I have all of your pitfalls! Plus a couple more: making the head too big and the torso a bit long (stretching the bit between ribcage and pelvis) When we become aware of these things we can look out for them whilst drawing and hopefully work out some strategies to get round them. Another great video -thanks
Ah yes - i usually make the torso too squashed! haha. A great tip I was taught is to draw a really light figure of 8 on your page - that "represents" (for scale and proportion anyway) the ribcage and pelvis. Then use that as a guide to compose your drawing, and it works really well to keep everything in proportion. I like it because it's not a super right-brain construction method, but yet helps as a simple guide.
I usually put little thought into placement/composition... so I sometimes end up with the majority of my piece off-center. Great tutorials! Thank you. :)
Yes! that's also a really common pitfall - see my comment below to Richard about how you can use a simple figure of 8 at the very start to lightly map where your composition is. It's really simple and works amazingly well because it's a perfect placement for rib cage and pelvis of the model no matter what the pose is. I might do a video to explain this better. Thanks for your comment, and thanks for watching! :)
Spot on. Good post. Trying to draw the face in detail causes me great problems with gesture. Also I like a pretty hard charcoal now. It seems to work better for me if I have to do what some people call a little bit of force drawing. (I do hate that term though). I said before you do seem to draw shapes rather than rhythms . You are good though.
Great advice thank you. I totally agree especially about detailing faces. But now I find that having left the tricky things like hands, feet and faces till last always, I really struggle to capture them (minimally) in a way that doesn't detract from the drawing as a whole.
Ahh that's a really good point! I used to do that all the time, and have slowly been able to stick with a drawing and keep going past the point where i would normally stop. (Unless yes, the proportions are way off!) Thanks for point that out. :)
great advice, I am guilty of 4 out of 5. I draw from life mostly so your draw whatever pose you are faced with and time is always a factor. I will certainly try and apply some of your advice. I do tend to get to detailed to early. Thanks for the video.
Thanks Clyde, great to hear your feedback, thanks for leaving a comment. Drawing the pose that's offered is one of the biggest challenges I find, especially when other people want to change it and have input haha!! can lead to long discussions instead of drawing! Good to know you resonate with these points, thanks for watching! :)
Haha! yes.... whenever i get stuck I switch hands because non-dominant hand , even though it has less control, i find that it draws more accurately. It only comes into play very seldom, but can be helpful. Thank you so much for watching!! ❤
This content Is so perfect, i was searthing for this so long. I wonder if you could make a vídeo like this but with oil, i would love to find a painting Chanel the quality of this. Thank u
Ah! yes I know exactly what you mean!! I have worked with oil paint in the past to do figure drawing - but it's tricky to match the same approach with drawing to painting. I find that drawing is more immediate, whereas with painting you have to factor in a lot more technical aspects. So for that reason it's difficult to keep the same expressive quality. But this is an excellent idea, i promise I will try to do a video along those lines in the near future!
Hi Siobhan, I really like watching you draw and I am learning a lot from your calm approach. I like to see your dog also. I know that you might have copyright or nudity issues about showing the reference but could you take a picture of your final drawing and put it in a cameo in the corner of the page so we could see the progress evolving. Thanks again for posting your videos.
Hi Martin! Oh that's a good idea 👍 I never thought about that as a solution! I'm trying to find reference to show in the videos, and I think non-nude images might be the way to go. But certainly having a finished drawing could also be a good guide in order to follow the techniques! I'm currently working on a video to upload today, that is showing in-frame me drawing because someone requested to explain more about how much to look at the reference versus looking at the page. SO i'm getting used to this frame-within-frame editing. Thanks for this suggestion.
Thank you very much for this video. I'm just starting in figure drawing and I learned a lot. Can you also share what type of charcoal you are using? I see different types of charcoals when I'm buying in an art shop. I see medium, soft, compressed etc. I hope you make videos about them too. Thank you.
