What really got me out of my awkward phase in drawing people/animals was learning organic shape language, S curves and C curves changed my life for real
@@adicandra9940 if you look at a persons spine, it’s got a little bit of an S shape to it. Human spines are literally the backbone of a human so learning to manipulate that shape gives you a good structure and starting point. With cats, their spines are also S shaped a little if you include neck and tail, but the main part is C shaped, and so same thing happens: learning to represent those curves improves your drawing of them!
@@adicandra9940 Yeah If you've ever seen a gesture drawing and thought, "how did they draw that leg so well with only a few quick lines?" A lot of it comes from S curve and C curve lines (if you haven't heard of them, these lines only kinda look like Ss and Cs, as said by op the spine is just a subtle S curve). Organic shapes like those in anatomy have offset mass distribution. If you put your arm out with your palm facing up, the curve on the thumb side of your forearm is more sudden and starts lower on the arm compared to the curve on the pinky side. This creates a visually appealing offset between the two curves. S/C curves let you improve the feeling of flow and weight in your lines, and really emphasizes These offsets. I *highly* recommend Sinix's video "design theory: shape appeal", it explains it way better than I can
@@adicandra9940 Yeah If you've ever seen a gesture drawing and thought, "how did they draw that leg so well with only a few quick lines?" A lot of it comes from S curve and C curve lines (if you haven't heard of them, these lines only kinda look like an S or a C, as said by op, a spine is just a subtle S curve). Organic shapes like those in anatomy have offset mass distribution. If you put your arm out with your palm facing up, the curve on the thumb side of your forearm is more sudden and starts lower on the arm compared to the curve on the pinky side. This creates a visually appealing offset. S/C curves let you improve the sense of flow and weight of your lines, while emphasizing these offsets. Drawing them in one fluid motion is really important btw. I *highly* recommend Sinix's video "design theory: shape appeal" it explains it way better than I can.
While learning to draw in a cartoon style I found it useful to draw parallels with writing. You're using lines/values to explain and describe what's there, so clarity and intention is a lot more important than being accurate in a literal sense. Sometimes even a photo can look ugly and confusing where a less technically accurate drawing of the same subject can look both more appealing and instantly recognisable.
Great tip. It's like the reference uses a lot more stuff to explain what's actually there, whearas we are stuck with just lines so we have to do more with it to show the same things.
The question I guess is, after making a clear statement with just lines, will adding more rendering with other visual elements (values and color) make the artwork worse?
What you're discussing in the beginning is the distinction between line, shape, and form. Line is about where one thing ends and another begins. Shape is about where one thing is and, by implication, is not. Form is about the distance each part of that thing is from the viewer. The face of a cube has four edges, and is shaped like a square when you face it straight on (squarely, haha) - but these can be just as true for the side of a cylinder. You identify the shape as a cylinder when you communicate to the viewer that the center of the shape is closer to the viewer than the sides. As you build your visual library, you'll have more resources available to call upon when you need to figure out what something from imagination would look like. But you continue to need references forever, because your brain is constantly optimising your memory, and if you are not USING your memory of what dogs look like your brain will merrily throw it out the window and replace it with "eh, kinda like this." You have to keep showing it more actual pictures of actual dogs, so the mental cost of remembering what dogs look like remains low across all memories of dogs. Eventually your visual library becomes a priority in and of itself and your brain will just automatically clue in on specific visual details to catalog.
@@GraceDeGrace I've been on my art journey for about six years, myself. We all face the same problems and have to find our way to the same solutions, but the paths we take and the order we solve them are all different - and it can be REALLY useful to compare notes.
Your explanation left me more confused than before. Maybe I'll try to put it into different words and you tell me whether or not we're talking about the same things. "Shape" refers to the actual three-dimensional shape of the object. Like a smartphone is roughly a cuboid with rounded edges and corners. That's its shape. "Forms" are the two-dimensional shapes (for lack of a better word) we put on paper in order to communicate the form of the thing we're drawing. Like, despite the faces of a cube being squares that's not what we draw when attempting to draw a cube, because of perspective. What we do instead is, we add three quadrilaterals together in order to fool the viewer into believing he's seeing a cube. Those quadrilaterals are the forms. A "line" now is a one-dimensional curve (straight lines are also curves). The boundary of every form consist solely of lines. So, in conclusion, what we actually put on paper when drawing are lines meant to convey forms meant to convey shapes. (Painting is different, for there we can create forms directly and the lines emerge as a result of that. But the goal stays the same: to convey shapes.)
@@lonestarr1490 I think of them exactly the opposite way: shapes are 2D (a thing you might paint on a canvas) and forms are 3D (a thing you might sculpt out of clay). That's typically how other art books and teachers refer to them, too. This is because we all know a circle is a shape, but you can't PICK UP a circle. A circle only has two dimensions. Even if you cut one out of paper, the paper has thickness and what you actually have is a very short cylinder. Similarly, in industrial design, when you have something that you mold a material around... we call that a form. It is by nature three-dimensional, and the material is wrapped around it. We would not call a cutting template a "form" or refer to cutting a thing out of sheet steel as "forming" the steel. Forming steel inherently means BENDING steel. I can see both how it would be confusing as hell if those two terms were reversed, and why it makes a certain degree of sense to reverse them: you're making a slightly different distinction, between the actual physical shape of an object (and we do, to be fair, often refer to sculpting as SHAPING the clay) and the abstract representational form it takes in an image. These aren't WRONG, it's just not the way that they're typically used in art instruction.
great way of sayin this, I have a sever pride problem. I don’t have anything against references and other sources. But as it goes I’m constantly in line of using my memory alone to “know” how to draw things. Hellbent on using my imagination and mental library to make drawings whether I know something or not. In short, ignorance has been a way of getting by Testing memory is an essential practice to improving but, purposefully not using reference when it’s available is a big mistake. Whether that reference is a book, image, video, even yourself in the mirror. As long as you’re challenging yourself is good (memory test). Take challenges but don’t make it harder for yourself. my bad for the ramble, I really like your explanation and wanted to build off of it
In its evolving, unfinished state, the drawing of the cat exists as a mere potentiality. It is only when observation is applied to form that the cat is brought into being, collapsing its quantum state into a superposition of both a fully realized three-dimensional creature and a two-dimensional representation on the page.
I only just watched this and it makes SO much sense - It kinda reminds me of how I have a tendancy to get mad when I see sketches that don't 100% match the reference. . . I'm realizing now that getting getting 1-for-1 lines is not the point, I'm (irrationally XD) angry for the wrong reasons! It's about understanding form/color/composition and being able to COMMUNICATE that, even if it's not a 1-for-1!! One of the nost impactful pieces of advice I've heard is that you are not Drawing The Thing, you are creating the ILLUSION of the thing (OG example, you don't need to draw every leaf on a tree, you just need to make it LOOK lole there are a ton of leaves!), and I think that relates to this! It's about finding the right informations to convey to convince the viewer of the suggestion of reality, not marking 1-for-1 every single percieved line if it doesn't actually convey what we need (What we see isn't exactly what's there anyway, it's our mind interpreting over and over the world around us (often chosing to focus or ignore things in ways that aren't always condusive to art at that) - It's about basically finding and honing the right mental plug-ins to overide some of those interpretations and instead focus on the ones that will help us create the illusion we're going for!! . . . . Honestly this may be true for most creation, maybe even other fields XD Man, life is interesting ❤)
I would also look into overlaps and tangents, if you add overlaps and remove tangents it's a life-saver, cause then you see more clearly more whats infront and behind. Great video!
