Hey guys, not sure if there is a newcomers section, i couldn't see any, so i decided to post here. Hope that's ok.

I really want to get into the community here, it seems like a great environment to learn and Ive had some great recommendations from others.

A little about me. Im 21, currently studying my 2nd year of game art in Australia. Ive always had a love for fantasy drawing (especially dragons) and doodled pictures here and there through high school. I taught myself (poorly) and ive never had any kind of proper 2d learning environment but i have bought a lot of books and am teaching myself as well as learning from my teachers at school now.

I am finally starting to make noticeable progress and i want to soak in as much information as possible asap to improve my 2d skills so that i can improve on 3d. I have to say, after looking at some sketchbooks on here i am a little embarrassed to post any of my own work.

I was wondering if anyone else taught themselves to draw and how they did it. What gives you inspiration?

Hope to make some friends and learn a bunch! Thanks guys

Hi and welcome to Polycount,

For traditional learning go for;

Books~
Bridgeman's work and 'The skilful huntsman' Both on Amazon.

Daily practice exercises~

Thumbwar Its a how to guide to starting off concepts.
Figure and gesture drawing Real life drawing exercises. Brill for shading forms and stuff

Posematics Similar to the one above but it uses 3D models so you can see the muscle structures and stuff. Again stupidly handy.

If anything else comes to mind ill throw it up but to be honest it'll come down to how much your willing to actually work for it. Good luck!

welcome.

I am finally starting to make noticeable progress and i want to soak in as much information as possible

that's the right attitude!

didnt knew thumbwar - looks nice!

G'Day matey and welcome, I'm new here and very new to actually being employed in the industry, these guys are the best for advice and help, wish I had found this site years ago

Hey Darkleopard, welcome to PC! Having a love for drawing will get you far. If you are looking to push your drawing skills (and you feel reasonably confident with illustration) you could try doing some freelance work. This will help push you out of your comfort zone and learn new techniques and skills.

This might sound tricky to get into, but the amount of bands looking for cheap illustrators and graphic designers wanting to get some basic cover art and other band art is high. Just post on something like gumtree or put a note up in a music school.

You'll probably only make pennys out of it, but if your just looking to discipline your 2D this is a good way to go imo.

Just a warning. You`re going to get really harsh critiques here. People will rip apart your work that you spent so much time on. Do not take it personally. Open your mind and accept the constructive crits people are giving you. They arent doing it to be a dick. They are giving you advice to make you better. If you let your ego get in the way, and get defensive, you will get no help from anyone, and you`ll only hurt yourself. It can hurt at the start, but you just have to take a breath and realize it's for the best. Don't give up if someone rips it apart.

Mmm, new meat! :P

Welcome dude.

Thanks for all the reply's and advice! Really appreciate it. I'll take a look at all the links you guys suggested.

welcome to the cool table

Hey thanks for starting a Newb thread!

I, too, am new to Polycount. Love what I've seen so far (the low-poly Mass Effect models brought me here, linked from a friend).

I am a co-founder of a company called Tall Chair, Inc. - we began as a game company doing games for iPhone and iPad, but the company shifted direction towards making interactive books which is very cool, but I would rather make games. I have recently stepped down as Creative Director there and I'm spending a little time with my son and working on some personal projects while I seek out my next venture.

I look forward to posting some pics of my work here for some community feedback once I've got something to show. My first project is going to be an interactive story using 3D assets telling the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

See y'all around!

Welcome guys!

Welcome to Polycount!

I just joined as well! Gearing up to graduate in the spring and I find this community very inspiring/motivating Hope to be able to improve my work and make myself marketable.

Welcome to all the newbies!
Enjoy your stay, and let's see some art!!

Welcom, im newish as well. With dedication patience and a thick skin this site may become your greatest learning tool. Just remember to google first.

Not sure that I'm qualified to welcome you since I'm also new but I will anyway... ;-) Welcome!

Welcome!

Im pretty New here to. posted some work up and had invaluable feedback from the community.

Welcome fellow newbies! Glad to see the community is growing.

Just getting into texturing in class now. Does anyone have some good tutorials/sites etc on texturing different kinds of material (wood metal etc). Im interested in diffuse, spec and normals to start off with

^
Polycount Wiki: Texturing

The top ten tips of texturing

There ye go. Enjoy.

welcome!

regarding drawing: get yourself to some life drawing sessions and do all the old art school drills (negative space etc) and carry a sketchbook everywhere. scribble in all downtime. as for digital, start a sketchbook on a service like tumblr and post all your digital scribbles. instead of browsing [insert popular site here] between work, do a 10 minute scribble either digitally or in your notebook.

my desk at work shows my last 6 months of sketchbooks:


On a related note, i just started a new digital sketchbook at:
http://flailingchimp.tumblr.com

Welcome to polycount!

In regards to improving my drawing skills, I did it mostly by drawing through observation repeatedly. I'm not a magnificent artist, but it has definitely helped me make significant progress by just drawing over and over again.

Also, please check out our general guidelines about the forums:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63361

Welcome to Polycount!

Thanks so much for the texturing guides!