Art tips?

When I first decided to join OTF, I made another forum asking for art tips. This is basically that again, but I don't feel like bumping a thread that has been dead for two+ months. I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips on shaping and shading. I'm not too worried about coloring my art unless I'm doing digital backgrounds on Magma (drawing website, i dont draw lava), since I always mess up. Still, feel free to share any tips on that as well. I've got some art below this. If it doesn't show, it's in my profile description as well. Can you tell me what I should have done better, other than shading? If so, thank you in advance!

Hamster

Bunny

Polly the Parrot(i just realized how huge the head is..)

Lion

This is from sixth grade and the wrist looks awful. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.

Elephant

It's fine, don't worry!

I think that they all look great! You could've shaded a few of them a little better maybe, but that's all.

They both look great!

It all looks very good!

but here's some advice:

Practice some basic 2D/3D shapes as well as the 3 different types of lines/curves! These include: (but are not limited to) Cubes, Spheres, Cylinders, Cones, Pyramids, Perfect Circles, Perfect Squares, S curves, C curves, and I curves.

the intent of such exercise is to understand generalized forms as well as basic artistic construction.

One of the main problems beginners come across is they rely too heavily on what they think something looks like, and one of the underlying culprits is usually a reliance on tracing or gridding (tracing with extra steps)

It's important to understand however there isn't anything inherently wrong with doing either practice, just it can stunt short-term growth. (It's also known to cause random parts of things to look just sliiiiightly off)

Another tip I have is focus, spending 2-5 weeks absolutely mastering one type of drawing (or even just one fundamental) e.g. roses, basic landscapes, basic shading techniques etc.

Learning the anatomy of what you're drawing can also substantially help when practicing living creatures.

But the general most important thing is to draw consistently. Drawing for 15 minutes every day is significantly easier long-term compared to drawing for 2 hours once a week. (This is because most of the learning process actually happens when you sleep the night after you learn something)

Some artists I suggest watching!

@bluebiscuits ( YouTube )

@sinixdesign ( YouTube )

@ProkoTV ( YouTube )

@BradsArtSchool ( Youtube )

Ok, thank you! I'll try that.

I understand the battle of taking the first step in art. The many established drawing principles like perspective and shading and anatomy scared me as a beginner. To transition smoothly I began by doing tiny pieces of work without stress in a spatial environment. As a starting point I made my way through elementary coloring pages that helped me practice color combinations and manage areas within boundaries. The elementary approach built my confidence and made drawing more approachable for me. We all need a simple and enjoyable way to jumpstart our creative juices again!