My dad owns a Comic Book store since 1992, so you can imagine how much original source material I had at hand to copy from.
I stopped drawing because I didn't think I was a great artist, in fact, I thought of myself as a mediocre one because I only had one style and, despite the drawings being quite good for my age - my drawing phase was between 5 and 13 years old -, I always thought I could do better.
I never had someone to encourage me to keep drawing or stay focused, or someone to tell me it's normal for an artist to always think his pieces can improve, but that's no reason to stop doing it.
This is the final version of a hand drawn angel I did a few days ago:
It could be better, I know, especially in some areas where it's obvious I have little to no experience - ehm, hands, eyes, nose, maybe even body proportions - but overall, it's not that bad considering it's been almost 20 years since I picked up a pencil to do something like this.
This is the original art called Angel of Finality by Howard Lyon.
I'm a big fan of the card game Magic: The Gathering, not only because of the gameplay but also because of the art involved in the game.
Angels, dragons and demons are only a type of hundreds that make up this game, but angels are probably my favorite. I downloaded around 100+ images of art cards I loved throughout my MTG active playing phase and I intend to draw them all.
I started to draw again by copying, not by making original pieces because I want to get back in the game by taking baby steps before I jump in the rodeo.
This is the process, my first process in almost two decades:
I guess I'm posting in this art community because I want Your opinion about my drawing. Be harsh, be honest, be sincere. What do you think of it? What can I do better? How can I improve?
Do you have any tips or recommendations for me to get better at this?
Would you try another medias, like painting (watercolor, acrylic, pastel)? Colored pencil is the weakest tool because its colors are not intense enough. This is especially true for cheap school pencils. If you use these, prefer to give away or throw them away.
it depends on how they are used, I've managed pretty decent results with school pencils but they require more layering and effort, I'd recommend though to stick to doodling and black and white to start with
I used to play Magic the Gathering when I was at college I even worked a long while in a shop for collectors including cards, as so they say practise makes the master. Last year I fell and sprained my hand so badly, I felt discouraged to draw at all for the longest time. :) getting slowly back to it.
My only recommendation is sketch and doodle as much as you can, a little bit each day... same as you play an instrument you can't start the house by the roof and you'll be surprised as you go along. There are some people that are able to almost portray what they see, I struggle more finding how to abstract things to simpler shapes so most of my drawings come from my mind, if you enjoy doing something, just do it, skills will get better as you move forward with it.