Its really weird how some of the best comic books artists make some of the best 2D shapes and dynamic forms yet I never saw anyone describe how to achieve this result as you explained, great video
I've been looking for years on how they do it. It almost seemed like a trade secret. I managed to pick up some of it through observation, and looking at my favourite artists. However thanks to David now, I can now do this consistently.
for me its amazing how you can basically ''improvise'' muscles and their shadows even if you don't know the anatomy 1:1 and it still stays looking crazy believable, most people that look at the art wont actually know anatomy but if it looks believable then theyll think it is absolutely anatomically correct, i will never get over how incredible that is
To some degree, people view the human form like they read words. As you learn to read more qucikly, you actaually stop reading each letter of a word, and start just reading the first one of two and the last one or two and based on context your brain solves the equtaion and just fills in the correct word. As long as you get the external form of the arm/forearm right the eye is going to be OK with it, unless you're doing something really egregious inside there. Steve's upper arm muscles look wrong to me, but I wouldn't complain about it. The idea is that is a lean, but muscled forearm and the illustration conveys that.
@@sael5084 Watch it a few times and practice along, I bet after 3-4 watches you'll have it down. Some times studying requires ya to re-read a chapter a few times before it lands in your memory.
The line of beauty is simply amazing. It really showcases the real life thing and the composition is coming along so naturally. Great work and thank you for sharing this technique.
What a fantastic video! Most drawing tutorials on yt lack substance but you go the extra mile and demonstrate in great detail the points you wanna get across. Your stuff is always worth watching!
im a fine art student and i heard all these line quality, weight, cross hatching... for years and for me it was so complicated so instead i was just drawing with shading. good thing about comic art techniques or illustration is that you make techniques actually useful and workable so you have a lot more time and focus on creativity rather than fighting with mediums and techniques
wow...this is a game changer. it took me a little while to get this figured out, but when i did it changed everything. it's difficult for me to draw the shape language from my head when constructing the form so i started with round curves ie: Bart Sears old "bubble figures". I use clip studio for my line art so I added another layer and used the line of beauty opposing curves to draw my shadow shapes. Even then it took me a minute to figure that out. I initially would shade like i always did but quickly got to changing the direction with the lines of beauty. it takes awhile to train your mind to perceive shadows and forms like this but WOW. Once you get the idea it's like getting a whole new set of keys to this style. Thanks Dave!
It's amazing how the stars align. This morning I was drawing a female figure, and I was not happy with my basic shapes, even though I was working from a picture. I decided to block it out with hard, straight lines, and got my masses much improved. Now I can probably use this technique to finish my drawing. Thank you!
This is really helpful. I’ve always envied comics for those defined yet stylized muscle forms. I’m glad I finally understand how they draw that way! Thank you so much!!
Dave, I always look forward to watching along when you drop new videos. It's great to see you address shapes here. The concept is one of the toughest to grab in painting and also one of the most difficult to apply effectively. It's not at all intuitive and almost antithetical to the idea most of us have of proper painting technique, which is to just blend everything, early and often. it's so helpful that you are applying the concept to comic book pencilling here. Thanks for helping us level up!
I don’t often keep up with this channel but this topic has hit me hook and just wanted to say thanks I’ve been burnt out for a very long time and your videos is bringing back that spark
ok now this just changed my game. I've been very knowledgeable about a variaty of subjects when drawing figures, but til now I've never heard of this techique before! I think that is going to take my art to another level, thank you very much!
Thank you for sharing another great video David! Your lessons are very good and I have learned a lot from them. You explain your information in a very clear and comprehensive way. Not too much info and you repeat the important parts of your lessons many times (auditory and ofcourse visual). I also appreciate the length of these video's (15 to 20 minutes). It encourages me to draw, practice, and try out after watching the video. Keep sharing, you make a lot of people happy and greater in their work/hobby ❤. I hope I can score some of your comics on the Dutch Comic Con next saturday!
Awesome Dave, this is the video I’ve been waiting for. I’ve had so much trouble blocking in my shadows and couldn’t figure out why yours looked so much better. Thanks.
Very interesting! I'm not sure that the 'beauty lines' give a "more natural look" to the body. BUT they surely give much more rhythm to the drawing and convey way more energy to the lines. So, altogether it's more original and really pleasant to the eye. Great tip!
