I discover your channel not long ago and watched almost all your videos. It is good to see a channel were someone is trying to figure out what to do to learn to draw as I'm doing, it is almost like having a friend accompanying you in your art journey :') And about art books, I think that"Keys to drawing" by Bert Dodson is a good book, I saw many good reviews about it, and it is for begginers.
i began to draw seriously 1 year ago. And im in the same situation as you. I realized that my fundamentals are lacking. Everytime i draw an circle for the andrew loomis method i struggle. So i bought 2 bridgeman books and 2 from andrew loomis. I basically can draw anything from those books if i want to but i want to "construct" it , if you know what i mean. So i began the drawbox challenge and i can only advice you to do it until the end as it gives a fundamental that is really helpful. Otherwise the books that i like and help me immensly are : andrew loomis fun with a pencil andrew loomis head and hands andrew loomis figure drawing for all its worth and 2 from bridgeman bridgeman Constructive Anatomy bridgeman Bridgman's Life Drawing So another thing that helps immensly as selfleaner: Tracing ur using a divider or both. You are alone . You need to find the mistakes by yourself . If you had a teacher or someone watch over your work , they could point out the mistakes way faster and your progress would be faster. So my advice would be: Get a ipad or something and put everything you draw from reference over it so you can SEE your mistakes. Also i tried to transform the picture at the beginning which means: i would draw the picture on my paper but my paper was to small so i had to make the face smaller. Transforming the size is a challenge in itself. You will have even more problems with the proportions. I dont say : Never train it. But as beginner , the easier step is to have the reference in exactly the size you wanna draw it on your paper. It also made a huge difference if i would draw from my monitor or if the paper with reference would be side to side with my own paper. I currently transform and draw from monitor , just to train it , but i had a while where i would never transform and use a book with references.
Hampton Figure Drawing and Huston are usually my top rec for figure books (Huston is slower and more gesture focus while Hampton dig pretty deep into anatomy but my top rec is the NMA Huston course
@@Mithrilda He breaks each part of the body. As well as How to construct the entire body. As well as gesture (I'm still struggling with this. Like for the last year 😭) one thing I don't like is that he doesn't show anything about the proportions of the human body. Also The section on the head could go a little deeper. He doesn't talk about expressions. Very little on shading as well. The way I'm using the book is to use Loomis for proportions and using the Michael Hampton method to copy the examples in Loomis. Its definitely worth checking out.
I would strongly recommend the Dynamic Bible by Peter Han. It basically goes through everything he covers in his CGMA class. His method for drawing is very construction based and if you recall Peter is the instructor who taught draw a box everything he covers in his lessons. Also I agree with your last statement. Learning to draw from a book in general is fairly difficult and confusing. It's much more productive to do so with an instructor. Also you should keep in mind that most of these drawing books like Michael Hampton's and Scott Robertson's are not books that you should sit down and read. These are reference books. They are meant to help you with what you are struggling with at the time. Took me a while to realize that one, but unless you're about to use the information that you are reading, there is no reason to read it. So it's not a big deal that you haven't read them yet. You'll read them when you need that info to put into practice.
I can only find Dynamic Bible in Kindle format . . . .I'd like to buy the book . . .if you could find a copy from a store or amazon . . . let me know . . . .
I actually have the Burne Hogarth book. I don't recommend it that much if it is your first time seriously approaching anatomy. It is very terse and doesn't hold your hand at all. But hey that's just my opinion xD
The only art books I have is 4 of the George Bridgeman books… Life Drawing, Constructive anatomy, The human machine and the book of a hundred hands but I once I finish them I’m gonna do the Hogarth books
I guess you need build patience to the process of drawing. Like, when i started origami, i wanted to fold the most complex thing, but i couldnt, most because i wanted to get to the complete model already and didnt like all the steps needed to get to it. So folding simples, intermediary helped me to get the mindset. Maybe trying some of proko vídeos can help, getting familiar with the bean, then robo-bean etc can help you.
