Really inspiring video Noah. Was really amazed to hear that 3 hour creative days for you is normal. I think aspiring artists will often look at the pros and assume they spend 10-12 hours every day being super creative and that to get good that have to match that impossible/false ideal. I’m trying hard to get that solid hour in every day
Thanks! Yeah I'd love to break the stereotype people have on how much work they should be doing. Those are unrealistic and unnecessary numbers for 99% of people.
Great video! I spent years as an architect and also studied painting with Donald Roller Wilson, a great painter in traditional methods. However, after all of that and even teaching perspective at the college level for architects, I study along with you and your fantastic teaching. I now have an ipad and am learning painting with it. I desire to loosen up from my tight style and learn to be more painterly. Even though I have studied art all my life, I still learn again many things from you. I am getting a reset and a re-focus on the basics. You are a great teacher and I appreciate your talent and teaching so much. I am working on some landscapes and your teaching makes me go "oh yeah, Noah reminded me about this and I can do better"! Thank you, Noah!!!!
As a half decent pro artist my self - I completely agree with him. Quality practice and getting conceptual clarity on all aspects of picture making are the most important things.
I knew this as I continue practicing but its easily forgotten; as I either tunnel into a piece or start a new one. Having this reminder that it's not quantity but quality in the hours I put in to improve definitely helps and reminds me to take a step back an ask myself again why I'm drawing this piece or project. Thanks for the video.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! It's so important to be mindful in everything we do. It's easy to go into auto-pilot but it's not a great way to work/live.
As a fellow artist;Noah, you’d look really cool in a viking helmet! Thank you sir for your insights and perspective! -Im currently trying to re-learn (with a clean slate);as I used to be left handed;but I survived a stroke, and now my right hand is all I have;as my left side is paralyzed.
Your 'how to' kind of videos are super informative about so many important subjects. I have been gone through a lot of different content to self study, and some of your videos are the most valuable I found across the internet of freely available information. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for this Noah, i also just recently realised this that in the last 2 months of concious studying i learned more that what art school "taught me" in 3 years. Looking forward to that next video you ve been a great help so far!
That comparison with a gym was spot-on, truly. Made me think about it in a different perspective.... Thank you - you're truly encouraging, as always! :)
Thanks Maria! :) And yeah I thought that comparison might drive the point home. So many people think learning art is just repetition, but you've gotta make that uncomfortable growth happen.
Thank you. You affirmed that conclusion that I've came to is right one. Done that for fun, bet constant pressure that quantity is equal to quality and each minor thing seemed as mistakes that can't deviate from "standart template" in community is almost end of the world nearly killed every joy in learning process. This inspires to appreciate more even small available amount of time of learning.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and this helped so much! I study 4 hours every weekday and I think the way I study could be more effective
Coming soon! :) I'm working on writing out my thoughts for that one and will try to put it together soon. It's something I think about a lot because I see a lot of people study... poorly. They don't learn and progress the way they should because they're not practicing in the best way.
@@TeamBradley really lookimg forward to it. I find that even if you know the techniques it can be hard to balance all the different areas amongst each other and with actual work you can show off. I'd really like to hear your take on that.
A good amount of time should be studying the best or people you admire and get frequent quality feedback from someone else who has experience in the same field. Get a good understanding of theory. For every piece look for weakness and then try to eliminate those weakness with the next drawing. Do drills that specifically focus on those weakness. Do it with intense focus and zero distractions. Practice something that push you beyond your comfort zone. If you are serious at least spend 3 to 4 hours every day practicing even if you don’t feel like it. Do that for 10 years or more.
@@emaginenations Oh yeah, balancing it all is hard. There's never enough time for everything and that's a pain. Definitely something I want to talk about!
It would be amazing if you would make a video on how to paint different types of water! Like rivers, streams, lakes, and the ocean!! That would be amazing also your videos are really helpful!
I constantly push myself too hard on pieces where I start to elevate their completion importance and I often burn out and may avoid them. It means I don't do art for several days and I'm not learning very quickly. It comes down to where every piece I do I tend to question if something is too easy or formulaic, and I'll take a harder or newer route, which is very hard for me to capture, and it can be frustrating. Often not finishing pieces. It's hard for me to accept ease in a process, that might mean it was not well thought out. That demand for.. idk.. integrity or innovation in my work has been a problem for a long time, it's been an active forcus of something I've been trying to get over the past few years and I've not had a lot of success
Great speech! I immediately thought on how to improve my exercises to be more effective, it makes a lot of sense if I actually want to absorve that knowledge properly (and for sure we all do). Thanks for the video Noah!
Great video! I started doing 10 minutes a day in order to build a habit of at least doing something. Over the course of 5 months the 10 minutes transformed into 3 hours and I am fine with my current progress.
That's how you do it! Way better to get the habit established with some reasonable amount of time than to burn yourself out in 3 days with an impossible goal. :)
@@Ty-1452 1. I still practice to this day and only stopped when I had to finish a 6 week project for my degree in graphic design. 2.I either redo the piece trying to stop myself from doing the same mistakes or go on working on it if I think that I can gain something from doing so 3.I improved a lot. Right now I am in the process of applying for my first jobs after finishing university. When I started I created a video game like sheet of skills and graded my skills like perspective 2/10 and I progressively updated that sheet. It is an awesome feeling to see yourself becoming a 7/10 in perspective. 4.Depends on the practice. If I do something bigger going for a walk with the dog is really good to have a fresh perspective on what I paint but if I do quick studies I dont really take brakes. 5. I am currently applying for concept art jobs and already did 2 small gigs as illustrator.
