One thing I should have mentioned: When it comes to figure drawing in the longer term, I think your observational 'accuracy' skills and your constructing forms skills are all lower in hierarchy to the gesture! Build some observational skill early, then think about simpler forms, but ultimately GESTURE is the boss :) that's why our Figuary challenges are mostly about gesture and why we keep going on about it!
I was hopeing you would talk about gesture. Really glad it was mentioned here too. Once I started incorporating gesture into my art, I felt like that missing piece in my work dissapeared. I absolutely love all of your videos, they really do inspire me to keep up with art.
i tried other methods but i still found it difficult to draw. When i finally tried gesture drawing, i found out it was for me. I was always able to copy outlines but didnt understand how it fell into place. Gesture drawing fills that blank space, it allows me to "see" what i couldnt before.
@@Artlife0831 I think the essence of things is not the “cube”, but “Constructing with simple volumes”. It is very useful to observe the working manners of other artists, but it's much more important to develop your own method, using the ideas observed. Students need to develop their own sets of “simple objects” they are most comfortable with. People are naturally very different at the very depths of their behaviors, and those differences are poorly understood by most. But it should be taken into account. You need to find yourself first. And we all need to keep in mind the part about disadvantages of this approach and think critically about our shape-based constructions.
Kenzo you're such an inspiration and a refreshingly calming presence in the art world. Every time I watch your videos you make me feel like I'm not on some impossible challenge I set out for myself but that I am on a path to developing a very human skill that anyone can learn. Thank you for being yourself.
@@lovelifedrawing Me too! The only problem is that I just want to watch more videos of him talking and then I don't draw :D. But I love this channel because it always lifts my confidence :)
I always separated the two by what I wanted to do: if I wanted to draw from life or copy something, I'd go with observation, but if I wanted to draw from imagination, perspective was my best friend. I have a distaste for drawing with reference (a bad habit of mine), so I'd go with perspective construction and it kind of works for me but it still misses those interesting shapes. On the other hand, whenever I copy something from life it lacks the volume that my perspective never lacked. Thank you for enlightening me about the third approach and I hope we can get more videos about this in the future!
that makes a lot of sense. i have noticed that sometimes it's easier with construction to make things up from imagination, because you can make your drawing more easily conform to what your mind understands and the real world throws up curveballs that are hard to manage, like things that should be parallel but aren't and it messes with sense of perspective etc. finding that balance will be our goal on the channel!
Bargue plates really did help me in the beginning of my drawing journey. I just think that its something that you shouldn't do all the time. It really trained my hand and arm control as well as the separation of dark and light.
So, i'm getting two things from this video. The first thing being that it's good to be a Jack of all trades. By studying multiple skills, it can help you put your art together in more interesting ways. The second point is personality. Even if your linework isn't the best or your skills aren't the most polished, your drawings having personality can help set you apart. By being able to convey some kind of emotion or narrative, you've already went farther than some people.
I have personally developed a combination of 2 methods that truly resonated with me. When starting a figure I either use the "clean approach" where I limit myself to only using CSI lines, the bean, and the "FORCE" method. As a result, my lines are fluid, and graceful that I almost dont want to move past this step and just let the gesture be. The other approach I use is the "free method" where I don't control my hand, I let it run free in its pursuit to find the human figure. For this approach I use the "distribution of masses, and passing and locking" concepts by George Bridgman. This allows me to create the figure from imagination and invent poses. Glenn Vilppu and Michael Hampton were my inspiration for this method.... measuring never appealed to me, I feel like I become a slave to the reference. Also, I wanna get into the "block in of shadows and light" approach for it is essential for concept art since it is my ultimate goal.
that's interesting Camilo thank you! i think measuring is useful for two moments in time: when you are starting out and just need to train up your eyes and later on when more experienced, only when you are stuck and know it's off but don't know why. otherwise i'm with you - gesture is boss!
Hello @camilo, thanks for mentioning FORCE method ,I am Mritunjay Varun, the most recent official FORCE instructor , come check our channel sometime,I'll be glad and thanks for the mention again :)
Totally sharing your view about "there's no point in copying". To me, it's all about rhythm and gesture. But even then, there are SO many approaches to a drawing: start with a line of action, or with the main movable masses, a sort of "bean shape" for the torso, a "leading edge" for where the motion goes, etc. All the while keeping track of basic proportions. I tend to wish for a one-fits-all method, but am starting to think it's better to have a "toolbox" of approaches and apply what fits a given situation most. Pros and cons to that, too.
