Character Art School
Complete Character Drawing Course

Problem with just practice mentality

Sorry. But this "just practice" mentality to improve in art (or really anything) is TERRIBLE advice. This advice seriously needs to go away.

There are certain patterns for making good art e.g.) in anatomy proportions your eyes is roughly located halfway of your head or in color/light theory, you generally make the color of the light have slight orange/red/yellow hue because sun is the major source of light to make lighting natural (although depends what environment the character is in).

"Just practice" mentality is implying that you are trying all sorts of combination to figure out all these patterns by yourself which is incredibly inefficient. Why figure these patterns out by yourself when someone else already figured them out??

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So how to actually get good at drawing (I'm assuming plantigrade or digitigrade anthro, not feral and you are using digital medium)

Time management

If you want to draw furries well , you need to start drawing humans well as foundation because they are mostly human shaped.

Animalistic features such as furs and muzzles are relatively small details are smaller in comparison (although its those features that makes them look furry) There is a theory how beginners focus so much on the detail because that what's appealing the most when you see the art, but when you are the drawer, you have to focus more in the foundation of human anatomy. Spend more time working on human anatomy then the animal features.

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Iterate between practice and theory

1. learn the theory or theories
2. apply the theory or theories in your drawing
3. repeat from step 1

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Rough Road map (1,2 are probably the most important)

1. The basic overview (basics of how to draw good lines, character proportions, color theory, gesture drawing etc):

https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/

This courses is a mixed bag of theories in art. It will set the general foundation.

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1. Gesture drawing (How make characters more animated)

The Udemy course doesn't delve too much into good drawing. Suggest you find more advanced online course or book that goes into more detail about gesture drawing

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Not in particular order, study what you need to suit your needs but generally higher the number, more niche and specialized.

1. Digital Painting strokes/painting techniques

2. Anatomy drawing (muscles and bones) (Do this if you want to make realistic furry art, but I don't think you need it for fairly cartoony ones.)

The Udemy course doesn't cover anatomy drawing at all btw.

1. More advanced Color/light theory

2. Perspective

3. Architectural /automobile drawing

4. fictional character design

5. Fictional object design

Art is the very first thing potential players are going to look at when they decide on whether or not to play a game. Story will come second. But both elements are critical to attracting players.

The level your art is currently at is not up to the standards most players are looking for. You have potential and learning to draw and paint well is just a process. If you were to publish a game with art like this most people would pass over it, no matter how good the story. My intention is not to hurt your feelings, but to encourage you to improve and continue your journey.

I took a really fun online character course from Udemy by Scott Harris and it gave lots of great techniques and things to think about when creating characters. Link to Course

I highly recommend it! Best of luck to you and please continue to create.

I had the course from Scott Harris - Character Art School - https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/

It is a great course and I recommend to anyone who wants to know the basics.

Btw.. thanks for your feedback :)

Here ya go: https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/

Best of luck!

The app i used was called Udemy. Here's a link to the class I'm taking https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=udemyads&utm_campaign=CharacterAnimation_v.PROF_la.EN_cc.US_ti.5000&utm_content=deal4584&utm_term=._ag_82041677884.ad_436603282927.kw__._de_m.dm__._pl__._ti_dsa-777590867261.li_9061130.pd__.&matchtype=b&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoPL2BRDxARIsAEMm9y_Ua3DddpmtOS926uvN31JbfdU4nrpsWVH2rW3BZBbrPyL_Wef2nAwaAsK6EALw_wcB

They have a lot to choose from

I learned from Scott Harris's Character art school. Mostly it's about human characters, but still a good course to get acknowledged about how to draw, and think like a professional artists.👍

https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/learn/lecture/

I found a few excellent resources to help me get over the fear of art itself.

I read a book someone on here recommended. It helped me understand what it is to "do art" and how to be kinder to myself: "Art and Fear" by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

I also found a very straightforward course on Udemy: Character Art School: Complete Character Drawing Course

I recommend both of those resources strongly. It's important to change how you feel about art in order to be able to do it yourself. If you're like me, you want to do everything as cheaply and as well as possible, which means becoming skilled yourself at many different things you never thought you could do. Learning from people who are already doing what you want to do is the way to go. I would start with the drawing and then move on to the animating once you can do a little something.

Good luck!

I personally draw in a cartoonish/anime style, so I don't try to make everything look realistic. When I draw nipples I mostly just draw a simple shape for them. As for coloring and painting, I use cell shading because for me it's faster than soft shading.

Sorry, English isn't my first language, so I can't really express myself very well.

Have you ever watched Scott Harris's drawing and painting courses? A couple years ago, I bought some of his courses like drawing in anime style, but I mostly liked these two:

https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/

https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-coloring-and-painting/

I found them very useful when I watched them. In the first course he teaches how to draw characters and the second one how to shade them.

He's a very good instructor. I found these two courses of his very helpful. Here's his profile on Udemy:

https://www.udemy.com/user/54722fd1cda5b/

https://www.udemy.com/course/the-ultimate-drawing-course-beginner-to-advanced/

It's just a course that I'm using, although I can't argue for whether or not it's effective, I still encourage you to check it out. Might be too expensive, though, but sometimes udemy courses go on sale.

https://www.udemy.com/course/character-art-school-complete-character-drawing/

This course is for if you want to learn to draw characters specifically. Like the previous, it's an expensive course, but since it's also udemy, it might go on sale some time.

I just want to tell everyone, i did not realize how much efforts i put until today. It just clicked that i've been sacrificing friends, chats, video games, entertainment, netflix, sleep everything just to progress in art. Long late night practice became a routine for me.

It is very difficult, even the basics. and i understand there are gazillion more steps i have to learn.

If anyone wants how i learnt whatever little i have

Gesture - Michael Hamptons way for me was very easy to understand and recreate.

Torso - Proko's Bean, Robo Bean & Steve Houston's Construction Method

Limbs - Scott Harris Character Art, Brent Eviston

Foreshortening - Alphonso Dunn, The Drawing Database

I fully acknowledge that my figures are not even near good, but thats the best i can do with the time i can manage.

These are some honorable mentions who overall helped me in huge way.

Ahmed Aldoori Character Design - His way of using Cyclinders for poses

Thekirkshop - This one is special one, as i can say i got most out of all the course i tried. This one was magic after i completely grapsed all the fundamental. Watch this ONLY if you've fully understood the basics or gist of it.

Things to skip if you're complete beginner - Glenn Vilppu/ Watts Atelier.