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Anonymous10/13/25, 14:50No.7756634
I am a beg.
I have wanted to learn to draw for years, but haven't. I feel like I have a very solid grasp on the fundamentals. I can draw all the basic shapes and volumes fairly consistently in perspective. I feel like I have a good understanding on measuring, gesture, simplifying, etc. The problem is, when I try to draw a human, everything goes wrong very quickly. The shapes go wrong, the angles are wrong, the proportions are very wrong and connecting everything believably feels impossible. As soon as I start trying for about 10 minutes and results are miles off being decent, let alone good, I find myself demotivated.
I understand rome wasn't built in a day and it takes a long time to get good, but I've been in this cycle for a few years now: decide to start practicing one day, try for a few minutes, get demotivated, then stop drawing for months.
What is the key to break this cycle? I feel like if I could at least draw a human coherently consistently, that would give me all the inspiration I need to push myself, but right now it feels like a really big hurdle.
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Anon10/13/25, 14:56No.7756641
>beg
>very solid grasp on the fundamentals
stopped reading
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Anon10/13/25, 14:56No.7756642
>If I can do X, that would give me ALL the inspiration I need to push myselfYeah. Sure buddy. How about you just draw and see where it goes?
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Anon10/13/25, 15:44No.7756709
>I feel like I have a very solid grasp on the fundamentals
why does every pre-beg say this when they actually have non-existent fundamentals
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Anon10/13/25, 16:16No.7756759
Post your mannequins, otherwise we can't tell where are you fucking up and where you aren't.
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Anon10/13/25, 16:51No.7756801
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Anon10/13/25, 18:52No.7756964
>draw shapes, boxes, lines in a void, never actually draw anything
Those are warmup exercises. Draw from references for now.Also you have to draw for hours to get anything half decent as a beginner, not 10 mins, use pencil and eraser. Do fun with a pencil, do the exercises once and move on.
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Anon10/13/25, 20:10No.7757072
I see. So the definition of fundamentals is now debatable to the extent of people meaninglessly throwing shit at each other. Great job guys.
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Anon10/13/25, 22:00No.7757201
OP here.
Upon further reflection and some self-study, I've noticed a bit of an oddity.
My drawing from imagination looks better/more coherent than drawing from reference. That isn't to say it's good (it's not) but side-by-side, imagination is clearly better than reference.I'm wondering if I have some kind of motor problem where looking at a subject negatively affects my ability to draw. I feel like when I'm looking at a reference, my brain is getting scrambled with all kinds of information I've picked up from various books and video courses: "SEE the figure", "ALWAYS observe while drawing", "spend 80% time observing the model and 20% looking at your canvas", "try to capture the movement of the pose", "look for the primary action line". There's so much esoteric information to internalize and it ultimately affects my ability to put everything in the right place, angle and scale.Meanwhile if I draw from imagination, suddenly I'm not burdened with trying to look at a model and I can focus on accurately drawing the shapes in correct proportion. Of course this still comes with all the issues related to drawing from imagination and I don't think I can truly make good progress without reference, but at least I've seemingly narrowed my issue a bit.How do I train my brain to observe and study a human reference properly?
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Anon10/13/25, 22:43No.7757227
many such cases of overthinking howies.
just draw and stay mindful and you will have fun and get better
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Anon10/18/25, 17:37No.7763570
god how hard is it
DO NOT REPLY TO HOWIE THREADS
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Anon10/19/25, 09:21No.7764662
posting frogs
lots of writing
not drawing
NGMI
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Anon10/19/25, 12:32No.7764772
>guys is there a one secret trick to getting better at drawing if I can only stand to draw 5 minutes a day a few times a week? How do I get better without having to draw and practice? And don't say "draw more", I hate drawing.these fucking threads are so annoying, we need a guide for people who hate drawing. Like just study gesture and visual copying.