Hi guys, 1st off I must say Imagine FX is a very inspiring magazine i absolutely love it. I am a film editor by profession and back in art school I have studied life drawing but i must say i have very little talent in it. I try and practice but most of my drawings are rather bad. Having said that what I really want to do is create fantasy digital art and am wondering if there are other ways to create them rather then start from a pencil sketch? I really cant wait to be able to explore this art its got me really excited. Hope some can help me .

 Thanks,

Rajiv 

Hi Rajiv. I'm no expert but here's my two cents. You can only improve by practicing. Posting your sketches on online art communities for critique is a great way to obtain feedback from others. It's a great way to learn and improve. I hope this helps.

Check out some of those workshops (link under the banner up there) thats what I did and I've almost totally given up pencils so I could learn to do it with Photoshop.

Welcome!

If you can afford it, invest in a Wacom and draw digitally. You'll not look back.

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If you own a good tablet with pressure sensitivity you can try painting in blobs of color instead of lines. I personally find this method much more enjoyable and it get's me away from the woes of getting a pretty line. You can also do the same in greyscale if you prefer and later add color.

These methods however still require good fundamental drawing skills, you simply draw with bigger brushes and color. 

You can always go the 3D route to creating digital art, 3D programs are just as difficult as 2D ones (perhaps more difficult if you ask a 3D specialist) but they require a slightly different skillset, more modelling than drawing.

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The Other Self Righteous Brother

Onatopp and Concious Bob both have very good suggestions. I paint as Onatopp has discribed with blobs and it is much easier for me as well as I find modeling in 3D to be much easier than painting as it is more like sculpting where unlike painting you can turn your model around 360 degrees and see every angle a good program to start with is Blender you can download it for free from here: http://www.blender.org/

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Evil Robot's Art Blog

Hi

 The biggest problem I see in art is anatomy and perspective.

How far you take your studies is down to how realistic your artwork is going to be.

If you get the proportions and connections to the frame or skeleton right then you are halfway there. Think shapes at first but to get a likeness you must take measurements and keep checking them.

Even a 5 headed mythical beast will have a frame supporting it under the skin.

Good old practice is the key, no real short cut for that. If you use a reference photo try using tracing paper to check how well you did at the end of the drawing and work out how you could have done better. You will see what went wrong.

The 3D route is a quick start for a base image to work from but you need to be careful as images can have 'doll like' expressions.

The most important thing from all of this is that you enjoy your drawing

good luck and post some pictures if you need help

 

 

Tom