It’s almost like using one tool to get anything done. In all honesty it’s a mix of both. I feel the past 10 years has been progressively moving more towards focusing on construction but I think now observation is arguably as useful. They are two parts of the same coin. Drawing from, observation makes you enjoy the process for sure, but it gets you to build a visual library more than just getting ‘rough’ shapes. And in this video he is right about the robot thing because you’ll become an Yngwie Malmsteen doing small iterative changes to a recipe vs Steve Vai approach where you constantly explore. I was typing as the video played so I realize I am being reductive but yeah…great video man!
You could call it my specific brand of Autism/Aspergers but I'm SUPER detailed in my drawings. It takes time but it's more intuitive to me bc I don't "see" the general picture or shape first but the specific details in the geometry and it's a difficult habit to break. So if you had any suggestions I'm all ears! 👍
you could do some games. "i have to capture this whole pose, but i'm only allowed 20 straight lines" or 12 lines of CSI only etc. limiting yourself pushes you forward. the classic way to limit yourself is time limits like 15 - 120 second poses!
Great that you referred to gesture in your comment. For me, I always thought I would get better with observation. Draw what you see! Draw what's in front of you! But my drawings were flat, stiff and lifeless. Now, I have a better understanding of gesture and try to draw that first THEN apply structure to the gesture. Perhaps my observation would have improved by focusing on gesture. But structure has helped me fill in the blanks, to describe form. I don't really think of it as cylinder, cube, sphere... it's more observing and identifying what qualities the part I'm drawing has in relation to those geometries. They may be a elongated and cylindrical, or egg like and spherical or angular and "boxy"... beyond just cylinder, sphere, box. The "knee as a boxy shape" has profoundly changed the way I look at knees, changed my understanding of them. The neck as "tapered and cylindrical, smaller where it joins the torso than to the head" - it's these descriptions that guide me what to look for and even be alert for the "exception to the rule" instances when observing. I love your channel and your inspiring love of drawing, Kenzo.
thanks Michael! i agree with all you said. these ideas help you understand what you see, so the two sides complement each other, with gesture first priority.
I really love construction because it helps me make sense of what I am seeing, and it helps me apply what I saw later. I also feel it is super important to switch back to observing shapes directly because shapes are the truth of what we see and construction/form are just conceptual tools to help us understand those shapes. Sometimes my reference is only approximately correct. When that is the case construction is extremely important because I can start by observing an abstract shape in my reference, do a construction that would yield the shape I observed, then rotate or modify the construction and draw the resulting shapes. I believe the wire diagram that we build in our head (by doing construction) which feels like tracing the finger across the surface of an object is a representation of how the sense of vision actually connects to the sense of touch. I like applying the construction method because it gives me space to explore that connection. That being said you might not be surprised to hear cross-contour lines are one of my favorite ways to describe form. :)
Thank you, Kenzo, thank you for that video, but in my opinion, it’s the combination of observation and construction in drawing because simply it’s the best of both worlds.
Watching this I can see parts of my own artistic journey. I didn't want to spend too much effort on observing things when I was younger - I liked superhero comic art and saw it as being very imaginative in nature - and so I heavily biased towards learning construction, but there's a minimum amount of observation that you still need just to get to the point where a posed figure makes sense. And, the two approaches actually meet in the middle as you establish proportions, because what they both accomplish is a division of the page. This was a key breakthrough for me: you can choose intentionally to "sample" from reference and then build over it. So it's actually most helpful for me to switch between different modes as I draw and see it as a spectrum from gestural to technical, where a freehand observation is going to be less technical than something measured, and a 2D shape can inherently carry more gesture than a calculated 3D form, which relies on every component shape "following the rules". But you have to include points on the spectrum that can accurately sample from reality for it to represent something. The irony of my misconception is that in comics, often references are closely copied or traced under deadline pressure; it's mostly the weaker illustrations that have been done entirely from imagination. But now that I've cleared up those thoughts it lets the drawing proceed smoothly without getting stuck: my current process is to first divide into a quadrant grid and observe in some gesture, initial angles and shapes. Then some construction fills in additional proportional info, and finally anatomical details can be observed. Then to make hands and heads, I add a second smaller grid into their position and repeat with a new gesture, capturing those details more precisely. Everything stays loose, but I always give myself a little hint as to the structure so that it doesn't get away from me. Burne Hogarth has a great book, "Dynamic Figure Drawing", which is all about making the constructive approach feel lively and deriving new poses from old ones. This book probably sent me down the wrong path at first because it had me doing things I wasn't ready for, but it's a very popular book among comics people for a reason, and I'm benefiting from its lessons now.
