This takes me back to when I was starting out. I remember that a lot of good artists always recommended the "Do longer practices, they help a lot with solving problems without committing too much time" and i always felt like it was such a waste of time ("i could do a lot of quick sketches in that hour", "i could practice more and do more in that hour.") A couple of years later, I was lucky to get people to pay for my artwork, and it always took like 2 to 3 weeks to finish one single project. I was wasting so much time trying to fix all the problems that i was never used to fix on a longer drawing. That made me value longer practices. They save you a lot of time in the long run and made me realize that is not the amount of drawings you have in your sketchbook, but rather how much quality hours you spend practicing.
I'm a musician and somehow all the principles in your videos apply to music making as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos and God bless you!
The processes of any creative production is always the same. The disciplines where you produce something. Learning the skill takes years and then finding a methodology to break the plateau hits when you enter the last phases of your intermediate times and then the journey to the advanced mastering starts and that road is still the longest because the topics get so specific and you gotta collect all the specific skill improvements for that discipline in allocated seperate cycles and gathering all the skills and accumulating your mastery around that little pieces, becoming a master of one discipline as the advanced pro at the end of the road. There is no end but after that pro state you are mostly comfortable and automatic in what you do.
The mechanic analogy was a big epiphany for me. I didn't really understand how to do studies, for many many years I'd hear people talk about them, but comparing it to deconstructing something and putting it back together, that makes it so much more clear to me not only what I'm supposed to do but also why I'm doing it and it feels more concrete. I don't know why it took so long to click, I literally didn't even know that I hadn't totally understood, I just knew I was repeatedly hitting a wall and giving up every single time I'd hit the studies phase but couldn't work out what I was missing. I actually have some ideas for the first time in ages on how I might progress. Thanks man!
The other benefit to the warm up is it gets you through the distraction/I don't want to do work period your brain (or at least my brain) goes through. It takes me about 20-30 minutes of focusing on drawing before my mind stops fighting me and goes "okay...we'll do the drawing." After that, it becomes addictive and I don't want to stop.
You’re a great teacher. I love the way you explain things in such a simplified way. I get frustrated reading or watching most how-to videos or books because most people don’t know how to explain things in a concise manner. They either over explain (causing information overload), or explain it in a way that that assumes the reader or viewer already has a basic understanding of the material, or that everyone’s brain grasps certain concepts the same way they do.
You must be my son's age, but much wiser than me 😅 thank you so much, it really is helping me. I am all over the place, like you said - paints, head, poses,clothes, landscape, illustrations !!! Since 2-3 days back, my body stopped me and the voice in me was telling me to choose one thing for a year, as doing everything 10-15 minutes everyday was not helping at all!!! And third day, I get your video as if someone listened to my pain and sent it to me 😊 thank you so much for your wisdom. God bless❤
Found this at the perfect time, ive been stagnant in my progress and wanted to sit down and go back to fundamentals, but wasnt sure where to start. As you mentioned in the video, its so easy to get caught up in practicing everything at once and making little progress on a lot of things at a time. This seems like a much more efficient way to practice!
I really need to figure out how to attain that whole not comparing myself to others thing because damn, this dude's all like "I hate my practice drawings." And I'm just like... Sitting here looking at my paper going "my guy, at least your people look like people."
I've been drawing seriously since 2015, and... It never ends 🙃 I've gotten better? Sure, magnitudes better than I was before. But the thing about drawing is that the first thing that gets better is your ability to observe things. Then you see your drawings, but getting better at drawing takes longer than being better at observing, so you can only see your mistakes. And there'll never be a moment when you say "yeah, that's it, I'm good at drawing" NEVER! Also, when you start drawing, your progress is very quick and you can see very clearly the difference, but as you get better, your progress starts to slow down a lot. Not so much that you can't see the difference between now and a year ago, but it'll be harder to notice it between months. But it's like you said, "what are you going to do? Stop drawing?" No, what you do is cry in the shower, get artblock, question your existence, then grab your pencil and keep drawing because the only thing worse than learning how to draw is not drawing at all Like, look at me, I've been drawing for almost 9 years now, I've taken college classes on how to draw, I've sold my illustrations and I'm still watching videos on how to get better 😭
art is something that there will always be more to learn. and you’ll still get those peaks of progress even if it’s less frequently than when you started. sometimes there’s just huge gaps between them but they WILL come back as long as you keep practicing! i’m in the same place, started taking it seriously as a young teen and now i’m 21 and had years of gaps between realising i was progressing, but there were definite peaks where i knew i was getting better. go redraw some old art from a year ago, a few years ago, many years ago. you’ll see differences in your skills, your form, your contrast, your linework, most of it will have improved in some way.
As an older guy who just started drawing several years ago, I see you have have worked out a good path to strive for in increasing the skills of drawing. Gratz! to you. I have "fun" and gain therapeutic value when I draw. It has increased my perspective and my attention to what "is" versus to what I "think I see". Thus practicing is a way to gain skill(s). Your suggestions place a great value on structuring my time to practice in a peaceful frame without the clutter of over doing and needles redundancy. Great speak BTW!
I am an older guy. I not only draw but torture my self by having the urge to tell a story. I have fun. With characters and the mind is funny, it can separate or differentiate people in order for the personalities to interact. Like " he said this to her" Then he said that. Meanly pleasantly or surprisedingly. It's just fun.
Your progress from your older videos to this video is insane !! You're doing an amazing job and your studies are definitely paying off. This video was so great and inspiring for sure !
I have been searching all over RUclips and watching literally every video over how to practice anatomy and how to get better at drawing figures over the past two MONTHS. And in ALL of the videos I have seen and all of the things I have tried nothing really stuck out to me or have given me the spark of inspiration/motivation that this video has. I really don’t know why this stuck out to me, probably because your drawings at the beginning look exactly how mine do now😅 and I will definitely use the tips and practices in this video to help me improve my art and can not wait to see what happens. Thanks so much and I am so happy that I found this channel and will definitely subscribe to your channel. Keep up the great work and keep on pumping out these amazing videos and your channel will definitely excel! (Sorry for the long paragraph)
insightful, clearly explained, and actionable advice. your comment about hating your practice work less each time really resonates with me. that feeling of pushing yourself towards progress rather than staying in your comfort zone and not improving is so important! thanks for sharing this great advice :)
I've been incorporating this method into my studies and I find it genuinely super helpful, I feel like I'm actually improving as I go. Thank you so much for your advice and wise words of encouragement!
I like this structure and how flexible it can be. I know when I first got into art, I would use tutorials and how to draw books and they were fun but by the end of it I didn't feel like I learned anything. With art, there is so much to keep track of, so much to remember, and finding that balance between study and play is definitely difficult. There is also that feeling to always be good, to be born great at art but like the old saying "you got to learn to draw, before you learn to walk" the same goes for art. But with so much to learn, it can definitely be intimidating to pick a jumping off point and accepting that your 1st, 10th, or 50th attempt at something new might not be good, but you are improving. I like what you said as well about the perspective of time with art. There isn't a race when it comes to art. Learn and grow at your own pace.
For the 3 or 6 month retention skill, learning the process of construction will make your practice more productive. You memorize body parts and basically learn how to construct the memorized forms. Construction helps you get results from any angle. It takes more anatomy memorizing initially. It takes more construction as you transition. It takes some years.
I once read someone commenting on a post complaining about something taking too long "time will pass anyway" and that kinda changed my attitude on practising smth that will take a long time. Might as well do it since the time will pass anyway?
This is such a great video man, I started drawing a week ago and im literally in the place of trying to learn so many things rather than focus on one section. This video helped me put things in perspective and have some better goals in mind!
Thank you so much for sharing this, I used to draw every single day before my diagnosis. Now that this is my new reality, I struggle to stay motivated but seeing this video makes me so proud of your improvement! It reminds me that art is just so much fun... Its a process always. Ive been drawing digitally since 2013 and didnt take my art more seriously until around 2019/2020. Good on you for approaching art in a grindset. Your future self will appreciate it so much!
