i cant draw and i want to draw my fursona

[Jacoby Quinn]

hi. ive decided to take drawing back up. ive never drawn an anthro wolf before(though i have drawn many feral dogs). but therin lies the problem, all the "dogs" i drew were supposed to be wolves, i just couldnt get the muzzle right! also i dont know how to do the fur pattern. and one last thing if im gonna do anthro i want my fursona to be buff and not have a shirt and i dont know how to draw all the mucles.
                           P.S. i also would like to learn how to color my images on my computer but i would like to draw them by hand(yes i already have a scanner/copier/printer).

[Kay Alett]

Good tips I've heard from other artists:

Look up images of the kind of art you'd like to draw, use these as style guides to practice. Keep practicing daily. A few hours a day a few days a week, yes this may start to feel like work but the main thing you have to remember about most artists: they draw a lot just for fun. Don't get too hard on yourself if things don't look how you see it in your head, most of the artists you see online have been drawing since they were in middle school and kept at it for years. They're as good as they are because of all the years of practice they've put in.

Start small, draw stick people and when you can do them well enough try doing a group of stick folk standing around or doing stuff. Once you can draw stick folk to a way that satisfies you try adding more details to them. Put a tail on some. Add animal ears to some. Keep practicing and stay small.

Always keep your early work. Keep it safe so you can look back on it. Things look impossible if you're always looking ahead and not where you are now, so looking back at how far you've come will give you perspective.

Above all, you have to want it and you have to enjoy it. If something feels too much like work you're going to stop enjoying it so try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Keep practicing and give yourself time. You won't be the next Da Vinci by next week but in a few years you may surprise yourself when you look back.

[Alsek]

I'm still learning myself,  but honestly,  start with shapes,  and start with a physical medium like charcoal or graphite (number two pencils are graphite that is very dense.  The more denser,  and harder the charcoal or graphite,  the lighter it will be on the page.  The softer it is,  the darker it will be)


.Learn to draw flat shapes using only lines.
.Learn to draw 3d shapes using only lines.
.Learn to draw 3d shapes from multiple angles from every angles using only lines.
     http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L74GFck5YrA/TPTgIHHbMYI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/M4XOR4h2_6s/s1600/1point_vanish.gif
     http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com/image-files/two-point-perspective-6.gif
.Learn to shade.
     http://www.midnightmoose.net/assets/images/db_images/db_3d_shapes1.jpg
.Start learning to make convincing shapes with only shading,  and no lines
.Begin to draw basic object around the house.  Look at them and try to draw their shape as you see it.  Do not try to draw what you know is there. Do not think of books as rectangles,  think of them as a collection of lines and angles.
.Practice   V
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.Practice   ^
.Humans
.Animals
.Furries

[PupLilith17]

steps-
1.lines,curves,sharp-bends,ect
2.shapes,even-lines(like paralell),angles,ect
3.structure,anatomy,shading,ect
4.shading,scenery,gender-differences,ect
and thats all i know 
(i not even to 4 yet)
*note 'ect' is very handy word*

[Jacoby Quinn]

ok let me recap
1.i know how to do simple 3-d shapes and shading
2.i can do faces but the nose or muzzle never looks how i want it to
3.i cant do hands or feet

[PupLilith17]

ok let me recap
1.i know how to do simple 3-d shapes and shading
2.i can do faces but the nose or muzzle never looks how i want it to
3.i cant do hands or feet

me thinks hands are espeically hard 

[Jacoby Quinn]

ok let me recap
1.i know how to do simple 3-d shapes and shading
2.i can do faces but the nose or muzzle never looks how i want it to
3.i cant do hands or feet

me thinks hands are espeically hard 

me agrees(thats why my old drawings have their hands behind their back)

[PupLilith17]

ok let me recap
1.i know how to do simple 3-d shapes and shading
2.i can do faces but the nose or muzzle never looks how i want it to
3.i cant do hands or feet

me thinks hands are espeically hard 

me agrees(thats why my old drawings have their hands behind their back)

hehe thats a trick i use often

[Yip]

me agrees(thats why my old drawings have their hands behind their back)

I remember back before I learned do draw hands. My characters would either have their hands behind their back, in their pockets, or in some other pose to conveniently hide most or all of the hand. Either that or the drawing would only be from the chest up with the arms going off the bottom of the page.

But then I decided to focus on improving my ability to draw hands, and so I did a bunch of sketches of just hands to practice until I felt comfortable drawing them.  I still think hands are one of the more difficult parts of the body to get it to look right. The curves have to be just right or it looks deformed. On the plus side, you have your very own personal hands to model for you.

