Mastering Art Basics: A Comprehensive Guide to Fundamental Skills

Throughout your art journey, you’ll continually return to the fundamentals of art, which act as an artist's building blocks. No matter your style or medium, certain core principles will always remain at the center of what you create. The fundamentals of art are principles that will apply to your work, no matter your medium. The fundamentals of art are helpful when studying many art forms, including digital illustration, concept art, 2D animation, 3D animation, and 3D modeling.

The Six Pillars of Art

Ready to improve your art? The six fundamentals of art are the "rules" artists generally abide by. Each rule or component - anatomy, perspective, form and structure, lighting and shadow, color, and composition - will contribute to the overall visual impact of your artwork.

Anatomy: Understanding the Structure

Understanding anatomy is essential whenever drawing humans, animals, or plants. Being able to ascertain how the human body works, its proportions and joints, etc., helps you illustrate, sculpt, or animate more realistic poses and movements, such as walking, jumping over a fence, or picking up an object from a table. Anatomy is hard. Not just because of the technical component, but because of the sheer volume of information. Study anatomy in bits and do lots of studies. Get out to figure drawing sessions whenever possible. Anatomy studies will also help you understand proportions and relationships between elements.

Perspective: Creating Depth

Artists use perspective to make a two-dimensional image (drawn on paper or a screen) appear as though it has three dimensions. For example, perspective rules state that objects get smaller as they are further away from you. This Blender environment paint-over by Concept Artist Specialization student Gwen T is a great example of perspective, using a decrease in contrast and saturation to denote buildings in the distance. Seeing in perspective is knowing that as things move away from the viewer’s eye, things seem to get smaller. Perspective is something you just get better at with practice. As you get curious about perspective look up some tutorials and follow along. And the best thing about perspective is that you don’t need to worry about tone, value, colors, or light/shading.

Form and Structure: Building Blocks of Art

At their core, all objects comprise a mixture of basic shapes - squares, circles, and triangles (or in three dimensions: cubes, spheres, and triangular prisms). Think of early artist sketches for animation storyboards. The artist usually uses a cylinder and a sphere to represent the character rather than drawing out every curve of their body. Timelapse of a sketch by Concept Artist and CGS mentor, Tyler James, which shows him starting with a simple circle shape. Artists who learn to recognize form see beyond the 2D paper(or screen). Forms define anything with volume. The human body has a lot of different shapes and forms, especially in the face. Your ability to see and understand forms will be crucial to your success as an artist. Everything in life can be broken down into smaller forms like spheres, cones, cylinders, and boxes. If you want to better define your forms then follow through with cross-contour lines. This can be one of the easiest skills to practice but one of the toughest to master.

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Lighting and Shadow: Adding Realism

Another way to make flat objects on a page or screen look more realistic is to apply concepts of lighting and shadows to your depictions. Lighting and shadows are intimately connected. For example, a light on an object will cast a shadow behind it or on the opposite side of what’s being illuminated (such as a lamp hitting one side of a character’s face). Shadows are cast in the absence of light, so there’s always a part of the object receiving more light than other parts. Studying value is very much the study of light and shadow. Lighting implies shading and vice-versa. Once you get into painting you’ll be more concerned with colors in your lights & darks.

Color: Mastering the Palette

The final fundamental skill in art is mastering color. Abstract vs. Warm vs. Value vs. Value is different from intensity. A look at color theory and mixing colors. Learn how to mix brown with any paint medium. A look at implementing color theory in an acrylic painting. Color mixing through perceived color when colors are placed near or next to each other. Learn how to mix skin tones using just red, yellow, brown, and white.

Composition: Arranging the Elements

Composition is how you arrange and combine different elements in your artwork, including lines, shapes, color, values, space, structure, and textures, and how they all work together to produce an overall look or effect. Your choice of composition is defined by size, angle, perspective, and attention on foreground/background objects. But it’s still something you want to consider while practicing. It becomes much more important when you move onto digital painting because every painting sets a scene.

Key Composition Techniques:

Rule of thirds: Imagine your work is divided into a 3x3 grid. Where the lines intersect should include the focal point of your composition.
Simplification: When specific realism is not necessary, you can use the concept of simplification. For example, if drawing a crowd behind a main character in an animated film, the background characters don’t need to be drawn with minute details like your main character.
Rule of odds: Physiologically, things in odd numbers look more realistic than even numbers.

Learning Resources and Practice

Self-Study Systems

Self-Study Systems for ArtThose of you that are learning on your own from books, videos, and whatever else you decide to use, what is your overall approach to art study?

Knowing what to study, when, and for how long?
Tracking your progress and actually being able to feel the sense of progression.