I think I remember some sort of landscape painter once saying that a photograph is more accurate for what a place looks like, while a painting is more accurate for what a place feels like.
I've recently had a big breakthrough when it came to my drawing. I realized that there are three ways that I can approach drawing. The first one is by telling myself that my job here is to finish the job - it's about completing the objective at hand. The second way is by asking myself "am I doing it right", and the third way is by asking myself a question that is so abstract that it cannot be translated to any language. I draw better from imagination than from reference.
fun fact, drawing in flat shapes is just a different school of thought. many artists experimented with paintng light (i think even Michaelangelo did) - if I'm not mistaken - valazquez started it properly and then his student Duran and then Sargent painted as flat shapes. I know that's not entirely the point of thi video but even painters like Richard Schmid used this flat approach. Saying this just because of the cat you regarded as having a bad approach. and again, i know it's not the point, structure helps sooo much when drawing for example from imagination but just as a fun fact for curious people here
Admittedly, I don’t know much about the masters processes. I always just figured if that if they were doing it differently, it was because they already had a good enough understanding of the fundamentals to “break” them. For me, switching from drawing flat shapes helped but that’s just for my tastes. There are so many styles and techniques out there, it’s part of what makes art so uniquely incredible! I should have also mentioned that somewhere in the video. Thanks for the sharing some extra info!
i definitely feel like having some intuition about form etc would help. Sargent used to say something like : if you had a good enough eye, you could perfectly reconstruct anything without any knowledge about that thing. Richard Schmid put it nicely, you don't paint things, you don't need to learn the structure and colour of thousands of things, you just need to know to to paint light. he imagines everything as a jigsaw puzzle with every shape having properties: shape, edges, hue and value. thanks for the reply btw! and yeah you could have mentioned it but it's a good vid either way
I used to draw all the time when I was a kid, but I ended up hitting a wall in my ability to understand objects in space on a flat 2D surface just like this. All the advice and techniques I would find or receive never really helped me, especially because it usually included phrases like “Focus on the end result”, to help with maintaining motivation. It never felt right but I couldn’t figure out anything else to do. I stopped drawing for fun probably by the end of middle school and then entirely after high school. It’s been 10 years since then. I’ll still doodle now and then, but it still doesn’t feel like I understand anything I’m doing. Can’t fully comprehend why but this video is kind of refreshing. I still feel stuck but I also feel like a change in my understanding is finally right around the corner.
Keep at it!! Learning to train your eyes to break down real life into shapes is very difficult. And it’s so easy to get overwhelmed or swept away by the complexity of what we want the end result to be. For me, focusing on just one small 3D shape at a time made it easier for me understand. Coming from someone who would also lose motivation and stop drawing for long periods of time, I wish you the best of luck on your journey!!
Holy crap I needed this, for too long I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out how to make my art look more lively. This’ll help a ton thank you so much!
On a whim I pressed on this video and didn't expect too much from someone I've never seen before, but oh my gosh I'm so happy I found your channel right now. Everything about this is so well explained and amazingly edited too!
I never watched any videos about art, this appeared randomly in my reccomended and watched the whole vid interested in what u were saying cuz vibes were really cozy and wholesome
You should draw the angles and shapes you see You aren’t drawing an eyeball you are drawing the shapes around the eye ball. It’s about the relationships of each angle to the other angle or of each shape to the other shape and other such measurements edit: So start with the contours and block in and then start to formulate the volumes and details of the objects- this is how you achieve likeness
This genuinely spoke to me, I guess i really been thinking of my drawings as 2D things instead of actual things with mass that take up space. Thanks for the much needed reminder ☺
I like this video a lot, it really reminds me of how I felt when I started out. I had to learn a lot of this by repetition, experimenting, and pure intuition, so it's super cool to see someone talking about it. Your art is super yummy fr and I love the texturing om the library piece !!
This is the prefect, type of video I've been looking for Every other video I've watched. Place the information like you've been drawing all your life and Understand the concepts of things being breakdown already, Like I was wanting to learn how to draw a car Instead of teaching me the importance of Perspective, Observation and Breakdown into simple shapes. They skip that part straight ahead and gone onto how you'll need to work on One oh two point perspective. This is so, useful for me cause it's Slows things down.
this kind of approach to drawing (as in sketching flat shapes and not understanding the 3d composition of your art) is both confusing and really interesting to me as someone who did go to an art school and was taught how to conceptualize things in 3d. turns out all the life stills we were complaining about were necessary after all lol
Yeah the art advice I was always told was to try to learn how to break things down into simple shapes and I think I might have taken that too far after a few years
Wow! That illustrates the importance of exaggeration so well! It takes to show the distortion of cat's muzzle from the pillow to give it weight and solidify it as an object. That was helpful! Thanks!
This reminds me of a painting by John Singer Sargent of someone is wearing a pearl necklace. When you look at the painting from afar you understand that it’s pearls, but up close, it is literally 2 dotted lines of white and brown for the highlight and shadow. The person’s skin underneath ended up being the midtone of the pearl. He didn’t physically draw out a circle for each pearl bead.
I watch videos on this topic for entertainment purposes, not so much into drawing at this moment, all to say that the music, your animals, your pace and soft spoken voice made all this deeply enjoyable, thank you for the video ❤
oh my goodness this was my exact problem! Youʼve described it with such accuracy that I think you just saved my drawing career. Iʼve been having trouble with making my drawings look somewhat like my references or what Iʼm thinking of, and all this time Iʼve focused on the accuracy of my lines and never the shapes. Although I have had this problem I didnʼt do much about it since I was somewhat pleased with the end result, but I just havenʼt realized itʼs holding me back from what I can truly draw. Because I canʼt draw well from memory lately I have thought of my self as not creative. Just a person who can draw objects decently. Never have I applied what I learned from countless videos or practices to improve my skills, all I have done is understand it. Thank you so much, now I can doodle and draw!!
Your voice is so calming, the imagery kept me concentrated and this whole video felt like such a nice watch! Super underrated video, all of it is beautiful
There are several things you can do to help you draw things in poses you've never drawn before, the main two I use are skeleton maps and box sketches. Skeleton maps are just drawing lines where the body and limbs should go, while box sketches give you a better sense of proportion so you can draw over it easier. In other words, we never draw anything perfectly from memory, we just draw pose references, and then more detailed references based on those references, ect... until we get to a level of detail that we like and feel like we can start coloring in. Also, if you ever want to draw hands, box sketches are the way to go. I've given up on trying to use skeleton maps for hands entirely.
