kyupol
I taught my xgf how to draw and color.
I could just imagine. Everytime she draws, she WILL remember me whether she likes it or not. HAHAHA.

Dude... it's been years since you started being bitter (in general). Surely you've grown out of it by now.

Dude... it's been years since you started being bitter (in general). Surely you've grown out of it by now.

Yep. The wound has healed but the scar on my soul shall remain... forever.

(*plays some emo music in the background... lol*) ;)

I also taught my brother and his gf how to draw.

My bro wont get past stick figures... and his gf got a better hang of it. lol

I get asked that a lot from school and such.

But what do I do if they contact me, or bother me to teach them to draw? I tell them, once I get some free time, I'll contact them back to arrange things.

... Thing is, I NEVER CONTACT THEM BACK. AHAHHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAAA!!!

Doyora Steinbaum
people have asked me how to draw.

The simple answer is:

1) Take drawing instrument

2) Put into contact position with paper

3) Move hand.

That is indeed how you draw. Inless your on a computer, then you put the pen to the wacom. ;)

People have to understand that no one, not a single person, can effectively "teach" something as abstract as drawing. You can instruct someone on different techniques or how to begin, but drawing is 100% fueled by the person at hand's own skill and skill can only come with practice. You can't pick up a book on human anatomy and visual perspective and INSTANTLY be perfect at drawing. You have to experience it first hand.

This is why I hate all of those "DRAW MANGA THE COOL WAY!" books because all it does is teach people how to copy someone elses work. The best artists learn from their inspirations but because they practice they end up breaking away from what inspired them and make up their own style. It's people with style who make the most attractive work.

All I can say is that no matter what kind of drawing you intend to do
Pick up a book on human physiology, it will teach you proportion and do a heck of a lot of good in the area of making sure your people look like people.

angry_black_guy
This is why I hate all of those "DRAW MANGA THE COOL WAY!" books because all it does is teach people how to copy someone elses work. The best artists learn from their inspirations but because they practice they end up breaking away from what inspired them and make up their own style. It's people with style who make the most attractive work.

This reminded me of a funny story. I was looking in one of those kinds of books (You know, the kind that has the step-by-step instructions that say "Learn to draw manga!" and all that) that a friend of mine had checked out from the library.. I drew it quickly and virtually perfectly (As I was already a prolific artist). I then tweaked it by adding my own style for two minutes and everyone said it looked loads better than the original. So many of the drawings in those books look like crap to me...

Though I must confess, I have picked up several books from the "how to draw manga" series (Not the AP kind, but the ones translated from Japan). They are a pretty useful resource, though, and they encourage looking at real people most of the time.

Matt Groening once said that you shouldn't trust 'How to Draw' books too much, because if the artists making them were any good, they'd be working on actual comics, not 'How to Draw' books! There are billions of 'Draw Manga' books out there, and the vast majority are rubbish. In the end, studying a bit of real life anatomy and practising a lot will make you a much better artist, and allow you to develop your own style naturally as you go along.
Like any book/site/tape that claims you can 'learn to play guitar!' or 'speak Japanese!' in a matter of hours, anything claiming you'll be able to draw with minimal effort should be viewed with suspicion. Maybe you'll be able to draw one thing really well, but a comic is probably far better, because to tell the story you'll need to draw a huge range of poses, angles, emotions and objects. If somebody doesn't enjoy drawing enough to draw a lot, they're not cut out to be an artist. The best artists are people who just draw all the time without even really thinking about it as serious practice. Their school and college and uni books are filled with margin doodles, any piece of scrap paper or envelope put near them will end up with something scribbled on it, they fill up sketch pads in mere days or weeks. These people do well, because they don't think of it as tedious drawing practice, they think of it as 'a quick bit of drawing for fun!' Without that drive to draw all the time, it's hard to accumulate the practice to be really good, and a person with no drive o draw wouldn't use their ability to fulfil their potential anyway.

I've taught two people to draw over the years, but one was related to me and I 'm married to the other. It's sort of hard to demure in such situations.

Mostly, though, it seems to me that anyone with the determination to learn how to draw also is inclined to be somewhat of a self-starter. My wife and my relative were already doing artwork before they asked me to help them improve. They were just very, very bad at what they were doing.

The most difficult part was disciplining myself to teaching them what the wanted to know along with the absolute minimum of what they had to know. In both cases it turned out okay, but neither will ever do art professionally because they were both unwilling to invest the necessary time in the 'boring' parts of learning a comprehensive skill set.

On the other hand, I'll never be a professional artist either because I'm too lazy to push myself that hard. I'm a fairly good amateur, and that's all I'll ever be.