I just want to draw cool action poses, every day I'm practicing gesture drawing for 30 min and torso with boxes for another 30 min every day I question myself if this is going to get me there
This video helped a lot when most say the more the better if you want to get good you should draw every waking second you can. Hustel culture but in art 😅
I'd love to see some reasonable weekly structure for general(fundamentals) or specific stuff to improve. In my art high school I didn't learn how to contruct the human body properly instead I came up with my own wrong method which turned into a bad habit that I still battle to this day XD.
I know some other artists in the past have put together schedules like what you're talking about (I think maybe Dave Rapoza did one years ago?). I've never been good with schedules so that never worked out for me, but it's something you might put together yourself sometime and share around with people. :) Bad habits are tough to break! But realizing its there is the first step to fixing it. :P
You got this! I usually find when I'm stagnating it's that I need to return to some really fundamental aspects of art and work hard on them. Get back into that uncomfortable learning space.
Thanks man! And yeah our chat yesterday definitely got me thinking about this stuff again and itching to talk about it more. My years of making art have given me plenty of opinions on how to do it (and how not to do it). :)
Is effective practice doing studies of only what you need at that time? Like say, I wanted to do an illustration where characters are entering a forest cave. I'm ok although not great at drawing characters, but environments are my real weakness. Should I just focus on doing studies on what relates to the illustration? Like the trees, caves, rocks, etc..
That's certainly one good approach. I think people should do more studies relating to work that they're _currently_ focused on. But it also means thinking about what you're drawing so you can recreate it when you're _not_ doing a study any more. I'll explain more in a future video. :)
Thank you! But can you differentiate between practice and work? When you say you do 3 hours of creative work a day, is that practice or work? Thank you!
Great video! When I practise/draw I try to jump between different things. One day I will focus on Gesture for example, the other on landscapes (Im currently watching your video on landscape fundamentals and things are clicking ;) ) where I need to think about other fundamentals
I think there is an important distinction between a professional and a newbie practicing. I saw sketches of 30 min better than my 5 hour work because they already have all that knowledge collected. I think 5-8 hours when you starting out is good, but slowly it can become less and less as you progress. Depends on a person of course
You seem to be comparing _results_. Obviously a lot of more skilled artists can make something good quickly. But that's missing the point here. A beginner that takes 5 hours trying to create a piece, for instance, is likely not spending all of that 5 hours trying to do what the more skilled artist is doing in 30 minutes. They're maybe taking 10 minutes of a similar approach and spending the majority of the rest of the time tweaking pointless things, adding details, etc. This is part of why I recommend so many sketches/starts. There *is* value in finished work, of course, and slower work. But I see a ton of beginners going off track and become obsessed with it.
@@TeamBradley I see. For sure. I think I meant that professionals have a lot less to learn than new people so in theory their studying should be longer and more broad, while professionals can pin point a small weakness they have and focus on that a lot more. It all depends on the person and goals of course. Your videos are great. Thanks for inspiration
@@TeamBradley Great video, too. It's a bit of a relief to hear 3 hours and not 8 hours aka treating practice like a full time job. I am guilty of not practicing as much as I used to, but I also got a regular job to pay the bills, instead of stressing over going professional. So these days I practice at my own pace :)
@@MMM1MM I'm so tired of the "YOU NEED TO DRAW ALL DAY EVERY DAY OR YOU SUCK" advice. It's true for a very, very specific audience. But destructive to most people. Glad you've found some balance in life! That's a way better way to go about all of this. :)
@@TeamBradley Yep! Obviously there are people who practice 12 hours a day and get "good" faster, but anyone can get there by staying prersistent, and like you mention, studying the right way
PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON HOW TO PRACTICE PROPERLY AND HOW NOT TO PRACTICE! this was a great video and a video like that would be immensely helpful. Thank you. 🔥🔥🔥
I'm trying to become a concept artist for a game studio, and I feel like I've hit a brick wall in my practicing. I'm currently working as a pixel artist at a startup studio so the majority of my creative energy goes into working there and by the time I'm done I feel rather burnt out and don't have the energy to practice what I want to. Also the games that we work on aren't very creative. for the majority of the time I'm just recreating real world objects in a pixel format. I feel as though to be a successful concept artist you need a good artistic understanding of almost everything in the world to be successful. I've been kind of unmotivated because it feels like I'm ruining my perception of real world objects by distorting them through pixel art for so long (for example I know how to create a great pixel table but if I applied my understanding of it into a high resolution linework drawing it would look completely disfigured, and this is a pattern I've noticed a lot with so many things I've tried to draw in my spare time). I'm not really sure what to do, the more I work on my pixel art the more distanced I become with my perception of reality which I need to further myself as a concept artist. I fear that I'm endlessly falling deeper and deeper into a pit that is going to becoming much harder to crawl out of. At the same time studying concept art seems like a very daunting task as your visual library needs to be very versatile and detailed so I feel rather hopeless at times. Did I mention I have Aphantasia? Needless to say I'm very stressed out but I'm not ready to give up on my dreams, I feel so close to them. If you have any suggestions on how I should be practicing or techniques to breakout of my pixel art trap I would be so grateful.
