Getting back into it.
 

Well, I have to start working on my portfolio for my graphic design course, but it would appear I'm a tad rusty in the art department. Its been a long year off school. So here I am, asking this.

What are some things I can do to help myself get back into it? Anyone have any good tips for well-rounded drawing exercises to get myself back into the groove?

There's that book uh... Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or something? that has some exercises that drawing teachers really like. Stuff like blind contour drawing, or drawing from a picture upside down so that you focus more on the shape of an object rather than trying to get it to look like what you think it looks like.

Drawing from life is ALWAYS good.

If you're looking for more graphic design oriented exercises, that's not really my area, but practicing with commonly used graphic design programs is probably a good idea. I've been trying to learn Adobe InDesign myself.

Well the course I'm taking is half hand-art and half-computer art, so I need a solid hand-drawing base. Which I have, really, it's just been a while. I suppose it's just all about practice. Once I get back into it I hsouldn't have any problems.

That's cool then. Do you get to play around with an artist tablet then? Those are fun, but they take getting used to... I miss mine.

I'll probably be picking one up either way, I hear they're awesome. I guess I'll just go around drawing random stuff then. No better practice than that, I say. Sight drawings, mind drawings, then the hard stuff. Sounds like a plan.

Am I right in assuming you only do art when you're in school?

You should be doing this stuff all the time. Art shouldn't be something you just do "when you're at school" or "when you're at work."

EDIT: I think I misunderstood what you were saying. If this is just a course and not really anything more than a hobby or mild interest, then I guess this is okay. :/

Well, I took a year off school and really haven't been doing anything at all...period. So, I've gotten rusty, that's what I meant by that comment...more or less. And with a lot of stuff (though I've...vanquished that mindset recently) I used to have this state of mind where if I wasn't good at it right away, it wasn't worth my time, so I never really worked towards bringing myself up to par.

Obviously, practice is best, I was just curious if anyone had any little tricks or activities that would help...I've always had trouble just drawing stuff randomly. I guess you could say I'm kinda looking for "etudes" but with art. Yeah.

Hn, well, a good thing to do is to take time each day to just draw. Some people take an hour or two to focus on drawing, then I know someone else who just sketches a bit before she goes to bed.

So I just ordered that book you mentioned. I'm not sure if it will help that much, but hey, it was 12 bucks. Big deal. I'll make a note about how it goes. Hey, maybe we'll see a thread of my own pop up here.

That would be awesome! I wish you luck. =) I hope you get some good use out of that book too. $12 doesn't sound too bad for it!