I had your videos randomly pop up on my recommended feed, and I'm so glad they did! I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil but you've still taught me so much in just the two videos I've watched. You have such a refreshing take on things, and a very simple but informative way of teaching. Keep doing what you're doing, I absolutely love it. And I'm excited to binge the rest of your videos. :)
That's always the big issue for me. I'm starting learning to draw by myself, I never took any course, I always try to simplify, but the boxes , the 3D shapes, are pretty much difficult to learn, the circles are not always appropriate, etc..... your subject is really important, since it could be the reason for a beginner to give up. (excuse for me for my bad english, I'm french). Thank you for this tuto. Could you show us how to understand the construction of the boxes, I'm always lost... sometimes I think my brain is not finished ! ... But I always thought that mixing all of these methods is the good approach to capture at the same time the volume, the sensitivy, the intention, the gesture.
Great video! My personal opinion is that a combination of construction and gesture,making construction more organic with energy,dynamic , in a way its what works best.Best of both ways.
After a 50 year struggle with this, I finally realized that there are artists who see in and teach a 3D method and artists and teachers who see in 2D. Neither is right or wrong, just different and confusing to a beginner. I started at age 17 with Nicolaides book and loved his approach. I found it very spiritual which appealed to my personality. Unfortunately he didn't write or edit the book himself. It was published posthumously and proportion/ measurement is lacking. He talks about gesture, contour and mass. You learn each part separately and then fuse them together. But I was determined to be able to do really realistic drawings before I could give myself license to do what I wanted artistically. And I spent the greater part of my life struggling with "techniques" to this aim. This is where I got bogged down in the 3D/2D quagmire. So now I will start with a spiritual approach ( what does the scene say to me or what feeling do I want to convey), composition ( what is the most important thing in my picture and what other elements are secondary and tertiary) and then I use both 3D and 2D techniques to get where I want to go. If I can't render something to my satisfaction, I take out another piece of paper and practice it until I can do it. Then I go back to my picture. Thanks for helping me clarify this in my own mind. I hope it's helpful to someone else.
Thank you for the video, as you said they complement each other when you use them in right amount to each other. And it's fun when you bring in a thrid element, as you say, perhaps story telling!
Lemme get a bit more specific. I’m constantly trying to grow by haplessly flailing through gajillions of approaches wind up wallowing in a state of perpetually overwhelmed inertia. Your focused, no nonsense (usually) presentations are themselves about as good of a mentor as I could imagine. Sorry to hear that you struggle with perfectionism btw.
adlai burman that’s super encouraging thank you! Btw that flailing feeling is part of it even if you are doing really good purposeful practice so don’t worry too much if there’s a bit of that I reckon :)
I highly prefer observational drawing. But i use construction in part when i draw from imagination. I start with a free hand drawing and when something looks of, i check for mistakes by drawing the structure. I also use construction to break down unfamiliar subjects, that i want to be able to draw from imagination until i can draw it freehand
Good video. I’d say gesture is the third discipline. Comparative measurement, construction with masses, and gesture. Each has an aspect that capitalize on respective strengths
Thank you for your videos and for teaching us to draw better :) I am taking the Fresh eye challenge on your website and I am loving it. On this specific video, I like that you presented all ways of drawing the figure and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each, it really helps. Also, I have the book "Drawing with the right side of the brain" but never got the time to read it, thank you for reminding us of it, I will make time for it :)
I'm really grateful that someone like you, are sharing your knowledge and leading/ teaching struggling artists :)) After watching your vids....joining your live drawing sessions,I can really see the improvements in my drawing! Tho I still have a long way to become as good as you :,) I have a question When is exactly the time to learn anatomy and perspective? I kept on switching practices but i want to focus only one thing
great question! i think anatomy is a constant, but you start super duper simple. you need a tiny bit of anatomy to understand the landmarks which help you see angles in the structure you're seeing which tells you about both the gesture and the simple forms. then later on when a bit more skilled you can add more anatomy. so learn as much anatomy as you need to feed your gesture and simple structure. perspective super basics (drawing a box) you can learn early
Thank you so much for this extremely helpful video. When I started to learn to draw (my specialty is birds), I learned the sight size method - although I didn’t know that at the time. I started by using grids and then for a while I used a proportional divider and a protractor to get my outlines. It was super tedious but I learned how to estimate proportions and angles by sight. In the back of my mind, I’ve come up with this idea that how I work isn’t “good enough” and that because I can’t do construction, there’s something wrong with me and my art. The difficulty I’m having is that because I’ve done so many hours of observational drawing, I have a lot of difficulty seeing the volumes. I look at something and I see shapes not cylinders and boxes. When you talked at the end of just working on getting an intuitive grasp of boxes, that gave me a sense of how I can bridge the gap and find the best 20% of each method. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!