A few things: * I don't think pixel art is the trap you might think it is. There's a lot you can learn from working in different mediums/styles. That stuff will probably be handy for you someday. * Yeah, if you want to do concept art you're going to need to make some more realistic work. * While you need some degree of visual library, you've gotta remember that concept artists are *really, really good at finding reference.* They have massive folders of reference saved and are constantly adding new stuff to it. So don't feel like you've gotta make everything from scratch. You don't.
@@TeamBradley Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate you taking out the time. I think your right, there are definitely a lot of things I've learned from working in pixel and I should apply what I can from that to my other works. I think I might benefit most right now from reorienting myself with concepts such as perspective and forms, and tackle specific objects as I require them by gathering reference like you said. Thanks again, you have been a great help! :)
@@TeamBradley I would like to ask a question as well if it’s alright. Are there any books or websites out there that are your main source of fantasy reference? I was wondering if there are books like the ‘Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia’ where it not only shows the images but also identifies what an item, piece of clothing, vehicle actually is. My main issue is I look to a lot of popular new fantasy artists such as yourself and they say Pinterest is a good place to start and so is building a ‘visual library’. I guess it’s just hard for me to tell what’s going on in a lot of those pictures because there’s so much going on. It’s awesome but it’s kinda hard to tell what I’m looking at because there is just so much detail. I see a lot of books on Sci-Fi but not a whole lot on Fantasy. Would I just have to keep buying ‘Art Of’ books like the ones for MTG, World of Warcraft, LOTR? At the moment I have a whole lot of Dungeons and Dragons Game Manuals to go by which ok. As an artist for MTG have you ever had access to any sort of ‘Lexicon’ to go by or was a lot of the research and reference done mostly by yourself?
Hello there ,thank you very much for this video it really helped me to get back the spark ( i lost it because i was tired so i dived into gaming for a week because i havent in a long time). I need advice : i want to draw characters and I drawned a lot of poses and idk what to practice on next...it will be welcome some help ( also i can draw 8 hours per day)
That's not even slightly true! There is no such thing as starting "late." And I recommend some specific resources here: noahbradley.com/dont-go-to-art-school/
@@TeamBradley thanks noah it is true if you been a dr since your 20 and then in mid life change to digital art you will never get into the working industry unless your a very quick learner. Its very competitive and you be up against very talent artist. You need start young to build your skills or as you said practice and practice.
@@Sherlock245 I really don't think that's true. I in fact know a number of people who didn't start making art until "late" and do very well for themselves! Let's stop this dumb age-ist nonsense that unless you find your path early on that you'll never make it. It doesn't take _that_ long to get professional at art.
@@TeamBradley i am not joking you at all i am being realistic. I am in the same boat. And people change career i am not talking about that. So i apologies i am talking about talent and those who teach the skill. That comes after years of practice and learning. Anyway can draw not everyone wil be george Lucas that you want to learn from. Or be like those visual artist who made those big movies. And even lower few can do what artist streamer are doing with their tutorials. There is nothing wrong admitting this. Like not everyone can be a teacher and if you want to challenge me on this lets email and then you will see!!! 😉 I cannot be you as your talent surpass mine even if i spent 10h each day i will never reach the level you are the moment. Maybe if i am 80 and still doing it but that is just life over. And you are already doing it young!😉
@@TeamBradley i also forgot to add you need time if your a lawyer and so consume with current work then art will only be a casual hobby. And you also need a good teacher self learning is like picking up a violin and not asking for pro help. You be causing pain.😔
I try but I often fail. :) It's the goal more than the reality. For context: I haven't found time this past week to make more than 30 minutes of art, for instance. Sometimes life gets in the way.
@@TeamBradley i saw you have a discord group , but however when i join inside im unable to chat inside, limiting myself for asking on how to paint love your stuff
i’d love to support my family by making art but obviously it requires too much, time, sources, etc. so as sad as sounds and feels i think it will save its role as a hobby. and i’m trying to imbrace this thought just to stop running for that big instagram artist dream
I'll say that the dream isn't quite it's all cracked up to be. :P But really, it can be freeing to not try to force yourself to make money off of art. There are a lot of creative pursuits of mine that I have no delusions that I'll ever make money off of. But they're a great, enjoyable thing for me to do.
It is still very possible to still suck and that's a question I've been grappling with for a long time: why? Why this happens for some people and seemingly not for others. I think there are a lot of reasons, but the chief I believe is a lack of deliberate, conscious practice. Also the development of, for lack of a better term, "taste." Recognizing good and bad work and why it is that way. On the upside, I think those are learnable objectives.
@@TeamBradley You got a point there. I know how difficult can it be to achieve that level of skill we want despite how many hour we spend working and studying on it. Making it frustrating and most of the time a hopeless cause. But beside all of that, is the enjoy to learn that keep us away from quitting. Greetings
If you really want to master art, you must do as the ancients did: build pyramids. You can start small, from little pyramids made with crumbs and spit, and then go bigger, step by step.
I love that and hate that at the same time. First of all, I love that because of the author's attitude and the fact he tells the right things. I hate it because it's just another video I will put to my "art practice\philosophy\thinking" list and spend time not studying. RUclips videos never teach you. They can be entertaining, fun, adorable. but this doesn't bring any creative benefit, honestly) You can spend a day watching art and creativity videos, but stay unconscious. I like Noah and I like his narrating skills, I like his connection to art. But this doesn't work for me as for a self-taught artist.