David, this is the BEST channel! What you're teaching us is pure GOLD and you explain it at a pace that can be easily understood and absorbed. I'm definitely going to have to experiment with this technique! Thank you!!
Very helpful video. I enjoy your art, and I appreciate your teaching style. You've got a terrific knack for breaking down your process into simple terms. Thanks for sharing!
I didn't really feel this trick until I put it out of my mind. When I was following along with the guide, it didn't feel natural, but I kept at it a little bit. I just finished a sketch and I realized immediately after that I was implementing the beauty lines, and the figure and anatomy came out a lot better than I feel I have done. This tutorial is fantastic, and helped me understand the body a lot better.
Awesome. I experimented and tried breaking up the line to imply a line. Interesting effects as well. What I'm getting, in a nutshell, is try to avoid overly simple forms. Adding some "organic" element, like a line of beauty, creates a more visually appealing drawing.
David, can you do a video solely for forearms? I mean, you explained it a few times in your videos but we need like an in depth and how to use shadows on it, I use some examples from other artists and anatomy books/photos, but if you can do a video, it’ll be more than helpful
I find looking at pictures of bodybuilders helps in determining what is possible for shapes in a body. I don't ever redraw a single person's form, but rather combine the forms into one believable form that is pleasing to the eye.
Another amazing video! this helped me a lot because when drew an arm it looked like something was missing or my anatomy wasn't that good. this video showed me that this simple trick can bring my anatomy drawings to be far more better! thanks David
This explains so much about application thank you very much. I have been trying to incorporate the “natural look” to your art into my own and I could get a portion of your look but it wouldn’t totally work b/c I didn’t fully understand how you applied it. Off to my drawing board, thanks David!
Such a great demonstration, clearly presented. Thank you, for "freeing" me from believing I have to be a walking encyclopedia of anatomy and musculature. Just a good working knowledge and your "line of beauty" technique can make all the difference. The varying line shapes and weights are sure to liven up anyone's drawing. (And, yes, I followed along with the demonstration and was pleased with the results.)
You are my hero. I WISH and pray to God that I am able to draw just like you. I LOVE your channel and watch your videos religiously. Thank you for sharing your content. I even bought majority of your videos, which are VERY helpful.
This is absolutely uncanny. All day yesterday I was doing drapery studies of your work and then spent about an hour scouring penmanship tutorials and art history resources about the line of beauty. And here we are. Insane.
I used to think that the main thing about drawing lines was being confident in laying down smooth and long edges, ideally while varying the weight along the way somehow. Breaking things up like you show here makes much more sense, and for pencil drawings it's far more realistic to go over a line again to give it value because the graphite has no spring to it, like a nib or a brush does. Thanks a lot, this is at once a technique for details and a general organizing principle that gives your drawings an intentional quality, tying everything together.
Like, Jeff Watts says draw what you see, ehat you know, and what you want to see. Idealization, and I have had a tough time simplifying from realism into more graphic shapes (better shape language), and this video really helped offer a path to solving the shape-line-language problem, so thank you for your instruction!
Using these techniques, learned pretty quickly after a few tries. It really is helping with a drawing I’m already working on! Love learning more and more techniques when it comes to comic style drawings 🫶🏼✍️
Awesome David, thanks! Two questions, 1. What type of drawing tool are you using? 2. (A bit longer) I was watching a video from Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg reviewing a collection book of the sketches of the legendary Robert Crumb. There was something that Ed said that stuck with me and if you could, I'd like to hear your opinion. Ed said the use of pens in Crumb's works may have been a method to develop precision in placing thought to paper, or in other words, hypothetically, it takes the "safety net" away of erasing, which I can even attest to being an encouraged practice taught in art schools/classes. But that statement made me pause and I really considered if that was a possible breakthrough for me and my work! Thoughts welcome and for reading!
As an animator, illustrator and college foundation drawing teacher I love this video. What David is doing is illustrating the fundamental use of the principles of LINE. Line is one of seven principles of Art and Drawing: Space, Line, Shape, Form, Value, Texture, and Color..... And has within in many concepts of how it's used. There are organic Line, Geometric Lines (Which this lesson is going over) Invisible lines, Implied Lines, etc.... The main reason most professional companies only hire from University programs are further illustrated in the comments of this video. These principles he's explaining are basics which most amateurs Tend to overlook, or ignorantly avoid when they're doing a composition. At some point everyone has to learn the foundations, the sooner you accept that and get on with it, the sooner your work will start to take you where you want it too.
