Slowly Learning To Draw Anime...

[JDBar]

If you're wanting to know how to draw the human figure, doing anime won't really help all that much. The best way is to do life drawing. Whether that be drawing a naked person, or just observational drawing of people/animals etc..

I disagree to an extent. I very rarely include fully drawn people, let alone detailed human figures, in my drawings and paintings, and so I feel that casually learning the form and figure of anime benefits me slightly.

You need to learn the basics first however. A lot of people try to draw, without ever learning how to use a pencil properly first. Your line work is too hard, and you shouldn't outline any features. Start by sketching light basic outline, and define everything through shading.

If I was doing a drawing based on realism, I'd be doing this. But this is just casual doodles and cartoons. It also doesn't help I'm drawing with a plain 7mm mechanical pencil rather than my drawing pencils.

For darker areas, rather than pressing down harder with your pencil, you need to build up layers until you're happy with the shade. When you press down hard, you leave indents in the paper which reflect light.

Also you should be using your rubber just as much as you use your pencil.

Trust me, I know this stuff already. However, I am lazy and these are casual drawings and doodles. Since I do not intend on posting these as alleged pieces of art, I'm not worried about all the technicalities and techniques of drawing.

If I wanted to draw properly, I probably could. I could go through my old sketchbook but I'm lazy, so I'll just post this old scan of my drawing exam:


Thanks for taking the time to post though. I appreciate it much, but I draw very different depending on whether or not I consider myself to be doodling or drawing.
And to everyone else, thanks as well! Also, I don't draw males... usually. Girls are better. XD