You want to learn art?
Being able to create art is not a magical gift that some people have.
It is a skill and a trade that has to be molded and learned.
Figure Drawing / Gesture Drawing
Gesture and figure drawings are artist's workout drawings. They're not meant to be pretty and should be easily discarded. If you want to draw characters, people, or stories, this is a must-workout
Figure Drawing: The study of the body, muscles, and proportions.
Gesture Drawing: Loose sketches catching the feel and weight of the character's movement.
Websites
-
SketchDaily - Free
-
Line of Action - Free & Paid
Michael Mattesi, the creator of Force has a YouTube channel and does live meetups on Fridays
Book
Force Companion: Quick Tips and Tricks
Anatomy for Artists (Note: there are nude photos, but a great resource of human anatomy)
Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield
Perspective
You might have learned about 1-point, 2-point, and 3-point perspectives in school. But there are also 4-point, 5-point (fisheye), and Isometric perspective.
If you want to be a story artist, background designer, game designer, architect, or comic artist, you need to know how to draw from different perspectives.
Online Learning
There are a lot of resources out there today to help you learn these skills. You don't need to put yourself in large debt at a high-end college when professionals are making free education videos, doing discord meetups, and teaching classes to those wanting to enter their field. Anyone can pay for a degree, but you can't buy skills.
Most of my resources will be focused on animation and the entertainment industry.
Schoolism.com - Hosts many professional artists from different careers that share their experience and skills in videos.
Lightbox Expo YouTube - Interviews and lessons provided by professionals
The Etherington Brothers - Filmmakers that created a in depth guide on how think when drawing things
Drawing Force YouTube - Focuses on studying the human body and gesture drawing
Proko YouTube - Illustrator focuses on illustration skills
Draftsmen YouTube - Two professional artist that go over important skills but also non-artistic subjects artist should be aware of.
The Futur YouTube & The Futur Academy - Professional graphic designer/brander. Also goes over running a business.
StudioBinder YouTube - If you want work on films and shows, great resource to style and storytelling techniques.
Write for Animation by Pietro Schito YouTube - If you want to be a screenwriter
VFX Apprentice YouTube - If you want to learn VFX and create effects.
Ross Drawing YouTube - Professional digital artist that shares his techniques
David Finch YouTube - Comic artist that shares their techniques and fundamentals
SketchToAnimate YouTube - From storyboards to animating, Travis helps mentors artists in animation.
One Hundred Years of Cinema YouTube - If your want to be a filmmaker, watch the classics before everything was digital.
CTN YouTube - Interviews with professionals in film and animation, and lesson videos.
Nathan Fowkes YouTube - Background painter for animation, share's his skills and workouts
Cinecom.net YouTube - VFX, video editing and effects skills
StoryboardArt YouTube - Learn about storyboards and skills needed
Animation Happy Hour YouTube - Interviews with people from different parts of the industry
Ethan Becker YouTube - Goes over different skills needed for illustrators in the animation industry
Stephen Silver YouTube - Professional character designer, shares experiences and lessons
Trent Kaniuga YouTube - Game designer and director sharing skills needed to be an artist in the games industry
Jake Parker YouTube - Cartoonist and concept artist, shares their knowledge how create comics
Sir Wad Neistadt YouTube - Goes over how animation techniques works
School of Motion YouTube - Focus on making animations, and VFX in After Effects
Marco Bucci YouTube - Illustrator showing fundamentals to different techniques
Will Terry YouTube - Book Illustrator sharing his experience of creating books
tutvid YouTube Channel - shares tutorials for techniques in photohsop, illustrator and premiere
Chris Courses YouTube - Game developer coding user games
Bam Animation YouTube - Designing things for tv animation
SonduckFilm YouTube - Creating After Effects effects
Aaron Blaise - Veteran 2D animator from Disney that teaches drawing and animating
21 Draw YouTube - Drawing lesson channel
Books
Most of these books I own or are recommended for specific industries. Most of my books will be more about storytelling and animation because I originally wanted to be a 2D animator.
Anatomy/Gesture Drawing
Force Companion: Quick Tips and Tricks
Anatomy for Artists (Note: there are nude photos, but a great resource of human anatomy)
Constructive Anatomy by George B. Bridgman
Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield
Perspective
Composition
Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
Framed Ink Vol 2 by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
Book Illustrations / Character Designer
Character Designer Quarterly (This is a magazine specifically for character designers)
The Silver Way by Stephen Silver
Science of Creature Design by Terryl Witlatch
Principles of Creature Design by Terryl Witlatch
Animals Real and Imagined by Terry Witlatch
The Art of Animal Character Design by David Colman
Backgrounds
The Landscape Painter's Workbook by Mitchell Albala
How to Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully By Nathan Fowkes
How to Think When You Draw Books By Etherington Brothers
-These books are only available once a year on Kickstarter and they go over composition, drawing bodies, landscapes, effects, animals, characters, settings, etc. Perfect for illustrators, comic artists, and storytellers. Pages are free on Instagram
Storytelling
Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
Story by Robert McKee (It is a hard read)
Pixar Storytelling By Dean Movshovitz
On Writing and Worldbuilding Vol 1 By Timothy Hickson
Hero with a Thousand Faces By Joseph Campbell
Storyboarding
Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding
Professional Storyboarding by Sergio Paez & Anson Jew
Cinematics Storyboard Workshop by Gregg Davidson
Animation / Characters
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams
Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield
The Nine Old Men by Andreas Deja
Composition/ Film
Master Shots by Christopher Kenworthy
Master Shots Vol2: Shooting Great Dialogue Scenes by Christopher Kenworthy
Shot by Shot A Practical Guide to Filmmaking (If you haven't seen some of the films it might be a little confusing)
Inspiration