Just to clear some things up, when I say I went to college it was just Architecture school. Be sure to check out my Patreon, the new video is coming out in a couple days and it will give you a much better idea of how much work to expect to do in that time! ▶ geni.us/ergojoshpatreon
@@ergojosh in the video you sometimes draw the reference photo but in a completely different perspective. Is this something I should learn or did you do it just cause you can
Do I have to study every day? I don't know where to start or what to do, I don't want to have to spend hours every day for 5+ years studying how to draw. I wish there was a guide for this stuff....
To people who are just startting out. A good way to get a feel for such learning process is ahmed aldoori's 100heads challenge. It might seem trivial at first but you'll see it yourself as you go through 10 heads everyday. Slowly your sketches will improve. You'll invent your own short-hands on the fly. By the 100th head, not only will you have improved tenfold at drawing heads, you'll also know exactly what you need to do to improve at drawing the rest of the body and the time you'll take to reach your goals. Edit: some of you claim to have seen no progress. This is a bit surprising coz the challenge is about drawing 100 freakin heads in a short time period. Realistically anyone should see some improvement in just the first 20ish heads. Here's some point to keep in mind if you're really chasing improvement. 1. Learn head construction. Not the anime one with just a circle and a triangle. Im talking planes of the head and stuff. Look up loomis' book 2. After each drawing, take a minute to spot one mistake and in it and try to just improve on that. Can be head shape, proportions, eye level, perspective. 3.Most importantly, warmup! Most people don't know this but even the pros cant just wake up and spit out remotely good drawings. Draw random stuff, lines spirals, boxes, cartoons just to hammer back in the pace and rhythm before you jump into heads. Edit 2: this comment still gets replies. So I wanted to clarify another thing people seem to be getting wrong. I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MEAN that just drawing heads will improve your anatomy skill for the rest of the body parts. I just meant that you will begin to understand how you can go about realistically improving at them too. Understanding what makes your brain tick when learning and improving was the most important thing I gained from this challenge. That and the ability to just draw a head without having to think too much about it. It's annoying coz my random sketches are always just floating angry heads.
I'm a try it starting from today and I'm gonna come back in 10 days to tell you how much I have improved, I always see these comments but I never see any concrete response to them. 10 DAY EDIT: So after about 100 Loomis heads(I explain in the edit below why I chose Loomis heads over normal heads) I can say that this challenge is worth it, my dexterity sky rocketed ,I can now do an almost perfect circle or oval in about 1-3 tries , I am still going to practice Loomis heads daily for probably the rest of this year but now I'm gonna start with the components and do 100 of each in 10 days, so yes you should do this challenge, it's very good for pretty much everything , repetition and hard work is the key in art, I believe in all of you! Small edit for those who will see this before the 10 days end: I actually decided to do Loomis heads with little detail because I am very new(I started about 2 months ago) and I don't want to learn the wrong way by photo coping other faces for now, so I did what I knew best, I am for sure going to try and do 100 human heads from reference aswel, but I think that it is too early for me and pretty much pointless since I don't know how to properly draw a realistic mouth, eyes, nose, eyebrows, ear, lips, etc. After I learn how to draw these aswel I am for sure going to go back combine them together and attempt this again but for now I am drawing Loomis heads and I am seeing HUGE improvements even after 4 days, they actually look very good, and I think this will also be my trick for learning the heads components.
I've only been studying anatomy/learning how to draw people for about two and a half months, but the biggest thing for me was realizing that studying anatomy isn't as scary as I thought it was. You don't have to know every tiny muscle in the human body, especially not at the beginning, focusing on bigger, simple shapes will be more than enough to help you start understand the basic construction of the human body and how to make it move etc. Still trying to figure out how to learn best, but I think the biggest improvement I've made so far is by using other artists' work as reference, but trying to replicate it with the tools I already have, like the bean bag method or simple boxes and cylinders. That way I'm not just copying the work, but more so testing myself on "can I construct something like this with the tools I already have?", and it seems to really help a lot! (And thank you for this video!! Clearly I am super into anatomy right now so it came at just the right time! And hearing you confirm some of my thoughts really helped.)
I always avoided it as well bc I thought it was a long process and not to mention I’m impatient af but actually it’s really fun to study anatomy because I get to sketch randomly without any references and not make the proportions look awkward. Also, I always simplify the forms of the body to make it easier for me and ngl it made me learn faster although I’m still learning 🤣
@@bineficente I avoided it for literal years, accidentally stopping myself from making ANY progress with my art, but you're right, it's actually so much fun haha. And I do that too, I'm still learning and struggling a lot, but as far as I'm concerned I can always go back and learn more detailed things later on, they're going to be useless now when I don't even feel fully comfortable with the basic shapes, which are way more important!!
@@charlie.tt4 I’m struggling with the same thing rn, I’m trying to learn anatomy and clothing folds, but it’s like I’m too nervous to do it because I don’t want it to look terrible, even though my gesture sketches use to look terrible too. The moment I add clothes or anatomy to my gestures they just become really stiff lol
It was taking me around 1 Hour to draw a basic Anatomy figure ( including correction ) to get it accurate, just 3-4 months ago, now i can draw a lot of different poses in about 10-20 minutes pretty accurately, of course i can still improve a lot but i just wanted to say if you get a really good teacher or art program its worth investing in it, because it will teach you so much so quickly and you wont regret it
No need for a fancy art program either. Just keep iterating and practicing and that's all you really need, you could draw in mud with a stick and still be awesome of you put in the dedication!
@@chikengas4052 sorry, I expressed badly, I want to ask which cours did you take, there are so many of them and I don't know which are worth the price.
In one year I get really good at anatomy, almost dominated, I really love doing muscles studies, also draw figures, the only things I still have struggle is draw poses without a reference, I'm drawing the same pose from different angles to train my brain. You can improve really fast with a correct practice :)
As someone who would rather draw a pose from imagination, all it really takes is to know what kind of figure you’re drawing (like if they have certain mannerisms or for their personality) or to sometimes even draw a random line of action from the neck to the spine and really go from there!
There arent many people who really really try to convey how much effort and practice they put into improving, so its easy to get discouraged but when i watch your videos they're genuinely so motivating. never stop creating man
I'm one year on my journey,and still learning and oh boi my improvement was great!good thing with that is I'm still focusing on forms,gesture,proportion and not yet on muscles,bones but still can pull off nice results,(efficient practise is still the key,not just knowing it and not working on it afterwards)
I have been drawing for like 7 months and I think I've been doing pretty good. Right now I am practicing daily gesture drawing,anatomy, drawing faces .Can you please help me with what to practice now?
@@lilyw8721 we all improve in different ways, and what works on me may not work on you ...I'll recommend that you put structure with these topic and divide it in chunks so it wouldn't be overwhelming, and keep doing personal art on the side that way you'll find out your weakpoints and give some week/months to practice them :> (and most importantly don't burn yourself out :>)
I've found that the issue with art compared to other study regions, is that in its subjectivity, there's never a clear guide to tell you where to go next. Learning computer science is pretty straightforward - first, you learn basic compiling, then data types, then functions, loops, if statements, etc - there is a clear next step based on your position. The issue with art is that there's nobody who can just say "If you're a beginner, start here, then here is a link to your next 100 steps, practice once a day for the next 5 years have fun" I would love step by step guides that can start you off at a beginner and assure you progression at a steady rate. There are plenty of artists with potential that simply don't know HOW to study.
this is absolutely true, especially if you’re self taught…recently i’ve been going back to do art courses and so far have found figure drawing -> anatomy -> perspective to be a pretty logical progression, the figure drawing course i did touched on eveything which was great but i found that I needed to properly learn the actual anatomy as it was my bottle neck. Also i just finished a computer science degree 😆
As a software developer trying to learn how to draw, I’d say that programming has its own difficulties - mostly when learning when and how to modularize your code, what architectural patterns can help your code at scale etc. A newcomer could get very far with just a single method, if statements and a bunch of code (you wouldn’t even need for loops, you could just “unroll” the loops), but it’s going to take a lot longer and be less maintainable. The art of programming comes in knowing how to build a framework that can grow over time and be intuitive to newcomers. That’s not to say that your point is incorrect, but as part of my own learning process I’ve seen a lot of similarities, in that I’ll fall into doing slow but “functional” ways to do things, rather than taking the time to learn a more efficient approach because the learning curve is higher.
This is how I’m feeling right now. I really want to get better and start improving but I keep hitting bottlenecks where I’m not sure how to progress. If there was some defined path to learn it would be so much easier to jump in somewhere and start, but I find myself jumping from tutorial to tutorial trying to find just a starting place to improve
Yeah, you will learn loops and objects, but you still need to build projects on your own to really learn how to code. Otherwise you will be like those Seniors who can't code for jack s***. When you get stuck in a programming problem, you search it up. When you have trouble with heads, you search it up. "What should I draw?" "What should I build?"