@@voice_0f_reasonGoing to wager a guess and say ADHD, just based off some similarities to me. Especially with staying motivated. I have ADHD and drawing is a struggle sometimes especially when it comes to practicing.
“The goal is not perfection” I needed to hear that. I have a problem where I need every line to be perfect and I end up being dejected after every session because I’m not perfect.
Wow, thank you so much for this video man. It honestly helped me a tremendous amount. I have been practicing my art more seriously now but I really felt like there was no progress and sometimes did not even know where or with what to start. This is seriously a huge help! 😁
Thank you for this video, and for your honesty, and for sharing your progression steps. One thing that’s really stuck with me ever since I heard it, is “draw what you SEE, not what you know”. Since everything we see are more or less illusions, it just makes so much sense, and has really helped me out a lot. I guess, drawing what you know, could be where your own personal touch comes into play and you get to express your own style in your art, since it is basically how YOU see the world
Thank you for this video. Just yesterday I decided to focus on heads for now and this video shows up today, it feels like a sign. Is also nice to know we're not alone in these struggles. I often start thinking I'm getting old for this but I always find my way back to drawing. I like the structure of the 3 week cycle and will implement that from now on. ❤️ Thanks!!
This was really good. Never discredit the speaker if passion and actionable advice is being given! If they talking crap they not here to grow. That’s a them problem. You got it!
Thankyou SO SO SOOO much for making this video ❤ I really struggle with art, just as many other people also do, and seeing this really helped me It's good to remind myself that I'll have the rest of my life to practice, learn, and get better, and that things like drawing take a lot of time to get good at ❤
Great video man! You've made some great points. I've been feeling unmotivated lately since every time I draw, things don't turn out good at all, and it's disheartening to see. It's so demotivating that it's actually insane smh... not seeing improvement is the worst thing that always leads to art block for me. Thank you for this video! Keep it up. 💜 You've got yourself a new sub!
Just discovered your channel a few days ago….and to be honest I don’t think any other art channel has been able to get through to me like the ones you make…..i just started getting serious about drawing and I too didn’t know where to start, I was practicing anything and everything and forgetting about it in a few days…but now I’ve got a solid routine and practice plan.. shout-out to you bro, ur awesome 👏👏
bro last a few days i was so lost about how im going to pratice and get better at drawing and this video answeres the questions in my head thank you so much 🙏
Bro this is probably one of my favourite art tutorials, you gave so much tips in 12 minutes that i cant believe it, and you were exactly as i am now, i draw exactly like you show in the first seconds and i do a routine that you explained at the start, i recently buyed a xpen artist and i go on pinterest on my laptop and draw it on my tablet just like you show in the video! So i think if you can do i can do it too. Thank you.
Thank you so much bro, I was burned out with my draws due to my OCD, you really inspired me to keep with drawing and make a schedule for the next year to improve, I just want to know if possible, how many hours a day you draw? Keep doing it, you are amazing! (Also your videos).
Another practice routine you can try is breaking sections up into segments. Draw heads for a half hour, torso’s for a half hour, hands for a half hour and then the last half hour draw the entire body or the parts you were working on together.
This is so similar to something i started doing (and failed to continue....) a few years ago that I liked to call art training! Instead of it being constant, I would pick times where I devoted myself to art training and nothing else, while other times I would just draw what I wanted. That was all to avoid burnout, which happened anyway, but seeing your video made me SO HAPPY!! There were a couple differences in what I did, but I'm still glad to see it working out for you, and it's inspiring me to pick up art training again (though less heavy hitting this time...)
I wish I could like this video twice. I had been doing some of the things you mentioned in this video already, but was honestly feeling unsure as to whether it was a waste of time or not, and ended up spending a ton of time researching the best way to start drawing better... but now that I see theres nothing wrong with some of the methods I already do, I feel better about continuing them, along with adding some of the tips and exercises you mention in the video. thank you so much!!!
Thank you!!! This is exactly what I needed. I knew i wanted to reach a higher level. But no one could give me clear detaild that made sense to me on HOW. I appreciate you, keep up the great work. 🙏
i LOVE these advices and ur calming energy 🙏 just started learning drawing properly and this was immensely informative, thank you for doing what you do 🙏
bro three weeks of just heads (or whatever subject of focus) is insane to me. That would be torture. There's probably different types of learning that would be suitable to different kinds of people, but I would much more be inclined to have set subjects of practise for different days of the week. If you really wanna focus on heads, make it two days out of the week. Anywayz... good luck to you man. P.s: To go along with your "school/educational institution" analogy, the first thing that comes to mind for me is classes with different subjects. You might have math on a monday and a tuesday, and english twice a week, but you don't spend three weeks on english and then four weeks on math. I don't think thats how the brain works best.
I just found your channel and I love how you make your videos. You’re 100% authentic and you actually leave the viewer with a little golden nugget of knowledge to walk away with and can be used to help us improve plus motivate! New subscriber!
i clicked on this one out of several others on my feed bc I was curious what the 'three-week cycle' was. so you got me and I stayed and I'm enjoying it
love the videos dude and you're voice is really chill and relaxing to listen too, feels like we're just having a casual convo ~ keep it up I can't wait too see how you continue to grow down the line.
I liked this idea so much I made a breakdown for how to learn to draw people in 6-7 months: Period 1 (One week): Form; Lines or Shading. (Think primitive shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.) Focus on either lines or shading, whichever is easier for you, to build confidence. Period 2 (One week): Form; Shading or Lines. Focus on whichever you didn't do last week. Period 3 (One week): Form in Perspective. Draw objects and arrangements of objects in perspective. Optional Flexible Period (One Week): Cloth studies. Flexible, can learn at a later stage, if you want. Period 4 (One week): Heads: Simplified forms. Draw heads as a combination of simplified forms. Period 5 (Two weeks): Heads: Features. Learn how to draw all of the different features of the head as simplified forms. One feature at a time increasing in detail until you move on to the next feature. Period 6 (Two weeks): Head: Combine knowledge from the past two weeks. Learn realism but also play with proportion to start discovering your personal style. Period 7.1 (One week): Neck and shoulders Period 7.2 (One week): Neck + Shoulders + Head Flexible Period (One week): Hair; Can learn at a later stage, if you want. Period 8.1 (One week): Torso and Pelvis Period 8.1.5 (Optional One Week): Torso+ Shoulders + Breasts; You can study breasts during 8.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if you like boobs :) Period 8.2 (One week): Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; At this stage you can start drawing entire bodies but keep the arms and legs as simplified forms. Period 9.1 (One week): Arms Period 9.2 (One Week): Hands Period 9.3 (One week): Hands + Arms; Draw them on their own mostly, but if you want to start adding them to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms. Period 9.4 (One week): Arms + Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head Period 10.1 (One week): Legs and Butt Period 10.1.5 (Optional One week): Butt Week :) Period 10.2 (One Week): Feet Period 10.3 (One week): Legs + Feet Period 10.4 (One week): Legs + Body; Draw the whole body, but focus on mastering legs and how they connect to the body. Flexible Period (Two weeks): Clothing studies: Drawing clothing on the human body. Period 11 (One week): Gesture drawings. Start learning how to draw the body with fluid lines. Capture the line of action. Period 12 (One week): Detailed drawings of the entire body, starting from gesture drawings. Try to capture fluidity and motion. Period 13 (One week): Expressive heads: Draw facial expressions. Period 14 (One week): Expressive heads and bodies: Draw expressive poses and faces.