I noticed you have a lot of good books on your desk . . .but I didn't see A Life in Drawing - Leonardo Da Vinci . . . .This book blew me away and reminded me a little of Hogarth in the literary sense . . .I think you'll enjoy A Life in Drawing by Martin Clayton . . . .and because you are a math major and artist . . .you might find Da Vinci interesting since he dabbles in engineering and art . . . . .
Glad you're considering Hogarth's book! You brought up some interesting points that I can maybe offer some advice on. Firstly, I'd love to know who your favorite artists are, who it is you look up to. This would say a lot about where you're aiming to go as well in terms of theme, skill level, etc. For me, one of those artists was Marko Djurdjevic. It was in 2009 that I came across his work and was blown away. Seriously, check out his IG @sixmoremarko and you'll see why. But anyway, at the time I'd come across a blog post he made where he recommended Burne Hogarth's book and I IMMEDIATELY ordered it. I'm going to quote a snippet from one of his online bios here... "When he was 11, he discovered Burne Hogarth's book Dynamic Anatomy, a major turning point in his self education. Studying the guide for two years, Djurdjevic then put the book away and began to add a layer of realism to his drawings. He used what he learned from Hogarth as a foundation, while at the same time pulling ideas from his everyday life observations." Which brings me to my next point which is that you don't need THAT many books. Having about two good books is sufficient so long as you really dedicate yourself to them and put out studies frequently enough. I dedicated my first year of seriously drawing to Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy book, then the next year to both his and Hogarth's books. That was it, just two books. So then, how exactly should you study? Here's what I did. I was part of an online community of artists who were working on improvement, sharing tips and sources, etc. and seeing them improve made me want to outdo them because I'm a competitive mofo lol. We all had the habit of posting at LEAST one page of studies almost daily. Example... fill your page with drawings that directly copy an arm from Bridgman's book, like 5 to 6 copies of that exact same image filling your page. Do the same thing with another Bridgman arm at a different angle. Rinse & repeat with every body part. Then mix it up a bit. Fill your page with the same body part but this time from different angles, still copying directly from the book. Rinse & repeat. You're inevitably going to internalize this information and build up speed with that muscle memory. NOW...use real life photos of an arm. Find an arm and draw that same arm repeatedly on your page. Then do it from different angles like before. What you should find is that you're able to notice details that you didn't formerly notice because you've internalized information from your previous studies, so you're able to anticipate elements of reality before even encountering them in your life references. When it comes to your personal work you'll be able to exaggerate or push back elements to your liking, and that becomes your style. Test your knowledge by drawing a copy of an arm from a photo, then using that same reference to draw that same arm but skinnier, or fatter, or older and wrinklier, etc. and this will exercise your ability to not be limited by the constraints of your reference. As you build confidence, start giving yourself time limits per sketch. Maybe 5min per sketch, 5 sketches on a page... that's 25min per page of studies. Heck...you can do that now even if you feel your knowledge is limited. It's a confidence builder that forces you to limit your reference to the most essential parts that make it identifiable. You might have noticed that this involves a lot of copying, very little imagination. When you draw from imagination you're just testing your memory i.e. visual library, but you aren't learning anything and you MIGHT be remembering mistakes, so be wary. About 80% of your drawing should be directly copying and internalizing from experts, the other 20% is exploration and doing what you want, seeing what you retain. But anyway, my personal recommendations are George Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy book, and the Burne Hogarth book. I've yet to meet an artist in the professional world that hasn't done Bridgman studies... that isn't to say that they all use Bridgman lol I don't ask everyone I encounter, but it's just a testament to how influential he is to the art world. Sorry for the essay :) EDIT: Almost forgot... focus less on reading your anatomy books and more on copying the drawings. I've read maybe a total of 3 pages worth of material from my books. The text for me is more of a secondary aid.