Something that struck me while watching, during your examples of opposing curves, before you started adding shadows, the lineart was very reminiscent of Freddie E Williams' work. I'd have never thought you guys had similar techniques and approaches based on your final outputs, but watching this shows me your styles share a lot of DNA.
I'd like to see a series on how to render background elements. A more expanded version of those videos you did a while back. Very few talk about actually applying perspective to a single panel and dropping in the rendering.
Wow, amazing how this technique bring so much more life to drawings. I've been trying to unlock what I love about John Byrne's X-men and Fantastic Four work and it seems like he almost exclusively uses curved lines though. He also uses a tear drop shape for everything in his anatomy. So much to learn here.
Thanks for another insightful tutorial. If you ever get a chance, would you consider doing a video on your process on drawing boot treads? That always seems to turn my head into a pretzel.
I realized that the boxy line looks better in curvy one because it looks like it occupy form of space ( this part is on top of the other). While the curvy one is neat
I agree, you should combine both hard and blocky lines with soft and curvy. But you shouldn't be putting it in these mindlessly. Start with filling up all of the shapes and apply gravity. Remember things that are alive tend to bend outlines outwards. It is a sign of a healthy organism. So the soft tissue behaves like that. And also you have bones. Take their features to be your guides. Remember: joints are always visible. So this way you can combine hard bone and soft tissue, and also express these in line, curves vs angles. And in anatomically right places, so it is mindful. It requires practice. I am glad you show your way doing it. Nice video, man!
Every time I watch your video I learn so much that I couldn’t find in a typical RUclips art video… thanks for sharing your knowledge and helping many people like myself … thanks again 🫡🙏🏻
Its really weird how some of the best comic books artists make some of the best 2D shapes and dynamic forms yet I never saw anyone describe how to achieve this result as you explained, great video
I've been looking for years on how they do it. It almost seemed like a trade secret. I managed to pick up some of it through observation, and looking at my favourite artists. However thanks to David now, I can now do this consistently.
Another great teacher you might want to check out is Rodgon
for me its amazing how you can basically ''improvise'' muscles and their shadows even if you don't know the anatomy 1:1 and it still stays looking crazy believable, most people that look at the art wont actually know anatomy but if it looks believable then theyll think it is absolutely anatomically correct, i will never get over how incredible that is
To some degree, people view the human form like they read words. As you learn to read more qucikly, you actaually stop reading each letter of a word, and start just reading the first one of two and the last one or two and based on context your brain solves the equtaion and just fills in the correct word.
As long as you get the external form of the arm/forearm right the eye is going to be OK with it, unless you're doing something really egregious inside there. Steve's upper arm muscles look wrong to me, but I wouldn't complain about it. The idea is that is a lean, but muscled forearm and the illustration conveys that.
Wake up everybody, new David greatness on the timeline.
Yeah boy!
Wake up!!!!
me too it was a welcomed surprised.
If only my brain could retain this information ❤
@@sael5084 Watch it a few times and practice along, I bet after 3-4 watches you'll have it down. Some times studying requires ya to re-read a chapter a few times before it lands in your memory.
The line of beauty is simply amazing. It really showcases the real life thing and the composition is coming along so naturally. Great work and thank you for sharing this technique.
Wow! I followed along and produced one of the best anatomically-focused figures I have ever drawn. Thank you for this!!
What a fantastic video! Most drawing tutorials on yt lack substance but you go the extra mile and demonstrate in great detail the points you wanna get across. Your stuff is always worth watching!
One of the best videos about line and shadow shapes that you can apply right away on anything.
im a fine art student and i heard all these line quality, weight, cross hatching... for years and for me it was so complicated so instead i was just drawing with shading. good thing about comic art techniques or illustration is that you make techniques actually useful and workable so you have a lot more time and focus on creativity rather than fighting with mediums and techniques
wow...this is a game changer. it took me a little while to get this figured out, but when i did it changed everything. it's difficult for me to draw the shape language from my head when constructing the form so i started with round curves ie: Bart Sears old "bubble figures". I use clip studio for my line art so I added another layer and used the line of beauty opposing curves to draw my shadow shapes. Even then it took me a minute to figure that out. I initially would shade like i always did but quickly got to changing the direction with the lines of beauty. it takes awhile to train your mind to perceive shadows and forms like this but WOW. Once you get the idea it's like getting a whole new set of keys to this style. Thanks Dave!