Detailed breakdown: So I liked this idea and wondered how you could order the topics so you can kind of review previous topics as you go along. For example, I started with form because every following section you are going to be continuing to practice form. I have broken it up into periods assuming you will spend one week or two weeks on each, but you could set the unit of time to 10 days or 2 days or whatever you want really. Just multiply your unit of time by 2 for the topics that say "two weeks." Also I would recommend doing whatever you want on weekends or doing a little free drawing everyday so you don't get too tired of focused study. Period 1 (One week): Form; Lines or Shading. Most people are stronger at understanding form through either through lines or through shading. Do a quick study of the same picture where you draw it just with lines and another where you only draw it with shading (I recommend gray scale paints for the second exercise if you aren't working digitally). Whichever came more naturally to you, start with that. We want to build up your confidence, so don't start with the one that's harder for you. Spend the week drawing primitives (spheres, cubes, prisms, simple house hold objects like jars or books) using your stronger method. If you are focusing on Line for this period, don't just draw silhouettes or outlines. Also practice doing "wraps" of lines around the objects. Imagine you are wrapping the object in strips of tape or wrapping string around it. Period 2 (One week): Form (Shading or Lines, whichever you didn't do last week) Same process, just practice your weaker area this time. Period 3 (One week): Form in Perspective, practice both with lines and shading/value. Play with doing combinations both or each alone and start getting a feel for your workflow. (See note about style choices at end*) For the week start drawing objects and arrangements of objects in perspective. Start with primitives and work up to more complex forms like household objects. Optional Flexible Period: Cloth studies; This will expand on your understanding of form, and it will be useful to have this already practiced when you start learning to draw clothing. Period 4 (One week): Heads: Simplified forms. Draw heads as a combination of simplified forms. Cube for the jaw, Sphere with the sides cut off for the dome/skull, spheres for the eyes, a pyramid for the nose. Focus on getting the proporitions and placement correct for a realistic head. Do many, many, many, different angles. As many as you can think of. And when you're about to throw up with all the different angles you did, do them again but play with the proportions to start working out your personal style. Period 5 (Two weeks): Heads: Features. Learn how to draw all of the different features of the head as simplified forms, increasing in detail throughout the week until you reach a "realistic" level. Play with stylization once you are confident with fairly realistic looking features. How you break up these two weeks into each feature (eye and eye brow, nose, lips and chin, and ears) is going to depend on the individual. Focus more on features you struggle with or that you care a lot about for your personal style. Example: if you love art with juicy lips, you might spend more time on lips than the other features. Period 6 (Two weeks): Head: Start the period reviewing Period 4 (Heads as simplified forms), then start placing features on the head. Play with the placement and proportions to get many different looking faces. CRUCIAL NOTE: Do not focus on learning how to draw "mens faces" and "women's faces." All people have a mix of feminine and masculine feature and you don't want to end up with One-Face-Syndrome, where you can only draw one face, or what I call Two-Face-Syndrome, which is when you can only draw a generic "man face" and a generic "woman face." Period 7.1 (One week): Neck and shoulders. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton.) Period 7.2 (One week): Neck + shoulders + Head. Return to your head practice but put that head on the neck and shoulders. Focus on how the head connects to the neck. Flexible Period: Hair; when you learn hair is flexible, but I wouldn't do it before Period 7. After Period 7 is a good time though because once you know hair, head, neck, and shoulders you can do portraits :) Period 8.1 (One week): Torso and Pelvis. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton. You can start studying the butt, but you will focus more on that when you start drawing legs.) Period 8.1.5 (Optional One Week): Torso + Pelvis + Breasts; You can study breasts during 8.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if this part of the body it is important for you to master for your personal style. Or you just like boobs. :) Period 8.2 (One week): Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; At this stage you can start drawing entire bodies but keep the arms and legs as simplified forms. Period 9.1 (One week): Arms. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton.) Period 9.2 (One Week): Hands. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. Period 9.3 (One week): Hands + Arms; Draw them on their own mostly, but if you want to start adding them to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms. Period 9.4 (One week): Arms + Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; You can draw entire bodies but keep the legs as simplified forms. Period 10.1 (One week): Legs and Butt. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton. Review the pelvis from Period 8.) Period 10.1.5 (Optional One week): Butt Week; You can and should study butts during 10.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if this part of the body it is important for you to master for your personal style. Or you just like butts. :) Period 10.2 (One Week): Feet. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. Period 10.3 (One week): Legs + Feet; Draw the legs and feet together and put a lot of focus on how the ankle connects the two. If you want to start adding the legs to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms. Period 10.4 (One week): The entire body! Focus on mastering legs but start drawing them attached to a completed rest of the body. Flexible Period (Two weeks): Clothing. Drawing clothing on the body. Period 11 (One week): Gesture drawings. Start learning how to drawing the body with fluid lines. Capture the line of action. Period 12 (One week): Detailed drawings of the entire body, starting from gesture drawings. Try to capture fluidity and emption. Period 13 (One week): Expressive heads: Return to studying the head, but this time dig into the muscles and anatomy and start learning how to draw different expressions. Play with style and see how exaggeration can help you with capturing certain emotions. Period 14 (One week): Expressive heads and bodies: Return to studying the body but now try to capture emotion with the poses you draw. I highly recommend going to AnimationScreencaps website to find some really expressive poses. The Road to El Dorado and Emperor's New Groove have great poses and expressions.
I think it's good to improve yourself but i think it's boring 4m i want yo draw whatever I like not goes with a plan and draw something iam not interesting in
I really needed those tips to boost my motivation in starting on learning how to draw(properly). I hope my classes won't get in the way but I know even just an hour or less of practice a day would be enough. I know someday I'll get there. Thanks for making this video! Hope I don't procrastinate again.
Hello, great video! I am much older then you (33 years). As a child I always wanted to be good at drawing to draw my imagine worlds and characters. I never thought that you can start from zero and become hero by simple training. I always thought you must born with such a talent. :) That is why I started practising my drawing skill each day and I can see you have the same idea as me. I started just couple days ago with the hands and my plan is to draw hands at least 30 days to make some mental maps of anatomy of the hand. Then I can jump to another body part or trees or whatever :) Good to know that somebody else has the same idea as me, though you inspired me in the "art studies" subject. I will have to look at it. Wish you good luck!
Hi! Im 15 and im also into art too, it gets demotivating seeing other kids my age or even younger have so much more talent in drawing than i do, its not jealousy it feels like im incapable of getting better no matter what i try, im starting to draw using references and i get better but i never really understood what i drew completely, but i could never stop drawing because its like a good addiction, i never want to stop even though I get so down thinking of how much better people are, even though i shouldnt care. Im thinking of going back to ground zero to try to understand the body top to bottom, and that talent is things people are born with, but that doesnt mean i could get as good as them regardless of natural talent.
Thanks man, had no direction and drew just cool things from pinterest. But now I understand how to learn from a drawing a bit more. I started watching your content recentrly and you got me back into drawing thanks man, keep up the great video’s
Its the second video of you that’s pops in my recommended videos and dude!! I loved each of your tips! Helped me a lot to start implementing a schedule or do some exercises when im free! Thank you so much!!!!
Good man! You’re much wiser than I was at your age. I hope the years ahead doesn’t lead you astray from this as you start working as it happened to me and my friends. You will do very well with this attitude
Damn bro I like your way of thinking as an artist. Like many I've seen in the comment section, you have a motivating, contagious energy when describing progress that makes me want to really lock into the grind. Definite sub, I'm excited to see more content from you.
Dude this is the one video that actually gave me motivation back. I totally get you with so many things you said in your video. Also the info diet and breaking things down into month long cycles seems a lot more achievable for me than just trying to do color theory, shading, anatomy, and movement all at the same time. Point is, I feel like where you are in your art journey makes it so that we can see how much you've progressed with skill and form, but you still remember what it's like to be a beginner without direction. I can tell you've been putting in the effort but you also know how to explain concepts in a really accessible way, which I feel is something a lot of "uber advanced" Instagram artists don't really know how to do, since, as you said, they've already paid in for so long with their art that they're kind of out of touch when it comes to HOW to teach beginners ideas in a way that makes sense to them. Also, I hate all my practice sketches too. Don't feel bad.
You sir have deserved a subscriber, Though I want to draw what I want to I also want to improve and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed and frustrated and how much I have to learn and how long I have to learn before I can understand it but being able to study references makes it better and having the three week period of drawing a specific part is a really good plan.
