Since I was a kid I have always wanted to be able to draw what I see in my head onto paper. I've attempted many times and it just doesn't look very good.

So I've decided that I am going to finally take the time to properly learn. I'm gonna do some searching online and maybe buy a book or two to help but if any of you amazing artists here could give me some pointers or some good resources to start me out that would be great.

I'm not going for portrait style. Mostly I often have a lot of abstract visions in my head and would like to be able to draw them out. Also some of my DMT experiences I am able to recall pretty well and would like to be able to draw them as close as possible.

I like to use colored pencils. My proportion needs a lot of work and my symmetry sucks.

Practice practice practice. Thank you guys.

http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com

Def get some isometric paper...it will help amazingly with perspective and straight edges.

Also look up Chiaroscuro...

(Abstract is a good way to go...can't go wrong)

Thank you thank you thank you cyb!

There's quite a few very useful different types of graph paper on their! Awesome thanks so much.

Not that I am an "amazing artist" nor can I draw to save my life anymore I used to draw all the time and have taken quite a few courses for drawing.

Anyway, even if you aren't looking to draw realistic things you should practice drawing them anyway. Just flip open a magazine and try to draw something from it.

Drawing is almost all right brained and our left brain creates sorts of stock images of what we think things should look like. For example you have an image for a person in your left brain inventory, but when you draw it, it turns out like a stick figure and your left brain says "good job, you did it!" but it isn't quite what you wanted. So you have to turn off your left brain to create what you are seeing in your imagination. There are a few ways to do this, so back to the magazine..flip it upside down and then draw the picture. This allows you to see the image for what it really is and not attach a label to it therefore triggering your left brain to take over.

Another good exercise is to draw a random squiggly line, then fold your paper and try to mirror it. This will help immensely with your symmetry.

To help with your proportions you could try placing two items side by side that are of different sizes and drawing them exactly as they are. Also get a mirror and try drawing your face, it doesn't have to look perfect with shading and all that, but just make sure the distance from your eyes to your nose and mouth is proportionate.

Basically, if you want to learn to draw anything you should start with real objects. This will help you with everything from realistic proportions to shadows and highlights as well as developing your hand eye coordination and spatial sense.

Hope this helps!

Excellent ideas wax. Makes complete sense. I am definitely going to be utilizing those ideas. Truthfully your right, by learning to draw real thing it should help make the unreal things I draw seem more real. Shading is probably my weakest point. For some reason I cannot visualize shading or making things have depth perception.

Like drawing a circular object underneath something. It always turn out looking like its facing you rather than up.

Do a search on Three Point Perspective and Single Point perspective and you will learn how to fake 3 d space on a 2 d plane. Its all about how lines converge in the distance (think of looking down a road or railroad track going off into the distance.).

Remember that objects that are farther away will be smaller, fuzzier (less detail) and colors will be less saturated.

Shadows have to be cast from a source of light, so imagine where that point is relative to your object. The shadows will be on the other side. There are techniques to methodically map this out just like perspective. Set up a still life of some blocks and simple objects like fruit and light it with a strong light from one side, than sit down and just look at it... notice where the shadows and highlights are compared to the light. Move the light around and look at the changes. Draw sketches of this.

Wax's suggestions are great, I'd also recommend that you study a little Color Theory. Google that phrase and you will find a lot of web pages that cover this. Color theory is amazing in part because of the way colors change when next to each other. We think of colors as a fairly distinct thing like a certain shade of blue 'is' that shade and in fact the wavelengths can be measured, but place the same shade of red next to a blue square and next to an orange square and the red will look different. Sometimes the differences can be quite shocking. You will learn about using the different qualities of color for specific effects.

Fast sketching is great practice. Set up to draw something and have a time limit on how long you have to draw it. 10 or 30 seconds, GO! Move to another viewpoint and do it again and again. Do one or two minute or five minute drawings next, do a bunch. Don't worry about how they look at all, just crank them out on cheap paper. Charcoal is great for this as it shades easily and can draw a lot of different line styles. This will really help develop your hand/eye coordination as well as teach you to see what parts are really essential to communicating what an object looks like. After you do a bunch of these super fast drawings try to do a nicely rendered sketch, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually it will start to come together.

The techniques that Wax described are fully explored in the following video by Betty Edwards. You can also pick up old copies of her book on eBay for a couple of dollars.

the natural way to draw - kimon nicolaides is an exceptionally brilliant book to look into , also get accuainted with visual perspective as best you can if you wih to do 3d work

You guys are fantastic. Looks like I've got some work ahead of me

Gawd I luv the intranets

drawing objects around you is good practice. Also just practice you will be good in no time. I use to be terrible, after a few months of practice I got pretty good. I really love to draw trees.