I'm sorry you feel that way! I'll say I've got some other videos (like the samples from Art Camp) that will teach you a fair bit. :) But I get what you're saying. At the end of the day, the only way to learn is by putting pencil to paper and learning these things for yourself. You've gotta internalize the knowledge. Finding a balance between theory (like this video) and actual practice is really important. Probably another good subject for a video, ironically.
Well, I should give a bit of detail not to be mistakened. First of all, I wasn't try to say that I feel like your videos don't have any value, worth to be studied. On the contrary, a lot of aspects highlighted by you are important, if not to say ESSENTIAL. However, I observe the tendency, especially when we are talking about the younger generation. They, let's call things by their names, speak of drawing more than they draw. A lot of people have potential, but they find no work inspiration to sharpen the skills. Instead, they watch tonns of videos on RUclips, imagining this would help them, by some magical impact will it enlighten their talent. Wrong. They just literally spend hours entertaining themselves. For example, I was studying brushwork in digital painting from Vyacheslav Safronov. He has particularly juicy digital painting, created by implementing an original brushwork approach. These videos last for 1-2 hours, have no comments at all. And when I decided to study that, I was spending a lot of time just deciphering his speedpaints, adopting the technique, etc. That worked out because there was no additional information, there was no kind of interruption. However, some content creators make a mess of the painting, transforming it into a quiz show or a soap opera with their commentaries, which doesn't show what's important(drawing itself), but creates a wrong auditory perception, making an accent on bad habits(talking a lot). I consider only a single way to study - the hard way. When you make your brain work at its maximum, performing the surgery on understanding, skills, and the nature of the object to exploit all these in real creation. So that's the thing you were talking about, in general. Thoughtful practicing. When you can absorb the knowledge and the experience of someone else, or even learn the structure and constructive peculiarities of this or that object.
How much should you practice understanding that he already stopped a while ago, instead of insisting on cancelling him even if he already quit what you're condemning him for? 🤔
Haha, cute. :) I've never tried to deny what I was apologizing for. I'm really sorry for the way I acted. It wasn't ok and I'm glad I saw that eventually and changed my behavior. But cancel culture 1. vastly misinterpreted what I was apologizing for and 2. gave me a digital death sentence. I don't think our mistakes should be the end of our lives. So yeah, I'm gonna keep making stuff and trying to make the world a better, more positive place. I hope you find all the happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life that you want. ♥
@@TeamBradley good for you. You don’t think tweeting “cancel culture is so dumb”, when you are getting valid backlash due to horrible things you did, is at the least tone deaf and irresponsible? I’m all for people getting better, but that tweet kinda showed your attitude towards the situation didn’t it. You did something wrong, and you got backlash. Own up to it, take action that shows you actually feel remorse and you’re not just doing damage control. Maybe do a video on it, maybe don’t turn off commenting on your twitter. I’m glad you’re trying to become a better person, but that process can involve more than just issuing a statement then turning around and blaming cancel culture.
@@goolumf did you check out the podcast I did on it all? Sounds like you might find it fascinating! And maybe try to remember that you maybe don't know my full story or what I've done in the last 9 months. I've taken things very seriously. But I'm also allowed to hate cancel culture, which actively thinks I should die, be castrated, never have a career again, be constantly harassed on every platform, etc. But seriously: check out the podcast! And I'm thinking of doing a video on it here. It's just... A hell of a subject to cover. A lot of stuff to say. And not easy stuff to talk about.
A video on how to practice effectively would be great! I'd love to know ways to quantify the quality of my practice, so I don't just blindly draw.
Absolutely! I'll get on it soon. :)
Really inspiring video Noah. Was really amazed to hear that 3 hour creative days for you is normal. I think aspiring artists will often look at the pros and assume they spend 10-12 hours every day being super creative and that to get good that have to match that impossible/false ideal. I’m trying hard to get that solid hour in every day
Thanks! Yeah I'd love to break the stereotype people have on how much work they should be doing. Those are unrealistic and unnecessary numbers for 99% of people.
Great video! I spent years as an architect and also studied painting with Donald Roller Wilson, a great painter in traditional methods. However, after all of that and even teaching perspective at the college level for architects, I study along with you and your fantastic teaching. I now have an ipad and am learning painting with it. I desire to loosen up from my tight style and learn to be more painterly. Even though I have studied art all my life, I still learn again many things from you. I am getting a reset and a re-focus on the basics. You are a great teacher and I appreciate your talent and teaching so much. I am working on some landscapes and your teaching makes me go "oh yeah, Noah reminded me about this and I can do better"! Thank you, Noah!!!!
As a half decent pro artist my self - I completely agree with him. Quality practice and getting conceptual clarity on all aspects of picture making are the most important things.
Thanks man, glad you agree!
I am glad that you are back Noah, thanks
Thanks, feels good to be back!
I knew this as I continue practicing but its easily forgotten; as I either tunnel into a piece or start a new one. Having this reminder that it's not quantity but quality in the hours I put in to improve definitely helps and reminds me to take a step back an ask myself again why I'm drawing this piece or project. Thanks for the video.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! It's so important to be mindful in everything we do. It's easy to go into auto-pilot but it's not a great way to work/live.