It always makes me happy to see artists who have learned how to draw more accurately to their ideal. It makes me feel like I've improved as well as others
the rabbit hole goes even deeper. the lines are for the silhuette ( cant spell that correct for the life of me) . if the figure is all black on a white background you still need to see the pose. then there are proportions, curves and lines (so the pose is more dynamic), those 3d shapes you mentioned in the video ( forming a pose inside those dinamic lines), shading( irl we don see lines, we see shadows), contrast levels, composition and story/message for the whole work.
Yeah it can be daunting because like where do you even start!! I’ve been fixated on structure for a little, but I’m sure it will switch to getting better at perspective, then color theory, then composition etc. This whole video spawned because I felt like everything in my drawing was where it should be and I was still unhappy with it, and that’s when I fell down the rabbit hole
@@GraceDeGrace for perspective i suggest some Architectual drawings for shading some design drawings like when i was going to drawing lessons the professor threw some basic shapes and sometimes there was black ball on top of a black cloath and glass and that was really hard because you spend probably an hour shading something and now it either has to be lighter or the background even darker. For other stuff i have no experience. Only in 3d
I recently started looking into isometric art, because of a game project I'm starting, and it forced me into a very technical workflow of using boxes to get accurate reference points in space to draw things right. That made all the theory on drawing I've watched over the years suddenly click and my drawings got better overnight, simply, from properly understanding the process of constructing anything rather than practice alone. It's a little unreal how I'm producing things I'd call "quite good" rather than "borderline passable" just by focusing on errors in the process rather than the errors in the result.
I'm glad your video ended up on my home page because honestly this was one of the best videos by far that I have watched this month. Maybe I enjoyed the video cuz I have a cat myself or maybe because your journey was very uncannily similar to mine, and probably to a majority of us. Now I have slowly built up a visual library and I'm glad I am progressing on the right path. I loved your video a lot and in fact for some strange reason I teared up a bit. Loved your editing style and your pets are very cute. subscribed !
Yo this was pretty similar to my art journey. I spent the most of my childhood drawing, but essentially just getting better at being a photocopier. Just last year, I had the same experience as you. I needed to understand the fundamental concepts of why things look the way they do, and so I did. Practice after practice I became gradually better. I feel pretty fulfilled knowing I can take my imagination and put it into a physical form. Although, I still try to improve on myself, looking to learn new things and gain more experience, it’s fun. Have a good day, and have fun arting! (Plus, I am an even better photocopier because of this lol)
I opened UA-cam to search for this exact topic and coincidentally this video was the first thing that showed up on my home page! What a nice video, those are some cute animals. Keep up the great work!
The information from this video is truly wonderful but I cant focus because of all those cute little critters shown 😭😭 the video with the small puppy and the bigger dog resting their head on the pup is soooo cuuute Plus the resting cat faces are so squishy i cant 😩❤
Ah the, growing, teething pains of an artist. Good luck on your journey and remember 2 things: 1) *Always* keep it fun, even if just a little! 2) When all else fails, your own observation skills will always be your best asset! Both of these things are VERY important, and you might forget them along the way, but you will find yourself faced with these again and again in time. -Sincerely, an artist who is just further along that path that wants to see you succeed in your own goals
When I started to draw again after a year of unmotivation, I struggled with exactly this problem (and is still struggling with it). I thought of a thing as a 2d image or paper doll where you rotate the limbs and joints in a 2d dimension. After so many attempts and struggles in drawing, I went back to basics. I remember drawing minecraft characters for 6 years, drawing cubes in different perspectives. "Perspective... perspective... THAT'S IT!", I thought to myself. I started practicing drawing 3d shapes in a 3d world. I draw a cube in multiple angles, I draw a cylinder in multiple angles, I draw a pyramid in multiple angles, I draw whatever shape I can think of in multiple angles. I made lines, shading, guides, arrows, just to tell future me how the shape "moves". After a while, I started to draw humans (not realisticly) again. Making the limbs look "short" due to them facing to the camera helped so much in drawing. Occasionally I can't avoid drawing with no perspective at all but I guess that's an old habit that will definitely die hard. Still though, learning to draw in angles is quite a big improvement!
Thinking further on the comment "Stop drawing the lines you see. Start drawing the things you see." - I feel like even the revised 3D drawing of the cat didn't capture the essence: what is it about the cat that made you want to take that photo in the first place? You can answer that question yourself however you want, to me personally it comes down to action lines, and the way forms interact with each other. The end goal would be to not show just the cat and the pillow. The end goal of the study would be to show the action of the cat leaning against the pillow, the action of the cat stretching its paws in a way they did, the action of the cat half-opening their one eye in a lazy way.
That's a good point, I thought she just looked cute in between the pillows. I could have exaggerated parts of the drawing to really emphasize her being squished in, but I was having a hard time even drawing basic cat at first!
I think for the cat drawing the arm can be spilt into a few parts cos there’s a joint instead of a full cylinder. Another way to study would be to look at the skeletal anatomy to have a rough guide on where the joints are, the motion of the body parts and the limitations of where it can swing etc. I think it would help gain more understanding of the subject🙏. . That’s what I did lol, although I’m still tryna get it but I think it’s quite helpful in the process, hope it helps 🙏🙇♂️
Wow, what a nice video with a great art tip! The pleasant classical music complemented your laid-back voiceover sooo well. Got me relaxed! And the pets are adorable too! :D
One thing ive learned to do is to start with straight lines showing approximately where the limbs will go, and then drawing curves around those lines. Even if you dont follow them much, it really helps to add structure because the curves have to rely on those lines, like muscles on bones. It helped me a lot and it might also help others when their pose seems strange.
