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Seconded. I took a bunch of saturday-morning art classes at a local community college and even those helped a ton.

I draw stuff for fun. It's just a hobby that I have.

I will keep you safe...
(Semi-chibi) Neloth escaping with a mushroom tree sapling during the events of the Red Year.


Younglings
One unbearably hot summer day, some time in the 180s of the Fourth Era, a rookie Thalmor agent goes on his first undercover operation to Hammerfell, where he finds himself tailed by an unbearably friendly little Redguard squirt who, by the end of their short encounter, helps him discover his very well-hidden fun-loving side.


Shame to see good food go to waste
A little Skyrim comic revealing Kiara's attitude to using food for cosmetic purposes - as well as the reason why she and Ondolemar SHOULD NOT move in together... and why I should probably go to sleep.

^Oh how I love them so they have become like a classic, a part of the forums if I do say. Whether created for fun, they certainly bring a smile to my face Norroen Dyrd I rather enjoy that hobby you do

As for Doro I must agree with Miss S'wit on this, but if you really want something inspirational, take a look at this
This kind of goes for anybody here, whether just getting starting or a successful artist art is something to love, and the best creations are made with the passion it craves

Oh come on, Avron, you know what I mean. Practice is a given; it should go without saying that practice is the most important thing. But it helps to know what to practice, and why; this is why people go to art class in the first place, to get advice and to see what works and what doesn't. Otherwise, you could just save yourself five-or-six figures and spend those four years practicing on your own!

Oddly enough, I don't like art school. I took three years worth of classes myself, but I was bored silly and hated most of it, especially the getting graded part (which relates back to this stupid CotM; I'm in the voting pool only under protest). Broadly speaking, there were two main schools of thought when it came to teaching art - the academics, who thought there was a "correct" way to do things, and the liberals, who just wanted their students to have fun and celebrate their own creativity. I'm sure you've experienced this before. Now I seriously resented my academic-style teachers (I once got yelled at for drawing James Hetfield as a manga character), so please don't think I'm coming down on their side. But surely an artist as skilled and accomplished as you has some wisdom to share with the rest of us?

Anyway, what about hands? Anypony good with hands? That's one of my weakest areas, so I've been focusing on them a lot recently.



ITT: Hand tips. Besides "practice" or "hide them behind something".

Yeah, everyone thought I was going to art school, but I realized pretty early on art's just a hobby I do for fun!

I think it's important to remember joints when you draw hands. Fingers are jointed; ignoring this makes them look...odd. Remember those joints! (I only have one piece online with even partial hands, and it's like seven years old. Roll with it.)

Aside, I'll be drawing some nice hands for a piece I'm working on now of a roleplaying character I have:

I could use a crash course in hair and fabric folds, myself.

That's really great, Avron!

I, sadly, was not gifted with the artistic..... gift. I'm too terrible.

Oh god, I used to do some really mean fabrics and hairs. It's been so long, I don't think I can do it anymore, but IIRC one good trick was to really pay attention to the shading, especially with the hair. You probably know this already, but in case anyone else doesn't, here goes: Alternate lines of highlights and shadows (staggering them horizontally as well as vertically) to make the hair more strand-y. Also, don't be afraid to throw in a big, high-contrast highlight stripe, usually around forehead-level, where the hair bulges out. For example, check out this chick's hair. See how there's a lot of irregular "bands" of highlighting all along the length of her hair? Also, just to left of her eye, there's that one stripe that runs clear up round to the back of her head; if you wanted to, say, draw her with darker and flatter hair, that'd be the highlight line to keep the focus on.

Obviously, it doesn't work for every situation, and depending on the hairstyle the highlight lines can get really whacky (like here) but it can really sexy up your drawings if you do it boldly enough.



Anyway, that thumb of yours is really good! Also the knuckle. As you can tell, I get really lazy with the joints; I tend to just draw bendy sausages and call it a day.

Can you trace your own hand? If so then you got more talent than me.. they keep turning out as squares for me I don't know why tho

Anyways here's another pic for Halloween

Uh, yeah, I think I can do that.

My problem is that what I mentally picture in my head looks nothing like I want to look like on paper..

I can't even mentally picture anything. I failed art class in middle school the reasoning was is I can't be told what I should make or how it should be done. High school was when it was different, the teacher was more laid back and didn't care what we turned in, so long as we did something. Still, none of my skills amount to much in those fields. Though if you asked me to make your name out of Neon lighting I could give it a try

These are the last of the ones I deemed worthy to upload. Like I said, I made all these last year, in GIMP.