Really made me rethink as im starting my art n all stuff.Guess i shall really plan well
As a fellow artist;Noah, you’d look really cool in a viking helmet! Thank you sir for your insights and perspective! -Im currently trying to re-learn (with a clean slate);as I used to be left handed;but I survived a stroke, and now my right hand is all I have;as my left side is paralyzed.
good luck!! hope it’s going well
good luck brother!
Your 'how to' kind of videos are super informative about so many important subjects. I have been gone through a lot of different content to self study, and some of your videos are the most valuable I found across the internet of freely available information.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for this Noah, i also just recently realised this that in the last 2 months of concious studying i learned more that what art school "taught me" in 3 years. Looking forward to that next video you ve been a great help so far!
That's so cool to hear! It's amazing how quickly the results come when you put in that really concentrated effort. :)
this man gives good information and gives very good vibes
That comparison with a gym was spot-on, truly. Made me think about it in a different perspective....
Thank you - you're truly encouraging, as always! :)
Thanks Maria! :) And yeah I thought that comparison might drive the point home. So many people think learning art is just repetition, but you've gotta make that uncomfortable growth happen.
Thank you. You affirmed that conclusion that I've came to is right one. Done that for fun, bet constant pressure that quantity is equal to quality and each minor thing seemed as mistakes that can't deviate from "standart template" in community is almost end of the world nearly killed every joy in learning process. This inspires to appreciate more even small available amount of time of learning.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and this helped so much! I study 4 hours every weekday and I think the way I study could be more effective
Thanks! Yeah getting that many hours is really solid, but you've also gotta make sure that time is being well spent. :)
I needed this, thank you
Awesome, my pleasure! :)
Super important topic, I would really appreciate a video about HOW to study effectively!
Same! how to effectively practice would be super helpful.
Coming soon! :) I'm working on writing out my thoughts for that one and will try to put it together soon. It's something I think about a lot because I see a lot of people study... poorly. They don't learn and progress the way they should because they're not practicing in the best way.
@@TeamBradley really lookimg forward to it. I find that even if you know the techniques it can be hard to balance all the different areas amongst each other and with actual work you can show off. I'd really like to hear your take on that.
A good amount of time should be studying the best or people you admire and get frequent quality feedback from someone else who has experience in the same field. Get a good understanding of theory. For every piece look for weakness and then try to eliminate those weakness with the next drawing. Do drills that specifically focus on those weakness. Do it with intense focus and zero distractions. Practice something that push you beyond your comfort zone. If you are serious at least spend 3 to 4 hours every day practicing even if you don’t feel like it. Do that for 10 years or more.
@@emaginenations Oh yeah, balancing it all is hard. There's never enough time for everything and that's a pain. Definitely something I want to talk about!
It would be amazing if you would make a video on how to paint different types of water! Like rivers, streams, lakes, and the ocean!! That would be amazing also your videos are really helpful!
I'd love to do that! Might need to do some studies of that stuff first myself, though. :P
@@TeamBradley awesome im trying to learn how to paint water right now and i havent found many good tutorials so it would be super amazing if you did!
That's a perfect advice ❤
I constantly push myself too hard on pieces where I start to elevate their completion importance and I often burn out and may avoid them. It means I don't do art for several days and I'm not learning very quickly. It comes down to where every piece I do I tend to question if something is too easy or formulaic, and I'll take a harder or newer route, which is very hard for me to capture, and it can be frustrating. Often not finishing pieces. It's hard for me to accept ease in a process, that might mean it was not well thought out. That demand for.. idk.. integrity or innovation in my work has been a problem for a long time, it's been an active forcus of something I've been trying to get over the past few years and I've not had a lot of success
Thank's Noah, that's help a lot
You bet, happy to help!
This was truly encouraging and inspirational, thanks!
Thanks, glad it helped!
If you start something don’t feel obligated to finish it, holy crap I needed to hear that.
Great speech! I immediately thought on how to improve my exercises to be more effective, it makes a lot of sense if I actually want to absorve that knowledge properly (and for sure we all do). Thanks for the video Noah!
Great video! I started doing 10 minutes a day in order to build a habit of at least doing something. Over the course of 5 months the 10 minutes transformed into 3 hours and I am fine with my current progress.
That's how you do it! Way better to get the habit established with some reasonable amount of time than to burn yourself out in 3 days with an impossible goal. :)
@@Ty-1452 I didnt come up with that way of building a habbit but sure just ask!
@@Ty-1452 1. I still practice to this day and only stopped when I had to finish a 6 week project for my degree in graphic design.
2.I either redo the piece trying to stop myself from doing the same mistakes or go on working on it if I think that I can gain something from doing so
3.I improved a lot. Right now I am in the process of applying for my first jobs after finishing university. When I started I created a video game like sheet of skills and graded my skills like perspective 2/10 and I progressively updated that sheet. It is an awesome feeling to see yourself becoming a 7/10 in perspective.
4.Depends on the practice. If I do something bigger going for a walk with the dog is really good to have a fresh perspective on what I paint but if I do quick studies I dont really take brakes.
5. I am currently applying for concept art jobs and already did 2 small gigs as illustrator.
I just want to draw cool action poses, every day I'm practicing gesture drawing for 30 min and torso with boxes for another 30 min every day I question myself if this is going to get me there
Even though I don't draw, you helped me thanks.
Awesome, glad it was a universal enough lesson! :)
Super affirming wisdom in this video. Thanks for making this Noah!
Thanks, so glad you enjoyed it!
