Where do I start? ^_^

[TaoxFox]

I recently sketched the first version of my fursona, which is my current profile image.
Although i've had relatively positive feedback on it, I really want to do much better. Does anyone have any tips, or knows of any websites with tips, for beginners like me? It would be greatly appreciated ^_^

[Onyx Storm]

no sorry but it is a great start!!

[Yip]

I think one of the biggest things that helped me when I was learning to draw, was to draw geometric shapes like cubes, cylinders, spheres, and so forth. That helped me to learn about perspective, basic shading and lighting, as well as learn to control my strokes better.  (though I didn't know it at the time. I just drew the shapes 'cause I thought they looked cool.)

Another thing is to look at real references. Things in real life if you can, but if not, at least look at photos/videos of the real thing rather than looking only at pictures drawn be other artists. In case of drawing anthros, which don't really exist, you'll instead have to look at real people and learn about anatomy, and also look at foxes (or whatever species you are making). Human anatomy, and animal anatomy books can help here.

And of course the biggest thing: practice!

[TaoxFox]

(though I didn't know it at the time. I just drew the shapes 'cause I thought they looked cool.)

Me too ^_^

[Shabbernigdo]

i just take advanced useres work and try to duplicate it.

it works well for me and i learned pretty quick .

[Alsek]

Agreeing with Vararam here...  The other thing is that drawing multiple geometric shapes in the same setting will help you get perspective.

[Avan]

Yes, perspective is vital!
And so are proportions, though those will come in time. I'd say right now perspective is one of the most important things to do, and that can be learnt with basic 3D drawing; proportions will come in time as you can do more and more detailed stuff.

[Tekmon_Epsilon_Xonic]

Well TaoxFox . I'm going to agree with Vararam, referencing on things can be really helpful. I just started drawing myself, and I've been drawing nothing but swords. If you have a deviant art account, take a look at your favorite pictures, you can try and copy what those pictures have, the more you do it, the more you'll know how to do it.

You could also try mixing and matching pictures that you like, I had an idea for a sword (which I'm still trying to figure out how to draw) and I wasn't sure how to do it. So I looked up swords that had similar shapes to the one I visualized, and when I attempted to combine the two, I got some pretty unique, and sometimes bizarre results.

This is what helps me , I hope that it's helpful to you too :3.

[Kishi]

What I started out doing was tracing drawings of characters I like, at first completely, then without the shading and filling it in myself, to tracing the outside border, and filling the inside in, and eventually, Ill be able to recreate drawings near perfectly without tracing at all, it works pretty well.

[furtopia02]

As Vararam and someone else said, get good at all of the geometric shapes and learn to use them to make the skeletons of your characters (not literally the bones, I mean the basic shape). Good STICK FIGURES are also vital. Learn how to draw good stick figures and how to use lines of action to build the poses for your characters. Most good drawings go stick figure - geometric shapes - wrapping the shapes/defining - then the rest follows (details, etc). Never start with an outline of something.

Learn 2 and 3 point perspective. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_%28graphical%29   Will help a lot with getting things looking correct. Later on you will have a good feel for it without marking it all out every time (for cartoon characters that is, you should always mark out buildings, furniture, rooms and such).

Learn some basic shading and lighting principles to give your drawings more dimension.

Those three or four things will give you a great start.

One of the common exercises in my classes my drawing teacher has had us do quite often is dump a bunch of random stuff on the table in the middle of the room and tell us to draw 5 of the objects realistically and in correct proportion and angle from where we are sitting. As well as sending us out to draw the hallways, staircases, and buildings.