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Chaska, MinnesotaHello Teddy Bear Friends: So many of you are talented artists in bear making. Some of you mention you draw too. I am trying to teach myself to draw but would love to do it better. So my questions are:
1) What suggestions do you have re: learning how to draw? How did you get started?
2) Is there specific books on the subject you recommend?
3) What about classes? And if so, where would you go or look to take them?
4) Any other advice that would get somebody like me on the right track to learn drawing?
Thank you
ToadBriarwow. Renae said everything I'd have said, right down to the exact same book recommendation!
tracing is totally ok so long as you are doing it for practice & not publishing it or presenting it as
your original piece of work. After all, an essential lesson in art school is copying the old masters
to 'feel' how they painted.
best of luck and HAVE FUN! permit yourself to do 'bad' drawings. an old axiom is that every artist has
~ten thousand BAD drawings in them to get out of the way before you get to the good stuff, lol - so
forgive yourself the 'ugly' ones just as much as you'd encourage a new bearmaker to forgive herself
crooked, cockeyed 'ugly' first bears!
Cleathero CreationsThat is great information. Thanks I can't draw either so I will need to start doodling.
Chowlea BearsThank you for this thread - its something I've always yearned to be able to do. I'm such a clutz and I don't think the ridicule of one's efforts in school did anything to help my feeling of inadequacy.
I do doodle - but its chemical formulae - how sad is that????????????
Cleathero Creationsbetter then the stick figures I do no doubt! 
Bumpkin BearsI had always wanted to learn to draw better and joined a local small college where they had a 'learn to draw for beginners' class - it was great fun in a small relaxed group and it really helped having the teacher there on hand to really explain and to help encourage and improve. I also have some good books which are helpful but I found that I improved far more having a teacher on hand (even if it was in another language!!), it was great fun. I also found that I had to keep drawing, drawing and drawing otherwise I forgot a lot of what I learnt... reminds me I'd better go and do some drawing 
If I could even be half as good as Kim (Toadbriar) at drawing I would think I'd gone to heaven 
Have fun,
Hugs
catherine
x
Flying Fur StudiosSome great advice here.
I would also like to add that if you are worried bec. you feel you aren't too good at drawing ( that's how I was ) then find something specific to learn.
I couldn't draw for the life of me anything realistic. so I started to draw cartoons. Simple ones, and they started to become really cute. Not too long ago I learned to draw anime style characters. I like them because you can get a good looking person without a tonne of detail. It's a mix of cartoony vs. realistic.
At least this has helped me. I really suprise myself now at how well I draw and before I couldn't even doodle.
Now put a fruit bowl in front of me, and I don't think I could draw it too well, but I can draw some cute cartoons and anime characters. that's good enough for me!
Sorry for the bable....it's soo early...... 
Chaska, MinnesotaWow: Thank you Renae and all you dear friends for the advice. I will check out the community college here to see if they have any drawing classes. I will get the book Drawing on the Right side of the brain" that you suggest Renae.
I bought some paper and pencils and found myself overwhelmed with what to draw. And of course it was not in proportion and oh it was a mess....Hence I turned to all of you for advise.
Thank you all for helping out here....
Bear Hugs
Michelle
ToadBriargosh thank you catherine :redface: drawing is lots of fun! you're never ever done learning - it's just that
the challenges change over time.
I bought some paper and pencils and found myself overwhelmed with what to draw. And of course it was not in proportion and oh it was a mess....Hence I turned to all of you for advise.
that struck a note with me - I won't even touch new art supplies for a couple days once I get em! Bright
new materials give me performance anxiety. They gotta lose their novelty until I can be working on an
idea FIRST, & then say "hm, I think I'd like to see how this new markers/paint/fancy paper/whatever
works with this idea I'm putting together." Then I can just use it as a tool, finding out the neat stuff I
can do with it, without getting all flustered.
the trick is to relax. Use materials that you can waste without feeling bad. My old favorites are still
a regular #2 pencil & a handful of printer paper! I even went back to it when I started making bear
patterns, cause if you throw some away, so what? you don't need the stress of "OMG I MUSTN'T WASTE
MY PRECIOUS ART PAPER" ya know? By all means art supplies are fun & useful, but only if you can
feel comfortable with your materials. Some people say that the best things they've drawn have been
on lined notebook paper during school lectures - this is why!
good luck & have fun - you will surprise yourself I think!