Never heard of Dr Wei Xu before, but that's because he's more recent. An interesting approach, the human form is all about proportion, especially so, so it's actually a more technical/analytical side to drawing that exists. Good point about how some books are written by people who might be good drawers but not good teachers or explainers. There are lots of books that seem to exist to make money by appearing to be helpful when they're not when it comes to beginners. I hope Xu is helpful on that front, sounds like he would be. As for Hogarth, he stands out because his drawings in his books are deliberately simplified so a person could see the structure underlying what's drawn, not what he would draw if he were actually drawing a fully finished piece - in other words, those blocky dimensional drawings are teaching drawings. A person who follows those forms will be able to understand the underlying structure in a form and then visualise it when they draw. I think that's what makes him such a unique drawing source, and why I think his books might actually be helpful to learners. Once you have a sense of the basics of how to see, the other books can become helpful later on. These two sound like good starting points. All the best.
@@Mithrilda honestly it just feels like finding a whole new approach to drawing and being amazed at how the human body works. It makes you to think about what's happening, and coming up with metaphors to make a expressive drawing. I don't get tired of drawing the human body ever since I've came across his book and website. There's a community of students over there and video lessons. The instructors give feedback on a day to day basis on the forum and are welcoming and incouraging to all level of students. I would recommend anyone at your level to atleast try their approach one week and see it for yourself.
Is Hogarth's book better than Loomis's? I already have Loomis's book but I haven't even copied everything in yet so I'm hesitating buying Hogarth's book until I finish studying Loomis's.
I'm reading books "How to.." by Scott Robertson, yeah, they're hard to read. Every stage has to be understood.. But they very much help to structure the drawing and make it correct in terms of proportions, perspective. It only gets easier when you use it intuitively. But it only comes with practice. -_- It's a great channel. Thank you. I'm going the same way and it's really hard for me to figure out what's informative, what helps me and what doesn't.
You think waaaay too much - surely because you have a bright mind - but creation is primarly about letting go, entering a flow like state, and acting with no hard concerns about the end result. (I'm naturally strongly analytical myself so ehhh.. no hard feelings) One book that help me tremendously when I start to draw was "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. I recommend it to everyone as its effect is magical. Where Loomis or Draw A Box helps you construct a scene by an analytical modular deconstruction (which is super nice especially to draw from memory), Betty Edwards' book make you shift your perspective to see the world like an artist by shapes, values, contrast, empty spaces, ... using very clever exercises. It will primarly helps you draw from a model (opposed to imagination), but will shift your perspective for good in anything you do afterwards (painting, photography, ..). Seeing how good you draw already and how hard working you are it's clear you will achieve your goal with consistency. I left you with the word of the wise Jake the dog that helped me often and still to this day, when I don't feel like doing anything : "Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something." (you rock btw)
Hiya, thanks for the advice! "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was actually my first art book and I too recommend it to anyone starting out. I've been looping back to observational drawing and building up my fundamentals with the Evolve Artist program I'm in now and looking forward to learn more!
You will improve if you keep practicing. You lose if you stop making art. Try different mediums and copying masters’ art. I’ve been drawing since 2011 and I improved a lot I would suggest start painting right away even if your not highly skilled in drawing. Paint and brushes are just mediums. Youre still drawing if your painting. Oils is a lot like drawing. I’m also an IT but I’m gifted in art. Just gotta work hard talent or not. I would focus on one fundamental at a time. Watch Feng Zhu’s video on learning art on your own. One book at a time too. Read Scott Robertson’s How to Draw book first. Also watch his Gnomon videos. That thought me how to draw anything from my imagination. His Perspective videos. Sorry for my grammar.
I discover your channel not long ago and watched almost all your videos. It is good to see a channel were someone is trying to figure out what to do to learn to draw as I'm doing, it is almost like having a friend accompanying you in your art journey :')
And about art books, I think that"Keys to drawing" by Bert Dodson is a good book, I saw many good reviews about it, and it is for begginers.
i began to draw seriously 1 year ago. And im in the same situation as you. I realized that my fundamentals are lacking. Everytime i draw an circle for the andrew loomis method i struggle.
So i bought 2 bridgeman books and 2 from andrew loomis. I basically can draw anything from those books if i want to but i want to "construct" it , if you know what i mean.
So i began the drawbox challenge and i can only advice you to do it until the end as it gives a fundamental that is really helpful.