@@SquareRoot_ When I posted this, I meant in terms of logical first steps. With software development, it's pretty straightforward at the beginning. First, you learn basic theory so that you can develop linear academic programs, then you can move on to more complex components. There's always a logical next step until you're writing blackjack in a low-level language using OOP, then you can pretty safely say you want to specialize in something like, I dunno, UI development, and I suppose this step is the hardest because you have to decide what you actually want to create with your knowledge. If you equate this to art, it's like having to choose a speciality from day 1. You need to improve all your fundamentals at once, and so it's easy to get overwhelmed with overchoice as a beginner. If I picked up art from scratch today, there's no linear guide I can follow that will guarantee I come out the other side as an intermediate artist as opposed to a beginner. PS: I work in SD, I'm not a sophomore.
I think you should also consider the fact that even just drawing portraits has also improved your anatomy skills in many ways. It taught you a lot about form and improved your general drawing skills. My point is , that this video might be a little bit misinforming for begginer artists since they may believe that they could learn anatomy in just 2 years. I think it would be worth to mention that you need to get pretty decent fundamental skills if you want to improve your anatomy drawing that fast. In my opinion this is a "step by step" journey and it takes time for your brain to be able to understand and process all the information it's getting. Like there are people who encourage others to start drawing with forms and not with shapes, but they don't really consider the fact that begginer artists won't really be able to process what they're doing since they have to put too much focus and struggle just to draw simple shapes right. So , what I'm trying to say there's nothing wrong with drawing "aimlessly" and just copying nice shapes from references and stuff like that, but , it's very important to gradually increase the challenge alongside with your skill and perception improvement. Anyways, it's a great video after all, and I share exactly the same views as yours about drawing from imagination and your improvement over the years is encouraging to see ^^
Thank you Josh, I keep getting in and out of practice, which is not the best thing to do, but I'm grateful that when I go back I find most of my previous improvement is still there in a way, not completely lost and I don't have to start from zero, but it's still a long journey ahead of me and I hope to have less interruptions. Also you're awesome Josh, thanks for everything.
Thanks, you're right I never treat it as a chore or even a mission to accomplish, but a cool journey to learn something I love and I draw stuff I enjoy most of the time, but I do get busy every now and then with work and stuff, I'll try to find a balance.
Anatomy and figure invention really isn’t as hard as I thought it was. Artists that can draw comfortably without ref will always talk about seeing the simple forms and shape in the complex. I always spend my mornings drawing figures, and I’ve improved so much. It’s really useful to look at the figure drawings of professionals and identify what’s important to capture.
When I was young I drew a lot. I painted jackets and such. I even went to Parson’s School of Design for a year. I hated it. I even had Boris Vallejo for a class. I didn’t understand a damn thing. Eventually I stopped. I’m 58 now and have become disabled and am trying to get back into it. I’m even scared to pick up a pencil. It’s crazy!
Hey man, it’s never too late for you to pick up a pencil and get back into it. As long as you have the drive for it, you’ll always have a reason to keep going!
I just found an old sketch book of mine from over 5 years ago and oh the improvement, sometimes it really helps to look back at your old stuff to really see the leap in improvement
In my experience as a self-taught artist it took me 5 months. You will get the general rule and pattern of anatomy within 2 months. learning about the muscles and bone will be longer after that, because you will have to relearn "what you think you got right" over and over again. "Oh turns out the arm is a flexible part because the bones twisting underneath determines how the muscles will move." . I can say w/ confidence that I have mastered how each muscles and bones look like... BUT NOT HOW THEY SOUND LIKE. Hell, I don't even know the names of the muscles I've learned, I know some of them, but I don't even want to bother learning the names of all of them.
I always have a huge struggle drawing from imagination. It's like an entire new skill set you have to learn before all those hours of figure drawing practice even seeps into figures from imagination. And sometimes it feels worse knowing you can draw figures from ref and then from imagination barely a stick figure
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us! I've made a mistake of burning myself out by going over the point you stopped. I was in a really difficult place in my life though and I felt like all I had was technical improvement. Since then, I had other problems to deal with.. (was abused, moved 2-3 times, had my only friend my bunny, die, began college, having ton of social anxiety I can only begin to get to know people after 1,5 years of nothing) - (I also healed both mentally and physically, doing yoga every day and journaling while having a "break from art".) But still, art began to be a chore. I only recently picked up my tablet again, ofc, since I'm in art school I had to complete pieces but the amount is scarce compared to my natural flow. However, under this break I've read more than I have in the past 4 years altogether, and I picked up my favourite subjects (classic literature, philosophy) again. Adam Duff always told me to be free and nerd out about what I love and then when everything's fine, draw from that place and I'm attempting to do that. I'll be following your tips since I feel like they are definitely the way to go. What makes me worried and frustrated is that our anatomy course lacks EVERYTHING. We do not really talk, we don't recieve tips, we basically just being sat down before models to draw and many of us are having problems with such fundamental things as techniques. Anyway, I'm really grateful for the internet and for you, for making learning possible, entertaining and easy. I'll try to paint every day for a bit first to discover more palette choices though. Maybe I'll do figures too while. We'll see. Sending hot chocolate and a peaceful Christmas night, Alice
Love your channel and advice. Was feeling discouraged picking up drawing again after 15+ years and this really helped put my expectations in perspective!
I really appreciate you making these sorts of videos. I feel so stuck at the moment with my skill level and I absolutely think it's because I'm not practicing in the right way. This video made me feel very motivated thank you!
I subbed to you on my other channel but I keep coming back to your videos. Burnout is so real and especially when i get stuck your videos have seemed to really- genuinely help.
Your video was truly helpful since you pointed out perfectly my current problem: I have been obsessing with studies so much, I forgot how to actually create anything. Haven't been able to finish any art piece for over 2 years, despite practicing every day. The fear of making mistakes, I had tried battling with practice, turned into an inner inability of simply creating. Thank you very much for picking up such a hard topic!
Another tip I often hear be thrown around: It's not a matter how much you practice, it's about how you use your practice. If you spend a thousand hours drawing the same thing, you won't get far. But If you spend even just a few hours a week trying new things, going into each study session with a plan in mind, say: "Today, I want to work on my anatomy. I'm not so good at drawing hands, so let me practice those areas." And just experimenting, you'll gain a lot more from those study sessions than simply spending time tracing over references, or falling back into habits. It isn't about how much you practice, though that is a big help, it's about how you practice and what you learn from that practice. Another tip, have fun. You're still learning, it isn't a job. Don't treat it like a grind to get better, you'll end up burning yourself out, or resenting your creativity. If you miss a day or two, it won't hurt you. In fact, I notice I usually draw best after a break.
Wanted to say thanks for showing some of your 'in progress' and 'bad' early works as you're progressing. It helps me feel less self conscious about my progress when I can see other artists go through the same iterative stages.
I always see younger artists than me having better anatomy knowledge and it boosts my will to learn anatomy better and better every day. However even if I feel motivated to do so, I do not have the strength to grab my pencil/pen tablet and search for references that can inspire some creativity. Mostly I have this fear of the canvas that keeps me stuck from creating something because I feel the need to feel every little spot with a good composition. I wanna get better but, sigh, my motivation can be compared to a rollercoaster, ups and downs.
A bit of advice. First you learn the "BONNY" area (from art teachers of course, BE NOT AFRAID, you will pay not even an ounce of pennies for art courses, Free contents from Proko and Marc Brunet and other great teachers are enough I guess ?) Second now you can learn the origin and insertion of muscles ! But you are not stupid to just learn every tiny muscles right ? just learn the BIG BIG muscles such as Pec, Lat, Deltoid, Ab, Thigh, or whatsoever. And third ! the most sought for y'all, after gaining some experiences you guys can reconstruct and simplifying it so that it is easier and faster to draw. (AKA. Art style) So you might be wondering "Why must I learn so many unconvenient things before I could just draw the simplified version", Easily explain, At the simplified state you might use about 50% of all your knowledge, But the "50%" is the refined knowledge you considered to be good to keep from whole 100%, AND THUS. this is where your artstyle comes from ! Ah forgot to mention, this whole long ass comment is just a "suggestion", so it came from my experience. You can take it to heart or you can just forget like there was nothing happened. But remember ! You can learn from fools and sages.
I love how open you are with your art progress on your channel, I remember you talking about why you were doing the 1000 figure drawings during that time. Seeing how your able to view that in retrospective and the fact that your views and beliefs on your art has changed just proves that it doesn't necessarily matter what you believe about making art just that you believe something and practice to improve that. Much love 💜💜💜
Watching your videos always help me to overcome my fears of learning figures, anatomy. It's just amazing to see your progress over these years. ❣️ Thankyou so much for putting out these videos. 💕✨
Your timing is amazing! I was just about to create my art schedule so I can manage school and hobbies. I just began break too and didn’t want to waste my break so thank you!