Cleathero CreationsI do that too. look at a new pad and don't want to ruin it!
Oh that's great I now know I am not alone. Fantastic. This thread is gettng better and better!
Chaska, MinnesotaOh Kim that is good advice. I think I should start with plain paper and a pencil first. It is starting with that wonderful sketch pad that has thrown me. You hit it right on the mark. I have an old shoe calendar and thought to start drawing shoes. I bought a set of prisma color pencils and just the thought of sharpening them was enough for me to walk away and watch T.V. instead! Yes, I chickened out....It was the newness of the materials and where to begin...That threw me...
Heather: I like the cartoon idea. It may be a start.
And Renae: I took a pencil to the new sketch pad drew on it. Because the drawing was not very good, it paralyzed me to continue. It's like what Kim said about anxiety performance....
Yes, I think I will start with just plain paper and a #2 pencil and work up the nerve to use the art supplies...
So Sandra, Catherine and Bronwen, I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering where to begin. This really is a great place to learn....I hope you will start drawing too and let us know your experiences....
Thank again Kim, Heather and Renae all your advice.
Bear Hugs
Posts: 3,177I once got to hear a famous artist lecture. He said do NOT start out with those fancy hard covered sketch books, they make you feel like you have to do something worth saving the first time out! He says everytime he gets a new sketch pad, he scribbled on the first page, just so it was already broken in and not so scary.
Don't you just love the feel and smell of a new sketchbook? The paper seems so stiff but bouncy at the same time.
It takes me forever to decide to start using a new sketchpad, my favourite modus operandi is a really cheap black ballpoint pen and a jotter pad.................sheer bliss for warming up before using good paper and pencil/paint etc
I find it really helps if i scribble on the paper HARD and write a swear word..............it loosens me up 
...but then, i'm a nut.
Penny
Chaska, MinnesotaPenny: did you draw the bear on your avatar? If you did, it is soooo wonderful...did you take art classes? Is the bear done in colored pencils, chalk or water color? In other words, how did you do that wonderul drawing?
ToadBriarof course if you want an excuse to have a lovely sketchbook, you can certainly paste your scratchpaper
drawings INTO one! Then you get to have your cake & eat it too
sometimes I feel so triumphant for outsmarting myself...pathetic isn't it?? lol :crackup:
Country BearsWow Kim, I've never had chance to look at your art work before, I'm blown away, you're amazing!!
Posts: 119Yeeeaaaay, something I can actually help with. I've only made one bear so far... but thousands of Drawings. Part of my real world work is in cartooning and graphic arts.
I've been traditionally trained so likely my advice may seem somewhat old school, but I think it really works. My master told me once,
"Learning to draw is learning to see."
That sounds silly right? Everyone can see? Nope. That cartoon spoof of an artist holding out their thumb or brush and squinting is actually them taking visual measurments... that head in the background x number of the whatever in the foreground.
try this. have a friend hold out a piece of string vertically letting the end drop. now you point to the middle point. let them grab it by that point and let it drop. likely you gave way more than the middle down. many frame jobs in pictures actually allow for this visual flaw in most peoples perception. try it with your non-artist friends too. its a hoot.
luckily being a bear maker you already have an attention to detial and a visual flair.
try a night class at a local tech college or high school adult education. You really need someone who can give you constructive feedback on proportion mistakes, shading tricks and the like.
another thing I do, referance everything. Even in cartooning I still am following the rules are breaking them in very specific ways. You can see for the most part disney character's fat bellys still hang with gravity and jiggle when they walk... making a figure that its clothes drape unnaturally will get people seeing it scratching their heads even if they can't pin down an error in cast shadow or gravity. My laptop has thousands of picture referances in files of people, babies, old, teddies, backgrounds, when I do a window mural for someone I likely grab another dozen shots.