This video helped a lot when most say the more the better if you want to get good you should draw every waking second you can. Hustel culture but in art 😅
I'd love to see some reasonable weekly structure for general(fundamentals) or specific stuff to improve. In my art high school I didn't learn how to contruct the human body properly instead I came up with my own wrong method which turned into a bad habit that I still battle to this day XD.
I know some other artists in the past have put together schedules like what you're talking about (I think maybe Dave Rapoza did one years ago?). I've never been good with schedules so that never worked out for me, but it's something you might put together yourself sometime and share around with people. :)
Bad habits are tough to break! But realizing its there is the first step to fixing it. :P
I’ve always struggled with knowing what to practice daily and also having a balance of practice vs drawing things that I like.
It's tough! I'll be touching on that in a follow-up video.
I feel like I've stagnated in my progress so hopefully I can break through
You got this! I usually find when I'm stagnating it's that I need to return to some really fundamental aspects of art and work hard on them. Get back into that uncomfortable learning space.
great video Noah, great to hear again after our chat in the QA
Thanks man! And yeah our chat yesterday definitely got me thinking about this stuff again and itching to talk about it more. My years of making art have given me plenty of opinions on how to do it (and how not to do it). :)
Is effective practice doing studies of only what you need at that time? Like say, I wanted to do an illustration where characters are entering a forest cave. I'm ok although not great at drawing characters, but environments are my real weakness. Should I just focus on doing studies on what relates to the illustration? Like the trees, caves, rocks, etc..
That's certainly one good approach. I think people should do more studies relating to work that they're _currently_ focused on. But it also means thinking about what you're drawing so you can recreate it when you're _not_ doing a study any more. I'll explain more in a future video. :)
@@TeamBradley Thanks for the reply. Looking forward to your future videos
Thank you! But can you differentiate between practice and work? When you say you do 3 hours of creative work a day, is that practice or work? Thank you!
Ty for these videos Noah! What books would you recommend for learning landscape painting?
You're so welcome! That's a good thought-I should put together a list of my favorite landscape painting books. I'll get back to ya on that one.
@@TeamBradley pls
loved this, it pointed me in the right direction :)
Thanks, happy I could help!
Very nice friend❤️amazing😃👍.....
Great video! When I practise/draw I try to jump between different things. One day I will focus on Gesture for example, the other on landscapes (Im currently watching your video on landscape fundamentals and things are clicking ;) ) where I need to think about other fundamentals
I think there is an important distinction between a professional and a newbie practicing. I saw sketches of 30 min better than my 5 hour work because they already have all that knowledge collected. I think 5-8 hours when you starting out is good, but slowly it can become less and less as you progress. Depends on a person of course
You seem to be comparing _results_. Obviously a lot of more skilled artists can make something good quickly. But that's missing the point here.
A beginner that takes 5 hours trying to create a piece, for instance, is likely not spending all of that 5 hours trying to do what the more skilled artist is doing in 30 minutes. They're maybe taking 10 minutes of a similar approach and spending the majority of the rest of the time tweaking pointless things, adding details, etc.
This is part of why I recommend so many sketches/starts.
There *is* value in finished work, of course, and slower work. But I see a ton of beginners going off track and become obsessed with it.
@@TeamBradley I see. For sure. I think I meant that professionals have a lot less to learn than new people so in theory their studying should be longer and more broad, while professionals can pin point a small weakness they have and focus on that a lot more. It all depends on the person and goals of course. Your videos are great. Thanks for inspiration
Lookin good, Noah!
Thanks! :)
@@TeamBradley Great video, too. It's a bit of a relief to hear 3 hours and not 8 hours aka treating practice like a full time job.
I am guilty of not practicing as much as I used to, but I also got a regular job to pay the bills, instead of stressing over going professional. So these days I practice at my own pace :)
@@MMM1MM I'm so tired of the "YOU NEED TO DRAW ALL DAY EVERY DAY OR YOU SUCK" advice. It's true for a very, very specific audience. But destructive to most people.
Glad you've found some balance in life! That's a way better way to go about all of this. :)
@@TeamBradley Yep! Obviously there are people who practice 12 hours a day and get "good" faster, but anyone can get there by staying prersistent, and like you mention, studying the right way
Really insightful vid Noah, thank you!
You're so welcome!
PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON HOW TO PRACTICE PROPERLY AND HOW NOT TO PRACTICE! this was a great video and a video like that would be immensely helpful. Thank you. 🔥🔥🔥
That's the plan! Be on the lookout for that. :)
I'm trying to become a concept artist for a game studio, and I feel like I've hit a brick wall in my practicing. I'm currently working as a pixel artist at a startup studio so the majority of my creative energy goes into working there and by the time I'm done I feel rather burnt out and don't have the energy to practice what I want to. Also the games that we work on aren't very creative. for the majority of the time I'm just recreating real world objects in a pixel format. I feel as though to be a successful concept artist you need a good artistic understanding of almost everything in the world to be successful. I've been kind of unmotivated because it feels like I'm ruining my perception of real world objects by distorting them through pixel art for so long (for example I know how to create a great pixel table but if I applied my understanding of it into a high resolution linework drawing it would look completely disfigured, and this is a pattern I've noticed a lot with so many things I've tried to draw in my spare time). I'm not really sure what to do, the more I work on my pixel art the more distanced I become with my perception of reality which I need to further myself as a concept artist. I fear that I'm endlessly falling deeper and deeper into a pit that is going to becoming much harder to crawl out of. At the same time studying concept art seems like a very daunting task as your visual library needs to be very versatile and detailed so I feel rather hopeless at times. Did I mention I have Aphantasia? Needless to say I'm very stressed out but I'm not ready to give up on my dreams, I feel so close to them. If you have any suggestions on how I should be practicing or techniques to breakout of my pixel art trap I would be so grateful.
