Hey guys, so I was told I should start a thread about my progress as an artist. So I created this page so that you could leave tips or advice to help me. I really need all the help I can get so please some advice to help me finally past quality clearance level. Thanks guys.

The first step is to learn how to sketch. Learn perspectives, proportions, etc. When it comes to drawing, mastering those basics will take you a LONG way. Don't be afraid to experiment as well! It helps your growth as an artist and assists in discovering your own personal style.

As useless as this might be, I'd say that in the end, it will all have to come from you, so practice and perseverance (read: being stubborn) is the best way to improve.

On a more practical note, I wholeheartedly recommend picking an image you like, and tracing it. It's glorious for practice. Of course, it stops being "your art" when you trace, but it will teach you things about proportions which you wouldn't learn easily by trial-and-error.

Also, IMHO all art involves having a feel of "it looks right". See if something you draw looks right. Change it a little, and see if it improves. Keep going until you really like it.

Plus, another tip is: don't rush it. Quality takes time to produce - you are expected to take hours on a single drawing and years to improve as an artist, <<hypnohub.net/comment/show/2634|as Kinkyloli mentioned>>.

Believe in yourself and it will all come in due time.

If you're having trouble finding an image host I can recommend tumblr. The rules about what can and can't be posted are very relaxed, just make sure to tag it as nsfw or adult if you intend to pursue a sexual theme with your art.

For further improvements on your own style, study what you like. I'm serious. Pick an anime, manga, or another artist and try to copy what they do for practice. Focus on one part that you are having trouble with and try to copy just that part. It's not immoral to copy for practice and study so long as you don't claim copied work as your own.

Might I suggest studying photographs of real people that have been shot with figure study in mind? artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/ and www.quickposes.com/pages/timed are both practice tools based on this idea. Doing actual real-life studies of a model posing in front of you is supposedly the best, but it's not very practical if you're not an art student (social sciences person here, I've never done it) so well-shot photos can be a good substitute.

Anime anatomy is, of course, based on real life, just exaggerated, so understanding how real-life figures work is a strong basis for drawing anime characters in any style. I think you'll notice that the most talented anime artists have an extremely strong grasp of human anatomy. The biggest difference between anime characters and real people is the face, and even that is still just a caricature of (usually East Asian) human features.

As for how to go about studying figures, I think understanding contour and gesture drawing is a good place to start. When it comes to constructing figures from scratch, the mechanics of perspective and proportion are essential. My favorite books on drawing that I've found so far are anything by Loomis (although they can get pretty complicated, too much so for me!) and Kimon Nicolaides's The Natural Way to Draw, which is extremely hardcore but awesome.

I think that overall, there's no substitute for studying pre-existing figures. Since your goal, I'd assume, is like mine--being able to draw figures from imagination--you do need to practice that, but I think the majority of your practice should be figure and portrait study. It's really less frustrating than drawing from imagination because you have something to compare your drawing against instead of just guessing.

And do note that since anime proportions and realistic proportions do differ, there will be some adjustments between the styles, but IMHO it's easier to start with realism and work off of that.