You give some great advice. I had the same issue as you did: practicing fundamentals, but practicing all the fundamentals one after the other in the same week. It makes a lot of sense that the brain gets bombarded with all this different info and it gets to be a bit hectic.
I've been wondering how to practice drawing for awhile and your video got reccomended to me I'm truly grateful for the effort you made making this helpful video!
When I get a bit stressed about my slowly progressing art skills I tend to pull this card on myself. I love art and I know I won't stop learning it till the end cause things you love you never gonna give up. And practicing your skills for about half a century? How does that sound? Yeah, like success is inevitable. :D Like your videos, hope we all achieve our destination!
Lots of good advice here. Thanks. The one thing I would maybe question is that… It seems to me like, because you use foundational skills like basic line-work, shading, construction, maybe even basics of gesture, etc., in the drawing of body parts, it would probably make sense to start with these more fundamental elements that you will necessarily use pretty much every time you draw anything with any amount of dimensionality to it… I know you did acknowledge that starting with the fundamentals is crucial, but it seemed like you were including anatomy/anatomical construction in that, but it seems to me like a higher level subject/skill that a new artist will probably have a much better time with if they’ve already gotten the even more basic stuff under their belt very comfortably. If you’re struggling to even just draw stable lines/curves, or to understand how foreshortening/perspective works at all, to draw even basic shapes, or shade a cylinder, or a sphere, or a cube, so that it looks like it has depth, then trying to do any of that in the context of a form as complex as the human head, or a whole body, is going to be a very discouraging slog… Whereas if you do put the work into the most foundational stuff before you try to leap into that, I would expect much steadier improvement & a more encouraging time dealing with these anatomical subjects that will integrate a lot of what you’ve already learned. I’m coming at this as someone who is still only learning very basic drawing, but has been painting for some time now in a number of mediums & getting better, & I know that if I had decided to start off by trying to paint studies of landscapes, or portraits, before I was even really confident in what brushes would make what kind of strokes, or how to really properly load a brush, or mix my paints, or what have you, it wouldn’t just look really awful… It would be a huge waste of time, because it really would be like trying to study pre-calculus before you’ve studied even basic algebra. Not to suggest that you shouldn’t even look into anything about anatomy until you’re really good at drawing- it can’t hurt to start studying the very basics of anatomy on some minimal level, even if you aren’t drawing at all yet (it’ll still come in handy when you start, as long as you are learning about it effectively). But when it comes to actually practicing drawing anatomy, or other specific constructed complex forms, that does seem to me like a considerably higher-order task than the basics.
i watched a lot of your videos this morning, and im genuinely impressed by this . im 18 ive been drawing for a while but the way you've approached improvement is amazing to me . not to mention the way you worded this video , definitely subscribing thankyou!
Literally everything you post about studying is 100% true. Your art skill level wise might not be “professional.” Or even savant (YET) but you have the work habits of professional artists in the field so keep it up
this is such a fantastic and insightful video - thank you for sharing and inspiring us!!! going to try the 3 week method now and see how it helps my brain and art improve 🎉
This was such a great video, immediate save so i can rewatch while planning my own studies. Your voice is super great for videos man I hope you keep making them
bro thanks for this low info brain tip. I definitely need to do this, I keep jumping around doing studies of everything possible, trying to improve everything at once. Having a main focus, and sticking to it seems way more fun and better way of studying art
This was a pretty good video. I have been drawing my entire life but over the last few years I have struggled to make time for art. When I did make time it usually didn't last because my art wasn't anywhere near as good as it had been in the past. I am currently doing a daily sketch challenge to get back into art which made me realize I need to go back and study the fundamentals. I am definitely going to give this a try.
I returned to my fundamentals this year with mindfull sketching mostly practicing from real life and photos since my style is realistic AAA studio style concept art type. This boosted me to the pro level after 5 years of being stuck at the intermediate level, on my 5th year now as an artist and I am at the pro level now. Not a master level but I am real quick and comfortable on my visual library and help people in their projects. I mostly sit down and draw for hours from pinterest with my coffe. I make 19-20 full body sketches for anatomy poses ending the day with few scribbles around too and then making an original design from what I have learned from like 20 different full body sketches. And it is actually not a hurdle it is like eating candy and getting in shape even 1 week gets you in a different state gives results so fast. (Thats because I am not a complete beginner and I sketch real quick so might not benefit everyone so fast) Now I am looking for color studies that will enhance me in my rendering and lightings, turns out that the way to achieve mastery there is making real life based color and value studies and master study from the artists technical approach and reverse engineering to art fundamentals is always so fun.
appreciate you man i’m so new to drawing it’s just something i’ve always loved to look at and i get so angry when i fail but i realize it’s like shooting guns or lifting weights (my other hobbies might be different for yall tho). you gotta practice and practice and work your way up thanks for this vid
This is a great idea! I think I'm going to start implementing some of this into my own practice. Subbed, and I look forward to seeing the progress of your art journey.
If anyone wants the context of how much you can improve in 5 years. I started drawing in 8th grade, and now I am a freshman at ringling college of art and design for their illustration program.
Great training concepts. I’ve done the jumping around sessions for years. While I have gotten much better, I see the benefits of the focused practice. Thanks.
I got major art block for 3 years and I’m trying to get back into it but I’ve just downgraded so much and I felt so lost, but I’m definitely gonna try doing this, thank you
Great vid! Getting back into drawing after years of nothing, so videos like this really help me get into a more constructive mindset. Also, now I want to see SamDoesArt do some Mikey Mega Mega styled art haha
Shortening this down to one week. My goals revolve around like 3 different skill trees and illustration is just one of them. Either way, thanks for this
Very interesting video! I've been getting inspired to improve and then wandering aimlessly a lot. I will try it and see how this method works for me. I've recently started art school, and based on that there is one more thing I would add to the routine: feedback. There are many feedback communities online (and in person!) where people share knowledge! Other artists can often see more clearly what you should improve and share tips on how you can achieve that, or tell you why some things work and others don't!
I started an art group.sometime ago to address the problems artist have like slow progress,no motivation,money for supplies. This group improved in two months. They taught each other. The comradary The feed back. It was all fun So group study with no pressure I discovered is the fastest way To succeed. Keep on keep 'in on !!!!
As someone who is making a game, and spent time with this method (but did not know the name), this video is amazingly dense and down to earth. I am sure when I start doing my game art for hours at a time, I am sure I will remember you!
This takes me back to when I was starting out. I remember that a lot of good artists always recommended the "Do longer practices, they help a lot with solving problems without committing too much time" and i always felt like it was such a waste of time ("i could do a lot of quick sketches in that hour", "i could practice more and do more in that hour.")
A couple of years later, I was lucky to get people to pay for my artwork, and it always took like 2 to 3 weeks to finish one single project. I was wasting so much time trying to fix all the problems that i was never used to fix on a longer drawing.
That made me value longer practices. They save you a lot of time in the long run and made me realize that is not the amount of drawings you have in your sketchbook, but rather how much quality hours you spend practicing.
I'm a musician and somehow all the principles in your videos apply to music making as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos and God bless you!
The processes of any creative production is always the same. The disciplines where you produce something. Learning the skill takes years and then finding a methodology to break the plateau hits when you enter the last phases of your intermediate times and then the journey to the advanced mastering starts and that road is still the longest because the topics get so specific and you gotta collect all the specific skill improvements for that discipline in allocated seperate cycles and gathering all the skills and accumulating your mastery around that little pieces, becoming a master of one discipline as the advanced pro at the end of the road. There is no end but after that pro state you are mostly comfortable and automatic in what you do.
The mechanic analogy was a big epiphany for me. I didn't really understand how to do studies, for many many years I'd hear people talk about them, but comparing it to deconstructing something and putting it back together, that makes it so much more clear to me not only what I'm supposed to do but also why I'm doing it and it feels more concrete. I don't know why it took so long to click, I literally didn't even know that I hadn't totally understood, I just knew I was repeatedly hitting a wall and giving up every single time I'd hit the studies phase but couldn't work out what I was missing. I actually have some ideas for the first time in ages on how I might progress. Thanks man!