edit) this is said after watching for a short period, and I didnt have full context from the video, what I meant from this comment is "dont ONLY use reference, let yourself learn from it and try to grow into someone who doesnt always need it for everything" but to also not take art so seriously, pressure beats everyone in art and every picasso could've stopped because they felt like they needed every piece to be perfect, but unless it's being paid for you really shouldnt need to be amazing and even though this video gives great tips, dont pressure yourself under being a "bad artist" because you cant do this. this videos main tip is "imagine it as shapes" and my main goal with this comment was to say "train yourself to be able to imagine" try to actively draw things without needing a reference, because to break down something into 3d shapes, you need to draw those shapes without a reference. right under this is the original comment, bye bye. you say "for the first 5 to 6 years I've been doodling" I have been drawing since about 2018 (digitally), if you look at any of my art between the year 2018 to 2021, I only really doodled, I didn't post my art or care too much about how "good" it was, and if you look at any of it as a byproduct it will be very VERY stylized because, the next point you bring up "I couldn't draw much without a reference image" I would draw EVERYTHING without a reference, even now most of it is memory besides if I'm drawing peoples OC's or general art for other people. you look at any of my art it will be stylized because I learned ONLY from my imagination, I saw other art and tried to put it to my own but my only reference was the mind, each stroke was engrained because I learned it only by picturing what I want and getting there through sweat and tears. for 3 years I couldnt draw hands AT ALL. for 5 years I couldn't draw in perspective. for 5 years I couldnt draw a semi-accurate body. it wasn't till 2023 that I stepped up my game and learned how to actually draw arms at different angles, draw hands (like actually, like yknow, 5 fingers, and all the stuff that makes a hand look like a hand) you look at my art now and say "wow that's like kinda cool" but its buried under years of "nice" it smelled of beginner but it was only because I NEVER tried to learn how to draw using references. and yet, it was my (kinda) blessing, I recently learned how to do angles, how to draw bodys, not really how to do head shapes, still suck at that, but it was all that quick progression because I could picture what I wanted in my head better because I learned off imagination and not off just reference (not to say I wasn't only using imagination, sometimes I tried to use reference but never seriously enough to do the same as now because only recently did I actually apply all that time building up to learning to use a reference. (this is actually another edit I wanted to clear this up)). I wasnt recreating an image I was recreating the ideas in my head, and I can tinker the things in my head to my will and get the correct image. I wont say I'm professional for being able to, but I think I have improved enough to be consistent enough for me to apply criticism, instead of having a really good one piece of work, (the one piece is REALL!!!) it's a slow slow process, I'm not gonna say everything magically fit together, again I cant draw heads, but the way I to grow as an artist, is to not rely on images, and rely on yourself too, I've seen people who seriously cant draw without references and it actually baffles me because I've just not thought of it, cause it never occurred to me as an issue, it seems detrimental that you could have that issue. because to me the first part of being an artist is to let your mind go wild and that needs to be curated. people quit because their art isnt good enough but what makes art fun isnt the reaction but the meat of it, drawing, you're able to take any idea and make it maluable, a visual thing, something you can cling onto. and all of that comes from the journey of doodles, of being creative, I personally have been in a slump of creating art for other people recently but the most fun I had making pieces were ones I made ENTIRELY from my imagination or my own will, some guy said something kinda mean on discord to me so I drew him getting a lethal injection and seizing and he liked it. when people say "artists can draw anything" you can, you just need to use your mind to find the work arounds to get there, I parted the drawing of the guy into 1, the injection, and 2, death, and I struggled most with the injection because I couldnt get the angle of holding the syringe without compromising the aspect of the guy being held like a cat being held by the scruff because the hand had to be at a specific angle that would only allow the wrong hand, what did I do? added a second person holding him from the side like he was at the vet getting put down. instead of feeling horrible about what you cant do, you make a work around no matter how lazy the work around is, sure I didnt improve but you also need to go easy on yourself and have fun more than torture yourself to get a presentable piece. your art can't be locked behind a paywall of your own happiness too. also I should add, I wasn't using any specific pose reference, there isnt a guideline to me drawing a guy seizing and dying so I should just draw anyway. you need to gauge how serious your art is, is it a book cover? a movie poster? a comic slide? or is it a request? an art trade? a doodle? not to say you shouldnt improve but you should in your own time, of course dont stagnate, I dont think one person should stay the same forever but it's great to just allow yourself to have fun. and that's also to say IN that piece I was doing something new, a weird angle with the syringe and hands, a funny expression, (for context, I asked the guy for his character, and it was in a server based on a specific anonymous vr game I AM ashamed to mention, and the guys character was an animal) being held by the scruff, it was funny and dumb but I did new things and that's why I had fun drawing it. you can make compromisations but also equally you need to do something new, not just add small details but a new angle, a new character, a new pose, a new expression, a whole new species if you're willing. you have the most fun when you let your creativity drive a piece and let your mind make the compromisations for things you need to do with the piece and figure out the shape of things. do I know how to draw a wet cat? barely, do I love drawing wet cats? yes, they look stupid but it's why I love it. do I know how to draw dogs? hell no, quite literally 7 drawings in 6 years. did I draw my fatass puppy after he was in the weirdest pose ever and did something dumb just to illustrate what happened? yes because it was funny. even if I was doodling for 5 years, I learned alot with just doodles, you learn the most when you're having fun because those moments stick.
I used to be such a perfectionist and I also had this belief that the best art was classical realism. I’ve since learned to enjoy all kinds of art and experiment with things and in that I learn where I still need to grow. It is a wonderful journey!
my one single art teacher gave some really good advice about references they're useful, but as the artist, you still have total control (and thus responsibility) over the final picture so even when drawing by reference, I like to go over the picture just on its own merit after I've done my best to capture the source I like to think this also means it's not that important to copy the reference. cameras can do that better already. the reference is essentially just a tool
In all skills there will be a gap between understanding a concept and applying a concept. That gap will vary in length depending on the skill and the individual but it's always there.
I've been drawing for 25 years. I've never taken classes or done studies, and I rarely draw from reference. I mostly draw people/things, and haven't drawn anything abstract since highschool. What I've noticed looking back at my art are these drastic steps in improvement every 2-4 years as I feel like I figure out some massive aspect of construction and really key in a mental 3D map of how an object should be constructed. It's always the same pattern, though. I figure out something new, there's a very small window of rapid improvement and then long periods of stagnation, or maybe a kinder way to put it would be refinement. I do wonder if I had a more focused lesson-oriented approach then how different my development might have been. I guess it's impossible to say, and maybe if I had forced myself (or been forced) to do that approach, I wouldn't have stuck with it for as long as I have.
I bet you got very good at capturing things from your head though! I still definitely struggle drawing most things from memory or just a concept of idea in my head
@@GraceDeGrace Considering it's almost entirely what I scope to draw, I'm ashamed to admit I often struggle quite a bit with it. While yes, a lot of things come quite easily to me to shape out and render, there's a huge library of stuff that I realize I've spent a decade or more forming bad habits and will slide into, making everything seem off. But, I suppose it's better than it was- where I didn't notice just how off it was in the first place.
I would advise you to do some drawing exercises that focus on perspective and foreshortening. Don't worry about drawing a cat. Try to animate just rectangles, triangles cones, and cylinders. When you get to successfully animate those groups of shapes, don't change the pose but change the perspective and foreshortening. When you get to where you have a lot of successful drawings with nothing interfering such as couch cushions, add an interference. After that decide the setting, make sure the setting is right in terms of perspective, and foreshortening place the cat or dog in that setting. If you want the cat to be on the couch decide on how much space you want the cat to take up. That tells you how far away you are from the subject. Hint: Drawing a cat stretching with their paws extended is a good lesson in foreshortening. Get a good book on drawing animals, and animal anatomy. Replicate in sketches the examples you see in the book. Don't worry about drawing your own cat. You want to develop muscle memory by doing that. That way when you see your cat doing something cute you can start drawing with pencil and paper. You want to rely on your own skills rather than a computer or photograph with respect to fundamentals. The most important thing is to take assessment of your cat's individual personality. You want to convey that you know the cat. That the drawing is not done by someone in a park that was watching a cat it doesn't know. That's more important than doing anything else. In fact a fun exercise is remembering something our cat did or felt and convey the emotions the cat was displaying. Do that by using as little time and pencil lines as possible. That helps in developing your line quality and style. A good resource or reference to look at is Snoopy. I can tell you from always having beagles Charles Schultz nailed the beagle when he created Snoopy. Convey your cat's persona as simply as you can. Do a drawing from the standpoint of if your cat saw the drawing the cat would recognize itself and say you nailed me. Doing that prevents you from concentrating on things that don't matter like the eye color is not totally right, things like that.
great video! i was also having a similar issue with improving and understanding what i was drawing. i learned that form can be built through contour lines when i was drawing along to your cat :) form can also be built through shading and probably color. there's soooo much to learn from drawing and trying out different things!
