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I Want To Be Unique: Developing Artistic Style

First of all, I freely admit that what I say isn't gospel. I am a total amateur at art and writing. I've learned everything that I know via the internet and a few drawing books. It's just that I appreciate all of the tutorials here on dA that have helped me out, and I want to put a little bit of my own methods back in.

In my experience, style will either be one of the easiest or one of the hardest things for you to develop as an artist. I've been there, there is no worse feeling than the crushing realization that your art looks an awful lot like everyone else's. The weirdest part is that it's really difficult to develop a style of your ow

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Submitted: July 7, 2012
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Tutorial: How to Build a Drawingby *dianekraus

Resources & Stock Images / Tutorials / Traditional Art / Drawing / Other

I've been thinking over a drawing tutorial for some time now, but I wanted to make sure I had something solid and not just a work-in-progress type thing that reads much like the "How to draw an Owl" meme.

These are the basic steps I've learned to take when working on a drawing. Learning these moved me beyond the plateau I had gotten stuck on back when I was drawing directly and not planning my work - it's allowed me to work more and more from imagination, make more complicated and complete drawings, and generally polish my work.

The steps are derived from Classical techniques, but I hopefully made them applicable to any style of drawing!

I did the samples in pencil because I wanted it to be clear that it was pure drawing and all you need is a pencil and paper. If I ever get a scanner that does a better job, I'll redo the examples!

I hope this makes a difference for some who might be struggling as I once did, being able to draw really well when it comes to copying a photograph but lost when confronted with an original idea.

KEEP AT IT AND HAPPY DRAWING!

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=Jinolu Aug 8, 2012

Awesome :3

*dianekraus Aug 8, 2012 Professional General Artist

Thanks!

*A-Spirit-of-Roses Jul 27, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

This is great and easy to understand

*dianekraus Jul 27, 2012 Professional General Artist

Glad to hear it, thanks!

~Felitacity Jul 15, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Amazing... How long does it generally take to finish one picture like this? And how long have you been drawing to obtain such skills?

*dianekraus Jul 15, 2012 Professional General Artist

I've been doing observational drawing (still life's, landscapes, portraits, drawing from photos, etc.) for a long time, but it's been in the past three or four years I got to concentrating on the foundations of art - composition, proportion, perspective, value and so forth - that have made it possible to draw like this consistently. The observational skills are really important and I'm always telling people to draw from life as much as possible, but at the same time it's the knowledge of art itself that makes it all really work.

The sample drawing for this took maybe two hours? But that was stopping to scan each step and really watching what I was doing so I could describe it in the tutorial. It really depends on what I'm drawing and how polished I want it to be. The first five stages or so actually make drawing move much faster than when I was just drawing directly, because you get the whole thing sketched out and can then sort of choose when to call it "done". Less finished portraits can take under 30 minutes but more finished ones can take days.

~Felitacity Jul 15, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

But after finishing a portait, you alright... scan it to the computer. How do you add the colour and such. Do you use some kind of a tablet or do you just use mouse to do them? Since they really are amazing with the shadows and everything.

*dianekraus Jul 15, 2012 Professional General Artist

I use a Wacom Intuos tablet and paint in Photoshop. I'm planning on following up this tutorial with another on painting very soon, using the drawing here as the first step. Stay tuned!

~Felitacity Jul 16, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Brilliant!

!HalfMoonEarth-quake Jul 13, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

helpful!

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