There are three steps to learning how to draw. Step 1 is where you learn to draw what you see, Step 2 is where you learn to draw what you know and Step 3 is where you learn to draw what you want to see.
All tagged process
Start With Research
Before I went to art school, I used to start a project by stressing out about it and thinking of how great I wanted it to be. Then I would gather the courage to start drawing and jump right in, sketching without even having a clear idea of what I wanted the drawing to be. Once I realized using references isn't a bad thing, I began all my projects by doing research and found it much easier to ease into a project knowing I had something to start with.
Create Your Own References
I used to think setting up a still life or taking reference pictures required some kind of unknown skill or sorcery that only professionals and wizards had access to. Once I went to college, though, I found it only takes a blanket, some interesting objects/ model, and some lights. It’s not mysterious or complicated and it doesn’t take more than a bit of effort on your part (and maybe also the help of a friend).
Create Color Breaks
So you started with thumbnails, worked those into roughs, picked your favorite one and refined that into a tight sketch. You have your composition as close to done as you can get it. You got rid of any design kinks and you feel ready to move on to the final rendering stage. Now what?
Use Tracing paper
Sometime in 2011 I posted a tweet that said “Too broke to afford a light box so I’m tracing my work on the window”. While that’s something we can laugh at, it’s also a real issue for many young artists. I wasn’t always able to go to my school’s library to use their nice light table. Not everyone has the money to get a light box and not everyone is a student with access to a light box. That's why the world invented tracing paper.
Start With Thumbnails
My process before going to art school consisted of two steps: draw it then color it. I’d start with the idea I had in my head, draw it as best as I could, then color it. But when it came to drawing things with backgrounds and other elements in them, it was overwhelmingly difficult to get a good drawing out. Then, when I got to art school, I was told to start with thumbnails.
Do Use References
When I was younger, I had this pre-conceived notion that real artists have the ability to pull completed pieces right out of their heads like magic. They had an innate knowledge of perspective, anatomy, color, etc. My work would somehow not be legitimate if I used a reference. It all had to come from me because that’s how all the good artists did it.