[Mylo]

Take some pics of your hands and try drawing them; use various poses and be sure to draw the wrist and lower arm as well. Hands are basically made of rectangles.  Try tracing the rectangles on a pic of a hand, you'll see what I'm talking about.
I still cant get muzzles right sometimes...
If it doesn't look right to me, I just erase it and do it again. I'll erase so many times until I get it right. You should look up pics of wolves in various poses and try to copy them with lines. 
Or, think of the face as a sphere and a rectangular box stuck in the front. Connect these two objects, round out the intersections, and add the details...
As everyone has said...it takes practice

[Autumn Fire]

I went to art school, and the first thing my life drawing instructor told all of us was to start from the beginning. That was basic, well, life drawing. Gesture drawings are the most useful thing I learned from that class and I use them before every picture I draw.

Gesture drawing (about a 1" by 1" sketch)



They help me find the pose I want and to make sure anatomy is right.

I always always use reference when I draw. My instructor often made us draw without looking at the page. He said as soon as you look away your brain is making up what the image should look like and not drawing what actually is there. It was a great hand-eye exercise. Study everything. I find that when I am out I study things on how I would put them on paper. I used to carry a small sketchbook around and would draw quick sketches of things while I waited around.

As for hands... and feet.. the bane of every artist. Practice from your own, look at pictures on the internet and sketch sketch sketch. Use the same gesture drawing technique on a hand that I use on bodies to make sure the proportions are right.

And as everyone has said, start with basic shapes. My pictures always look like a conglomeration of  circles, spheres and squares before I add any detail to them. Start where you feel comfortable. And be patient. It takes time to improve and every artist is constantly striving to be better, even the ones who look perfect.

[Jacoby Quinn]

how do you do a gesture drawing?

[Ragnorrock_13]

Have a pose. Like a picture pauses a moment of time, you have to do the same. Most people don't pose for a picture flying through the air while doing a triple back flip saving a baby, but rather something more stand still. Such as Captain Morgan pose, the gun pose, the commander pose, the valiant pose, the pissed off pose, the depressed pose, and so on.

For start, try drawing something simple. Like a face, hand, person standing, or weapon. To advance your drawing you must improve the simple things first. Guns might be too complicated for now.

[Old Rabbit]

The things you find hard to do is what you should practice more.   I used to
have trouble with hands, but now they are relatively easy for me. I look at
my own hands when I have a special hand pose to draw.  

Drawing a head is best done drawing a circle then drawing  lines showing
the position you want the eyes, ears, and nose.  To get the muzzle draw a
line through the  circle and nose pointing along the direction you wish the muzzle
to point.

Remember to keep perspectives  in mind when drawing the eyes, ears, and
muzzle.

If you like I can post an example.

Avoiding the difficult will come back to bite you. So it's best to work on it

[Autumn Fire]

how do you do a gesture drawing?

Gesture drawings are done usually very fast. Mine are 20 seconds or less. But the main thing is drawing out the shapes very quickly and fluidly. Pencil to paper and circle, circle square. I tried to find a good quick youtube video but most are like, 7 minutes long. I would suggest taking some time to look at them. All the artists windbag talk about technique but the main thing is quickly sketching out a pose. To start I would pic a picture of someone online and give it a try. Using live models in a class we only had 20 sec to draw before they switched to another pose.

I hope this helps. It is kinda hard to explain.

[Jacoby Quinn]

i think im gonna need a teacher
 

[Jacoby Quinn]

  my fursona drawing is almost complete thanks to a couple of furry drawing books i was very lucky to get my paws on!
i just need to clean it up and color it on my computer!
(turns out all i really needed was a refresher course.) 

[Mylo]

my fursona drawing is almost complete thanks to a couple of furry drawing books i was very lucky to get my paws on!
i just need to clean it up and color it on my computer!
(turns out all i really needed was a refresher course.) 

Awesome!  Looking forward to when you post it...
btw what furry drawing books are you talking about?

[Jacoby Quinn]

my fursona drawing is almost complete thanks to a couple of furry drawing books i was very lucky to get my paws on!
i just need to clean it up and color it on my computer!
(turns out all i really needed was a refresher course.) 

Awesome!  Looking forward to when you post it...
btw what furry drawing books are you talking about?

i used drawing fantastic furries by christopher hart (my library had just got it in after i finished my first drawing(see first pic)which kinda sucked)

then heres the one i was talking about

then there is my newest one which i am now considering making my fursona(it is an anthro wolf angel of death otherwise known as an archangel)



but i havent colored it yet i also did a few mor if you care to see them oh btw which of the two do you think would be a better fursona pic (the one in the middle looks mo like me in terms of body size and shape but the last one looks so awesome)

[ChristopherLion]

Whtwolf, these are looking good. Keep it up, keep praticing. 

[Mylo]

I personally like the middle one...maybe it's just because it's colored, but I like the overall pose and the face.
The only thing I'd recommend is to make the hand slightly bigger and to make the fingers thicker...other than that, you did a great job whtwolf!
I can't wait to see the bottom one colored

[Jacoby Quinn]

the bottom one is coming along painstakingly slow,as for the middle ones i thought the hands were a bit too small.
well people thanks for all the complements and feedback.