studies. Look at a person, draw their gesture and form to the best of your ability, take 4 minutes max per pose. Quick lines, quick marks. This will force you to try new things in the interest of speeding up your process. Scared of drawing people? Just draw hundreds of them. Start by doing just 5 today. Example: [img]https://s18.postimg.org/mut758g6h/chrome_2017-07-29_22-52-49.png[/img] Two websites that are good for gesture studies / poses: https://www.quickposes.com/ http://www.posemaniacs.com/

What do you all think of the look at a reference and draw that reference accurately technique?

I'm not really able to survive solely by using that technique. I'm always searching for "guides", in general (art professor, books, workshop, etc). Though I don't do what you are suggesting too much. I definitely should try drawing what's around me with more frequency, rather than just sticking my eyes on learning books and tutorials.