Otherwise the books that i like and help me immensly are :
andrew loomis fun with a pencil
andrew loomis head and hands
andrew loomis figure drawing for all its worth
and 2 from bridgeman
bridgeman Constructive Anatomy
bridgeman Bridgman's Life Drawing
So another thing that helps immensly as selfleaner: Tracing ur using a divider or both.
You are alone . You need to find the mistakes by yourself . If you had a teacher or someone watch over your work , they could point out the mistakes way faster and your progress would be faster.
So my advice would be: Get a ipad or something and put everything you draw from reference over it so you can SEE your mistakes.
Also i tried to transform the picture at the beginning which means: i would draw the picture on my paper but my paper was to small so i had to make the face smaller.
Transforming the size is a challenge in itself. You will have even more problems with the proportions.
I dont say : Never train it. But as beginner , the easier step is to have the reference in exactly the size you wanna draw it on your paper.
It also made a huge difference if i would draw from my monitor or if the paper with reference would be side to side with my own paper.
I currently transform and draw from monitor , just to train it , but i had a while where i would never transform and use a book with references.
Hampton Figure Drawing and Huston are usually my top rec for figure books (Huston is slower and more gesture focus while Hampton dig pretty deep into anatomy
but my top rec is the NMA Huston course
What about Michael Hampton Figure Drawing Design and Invention?
I've heard a lot about it! What do you like about it?
@@Mithrilda He breaks each part of the body. As well as How to construct the entire body. As well as gesture (I'm still struggling with this. Like for the last year 😭) one thing I don't like is that he doesn't show anything about the proportions of the human body. Also The section on the head could go a little deeper. He doesn't talk about expressions. Very little on shading as well. The way I'm using the book is to use Loomis for proportions and using the Michael Hampton method to copy the examples in Loomis. Its definitely worth checking out.
@@Mithrilda It's really well put together with straightforward and easy to understand material.
@@mangagnome9764 also the author has made some of his lectures public so those help to supplement the book imo
@@fae8468 he has uploaded more videos? I'll definitely check that out! Thank you
Burne Hogarth: “like my anatomy boneless.”
I would strongly recommend the Dynamic Bible by Peter Han. It basically goes through everything he covers in his CGMA class. His method for drawing is very construction based and if you recall Peter is the instructor who taught draw a box everything he covers in his lessons.
Also I agree with your last statement. Learning to draw from a book in general is fairly difficult and confusing. It's much more productive to do so with an instructor. Also you should keep in mind that most of these drawing books like Michael Hampton's and Scott Robertson's are not books that you should sit down and read. These are reference books. They are meant to help you with what you are struggling with at the time. Took me a while to realize that one, but unless you're about to use the information that you are reading, there is no reason to read it. So it's not a big deal that you haven't read them yet. You'll read them when you need that info to put into practice.
I can only find Dynamic Bible in Kindle format . . . .I'd like to buy the book . . .if you could find a copy from a store or amazon . . . let me know . . . .
I actually have the Burne Hogarth book. I don't recommend it that much if it is your first time seriously approaching anatomy. It is very terse and doesn't hold your hand at all. But hey that's just my opinion xD
Interesting, do you have a recommendation for first time anatomy learners?
Mithrilda Michael Hampton’s “figure drawing design and invention”. He’s very thorough with his explanations. Would definitely recommend 👍
The only art books I have is 4 of the George Bridgeman books… Life Drawing, Constructive anatomy, The human machine and the book of a hundred hands but I once I finish them I’m gonna do the Hogarth books
If you buy burne hogarth buy both dynamic figure drawing and dynamic anatomy they go together
I guess you need build patience to the process of drawing. Like, when i started origami, i wanted to fold the most complex thing, but i couldnt, most because i wanted to get to the complete model already and didnt like all the steps needed to get to it. So folding simples, intermediary helped me to get the mindset. Maybe trying some of proko vídeos can help, getting familiar with the bean, then robo-bean etc can help you.