A few things:
* I don't think pixel art is the trap you might think it is. There's a lot you can learn from working in different mediums/styles. That stuff will probably be handy for you someday.
* Yeah, if you want to do concept art you're going to need to make some more realistic work.
* While you need some degree of visual library, you've gotta remember that concept artists are *really, really good at finding reference.* They have massive folders of reference saved and are constantly adding new stuff to it. So don't feel like you've gotta make everything from scratch. You don't.
@@TeamBradley Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate you taking out the time. I think your right, there are definitely a lot of things I've learned from working in pixel and I should apply what I can from that to my other works. I think I might benefit most right now from reorienting myself with concepts such as perspective and forms, and tackle specific objects as I require them by gathering reference like you said. Thanks again, you have been a great help! :)
@@TeamBradley I would like to ask a question as well if it’s alright. Are there any books or websites out there that are your main source of fantasy reference? I was wondering if there are books like the ‘Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia’ where it not only shows the images but also identifies what an item, piece of clothing, vehicle actually is. My main issue is I look to a lot of popular new fantasy artists such as yourself and they say Pinterest is a good place to start and so is building a ‘visual library’. I guess it’s just hard for me to tell what’s going on in a lot of those pictures because there’s so much going on. It’s awesome but it’s kinda hard to tell what I’m looking at because there is just so much detail. I see a lot of books on Sci-Fi but not a whole lot on Fantasy. Would I just have to keep buying ‘Art Of’ books like the ones for MTG, World of Warcraft, LOTR? At the moment I have a whole lot of Dungeons and Dragons Game Manuals to go by which ok. As an artist for MTG have you ever had access to any sort of ‘Lexicon’ to go by or was a lot of the research and reference done mostly by yourself?
website coming back any time soon? I go to your portfolio for reference sometimes.
It is! :) And the art is gonna be much more comprehensive/easy-to-browse. Need to just do a website-building-day sometime soon.
@@TeamBradley ok cool, thanks man! I'll be looking for it.
Hello there ,thank you very much for this video it really helped me to get back the spark ( i lost it because i was tired so i dived into gaming for a week because i havent in a long time). I need advice : i want to draw characters and I drawned a lot of poses and idk what to practice on next...it will be welcome some help ( also i can draw 8 hours per day)
Well if you want to draw characters... draw characters! Draw from reference, draw from imagination. Draw draw draw.
Really good video, thank you, sir. And I hope you are doing well.
Thank you 💛
Are you familiar with the Andrew Huberman Labs podcast? I bet you'd enjoy it.
Look forward to seeing that "how to practice" video
Me too! :)
Good stuff man.
Thanks! 🤘
Man, I just cant avoid thinking on how you look like Edward Norton in American History
Its over if you start late in life. And also you forget where to practice?? Which course to take from beginner to advance.
That's not even slightly true! There is no such thing as starting "late."
And I recommend some specific resources here: noahbradley.com/dont-go-to-art-school/
@@TeamBradley thanks noah it is true if you been a dr since your 20 and then in mid life change to digital art you will never get into the working industry unless your a very quick learner. Its very competitive and you be up against very talent artist. You need start young to build your skills or as you said practice and practice.
@@Sherlock245 I really don't think that's true. I in fact know a number of people who didn't start making art until "late" and do very well for themselves! Let's stop this dumb age-ist nonsense that unless you find your path early on that you'll never make it. It doesn't take _that_ long to get professional at art.
@@TeamBradley i am not joking you at all i am being realistic. I am in the same boat. And people change career i am not talking about that. So i apologies i am talking about talent and those who teach the skill. That comes after years of practice and learning. Anyway can draw not everyone wil be george Lucas that you want to learn from. Or be like those visual artist who made those big movies. And even lower few can do what artist streamer are doing with their tutorials.
There is nothing wrong admitting this. Like not everyone can be a teacher and if you want to challenge me on this lets email and then you will see!!! 😉
I cannot be you as your talent surpass mine even if i spent 10h each day i will never reach the level you are the moment. Maybe if i am 80 and still doing it but that is just life over. And you are already doing it young!😉
@@TeamBradley i also forgot to add you need time if your a lawyer and so consume with current work then art will only be a casual hobby. And you also need a good teacher self learning is like picking up a violin and not asking for pro help. You be causing pain.😔
So do you take any days off during the week? Or so you try and get 3 hrs in *every day*?
I try but I often fail. :) It's the goal more than the reality. For context: I haven't found time this past week to make more than 30 minutes of art, for instance. Sometimes life gets in the way.
i love your stuff, but would you able to have discord open again for tutorials practise?
I'm not sure what you mean by that?
@@TeamBradley i saw you have a discord group , but however when i join inside im unable to chat inside, limiting myself for asking on how to paint
love your stuff
i’d love to support my family by making art but obviously it requires too much, time, sources, etc. so as sad as sounds and feels i think it will save its role as a hobby. and i’m trying to imbrace this thought just to stop running for that big instagram artist dream
I'll say that the dream isn't quite it's all cracked up to be. :P
But really, it can be freeing to not try to force yourself to make money off of art. There are a lot of creative pursuits of mine that I have no delusions that I'll ever make money off of. But they're a great, enjoyable thing for me to do.