I havent drew in years. This is helping me change and improve in ways i couldnt as a kid in highschool. Im looking at your characters bodies and am seeing stuff i never saw before
so satisfying to see all this improvement over the last year I've known you! :D :D Good job and cheers to more to come. I can see the improved confidence so much with the new drawings
I think the most difficult thing for me to overcome is time. It usually takes me several hours to sketch something like a head with basic hair, because I'm slow and I try to be thorough with my drawings. I'm steadily getting into more details. This is challenging, especially after a long day at work. My mind wants to draw, but my body is too exhausted. I'm studying from real life, at the same time applying concepts from several of my favorite artists. I also have difficulties with head angles, so I purchased multiple animation / sketch design books to get a feel for how these artists did it. Breaking down professional artists' rough sketches into shapes helps me so much.
I know this is a really late reply, but some of the things you said are also similar to some of the obstacles I tend to face pretty regularly. If you happen to see this, I'd like to ask what the names of those books are?
Im so glad you talked about the "right" course because the past two years I've spent a lot of money on finding the "right" course only to be disappointed that i didn't complete the course or I didn't see improvement in my art. But the part that I now know that I'm missing is putting in that work in between courses. Thats such a great way to look at it.
I’ve been drawing for about 10 years and lost improvement around year 5 or 6 because I would draw the same things and I just don’t enjoy drawing them anymore. Seeing your process- seeing the different styles and anatomy you do and your experiences really helps because I realize I can branch out and use different references without it being exactly the same and also still draw what I’m used to. Your videos are awesome, you got a sub from me and I can’t wait to watch more of your videos 🙌🏾
I felt this too much honestly, Approaching with the mindset of improvement is the way to go. from shape design to practicing the actual muscles, It's about testing your ability (or might) when you practice. Currently going through this exact thing now and I'm finding it fun but difficult to solve the problems for gesture, shapes, and yes, HANDS.
Damn man u hit it on the head, thanks for the reassurance. I just recently started an apprenticeship for tattooing and my mentor told me to focus on my anatomy. I’ve always only drawn what ive seen because no one ever properly taught me. Thanks man!!
This is a really well done video that makes solid points. For me, I started seriously learning to draw 6 years ago. I got highly recommended books, bought a Wacom tablet and got to work. I was having a blast for about 3 months. After that point I realized I slept about 4 minutes total in those three months because I spent so much time on that learning grind. It caught up to me all at once and I fell off the train, hard. I didn't draw again for 2 years. When I eventually got back to it and dusted off my books again, I only lasted another 2 months before dropping it for another year. So much time wasted. However currently I have been drawing at least one thing a day every day for a little over 2 years. My sense of time is warped from The 'Rona. It is kind of sad seeing people far surpass my level of progress in just 2-3 months, but that's what I get for wasting so much time. At least I'm ahead of the people that never start.
A great review. I'm somewhere in the middle of that journey. I spent a long time working mostly from imagination and just doing quick gesture drawings or studying anatomy in isolation, not "allowing myself" to go deeper with any one image to fix errors. The weakness in that is simply a lack of "putting in the work" to put things together in a complete figure; while I can add the surface details of anatomy relatively easily, the inner workings and positioning of the limbs always go vague. But everything you draw from imagination in digital can be fixed afterwards by adding the reference and redoing things, and this is where I've started taking it. It's all very calculated now - I still decide the pose, but I research how to get there instead of immediately scratching out something. So while I will use bases and trace to get some things started, I'll also sit there for however many hours are needed to understand a single form's construction, as well, to get things exactly how I want. Solving each problem as I encounter it in this way can make drawing very intense, but rewarding in a new way.
Bruh I love ur Channel sm, I studied portraits for 2 months and found out my heart is at drawing figures actually and I don’t know where to start my Anatomy practice and u just post this >
Something I wanna add: you don't _need_ to learn the names of the bones and muscles alongside learning to draw them. Looking at what they do and how they interact which each other should be helpful for anyone, but memorizing the names is absolutely not a default requirement to learn drawing anatomy well or to learning it faster. Of course it helps if you know what kind of learner you are in general, I just know that I'm not alone in the "the thought of memorizing alone is incredibly offputting/demotivating" category lol 😅
Hey Josh, somewhat related to this topic, I think it would be really beneficial if you could upload some videos of what exactly you do when you study an artist's figure drawings. I've heard "study this" or "do gesture drawings" a thousand times, but sometimes I feel like I'm just going through the motions and nothing is sinking in, it's like I don't know _how_ to learn. Some artist recommendations would also be a nice touch!
One tip I can give you is to observe more than you draw and ask yourself a lot of questions while you're drawing. Don't let yourself go on autopilot while you draw and try to figure out why body parts in that gesture are doing the things they are doing. Gesture drawings are good for loosening up and teaching yourself to capture large movements and pieces of the body. But those should be supplemented by slow studies of anatomy.
To everyone starting out. The top 3 courses I found for anatomy are - Will Westen (drawingamerica), good shorthand, basic ways to understand proportions. Very valuable - Marc Brunet (cube brush anatomy course), amazing for going through the human figure and understanding the basic construction, muscles, and connection points - Viktor Kalvachev (schoolism) , good ‘maps’ for the figure that help with lots of landmarks and quick things to compose the figure The biggest thing that boosted my drawing was learning the muscle connection points. You can literally ‘connect the dots’ once you understand the simplified muscles and their connection points. Obviously this comes AFTER you learn the basic 3d mannequin. Which leads onto the last thing, think in 3D, not ‘this line goes here’. Draw through the shapes otherwise you will be limited to one angle and wont be able to rotate your shapes.
tips for traditinal artists!! when your drawing be sure to do these two things often: one. turn your paper upside down to spot if something isnt symertrical. two. if your drawing on a table be sure to pick up your paper and hold it vertically, because when you sit your perspective is skewwed and your drawing may look fine but a lot of the times the closer to the bottom of the page you go the smaller things get, it makes for some really awkward proportions.
yes you can also use a mirror for your traditional drawing or also just stepping away from your drawing for 15 minutes and coming back to see it from a fresh perspective :)
Woah. This is the first speed drawing video that gave me motion sickness. I didn't know that was possible. But that's not the point. Point is, this is a great video (or audio for me), thanks again ergojosh for the brilliant insights and tips.
As a person who used to draw a ton but hasn't been making a lot of time to be consistent about it these days, it's videos like this which make me realize that I've been stagnating, and that I still have a lot to learn and improve on. This is the level I want to get to -- I'm now inspired to start practicing again so I can get there one day. Thank you for raising my standards.
Hello! Thank you so much for these videos, I really appreciate it. I am starting today taking drawing seriously. I have always just sketched around, doing drawings here and there, thinking I am not good enough to do it. But ive had enough of that mindset and I want to actually improve. I enjoy drawing so much, so why not put my time into it? Enough excuses and more doing! So i just wanted to say im so happy about finding your channel, these videos are going to help me a lot.
I can confirm this to be true. I also learned anatomy in between 2019-2020. I never did try tracing because I was leaning more on gesture drawing, I learned how to spot or create the flow of a figure while staring at other artist's drawings. I love figure drawings as it allow creative freedom for the human body(not necessarily only humans). I also learned depth, dynamic poses, shading, blending, and lineart whilst doing this although I never did intend on learning them but I still took them on as they compliment my drawings and add to my skill set. For people beginning with studying proportions, I suggest not worrying about messy lines since you can erase them once you think it fits, also try using your body as a base then simply them to shapes but also remind yourself to not overthink.
This is a wonderful video. Still a beginnerish artist (you can tell what my drawings are, but it's usually a massively cartoonized vers). I like the emphasis on making sure on you try not to worry about making so many mistakes. It can get into your brain and rot it from the inside out about how your art doesn't feel good enough.
I think one of my biggest problems is that I'm terrible at management. I always end up practicing way to many things at a time because I'm not sure what should come first before anatomy, or I'm scared that I'm doing things backwards and wasting my time. It took me from 2014 to now to even get some sort of improvement in my art, but it's still very stiff and terrible.
I definitely think your lack of management is you trying to learn everything as fast and as whole as possible. I’m the same way. Just slow down, take your time and learn at your own pace. you won’t improve if you are jumbling things together because your not focusing on one thing, hope this helps,
Thank you for creating this video!! It's so reassuring to hear this from an artist that has been through all of it. Trust the process, keep going, and never give up!!
your a brilliant artist, i have just seens 3 4 videos and spent time trying what you suggested for stealing poses and it worked instantly and slowly following your tips.
Inspiring. Such nice lines and the adjustments are fascinating. Only decided to get serious about drawing a few months ago and this really gives something to aim for because most of the videos on here are so formula driven - “This bit is twice as big as that which is half the size of this”. Which is clearly NOT the way to do it! Thank you.
Hey you ! You mark a good point by telling that you can't condense anatomy learning in a pack of 30h lessons without the main thing : practising what you learn outside the course :-) Congrats for your improvement !