I definitely used to use shading as a crutch to try to add some life into my drawings. Always having some new things to learn definitely helps keep drawing fun and exciting!
@@GraceDeGrace yeah and the constant fear of not being original because I truly couldnt create much that was just me... it takes a toll. I got better at it even before studying but yeah
having done both 3D modelling/sculpting, it feels supercharging to try drawing 2D crap, knowing full well that i could imagine wireframes and perspective distortion. except im still uhhh exercising the 2D drawing muscles
@@GraceDeGrace they look at the portait and get mad like oh that's what you think of me. I made a portrait of a girlfriend in highschool, and I don't think she liked it so I kept it, my next girlfriend didn't like it either.
Remember that professionals use reference as well. Nobody from the start can conjure a cat from their mind perfectly onto paper. Although, even if an artist can draw a cat perfectly, we don't know how many times they studied all kinds of cats over and over
As a fellow self-taught artist, I didn't need anyone to tell me that using 3D shapes to represent what I was drawing was a good idea. I don't mean that as an insult, mind you, everyone has their own path to learning a craft, and I respect that. Just saying, even as a kid, I knew my little doodles didn't look good because I didn't yet know how to draw 3D shapes. When I finally learned that skill, I immediately incorporated it into my drawing, and steadily from that point on, I got better and better at drawing. Especially organic shapes, but I can absolutely draw a mean cube if I want to, but ask me to draw a motorcycle, and I might just flop.
That’s awesome that you started that way! I had books to try to make drawing easier and they always used flat simple shapes never 3D ones so that’s what o started off doing. Glad I’m seeing some improvement now, wishing you all the best with your art!
I'm trying to draw shades, trying to understand how to draw them, and still fail Now I'm considering redrawing one art with shades to see if that would help
My biggest problem when I was learning to shade was being afraid to go too dark. No matter what you’re drawing, there are going to be spots with deep shadows and you need the contrast between the deep darks and the bright lights to capture that depth
Really like this video, it was very insightful!! Do you have any tips when it comes to just studying art in general? Like, when artists study hands, do they just draw hands for an hour and move on?
I think it depends on the artist! For me, I’ll have a general thing I want to draw and so while “studying” I’ll make an effort to try to memorize common shapes the thing has. For a little bit I wanted to get better at drawing robots so I really paid attention to commonalities in robots. When I did this, I discovered that hinges and circles making up the joints really sold the look of a robot and everything kind of could be whatever. So then I practiced drawing hinges from different angles really tried to understand how hinges worked and what parts they’re made of. So now, my brain understands the components and can rebuild them from different perspectives easier
😂😂 this was me for years!! As long as you keep trying, even with long breaks in between, you’re still learning. Don’t stop attempting!! I believe in you
Unfortunately thinking in 3D is really difficult for me. I have very bad proprioception and it makes my capabilities to even process things as being in a 3D space inconsistent at best.
What really got me out of my awkward phase in drawing people/animals was learning organic shape language, S curves and C curves changed my life for real
Ah I see it’s like the shape of a spine!
I don't know what you're talking about and I'm intrigued. Can you explain more, please?
@@adicandra9940 if you look at a persons spine, it’s got a little bit of an S shape to it. Human spines are literally the backbone of a human so learning to manipulate that shape gives you a good structure and starting point. With cats, their spines are also S shaped a little if you include neck and tail, but the main part is C shaped, and so same thing happens: learning to represent those curves improves your drawing of them!
@@adicandra9940 Yeah If you've ever seen a gesture drawing and thought, "how did they draw that leg so well with only a few quick lines?" A lot of it comes from S curve and C curve lines (if you haven't heard of them, these lines only kinda look like Ss and Cs, as said by op the spine is just a subtle S curve). Organic shapes like those in anatomy have offset mass distribution. If you put your arm out with your palm facing up, the curve on the thumb side of your forearm is more sudden and starts lower on the arm compared to the curve on the pinky side. This creates a visually appealing offset between the two curves. S/C curves let you improve the feeling of flow and weight in your lines, and really emphasizes These offsets.
I *highly* recommend Sinix's video "design theory: shape appeal", it explains it way better than I can
@@adicandra9940 Yeah If you've ever seen a gesture drawing and thought, "how did they draw that leg so well with only a few quick lines?" A lot of it comes from S curve and C curve lines (if you haven't heard of them, these lines only kinda look like an S or a C, as said by op, a spine is just a subtle S curve). Organic shapes like those in anatomy have offset mass distribution. If you put your arm out with your palm facing up, the curve on the thumb side of your forearm is more sudden and starts lower on the arm compared to the curve on the pinky side. This creates a visually appealing offset. S/C curves let you improve the sense of flow and weight of your lines, while emphasizing these offsets. Drawing them in one fluid motion is really important btw.
I *highly* recommend Sinix's video "design theory: shape appeal" it explains it way better than I can.
The big dog cuddling the small dog is so cute.
They love each other so much
I agree
1:50 The cat can be seen comprehending "Perspective, color palette, composition, and more."
Ah yes, the cat’s mastery of art is my inspiration
While learning to draw in a cartoon style I found it useful to draw parallels with writing. You're using lines/values to explain and describe what's there, so clarity and intention is a lot more important than being accurate in a literal sense. Sometimes even a photo can look ugly and confusing where a less technically accurate drawing of the same subject can look both more appealing and instantly recognisable.
Exactly, it’s learning describing an energy or a situation and how to portray that
Exactly, I remind myself to “not fall in love with the reference, flirt with it”
Great tip. It's like the reference uses a lot more stuff to explain what's actually there, whearas we are stuck with just lines so we have to do more with it to show the same things.
The question I guess is, after making a clear statement with just lines, will adding more rendering with other visual elements (values and color) make the artwork worse?
What you're discussing in the beginning is the distinction between line, shape, and form. Line is about where one thing ends and another begins. Shape is about where one thing is and, by implication, is not. Form is about the distance each part of that thing is from the viewer. The face of a cube has four edges, and is shaped like a square when you face it straight on (squarely, haha) - but these can be just as true for the side of a cylinder. You identify the shape as a cylinder when you communicate to the viewer that the center of the shape is closer to the viewer than the sides.
As you build your visual library, you'll have more resources available to call upon when you need to figure out what something from imagination would look like. But you continue to need references forever, because your brain is constantly optimising your memory, and if you are not USING your memory of what dogs look like your brain will merrily throw it out the window and replace it with "eh, kinda like this." You have to keep showing it more actual pictures of actual dogs, so the mental cost of remembering what dogs look like remains low across all memories of dogs. Eventually your visual library becomes a priority in and of itself and your brain will just automatically clue in on specific visual details to catalog.