That's great to know you are starting figure drawing! I am using compressed charcoal - you can also get willow, or vine charcoal which is not as dense as compressed and therefor doesn't give as dark or as wide a range of darks. I have a video on this channel about the different types of charcoal - ua-cam.com/video/vRQEM0A3aCI/v-deo.html - it's also useful to consider what type of paper you use in combination with charcoal. For example, I find Newsprint paper works great with compressed charcoal. So, there are a lot of variables. My advice is to experiment as much as you can! The learning process will only be that much richer if you try different materials and get to know what works best for you, first hand. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions :)
@@Drawing-Life Thank you very much. I will check the video link that you gave. I hope someday I'll be able to share my works. I already see a lot of improvements in my works using your tips as a guide. This channel is very helpful and inspiring.
Haha! For me, that's nearly always!! ... I don't know why, it's like that. I enjoy drawing portraits, and I love figure drawing.... but not the two together!
@@Drawing-Life yeah exactly!!! I feel the same way. I also enjoy both styles but when it comes to make a realistic pose with a realistic facial expression, I feel that I ruined my drawing, due to the many details😭😭😭😩😩
@@rebecadelacqua5304 sometimes, if I feel that the face offers more than the pose, I just focus on drawing the head and shoulders, and then somehow when it's just head and shoulders, it makes for a much better drawing than if I drew the whole figure and tried to include the face. 😅
@@maryleemackichan8711 agree! A figure in space is much more abstract and feels like the drawing can speak more about emotion than the actual physical forms
I have all of your pitfalls! Plus a couple more: making the head too big and the torso a bit long (stretching the bit between ribcage and pelvis) When we become aware of these things we can look out for them whilst drawing and hopefully work out some strategies to get round them. Another great video -thanks
Ah yes - i usually make the torso too squashed! haha. A great tip I was taught is to draw a really light figure of 8 on your page - that "represents" (for scale and proportion anyway) the ribcage and pelvis. Then use that as a guide to compose your drawing, and it works really well to keep everything in proportion. I like it because it's not a super right-brain construction method, but yet helps as a simple guide.
great tip -thanks I will give that a try!
You switched hands during the drawing and that somehow blew my mind!!
Haha, well spotted!! 😆 It's a funny thing but doing that sometimes helps me .... I think I need to make a video explaining it😅
I love watching your drawings emerge out of the marks and shadows made by the charcoal. It’s captivating 😊
Ah thank you Steve! really appreciate you watching 🙏
I usually put little thought into placement/composition... so I sometimes end up with the majority of my piece off-center.
Great tutorials! Thank you. :)
Yes! that's also a really common pitfall - see my comment below to Richard about how you can use a simple figure of 8 at the very start to lightly map where your composition is. It's really simple and works amazingly well because it's a perfect placement for rib cage and pelvis of the model no matter what the pose is. I might do a video to explain this better. Thanks for your comment, and thanks for watching! :)
Spot on. Good post. Trying to draw the face in detail causes me great problems with gesture. Also I like a pretty hard charcoal now. It seems to work better for me if I have to do what some people call a little bit of force drawing. (I do hate that term though). I said before you do seem to draw shapes rather than rhythms . You are good though.
Great advice thank you. I totally agree especially about detailing faces. But now I find that having left the tricky things like hands, feet and faces till last always, I really struggle to capture them (minimally) in a way that doesn't detract from the drawing as a whole.
I try to avoid giving up too early, unless i have the proportions wrong 😅 heads always become bigger comparing to the rest of the body 🤪
Ahh that's a really good point! I used to do that all the time, and have slowly been able to stick with a drawing and keep going past the point where i would normally stop. (Unless yes, the proportions are way off!) Thanks for point that out. :)
Hello there, I am improving day by day...
And looking forward to your next post...
Thank you for sharing...best of regards....
great advice, I am guilty of 4 out of 5. I draw from life mostly so your draw whatever pose you are faced with and time is always a factor. I will certainly try and apply some of your advice. I do tend to get to detailed to early. Thanks for the video.
Thanks Clyde, great to hear your feedback, thanks for leaving a comment. Drawing the pose that's offered is one of the biggest challenges I find, especially when other people want to change it and have input haha!! can lead to long discussions instead of drawing! Good to know you resonate with these points, thanks for watching! :)
I enjoied the your gesture drawing, and it is exellent experiment before i get into it, thanks for sharing.