I relate to this a lot! I have always been fascinated by the ability to draw the human figure, and I have tried to learn it for years. I think that quick gesture drawing was the first practice that I noticed a lot of improvement from, and eventually I got to a point where I could ‘sketch’ from my imagination tons of different poses of humans/animals/fantasy creatures etc…the problem I ran into was that I really couldn’t tighten them up without losing the character because I really didn’t know anatomy, and only had a very basic understanding of structure and perspective. I am still working on those things, and I’m actually going through a Bridgman book properly for the first time (not skipping to the middle lol). It’s really wild though, because like you say, learning to draw is a constant journey, and takes many forms, or which many in the moment seem pointless, but years later pay off. I also think that if your goal is to be an illustrator of some type that it’s imperative to draw from imagination, it’s so freeing, and it helps create a point of reference to measure progress from. One thing that helps for people who are highly critical of their work (like I am) is to buy cheap sketchbooks for the sole purpose of allowing oneself make ‘bad’ drawings, or to experiment. Also, building little wire armatures or working in 3D is great in so many ways, you can make your own reference, begin to understand structure and mechanics, as well as perspective. Another banger Josh-always love what you have to say, it makes me feel less insane too lol.
i just had the same revelation you had about blindly drawing from references without thinking too much about form, structure, proportion, etc. I switched my brain into thinking about simple 3d forms, breaking down the complex muscles into manageable chunks, drawing a shit ton of surface contours, and that worked wonders for my drawings from imagination!
It's been so long since I last saw one of your videos, your art has improved like crazy I love it, can't wait to watch another video in like 4 years :3 (after I binge watch the rest)
Currently in an almost complete art block since 2019, my productivity already fell very low since 2017. I always saw myself as the one that draws well, people only saw me through that. So when artblocks became longer and longer i gelt so bad. When i try to draw again i get so sad to see how much i regressed in anatomy especially. I used to have a nice level at it for my age, I think i still see my self worth based on my drawing level. Seeing what i did compared to what i do now... ick Anyways, thanks for that video it helps in some ways, gets me a little more motivated and reassured to start again without shame or fear 🙏❤
Thank you for this. I plan and doing the same thing as you. That way I get a lot of exposure to different methods. I'm looking into the CGMA courses and this coming summer I will jump to the Will Weston site.
I'm currently six weeks into my first CGMA course. I'm signed up for another and after that I'm doing Domestika courses I bought on sale and also Will Weston this autumn. I've learned a lot and have noticed a significant improvement in my work. It's a combination of getting feedback as well as having structure in my learning. Now it's about momentum and putting in the work to continue the journey.
This is a pretty insightful video. I frequently draw monsters, weapons, armor, miscellaneous items, etc for D&D but rarely actually draw normal people, whether they're armored or not. Many of my recent works have been monsters that kind of grow off of characters and distort that character's body, which it hasn't occurred to me until watching this that this is how I'm analyzing anatomy. A crystal monster that's grown over a skeleton is still a skeleton underneath, and it still needs to be accurate. I break down my own drawing when I finish up with the initial sketch in order to see how everything pieces together and make changes to ensure that things can be fit back together and be accurate to the anatomy of what inspired it, be it a cat, human, snake, or amoeba. I've found it to be pretty fun to make something really strange and then bring it back to the realm of realism.
Great video bro. I've been drawing for a while now and have realised I have to restart my whole anatomy learning process again. I also moved to digital at The start of this year. Didn't realise how useful a tool tracing was either.
Listening to your story almost sounds identical to mine so I'm glad to know what potential is to come by continuing to study and learn from mistakes. This vid was pretty inspirational and thanks for sharing!
thank you for making this video... I was kinda starting to think about using images of people for reference. Until your video helped me recognize that there are different topics! such as anatomy, dynamic, and balance (?). Your video also made it seem like there was no direction you could take as far as doodling goes- granted, avoid being stagnant is a good thing to remember-- Hence, quizzing or challenging yourself was a good point! I tried to point out the parts that helped me the most to enjoy my eventual progress. Thank you, ergojosh! 👋😃
Used to draw when i was in like 6-7th grade, then i just stopped cause I WANTED to draw anime like sketchs ig and everyone around me at the time thought it was weird, the big eyes, the cartoon like figures. I didnt know what anime, or manga was cause i was so young at the time, i just thought of them like comics cause in the states where i lived NO ONE watched anime. So after sort of getting bad backlash to what i drew i just stopped all together and i regret that EVERYDAY now. So after alot of though i decided to get back into it, the internet has grown so much that i can find info on ANYTHING i need help with, a majority of my friends are into drawing, digital graphics, animation, manga, anime, list goes on. Idk why im making this big statement here but after watching a bunch of different videos and im now practicing as much as i can i just really cant wait to see how my style evolves, and how i will approach problems i run into. So ty for being one of the many people to push me more and give info that i will literally carry for the rest of my life. Wish me luck
U sir definitely deserved a like and I hope my comment long enough to let youtube a signal that the vid is active and needed to to promoted a bit faster.
This was so helpful, thank you! I’ve been burned out since 2015 and barely drew since then until I got back into it last week and I found joy in it again. I thought the burnout would never end, but it did! Muscle memory and past knowledge has come back to me so it’s been a lot of fun.
I'm not sure, for me not necessarily. We don't learn the same way but I think this is a useful approach to get a grasp on drawing figures. Whether it'd be hyper-realism or not Just having a strong fundamental on understanding human anatomy gives you the boost to practice more efficiently.
Thank you for sharing. It's inspiring even beyond an artistic level, you share your experiences/resources and help so many artists! A good person and artist! Happy holidays to you.
Personally rn I’m focusing more on shapes because doing that I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the last 6 months but I do plan on picking up anatomy again (I’ve done light studies of the muscles mainly because I find it really interesting)
I think I personally would learn better with more guidance. When I'm on my own I feel incredibly overwhelmed. So I don't even end up doing anything. I use to draw all of the time, but now I feel like the fear of failure is rather crippling. Most people don't seem to understand my struggles which frustrates me more... I guess because my skills are imbalanced. People think that if I can detail and color fine that I shouldn't have issues with learning how to draw bodies and poses, but I do... I'm legally blind and not use to looking at people. So even when I look at a reference things will become very skewed because I keep having to zoom in. Seeing videos like this sorta just makes things feel even more impossible because it spreads the mentality that I've gotta do everything completely on my own. I have to just know what to do and what to improve and idk man... It just gives me anxiety... Makes me feel worse rather than better.
I’m slow in the journey. I just decided to trace forms and find the most comfortable way to block the shapes. Repeating different poses over and over I think will help me really look at proportion. After I get comfortable I want to take the poses I traced and sketch them again with or with the original reference. Taking off the training wheels, get comfortable with not tracing and maintain good proportion. Not sure what I’ll focus on after that, but here’s to slow but consistent improvement!
Just to clear some things up, when I say I went to college it was just Architecture school. Be sure to check out my Patreon, the new video is coming out in a couple days and it will give you a much better idea of how much work to expect to do in that time! ▶ geni.us/ergojoshpatreon
I'm also using Clip Studio Paint for this entire video!
@@ergojosh brush? 😳
@@ergojosh Do you upload all of your Patreon work on Discord or on Patreon itself?
@@ergojosh in the video you sometimes draw the reference photo but in a completely different perspective. Is this something I should learn or did you do it just cause you can
Do I have to study every day? I don't know where to start or what to do, I don't want to have to spend hours every day for 5+ years studying how to draw. I wish there was a guide for this stuff....
To people who are just startting out. A good way to get a feel for such learning process is ahmed aldoori's 100heads challenge. It might seem trivial at first but you'll see it yourself as you go through 10 heads everyday. Slowly your sketches will improve. You'll invent your own short-hands on the fly. By the 100th head, not only will you have improved tenfold at drawing heads, you'll also know exactly what you need to do to improve at drawing the rest of the body and the time you'll take to reach your goals.
Edit: some of you claim to have seen no progress. This is a bit surprising coz the challenge is about drawing 100 freakin heads in a short time period. Realistically anyone should see some improvement in just the first 20ish heads. Here's some point to keep in mind if you're really chasing improvement.
1. Learn head construction. Not the anime one with just a circle and a triangle. Im talking planes of the head and stuff. Look up loomis' book
2. After each drawing, take a minute to spot one mistake and in it and try to just improve on that. Can be head shape, proportions, eye level, perspective.
3.Most importantly, warmup! Most people don't know this but even the pros cant just wake up and spit out remotely good drawings. Draw random stuff, lines spirals, boxes, cartoons just to hammer back in the pace and rhythm before you jump into heads.
Edit 2: this comment still gets replies. So I wanted to clarify another thing people seem to be getting wrong. I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MEAN that just drawing heads will improve your anatomy skill for the rest of the body parts. I just meant that you will begin to understand how you can go about realistically improving at them too. Understanding what makes your brain tick when learning and improving was the most important thing I gained from this challenge. That and the ability to just draw a head without having to think too much about it. It's annoying coz my random sketches are always just floating angry heads.
I’ll try it, thank you brother 🤝
.. what kind of heads are we talking about ;)
I'm a try it starting from today and I'm gonna come back in 10 days to tell you how much I have improved, I always see these comments but I never see any concrete response to them.