Wow this is a wonderful explanation!! Thank you!
@@GraceDeGrace I've been on my art journey for about six years, myself. We all face the same problems and have to find our way to the same solutions, but the paths we take and the order we solve them are all different - and it can be REALLY useful to compare notes.
Your explanation left me more confused than before. Maybe I'll try to put it into different words and you tell me whether or not we're talking about the same things.
"Shape" refers to the actual three-dimensional shape of the object. Like a smartphone is roughly a cuboid with rounded edges and corners. That's its shape.
"Forms" are the two-dimensional shapes (for lack of a better word) we put on paper in order to communicate the form of the thing we're drawing. Like, despite the faces of a cube being squares that's not what we draw when attempting to draw a cube, because of perspective. What we do instead is, we add three quadrilaterals together in order to fool the viewer into believing he's seeing a cube. Those quadrilaterals are the forms.
A "line" now is a one-dimensional curve (straight lines are also curves). The boundary of every form consist solely of lines.
So, in conclusion, what we actually put on paper when drawing are lines meant to convey forms meant to convey shapes. (Painting is different, for there we can create forms directly and the lines emerge as a result of that. But the goal stays the same: to convey shapes.)
@@lonestarr1490 I think of them exactly the opposite way: shapes are 2D (a thing you might paint on a canvas) and forms are 3D (a thing you might sculpt out of clay). That's typically how other art books and teachers refer to them, too.
This is because we all know a circle is a shape, but you can't PICK UP a circle. A circle only has two dimensions. Even if you cut one out of paper, the paper has thickness and what you actually have is a very short cylinder.
Similarly, in industrial design, when you have something that you mold a material around... we call that a form. It is by nature three-dimensional, and the material is wrapped around it. We would not call a cutting template a "form" or refer to cutting a thing out of sheet steel as "forming" the steel. Forming steel inherently means BENDING steel.
I can see both how it would be confusing as hell if those two terms were reversed, and why it makes a certain degree of sense to reverse them: you're making a slightly different distinction, between the actual physical shape of an object (and we do, to be fair, often refer to sculpting as SHAPING the clay) and the abstract representational form it takes in an image. These aren't WRONG, it's just not the way that they're typically used in art instruction.
great way of sayin this, I have a sever pride problem. I don’t have anything against references and other sources.
But as it goes I’m constantly in line of using my memory alone to “know” how to draw things. Hellbent on using my imagination and mental library to make drawings whether I know something or not.
In short, ignorance has been a way of getting by
Testing memory is an essential practice to improving but, purposefully not using reference when it’s available is a big mistake.
Whether that reference is a book, image, video, even yourself in the mirror. As long as you’re challenging yourself is good (memory test). Take challenges but don’t make it harder for yourself.
my bad for the ramble, I really like your explanation and wanted to build off of it
This makes sense, my entire life I’ve been told to draw with shapes, I just didn’t understand they meant circular shapes
Curves are so important and 3D shapes really help!
You create the volume of the shape you draw with a line.
Thinking in 3d was so useful. I am so happy i figured it out early on. Now i gotta grinddddd drawings
Hopefully this motivated you a little
I went over a sketch that I did yesterday that looked super awkward applying this technique, and it instantly made it better!!
Wow that’s wonderful!!! I’m so glad!
In its evolving, unfinished state, the drawing of the cat exists as a mere potentiality. It is only when observation is applied to form that the cat is brought into being, collapsing its quantum state into a superposition of both a fully realized three-dimensional creature and a two-dimensional representation on the page.
Schrodinger’s cat drawing…
😅
I only just watched this and it makes SO much sense - It kinda reminds me of how I have a tendancy to get mad when I see sketches that don't 100% match the reference. . . I'm realizing now that getting getting 1-for-1 lines is not the point, I'm (irrationally XD) angry for the wrong reasons! It's about understanding form/color/composition and being able to COMMUNICATE that, even if it's not a 1-for-1!!
One of the nost impactful pieces of advice I've heard is that you are not Drawing The Thing, you are creating the ILLUSION of the thing (OG example, you don't need to draw every leaf on a tree, you just need to make it LOOK lole there are a ton of leaves!), and I think that relates to this! It's about finding the right informations to convey to convince the viewer of the suggestion of reality, not marking 1-for-1 every single percieved line if it doesn't actually convey what we need (What we see isn't exactly what's there anyway, it's our mind interpreting over and over the world around us (often chosing to focus or ignore things in ways that aren't always condusive to art at that) - It's about basically finding and honing the right mental plug-ins to overide some of those interpretations and instead focus on the ones that will help us create the illusion we're going for!! . . . . Honestly this may be true for most creation, maybe even other fields XD Man, life is interesting ❤)
True! When I found this is out, it was such a breakthrough moment for me!
I would also look into overlaps and tangents, if you add overlaps and remove tangents it's a life-saver, cause then you see more clearly more whats infront and behind. Great video!
Oh great tip, I must try this!!
I think I remember some sort of landscape painter once saying that a photograph is more accurate for what a place looks like, while a painting is more accurate for what a place feels like.
Oh that is so poetic! I’ve been really enjoying creating more since switching my focus from copying/replicating to conveying a message
Wow, that's a good way to think about art. Was that from a tutorial? I would love to learn from such wise artists.
I've recently had a big breakthrough when it came to my drawing. I realized that there are three ways that I can approach drawing. The first one is by telling myself that my job here is to finish the job - it's about completing the objective at hand. The second way is by asking myself "am I doing it right", and the third way is by asking myself a question that is so abstract that it cannot be translated to any language. I draw better from imagination than from reference.
I am jealous of your ability then. My mind cannot just pour out onto the page without help
But be careful, do you draw better without a reference or do you simply not have the comparison in front of you to highlight your mistakes?
thank you for your calm voice and the soothing music, its like getting advice from a disney princess
Aw that is so magical ✨💖 thank you!!
fun fact, drawing in flat shapes is just a different school of thought. many artists experimented with paintng light (i think even Michaelangelo did) - if I'm not mistaken - valazquez started it properly and then his student Duran and then Sargent painted as flat shapes. I know that's not entirely the point of thi video but even painters like Richard Schmid used this flat approach. Saying this just because of the cat you regarded as having a bad approach. and again, i know it's not the point, structure helps sooo much when drawing for example from imagination but just as a fun fact for curious people here
Admittedly, I don’t know much about the masters processes. I always just figured if that if they were doing it differently, it was because they already had a good enough understanding of the fundamentals to “break” them. For me, switching from drawing flat shapes helped but that’s just for my tastes. There are so many styles and techniques out there, it’s part of what makes art so uniquely incredible! I should have also mentioned that somewhere in the video. Thanks for the sharing some extra info!
i definitely feel like having some intuition about form etc would help. Sargent used to say something like : if you had a good enough eye, you could perfectly reconstruct anything without any knowledge about that thing. Richard Schmid put it nicely, you don't paint things, you don't need to learn the structure and colour of thousands of things, you just need to know to to paint light. he imagines everything as a jigsaw puzzle with every shape having properties: shape, edges, hue and value. thanks for the reply btw! and yeah you could have mentioned it but it's a good vid either way
@@MikolajKolbiarz thanks for watching and I find what you shared interesting!!
