Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8979/...

There's a drawing of mine, a character from a game

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7613/...

There's a landscape type drawing of mine. The human one sucks so much, especially compared to other one, I'm ashamed I even drew it. I'm 14, and taking a studio art class at my school. Will that eventually show me what I'm doing wrong? Also, please give me some advice or some websites. I'm bad at drawing hair of any sort, and HORRIBLE when it comes to lips. How can I make sure to never draw anything as horrible as the guy I drew? Most of my human drawings aren't as bad, but I still want to make sure it never happens again.

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

Don't bother about websites,Honey.Best advice?Grab a pencil and pad,find a subject ANY subject and draw WHAT YOU SEE.Don't try to be artsy,just draw the shapes and lines in front of you.Notice the light values and render them as exactly as you can.Above all,don't throw up your hands just yet.YOU'RE 14! I was only just beginning to find my voice in drawing and painting at that age myself and I can tell you the best way to learn is by doing and looking at the work of artists you admire(and don't come telling me you haven't got any)

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

practice drawing basic shapes, then make the shapes more comples... practice practice practice..

you need to know how to crawl before u can walk. :)

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

are you looking at a reference photo?

When I took art in high school my work was lame, lame, lame but now that I'm older I just sat down, took my time, and used the things I had learned in art class to do some very talented work.

Look, what worked best for me when I first started drawing is to print a copy of the picture you want to draw. Then get a ruler and draw lines about as far apart as the blue lines on a piece of writing paper All the way down and across the printed out image.

Then lightly draw the same lines on the piece of art paper you're going to be drawing the portrait on only this time make the squares bigger (lines further apart). This is to blow up your image to the size you want. Now each 2" square on your art paper equals 1/4" square or whatever from the printed out copy of the pic you're drawing. Just draw what you see in each square of your picture. This helps you get everything in the right place. No crooked eyes, offset lips, etc!

And shoot, if your pic is on your computer then It also helps to just convert your color image to black and white, so you can get the shades more exact, if distinguishing shades from different colors is hard for you. It can be at first!

Mainly just practice practice practice! I did a self portrait tonight that only took about an hour or so (start to finish of the sublime cd 40 oz to freedom) to finish.

here: http://a154.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/ima...

I just draw what I see now without a rough draft or graph. Now I'm able to draw enlarged pictures and get the scale right for everything the first time I try, and that can only be aquired from practice. HAVE FUN and I'd love to help you more if you want to email me from my profile. I think you're a lot better at drawing than I was when I was 14!

Here's some more of my work.

http://a27.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/imag...

http://a991.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/ima...

http://a903.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/ima...

BTW: I see you said you're drawing a character from a game. You can take a screenshot of the screen by pressing shift+ctrl+printscrn

then go to paintbrush and press ctrl+V or go to paste from the menu. Then print out your pic!!!

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

You obviously have talent, and for 14, those are decent pieces.

Here's my honest opinion:

You need to study human anatomy and facial structures. Pick up an anatomy book at Barnes and Noble, look at portraits, basically pick up any photo of a person you can find and study them. What I see on the face is that you have a bunch of parts (eye, mouth, ear), but not the fluidity of the human face. The reason it's important to study anatomy and portraits is to learn how the bones, muscles, and skin form a person. Study how light affects the shapes and forms of the body and face. The more you study and the more you practice, the better you'll get. You'll see the progression. I know it's hard to be patient, but keep working at it, it comes with time and experience.

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

You could start by making some cut-outs of people from magazines (Fashion, entertainment, etc. I'm sure your mom might have a ton of them she doesn't need anymore. Glue inside a notebook for reference. Practices drawing from them. You'll learn a great deal about drawing people as well as anatomy, shading and texture. Second go to your local library and find some books on anatomy. You could even go to your local comic book store and they'll have a few books that will show you the basics of anatomy down to basic geometric shapes for easy tutorial lessons. Now Comic Tutorials are good and are okay for starting out but my recommendation would be to eventually buy decent Anatomy books, like Burne Hogarth as an example. That would be for the near future. Best of luck to you.

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

Hey, you're pretty good for 14! (I'm 15.) And don't worry, with practice you get better. I was REALLY bad a year ago. I still kind of need a lot of practice but I came a long way.

For landscape drawing, try starting off using one-, two-, etc. point perspective. If you ask your studio art teacher how to do this, he/she will probably teach you. It's really useful, especially if you are going to draw buildings and such. Also, draw what you SEE, not what you think you see. Something useful is: Don't strain to draw individual leaves, or else the eye just wanders around the picture. It's better to just shade in some leaves and draw a few, this creates emphasis.

For humans, it's very tricky. But first go to Google Images and look up human skeletons. Yeah it's gross but it'll really help you. Learning the skeletal structure not only helps you see how the human body is put together, it also helps you draw other animals too. A website that's got excellent tutorials for painting faces and choosing skintones is FURIAE.com. It's wonderful for digital artists and can also be applied for traditional art if you ignore the specifics. Also, look at the mirror every day and inspect your face very closely. You'll see things you didn't see the previous day.

Other stuff...Gesture Drawing and Contour Line Drawing. Contour line drawing is when you don't pick up the drawing tool from the paper and you don't look at the paper, just the object you are drawing. These take a long time, and help you pay attention to tiny details. Gesture drawing is drawing the general human figure with vague shadows and clothing wrinkles in a short time period. These are not meant to be sketchy, your lines should be contour-ish. My gesture drawings take me from about 30 sec~3 min. Both of these help you pay attention to details, draw what you see as opposed to what you think you see, and they are NOT meant to look like a masterpiece. Most peoples' look like they were drawn by kindergarteners, LOL, but it really helps with your art.

Why can't I seem to draw people right? What can I do to get better?

Get the book Secrets to drawing realistic faces by Carrie Stewart Parks. It improved my drawing 100%.