10 DAY EDIT: So after about 100 Loomis heads(I explain in the edit below why I chose Loomis heads over normal heads) I can say that this challenge is worth it, my dexterity sky rocketed ,I can now do an almost perfect circle or oval in about 1-3 tries , I am still going to practice Loomis heads daily for probably the rest of this year but now I'm gonna start with the components and do 100 of each in 10 days, so yes you should do this challenge, it's very good for pretty much everything , repetition and hard work is the key in art, I believe in all of you!
Small edit for those who will see this before the 10 days end: I actually decided to do Loomis heads with little detail because I am very new(I started about 2 months ago) and I don't want to learn the wrong way by photo coping other faces for now, so I did what I knew best, I am for sure going to try and do 100 human heads from reference aswel, but I think that it is too early for me and pretty much pointless since I don't know how to properly draw a realistic mouth, eyes, nose, eyebrows, ear, lips, etc. After I learn how to draw these aswel I am for sure going to go back combine them together and attempt this again but for now I am drawing Loomis heads and I am seeing HUGE improvements even after 4 days, they actually look very good, and I think this will also be my trick for learning the heads components.
@@underwirez haram :0
@@underwirez the hard ones 😳
I've only been studying anatomy/learning how to draw people for about two and a half months, but the biggest thing for me was realizing that studying anatomy isn't as scary as I thought it was. You don't have to know every tiny muscle in the human body, especially not at the beginning, focusing on bigger, simple shapes will be more than enough to help you start understand the basic construction of the human body and how to make it move etc. Still trying to figure out how to learn best, but I think the biggest improvement I've made so far is by using other artists' work as reference, but trying to replicate it with the tools I already have, like the bean bag method or simple boxes and cylinders. That way I'm not just copying the work, but more so testing myself on "can I construct something like this with the tools I already have?", and it seems to really help a lot! (And thank you for this video!! Clearly I am super into anatomy right now so it came at just the right time! And hearing you confirm some of my thoughts really helped.)
I always avoided it as well bc I thought it was a long process and not to mention I’m impatient af but actually it’s really fun to study anatomy because I get to sketch randomly without any references and not make the proportions look awkward.
Also, I always simplify the forms of the body to make it easier for me and ngl it made me learn faster although I’m still learning 🤣
@@bineficente I avoided it for literal years, accidentally stopping myself from making ANY progress with my art, but you're right, it's actually so much fun haha.
And I do that too, I'm still learning and struggling a lot, but as far as I'm concerned I can always go back and learn more detailed things later on, they're going to be useless now when I don't even feel fully comfortable with the basic shapes, which are way more important!!
@@charlie.tt4 I’m struggling with the same thing rn, I’m trying to learn anatomy and clothing folds, but it’s like I’m too nervous to do it because I don’t want it to look terrible, even though my gesture sketches use to look terrible too. The moment I add clothes or anatomy to my gestures they just become really stiff lol
the hands are *P A I N F U L*
damn that's what i do too after 2 months i improved
It was taking me around 1 Hour to draw a basic Anatomy figure ( including correction ) to get it accurate, just 3-4 months ago, now i can draw a lot of different poses in about 10-20 minutes pretty accurately, of course i can still improve a lot but i just wanted to say if you get a really good teacher or art program its worth investing in it, because it will teach you so much so quickly and you wont regret it
I’ll be sure to do that
Can you recommend something to us what specific course did u take what video did u watch?
nice🔥 which art program did you use? any recommendations?
No need for a fancy art program either. Just keep iterating and practicing and that's all you really need, you could draw in mud with a stick and still be awesome of you put in the dedication!
@@chikengas4052 sorry, I expressed badly, I want to ask which cours did you take, there are so many of them and I don't know which are worth the price.
You've completely skyrocketed in skill and experience since I first watched your videos. Thanks for always giving me something to aspire to!
Thanks so much!
Ikr?? He rlly looks like a professional now!!
In one year I get really good at anatomy, almost dominated, I really love doing muscles studies, also draw figures, the only things I still have struggle is draw poses without a reference, I'm drawing the same pose from different angles to train my brain.
You can improve really fast with a correct practice :)
As someone who would rather draw a pose from imagination, all it really takes is to know what kind of figure you’re drawing (like if they have certain mannerisms or for their personality) or to sometimes even draw a random line of action from the neck to the spine and really go from there!
I also feel you improve faster if your passionate about it or have a set goal in mind
Ayo a misato pfp
@@shermantankgaming7261 ayo a ranma pfp
and what practice did u do? rn im still struggling a bit like flatness, and the torso not looking good y'know and anatomy itself as well
There arent many people who really really try to convey how much effort and practice they put into improving, so its easy to get discouraged but when i watch your videos they're genuinely so motivating. never stop creating man
I'm one year on my journey,and still learning and oh boi my improvement was great!good thing with that is I'm still focusing on forms,gesture,proportion and not yet on muscles,bones but still can pull off nice results,(efficient practise is still the key,not just knowing it and not working on it afterwards)
I have been drawing for like 7 months and I think I've been doing pretty good. Right now I am practicing daily gesture drawing,anatomy, drawing faces .Can you please help me with what to practice now?
@@lilyw8721 we all improve in different ways, and what works on me may not work on you ...I'll recommend that you put structure with these topic and divide it in chunks so it wouldn't be overwhelming, and keep doing personal art on the side that way you'll find out your weakpoints and give some week/months to practice them :> (and most importantly don't burn yourself out :>)
@@erunooo Thanks for the tips, I'll try to follow them :)
Where do i start to learn draw anatomy. Is it shapes or anything else? Idk wht to start with🙏🏻
@@erunooo same I always do the basic shapes like cubes circle etc. Doing basics consistently will get you ahead faster in your career.
I've found that the issue with art compared to other study regions, is that in its subjectivity, there's never a clear guide to tell you where to go next.
Learning computer science is pretty straightforward - first, you learn basic compiling, then data types, then functions, loops, if statements, etc - there is a clear next step based on your position.
The issue with art is that there's nobody who can just say "If you're a beginner, start here, then here is a link to your next 100 steps, practice once a day for the next 5 years have fun"
I would love step by step guides that can start you off at a beginner and assure you progression at a steady rate.
There are plenty of artists with potential that simply don't know HOW to study.
this is absolutely true, especially if you’re self taught…recently i’ve been going back to do art courses and so far have found figure drawing -> anatomy -> perspective to be a pretty logical progression, the figure drawing course i did touched on eveything which was great but i found that I needed to properly learn the actual anatomy as it was my bottle neck. Also i just finished a computer science degree 😆
As a software developer trying to learn how to draw, I’d say that programming has its own difficulties - mostly when learning when and how to modularize your code, what architectural patterns can help your code at scale etc. A newcomer could get very far with just a single method, if statements and a bunch of code (you wouldn’t even need for loops, you could just “unroll” the loops), but it’s going to take a lot longer and be less maintainable. The art of programming comes in knowing how to build a framework that can grow over time and be intuitive to newcomers.
That’s not to say that your point is incorrect, but as part of my own learning process I’ve seen a lot of similarities, in that I’ll fall into doing slow but “functional” ways to do things, rather than taking the time to learn a more efficient approach because the learning curve is higher.
This is how I’m feeling right now. I really want to get better and start improving but I keep hitting bottlenecks where I’m not sure how to progress. If there was some defined path to learn it would be so much easier to jump in somewhere and start, but I find myself jumping from tutorial to tutorial trying to find just a starting place to improve
Yeah, you will learn loops and objects, but you still need to build projects on your own to really learn how to code. Otherwise you will be like those Seniors who can't code for jack s***.
When you get stuck in a programming problem, you search it up. When you have trouble with heads, you search it up.
"What should I draw?"
"What should I build?"
@@SquareRoot_ When I posted this, I meant in terms of logical first steps. With software development, it's pretty straightforward at the beginning. First, you learn basic theory so that you can develop linear academic programs, then you can move on to more complex components. There's always a logical next step until you're writing blackjack in a low-level language using OOP, then you can pretty safely say you want to specialize in something like, I dunno, UI development, and I suppose this step is the hardest because you have to decide what you actually want to create with your knowledge.
If you equate this to art, it's like having to choose a speciality from day 1. You need to improve all your fundamentals at once, and so it's easy to get overwhelmed with overchoice as a beginner. If I picked up art from scratch today, there's no linear guide I can follow that will guarantee I come out the other side as an intermediate artist as opposed to a beginner.
PS: I work in SD, I'm not a sophomore.
I think you should also consider the fact that even just drawing portraits has also improved your anatomy skills in many ways. It taught you a lot about form and improved your general drawing skills. My point is , that this video might be a little bit misinforming for begginer artists since they may believe that they could learn anatomy in just 2 years. I think it would be worth to mention that you need to get pretty decent fundamental skills if you want to improve your anatomy drawing that fast. In my opinion this is a "step by step" journey and it takes time for your brain to be able to understand and process all the information it's getting. Like there are people who encourage others to start drawing with forms and not with shapes, but they don't really consider the fact that begginer artists won't really be able to process what they're doing since they have to put too much focus and struggle just to draw simple shapes right. So , what I'm trying to say there's nothing wrong with drawing "aimlessly" and just copying nice shapes from references and stuff like that, but , it's very important to gradually increase the challenge alongside with your skill and perception improvement.
