I'm in a similar boat, so I'll share what I've been doing in case it helps. I started by reading Andrew Loomis' books on drawing (be aware, there *are* nudes in them, but they're really well-known and considered to be excellent references). I'm doing Proko's Drawing Fundamentals course which has been hugely helpful. I went through Draw-A-Box (I stopped at the animal drawing section to go back and focus on Proko's fundamentals course for now). I also follow a number of YouTube channels: David Finch, Ryan Benjamin, Tim McBurnie, Marc Brunet, Mmmmemonexx, Chommang_drawing, Manga Materials, etc. All of that, combined with regular drawing practice using randomly-generated drawing prompts and just fun things I wanted to draw, has had a massive improvement in my ability over the past 6 months or so... like, leaps and bounds. Hopefully some of that is useful to you!

Hi there Phoenixx. Starting can be hard. Just fill filling up pages with art. Carve out time to watch a video and doing some reps, but after that go wild. You’ll learn a lot from just drawing stuff you see around you and having some fun. The videos here have a lot of information and I don’t think as a newbie you’ll be able to grasp it all the first time through. Watch a video, draw with Proko, try some on your own and then move on to the next. Go through the whole series and then go back through. The free photo pack doesn’t have nudes. The girl is in a bikini.

Hii Phoenixx i actually understand you! Sometimes you find all the information you need but you get overwhelmed on where to even start! I'm also not good (YET) But i've come to find out that starting off with general understand of perspective can be REALLY helpful. If you learn to draw boxes and all those simple shapes you'll be able to break down almost anything in the world! (HOW AWESOME IS THAT XD) I found a really helpful video that breaks down the process. Check out Art-Wod From Zero to Hero Playlist on Youtube! Hope i helped a bit

Hello Phoenixx!! So, you know you want to draw? First things first; do it because you enjoy it! My sketchbook is full of variety! Some of them are terrible because I was just playing around and wasnt worried about creating something great. And sometimes I want to attempt something more… finished. Please know this, art is much like baseball. Sometimes we swing and miss, sometimes we get a hit and sometimes ( but not often) we knock it out of the park. That is the road for ALL of us and time is really the only real trick in the book. Definitely start with gestures or figure drawing; something simple. But if you’re not enjoying what you’re studying just do what you really want to do. Maybe that’s a course. Maybe that’s just drawing an idea you had. But the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can ever do is… do it for the love of it. Good luck!!! Enjoy your journey!

Hello, Phoenixx. You do sound like you're all over the place, which really isn't such a bad place to be when you're starting out. You say that you "don't feel comfortable drawing something just for fun" because you're not good at drawing. Well, I think that's where you might want to begin. You know that old phrase, "Dance like know one cares?" Like know one's looking? Try that with your drawing. I don't know....maybe draw something you remember from when you were little. Draw the outline of your hand and make a turkey. (we do this for Thanksgiving in the US) Get silly with it. Doodle until something starts to emerge from your doodling. My point is, don't try so hard to have a specific goal in mind when you're just starting out. If it ain't fun, are you really going to force yourself to do it?

You are actually being productive studying. I dont like nude references either,search for stock poses. My advice for you would be studying some masters, any artsit you like. Try to learn from them by studyig either by redrawing or examining their artworks. Also It could be good to have an pinterest account for inspiration,

Hi Phoenixx...I'm relatively new to drawing as well. In addition to Proko fundamental videos, I found the Drawing Database (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDrawingDatabaseMarcLeoneNKUsota/videos) by Marc Leone really helpful. He has a fundamentals playlist that goes through shapes, form, shading and basic perspective. Its all free too! Watch what you want, skip what you don't, but most importantly, draw, draw with the videos too. I attached a 3pt perspective draw along I did from one of his videos. I started digitally too because I bought a tablet to fill in for whiteboarding once my office went remote. In the long run, I have switched to paper and pencil because I found learning on the tablet difficult...hard to match shading techniques, found myself going deep in all the functionality of the software rather than just drawing (or as an excuse to not draw)...so finally switched to good ole paper and pencil. Have fun, and I look forward to seeing some work!

Even though there are some ways to learn more efficiently and faster, what's most important is that you're doing any drawing. Any step forward is a step forward. There can be good things to focus on first, but it's more important that you're doing whatever you can if worrying about doing the best thing prevents you from doing anything. I would also recommend trying to draw from imagination or like however you want to be drawing because that will help you to see where your weaknesses are and what you should focus learning on and why. You can't fix mistakes you don't make. You can't improve until you mess up.

For Step 1, Finding out what you enjoy drawing is more important than learning fundamentals. Right now I think the biggest thing you need to do is find the fun and enjoyment in drawing. If you don't have any fun drawing at level 0, the road ahead is just going to be worse. When I was younger, I started off trying to copy my favorite anime or videogame characters just to get a feel of how drawing works. Even if you wanted to trace stuff for fun, that's fine too (I just personally never found that challenging enough to be fun).

First of all , youre worrying too much , dude chill and have fun , let loose, gesture is a great starting point in art as it helps you get a feel for your tools, get a feel for the human figure and you get to train your whole arm There are tonnes of figure drawing models on Pinterest that aren't fully nude , and if you want a full gesture session I highly suggest new masters academy time gesture drawing sessions, the YouTube channels Gesdraw and Draw it has fantastic models too.

Hi Phoenixx, there is no set way to begin any art journey. It kind of depends on your approach and style of learning, as well as what you want to do with your art. I can tell you a little bit about what I did to start of and maybe it will be something you want to copy. I was drawing as a child and teenager but kind of lost sight of it during my years in High School and University. As an adult (over 12 years later), I kind of wanted to find the "fastest" way to improve. I have no time to loose after all. So, I looked into the fundamentals and assigned them a position in a hierarchy. Since I figured that structure is very important to make things look 3D on a flat surface, I gave perspective my undivided attention for a couple of months. An adventage of perspective is that there is a definite right and wrong. You either got the perspective right, or you didn't. So, I went over to drawabox.com and started from lesson 0 until I had completed lesson 4 or 5. I kind of grew tired of it and felt like I got what I wanted from it, and looked for the counterpart of structure, which is gesture, at least to me. Gesture is almost everything about feeling and movement. And I did that for quite some time until I was confident enough with it. I then continued with more structure and sign up for prokos anatomy course. I have just finished the lessons just a couple weeks ago. I am now quite confident in drawing people in interesting poses, but am very bad at putting on some clothes. So as a break, I kind of doodle characters with cacual as well as fantasy outfits for fun. If you are not confident with drawing the nude figure, just find some references with skin tight clothes, maybe in bathing suits or underwear. line-of-action.com has the option of only presenting you with covered models. After understanding structure and gesture enough for now, I want to dive into rendering, so everything that has to do with value, light and shadow. After getting comfortable with value, I want to continue with color. So, the way I structure my art journey and the fundamentals is the following: 1. Perspective (drawabox.com) 2. Gesture (Proko) 3. Anatomy (Proko) 4. Rendering with only value 5. Color I am not concerned with composition or acurate folds and clothing, textures etc. for now. I will go into those as I need to for the things I want to draw. This way, I will not get tripped up by exercises that I do not need immediately and keep myself from burning out. What do you want to do with your art? Do you want to draw characters or enviroments? Do you want to go into 3D Design? Maybe you want to draw your own comic. What is you end goal? Depending on the goal, the skills needed are very different and with it the importance of the different fundamentals. For example, if you want to draw enviroments and landscapes, you will not need to study anatomy. If you want to draw Manga or Comics, things like storytelling will have more importance over high level rendering skills. Maybe you want to clearify your end goal and we can figure out a path for you.