I got the curriculum from Reddit user Radiorunner, posted on here, actually, then used Notion to start adapting it to my needs. Having a place for feedback is important, which is one reason I'm so excited about this site! I've been doing art for a while, so I'm using it to work on my weaknesses, but also take my strengths to higher levels. All the while experimenting to push my artistic development. I think its important to document your own reflections about the work you do too. I'm glad I found a good framework, because I tend to veer into something for way too long, and only do what I like to do. Also, having something laid out makes it so I don't have to stress about the next step each time I finish something. It is amazing how many resources are available. I use Schoolism, Proko, books, Gumroad classes, anything that pushes me further. Hope this helps.

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Hi. I always had the same dilemma and how to learn more efficiently. Lately I found what helps me more and keeps me more focused. In my project I defined some characters and one of them is a a knight wearing armor so I wrote a list of studies I need to do. Then I did armor lighting and texture digital studies and tried to break it into steps so I could later use in my own project. Portrait studies for the knights face. Hand studies if I struggle with that part. I also did anatomy studies for the base figure under the armor. So each painting I divide into mini studies. If it has a sky with clouds then I do that kind of study, from photos or even better - from masters. About tracking my progress - I have my project folder and the general folder where I keep my studies. It's nice to see these folders fill up. About morale - it's not easy but with studies I try to convince myself to just try and jump in. It doesn't need to be beautiful and just focus on learning at least one thing from that study. If it's project focused it's a lot easier to understand your goals for that particular study. Before this approach ,I used to do random studies and copy from photos. I learned a lot from it but it's not as efficient. When I do these studies I try to not overthink and not be a perfectionist to keep it light and more enjoyable. I don't have to study 100 armors for that particular painting, a few are enough because next painting I'll improve anyway and even if I do 2-3 studies in each painting - I'll improve very fast and not burn out. I hope you'll find this helpful and good luck to us all!

Currently, I’m following Drawabox’s lessons, so that gave me the structure for learning the drawing fundamentals. That being said, I’m also learning some other stuff alongside those lessons (e.g. anime body proportions, figure drawing, perspective), and those don’t have anyone telling me how much I should study and for how long. For those kind of things, I set a target for myself to achieve (e.g. 250 bean quick sketches, 50 anime figure studies, etc). I deliberately set the target high so I can get used to it and really learn from it. For me, doing just 1 or 2 pages full of studies won’t really be enough to truly get the lesson sink in. Well, with things like Drawabox or Proko’s lessons, that’s already been taken care of by the instructors. All I have to do is follow it. But for personal studies (e.g. As for how to not make it boring, I give myself tons of breaks and treats after a practice/study session. For example, I give myself time to nap, play video games, or eat snacks after doing my drawing exercises. Furthermore, I also try to do some random doodling for myself where I can just draw without thinking about lessons. I keep a daily Art Diary ever since 31 May. Actually, if you check this forum, you can actually find my thread there. The purpose of my Art Diary is for me to not only keep track of the things I’ve done, but also to write down my notes, observations, self-critiques, and reflections. I also make sure to write at least 2 things I should do the next day there. I hope this helps! Good luck to your art journey! ^_^

I've been wanting to do art for as long as I can remember. I would get all the materials and struggle for a couple of days or even a week and then… give up. I wasn't "getting it". I had decided that while I was interested in art, and how it was made, I had absolutely no talent, no skill, and no patience. Then I got my new iPad and an art program called Procreate. Fell in love with it instantly. The main reason? Laziness. There is no setup I had to do for traditional methods and thus no cleanup either. See, one of my issues was (and still is) I can't seem to work on anything art related for more than hour and often only half that time. I'm not sure about everyone else, but learning the basics like shading and light, and how to draw a sphere or a pyramid… I find boring as hell. Conceptually I get it. If you want to draw a characters face and head, you have to know how a sphere works. It took me forever to find something that I could latch onto. For me it was the book 30 Days to Learn to Draw (or something like that). Day one has you draw a sphere and shade it. Done. Next day, draw 2 spheres and shade. Done. And so on - the last day has you drawing a face but in between that you draw a house, wacky geometric shapes, and even a hand. Here was something that I could do and set aside at least every couple of days time to draw something fundamental. In other words, I see myself improving now for the first time ever and it is motivating the hell out of me. Lastly, I'm finally figuring out what I want to be able to convey in what I would like to draw and or paint. The closest thing is Concept Art - Character, Creature, and Environment. Because of this new insight, I'm able to focus in more on what I need to learn and start getting the books I need to learn and the content creators and instructors I should follow. I cheat. Since I work with Procreate I can technically just trace any image I want to. Believe it or not, I don't. With a couple of exceptions… I use stamps. So I have several awful IMO mountain landscapes that feature stamped trees in the foreground. I also use an app called Pose. It's a digital mannequin that I can adjust how I want, save a photo of it and use it in Procreate to draw over it on another layer. I haven't gotten into botany drawing for practice yet…. Now, on the other hand I AM also studying hard on drawing without the cheats. So the Loomis method on Head Drawings. I have a couple of beginner Anatomy for Artist books, that I am working with, etc. Eventually I should be able to move on without the cheats, but for now they help me express my creative side on what I am trying to present and working on skilling myself up to a point won't need them. Simple. I keep everything in Stacks on Procreate. All I have to do is open a stack say on my landscapes and I can see my first attempt. My last attempt. Every attempt in between. They all still suck and there's nothing I'm proud about them to begin with BUT, I am proud to say I can see improvement from my first attempt to my last. I can see what am doing wrong and if I can remember to look at the previous pieces before starting a new one, succeed in getting past those obstacles. A perfect example is my use of highlights and shadow. I'm starting to get it on how to build up highlights and strengthen shadows, but I'm inconsistent with it. I am skipping some areas that I shouldn't be, thus making a scene look off-kilter in a bad way. And it's that last part I think is the most important. Anyways hope my ramblings helped or will help someone in the future. Cause at my age I've learned one secret… If you have a feeling or a thought… I guarantee someone else has to and thus sharing may feel vulnerable but someone else out there will get it. In reality each of us create our own path (often without realizing it) through the choices we make, the experiences we have and how we process all that information.