Anyways, it's a great video after all, and I share exactly the same views as yours about drawing from imagination and your improvement over the years is encouraging to see ^^
Thank you Josh, I keep getting in and out of practice, which is not the best thing to do, but I'm grateful that when I go back I find most of my previous improvement is still there in a way, not completely lost and I don't have to start from zero, but it's still a long journey ahead of me and I hope to have less interruptions.
Also you're awesome Josh, thanks for everything.
Going in and out of practice isn’t good yeah, but just don’t burn yourself out
Thanks, you're right I never treat it as a chore or even a mission to accomplish, but a cool journey to learn something I love and I draw stuff I enjoy most of the time, but I do get busy every now and then with work and stuff, I'll try to find a balance.
Anatomy and figure invention really isn’t as hard as I thought it was. Artists that can draw comfortably without ref will always talk about seeing the simple forms and shape in the complex. I always spend my mornings drawing figures, and I’ve improved so much. It’s really useful to look at the figure drawings of professionals and identify what’s important to capture.
Have you talked about how you make your reference boards? Do you plan a lot beforehand or do you combine the stuff afterwards when you start drawing??
I think he discussed that In his pibterest reference video
When I was young I drew a lot. I painted jackets and such. I even went to Parson’s School of Design for a year. I hated it. I even had Boris Vallejo for a class. I didn’t understand a damn thing. Eventually I stopped. I’m 58 now and have become disabled and am trying to get back into it. I’m even scared to pick up a pencil. It’s crazy!
Im rooting for you!
Thanx 👍
Hey man, it’s never too late for you to pick up a pencil and get back into it. As long as you have the drive for it, you’ll always have a reason to keep going!
do what makes you happy, my man!!!! Post back here to give us all hope!!!
Blank paper anxiety. ...We all suffer from it. Just make a mark and then if you screw up who cares!! Throw it away and start over!! 😁
I wish I could express in words how much this video comforted me and opened my eyes. Thanks Josh for all you do and enjoy the holidays!
I just found an old sketch book of mine from over 5 years ago and oh the improvement, sometimes it really helps to look back at your old stuff to really see the leap in improvement
In my experience as a self-taught artist it took me 5 months.
You will get the general rule and pattern of anatomy within 2 months. learning about the muscles and bone will be longer after that, because you will have to relearn "what you think you got right" over and over again. "Oh turns out the arm is a flexible part because the bones twisting underneath determines how the muscles will move." . I can say w/ confidence that I have mastered how each muscles and bones look like... BUT NOT HOW THEY SOUND LIKE. Hell, I don't even know the names of the muscles I've learned, I know some of them, but I don't even want to bother learning the names of all of them.
Literally studying anatomy as I'm watching this. Thank you again josh! You're the best!🔥🔥🔥
I always have a huge struggle drawing from imagination. It's like an entire new skill set you have to learn before all those hours of figure drawing practice even seeps into figures from imagination. And sometimes it feels worse knowing you can draw figures from ref and then from imagination barely a stick figure
Exactly my issue too!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!
I've made a mistake of burning myself out by going over the point you stopped. I was in a really difficult place in my life though and I felt like all I had was technical improvement.
Since then, I had other problems to deal with.. (was abused, moved 2-3 times, had my only friend my bunny, die, began college, having ton of social anxiety I can only begin to get to know people after 1,5 years of nothing) - (I also healed both mentally and physically, doing yoga every day and journaling while having a "break from art".)
But still, art began to be a chore.
I only recently picked up my tablet again, ofc, since I'm in art school I had to complete pieces but the amount is scarce compared to my natural flow.
However, under this break I've read more than I have in the past 4 years altogether, and I picked up my favourite subjects (classic literature, philosophy) again. Adam Duff always told me to be free and nerd out about what I love and then when everything's fine, draw from that place and I'm attempting to do that.
I'll be following your tips since I feel like they are definitely the way to go.
What makes me worried and frustrated is that our anatomy course lacks EVERYTHING. We do not really talk, we don't recieve tips, we basically just being sat down before models to draw and many of us are having problems with such fundamental things as techniques.
Anyway, I'm really grateful for the internet and for you, for making learning possible, entertaining and easy.
I'll try to paint every day for a bit first to discover more palette choices though.
Maybe I'll do figures too while. We'll see.
Sending hot chocolate and a peaceful Christmas night,
Alice
In my opinion it doesn't really matter how long it takes, drawing is about learning something all the time.
Loser mentality
In life you should go for becoming the best and fast
Love your channel and advice. Was feeling discouraged picking up drawing again after 15+ years and this really helped put my expectations in perspective!
Great tips! Learning anatomy and branching into figurative art has been on my to-do list for the past 2-3 years. Feeling good about 2022
Really finding these tips helpful. Thanks for the advice!
I really appreciate you making these sorts of videos. I feel so stuck at the moment with my skill level and I absolutely think it's because I'm not practicing in the right way. This video made me feel very motivated thank you!
I subbed to you on my other channel but I keep coming back to your videos. Burnout is so real and especially when i get stuck your videos have seemed to really- genuinely help.
I'm still in my box/cillinder fase and I want to get better in actual anatomy, thanks man!
Your video was truly helpful since you pointed out perfectly my current problem: I have been obsessing with studies so much, I forgot how to actually create anything. Haven't been able to finish any art piece for over 2 years, despite practicing every day. The fear of making mistakes, I had tried battling with practice, turned into an inner inability of simply creating.
Thank you very much for picking up such a hard topic!
Another tip I often hear be thrown around: It's not a matter how much you practice, it's about how you use your practice. If you spend a thousand hours drawing the same thing, you won't get far. But If you spend even just a few hours a week trying new things, going into each study session with a plan in mind, say: "Today, I want to work on my anatomy. I'm not so good at drawing hands, so let me practice those areas." And just experimenting, you'll gain a lot more from those study sessions than simply spending time tracing over references, or falling back into habits. It isn't about how much you practice, though that is a big help, it's about how you practice and what you learn from that practice.
Another tip, have fun. You're still learning, it isn't a job. Don't treat it like a grind to get better, you'll end up burning yourself out, or resenting your creativity. If you miss a day or two, it won't hurt you. In fact, I notice I usually draw best after a break.
Wanted to say thanks for showing some of your 'in progress' and 'bad' early works as you're progressing. It helps me feel less self conscious about my progress when I can see other artists go through the same iterative stages.
I always see younger artists than me having better anatomy knowledge and it boosts my will to learn anatomy better and better every day. However even if I feel motivated to do so, I do not have the strength to grab my pencil/pen tablet and search for references that can inspire some creativity. Mostly I have this fear of the canvas that keeps me stuck from creating something because I feel the need to feel every little spot with a good composition. I wanna get better but, sigh, my motivation can be compared to a rollercoaster, ups and downs.
Thank you Josh! It’s very helpful to know that you’re not alone on this hard way of practicing
A bit of advice. First you learn the "BONNY" area (from art teachers of course, BE NOT AFRAID, you will pay not even an ounce of pennies for art courses, Free contents from Proko and Marc Brunet and other great teachers are enough I guess ?)
Second now you can learn the origin and insertion of muscles ! But you are not stupid to just learn every tiny muscles right ? just learn the BIG BIG muscles such as Pec, Lat, Deltoid, Ab, Thigh, or whatsoever.
And third ! the most sought for y'all, after gaining some experiences you guys can reconstruct and simplifying it so that it is easier and faster to draw. (AKA. Art style)
So you might be wondering "Why must I learn so many unconvenient things before I could just draw the simplified version", Easily explain, At the simplified state you might use about 50% of all your knowledge, But the "50%" is the refined knowledge you considered to be good to keep from whole 100%, AND THUS. this is where your artstyle comes from !
Ah forgot to mention, this whole long ass comment is just a "suggestion", so it came from my experience. You can take it to heart or you can just forget like there was nothing happened. But remember ! You can learn from fools and sages.
This is a fantastic video. I feel like I’m at the stage you’re at with those early drawings. Gotta keep at it. Thanks for sharing your journey
I love how open you are with your art progress on your channel, I remember you talking about why you were doing the 1000 figure drawings during that time. Seeing how your able to view that in retrospective and the fact that your views and beliefs on your art has changed just proves that it doesn't necessarily matter what you believe about making art just that you believe something and practice to improve that. Much love 💜💜💜
Watching your videos always help me to overcome my fears of learning figures, anatomy. It's just amazing to see your progress over these years. ❣️
Thankyou so much for putting out these videos. 💕✨
Your timing is amazing! I was just about to create my art schedule so I can manage school and hobbies. I just began break too and didn’t want to waste my break so thank you!