The other benefit to the warm up is it gets you through the distraction/I don't want to do work period your brain (or at least my brain) goes through. It takes me about 20-30 minutes of focusing on drawing before my mind stops fighting me and goes "okay...we'll do the drawing." After that, it becomes addictive and I don't want to stop.
You’re a great teacher. I love the way you explain things in such a simplified way. I get frustrated reading or watching most how-to videos or books because most people don’t know how to explain things in a concise manner. They either over explain (causing information overload), or explain it in a way that that assumes the reader or viewer already has a basic understanding of the material, or that everyone’s brain grasps certain concepts the same way they do.
You must be my son's age, but much wiser than me 😅 thank you so much, it really is helping me. I am all over the place, like you said - paints, head, poses,clothes, landscape, illustrations !!! Since 2-3 days back, my body stopped me and the voice in me was telling me to choose one thing for a year, as doing everything 10-15 minutes everyday was not helping at all!!!
And third day, I get your video as if someone listened to my pain and sent it to me 😊 thank you so much for your wisdom. God bless❤
Found this at the perfect time, ive been stagnant in my progress and wanted to sit down and go back to fundamentals, but wasnt sure where to start. As you mentioned in the video, its so easy to get caught up in practicing everything at once and making little progress on a lot of things at a time. This seems like a much more efficient way to practice!
I really need to figure out how to attain that whole not comparing myself to others thing because damn, this dude's all like "I hate my practice drawings." And I'm just like... Sitting here looking at my paper going "my guy, at least your people look like people."
Damn...I felt that.
Same!!!!
I've been drawing seriously since 2015, and... It never ends 🙃
I've gotten better? Sure, magnitudes better than I was before.
But the thing about drawing is that the first thing that gets better is your ability to observe things. Then you see your drawings, but getting better at drawing takes longer than being better at observing, so you can only see your mistakes. And there'll never be a moment when you say "yeah, that's it, I'm good at drawing" NEVER!
Also, when you start drawing, your progress is very quick and you can see very clearly the difference, but as you get better, your progress starts to slow down a lot. Not so much that you can't see the difference between now and a year ago, but it'll be harder to notice it between months.
But it's like you said, "what are you going to do? Stop drawing?"
No, what you do is cry in the shower, get artblock, question your existence, then grab your pencil and keep drawing because the only thing worse than learning how to draw is not drawing at all
Like, look at me, I've been drawing for almost 9 years now, I've taken college classes on how to draw, I've sold my illustrations and I'm still watching videos on how to get better 😭
art is something that there will always be more to learn. and you’ll still get those peaks of progress even if it’s less frequently than when you started. sometimes there’s just huge gaps between them but they WILL come back as long as you keep practicing!
i’m in the same place, started taking it seriously as a young teen and now i’m 21 and had years of gaps between realising i was progressing, but there were definite peaks where i knew i was getting better.
go redraw some old art from a year ago, a few years ago, many years ago. you’ll see differences in your skills, your form, your contrast, your linework, most of it will have improved in some way.
Practice is something you do in orden to THEN achive a goal. (Sorry for my weird english)
I feel you
As an older guy who just started drawing several years ago, I see you have have worked out a good path to strive for in increasing the skills of drawing. Gratz! to you. I have "fun" and gain therapeutic value when I draw. It has increased my perspective and my attention to what "is" versus to what I "think I see". Thus practicing is a way to gain skill(s). Your suggestions place a great value on structuring my time to practice in a peaceful frame without the clutter of over doing and needles redundancy. Great speak BTW!
I am an older guy. I not only draw but torture my self by having the urge to tell a story. I have fun. With characters and the mind is funny, it can separate or differentiate people in order for the personalities to interact. Like " he said this to her" Then he said that. Meanly pleasantly or surprisedingly. It's just fun.
Your progress from your older videos to this video is insane !! You're doing an amazing job and your studies are definitely paying off.
This video was so great and inspiring for sure !
I have been searching all over RUclips and watching literally every video over how to practice anatomy and how to get better at drawing figures over the past two MONTHS. And in ALL of the videos I have seen and all of the things I have tried nothing really stuck out to me or have given me the spark of inspiration/motivation that this video has. I really don’t know why this stuck out to me, probably because your drawings at the beginning look exactly how mine do now😅 and I will definitely use the tips and practices in this video to help me improve my art and can not wait to see what happens. Thanks so much and I am so happy that I found this channel and will definitely subscribe to your channel. Keep up the great work and keep on pumping out these amazing videos and your channel will definitely excel! (Sorry for the long paragraph)
insightful, clearly explained, and actionable advice. your comment about hating your practice work less each time really resonates with me. that feeling of pushing yourself towards progress rather than staying in your comfort zone and not improving is so important! thanks for sharing this great advice :)
I've been incorporating this method into my studies and I find it genuinely super helpful, I feel like I'm actually improving as I go. Thank you so much for your advice and wise words of encouragement!
I like this structure and how flexible it can be.
I know when I first got into art, I would use tutorials and how to draw books and they were fun but by the end of it I didn't feel like I learned anything.
With art, there is so much to keep track of, so much to remember, and finding that balance between study and play is definitely difficult.
There is also that feeling to always be good, to be born great at art but like the old saying "you got to learn to draw, before you learn to walk" the same goes for art.
But with so much to learn, it can definitely be intimidating to pick a jumping off point and accepting that your 1st, 10th, or 50th attempt at something new might not be good, but you are improving.
I like what you said as well about the perspective of time with art. There isn't a race when it comes to art. Learn and grow at your own pace.
I love the „idk tho“ at the end, nice video thanks! Got me motivated
For the 3 or 6 month retention skill, learning the process of construction will make your practice more productive.
You memorize body parts and basically learn how to construct the memorized forms. Construction helps you get results from any angle.
It takes more anatomy memorizing initially. It takes more construction as you transition. It takes some years.
You can easily start with small bite sized pieces and build up from there when these brain "muscles" are strengthened.
I once read someone commenting on a post complaining about something taking too long "time will pass anyway" and that kinda changed my attitude on practising smth that will take a long time. Might as well do it since the time will pass anyway?
This is such a great video man, I started drawing a week ago and im literally in the place of trying to learn so many things rather than focus on one section. This video helped me put things in perspective and have some better goals in mind!
Thank you so much for sharing this, I used to draw every single day before my diagnosis. Now that this is my new reality, I struggle to stay motivated but seeing this video makes me so proud of your improvement! It reminds me that art is just so much fun... Its a process always. Ive been drawing digitally since 2013 and didnt take my art more seriously until around 2019/2020. Good on you for approaching art in a grindset. Your future self will appreciate it so much!
What were you diagnosed with?
@@voice_0f_reasonGoing to wager a guess and say ADHD, just based off some similarities to me. Especially with staying motivated. I have ADHD and drawing is a struggle sometimes especially when it comes to practicing.
“The goal is not perfection”
I needed to hear that. I have a problem where I need every line to be perfect and I end up being dejected after every session because I’m not perfect.
Oh. This is great information. Thanks for sharing.
thanks for watching lmao
Wow, thank you so much for this video man. It honestly helped me a tremendous amount. I have been practicing my art more seriously now but I really felt like there was no progress and sometimes did not even know where or with what to start. This is seriously a huge help! 😁
How to improve: have enough time to be fully dedicated to drawing
Thank you for this video, and for your honesty, and for sharing your progression steps.
One thing that’s really stuck with me ever since I heard it, is “draw what you SEE, not what you know”. Since everything we see are more or less illusions, it just makes so much sense, and has really helped me out a lot.
I guess, drawing what you know, could be where your own personal touch comes into play and you get to express your own style in your art, since it is basically how YOU see the world
Thank you for this video. Just yesterday I decided to focus on heads for now and this video shows up today, it feels like a sign. Is also nice to know we're not alone in these struggles. I often start thinking I'm getting old for this but I always find my way back to drawing.