yeah it's hard when you've progressed one skill to go back to square one with a new skill. it is easy to start telling yourself to go back to the comfort zone. if you apply the mindset you used to get good at observations, you'll master construction fairly quickly i bet. there will be a ton of 'bad drawings' along the way of course. and then you have both types of tools and basically have superpowers
Thanks for the video, very interesting. I personally like to draw from life but at times from photos. Lately I have been practicing contours then filling in details. Just to practice without loosing time. Blessings and be safe.
I think I fail at both these methods honestly, beyond the basic approaches ... but if I had to go with one or the other probably I would lean more toward observational methods. on the whole it helps to think of relationships of shapes, especially negative ones, as well as light and shadows. focusing on the torso tends to be key for me if it is a figure drawing. One of my professors was a sculpture major and and he always built up areas by weight and would draw masses in circular lines building up and out as he drew. I always thought that was an interesting approach. Thanks for the video!
yeah it's tough just to get to grips with either approach! it was a long time of confusion for me. i think that's the hardest part of learning to draw though, and then it gets exponentially more fun and rewarding from there
Hi Kenzo, this is not the first time that I have watched this video, but this time it hit home. I have a strong inner motivation to pursue technical skills, and it is my love for storytelling. You mention gesture, and it happens that I am studying Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield, and he thinks of gesture as storytelling, that is game-changing for me since most instructors talk about movement, flow, etc, but that never was enough for me since I love storytelling. Well, my point is that it would be great if your photo pack start to include some storytelling in the pose... just an idea. The best of luck with your new course, which has awesome content!
I was really focus on gestury draw for some years , but when i start to ilustrate i fell the need of some block stuff to start a pose , as i was more to illustratio and render , i think i lost a bit of simplification , too focus on real light and render
i used boxes to learn perspective and already studied anatomy... now i try to grasp the motion and gesture, then i move to shading, then color... i have a path made by small steps, i hope i make it to the end
Very wise thoughts! However, I would make a note of the “Disadvantage of observational drawing” part. You criticize a real approach and bad habits and give very good advice, but that approach cannot be called “observational drawing”. Rather, this is a primitive understanding of “observation”. At the same time, this primitive understanding is natural, this is something to overcome.
I found this video fascinating and confusing, because I don't see how anyone could simplify anything down to basic geometric forms without having observed it!
I talked about this with my teacher, I defined it like Russian academicism and European, more like Italian academicism, like Russian is construccional like un proko videos and the Other is like the grand másters in the past
I watched your video about Heavy Paint and have been thinking about getting an I pad for awhile,...but do you think it tends to make you NOT draw from your whole arm if you draw smaller on an iPad?
If you want a different, broader (and frankly better) perspective on observational drawing, you might want to check out Ted Seth Jacobs' book "Drawing With An Open Mind". (Better than 'Right Side of the Brain' I mean.)
One thing I should have mentioned: When it comes to figure drawing in the longer term, I think your observational 'accuracy' skills and your constructing forms skills are all lower in hierarchy to the gesture! Build some observational skill early, then think about simpler forms, but ultimately GESTURE is the boss :) that's why our Figuary challenges are mostly about gesture and why we keep going on about it!
I like the cube method. Are there any books or tutorials on how to study this way of drawing.
next weekend's video will be an intro to it!
I was hopeing you would talk about gesture. Really glad it was mentioned here too. Once I started incorporating gesture into my art, I felt like that missing piece in my work dissapeared. I absolutely love all of your videos, they really do inspire me to keep up with art.
i tried other methods but i still found it difficult to draw. When i finally tried gesture drawing, i found out it was for me. I was always able to copy outlines but didnt understand how it fell into place. Gesture drawing fills that blank space, it allows me to "see" what i couldnt before.
@@Artlife0831 I think the essence of things is not the “cube”, but “Constructing with simple volumes”. It is very useful to observe the working manners of other artists, but it's much more important to develop your own method, using the ideas observed. Students need to develop their own sets of “simple objects” they are most comfortable with. People are naturally very different at the very depths of their behaviors, and those differences are poorly understood by most. But it should be taken into account. You need to find yourself first. And we all need to keep in mind the part about disadvantages of this approach and think critically about our shape-based constructions.