Every 3 months I reevaluate the daily goals, and refocus my specific art goals for the next 3 months. These specific art goals have included 3 months of Drawabox, landscapes, joints and bones, 100 mannequins, and Schoolism with Nathan Fowkes for environments. I HIGHLY recommend custom Google forms if you're bouncing around a lot. They help me tier up small daily goals to overall progress and big goals. Essentially keeping me from looking back and panicking!

Overcoming Challenges in Learning

I think these points our fellows brought up cover pretty much everything. But when it feels too difficult (not just challenging, but "freezing" difficult), chances are we might be getting ahead of ourselves. Often, it can be the lack of a more basic skill or knowledge. So I think a good “rule of thumb” for all aspiring artists is to make sure they’re familiar with the very basic, “universal” drawing fundamentals first and foremost: line, shape, proportions, perspective, 3D form and value. These are the “core muscles” they'll all use regardless the specific goals or contexts. Only after these they should move on to what I’d call “second-level fundamentals”: gesture, structure, composition, basic lights and shadows, design basics. The only problem is: when we’re in the middle of the learning process, we’re might not be aware of the skills we lack. We just get frustrated, feel like something is wrong or missing, but can’t figure it out on our own. So here's what to do when things get too hard: get feedback. Count on other people to point out what you might not be seeing, and try to be open to it. But, since mentors, teachers, critiquers and even friends and mates are human beings and will have their own biases and judgments too, here’s a “hidden hack” few people mention: we can “filter” the feedbacks we get. Actually, we should. We certainly don’t need to accept every piece of advice as helpful, suitable or even true. If we’re minimally clear about what we want and where we’re going, we can learn to recognize and harvest just the helpful stuff from the feedbacks we get - in other words, we can slowly become our own mentors in a sense. Of course, we might also wanna avoid the opposite pitfall: becoming conceited or arrogant. It's a balance. And this balance requires a good deal of self-clarity and reasoning (as well as patience, humility and some effort to grow a thick skin sometimes) and it can be challenging.

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I am looking at my journey (short so far) but everything I have found to be true is in here. I would just add to that patience part … and say give the lesson/practice time to work. Set a certain amount of time (2-3 weeks) that you want to spend on a lesson you want/need to learn. Don't conclude that the lesson is above your learning level until you have honestly fulfilled that allotted time with real practice. Sometimes we are tempted to give up too soon (was my problem). It is when you have honestly put in the time and you are still not getting it then I think that is the point were you should reach out for additional guidance as to whether this is above your level. I think recently … now that I've settled down some :) … I have found that I may have several days or even an entire week of bombing on a lesson … but I've learned to just hang in there and keep on trying and eventually something clicks. Embrace the struggle a bit I guess.

