How does a total novice in art reach this level. Is it possible at all?, And if yes can sensei's please guide me where to start and what should be my steps to reach here.
It's possible if you have enough talent Have confidence, and yes you can! Don't worry if you can only make abstract form, abstract is art too
Well I have all the time. I think abstract art also requires to follow certain rules and a lot of practice. But I want to learn this digital art style. XD, well it's better than doodles.
Practice makes perfect! If you wanna draw something, like that dragon, draw it everyday! Check every details, learn the colors, learn the anatomy. For novice, You can try to copy it first if you like, copy till you copy it perfectly, by the time you did it, you would have already learn something. you can use artist software (like, SAI, Medibang, ClipArt, etc) or even Photoshop. You can use pen tablet or even mouse, there's no limit. But you must practice! Search for tutorial of the art you like, follow the artists, learn from their arts. You can also watch tutorials on Youtube, most of them are time skip ones, but for novice, you'll get the better understanding on how you should proceed.
Draw from real life. Ideally, real things in front of you (or in mirrors), but photos are okay if you don't have any models. This channel has great resources, check out the Daily Life Drawing Sessions for drawing exercises: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewMastersAcademy/playlists Real life is the basics of art. Once you know how to draw a thing, you can easily draw a stylized version of the thing. That doesn't work in reverse, so you gotta start from real life. Practicing involves (1) getting your hand used to obeying you, and (2) getting your brain free from being biased in what it sees. For example, if you're drawing a person, your brain might say "okay, there's a head, there's a nose, there's some eyes", etc. But what it should be seeing is form, line, shape. Draw what you see, even if your brain is saying "But arms should look like this! Necks should look like that!!" Reality is actually quite different from what brains think they see. Even if you find the result to look ugly, the result is less important than what you learned during the observation and drawing process. Once you do it enough, your hands will become more accurate and your brain will realize "oh, I guess it really does look like that". For the dragon, you would need to look for animals to observe and draw. Maybe some skeletons, some anatomical images. For the girl, aside from human figure drawing, try draping some blankets and clothes on objects and draw what the folds and creases look like. If you get stuck, try drawing from a photo, and then compare the photo to your drawing. Note the differences, focus on what you should change, and try again. If you want to get good fast, don't focus on what your finished drawing looks like. As soon as you're done, move on to the next drawing. The result isn't important, the learning process is. You can copy other people's artwork as studies, but remember that you're studying them to glean ideas from their styles and artistic choices, not studying them to learn fundamentals. Thus, I recommend that for after you've made some headway in understanding the fundamentals of drawing from life, otherwise you won't know what you're looking for yet when copying their art. Color is a whole nother thing, but I find it quite fun and you can take breaks from life drawing to throw some colors around and see what happens. Buy some colored pencils and a coloring book (even kiddie ones are fine) and go to town on it. My favorite color tutorial (in 4 parts): https://photoshopfornoobs.tumblr.com/post/50769541321/how-i-see-color-a-tutorial-part-1-by https://photoshopfornoobs.tumblr.com/post/50769587943/how-i-see-color-a-tutorial-part-2-by https://photoshopfornoobs.tumblr.com/post/50769604128/how-i-see-color-a-tutorial-part-3-by https://photoshopfornoobs.tumblr.com/post/50769638744/how-i-see-color-a-tutorial-part-4-by Pro tip: If you want to get good real fast, never use an eraser or Ctrl+Z. If you're drawing on paper, use a pen or marker. You'll draw faster and get less attached to the final result, and put more thought into what lines you put down where.
It takes years to get to those levels. Same thing like in music. Practice makes perfect. Who the artists anyway. Pretty good!
As anyone had said, it takes practice to reach the possible level that you can do. Next would be how much talent you can pour to create beauty. Anyone can reach average or even good with raw hard work but talents makes creating art take to the next level. But it isn't impossible to reach a certain point where hard work would reach its point. When you reach that point, try to diverse your learning methods such as perfecting the art of shapes to make it beautifully perfect, try to go out of bounds with learning and do something away from art and improve something like focus training and hand training. Anything can be achieve to perfection if one is dedicated enough.
It's all about practice really, and patience. You gotta be patient as you draw and understand just because you messed up it isn't the end. Many drawings are done in multiple layers, starting with stenciling out the general shape using either lines or simple geometry figures. Then once you know the general shape of what you are drawing, you add outlines and details. Once you gain experience your hand would be able to draw these things faster and you can probably skip a bunch of steps. For drawing apps, I suggest Krita, it is free and open source and top quality software for drawing. There are also plenty of apps you can download on your phone or tablet that have daily drawing tutorials where every day they give you something to practice drawing and you try drawing it step by step as they guide you along. The only downside of drawing on regular phones and tablets even with a stylus is the surface is a bit slippery, but its a good way to gain experience.
Blique has a great answer, but I think the part that puzzles me most when thinking of art(and doing some drawing in the past) is 'concept'. As in having an overall visual idea of what to draw before I started. If you wanted to draw that first picture without ever having seen it done already you'd have to first at least partially visualize something that never existed. And that isn't clear cut to me. I can do it with writing but not art.
Extra content! Here's a full PDF of a really good out-of-print book on human anatomy. It brings up lots of great points to pay attention to when drawing the human body, and can help your brain pick up information faster in the observation and learning process. Another thing I forgot to mention: even when drawing fantasy, try to avoid drawing anything "from imagination". Using a reference isn't cheating, it's something that professional artists do. If you take a photo of a landscape, you own that photo. If you paint a fantasy landscape using that photo as a reference, it is 100% your art and your hard work. It's not cheating, it's called being accurate. Of course, it's best to draw your picture while sitting outside with the landscape/model in front of you (something about your brain processing 3D vs 2D, it improves the realism of the final product), but photos are fine if that's not possible. Speaking of landscapes, Bob Ross is a legit good teacher, you can learn a lot of painting tricks and shortcuts from him. Digital painting works much the same way as traditional. (Disclaimer: he has practiced enough that he can draw from imagination and still guarantee quality, but also remember that landscapes are organic and easier to draw from memory than, say, human figures. In addition, he's painting more for the fun of painting than for superior final results, so references are not important in this case.) DesignDoll is a great 3D modelling software useful for drawing characters. You can make the character look however you want, then pose them accordingly. The trial version is free and has nearly all the features as the paid version. Last advice is same old advice, remember to practice! You only improve as much as you practice. Draw like mad and you'll be a pro in no time.
I have a question, sensei! What tablet are you using for digital art? And the app you're using? Thank you in advance!