You really nail these kind of topics, where beginners like me thought about but couldn't find people talk about them.
Kenzo you're such an inspiration and a refreshingly calming presence in the art world. Every time I watch your videos you make me feel like I'm not on some impossible challenge I set out for myself but that I am on a path to developing a very human skill that anyone can learn. Thank you for being yourself.
thanks your comment has made my day!
wow you put it in words so well. I feel the exact same way
It helps that he doesn’t just talk over a speed painting of a fantastic piece of art that just makes you feel bad about your own skills.
@@lovelifedrawing Me too! The only problem is that I just want to watch more videos of him talking and then I don't draw :D. But I love this channel because it always lifts my confidence :)
I always separated the two by what I wanted to do: if I wanted to draw from life or copy something, I'd go with observation, but if I wanted to draw from imagination, perspective was my best friend. I have a distaste for drawing with reference (a bad habit of mine), so I'd go with perspective construction and it kind of works for me but it still misses those interesting shapes. On the other hand, whenever I copy something from life it lacks the volume that my perspective never lacked. Thank you for enlightening me about the third approach and I hope we can get more videos about this in the future!
that makes a lot of sense. i have noticed that sometimes it's easier with construction to make things up from imagination, because you can make your drawing more easily conform to what your mind understands and the real world throws up curveballs that are hard to manage, like things that should be parallel but aren't and it messes with sense of perspective etc. finding that balance will be our goal on the channel!
Bargue plates really did help me in the beginning of my drawing journey. I just think that its something that you shouldn't do all the time. It really trained my hand and arm control as well as the separation of dark and light.
yeah i've heard really great things from people that have done the exercise
So, i'm getting two things from this video. The first thing being that it's good to be a Jack of all trades. By studying multiple skills, it can help you put your art together in more interesting ways. The second point is personality. Even if your linework isn't the best or your skills aren't the most polished, your drawings having personality can help set you apart. By being able to convey some kind of emotion or narrative, you've already went farther than some people.
I have personally developed a combination of 2 methods that truly resonated with me. When starting a figure I either use the "clean approach" where I limit myself to only using CSI lines, the bean, and the "FORCE" method. As a result, my lines are fluid, and graceful that I almost dont want to move past this step and just let the gesture be. The other approach I use is the "free method" where I don't control my hand, I let it run free in its pursuit to find the human figure. For this approach I use the "distribution of masses, and passing and locking" concepts by George Bridgman. This allows me to create the figure from imagination and invent poses. Glenn Vilppu and Michael Hampton were my inspiration for this method.... measuring never appealed to me, I feel like I become a slave to the reference. Also, I wanna get into the "block in of shadows and light" approach for it is essential for concept art since it is my ultimate goal.
that's interesting Camilo thank you! i think measuring is useful for two moments in time: when you are starting out and just need to train up your eyes and later on when more experienced, only when you are stuck and know it's off but don't know why. otherwise i'm with you - gesture is boss!
Hello @camilo, thanks for mentioning FORCE method ,I am Mritunjay Varun, the most recent official FORCE instructor , come check our channel sometime,I'll be glad and thanks for the mention again :)
Totally sharing your view about "there's no point in copying". To me, it's all about rhythm and gesture. But even then, there are SO many approaches to a drawing: start with a line of action, or with the main movable masses, a sort of "bean shape" for the torso, a "leading edge" for where the motion goes, etc. All the while keeping track of basic proportions. I tend to wish for a one-fits-all method, but am starting to think it's better to have a "toolbox" of approaches and apply what fits a given situation most. Pros and cons to that, too.
It’s almost like using one tool to get anything done. In all honesty it’s a mix of both. I feel the past 10 years has been progressively moving more towards focusing on construction but I think now observation is arguably as useful. They are two parts of the same coin. Drawing from, observation makes you enjoy the process for sure, but it gets you to build a visual library more than just getting ‘rough’ shapes. And in this video he is right about the robot thing because you’ll become an Yngwie Malmsteen doing small iterative changes to a recipe vs Steve Vai approach where you constantly explore.
I was typing as the video played so I realize I am being reductive but yeah…great video man!
You could call it my specific brand of Autism/Aspergers but I'm SUPER detailed in my drawings. It takes time but it's more intuitive to me bc I don't "see" the general picture or shape first but the specific details in the geometry and it's a difficult habit to break. So if you had any suggestions I'm all ears! 👍
you could do some games. "i have to capture this whole pose, but i'm only allowed 20 straight lines" or 12 lines of CSI only etc. limiting yourself pushes you forward. the classic way to limit yourself is time limits like 15 - 120 second poses!