I like the structure of the 3 week cycle and will implement that from now on. ❤️
Thanks!!
i really love the thought process and mindset you have!!
This is the perfect video for me to start the year off. I’m planning my drawing schedule right now.
This was really good. Never discredit the speaker if passion and actionable advice is being given! If they talking crap they not here to grow. That’s a them problem. You got it!
Thankyou SO SO SOOO much for making this video ❤
I really struggle with art, just as many other people also do, and seeing this really helped me
It's good to remind myself that I'll have the rest of my life to practice, learn, and get better, and that things like drawing take a lot of time to get good at ❤
Great video man! You've made some great points. I've been feeling unmotivated lately since every time I draw, things don't turn out good at all, and it's disheartening to see. It's so demotivating that it's actually insane smh... not seeing improvement is the worst thing that always leads to art block for me. Thank you for this video! Keep it up. 💜 You've got yourself a new sub!
Just discovered your channel a few days ago….and to be honest I don’t think any other art channel has been able to get through to me like the ones you make…..i just started getting serious about drawing and I too didn’t know where to start, I was practicing anything and everything and forgetting about it in a few days…but now I’ve got a solid routine and practice plan.. shout-out to you bro, ur awesome 👏👏
bro last a few days i was so lost about how im going to pratice and get better at drawing and this video answeres the questions in my head thank you so much 🙏
6:07 This sentence means everything to me.. you are a true inspiration ❤❤
Bro this is probably one of my favourite art tutorials, you gave so much tips in 12 minutes that i cant believe it, and you were exactly as i am now, i draw exactly like you show in the first seconds and i do a routine that you explained at the start, i recently buyed a xpen artist and i go on pinterest on my laptop and draw it on my tablet just like you show in the video! So i think if you can do i can do it too. Thank you.
Thank you so much bro, I was burned out with my draws due to my OCD, you really inspired me to keep with drawing and make a schedule for the next year to improve, I just want to know if possible, how many hours a day you draw? Keep doing it, you are amazing! (Also your videos).
Another practice routine you can try is breaking sections up into segments. Draw heads for a half hour, torso’s for a half hour, hands for a half hour and then the last half hour draw the entire body or the parts you were working on together.
I like this guys room without any distraction.
This is so similar to something i started doing (and failed to continue....) a few years ago that I liked to call art training! Instead of it being constant, I would pick times where I devoted myself to art training and nothing else, while other times I would just draw what I wanted. That was all to avoid burnout, which happened anyway, but seeing your video made me SO HAPPY!! There were a couple differences in what I did, but I'm still glad to see it working out for you, and it's inspiring me to pick up art training again (though less heavy hitting this time...)
I wish I could like this video twice. I had been doing some of the things you mentioned in this video already, but was honestly feeling unsure as to whether it was a waste of time or not, and ended up spending a ton of time researching the best way to start drawing better... but now that I see theres nothing wrong with some of the methods I already do, I feel better about continuing them, along with adding some of the tips and exercises you mention in the video. thank you so much!!!
Thank you!!! This is exactly what I needed. I knew i wanted to reach a higher level. But no one could give me clear detaild that made sense to me on HOW. I appreciate you, keep up the great work. 🙏
i LOVE these advices and ur calming energy 🙏 just started learning drawing properly and this was immensely informative, thank you for doing what you do 🙏
Interesting technique! I'll definitely be trying this out. Thank you for making this video.
u just saved my time with this video fr, I just started and I already feel like I’m gonna improve a lot by this method tysm
bro three weeks of just heads (or whatever subject of focus) is insane to me. That would be torture. There's probably different types of learning that would be suitable to different kinds of people, but I would much more be inclined to have set subjects of practise for different days of the week. If you really wanna focus on heads, make it two days out of the week. Anywayz... good luck to you man.
P.s: To go along with your "school/educational institution" analogy, the first thing that comes to mind for me is classes with different subjects. You might have math on a monday and a tuesday, and english twice a week, but you don't spend three weeks on english and then four weeks on math. I don't think thats how the brain works best.
I just found your channel and I love how you make your videos. You’re 100% authentic and you actually leave the viewer with a little golden nugget of knowledge to walk away with and can be used to help us improve plus motivate! New subscriber!
i clicked on this one out of several others on my feed bc I was curious what the 'three-week cycle' was. so you got me and I stayed and I'm enjoying it
love the videos dude and you're voice is really chill and relaxing to listen too, feels like we're just having a casual convo ~ keep it up I can't wait too see how you continue to grow down the line.
I liked this idea so much I made a breakdown for how to learn to draw people in 6-7 months:
Period 1 (One week): Form; Lines or Shading. (Think primitive shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.) Focus on either lines or shading, whichever is easier for you, to build confidence.
Period 2 (One week): Form; Shading or Lines. Focus on whichever you didn't do last week.
Period 3 (One week): Form in Perspective. Draw objects and arrangements of objects in perspective.
Optional Flexible Period (One Week): Cloth studies. Flexible, can learn at a later stage, if you want.
Period 4 (One week): Heads: Simplified forms. Draw heads as a combination of simplified forms.
Period 5 (Two weeks): Heads: Features. Learn how to draw all of the different features of the head as simplified forms. One feature at a time increasing in detail until you move on to the next feature.
Period 6 (Two weeks): Head: Combine knowledge from the past two weeks. Learn realism but also play with proportion to start discovering your personal style.
Period 7.1 (One week): Neck and shoulders
Period 7.2 (One week): Neck + Shoulders + Head
Flexible Period (One week): Hair; Can learn at a later stage, if you want.
Period 8.1 (One week): Torso and Pelvis
Period 8.1.5 (Optional One Week): Torso+ Shoulders + Breasts; You can study breasts during 8.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if you like boobs :)
Period 8.2 (One week): Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; At this stage you can start drawing entire bodies but keep the arms and legs as simplified forms.
Period 9.1 (One week): Arms
Period 9.2 (One Week): Hands
Period 9.3 (One week): Hands + Arms; Draw them on their own mostly, but if you want to start adding them to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms.
Period 9.4 (One week): Arms + Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head
Period 10.1 (One week): Legs and Butt
Period 10.1.5 (Optional One week): Butt Week :)
Period 10.2 (One Week): Feet
Period 10.3 (One week): Legs + Feet
Period 10.4 (One week): Legs + Body; Draw the whole body, but focus on mastering legs and how they connect to the body.
Flexible Period (Two weeks): Clothing studies: Drawing clothing on the human body.
Period 11 (One week): Gesture drawings. Start learning how to draw the body with fluid lines. Capture the line of action.
Period 12 (One week): Detailed drawings of the entire body, starting from gesture drawings. Try to capture fluidity and motion.
Period 13 (One week): Expressive heads: Draw facial expressions.
Period 14 (One week): Expressive heads and bodies: Draw expressive poses and faces.
Detailed breakdown:
So I liked this idea and wondered how you could order the topics so you can kind of review previous topics as you go along. For example, I started with form because every following section you are going to be continuing to practice form. I have broken it up into periods assuming you will spend one week or two weeks on each, but you could set the unit of time to 10 days or 2 days or whatever you want really. Just multiply your unit of time by 2 for the topics that say "two weeks."
Also I would recommend doing whatever you want on weekends or doing a little free drawing everyday so you don't get too tired of focused study.
Period 1 (One week):
Form; Lines or Shading. Most people are stronger at understanding form through either through lines or through shading. Do a quick study of the same picture where you draw it just with lines and another where you only draw it with shading (I recommend gray scale paints for the second exercise if you aren't working digitally). Whichever came more naturally to you, start with that. We want to build up your confidence, so don't start with the one that's harder for you. Spend the week drawing primitives (spheres, cubes, prisms, simple house hold objects like jars or books) using your stronger method.
If you are focusing on Line for this period, don't just draw silhouettes or outlines. Also practice doing "wraps" of lines around the objects. Imagine you are wrapping the object in strips of tape or wrapping string around it.
