-Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy

-Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

-Jack Hamm’s Drawing the Head and Figure

-James Gurney’s Color and Light

-Betty Edwards’ Color

These are pretty much the best for the basics.

Type them into Amazon and I guarantee you’ll find something.

Also: I can now say from experience that The Animator’s Survival Kit is very good.

And, um. Steer clear of “how to draw” books like the Chris Hart series, because frankly it just seems to teach young artists lazy cliches rather than having very much useful information in it. The books above have all of the few handy tidbits Hart drops and then some. Not trying to diss him as a person or anything but I’ve flipped through his books before and they’re less helpful than, say, “Neondragon” Pfeffer’s stuff, which I have a habit of buying for my sister because she likes to trace the pictures and color them. Good luck!

-SA

awrugro:

I drew a newer/cleaner version of this in English for the anon who asked for an English version a month ago or so? Sorry for taking so long orz

This has the same info in it as before except for one extra point.

Anyways, again, these are all self-observed notes! I don’t study art or whatever! And I highly suggest you look at different pictures of faces and practice this to have a better understanding.

pipopapo:

鎖のめんどくさくない描き方

I use a different method but this works too.

alwaysgettingmyhopesup:

(via imgTumble)

pagerda:

Just a few [of the] references [from different websites] I’ve compiled for making more unique face/body shapes in my characters.

Of course, creative liberty is (and can be) taken on most of these shapes, but anyone who wishes to design a character should at least know that there are many shapes and sizes for characters to be and that can define the characters.

I encourage making each character, human or animal, unique and identifiable by their silhouettes and profiles when they’re bald and unclothed.

aivii:

I gave your pencil back anon, now go draw with it!

(Thank you, by the way)

monochronisme:

Tips on how you should consider your sketchbook, as an art student (or not). It helps ! I feel way too concerned by this.;;

Little thing I whipped up to pass along what someone showed me.

This is actually very nice indeed… Thank you!

neil-gaiman:

I’ve seem to be hitting writer’s block far too often now. My grade in my creative writing class is suffering because i don’t turn in anything because i’m never really satisfied with anything i do. all my good ideas seem to turn into bad ones once i write it down. How do you get pass writers block?

 whimsyrachy

You turn off your inner critic. You do not listen to your inner police force. You ignore the little voices that tell you that it’s all stupid, and you keep going.

Your grade isn’t suffering because your writing is bad, it’s suffering because you aren’t finishing things and handing them in. 

So, finish them and hand them in. Even if a story’s lousy, you’ll learn something from it that will be useful as a writer, even if it’s just “don’t do that again”.

You’re always going to be dissatisfied with what you write. That’s part of being human. In our heads, stories are perfect, flawless, glittering, magical. Then we start to put them down on paper, one unsatisfactory word at a time. And each time our inner critics tell us that it’s a rotten idea and we should abandon it.

If you’re going to write, ignore your inner critic, while you’re writing. Do whatever you can to finish. Know that anything can be fixed later.

Remember: you don’t have to be brilliant when you start out. You just have to write. Every story you finish puts you closer to being a writer, and makes you a better writer.

Blaming “Writer’s Block” is wonderful. It removes any responsibility from the person with the “block”. It gives you something to blame, and it sounds fancy.

But it’s probably more honest to think of it as a combination of laziness, perfectionism and Getting Stuck. If you’re being lazy, don’t be. If you’re being a perfectionist, don’t be. And if you’re stuck, figure out where the story went off the rails, or what you got wrong, or where you need to go deeper, or what you need to add to make it work, and then start writing again.