Great that you referred to gesture in your comment. For me, I always thought I would get better with observation. Draw what you see! Draw what's in front of you! But my drawings were flat, stiff and lifeless. Now, I have a better understanding of gesture and try to draw that first THEN apply structure to the gesture. Perhaps my observation would have improved by focusing on gesture. But structure has helped me fill in the blanks, to describe form. I don't really think of it as cylinder, cube, sphere... it's more observing and identifying what qualities the part I'm drawing has in relation to those geometries. They may be a elongated and cylindrical, or egg like and spherical or angular and "boxy"... beyond just cylinder, sphere, box. The "knee as a boxy shape" has profoundly changed the way I look at knees, changed my understanding of them. The neck as "tapered and cylindrical, smaller where it joins the torso than to the head" - it's these descriptions that guide me what to look for and even be alert for the "exception to the rule" instances when observing. I love your channel and your inspiring love of drawing, Kenzo.
thanks Michael! i agree with all you said. these ideas help you understand what you see, so the two sides complement each other, with gesture first priority.
I really love construction because it helps me make sense of what I am seeing, and it helps me apply what I saw later. I also feel it is super important to switch back to observing shapes directly because shapes are the truth of what we see and construction/form are just conceptual tools to help us understand those shapes.
Sometimes my reference is only approximately correct. When that is the case construction is extremely important because I can start by observing an abstract shape in my reference, do a construction that would yield the shape I observed, then rotate or modify the construction and draw the resulting shapes.
I believe the wire diagram that we build in our head (by doing construction) which feels like tracing the finger across the surface of an object is a representation of how the sense of vision actually connects to the sense of touch. I like applying the construction method because it gives me space to explore that connection. That being said you might not be surprised to hear cross-contour lines are one of my favorite ways to describe form. :)
I absolutely love cross contours too, and love the analogy to touch, or to drawing on the form itself. great comment!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Now, I have some things to think about.
Cheers from Korea 🇰🇷!
Thanks Robert!
1:57 thanks sooo much i've been wondering and searching about this technique for weeks
Hello, really love the work your doing with your videos
Hey, thanks William!!
Mixing the methods is good. I find boxes/contour lines are good for volume, and sight-size is helpful for keeping proportions.
Thank you, Kenzo, thank you for that video, but in my opinion, it’s the combination of observation and construction in drawing because simply it’s the best of both worlds.
As always, a great usefull video for anyone and everyone that's in the never-ending process of learning how to draw. Thanks Kenzo!
Glad it was helpful Andrey! next week we'll look at the practicalities of learning the box approach if it doesn't come naturally
Watching this I can see parts of my own artistic journey. I didn't want to spend too much effort on observing things when I was younger - I liked superhero comic art and saw it as being very imaginative in nature - and so I heavily biased towards learning construction, but there's a minimum amount of observation that you still need just to get to the point where a posed figure makes sense.
And, the two approaches actually meet in the middle as you establish proportions, because what they both accomplish is a division of the page. This was a key breakthrough for me: you can choose intentionally to "sample" from reference and then build over it. So it's actually most helpful for me to switch between different modes as I draw and see it as a spectrum from gestural to technical, where a freehand observation is going to be less technical than something measured, and a 2D shape can inherently carry more gesture than a calculated 3D form, which relies on every component shape "following the rules". But you have to include points on the spectrum that can accurately sample from reality for it to represent something. The irony of my misconception is that in comics, often references are closely copied or traced under deadline pressure; it's mostly the weaker illustrations that have been done entirely from imagination.
But now that I've cleared up those thoughts it lets the drawing proceed smoothly without getting stuck: my current process is to first divide into a quadrant grid and observe in some gesture, initial angles and shapes. Then some construction fills in additional proportional info, and finally anatomical details can be observed. Then to make hands and heads, I add a second smaller grid into their position and repeat with a new gesture, capturing those details more precisely. Everything stays loose, but I always give myself a little hint as to the structure so that it doesn't get away from me.
Burne Hogarth has a great book, "Dynamic Figure Drawing", which is all about making the constructive approach feel lively and deriving new poses from old ones. This book probably sent me down the wrong path at first because it had me doing things I wasn't ready for, but it's a very popular book among comics people for a reason, and I'm benefiting from its lessons now.