I havent drew in years. This is helping me change and improve in ways i couldnt as a kid in highschool. Im looking at your characters bodies and am seeing stuff i never saw before
so satisfying to see all this improvement over the last year I've known you! :D :D Good job and cheers to more to come. I can see the improved confidence so much with the new drawings
Thank you! That might happen soon who knows 👀
I think the most difficult thing for me to overcome is time. It usually takes me several hours to sketch something like a head with basic hair, because I'm slow and I try to be thorough with my drawings. I'm steadily getting into more details. This is challenging, especially after a long day at work. My mind wants to draw, but my body is too exhausted.
I'm studying from real life, at the same time applying concepts from several of my favorite artists. I also have difficulties with head angles, so I purchased multiple animation / sketch design books to get a feel for how these artists did it. Breaking down professional artists' rough sketches into shapes helps me so much.
I think you should just do a normal outline and basic details, when you're satisfied go into more details. Helps me so I don't burn out.
I know this is a really late reply, but some of the things you said are also similar to some of the obstacles I tend to face pretty regularly. If you happen to see this, I'd like to ask what the names of those books are?
This has really helped me and it still is, so thank you for that.
Im so glad you talked about the "right" course because the past two years I've spent a lot of money on finding the "right" course only to be disappointed that i didn't complete the course or I didn't see improvement in my art. But the part that I now know that I'm missing is putting in that work in between courses. Thats such a great way to look at it.
Oh damn 350 figure drawing!? I would stop at 50 and get burnout it's cool to see how you're so determined to learn, kudos to you! :0
I’ve been drawing for about 10 years and lost improvement around year 5 or 6 because I would draw the same things and I just don’t enjoy drawing them anymore. Seeing your process- seeing the different styles and anatomy you do and your experiences really helps because I realize I can branch out and use different references without it being exactly the same and also still draw what I’m used to. Your videos are awesome, you got a sub from me and I can’t wait to watch more of your videos 🙌🏾
I felt this too much honestly, Approaching with the mindset of improvement is the way to go. from shape design to practicing the actual muscles, It's about testing your ability (or might) when you practice. Currently going through this exact thing now and I'm finding it fun but difficult to solve the problems for gesture, shapes, and yes, HANDS.
Damn man u hit it on the head, thanks for the reassurance. I just recently started an apprenticeship for tattooing and my mentor told me to focus on my anatomy. I’ve always only drawn what ive seen because no one ever properly taught me. Thanks man!!
This is a really well done video that makes solid points.
For me, I started seriously learning to draw 6 years ago. I got highly recommended books, bought a Wacom tablet and got to work. I was having a blast for about 3 months. After that point I realized I slept about 4 minutes total in those three months because I spent so much time on that learning grind. It caught up to me all at once and I fell off the train, hard. I didn't draw again for 2 years. When I eventually got back to it and dusted off my books again, I only lasted another 2 months before dropping it for another year. So much time wasted. However currently I have been drawing at least one thing a day every day for a little over 2 years. My sense of time is warped from The 'Rona. It is kind of sad seeing people far surpass my level of progress in just 2-3 months, but that's what I get for wasting so much time. At least I'm ahead of the people that never start.
A great review. I'm somewhere in the middle of that journey. I spent a long time working mostly from imagination and just doing quick gesture drawings or studying anatomy in isolation, not "allowing myself" to go deeper with any one image to fix errors. The weakness in that is simply a lack of "putting in the work" to put things together in a complete figure; while I can add the surface details of anatomy relatively easily, the inner workings and positioning of the limbs always go vague. But everything you draw from imagination in digital can be fixed afterwards by adding the reference and redoing things, and this is where I've started taking it. It's all very calculated now - I still decide the pose, but I research how to get there instead of immediately scratching out something. So while I will use bases and trace to get some things started, I'll also sit there for however many hours are needed to understand a single form's construction, as well, to get things exactly how I want. Solving each problem as I encounter it in this way can make drawing very intense, but rewarding in a new way.
Bruh I love ur Channel sm, I studied portraits for 2 months and found out my heart is at drawing figures actually and I don’t know where to start my Anatomy practice and u just post this >
Something I wanna add: you don't _need_ to learn the names of the bones and muscles alongside learning to draw them. Looking at what they do and how they interact which each other should be helpful for anyone, but memorizing the names is absolutely not a default requirement to learn drawing anatomy well or to learning it faster.
Of course it helps if you know what kind of learner you are in general, I just know that I'm not alone in the "the thought of memorizing alone is incredibly offputting/demotivating" category lol 😅
Hey Josh, somewhat related to this topic, I think it would be really beneficial if you could upload some videos of what exactly you do when you study an artist's figure drawings.
I've heard "study this" or "do gesture drawings" a thousand times, but sometimes I feel like I'm just going through the motions and nothing is sinking in, it's like I don't know _how_ to learn. Some artist recommendations would also be a nice touch!
One tip I can give you is to observe more than you draw and ask yourself a lot of questions while you're drawing. Don't let yourself go on autopilot while you draw and try to figure out why body parts in that gesture are doing the things they are doing. Gesture drawings are good for loosening up and teaching yourself to capture large movements and pieces of the body. But those should be supplemented by slow studies of anatomy.
You got better because you put the work in...that's what it takes. Thanks for sharing.
To everyone starting out. The top 3 courses I found for anatomy are
- Will Westen (drawingamerica), good shorthand, basic ways to understand proportions. Very valuable
- Marc Brunet (cube brush anatomy course), amazing for going through the human figure and understanding the basic construction, muscles, and connection points
- Viktor Kalvachev (schoolism) , good ‘maps’ for the figure that help with lots of landmarks and quick things to compose the figure
The biggest thing that boosted my drawing was learning the muscle connection points. You can literally ‘connect the dots’ once you understand the simplified muscles and their connection points. Obviously this comes AFTER you learn the basic 3d mannequin. Which leads onto the last thing, think in 3D, not ‘this line goes here’. Draw through the shapes otherwise you will be limited to one angle and wont be able to rotate your shapes.
Do you know any books
Wills live course you Refer? The 582 USD?
Listening to this while practicing again was very healthy for me. Wonderful video.
Thank you!! This I was a great video. Just starting out and getting lost then actually drawing. Thanks for the tips!!
tips for traditinal artists!!
when your drawing be sure to do these two things often:
one. turn your paper upside down to spot if something isnt symertrical.
two. if your drawing on a table be sure to pick up your paper and hold it vertically, because when you sit your perspective is skewwed and your drawing may look fine but a lot of the times the closer to the bottom of the page you go the smaller things get, it makes for some really awkward proportions.
you could also use a mirror as a "flip a canvas" ^^
yes you can also use a mirror for your traditional drawing or also just stepping away from your drawing for 15 minutes and coming back to see it from a fresh perspective :)
The second tip I’ve never heard before!!
Woah. This is the first speed drawing video that gave me motion sickness. I didn't know that was possible. But that's not the point.
Point is, this is a great video (or audio for me), thanks again ergojosh for the brilliant insights and tips.
phenomenal video. thank you for making it. it really opened my eyes.
As a person who used to draw a ton but hasn't been making a lot of time to be consistent about it these days, it's videos like this which make me realize that I've been stagnating, and that I still have a lot to learn and improve on. This is the level I want to get to -- I'm now inspired to start practicing again so I can get there one day. Thank you for raising my standards.
Hello! Thank you so much for these videos, I really appreciate it. I am starting today taking drawing seriously. I have always just sketched around, doing drawings here and there, thinking I am not good enough to do it. But ive had enough of that mindset and I want to actually improve. I enjoy drawing so much, so why not put my time into it? Enough excuses and more doing! So i just wanted to say im so happy about finding your channel, these videos are going to help me a lot.
This was a super encouraging video, thank you for uploading and keep it up!
I can confirm this to be true. I also learned anatomy in between 2019-2020. I never did try tracing because I was leaning more on gesture drawing, I learned how to spot or create the flow of a figure while staring at other artist's drawings.
I love figure drawings as it allow creative freedom for the human body(not necessarily only humans). I also learned depth, dynamic poses, shading, blending, and lineart whilst doing this although I never did intend on learning them but I still took them on as they compliment my drawings and add to my skill set.
For people beginning with studying proportions, I suggest not worrying about messy lines since you can erase them once you think it fits, also try using your body as a base then simply them to shapes but also remind yourself to not overthink.
I started drawing in February and i always find your videos comforting for someone trying to learn art, thank you from Canada! :)
I love to see Josh improvement with time. I feel indentified and that we improve together in this art journey!
Far out, what an amazing video / channel!
This is a wonderful video. Still a beginnerish artist (you can tell what my drawings are, but it's usually a massively cartoonized vers). I like the emphasis on making sure on you try not to worry about making so many mistakes. It can get into your brain and rot it from the inside out about how your art doesn't feel good enough.
Even the figure geometry sketches look like a work of art.
I tend to erase or throw away a lot of my art, so I think it's cool that you have some examples of work you can look back on and see massive progress
Thank you - your list of questions to examine one's progress are so helpful! So much insight in this video!
