Around 15:50, he talks about finding your style and buildling off that. I recommend instead of looking for style to find your anchor skill, rather than style. If you find some aspect of art/drawing that you're particularly good at and enjoy, if you push yourself to become even better at it, it gives you a foundation/anchor from which to improve all other aspects of your art. It both helps establish your perception of quality, and your ability to match the quality if your anchor skill, thus enabling you to improve at a faster rate.
@@TheDrawingCodex Not OP but I think I understand: anchor skills may be something like being great at facial anatomy, or super good lighting, or crazy dynamic character poses, great composition or linework etc. It can probably be ANY aspect of your art. If you enjoy it, it makes leveling up easier. It may be something that in time becomes "that thing that you as an artist are known for". Example: If you're great at facial anatomy, you'll be able to dish out amazing portraits, even if they lack in composition and light. Then you can use the anatomy as a solid foundation to make it easier to experiment with more daring lighting and effects, varied color palettes and whatever else you want. You'll still be partly in your "comfort zone" because of the portrait context but you'll expand outward by perfecting your other skills. You could tie this in to style by finding something in the desired art style(s) that you really enjoy and working from that skill outward. I.e. just choosing a subclass of the problems being solved (linework, coloring, lighting, brush stroke economy, whatever you fancy) that is enjoyable and focusing on that first.
@@Captain_MonsterFart I understand your point, but I find style is often about creative decisions more than your unique mind-muscle interaction with a tool. I think of it like calligraphy vs handwriting. Your handwriting is your unique interaction with the fundamentals of writing but calligraphy is a style defined by choices.
Useful as always. I'm reading atomic habits by James Clear atm. It talks about progress being a byproduct of the systems we integrate within our lives rather than goals themselves. It is tiny changes in our habits i.e drawing every day in a manner that will ultimately bring about the vision we desire for ourselves rather than setting the vague goal of 'getting good like insert random artist'. Many of us want to be good at art just like every Olympian wants to win gold. At the foundations of the successful athlete though will be what they do day in day out to get 1% better and that it is the compounding effect this has that leads to their victory. It also talks about identity in the sense that if one sees themselves as an artist they are more likely to act in a way coherent with the actions of an artist. Shifting the perspective of ourselves from just thinking that we will never be as good as so and so and embracing a perspective that embraces the never-ending learning we artists must undertake and no matter the skill level u are at heart an artist can pay massive dividends.
Hey Anthony! That sounds like a cool book! I'll check it out. I agree for sure that it's more about setting up habits and systems. I think the goals for me end up more as a course adjustment. We have the engines built to move forward... the question is where do they go :) I think there is a lot of good advice from the sports performance world we can apply directly to artistic practice. The attitude top level athletes need to survive out there is insane, it has to be much more about self improvement and self mastery rather than hinging everything on an external goal. The good thing for us artists is we don't peak at 25 or 30 :) You can apply the same attitude but peak at 60. And it's not a zero sum game... But yeah totally agree that the focus should be on the 1% every day. Glad you are hitting the books! I hope your new year is going well!!
For me as someone learning as a beginner this year was a promise to my dog that just passed. I want to create illustrations of him and his adventures on the other side. There are some days where I'm super tired and don't want to practice but then I think about the promise I made to him and it gives me all the fuel I need!
I am so unfocused that I drive myself nuts. I have way too many artistic interests and show promise of high skill with all of them. Every time my focus shifts, I always feel like this THIS is the thing I am supposed to be doing with my life. I love drawing anatomy, animals, oil, watercolour, digital painting, sculpture, leatherwork, movie monster FX, costume making, resin kit painting, and I work in the TV animation biz. I become obsessed with any one of them for a matter of weeks until life interrupts and breaks the spell. I make goals but never follow through. Working full time usually kills my art focus since professional animation requires a hell of a lot of focus for long hours. I do not enjoy that work but a "normal job" would likely be awful in other ways. My foundation is drawing and I desire to have very strong technical skill. I just don't really know what to actually DO with it, once achieved. I would love to attend the Watt's Atelier in California and really sink my teeth into something. Being Canadian the dollar exchange rate means I just can't afford to pay rent in that expensive town. I am doing the online version, but struggle with the never ending life distractions and focus changes I do. How to switch that off?? ARGH!!
I use Pureref so I made a vision/progress board. I chronicle my art especially when I want to lean-in to what I have done so far but also tons of inspiring art as well. I make a new one for every quarter.
This is very helpful especially for me day by day just drawing aimless and can’t decide what to focus ...because art is vague , it hard to ask questions something that you don’t even know what it is ...
thank you so much for all the content you are creating, is amazing, when I met your art I was shocked and all this is helping me a lot for my journey as an artist, take for granted that you are going to be in my influence map, greetings from Argentina 👋
Yesss!!!! I had been wanting to see your process from sketches to finish!! Really inspiring!!! Just curiousity, so you add color directly into white page, didn't you use any underpainting underneath ?? Did you add white color to make the lighting?? p/s: Excuse me a bit, that beard, that face, that pencil, is this your self-portrait in fantasy version??
