Comment by boricj 5 days ago
I want to draw again.
I used to, when I was in a classroom or at a bar. Actually managed to get quite good at it through sheer boredom in grande école. Then life happened and that faded away, alongside my mental health. Recently I've rediscovered doodling while attending ACM CCS 2025 as an independent (long story) and I want to improve my mental health in 2026, to the point where I can draw regularly again.
I was in the same boat and started drawing again at around 30.
Remember that paper is cheap and that experimentation is valuable. Make all the bad art you can. The cost of all the paper I wasted in the last 5 years is probably less than the cost of a pizza. There is a valuable life lesson in there about being okay with making mistakes so that you can learn from them.
Nowadays I always carry a notebook, and more often than not pens and watercolours. You can build a really tiny kit out of makeup palettes.
I also loved taking painting lessons and going to live nude drawing at one of my favourite pubs. Making art is such a pleasant disconnect from work and digital life.
> The cost of all the paper I wasted in the last 5 years is probably less than the cost of a pizza.
Once you get into it, there is an amazing assortment of papers that can cost up to a pizza per sheet. Especially if you're going for the larger formats.
https://arches-papers.com/arches-range-of-papers/watercolor-...
Thanks for your openness about with struggling with mental health. It is brutal. For me, exercise really helped. For others, it is reconnecting (or getting closer) with friends and family. Keep at it -- you can beat it!
I have the same setup and I like it, but traditional media is just much more pleasant.
In any case, practice. Keep drawing, and try drawing the same thing multiple times. Don't just start over, fix your mistakes. Step back and take time off to let the mistakes come out.
Above all, remember to have fun. Mistakes are an integral part of learning, and if you take yourself too seriously, you will never make any. Waste as much paper as you need, if it means that you will keep practicing.
Practice. Lots and lots of practice. There's no way around that.
Besides that, there are plenty of resources to learn particular topics/techniques out there. For drawing people with any degree of realism, you'll need at least drawing proportions at first and then anatomy later on.
While you can brute-force it from zero on your own like I did, I wouldn't recommend it. You'll learn faster if you study it like a proper discipline.
I am pretty good at drawing, and would highly recommend starting with traditional media rather than digital tools.
Drawing on paper allows for a wide range of physical setups, such as using a notebook on your lap or on a table, large sheets mounted on a wall, or a board on an easel. Each configuration engages different muscle groups. Large-format drawing relies primarily on shoulder movement, whereas smaller, more detailed work involves the wrist, forearm, and fingers. I'm convinced that deliberately training hand–eye coordination at multiple scales (finger–eye, wrist–eye, or shoulder–eye), is beneficial in learning to draw better.
It is also a good idea to experiment with a variety of media: pens, pencils, chalk, charcoal, and different surfaces such as paper, wood, or canvas. The differing tactile feedback and resistance will improve your motor control. You don't need to spend a fortune on this, but don't limit yourself to the cheapest color pencils and toilet paper.
That said, if your primary goal is accurate photo replication, it's probably easiest to start with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain [1], along with some YouTube tutorials.
Being entirely self-taught, I'm not sure how to describe my style. If I have to, it's kinda a nondescript knock-off of Gisèle Lagacé's recent webcomics.
As for the subjects, being a horny teenager at the time I mostly drew scantily clad women. Sometimes portraits/caricatures of teachers or other students, mostly on request. All together, that led to an unfathomable number of hijinks.
Thankfully, the one time that a teacher came across their caricature, it ended well. A fellow student requested it while in class (of handwriting Java of all things). She then took my handout and brought it to the teacher, proudly stating with glee "look at what boricj drew!". Cue the laughter. Then the teacher stated flipping pages and stumbled upon the rest of my usual bodywork, so to speak. Cue the laughter again. By that point, I was rolling on the floor, my sides hurting.
I don't think I'll ever top that, but the reception of my doodles at the conference by academics reminded me of that past. Hopefully I'll manage to rekindle it.
For anybody who wants to get better at drawing, this is a classic:
https://drawabox.com/lesson/0