Thanks Vartan! Glad you found this, thank you for watching! 😊
Oh yes, so useful, thanks!
Just discovered your channel and am now binge watching 😂. Love your attitude, insight, and information. So very helpful. Subscribed!!
@CatherineK. ah wow!! Thank you 😊 delighted this resonates with you, thank you so much!
Awesome video. Do you ever draw women?
Great advise ❤
I LOVE YOU AND EACH PIECE OF ART U DO
Haha! Ahh thank you so much! I appreciate that - love you right back, thanks for watching :)
wate ! I just have discovered that in this vdo u are working with both hands 😱
Haha! yes.... whenever i get stuck I switch hands because non-dominant hand , even though it has less control, i find that it draws more accurately. It only comes into play very seldom, but can be helpful. Thank you so much for watching!! ❤
This content Is so perfect, i was searthing for this so long. I wonder if you could make a vídeo like this but with oil, i would love to find a painting Chanel the quality of this. Thank u
Ah! yes I know exactly what you mean!! I have worked with oil paint in the past to do figure drawing - but it's tricky to match the same approach with drawing to painting. I find that drawing is more immediate, whereas with painting you have to factor in a lot more technical aspects. So for that reason it's difficult to keep the same expressive quality. But this is an excellent idea, i promise I will try to do a video along those lines in the near future!
Hi Siobhan, I really like watching you draw and I am learning a lot from your calm approach. I like to see your dog also. I know that you might have copyright or nudity issues about showing the reference but could you take a picture of your final drawing and put it in a cameo in the corner of the page so we could see the progress evolving. Thanks again for posting your videos.
Hi Martin! Oh that's a good idea 👍 I never thought about that as a solution! I'm trying to find reference to show in the videos, and I think non-nude images might be the way to go. But certainly having a finished drawing could also be a good guide in order to follow the techniques! I'm currently working on a video to upload today, that is showing in-frame me drawing because someone requested to explain more about how much to look at the reference versus looking at the page. SO i'm getting used to this frame-within-frame editing. Thanks for this suggestion.
Thank you very much for this video. I'm just starting in figure drawing and I learned a lot. Can you also share what type of charcoal you are using? I see different types of charcoals when I'm buying in an art shop. I see medium, soft, compressed etc. I hope you make videos about them too. Thank you.
That's great to know you are starting figure drawing! I am using compressed charcoal - you can also get willow, or vine charcoal which is not as dense as compressed and therefor doesn't give as dark or as wide a range of darks. I have a video on this channel about the different types of charcoal - ua-cam.com/video/vRQEM0A3aCI/v-deo.html - it's also useful to consider what type of paper you use in combination with charcoal. For example, I find Newsprint paper works great with compressed charcoal. So, there are a lot of variables. My advice is to experiment as much as you can! The learning process will only be that much richer if you try different materials and get to know what works best for you, first hand. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions :)
@@Drawing-Life Thank you very much. I will check the video link that you gave. I hope someday I'll be able to share my works. I already see a lot of improvements in my works using your tips as a guide. This channel is very helpful and inspiring.
Nice 👌 👌 👌
Sometimes, when u go straight detailing the face too much before doing the rest of the pose u just want to give up of all your drawing😫
Haha! For me, that's nearly always!! ... I don't know why, it's like that. I enjoy drawing portraits, and I love figure drawing.... but not the two together!
@@Drawing-Life yeah exactly!!! I feel the same way. I also enjoy both styles but when it comes to make a realistic pose with a realistic facial expression, I feel that I ruined my drawing, due to the many details😭😭😭😩😩
@@rebecadelacqua5304 sometimes, if I feel that the face offers more than the pose, I just focus on drawing the head and shoulders, and then somehow when it's just head and shoulders, it makes for a much better drawing than if I drew the whole figure and tried to include the face. 😅
@@maryleemackichan8711 agree! A figure in space is much more abstract and feels like the drawing can speak more about emotion than the actual physical forms