Hey MAI! Thanks I'm glad you found this useful. I didn't add any base color or underpainting because the technique I tend to use is to first separate the different elements onto different layers, and then focus on choosing what colors go where after... (which I didn't end up doing that much here as it was all just a single set of flat colors). It's true that it's a great idea to start with a base color or underpainting. I was focusing here on separating the different elements out, but the first basic color I put in turned out ok so I pretty much left it. I have the ability with this technique to change the colors very easily as they are all flat with no anti-alising (I use the pencil tool instead of the brush tool in photoshop to get the really hard edges). But I knew in the beginning that I wanted a simple design with the characters skin/hair to be the only real color against a midtone to dark grey. With the window/thing behind him to be lighter. So it was a simple plan and I kinda knew where it was going. PS - Haha I wish I looked like that. I think he represents the universal drawing mystic. And he looks like he has a plan! :)
Oh and yeah I pretty much used a white color to add the lighting. First I added a big dark gradient and erased out some of it for big global lighting. Then over that I used another few layers and painted on them with dark and light tones set to low opacity (allowing me to make some areas darker and lighter. The white color was a cool white though, and the dark was a slightly warm dark (a bit of blue in the white, and a bit of red in the dark). Helping to build warm and cool contrast between shadows and lights.
@@TheDrawingCodex Thank you very much!! I learn a lot from your process videos. I used to think underpainting is needed to hamonize the overall color of the artpiece, but now i see there's other solution, too.
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Around 15:50, he talks about finding your style and buildling off that. I recommend instead of looking for style to find your anchor skill, rather than style. If you find some aspect of art/drawing that you're particularly good at and enjoy, if you push yourself to become even better at it, it gives you a foundation/anchor from which to improve all other aspects of your art. It both helps establish your perception of quality, and your ability to match the quality if your anchor skill, thus enabling you to improve at a faster rate.
That’s an interesting concept do you have any good examples of anchor skills? What kind of things are you thinking people could focus on?
@@TheDrawingCodex Not OP but I think I understand: anchor skills may be something like being great at facial anatomy, or super good lighting, or crazy dynamic character poses, great composition or linework etc. It can probably be ANY aspect of your art. If you enjoy it, it makes leveling up easier. It may be something that in time becomes "that thing that you as an artist are known for".
Example: If you're great at facial anatomy, you'll be able to dish out amazing portraits, even if they lack in composition and light. Then you can use the anatomy as a solid foundation to make it easier to experiment with more daring lighting and effects, varied color palettes and whatever else you want. You'll still be partly in your "comfort zone" because of the portrait context but you'll expand outward by perfecting your other skills.
You could tie this in to style by finding something in the desired art style(s) that you really enjoy and working from that skill outward. I.e. just choosing a subclass of the problems being solved (linework, coloring, lighting, brush stroke economy, whatever you fancy) that is enjoyable and focusing on that first.
Yes, I think style isn't important at all. That will emerge naturally as you learn the foundational skills.
@@Captain_MonsterFart I understand your point, but I find style is often about creative decisions more than your unique mind-muscle interaction with a tool. I think of it like calligraphy vs handwriting. Your handwriting is your unique interaction with the fundamentals of writing but calligraphy is a style defined by choices.
Useful as always. I'm reading atomic habits by James Clear atm. It talks about progress being a byproduct of the systems we integrate within our lives rather than goals themselves. It is tiny changes in our habits i.e drawing every day in a manner that will ultimately bring about the vision we desire for ourselves rather than setting the vague goal of 'getting good like insert random artist'. Many of us want to be good at art just like every Olympian wants to win gold. At the foundations of the successful athlete though will be what they do day in day out to get 1% better and that it is the compounding effect this has that leads to their victory. It also talks about identity in the sense that if one sees themselves as an artist they are more likely to act in a way coherent with the actions of an artist. Shifting the perspective of ourselves from just thinking that we will never be as good as so and so and embracing a perspective that embraces the never-ending learning we artists must undertake and no matter the skill level u are at heart an artist can pay massive dividends.
Hey Anthony! That sounds like a cool book! I'll check it out. I agree for sure that it's more about setting up habits and systems. I think the goals for me end up more as a course adjustment. We have the engines built to move forward... the question is where do they go :)
I think there is a lot of good advice from the sports performance world we can apply directly to artistic practice. The attitude top level athletes need to survive out there is insane, it has to be much more about self improvement and self mastery rather than hinging everything on an external goal.
The good thing for us artists is we don't peak at 25 or 30 :) You can apply the same attitude but peak at 60. And it's not a zero sum game...
