Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?
Commercial artist for 45 years.  Also a developer, FWIW, mostly graphics programming since the late 1970s._Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ is actually one of the best places to start.  I know you said you tried it.   But try it this way: Ignore all the theory and the stories the author tells.  It’s mostly nonsense. But the exercises are actually very good. The trick is to not care about the result and about making progress.  I know, that sounds crazy. But it’s true.Just do it.Go through reams of cheap paper. Happily throw most of the drawings away. Draw anything and everything.  Fall in love with nothing. It’s like practicing scales for a musician. If you get a good drawing every now and then, then cool. If not, don’t worry about it.It’s gonna take some time.Be prepared to adjust your expectations as to what a good drawing is.  It will change, drastically, over time.  The way you draw will emerge rather than be something you develop or manage.  Frustrating, I know. But the basics have to develop organically, like learning to talk.Learning to draw is much more about learning to see than making marks.  You think you can see things, but what you are really doing is recognizing things.  Any normal adult has the motor skills to make a controlled mark. But we don’t know how to make a mark that the brain will read as something.  If it was just a matter of reproducing something that’s in front of you, then tracing would work. But nearly all tracings suck as drawings.Having said all that, start reading anything you can find on the subject. Be prepared to ignore most of it.  You are finding your own path.You can look through my history on ycombinator more discussion and to to see lists of books that are worth your time. But look on your own too. If you find anything new and different, please share.As far as goals, they are great things to have. But expect them to change and evolve. Why shouldn’t they.  As you get better, your tastes will change. Things you saw that seemed wonderful, may suddenly be full of flaws. Things you disdained may suddenly reveal their secret appeal.It’s an adventure as well as a skill.  And the learning never stops.  I’m in my 60s and have been drawing seriously since my early teens.I’m just getting started.