Period 2 (One week): Form (Shading or Lines, whichever you didn't do last week) Same process, just practice your weaker area this time.
Period 3 (One week): Form in Perspective, practice both with lines and shading/value. Play with doing combinations both or each alone and start getting a feel for your workflow. (See note about style choices at end*) For the week start drawing objects and arrangements of objects in perspective. Start with primitives and work up to more complex forms like household objects.
Optional Flexible Period: Cloth studies; This will expand on your understanding of form, and it will be useful to have this already practiced when you start learning to draw clothing.
Period 4 (One week): Heads: Simplified forms. Draw heads as a combination of simplified forms. Cube for the jaw, Sphere with the sides cut off for the dome/skull, spheres for the eyes, a pyramid for the nose. Focus on getting the proporitions and placement correct for a realistic head. Do many, many, many, different angles. As many as you can think of. And when you're about to throw up with all the different angles you did, do them again but play with the proportions to start working out your personal style.
Period 5 (Two weeks): Heads: Features. Learn how to draw all of the different features of the head as simplified forms, increasing in detail throughout the week until you reach a "realistic" level. Play with stylization once you are confident with fairly realistic looking features. How you break up these two weeks into each feature (eye and eye brow, nose, lips and chin, and ears) is going to depend on the individual. Focus more on features you struggle with or that you care a lot about for your personal style. Example: if you love art with juicy lips, you might spend more time on lips than the other features.
Period 6 (Two weeks): Head: Start the period reviewing Period 4 (Heads as simplified forms), then start placing features on the head. Play with the placement and proportions to get many different looking faces. CRUCIAL NOTE: Do not focus on learning how to draw "mens faces" and "women's faces." All people have a mix of feminine and masculine feature and you don't want to end up with One-Face-Syndrome, where you can only draw one face, or what I call Two-Face-Syndrome, which is when you can only draw a generic "man face" and a generic "woman face."
Period 7.1 (One week): Neck and shoulders. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton.)
Period 7.2 (One week): Neck + shoulders + Head. Return to your head practice but put that head on the neck and shoulders. Focus on how the head connects to the neck.
Flexible Period: Hair; when you learn hair is flexible, but I wouldn't do it before Period 7. After Period 7 is a good time though because once you know hair, head, neck, and shoulders you can do portraits :)
Period 8.1 (One week): Torso and Pelvis. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton. You can start studying the butt, but you will focus more on that when you start drawing legs.)
Period 8.1.5 (Optional One Week): Torso + Pelvis + Breasts; You can study breasts during 8.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if this part of the body it is important for you to master for your personal style. Or you just like boobs. :)
Period 8.2 (One week): Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; At this stage you can start drawing entire bodies but keep the arms and legs as simplified forms.
Period 9.1 (One week): Arms. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton.)
Period 9.2 (One Week): Hands. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week.
Period 9.3 (One week): Hands + Arms; Draw them on their own mostly, but if you want to start adding them to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms.
Period 9.4 (One week): Arms + Torso + Neck + Shoulders + Head; You can draw entire bodies but keep the legs as simplified forms.
Period 10.1 (One week): Legs and Butt. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week. (Don't forget to study both front and back. Do not forget to study both the muscles and the underlying skeleton. Review the pelvis from Period 8.)
Period 10.1.5 (Optional One week): Butt Week; You can and should study butts during 10.1, but you may want to dedicate a whole week if this part of the body it is important for you to master for your personal style. Or you just like butts. :)
Period 10.2 (One Week): Feet. Start with simplified forms and increase in anatomy complexity throughout the week.
Period 10.3 (One week): Legs + Feet; Draw the legs and feet together and put a lot of focus on how the ankle connects the two. If you want to start adding the legs to bodies, keep the rest of the body as simplified forms.
Period 10.4 (One week): The entire body! Focus on mastering legs but start drawing them attached to a completed rest of the body.
Flexible Period (Two weeks): Clothing. Drawing clothing on the body.
Period 11 (One week): Gesture drawings. Start learning how to drawing the body with fluid lines. Capture the line of action.
Period 12 (One week): Detailed drawings of the entire body, starting from gesture drawings. Try to capture fluidity and emption.
Period 13 (One week): Expressive heads: Return to studying the head, but this time dig into the muscles and anatomy and start learning how to draw different expressions. Play with style and see how exaggeration can help you with capturing certain emotions.
Period 14 (One week): Expressive heads and bodies: Return to studying the body but now try to capture emotion with the poses you draw. I highly recommend going to AnimationScreencaps website to find some really expressive poses. The Road to El Dorado and Emperor's New Groove have great poses and expressions.
I think it's good to improve yourself but i think it's boring 4m i want yo draw whatever I like not goes with a plan and draw something iam not interesting in
I really needed those tips to boost my motivation in starting on learning how to draw(properly). I hope my classes won't get in the way but I know even just an hour or less of practice a day would be enough. I know someday I'll get there. Thanks for making this video! Hope I don't procrastinate again.
Hello, great video! I am much older then you (33 years). As a child I always wanted to be good at drawing to draw my imagine worlds and characters. I never thought that you can start from zero and become hero by simple training. I always thought you must born with such a talent. :) That is why I started practising my drawing skill each day and I can see you have the same idea as me. I started just couple days ago with the hands and my plan is to draw hands at least 30 days to make some mental maps of anatomy of the hand. Then I can jump to another body part or trees or whatever :) Good to know that somebody else has the same idea as me, though you inspired me in the "art studies" subject. I will have to look at it. Wish you good luck!
Hi! Im 15 and im also into art too, it gets demotivating seeing other kids my age or even younger have so much more talent in drawing than i do, its not jealousy it feels like im incapable of getting better no matter what i try, im starting to draw using references and i get better but i never really understood what i drew completely, but i could never stop drawing because its like a good addiction, i never want to stop even though I get so down thinking of how much better people are, even though i shouldnt care.
Im thinking of going back to ground zero to try to understand the body top to bottom, and that talent is things people are born with, but that doesnt mean i could get as good as them regardless of natural talent.
Thanks man, had no direction and drew just cool things from pinterest. But now I understand how to learn from a drawing a bit more. I started watching your content recentrly and you got me back into drawing thanks man, keep up the great video’s
This video has given me the motivation to start my art journey!
When I saw your 'imperfect' art, I realized that I am on the right track
Wow. I have been looking for advice like this for weeks. This makes so much sense! Thank you!
Its the second video of you that’s pops in my recommended videos and dude!! I loved each of your tips! Helped me a lot to start implementing a schedule or do some exercises when im free!
Thank you so much!!!!
Practice just head ? Damn, that throat be sore af ( just my intrusive thoughts taking over guys, no mean for harm )
No worries bro I thought that when I heard that too
Good man! You’re much wiser than I was at your age. I hope the years ahead doesn’t lead you astray from this as you start working as it happened to me and my friends. You will do very well with this attitude
Thanks bro i learned alot from you, and now i realize i dont have to make a perfect copy im learning
you are very inspiring, i can just feel the love you have for art
Damn bro I like your way of thinking as an artist. Like many I've seen in the comment section, you have a motivating, contagious energy when describing progress that makes me want to really lock into the grind. Definite sub, I'm excited to see more content from you.
Props to you for sharing with us. I like the way how you were able to intepret these concepts.
Dude this is the one video that actually gave me motivation back. I totally get you with so many things you said in your video. Also the info diet and breaking things down into month long cycles seems a lot more achievable for me than just trying to do color theory, shading, anatomy, and movement all at the same time.
Point is, I feel like where you are in your art journey makes it so that we can see how much you've progressed with skill and form, but you still remember what it's like to be a beginner without direction. I can tell you've been putting in the effort but you also know how to explain concepts in a really accessible way, which I feel is something a lot of "uber advanced" Instagram artists don't really know how to do, since, as you said, they've already paid in for so long with their art that they're kind of out of touch when it comes to HOW to teach beginners ideas in a way that makes sense to them.