I agree for the most part. The one thing I'd like to add is that practising will be more effective if combined with a certain inborn ability (which is why we get self-taught artists with amazing skill).
For myself, I can say that an affinity for drawing is in my blood, so taking art classes would have helped me greatly in honing technique and learning about anatomy and shading. The sense of composition and colour plays an important role as well, as far as artistic development is concerned. I'm not too sure if composition can be taught as well, because it's largely intuitive. I think the sense of composition should be inborn and merely upgraded in an art school.
My late great-grandmother was an artist:



As was her cousin, even though he was a professor in another field and considered drawing his favourite hobby:



My great-grandfather's cousin was an artist as well:



And, finally, my grandmother is professional artist and teacher at an art academy.



All the images in this post are traditional art (oils and water-colours).

While writing all of this, I couldn't but remember this:

Those are all awesome, Norroen! You definitely have some good genes there!

As for me, my mom's side of the family is fairly artistic; my mother was a writer and my grandmother was a painter. I don't have any of her stuff on hand, but it was mostly traditional paintings of coastal New England landscapes. She was a bit like your great-grandmother's cousin; an enthusiastic hobbyist.

I have a few artistically-minded relatives as well, but they all seem to prefer a different media. My grandfather loved scratchboard, I've got an aunt who does stained glass and another that designs her own quilts. I'm the only one who's gotten into painting.

For me, art classes were helpful in that they forced me to do all those basic learn-the-fundamentals type of exercises I wouldn't have the willpower to force myself through on my own. Sure, nothing I couldn't do on my own, but would I? Heck no. Plus talking with my classmates was just as helpful as talking with the instructor. Of course I do realize it varies widely with the instructor and the curriculum.

My father himself was an artist, yes, and a talented one. He had some instruction at an art college before or after the Marines, I think, and he was always very crafty. He was a carpenter by trade and made the most amazing things, I must say.

He did always encourage my art skills growing up. I remember one year being ecstatic that his gift to me was just a huge pile of paper, which my mother thought was ridiculously stupid. Had I grown up with him, I think I would have stuck more heavily to art, perhaps. As it stands, it's just something I can do and do occasionally.

I had a friend from high school who went and studied art for university - we ended up going to the same one and being roommates. She always lamented how I had always been so much better than her, and she was sad I didn't tag along. But linguistics, ah, my one true love!

Holy cow Norroen, what an amazing family gene you've inherited! Those paintings are gorgeous. Wow.

Having not done any drawing in 5+ years since I had Art in High School, I decided that I really wanted to learn how to draw/paint and have something else to do in my spare time. I picked up a sketch book and some pencils today, here's my first attempt:

http://imgur.com/UnScl5b

Seems worse the more I look at it. If anyone has criticism or advice for improving/a good starting point I'd love to her about it.

Thank you guys!

Going back to the task at hand.

Nice Try, Lems
Ondolemar shall not be hindered in his quest for beauty - nor shall Kiara, in her quest for yummies!

Fan writer's bane
2012.
A little comic regarding my preferences as a fan writer.
When writing fiction for Skyrim, I seem to be rather inclined to feature Ondolemar in it - in one instance he is the indignant elder brother of my Nord-custom-loving, battleaxe-wielding, black-sheep-of-the-family Altmer Dovahkiin; in another, he finds himself rather harmfully influenced by the charms of another Dovahkiin, a young Redguard girl who might very well be a new incarnation of Pinkie Pie* (*see the My Little Pony wiki for details on this pink bouncy phenomenon). Before that, my favourite fan fiction lab rat used to be Severus Snape* (*see the Harry Potter wiki for details on this phenomenon).

I don't think that's a bad first attempt at all! Rather nicely done, if I say so myself. Although the top of her head seems a bit squished (a problem I often have, too). You might want to look at some skulls - you'll see there's quite a lot of room in the top and back of our noggins!

So I just got GTA5, and it's probably going to be a few days before I post anything new. So rather than post a drawing, here's a question: who's your favorite artist?

For me, it's Bill Watterson.



It's not just how expressive his characters were, the remarkable depths to his understanding of theory and history that belied his minimalist figures, or the mind-blowing inventiveness he brought to a medium that was, and in many ways still is, the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of creativity (the tale of how he overcame industry regulations on panel-formatting, alone, makes him worthy of the history books). He was a brilliant writer, riotously funny, and he offered insights into art and life that really no one else has yet to equal.

Here's a couple of my favorite Watterson strips-about-art:

I Photoshopped my Hobbit into a sharkskin suit. One I changed the color on as a test.

Nice Jeelius! Id heard the new sharkskin range had just arrived at Shire Fashions!

If you haven't noticed, I like Photoshopping clothes onto game characters. Here is an older one I made. Joe from Mafia 2. As you can see, my Photoshop skills have improved since then...

Seamless! Do u do real images too or just game ones?

I have mixed real life faces, if that counts. But yeah, I can put any outfit on anyone. This is many faces mixed together, like mouth, eyes, eyebrows, etc. The body is mine however.