Sebastian's Guide on How to Draw Good: Part II By Sebastian

Introduction

This is the stuff I forgot to Put in part 1.

Part V: No Comment(s)

Chances are that one of the reasons you're posting art on starmen.net is because you want people to comment on it. I can relate to that - I like comments as much as the next guy - but one thing you should know is that not getting any comments to your work is not the end of the world. So what if you're not getting any comments? You shouldn't assume that means everyone hates you and your artwork. Far from it. Sometimes, not getting any comments is a sign that you're doing something really extra special, and you should take this as a reason to try and push your art into new, unexplored territories. Again, I know from experience that you can put a bit of art that you're really proud of up, and then have it be unceremoniously ignored. But whenever this happens, I don't feel put off or insulted - a little disappointed, maybe, but regardless - I feel compelled to try and make my art better than ever before. You could do the same too!

Part VI: The Art of Others

Have you ever looked at another person's art and though "wtf that person is so much better at art than me i quit :(?" or "wtf i'll never be able to draw anything as good as that i quit :("? If so, you shouldn't be discouraged. I think that nobody can draw in an identical style to anyone else, not even those people that make forgeries of Van Goghs for a living, so that means that with your art, you're doing what no-one else can. If you try and copy someone else, you'll be forgoing your real talents just so you can try and be someone else's shadow. It's better to stay out of shadows. Come out of the shadows...

Part VII: Anime & Manga

If you want to develop your own style, you won't get anywhere if you keep drawing anime, manga, or both all the time. This is not to say I'm against anime and manga. It's OK to draw it if that's what you want, but again, if you really want to develop your own style, you'll have to get away from the stuff sooner or later. How? Here's my idea:

If you're drawing in anime, manga, or whathaveyou at all, it's probably because you read a lot of mangas or watched a lot of anime when you were young. This isn't a problem. It's normal for young, aspiring artists to duplicate the styles of what they like. As a child, I used to read stuff like Garfield and Peanuts and watch Looney Tunes cartoons religiously, so a lot of my early art was like a combination of all those. Over time, however, I pretty much rejected the influence of outside forces and just started drawing whatever came into my head, as it came into my head. Within just one month, I had a collection of like 700+ doodlings of anything and everything imaginable, almost no two in the same style. Why don't you try doodling anything that comes into your head without thinking about it? It's the first step to developing something original!

Part VIII: Pencil Shading a la Sebastian

I've already told you a way to shade using computers: now we move onto pencils. This time, we'll shade a Wetnosaur. Feel free to print it out and shade it alongside this guide.

Ignore the fact it's basically the same as the original sprite - it's just for demonstration.

Before we start, I should describe the sort of pencil movements required to do this shading, but it's hard to put into words, so here's an animated GIF showing you instead.

With that out of the way, to business. Take your pencil of choice and start shading in the areas where it looks like there should be shading. Soon, you should have something like this:

But again, it could be made even better. Start shading over the current shading to create a sort of cross-hatching effect. When you're done, it should look like this:

And that's about it for this lesson. Try what you've just learned on all sorts of different things. It'll be fun!

Part IX: To Shade or Not to Shade

One thing about shading is that while you may be tempted to put it on every picture you draw, some pictures can work better without it. But the problem is telling which pictures not to add shading to. My way of telling is to simply look at the picture. When I was drawing the Carbon Dog and Diamond Dog pictures you can see in my fanart gallery, they're quite simple in terms of detail. When I tried adding shading, it overwhelmed the rest of the picture to a great extent, so I just took it out altogether, and it looked much better for it. So the idea here is: The simpler the picture, the lesser the shading. Sometimes, less is... well, less. But it can be a better-looking less!

Part X: Schooling

I'd imagine some of you probably learned about art when you were at school. Maybe some of you are still in school. But that element doesn't matter. Have you ever taken art classes? If so, I can't imagine it as being a very good time. There are two different kinds of art teachers: the good kind and the bad kind. The bad kind think they know better than you, and think they have a right to alter your pictures and tell you how to paint. These people fall under the "Don't listen to them" category. You can tell if you've got a bad one if, when the lesson's over, you feel down and that your art's rubbish and that your hopes and dreams have been torn to ribbons. The good kind will make you feel like anything's possible and that there's nothing you couldn't draw. You can tell you've got a good one if you come out of the lesson feeling excited, inspired, happy, and that all your dreams are within reach. My mother taught art at my old school for about nine months. All the kids liked her. She was the good kind. However, given the fact I left school permanently after just three months there, I never got much of a chance to see her in action. Well, that's the way life is...

Conclusion

So, to sum it all up: Don't copy everything exactly, Try drawing funny-limbed people, ignore criticism, don't let no comments or art by other people you consider much better than you put you off, try to steer away from anime or manga if you want your own style, and don't pay any attention to people that think they know more about art than you just because they have degrees in something or another.

Additionally, if one person telling you what to do with your art is your mother, and if your mother is Glaswegian, do everything they tell you at once. You'll thank me later...

Sebastian