I think one of my biggest problems is that I'm terrible at management. I always end up practicing way to many things at a time because I'm not sure what should come first before anatomy, or I'm scared that I'm doing things backwards and wasting my time.
It took me from 2014 to now to even get some sort of improvement in my art, but it's still very stiff and terrible.
I definitely think your lack of management is you trying to learn everything as fast and as whole as possible. I’m the same way. Just slow down, take your time and learn at your own pace. you won’t improve if you are jumbling things together because your not focusing on one thing, hope this helps,
Thank you for creating this video!! It's so reassuring to hear this from an artist that has been through all of it. Trust the process, keep going, and never give up!!
your a brilliant artist, i have just seens 3 4 videos and spent time trying what you suggested for stealing poses and it worked instantly and slowly following your tips.
Inspiring. Such nice lines and the adjustments are fascinating. Only decided to get serious about drawing a few months ago and this really gives something to aim for because most of the videos on here are so formula driven - “This bit is twice as big as that which is half the size of this”. Which is clearly NOT the way to do it!
Thank you.
Hey you ! You mark a good point by telling that you can't condense anatomy learning in a pack of 30h lessons without the main thing : practising what you learn outside the course :-)
Congrats for your improvement !
this video is so good i really needed to hear this
I relate to this a lot! I have always been fascinated by the ability to draw the human figure, and I have tried to learn it for years. I think that quick gesture drawing was the first practice that I noticed a lot of improvement from, and eventually I got to a point where I could ‘sketch’ from my imagination tons of different poses of humans/animals/fantasy creatures etc…the problem I ran into was that I really couldn’t tighten them up without losing the character because I really didn’t know anatomy, and only had a very basic understanding of structure and perspective. I am still working on those things, and I’m actually going through a Bridgman book properly for the first time (not skipping to the middle lol). It’s really wild though, because like you say, learning to draw is a constant journey, and takes many forms, or which many in the moment seem pointless, but years later pay off. I also think that if your goal is to be an illustrator of some type that it’s imperative to draw from imagination, it’s so freeing, and it helps create a point of reference to measure progress from. One thing that helps for people who are highly critical of their work (like I am) is to buy cheap sketchbooks for the sole purpose of allowing oneself make ‘bad’ drawings, or to experiment. Also, building little wire armatures or working in 3D is great in so many ways, you can make your own reference, begin to understand structure and mechanics, as well as perspective.
Another banger Josh-always love what you have to say, it makes me feel less insane too lol.
i just had the same revelation you had about blindly drawing from references without thinking too much about form, structure, proportion, etc. I switched my brain into thinking about simple 3d forms, breaking down the complex muscles into manageable chunks, drawing a shit ton of surface contours, and that worked wonders for my drawings from imagination!
It's been so long since I last saw one of your videos, your art has improved like crazy I love it, can't wait to watch another video in like 4 years :3 (after I binge watch the rest)
This was the best video explanation for anatomy drawing. Thank you so much because now I know what I have to do
😆
Currently in an almost complete art block since 2019, my productivity already fell very low since 2017. I always saw myself as the one that draws well, people only saw me through that. So when artblocks became longer and longer i gelt so bad. When i try to draw again i get so sad to see how much i regressed in anatomy especially. I used to have a nice level at it for my age, I think i still see my self worth based on my drawing level. Seeing what i did compared to what i do now... ick
Anyways, thanks for that video it helps in some ways, gets me a little more motivated and reassured to start again without shame or fear 🙏❤
Thank you for this.
I plan and doing the same thing as you. That way I get a lot of exposure to different methods.
I'm looking into the CGMA courses and this coming summer I will jump to the Will Weston site.
I'm currently six weeks into my first CGMA course. I'm signed up for another and after that I'm doing Domestika courses I bought on sale and also Will Weston this autumn.
I've learned a lot and have noticed a significant improvement in my work. It's a combination of getting feedback as well as having structure in my learning. Now it's about momentum and putting in the work to continue the journey.
This is a pretty insightful video. I frequently draw monsters, weapons, armor, miscellaneous items, etc for D&D but rarely actually draw normal people, whether they're armored or not. Many of my recent works have been monsters that kind of grow off of characters and distort that character's body, which it hasn't occurred to me until watching this that this is how I'm analyzing anatomy. A crystal monster that's grown over a skeleton is still a skeleton underneath, and it still needs to be accurate. I break down my own drawing when I finish up with the initial sketch in order to see how everything pieces together and make changes to ensure that things can be fit back together and be accurate to the anatomy of what inspired it, be it a cat, human, snake, or amoeba. I've found it to be pretty fun to make something really strange and then bring it back to the realm of realism.
Great video bro. I've been drawing for a while now and have realised I have to restart my whole anatomy learning process again. I also moved to digital at The start of this year. Didn't realise how useful a tool tracing was either.
I am currently doing the exact same CGMA course around the level that you described you started. Looking forward for the coming few years I guess 😅
Listening to your story almost sounds identical to mine so I'm glad to know what potential is to come by continuing to study and learn from mistakes. This vid was pretty inspirational and thanks for sharing!
thank you for making this video... I was kinda starting to think about using images of people for reference. Until your video helped me recognize that there are different topics! such as anatomy, dynamic, and balance (?). Your video also made it seem like there was no direction you could take as far as doodling goes- granted, avoid being stagnant is a good thing to remember-- Hence, quizzing or challenging yourself was a good point!
I tried to point out the parts that helped me the most to enjoy my eventual progress. Thank you, ergojosh! 👋😃
Used to draw when i was in like 6-7th grade, then i just stopped cause I WANTED to draw anime like sketchs ig and everyone around me at the time thought it was weird, the big eyes, the cartoon like figures. I didnt know what anime, or manga was cause i was so young at the time, i just thought of them like comics cause in the states where i lived NO ONE watched anime. So after sort of getting bad backlash to what i drew i just stopped all together and i regret that EVERYDAY now. So after alot of though i decided to get back into it, the internet has grown so much that i can find info on ANYTHING i need help with, a majority of my friends are into drawing, digital graphics, animation, manga, anime, list goes on.
Idk why im making this big statement here but after watching a bunch of different videos and im now practicing as much as i can i just really cant wait to see how my style evolves, and how i will approach problems i run into.
So ty for being one of the many people to push me more and give info that i will literally carry for the rest of my life. Wish me luck
U sir definitely deserved a like and I hope my comment long enough to let youtube a signal that the vid is active and needed to to promoted a bit faster.
This was so helpful, thank you! I’ve been burned out since 2015 and barely drew since then until I got back into it last week and I found joy in it again. I thought the burnout would never end, but it did! Muscle memory and past knowledge has come back to me so it’s been a lot of fun.
Your work Is admirable and i like a lot your line studyes
been studying for 6 months straight and I've improved a lot to reach dynamic poses.
How to do it ? I try simplify the figure with construct them with form and know some muscle but do i need to draw and learn the bones?
I'm not sure, for me not necessarily. We don't learn the same way but I think this is a useful approach to get a grasp on drawing figures. Whether it'd be hyper-realism or not
Just having a strong fundamental on understanding human anatomy gives you the boost to practice more efficiently.
Great thanks for advice i will take my time practice
Thank you for sharing. It's inspiring even beyond an artistic level, you share your experiences/resources and help so many artists! A good person and artist! Happy holidays to you.
Personally rn I’m focusing more on shapes because doing that I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the last 6 months but I do plan on picking up anatomy again (I’ve done light studies of the muscles mainly because I find it really interesting)
We both know what kind of shapes
@@rykehuss3435 Sphere, Cone, Box?
@@awwtergirl7040 Spherical, yes.
Tysm for this, I’m gonna start learning
I think I personally would learn better with more guidance. When I'm on my own I feel incredibly overwhelmed. So I don't even end up doing anything. I use to draw all of the time, but now I feel like the fear of failure is rather crippling. Most people don't seem to understand my struggles which frustrates me more... I guess because my skills are imbalanced. People think that if I can detail and color fine that I shouldn't have issues with learning how to draw bodies and poses, but I do... I'm legally blind and not use to looking at people. So even when I look at a reference things will become very skewed because I keep having to zoom in. Seeing videos like this sorta just makes things feel even more impossible because it spreads the mentality that I've gotta do everything completely on my own. I have to just know what to do and what to improve and idk man... It just gives me anxiety... Makes me feel worse rather than better.
Seeing your drawings gives me hope!
These types of videos always inspires me
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP, AND ALL THE TIPS, VERY GOOD INFO. GOD BLESS. THANKS FOR CARING ABOUT US NEWBES.
I’m slow in the journey. I just decided to trace forms and find the most comfortable way to block the shapes. Repeating different poses over and over I think will help me really look at proportion. After I get comfortable I want to take the poses I traced and sketch them again with or with the original reference. Taking off the training wheels, get comfortable with not tracing and maintain good proportion. Not sure what I’ll focus on after that, but here’s to slow but consistent improvement!
I like this but, am glad that I can slow the Lap top down a bit......Brilliant ...thank you!