Thanks for this :)
You're so welcome!
As Miyazaki says: Draw till your nose bleeds.
Just in time
I've been drawing and learning for 5 years and I still suck. I guess this isn't for me
It is still very possible to still suck and that's a question I've been grappling with for a long time: why? Why this happens for some people and seemingly not for others. I think there are a lot of reasons, but the chief I believe is a lack of deliberate, conscious practice. Also the development of, for lack of a better term, "taste." Recognizing good and bad work and why it is that way. On the upside, I think those are learnable objectives.
@@TeamBradley You got a point there. I know how difficult can it be to achieve that level of skill we want despite how many hour we spend working and studying on it. Making it frustrating and most of the time a hopeless cause. But beside all of that, is the enjoy to learn that keep us away from quitting. Greetings
If you really want to master art, you must do as the ancients did: build pyramids. You can start small, from little pyramids made with crumbs and spit, and then go bigger, step by step.
Amount of hours I have put in video games 20000 hours vs Design Technical skill hour +1 hour.
I love that and hate that at the same time. First of all, I love that because of the author's attitude and the fact he tells the right things. I hate it because it's just another video I will put to my "art practice\philosophy\thinking" list and spend time not studying. RUclips videos never teach you. They can be entertaining, fun, adorable. but this doesn't bring any creative benefit, honestly) You can spend a day watching art and creativity videos, but stay unconscious. I like Noah and I like his narrating skills, I like his connection to art. But this doesn't work for me as for a self-taught artist.
I'm sorry you feel that way! I'll say I've got some other videos (like the samples from Art Camp) that will teach you a fair bit. :)
But I get what you're saying. At the end of the day, the only way to learn is by putting pencil to paper and learning these things for yourself. You've gotta internalize the knowledge. Finding a balance between theory (like this video) and actual practice is really important. Probably another good subject for a video, ironically.
Well, I should give a bit of detail not to be mistakened. First of all, I wasn't try to say that I feel like your videos don't have any value, worth to be studied. On the contrary, a lot of aspects highlighted by you are important, if not to say ESSENTIAL. However, I observe the tendency, especially when we are talking about the younger generation. They, let's call things by their names, speak of drawing more than they draw. A lot of people have potential, but they find no work inspiration to sharpen the skills. Instead, they watch tonns of videos on RUclips, imagining this would help them, by some magical impact will it enlighten their talent. Wrong. They just literally spend hours entertaining themselves. For example, I was studying brushwork in digital painting from Vyacheslav Safronov. He has particularly juicy digital painting, created by implementing an original brushwork approach. These videos last for 1-2 hours, have no comments at all. And when I decided to study that, I was spending a lot of time just deciphering his speedpaints, adopting the technique, etc. That worked out because there was no additional information, there was no kind of interruption. However, some content creators make a mess of the painting, transforming it into a quiz show or a soap opera with their commentaries, which doesn't show what's important(drawing itself), but creates a wrong auditory perception, making an accent on bad habits(talking a lot). I consider only a single way to study - the hard way. When you make your brain work at its maximum, performing the surgery on understanding, skills, and the nature of the object to exploit all these in real creation.
So that's the thing you were talking about, in general. Thoughtful practicing. When you can absorb the knowledge and the experience of someone else, or even learn the structure and constructive peculiarities of this or that object.
Just so much that you dont become an elitist
...practicing makes you an elitist...?
How much should you practice not being creepy towards women then trying to blame the backlash on cancel culture 🤔
How much should you practice understanding that he already stopped a while ago, instead of insisting on cancelling him even if he already quit what you're condemning him for? 🤔
Haha, cute. :)
I've never tried to deny what I was apologizing for. I'm really sorry for the way I acted. It wasn't ok and I'm glad I saw that eventually and changed my behavior.
But cancel culture 1. vastly misinterpreted what I was apologizing for and 2. gave me a digital death sentence. I don't think our mistakes should be the end of our lives. So yeah, I'm gonna keep making stuff and trying to make the world a better, more positive place.
I hope you find all the happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life that you want. ♥
@@染み栗鼠 am I trying to cancel him?
@@TeamBradley good for you.
You don’t think tweeting “cancel culture is so dumb”, when you are getting valid backlash due to horrible things you did, is at the least tone deaf and irresponsible?
I’m all for people getting better, but that tweet kinda showed your attitude towards the situation didn’t it.
You did something wrong, and you got backlash. Own up to it, take action that shows you actually feel remorse and you’re not just doing damage control. Maybe do a video on it, maybe don’t turn off commenting on your twitter.
I’m glad you’re trying to become a better person, but that process can involve more than just issuing a statement then turning around and blaming cancel culture.
@@goolumf did you check out the podcast I did on it all? Sounds like you might find it fascinating!
And maybe try to remember that you maybe don't know my full story or what I've done in the last 9 months. I've taken things very seriously. But I'm also allowed to hate cancel culture, which actively thinks I should die, be castrated, never have a career again, be constantly harassed on every platform, etc.
But seriously: check out the podcast! And I'm thinking of doing a video on it here. It's just... A hell of a subject to cover. A lot of stuff to say. And not easy stuff to talk about.