It's all been very constructive, and that part was just a joke. If you can't tell, I am a person capable of expressing a thing called humor.

Not sure how you got that. I said the exact opposite, with my problem being that most artists exclude the required steps. Take Betty Edwards again - doesn't even cover basic ratio and proportions. Some things "brain flipping" does not automatically resolve.

You missed the point yet again. It's not that the resource you linked to is bad, it's that it's not where you START. You don't use something like that to learn how to draw, you use it to learn how to draw *better*. Just like art colleges, they're not going to start you at the beginning of drawing. They will start you at the beginning of art education, which is several steps beyond the basics.

And that's part of the gap artists have and don't know how to bridge. You make it sound like everyone should enroll into art college and online courses to go from stick man with scribbled hair to Pixar. If you have a course that actually does that, you're welcomed to suggest it but Udemy-Man (you?) is not it. I've seen many free resources that cover those exact same topics in the exact same manner, except more concise being text based. By the time you're there, you'll be able to learn it from anywhere.

Yeah, sorry about that. Didn't expect someone to go full rage on me randomly. If it's any consolation, my e-organs are tiny. Proof: that's what she said. ;<

heheh. it's not really me that needs the apology though - but i do understand. :)

Thanks. I don't have a specific time frame. Take your time. I'd rather have a rough estimate of the time though, just to know what to expect. Thanks for the suggestion and the links. I don't think I'll do it right now. I think that it's better to have some predilection towards a subject in order to study it. There are lots of things I'd like to do before I learn to draw.

I frequently use Drawquest app on my ipad, it's pretty cool but i wouldn't say i actually can draw :).

Sigh, this is why I tend to be a rather condescending jerk.

That is a beginners course. There's a few things that are good to know ahead of time, but he starts with simple geometric shapes and works from there. The perspective drawing and figure drawing have a pretty damned low bar to entry. I mean, for god's sake, he starts you with straight lines and stick figures. OK, so he doesn't explicitly tell you how to draw a straight line and an oval, but that's something that most people learned in preschool.

I think you have a rather unfair view of what a beginner is, if starting with stick figures is too hard. I'm not even sure how you can get any more basic than a stick figure. At some point, the student has to actually put in some effort and work through the material. Perspective isn't hard, he works up to some rather complicated scenes using just a couple of vanishing points and straight lines. Again, there isn't really anything simpler than that.

Granted, the shading and lighting can be rather tricky, but by the time you're ready to start that, you've already got the basics of drawing down. I'm not sure where you got the idea that this is somehow complicated.

Considering that you were picking a fight, you should really appreciate the fact that I was actually quite a bit nicer about it than you were.
That's quite understandable. It's merely my position that anybody interested in doing so can learn to draw. One of the things about life is that we have to make priorities or we don't get to master anything. Some people may have to start out with Ed Emberely style, let's draw a house using only rectangles, squares and triangles, but everybody can learn.

Or, so I keep telling myself, but there's no way I could keep up with what I'm doing if I had any sort of social life.

@hedwards
But do you think that these books you mentioned could actually teach anything to a person whose drawings resemble that of a 5 year old?

I cant draw, my drawings are as bad as it gets - also, a lot of people say that my handwriting is awful (though tbh I've seen worse, but that is only my opinion ;p).

So do you seriously think there would be some hope even for a person like myself?

If so, do you know any free resources which I might use?

Personally, I doubt I could do anything about it, but I would be willing to give it a try. I think it would be really nice to at least be able to draw some simplistic comics for fun.

I have a similar skill to yours (see my comic example), but I believe that it's possible to learn. The only problem for people who aren't talented in a field is that it takes more work, and it's likely that you'll never reach the skill level of someone with artistic talent. You should still be able to learn to draw better than you do now. Personally I don't have the will to make that effort.

ET3d; well, tell you what, I'll give it a shot over the weekend, though again...can't promise much.

Regarding the discussions about art skill, I'm going to echo my brothers advice here; just pick up a pencil and draw.

It doesn't matter if its a shitty sketch the first ten thousand times, the practice will still set you on the right track and help you recognize what you're doing right and wrong.

Also, avoid drawing an object in all its detail. Focus on what you're actually seeing or want people to see. This part can be tough (I've yet to overcome this challenge), but I've noticed that regarding a scene as light and dark instead of as an explicit collection of physical objects helps immensely.

*shrug* Just my two cents there. Everyone's got their own methods.

Did you get anything done?

Unfortunately not yet.... the weeks been a bit full. I did, however, start throwing together the character drafts (prefer doing those first). If I get time to touch those up a tad, I'll throw them up here tomorrow eve.

Anything new?

I like to think i can draw - I mean I like my "work" but I think art is generally a question of taste, and thankfully not everyone has the same taste!

ET3D: Once again I must apologize for dropping off the map here. Haven't had a lot of time lately, though I did manage to throw something together this evening. Not exactly the full on comic, but I was trying to narrow down the dead guy himself, and it sort of spiraled into this. Mind this is still a work in progress, so.... yeah, its very blah.

Cool! A little more gruesome than my vision was, but it's well done. Thank you!

As for being blah, if this means that you can do it significantly better, then I think it will be amazing. I'm already very happy just seeing this. And the Zoombie logo is very cool.