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Cyberblade

Tips for drawing faster?

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Edit:  Just to make it clear since a few have mentioned it already, I know art takes time, I'm not really looking for an easy way out or anything like that, just hoping some artists out there have some advice on techniques that worked for them on improving their work flow/speed.  ^^  Thanks for the comments so far, just wanted to clear this up first.

Anybody got any? I'm really getting tired of spending several hours just to get a single character sketched out.  ._.  This is part of why I have few multi-character works in my gallery, it just takes too long.
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Added: 11 years, 10 months ago
 
31 Comments on this Journal
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Scoundrel
Scoundrel
11 years, 10 months ago
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best tip to drawing faster: Suck

Im sorry to be the one to give bad news but good art normaly takes time :(

Ox <3
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Heh, I understand the whole "takes time" thing.  ^^  But ya know everything has things that work better for them, and does things differently and I was thinking maybe some people could tell me what sorts of things helped them.  Honestly I'd say my biggest problem is I'm too picky in the sketching process.  I've been told by a few people before that my 'sketches' almost look like inks and that sorta thing probably is what keeps me from getting much done, but I don't know how to change it.
Scoundrel
Scoundrel
11 years, 10 months ago
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I have heard of people drawing all the seperate body parts and putting them together like a puppet for different picks but that would mean sitting and drawing 20 mouths 20 eyes 6 heads then each body part for your characters. then its just a matter of adding the details of different races. not sure that will help. diddnt help me XD

Ox <3
Ketsa
Ketsa
11 years, 10 months ago
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I've been under the hopes/impression that it's something that comes with time. Granted, I've only been doing this for a few months, so I dunno how well it works. : /
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Yeah, art like most things is all about time.  Lots and lots of practice is what makes all of it come together and I won't argue that it shows.  Just look at my older works compared to what I do now and it's obvious that time makes quite a difference.  I ask mostly as I said above in hopes that other artists could perhaps tell me what sorts of things worked for them in improving the amount of time each work takes.  It's really starting to become discouraging when I can work for several hours and barely finish a single character sketch.
Ketsa
Ketsa
11 years, 10 months ago
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Sort of in relation to Thanatos' post below, I didn't become comfortable/successful with my drawing until I toyed around with some Stabilizer settings, as well as pen tool options. I suppose it matches more of the way I actually draw (making a number of quick, short strokes and then adding to whichever one works the best), but I found that Stabilizer 4 works fantastic for me in my normal work. If you're interested, I can send you the settings for the pen I use on Skype. I find it feels a lot like drawing with mechanical pencil on paper :3
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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I'm rather comfortable with my tools, my pencil tool is set up much more like a cross between a mechanical pencil and a pen tool and I quite like it.  ^^  I'm just too slow with my work, and this slowness has put me off drawing in the past so I'd really like to break through it this time.
Shokuji
Shokuji
11 years, 10 months ago
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I assume that just like any other skill, the only way to get faster is to do it more. I've been told by other artists the best way to get fast is to sketch, sketch, sketch. Helps with anatomy and poses, too. =3
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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As I've said already, I know full well it's a practice as much as possible thing.  Honestly, I'd love to sketch, sketch, and sketch some more, but unless I can get a little faster I'm going to end up frustrating myself to the point of discouragement.  I want to do all sorts of things that right now I just can't do because it would take far too long.  If it takes me 3 hours to draw a single character, it'll take me all night to draw two, and in the end it just feels like I've gotten far too little done for the effort into it.  Especially when I can watch artists stream for 2 hours and pump out like a half dozen to a dozen character sketches.  I enjoy learning from them, but comparisons like that are inevitable.
Thanatos
Thanatos
11 years, 10 months ago
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what is your sensitivity level set at?
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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SAI Stabilizer at 15 usually, S5 or S6 when I ink.  If that's what you mean.  Not seeing any other sensitivity options anywhere else, the Bamboo utility got a "Tip Feel" option that's set right in the middle between Soft and Firm, but that's about it.
Thanatos
Thanatos
11 years, 10 months ago
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well then, like many told me from when I asked that question:


Time
Thanatos
Thanatos
11 years, 10 months ago
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as well:

Practice


Practice



and when you're done with that


More Practice
LittleMissFortunes
LittleMissFortunes
11 years, 10 months ago
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I think you have to try and be a bit less picky and allow the sketches to be rough - a lot of minor tweaks, if you're planning to go beyond a sketch, can easily be fixed in the inking stage. I've seen some artists who only sketch out the basic skeleton and then ink all of the details and fleshing out - maybe this could work well for you since you sketches tend to end up as neat as sketches anyways. It might still take a while, but afterwards you can go straight to colouring. Or, if you want to do more sketches, just try and go wild, go with the flow and try not to be too picky about they turn out... Just like you've told me to do sometimes <w<
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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You know me too well.  :P  I'm faaarrr too picky on details and such, and should probably leave a lot of the cleaner details for the lineart/color stages.  >w> Sooo, since you can use my own advice on me, can I use your advice on you again or will I get in trouble?  :B
LittleMissFortunes
LittleMissFortunes
11 years, 10 months ago
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<w< Like what?
Oedipus
Oedipus
11 years, 10 months ago
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Don't you listen to anyone that tells you that you can't have both quality AND speed. Ooo, it's so frustrating when I read that! XD I used to have the same problem, and now it's not unusual for me to hear 'How do you do that so quickly?'. The key to speed, like anything, is practice. I used to practice speed sketching for half an hour to an hour a day. That's where I'd set a timer for two minutes and try to draw something decent looking in that time frame. I used to do Livestreams so that I could get random ideas from my watchers. At first, I could only come up with super rough doodles, but as I practiced getting my ideas from my head onto the paper with celerity, my speed and confidence grew. It's 20% about learning the essentials of what makes a sketch take shape and eliminating the trial-and-error approach, and 80% about building confidence and intuition.
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Setting a timer sounds like a great idea, just do as much as possible in a time frame.  I like that one, though I'll likely set it higher than 2 minutes as I can't even settle on a stick figure in 2 minutes.  :V
Kazekai
Kazekai
11 years, 10 months ago
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Efficency is a major concern for me too. It helps to have clear sketches. Usually, my sketches are very sloppy, but I find that making a clean sketch with basic shapes and a good skeletal structure cut down on a lot of time cleaning it up later.

It also helps to abuse vector programs if you're trying to make really professional lineart. SAI usually works for me in terms of inking but inkscape is a great vector tool if you want something to look professionally finished. Then you can port it into SAI and color it.
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Lineart isn't too much a problem for me, it's the initial sketching part of things that truly takes me forever.  I probably take up too much of my time on base shapes and skeletal structure tbh, but it definitely cuts down on the cleaning up part.
Kazekai
Kazekai
11 years, 9 months ago
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Usually, when I draw, I have a good idea about what I want to draw, but I've never taken commissions before so I wouldn't actually know what advice to give except to push yourself forward if you have an idea. That isn't sure-fire, but it's all I know to do.
Munkster
Munkster
11 years, 10 months ago
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If you lower the amount of detail you put in, your work comes out that much faster

as well as practice
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Good idea, I'll give this some practice too.  Reducing details until later in drawing/sketching.  Should probably just doodle some of those details in place roughly and leave making them look better for the lineart stage too.  (such as the elbow/knea floofs I tend to do)
TribalMouse
TribalMouse
11 years, 10 months ago
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Aside from practice....LIKE A BOSS,
You should try to make sketches while being in a pretty good or happy mood
It usually helps a lot when youre happy

Or you can start drawing in just about any drawing surface for fun

Also listenin to music you love while sketching is a pretty good way too
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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Can't work too well if I'm in a piss poor mood, though for some reason I seem to do some fairly decent work during monster heat waves even if it takes too long  XD;  Music's a good way to make it feel like less time, but if it still takes a day it still takes a day.
MystBunny
MystBunny
11 years, 10 months ago
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I've noticed that when most artists suddenly start putting out art much faster, the quality goes WAAAAAAAY down.. Take your time and it'll be worth it, I say.
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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I'd rather not reduce my quality too much, I just really want to be able to do things with multiple characters or do several sketches in a day rather than just one simple character sketch.  As it stands I can't bring myself to work on multiple characters too easily because of the time involved.  I'm not looking to say be able to draw a thousand crappy characters in an hour, but if I could do a single simple character sketch in an hour/hour+half, I'd be happier.
MystBunny
MystBunny
11 years, 10 months ago
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Cool cool, glad your art quality won't change ^_^
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 10 months ago
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I have no plans on greatly reducing my quality.  ^^  I'm a perfectionist, and that's a big part of my problem here.  A few people have told me in the past that some of my sketches look almost like inks, and that's probably a bit excessive for something that is supposed to be rougher in its very nature.  XD;  I just want to be able to draw more without feeling in the end like I spent too much time for too little reward, and that's what I intend to do.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to get some feedback on some of this effort, as I've been playing with some speedier sketches since that one that took 4 hours that started this whole mess in my mind.  ^^  I'll be posting a big sketch dump later when I get home.
FlyingFox
FlyingFox
11 years, 9 months ago
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I cant really tell you how to draw faster, but I personally do really messy sketches, not worrying about accuracy until the ink stage.
Cyberblade
Cyberblade
11 years, 9 months ago
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I've been toying with that too.  My most recent sketches have been a little messier.  I'm still pretty bad at making my sketch too pretty though, taking too much time to keep it clean when it's perfectly fine for a sketch.
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