I had your videos randomly pop up on my recommended feed, and I'm so glad they did! I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil but you've still taught me so much in just the two videos I've watched. You have such a refreshing take on things, and a very simple but informative way of teaching. Keep doing what you're doing, I absolutely love it. And I'm excited to binge the rest of your videos. :)
Super relevant for me today. Thanks for your thoughts.
That's always the big issue for me. I'm starting learning to draw by myself, I never took any course, I always try to simplify, but the boxes , the 3D shapes, are pretty much difficult to learn, the circles are not always appropriate, etc..... your subject is really important, since it could be the reason for a beginner to give up. (excuse for me for my bad english, I'm french). Thank you for this tuto. Could you show us how to understand the construction of the boxes, I'm always lost... sometimes I think my brain is not finished ! ... But I always thought that mixing all of these methods is the good approach to capture at the same time the volume, the sensitivy, the intention, the gesture.
Great video! My personal opinion is that a combination of construction and gesture,making construction more organic with energy,dynamic , in a way its what works best.Best of both ways.
Thank you Kenzo - good guidance for absolute beginners like me! Keep up the good work please. I really appreciate it.
Thanks Paul, will do!
After a 50 year struggle with this, I finally realized that there are artists who see in and teach a 3D method and artists and teachers who see in 2D. Neither is right or wrong, just different and confusing to a beginner.
I started at age 17 with Nicolaides book and loved his approach. I found it very spiritual which appealed to my personality. Unfortunately he didn't write or edit the book himself. It was published posthumously and proportion/ measurement is lacking. He talks about gesture, contour and mass. You learn each part separately and then fuse them together.
But I was determined to be able to do really realistic drawings before I could give myself license to do what I wanted artistically. And I spent the greater part of my life struggling with "techniques" to this aim. This is where I got bogged down in the 3D/2D quagmire.
So now I will start with a spiritual approach ( what does the scene say to me or what feeling do I want to convey), composition ( what is the most important thing in my picture and what other elements are secondary and tertiary) and then I use both 3D and 2D techniques to get where I want to go. If I can't render something to my satisfaction, I take out another piece of paper and practice it until I can do it. Then I go back to my picture.
Thanks for helping me clarify this in my own mind. I hope it's helpful to someone else.
Thank you for the video, as you said they complement each other when you use them in right amount to each other. And it's fun when you bring in a thrid element, as you say, perhaps story telling!
Thanks again, Kenzo :).
You are truly a magnificent instructor.
My pleasure Adlai!
Lemme get a bit more specific. I’m constantly trying to grow by haplessly flailing through gajillions of approaches wind up wallowing in a state of perpetually overwhelmed inertia.
Your focused, no nonsense (usually) presentations are themselves about as good of a mentor as I could imagine.
Sorry to hear that you struggle with perfectionism btw.
adlai burman that’s super encouraging thank you! Btw that flailing feeling is part of it even if you are doing really good purposeful practice so don’t worry too much if there’s a bit of that I reckon :)
I highly prefer observational drawing. But i use construction in part when i draw from imagination. I start with a free hand drawing and when something looks of, i check for mistakes by drawing the structure. I also use construction to break down unfamiliar subjects, that i want to be able to draw from imagination until i can draw it freehand
Thanks for this video Kenzo. I was actually hearing these 2 methods arguing in my head... i'll try what you said in the video.
that's awesome Sylvain!
Thankyou so much for your videos... they are so refreshing and helpful and your voice calming as well as clear!
Thank you for this video !! I'm always struggling whether I should be using cubes and all or just following the flow. It's complicated haha.
yeah me too! we'll be talking more about cubes in next weekend's video
I feel the same way, without knowing I was using 2 methods,
Good video. I’d say gesture is the third discipline. Comparative measurement, construction with masses, and gesture. Each has an aspect that capitalize on respective strengths
yes totally agree, with gesture being priority, at least in the drawing i like best!
Thank you for your videos and for teaching us to draw better :) I am taking the Fresh eye challenge on your website and I am loving it. On this specific video, I like that you presented all ways of drawing the figure and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each, it really helps. Also, I have the book "Drawing with the right side of the brain" but never got the time to read it, thank you for reminding us of it, I will make time for it :)
I'm really grateful that someone like you, are sharing your knowledge and leading/ teaching struggling artists :))
After watching your vids....joining your live drawing sessions,I can really see the improvements in my drawing! Tho I still have a long way to become as good as you :,)
I have a question
When is exactly the time to learn anatomy and perspective?