I noticed you have a lot of good books on your desk . . .but I didn't see A Life in Drawing - Leonardo Da Vinci . . . .This book blew me away and reminded me a little of Hogarth in the literary sense . . .I think you'll enjoy A Life in Drawing by Martin Clayton . . . .and because you are a math major and artist . . .you might find Da Vinci interesting since he dabbles in engineering and art . . . . .
Glad you're considering Hogarth's book! You brought up some interesting points that I can maybe offer some advice on.
Firstly, I'd love to know who your favorite artists are, who it is you look up to. This would say a lot about where you're aiming to go as well in terms of theme, skill level, etc. For me, one of those artists was Marko Djurdjevic. It was in 2009 that I came across his work and was blown away. Seriously, check out his IG @sixmoremarko and you'll see why. But anyway, at the time I'd come across a blog post he made where he recommended Burne Hogarth's book and I IMMEDIATELY ordered it. I'm going to quote a snippet from one of his online bios here...
"When he was 11, he discovered Burne Hogarth's book Dynamic Anatomy, a major turning point in his self education. Studying the guide for two years, Djurdjevic then put the book away and began to add a layer of realism to his drawings. He used what he learned from Hogarth as a foundation, while at the same time pulling ideas from his everyday life observations."
Which brings me to my next point which is that you don't need THAT many books. Having about two good books is sufficient so long as you really dedicate yourself to them and put out studies frequently enough. I dedicated my first year of seriously drawing to Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy book, then the next year to both his and Hogarth's books. That was it, just two books.
So then, how exactly should you study? Here's what I did. I was part of an online community of artists who were working on improvement, sharing tips and sources, etc. and seeing them improve made me want to outdo them because I'm a competitive mofo lol. We all had the habit of posting at LEAST one page of studies almost daily. Example... fill your page with drawings that directly copy an arm from Bridgman's book, like 5 to 6 copies of that exact same image filling your page. Do the same thing with another Bridgman arm at a different angle. Rinse & repeat with every body part. Then mix it up a bit. Fill your page with the same body part but this time from different angles, still copying directly from the book. Rinse & repeat. You're inevitably going to internalize this information and build up speed with that muscle memory.
NOW...use real life photos of an arm. Find an arm and draw that same arm repeatedly on your page. Then do it from different angles like before. What you should find is that you're able to notice details that you didn't formerly notice because you've internalized information from your previous studies, so you're able to anticipate elements of reality before even encountering them in your life references. When it comes to your personal work you'll be able to exaggerate or push back elements to your liking, and that becomes your style. Test your knowledge by drawing a copy of an arm from a photo, then using that same reference to draw that same arm but skinnier, or fatter, or older and wrinklier, etc. and this will exercise your ability to not be limited by the constraints of your reference. As you build confidence, start giving yourself time limits per sketch. Maybe 5min per sketch, 5 sketches on a page... that's 25min per page of studies. Heck...you can do that now even if you feel your knowledge is limited. It's a confidence builder that forces you to limit your reference to the most essential parts that make it identifiable.
You might have noticed that this involves a lot of copying, very little imagination. When you draw from imagination you're just testing your memory i.e. visual library, but you aren't learning anything and you MIGHT be remembering mistakes, so be wary. About 80% of your drawing should be directly copying and internalizing from experts, the other 20% is exploration and doing what you want, seeing what you retain.
But anyway, my personal recommendations are George Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy book, and the Burne Hogarth book. I've yet to meet an artist in the professional world that hasn't done Bridgman studies... that isn't to say that they all use Bridgman lol I don't ask everyone I encounter, but it's just a testament to how influential he is to the art world.
Sorry for the essay :)
EDIT: Almost forgot... focus less on reading your anatomy books and more on copying the drawings. I've read maybe a total of 3 pages worth of material from my books. The text for me is more of a secondary aid.
Never heard of Dr Wei Xu before, but that's because he's more recent. An interesting approach, the human form is all about proportion, especially so, so it's actually a more technical/analytical side to drawing that exists.