It's amazing how the stars align. This morning I was drawing a female figure, and I was not happy with my basic shapes, even though I was working from a picture. I decided to block it out with hard, straight lines, and got my masses much improved. Now I can probably use this technique to finish my drawing. Thank you!
i love your videos Dave. No pretentious art speak just matter of fact and incredibly helpful.
Haha nice timing, just yesterday i was praticing it from some Ryan Benjamin videos!!!
I love your artworks. Especially what I love is your style to shadow anything like muscles.
Definitely! Dave's shadow drawing is so dynamic
This is really helpful. I’ve always envied comics for those defined yet stylized muscle forms. I’m glad I finally understand how they draw that way! Thank you so much!!
Your work fascinates me.🎉🎉
Dave, I always look forward to watching along when you drop new videos. It's great to see you address shapes here. The concept is one of the toughest to grab in painting and also one of the most difficult to apply effectively. It's not at all intuitive and almost antithetical to the idea most of us have of proper painting technique, which is to just blend everything, early and often. it's so helpful that you are applying the concept to comic book pencilling here. Thanks for helping us level up!
Another great tutorial by the master himself ! Awesome ! Thanks Dave.
I don’t often keep up with this channel but this topic has hit me hook and just wanted to say thanks I’ve been burnt out for a very long time and your videos is bringing back that spark
This is amazing! Best drawing channel on RUclips. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us.
Wish I could get as inspired too ❤
1000%
ok now this just changed my game. I've been very knowledgeable about a variaty of subjects when drawing figures, but til now I've never heard of this techique before! I think that is going to take my art to another level, thank you very much!
Thoroughly explained!!! 🎯🔥🔥
You deserve it don't worry ❤❤
Glad to see you back with a new video, sir. 😉👊🏻
Thank you for sharing another great video David! Your lessons are very good and I have learned a lot from them. You explain your information in a very clear and comprehensive way. Not too much info and you repeat the important parts of your lessons many times (auditory and ofcourse visual). I also appreciate the length of these video's (15 to 20 minutes). It encourages me to draw, practice, and try out after watching the video. Keep sharing, you make a lot of people happy and greater in their work/hobby ❤.
I hope I can score some of your comics on the Dutch Comic Con next saturday!
Such an "Ah HA!" Moment here with the use of the line of beauty...LOVE THIS! Thanks Dave!
Awesome Dave, this is the video I’ve been waiting for. I’ve had so much trouble blocking in my shadows and couldn’t figure out why yours looked so much better. Thanks.
Omg David..I'm blown away by this line of beauty video..
Very interesting! I'm not sure that the 'beauty lines' give a "more natural look" to the body. BUT they surely give much more rhythm to the drawing and convey way more energy to the lines. So, altogether it's more original and really pleasant to the eye. Great tip!
David, this is the BEST channel! What you're teaching us is pure GOLD and you explain it at a pace that can be easily understood and absorbed. I'm definitely going to have to experiment with this technique! Thank you!!
I randomly saw you at a booth at comic con and immediately got you to sign my comic. Keep up the good work!
This video is so jam packed with info that I could only absorb by watching over and over for hours.. Great lecture! Thank you!
Thanks so much for this excellent teaching video. I will definitely do this exercise. ❤
Very helpful video. I enjoy your art, and I appreciate your teaching style. You've got a terrific knack for breaking down your process into simple terms. Thanks for sharing!
He's BACK
David you are the best teaching all these techniques!
Just tried it, love it. Thank you.
I didn't really feel this trick until I put it out of my mind. When I was following along with the guide, it didn't feel natural, but I kept at it a little bit. I just finished a sketch and I realized immediately after that I was implementing the beauty lines, and the figure and anatomy came out a lot better than I feel I have done. This tutorial is fantastic, and helped me understand the body a lot better.
Best comic artist ,I swear I love your art so much
Awesome.