I used to draw all the time when I was a kid, but I ended up hitting a wall in my ability to understand objects in space on a flat 2D surface just like this. All the advice and techniques I would find or receive never really helped me, especially because it usually included phrases like “Focus on the end result”, to help with maintaining motivation. It never felt right but I couldn’t figure out anything else to do. I stopped drawing for fun probably by the end of middle school and then entirely after high school. It’s been 10 years since then. I’ll still doodle now and then, but it still doesn’t feel like I understand anything I’m doing.
Can’t fully comprehend why but this video is kind of refreshing. I still feel stuck but I also feel like a change in my understanding is finally right around the corner.
Keep at it!! Learning to train your eyes to break down real life into shapes is very difficult. And it’s so easy to get overwhelmed or swept away by the complexity of what we want the end result to be. For me, focusing on just one small 3D shape at a time made it easier for me understand.
Coming from someone who would also lose motivation and stop drawing for long periods of time, I wish you the best of luck on your journey!!
You got this
Circles, squares and triangles are the secret to mastering drawing
Yeah I just wasn’t using them to their full potential 🫣
@@GraceDeGrace I’m just getting into drawing after years of anxiety and practicing art with the square, circle and triangle has made it easier
@@resistancepublishing oh well then for sure practice that way!! I just found a way that started working better for me and so I decided to share!
@@GraceDeGrace awesome. Thank you for the awesome video and keep up the good work
Holy crap I needed this, for too long I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out how to make my art look more lively. This’ll help a ton thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
On a whim I pressed on this video and didn't expect too much from someone I've never seen before, but oh my gosh I'm so happy I found your channel right now. Everything about this is so well explained and amazingly edited too!
Oh my goodness that is so kind of you to say thank you so much!!
Good to see someone who is having the same problem i have and was able to push through it!
You can do it too!
@@GraceDeGrace yeah I'm not giving up!
I never watched any videos about art, this appeared randomly in my reccomended and watched the whole vid interested in what u were saying cuz vibes were really cozy and wholesome
Oh that’s lovely! Well thanks for watching!
Stop drawing the lines you see. Start drawing the things you see.
Ooooh I like that!
MM…food..
How?
?????,,,
You should draw the angles and shapes you see
You aren’t drawing an eyeball you are drawing the shapes around the eye ball. It’s about the relationships of each angle to the other angle or of each shape to the other shape and other such measurements
edit: So start with the contours and block in and then start to formulate the volumes and details of the objects- this is how you achieve likeness
This genuinely spoke to me, I guess i really been thinking of my drawings as 2D things instead of actual things with mass that take up space. Thanks for the much needed reminder ☺
I'm glad this helped!!
I like this video a lot, it really reminds me of how I felt when I started out. I had to learn a lot of this by repetition, experimenting, and pure intuition, so it's super cool to see someone talking about it. Your art is super yummy fr and I love the texturing om the library piece !!
Thank you so much, what a heartfelt comment! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!
3:20 holy.... fu..... this is so cute.... I am dying of cuteness😭😭
Soooo many cute moments when she was a puppy. I’m so glad I recorded it
This is the prefect, type of video I've been looking for Every other video I've watched. Place the information like you've been drawing all your life and Understand the concepts of things being breakdown already, Like I was wanting to learn how to draw a car Instead of teaching me the importance of Perspective, Observation and Breakdown into simple shapes. They skip that part straight ahead and gone onto how you'll need to work on One oh two point perspective. This is so, useful for me cause it's Slows things down.
Yeesss there is so much that goes into drawing and learning everything can get so confusing and overwhelming. I’m glad my video helped!
10/10 tips! I see a lot of artists not seeing their characters they draw as 3D forms and this is super helpful!
Thank you! I'm so glad it's helpful!!
@@GraceDeGrace ofc!
this kind of approach to drawing (as in sketching flat shapes and not understanding the 3d composition of your art) is both confusing and really interesting to me as someone who did go to an art school and was taught how to conceptualize things in 3d. turns out all the life stills we were complaining about were necessary after all lol
Yeah the art advice I was always told was to try to learn how to break things down into simple shapes and I think I might have taken that too far after a few years
Wow! That illustrates the importance of exaggeration so well! It takes to show the distortion of cat's muzzle from the pillow to give it weight and solidify it as an object. That was helpful! Thanks!
Yay! Thanks for watching!!
This reminds me of a painting by John Singer Sargent of someone is wearing a pearl necklace. When you look at the painting from afar you understand that it’s pearls, but up close, it is literally 2 dotted lines of white and brown for the highlight and shadow. The person’s skin underneath ended up being the midtone of the pearl. He didn’t physically draw out a circle for each pearl bead.
The masters were so clever with how they portrayed details. I’ve been super fascinated with the different techniques recently
I watch videos on this topic for entertainment purposes, not so much into drawing at this moment, all to say that the music, your animals, your pace and soft spoken voice made all this deeply enjoyable, thank you for the video ❤
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you liked it 😃😃
I've been going through a similar thought process with my drawings. It's so cool to hear you put those thoughts into a video so well!
Yay I’m so glad!! Thanks for watching!
oh my goodness this was my exact problem! Youʼve described it with such accuracy that I think you just saved my drawing career. Iʼve been having trouble with making my drawings look somewhat like my references or what Iʼm thinking of, and all this time Iʼve focused on the accuracy of my lines and never the shapes. Although I have had this problem I didnʼt do much about it since I was somewhat pleased with the end result, but I just havenʼt realized itʼs holding me back from what I can truly draw. Because I canʼt draw well from memory lately I have thought of my self as not creative. Just a person who can draw objects decently. Never have I applied what I learned from countless videos or practices to improve my skills, all I have done is understand it. Thank you so much, now I can doodle and draw!!
Yay!! I’m so glad this helped, good luck on your art journey!!
Your voice is so calming, the imagery kept me concentrated and this whole video felt like such a nice watch! Super underrated video, all of it is beautiful
Thank you so much, that really means a lot!
There are several things you can do to help you draw things in poses you've never drawn before, the main two I use are skeleton maps and box sketches.
Skeleton maps are just drawing lines where the body and limbs should go, while box sketches give you a better sense of proportion so you can draw over it easier.
In other words, we never draw anything perfectly from memory, we just draw pose references, and then more detailed references based on those references, ect... until we get to a level of detail that we like and feel like we can start coloring in.
Also, if you ever want to draw hands, box sketches are the way to go. I've given up on trying to use skeleton maps for hands entirely.
Thanks for the tips!!