But yeah totally agree that the focus should be on the 1% every day.
Glad you are hitting the books! I hope your new year is going well!!
For me as someone learning as a beginner this year was a promise to my dog that just passed. I want to create illustrations of him and his adventures on the other side. There are some days where I'm super tired and don't want to practice but then I think about the promise I made to him and it gives me all the fuel I need!
I believe in you
I am so unfocused that I drive myself nuts. I have way too many artistic interests and show promise of high skill with all of them. Every time my focus shifts, I always feel like this THIS is the thing I am supposed to be doing with my life. I love drawing anatomy, animals, oil, watercolour, digital painting, sculpture, leatherwork, movie monster FX, costume making, resin kit painting, and I work in the TV animation biz. I become obsessed with any one of them for a matter of weeks until life interrupts and breaks the spell. I make goals but never follow through. Working full time usually kills my art focus since professional animation requires a hell of a lot of focus for long hours. I do not enjoy that work but a "normal job" would likely be awful in other ways.
My foundation is drawing and I desire to have very strong technical skill. I just don't really know what to actually DO with it, once achieved. I would love to attend the Watt's Atelier in California and really sink my teeth into something. Being Canadian the dollar exchange rate means I just can't afford to pay rent in that expensive town. I am doing the online version, but struggle with the never ending life distractions and focus changes I do. How to switch that off??
ARGH!!
I use Pureref so I made a vision/progress board. I chronicle my art especially when I want to lean-in to what I have done so far but also tons of inspiring art as well. I make a new one for every quarter.
Awesome idea!
I'm absolutely loving the frequent uploads, Tim! Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, the videos are super helpful!
Thanks Gustavo!! I'm glad you are finding them helpful so far!!
It's actually insane this video only has about 7k views, it improved my drive and focus towards art dratically.
Thanks a bunch for this one Tim. good start to 2022. Where I really want to get better at my illustration work
Thanks Jake!! Keen to see what you come up with!
Love your art and the videos are helping me a lot. Thank you, Tim!
Thanks Joviana!! I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for the kind words.
This is very helpful especially for me day by day just drawing aimless and can’t decide what to focus ...because art is vague , it hard to ask questions something that you don’t even know what it is ...
Hey Kim! Glad it was helpful! Yeah these issues are often really hard to get your head around in the beginning. Good luck with it!
thank you so much for all the content you are creating, is amazing, when I met your art I was shocked and all this is helping me a lot for my journey as an artist, take for granted that you are going to be in my influence map, greetings from Argentina 👋
Thanks Gonza Sketches! Greetings! I appreciate the kind words!!
Just starting to get your video's recommended to me, great stuff!
Thank you for such an easy to understand and very doable plan of action you presented. Definitely subscribing!
Thanks Tender!
To pursue 2d animation, currently enrolling in a Udemy drawing course
Awesome! Sounds like a plan! Let us know how it goes :)
Hey Tim! Thank you for another video. See you around!
Thanks Vyscerer!!
thank you, sir... for teaching....
Thanks Nisarg! No worries at all!!
Awsome may I ask you what software and tablet u used for this piece
Yesss!!!! I had been wanting to see your process from sketches to finish!! Really inspiring!!!
Just curiousity, so you add color directly into white page, didn't you use any underpainting underneath ?? Did you add white color to make the lighting??
p/s: Excuse me a bit, that beard, that face, that pencil, is this your self-portrait in fantasy version??
Hey MAI! Thanks I'm glad you found this useful.
I didn't add any base color or underpainting because the technique I tend to use is to first separate the different elements onto different layers, and then focus on choosing what colors go where after... (which I didn't end up doing that much here as it was all just a single set of flat colors). It's true that it's a great idea to start with a base color or underpainting. I was focusing here on separating the different elements out, but the first basic color I put in turned out ok so I pretty much left it. I have the ability with this technique to change the colors very easily as they are all flat with no anti-alising (I use the pencil tool instead of the brush tool in photoshop to get the really hard edges). But I knew in the beginning that I wanted a simple design with the characters skin/hair to be the only real color against a midtone to dark grey. With the window/thing behind him to be lighter. So it was a simple plan and I kinda knew where it was going.
PS - Haha I wish I looked like that. I think he represents the universal drawing mystic. And he looks like he has a plan! :)
Oh and yeah I pretty much used a white color to add the lighting.
First I added a big dark gradient and erased out some of it for big global lighting. Then over that I used another few layers and painted on them with dark and light tones set to low opacity (allowing me to make some areas darker and lighter.
The white color was a cool white though, and the dark was a slightly warm dark (a bit of blue in the white, and a bit of red in the dark). Helping to build warm and cool contrast between shadows and lights.
@@TheDrawingCodex Thank you very much!! I learn a lot from your process videos. I used to think underpainting is needed to hamonize the overall color of the artpiece, but now i see there's other solution, too.