I experimented and tried breaking up the line to imply a line. Interesting effects as well.
What I'm getting, in a nutshell, is try to avoid overly simple forms. Adding some "organic" element, like a line of beauty, creates a more visually appealing drawing.
Also, I'm experimenting by drawing non-humans as well. That opens up the creativity. Try drawing some elven wizards or eleven warriors. :)
David, can you do a video solely for forearms? I mean, you explained it a few times in your videos but we need like an in depth and how to use shadows on it, I use some examples from other artists and anatomy books/photos, but if you can do a video, it’ll be more than helpful
Perfect timing. I've been making this mistake and couldn't figure out my my figures looked a bit off. Thanks!!!
Can’t wait to watch and learn!!
I like to mix sharp and soft based on pose and form. sometimes shadows and negative space are better than drawing in the details too.
Without a doubt best comic art tutorials on RUclips! ✍️ great vid!
I find looking at pictures of bodybuilders helps in determining what is possible for shapes in a body. I don't ever redraw a single person's form, but rather combine the forms into one believable form that is pleasing to the eye.
Now that I've seen it I can't unsee it. This is AWESOME!!! Going to apply this technique today. Thank you
This was insanely helpful. I’m such a fan. Thanks for doing this video.
Another amazing video! this helped me a lot because when drew an arm it looked like something was missing or my anatomy wasn't that good. this video showed me that this simple trick can bring my anatomy drawings to be far more better! thanks David
I tried it for two minutes and I feel like it’s already ingrained in me ! Thanks a lot ! Love your channel :)
David you're channel provides endless value for us.
This explains so much about application thank you very much. I have been trying to incorporate the “natural look” to your art into my own and I could get a portion of your look but it wouldn’t totally work b/c I didn’t fully understand how you applied it. Off to my drawing board, thanks David!
So glad a new videos out tired to watching the other ones over and over
Great explanation! You've talked about lines of beauty in the past but this video, for me, really makes the process clear. Thank you for making it.
Such a great demonstration, clearly presented. Thank you, for "freeing" me from believing I have to be a walking encyclopedia of anatomy and musculature. Just a good working knowledge and your "line of beauty" technique can make all the difference. The varying line shapes and weights are sure to liven up anyone's drawing.
(And, yes, I followed along with the demonstration and was pleased with the results.)
So well explained . Thank you !
Sir your drawings are so satisfying and fascinating, thank you very much for all your efforts.
Wow! Here we turn the key! Thank you master!!!
Ah, this technique/trick is really going to help me...thank you!
You are my hero. I WISH and pray to God that I am able to draw just like you. I LOVE your channel and watch your videos religiously. Thank you for sharing your content. I even bought majority of your videos, which are VERY helpful.
This is absolutely uncanny. All day yesterday I was doing drapery studies of your work and then spent about an hour scouring penmanship tutorials and art history resources about the line of beauty. And here we are. Insane.
Awesome. Thanks Dave! This has pointed out something substantial in addition to the things we've learned from your process so far.
This is probably the best art lesson I’ve ever seen.
Excelente proporción, gracias por compartir tu conocimiento gracias saludos desde Colombia ❤
I used to think that the main thing about drawing lines was being confident in laying down smooth and long edges, ideally while varying the weight along the way somehow. Breaking things up like you show here makes much more sense, and for pencil drawings it's far more realistic to go over a line again to give it value because the graphite has no spring to it, like a nib or a brush does. Thanks a lot, this is at once a technique for details and a general organizing principle that gives your drawings an intentional quality, tying everything together.
it's good to know that there are still those that truly love true art.
Great to see the new content. Wonderful, Dave. I hope Monday Night Draw returns sometime soon!
This is really helpful to see how you design shadow shapes.
Like, Jeff Watts says draw what you see, ehat you know, and what you want to see. Idealization, and I have had a tough time simplifying from realism into more graphic shapes (better shape language), and this video really helped offer a path to solving the shape-line-language problem, so thank you for your instruction!