Generally since I just started I am still focusing on the fundamentals (especially figure drawing), but this is something that you'd have to find out through research. These are things that you'd need to research. The sooner you get a grip on what exactly you want to do with this, the more clear your goals can be. Though saying this, in addition to the things you have decided you must know, be sure to throw some experimental classes in there to add a nice pazazz to your own personal art. For how long, it's mostly rough blockouts of time mentally and then instinctually moving on when I feel it is enough (or investigating further when I feel the necessity). As for when, Stan and Marshall have talked about on the Draftsmen podcast to realize when your creative hours are, and safeguard it at all costs. This is a good idea, but once you've practiced anything enough, practice goes from something you force yourself to do to something you just do. As a side note, my personal creative hours happen to be late at night, which also happens to be when I want to sleep, and many times I've chosen to sleep because I'm just tired. This kind of justified procrastination is extremely dangerous, and I've started using the chain method to try to get over it, and it might be helpful for you. Keep a physical or mental calendar. Now practice one day. Here now you have a "chain" of practice days. How to keep the difficulty level appropriate: Again if you're starting with the fundamentals like me you're gonna be pretty bad at everything, so there's no wrong turn. Just don't go into trying to draw an entire animated movie by yourself and you should be fine. I try to learn at least one new thing a day to make me feel that I'm always improving, but that usually comes after my finished exercises, though this can vary. Personally it helps for me as doing the same routine too long makes me bored of doing it. You cannot know what is too hard for you until you actually try to attempt it, so go try it. Slaving away is seemingly a bigger morale killer than actually attempting something that you can't actually do, so if anything keep pushing yourself. Stan doesn't tell people to make sure they master each module in his courses before moving onto the next; it's 2 weeks max. Whether or not you're comfortable with it or not. We move on to further concepts because many times you will be practicing the more fundamental and basic skills when you're practicing more complex things. And if people didn't move on to bigger and better things BEFORE they mastered the basics, then no one would be beyond drawing straight lines or perfect ellipses. I know personally that some of the things I've drawn that I'm most proud of were things I never thought I'd be able to do in the moment but just went in anyways. The mistakes I make make me laugh anyways, so it's an interesting time!

Tracking your progress: I keep a public instagram progress account and post whenever I have stuff to post (ie whenever I practice). Not only is it a good way to keep progress but is a great way to train your mind to not post for the likes, since (assumedly) you won't like many of the drawings you put on there… but other people might. It's a nice way to get over the barrier that many social media people feel when they post something - that the post …

Drawabox: A Structured Approach to Fundamentals

Anyone can learn to draw. It's not some magical talent a few people are born with. It's a skill you can train. Drawabox is a set of free exercise-based lessons that focus on the fundamentals - the skills you'll need to make sense of all the other resources and tutorials out there. First we focus on the basic mechanics of mark making, and how to use your arm. I won't lie to you - our approach is tough and involves a lot of hard work.

Additional Learning Resources

Anyone that takes their art education seriously will know the importance of the fundamentals. Whether you want to work as a visual development artist, concept artist, animator, illustrator, or anything else in 2D/3D art, fundamentals are a necessity.

Feng Zhu: Skip to 35:40 in this FZD podcast for advice from a master.
Books:
- Goldfinger’s Human Anatomy for Artists
- Scott Robertson’s How To Draw
- Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts
- How To Render
- Light for Visual Artists by Richard Yot
- Color and Light by James Gurney
Online Courses:
- Proko’s anatomy video course

Practical Exercises

Draw for at least ten minutes daily in your sketchbook.
Choose a manmade object, or an object from nature that has visible texture.
Draw a self-portrait using a mirror, in any black and white medium.
Complete six hours total of drawing.
In this lesson, we cover the easiest subjects to draw - perfect for beginners. Combine observation and mark-making for drawing success. You CAN draw. This is how it's done. 8 drawing exercises designed to improve skills. The big secret to creating realistic drawings.
Learn how to draw a realistic portrait using the grid technique. Learn how to draw a realistic portrait using a modified grid. Learn the basics of figure drawing. Learn how to draw folds of fabric with pastel pencils. Learn how loosening up can lead to greater accuracy in your drawings. Want to improve your drawing quickly? Details getting in the way? Plus seven more. The Old Masters did it. Drawing on a Tilted vs. Not sure what to draw? No time? Drawing is a mental activity. Learn the creative process. Feeling stuck in your art? Got a mental block? Your signature is part of your art. Every work does and should include a bit of a struggle. It is never “easy”, nor should it ever be. Feeling stuck or unmotivated? Practice is crucial for improvement. You have a natural artistic style within you. Want to Learn How to Paint? Do you really need an outline? Is sketching the same as drawing? Some people believe that illustration is not art. There are several reasons why your art may not sell.

Career Paths and the Importance of Fundamentals

If you're pursuing a career in art, knowing the fundamentals of art will apply to nearly everything you create.

Examples of Art Careers:

Digital illustrator: A digital illustrator creates original images to form a narrative image that tells a story, conveys a mood, or sells a concept or product.
Concept artist: Concept artists illustrate concepts for characters, environments, and other creative assets.
2D animator: 2D animators create movement and animations in a 2D space, so knowledge of anatomy and how the body moves is imperative. Good composition and lighting/shadowing skills are essential in this limited environment.
3D animator: While you don't need to know how to draw to be a 3D Animator, the fundamentals of art still come into play. 3D animators create digital objects and provide the illusion that they’re traveling through a three-dimensional space.

tags: #learn #the #art #basics