Good point about how some books are written by people who might be good drawers but not good teachers or explainers. There are lots of books that seem to exist to make money by appearing to be helpful when they're not when it comes to beginners. I hope Xu is helpful on that front, sounds like he would be.
As for Hogarth, he stands out because his drawings in his books are deliberately simplified so a person could see the structure underlying what's drawn, not what he would draw if he were actually drawing a fully finished piece - in other words, those blocky dimensional drawings are teaching drawings. A person who follows those forms will be able to understand the underlying structure in a form and then visualise it when they draw. I think that's what makes him such a unique drawing source, and why I think his books might actually be helpful to learners.
Once you have a sense of the basics of how to see, the other books can become helpful later on. These two sound like good starting points. All the best.
Have you tried Force Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Michael D. Mattesi? I think you should. Great Video
I actually own the book, but I haven't really opened it yet... What do you like about it and what skill level do you think it's aimed for?
@@Mithrilda honestly it just feels like finding a whole new approach to drawing and being amazed at how the human body works. It makes you to think about what's happening, and coming up with metaphors to make a expressive drawing. I don't get tired of drawing the human body ever since I've came across his book and website. There's a community of students over there and video lessons. The instructors give feedback on a day to day basis on the forum and are welcoming and incouraging to all level of students. I would recommend anyone at your level to atleast try their approach one week and see it for yourself.
They also have a RUclips channel that streams live every Friday to give critiques.
Is Hogarth's book better than Loomis's? I already have Loomis's book but I haven't even copied everything in yet so I'm hesitating buying Hogarth's book until I finish studying Loomis's.
There is a video online of him teaching a class of the form of the head. It is eye opening. Just search his name.
This channel brought me to draw a box, still haven’t started but at least I know where to begin
Good luck! If you'd like, I'd encourage you to join the Discord! Lots of helpful and friendly people :)
I'm reading books "How to.." by Scott Robertson, yeah, they're hard to read. Every stage has to be understood.. But they very much help to structure the drawing and make it correct in terms of proportions, perspective. It only gets easier when you use it intuitively. But it only comes with practice.
-_-
It's a great channel. Thank you. I'm going the same way and it's really hard for me to figure out what's informative, what helps me and what doesn't.
I just find out about your channel, and I really love your voice, its really relaxing haha
You think waaaay too much - surely because you have a bright mind - but creation is primarly about letting go, entering a flow like state, and acting with no hard concerns about the end result. (I'm naturally strongly analytical myself so ehhh.. no hard feelings)
One book that help me tremendously when I start to draw was "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. I recommend it to everyone as its effect is magical. Where Loomis or Draw A Box helps you construct a scene by an analytical modular deconstruction (which is super nice especially to draw from memory), Betty Edwards' book make you shift your perspective to see the world like an artist by shapes, values, contrast, empty spaces, ... using very clever exercises. It will primarly helps you draw from a model (opposed to imagination), but will shift your perspective for good in anything you do afterwards (painting, photography, ..).
Seeing how good you draw already and how hard working you are it's clear you will achieve your goal with consistency.
I left you with the word of the wise Jake the dog that helped me often and still to this day, when I don't feel like doing anything :
"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something."
(you rock btw)
Hiya, thanks for the advice! "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was actually my first art book and I too recommend it to anyone starting out. I've been looping back to observational drawing and building up my fundamentals with the Evolve Artist program I'm in now and looking forward to learn more!
Thank you for these ;)
You will improve if you keep practicing. You lose if you stop making art. Try different mediums and copying masters’ art. I’ve been drawing since 2011 and I improved a lot I would suggest start painting right away even if your not highly skilled in drawing. Paint and brushes are just mediums. Youre still drawing if your painting. Oils is a lot like drawing. I’m also an IT but I’m gifted in art. Just gotta work hard talent or not. I would focus on one fundamental at a time. Watch Feng Zhu’s video on learning art on your own. One book at a time too. Read Scott Robertson’s How to Draw book first. Also watch his Gnomon videos. That thought me how to draw anything from my imagination. His Perspective videos. Sorry for my grammar.
I think I’m first 😂