Using these techniques, learned pretty quickly after a few tries. It really is helping with a drawing I’m already working on! Love learning more and more techniques when it comes to comic style drawings 🫶🏼✍️
Awesome David, thanks! Two questions, 1. What type of drawing tool are you using? 2. (A bit longer) I was watching a video from Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg reviewing a collection book of the sketches of the legendary Robert Crumb. There was something that Ed said that stuck with me and if you could, I'd like to hear your opinion. Ed said the use of pens in Crumb's works may have been a method to develop precision in placing thought to paper, or in other words, hypothetically, it takes the "safety net" away of erasing, which I can even attest to being an encouraged practice taught in art schools/classes. But that statement made me pause and I really considered if that was a possible breakthrough for me and my work! Thoughts welcome and for reading!
There was a moment where he connected the bottom of the delt and I said out loud “ohhh” because it clicked for me😂😂
Thank you David for always being awesome!
This video is amazing and such a good explanation of shape language and how to apply it well! Thank you for sharing!
Drawing along with this video was very helpful, thank you :)
It’s always a joy to watch David Finch work. 👍🏼👍🏼
As an animator, illustrator and college foundation drawing teacher I love this video. What David is doing is illustrating the fundamental use of the principles of LINE. Line is one of seven principles of Art and Drawing: Space, Line, Shape, Form, Value, Texture, and Color..... And has within in many concepts of how it's used. There are organic Line, Geometric Lines (Which this lesson is going over) Invisible lines, Implied Lines, etc.... The main reason most professional companies only hire from University programs are further illustrated in the comments of this video. These principles he's explaining are basics which most amateurs Tend to overlook, or ignorantly avoid when they're doing a composition. At some point everyone has to learn the foundations, the sooner you accept that and get on with it, the sooner your work will start to take you where you want it too.
David Finch is my art hero!
Awesome Dave , gonna give it a try
Dude! This is a game changer…thank you so much!
Something that struck me while watching, during your examples of opposing curves, before you started adding shadows, the lineart was very reminiscent of Freddie E Williams' work. I'd have never thought you guys had similar techniques and approaches based on your final outputs, but watching this shows me your styles share a lot of DNA.
Thank you for sharing this video. This one tip is one of the greatest. The Golden line of beauty 😊
I've been thinking about the arabesque line but this explanation is exactly what I needed to understand actually using it! Thank you David!
I'd like to see a series on how to render background elements. A more expanded version of those videos you did a while back. Very few talk about actually applying perspective to a single panel and dropping in the rendering.
awesome video, line quality is one of the things I struggle the most
Thank you so much for this David so helpful
Wow, amazing how this technique bring so much more life to drawings.
I've been trying to unlock what I love about John Byrne's X-men and Fantastic Four work and it seems like he almost exclusively uses curved lines though. He also uses a tear drop shape for everything in his anatomy. So much to learn here.
Nice to see another tutorial! Love your art!
Just when I was about to draw some muscles lol. Very good tips, helped me out a lot.
very informative i can already see it work i used it to write my name it also works if you want to improve your hand writing .
I wish I would have learned this when I was a kid. Awesome. Thank you.
simple but very cool. thank you!
Love it! Thanks Dave!
I love ur art 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾please post consistently 🥺
Thanks for another insightful tutorial. If you ever get a chance, would you consider doing a video on your process on drawing boot treads? That always seems to turn my head into a pretzel.
Thank you David
Lovely to see a new tutorial from you Dave! Great video
I realized that the boxy line looks better in curvy one because it looks like it occupy form of space ( this part is on top of the other). While the curvy one is neat
Could you do one on books you suggest and maybe go through a few pages to show what we're buying is something we may need or not .
Great lining and texture, Mr. Finch. But tell me, how do you set your story into rough layouts?
I agree, you should combine both hard and blocky lines with soft and curvy. But you shouldn't be putting it in these mindlessly. Start with filling up all of the shapes and apply gravity. Remember things that are alive tend to bend outlines outwards. It is a sign of a healthy organism. So the soft tissue behaves like that. And also you have bones. Take their features to be your guides. Remember: joints are always visible.
So this way you can combine hard bone and soft tissue, and also express these in line, curves vs angles. And in anatomically right places, so it is mindful.
It requires practice.
I am glad you show your way doing it. Nice video, man!
This might be the most helpful art video I’ve ever seen.
Every time I watch your video I learn so much that I couldn’t find in a typical RUclips art video… thanks for sharing your knowledge and helping many people like myself … thanks again 🫡🙏🏻