I kept on switching practices but i want to focus only one thing
great question! i think anatomy is a constant, but you start super duper simple. you need a tiny bit of anatomy to understand the landmarks which help you see angles in the structure you're seeing which tells you about both the gesture and the simple forms. then later on when a bit more skilled you can add more anatomy. so learn as much anatomy as you need to feed your gesture and simple structure. perspective super basics (drawing a box) you can learn early
THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING!
Thanks so much for your help
thanks Omar! hope your practice is going well
Thank you so much for this extremely helpful video. When I started to learn to draw (my specialty is birds), I learned the sight size method - although I didn’t know that at the time. I started by using grids and then for a while I used a proportional divider and a protractor to get my outlines. It was super tedious but I learned how to estimate proportions and angles by sight. In the back of my mind, I’ve come up with this idea that how I work isn’t “good enough” and that because I can’t do construction, there’s something wrong with me and my art. The difficulty I’m having is that because I’ve done so many hours of observational drawing, I have a lot of difficulty seeing the volumes. I look at something and I see shapes not cylinders and boxes. When you talked at the end of just working on getting an intuitive grasp of boxes, that gave me a sense of how I can bridge the gap and find the best 20% of each method. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!
yeah it's hard when you've progressed one skill to go back to square one with a new skill. it is easy to start telling yourself to go back to the comfort zone. if you apply the mindset you used to get good at observations, you'll master construction fairly quickly i bet. there will be a ton of 'bad drawings' along the way of course. and then you have both types of tools and basically have superpowers
@@lovelifedrawing Thanks so much for the encouraging words! 💝
Thanks for the video, very interesting. I personally like to draw from life but at times from photos. Lately I have been practicing contours then filling in details. Just to practice without loosing time. Blessings and be safe.
I think I fail at both these methods honestly, beyond the basic approaches ... but if I had to go with one or the other probably I would lean more toward observational methods. on the whole it helps to think of relationships of shapes, especially negative ones, as well as light and shadows. focusing on the torso tends to be key for me if it is a figure drawing.
One of my professors was a sculpture major and and he always built up areas by weight and would draw masses in circular lines building up and out as he drew. I always thought that was an interesting approach.
Thanks for the video!
yeah it's tough just to get to grips with either approach! it was a long time of confusion for me. i think that's the hardest part of learning to draw though, and then it gets exponentially more fun and rewarding from there
It's really cool video 😄
Hi Kenzo, this is not the first time that I have watched this video, but this time it hit home. I have a strong inner motivation to pursue technical skills, and it is my love for storytelling. You mention gesture, and it happens that I am studying Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield, and he thinks of gesture as storytelling, that is game-changing for me since most instructors talk about movement, flow, etc, but that never was enough for me since I love storytelling. Well, my point is that it would be great if your photo pack start to include some storytelling in the pose... just an idea. The best of luck with your new course, which has awesome content!
Such a big subject …. Great video
I was really focus on gestury draw for some years , but when i start to ilustrate i fell the need of some block stuff to start a pose , as i was more to illustratio and render , i think i lost a bit of simplification , too focus on real light and render
i used boxes to learn perspective and already studied anatomy... now i try to grasp the motion and gesture, then i move to shading, then color... i have a path made by small steps, i hope i make it to the end
Very wise thoughts! However, I would make a note of the “Disadvantage of observational drawing” part. You criticize a real approach and bad habits and give very good advice, but that approach cannot be called “observational drawing”. Rather, this is a primitive understanding of “observation”. At the same time, this primitive understanding is natural, this is something to overcome.
i love your videos kenzo
I just kinda do both :)
i use both of them
I found this video fascinating and confusing, because I don't see how anyone could simplify anything down to basic geometric forms without having observed it!
I talked about this with my teacher, I defined it like Russian academicism and European, more like Italian academicism, like Russian is construccional like un proko videos and the Other is like the grand másters in the past
hala min fadalakum shahidu rasmiin wa'iidha eajbakum alrasm aemilu 'iiejab washtaraku fi alqnat shukraan lakum jamieana
I watched your video about Heavy Paint and have been thinking about getting an I pad for awhile,...but do you think it tends to make you NOT draw from your whole arm if you draw smaller on an iPad?
Wonderful video!
Try all of it, practice all of it, get good at different techniques and land somewhere between them.
God damn your videos are inspiring.
If you want a different, broader (and frankly better) perspective on observational drawing, you might want to check out Ted Seth Jacobs' book "Drawing With An Open Mind". (Better than 'Right Side of the Brain' I mean.)
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