Also, I hate all my practice sketches too. Don't feel bad.
You sir have deserved a subscriber, Though I want to draw what I want to I also want to improve and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed and frustrated and how much I have to learn and how long I have to learn before I can understand it but being able to study references makes it better and having the three week period of drawing a specific part is a really good plan.
I'll be incorporating this into my drawing. I've hit a wall recently and I didn't know how to progress, this gave me direction!!
Thank you so much. So many art tips and art tutorials never get into how to srudy art.
You give some great advice. I had the same issue as you did: practicing fundamentals, but practicing all the fundamentals one after the other in the same week. It makes a lot of sense that the brain gets bombarded with all this different info and it gets to be a bit hectic.
I've been wondering how to practice drawing for awhile and your video got reccomended to me
I'm truly grateful for the effort you made making this helpful video!
When I get a bit stressed about my slowly progressing art skills I tend to pull this card on myself. I love art and I know I won't stop learning it till the end cause things you love you never gonna give up. And practicing your skills for about half a century? How does that sound? Yeah, like success is inevitable. :D
Like your videos, hope we all achieve our destination!
Lots of good advice here. Thanks. The one thing I would maybe question is that… It seems to me like, because you use foundational skills like basic line-work, shading, construction, maybe even basics of gesture, etc., in the drawing of body parts, it would probably make sense to start with these more fundamental elements that you will necessarily use pretty much every time you draw anything with any amount of dimensionality to it… I know you did acknowledge that starting with the fundamentals is crucial, but it seemed like you were including anatomy/anatomical construction in that, but it seems to me like a higher level subject/skill that a new artist will probably have a much better time with if they’ve already gotten the even more basic stuff under their belt very comfortably. If you’re struggling to even just draw stable lines/curves, or to understand how foreshortening/perspective works at all, to draw even basic shapes, or shade a cylinder, or a sphere, or a cube, so that it looks like it has depth, then trying to do any of that in the context of a form as complex as the human head, or a whole body, is going to be a very discouraging slog… Whereas if you do put the work into the most foundational stuff before you try to leap into that, I would expect much steadier improvement & a more encouraging time dealing with these anatomical subjects that will integrate a lot of what you’ve already learned.
I’m coming at this as someone who is still only learning very basic drawing, but has been painting for some time now in a number of mediums & getting better, & I know that if I had decided to start off by trying to paint studies of landscapes, or portraits, before I was even really confident in what brushes would make what kind of strokes, or how to really properly load a brush, or mix my paints, or what have you, it wouldn’t just look really awful… It would be a huge waste of time, because it really would be like trying to study pre-calculus before you’ve studied even basic algebra. Not to suggest that you shouldn’t even look into anything about anatomy until you’re really good at drawing- it can’t hurt to start studying the very basics of anatomy on some minimal level, even if you aren’t drawing at all yet (it’ll still come in handy when you start, as long as you are learning about it effectively). But when it comes to actually practicing drawing anatomy, or other specific constructed complex forms, that does seem to me like a considerably higher-order task than the basics.
i watched a lot of your videos this morning, and im genuinely impressed by this . im 18 ive been drawing for a while but the way you've approached improvement is amazing to me . not to mention the way you worded this video , definitely subscribing thankyou!
These are such great tips for getting a system of practice in place. Thanks for this dude.
Literally everything you post about studying is 100% true.
Your art skill level wise might not be “professional.” Or even savant (YET)
but you have the work habits of professional artists in the field so keep it up
this is such a fantastic and insightful video - thank you for sharing and inspiring us!!! going to try the 3 week method now and see how it helps my brain and art improve 🎉
This was such a great video, immediate save so i can rewatch while planning my own studies. Your voice is super great for videos man I hope you keep making them
bro thanks for this low info brain tip. I definitely need to do this, I keep jumping around doing studies of everything possible, trying to improve everything at once. Having a main focus, and sticking to it seems way more fun and better way of studying art
This was a pretty good video. I have been drawing my entire life but over the last few years I have struggled to make time for art. When I did make time it usually didn't last because my art wasn't anywhere near as good as it had been in the past. I am currently doing a daily sketch challenge to get back into art which made me realize I need to go back and study the fundamentals. I am definitely going to give this a try.
Thanks for the video. There was a lot of great advice in here that I can apply to a lot of my hobbies. 😀
Thanks I literally was not improving that much and kept drawing horror until I saw this video
I returned to my fundamentals this year with mindfull sketching mostly practicing from real life and photos since my style is realistic AAA studio style concept art type. This boosted me to the pro level after 5 years of being stuck at the intermediate level, on my 5th year now as an artist and I am at the pro level now. Not a master level but I am real quick and comfortable on my visual library and help people in their projects. I mostly sit down and draw for hours from pinterest with my coffe. I make 19-20 full body sketches for anatomy poses ending the day with few scribbles around too and then making an original design from what I have learned from like 20 different full body sketches. And it is actually not a hurdle it is like eating candy and getting in shape even 1 week gets you in a different state gives results so fast. (Thats because I am not a complete beginner and I sketch real quick so might not benefit everyone so fast) Now I am looking for color studies that will enhance me in my rendering and lightings, turns out that the way to achieve mastery there is making real life based color and value studies and master study from the artists technical approach and reverse engineering to art fundamentals is always so fun.
I never thought about of doing a kinda refresh session at the end of the week after studying... thanks for that idea.
“You have to be a bad artist to become a good artist” that hits hard man
appreciate you man i’m so new to drawing it’s just something i’ve always loved to look at and i get so angry when i fail but i realize it’s like shooting guns or lifting weights (my other hobbies might be different for yall tho). you gotta practice and practice and work your way up thanks for this vid
This is a great idea! I think I'm going to start implementing some of this into my own practice. Subbed, and I look forward to seeing the progress of your art journey.
If anyone wants the context of how much you can improve in 5 years. I started drawing in 8th grade, and now I am a freshman at ringling college of art and design for their illustration program.
Great training concepts. I’ve done the jumping around sessions for years. While I have gotten much better, I see the benefits of the focused practice. Thanks.
Great video, i love that you are refining your practice and way of thinking as you go along. Great improvement in your artwork.
Thanks man, ive been doing this too. I hate my pracrice drawings too, i should listen to myself more and notice the improvements.
0:04 GYA-
No. Not this time.
This time, I will be strong. I will stay focused.
This is the best evidence ive heard and I've watched like ten udder artist before this, great video keep improving and lets do this!
I got major art block for 3 years and I’m trying to get back into it but I’ve just downgraded so much and I felt so lost, but I’m definitely gonna try doing this, thank you
Omg a prickly alpaca sighting in the wild! And this video is great too btw
This has really opened up my mind thank you! I have really learnt a lot!
Wonderful video, especially appreciate all the nuanced points you addressed, really resonated with my practise. Thank you so much!
Great vid! Getting back into drawing after years of nothing, so videos like this really help me get into a more constructive mindset.
Also, now I want to see SamDoesArt do some Mikey Mega Mega styled art haha
That is serious improvement. This is all great advice, and so motivating. ❤
Shortening this down to one week. My goals revolve around like 3 different skill trees and illustration is just one of them. Either way, thanks for this
Very interesting video! I've been getting inspired to improve and then wandering aimlessly a lot. I will try it and see how this method works for me.
I've recently started art school, and based on that there is one more thing I would add to the routine: feedback. There are many feedback communities online (and in person!) where people share knowledge! Other artists can often see more clearly what you should improve and share tips on how you can achieve that, or tell you why some things work and others don't!
I started an art group.sometime ago to address the problems artist have like slow progress,no motivation,money for supplies. This group improved in two months. They taught each other. The comradary The feed back. It was all fun
So group study with no pressure I discovered is the fastest way To succeed. Keep on keep 'in on !!!!
As someone who is making a game, and spent time with this method (but did not know the name), this video is amazingly dense and down to earth.
I am sure when I start doing my game art for hours at a time, I am sure I will remember you!