books can do alot but a good master can walk you through so much, like even how too hold a pencil freely. be sure to ask specific questions too, like "i'm not happy with this.." isn't as good as "her face doesn't look symetrical". Then whomever can help you focus.
its a bit like walking too. you have to stand before you sprint. Don't expect wonderful landscapes before you can pencil sketch a pain old sphere with proper shadowing.
there are tons of online drawing groups too. Don't be afraid... after all as a tradional artist who draws daily, I came here to learn about teddy bear art.
articicle
Posts: 119
Good Luck!!!! Articicle
Matilda Huggington-beareI really suprise myself now at how well I draw and before I couldn't even doodle.
Now put a fruit bowl in front of me, and I don't think I could draw it too well, but I can draw some cute cartoons and anime characters. that's good enough for me!Sorry for the bable....it's soo early...... :wacko:
cheeky bugga Heather! & you want me to draw more of your bears for you
Matilda Huggington-beareI find drawing just a natural part of who I am but since alot of my drawings are ending up on the internet I wanted to give them more polish as I'm not a trained artist. So I bought this book called 'START TO DRAW'
by Robert Capitolo & Ken Schwab. I have found it to be excellent.
All the best on your new adventure Michelle. I'm sure you will love it.
Chaska, Minnesota
Articicle: Thank you for all the advice. I think finding a class would help. I live in a community with all that kind of stuff going on. I will be searching to see if any are drawing classes being offered. You brought up so many good points about visual and proportions. That would be a hugh learning point for me....
Wendy: thank you for the best wishes. I will check out that book too.
I tried to draw a shoe (see above). Tried to get this picture to come under this paragraph but alas, it is at the top of the page. So with that said, I ran out of room while drawing. Proportions like Articile said... But is was an attempt to try and draw what I see. Actually, I am surprised I got that much on paper...Next time I will go to a bigger page....
I took Kim's advice and stuck to just a #2 pencil and a small sketch pad. I think breaking out my colored pincels will come along later.
Fulrfun BearsI have never been able to draw but a lot of bear books I started out with advocated drawing the bear you visualise before you draft a pattern! I used only very light pencil strokes so that I could go over mistakes a little harder and ended up with a bear that I wanted to make! I was astounded! So maybe it comes down to having the absolute desire to produce something that you see in your mind.
Cleathero CreationsI visualise the bear I want in my head. As soon as I try to draw it well.... lets not go there, I have been doodling more but still it takes time.
Matilda Huggington-beareExcellent shoe Michelle.
Some masters take years of sheer agony to get something right.
I agonise over my critters. They take me ages. When I wish to do something to them I sketch it out. Only roughly mind you. Doodling and sketching are two fifferent things. Yet of course some talented artists doodles are just brilliant.
I use and A3 size sketch pad. I dont like being cornered. Plus I draw many sketches of the same thing. I need to see all the sketches so I can add and subtract what I am after and then I will do a final sketch on its own nice fresh piece of paper or what ever other medium I wish to choose.
Looking forward to hearing more Articicle. It is taking me back to my school days. I actually forgot I knew all this stuff
Posts: 119When I was under my art master I used to love drawing tiny pictures from a postage stamp up to a postcard... she was always telling me two things, draw from reality and draw bigger.... the hoot is so much of my work now comes from wall sized murals.
keep drawing! Start with basic shapes, cones cylanders spheres then put them together to make you basic form
articicle
Chaska, MinnesotaThanks Articicle: I'll keep practicing. I am drawing shoes from a 2006 calender. Since I had the calender and I have a profound passion for shoes, I thought practicing with that was a good place to start. What do you think Articicle? Good or should I start drawing with something else?
Wendy: glad you like my shoe. I need to draw on a bigger sketch pad. I ran out of room.