It always makes me happy to see artists who have learned how to draw more accurately to their ideal. It makes me feel like I've improved as well as others
It’s so reassuring and satisfying!
the rabbit hole goes even deeper. the lines are for the silhuette ( cant spell that correct for the life of me) . if the figure is all black on a white background you still need to see the pose. then there are proportions, curves and lines (so the pose is more dynamic), those 3d shapes you mentioned in the video ( forming a pose inside those dinamic lines), shading( irl we don see lines, we see shadows), contrast levels, composition and story/message for the whole work.
Yeah it can be daunting because like where do you even start!! I’ve been fixated on structure for a little, but I’m sure it will switch to getting better at perspective, then color theory, then composition etc.
This whole video spawned because I felt like everything in my drawing was where it should be and I was still unhappy with it, and that’s when I fell down the rabbit hole
@@GraceDeGrace for perspective i suggest some Architectual drawings for shading some design drawings like when i was going to drawing lessons the professor threw some basic shapes and sometimes there was black ball on top of a black cloath and glass and that was really hard because you spend probably an hour shading something and now it either has to be lighter or the background even darker. For other stuff i have no experience. Only in 3d
@@kristianivanov2049 thanks! 😃
Watching Oreo and Daisy plus that silk voice is therapy.
Thank you, I will share the compliments with Oreo and Daisy too
It's not, but, you do you.
I recently started looking into isometric art, because of a game project I'm starting, and it forced me into a very technical workflow of using boxes to get accurate reference points in space to draw things right. That made all the theory on drawing I've watched over the years suddenly click and my drawings got better overnight, simply, from properly understanding the process of constructing anything rather than practice alone. It's a little unreal how I'm producing things I'd call "quite good" rather than "borderline passable" just by focusing on errors in the process rather than the errors in the result.
Yes focusing on the process vs the end result is such a game changer!!
These are amazing tips thank you! All the pets look so nice I just wanted to hug them all x.x
You’re welcome and thank you for watching!! I will make sure all of the pets get a hug as a gift from you
i am super glad the algorithm got this video on my recommended i live for these types of videos thank you very much for what you do!!!
Omg I’m so glad you like them! Thank YOU for watching!!
I'm glad your video ended up on my home page because honestly this was one of the best videos by far that I have watched this month. Maybe I enjoyed the video cuz I have a cat myself or maybe because your journey was very uncannily similar to mine, and probably to a majority of us. Now I have slowly built up a visual library and I'm glad I am progressing on the right path. I loved your video a lot and in fact for some strange reason I teared up a bit. Loved your editing style and your pets are very cute. subscribed !
Oh wow thank you so much! I’m so glad to hear that someone else went through a similar journey and I wasn’t alone!!
FINALLY someone said it loudly
🗣️🗣️🗣️
might be my favourite video of the year
Omg what a huge compliment thank you!!
Yo this was pretty similar to my art journey. I spent the most of my childhood drawing, but essentially just getting better at being a photocopier.
Just last year, I had the same experience as you. I needed to understand the fundamental concepts of why things look the way they do, and so I did.
Practice after practice I became gradually better. I feel pretty fulfilled knowing I can take my imagination and put it into a physical form. Although, I still try to improve on myself, looking to learn new things and gain more experience, it’s fun.
Have a good day, and have fun arting!
(Plus, I am an even better photocopier because of this lol)
😂 thank you for sharing your journey and good luck to you too!!
I opened UA-cam to search for this exact topic and coincidentally this video was the first thing that showed up on my home page! What a nice video, those are some cute animals. Keep up the great work!
Oh how serendipitous!! Thank you!
The information from this video is truly wonderful but I cant focus because of all those cute little critters shown 😭😭 the video with the small puppy and the bigger dog resting their head on the pup is soooo cuuute
Plus the resting cat faces are so squishy i cant 😩❤
I just have to share their beautiful faces with the world!
Ah the, growing, teething pains of an artist.
Good luck on your journey and remember 2 things:
1) *Always* keep it fun, even if just a little!
2) When all else fails, your own observation skills will always be your best asset!
Both of these things are VERY important, and you might forget them along the way, but you will find yourself faced with these again and again in time.
-Sincerely, an artist who is just further along that path that wants to see you succeed in your own goals
Thank you very much for your wonderful comment!
super insightful !!! also your pets are SO cute
Thank you!
The music is so calming I love it.
Thank you!
When I started to draw again after a year of unmotivation, I struggled with exactly this problem (and is still struggling with it). I thought of a thing as a 2d image or paper doll where you rotate the limbs and joints in a 2d dimension. After so many attempts and struggles in drawing, I went back to basics. I remember drawing minecraft characters for 6 years, drawing cubes in different perspectives. "Perspective... perspective... THAT'S IT!", I thought to myself. I started practicing drawing 3d shapes in a 3d world. I draw a cube in multiple angles, I draw a cylinder in multiple angles, I draw a pyramid in multiple angles, I draw whatever shape I can think of in multiple angles. I made lines, shading, guides, arrows, just to tell future me how the shape "moves".
After a while, I started to draw humans (not realisticly) again. Making the limbs look "short" due to them facing to the camera helped so much in drawing. Occasionally I can't avoid drawing with no perspective at all but I guess that's an old habit that will definitely die hard. Still though, learning to draw in angles is quite a big improvement!
It’s such a game changer!!
This was a really good video. The pacing was fantastic.
Thank you so much!
this is the video ive been looking for !! thank u Grace
Thank YOU for watching!!
@@GraceDeGrace 🥰
Thinking further on the comment "Stop drawing the lines you see. Start drawing the things you see." - I feel like even the revised 3D drawing of the cat didn't capture the essence: what is it about the cat that made you want to take that photo in the first place?
You can answer that question yourself however you want, to me personally it comes down to action lines, and the way forms interact with each other. The end goal would be to not show just the cat and the pillow. The end goal of the study would be to show the action of the cat leaning against the pillow, the action of the cat stretching its paws in a way they did, the action of the cat half-opening their one eye in a lazy way.
That's a good point, I thought she just looked cute in between the pillows. I could have exaggerated parts of the drawing to really emphasize her being squished in, but I was having a hard time even drawing basic cat at first!
Thank you for making this! Just now started to get more serious about my artwork and this helps me a lot! New sub :)
Yay thank you!! Wishing you all the best on your art journey!
I think for the cat drawing the arm can be spilt into a few parts cos there’s a joint instead of a full cylinder. Another way to study would be to look at the skeletal anatomy to have a rough guide on where the joints are, the motion of the body parts and the limitations of where it can swing etc. I think it would help gain more understanding of the subject🙏. . That’s what I did lol, although I’m still tryna get it but I think it’s quite helpful in the process, hope it helps 🙏🙇♂️
I should try! Skeletons just look so daunting to me 😳
@@GraceDeGrace ohh its okay you can do it!
Wow, what a nice video with a great art tip!
The pleasant classical music complemented your laid-back voiceover sooo well. Got me relaxed! And the pets are adorable too! :D
Thank you very much!
your cat looks eternally shocked haha
😳😳😳 her 24/7
great start! A good resource for construction drawing is a class called "Dynamic Sketching" which is offered in several diff formats online.
Thanks for the recommendation!
please makes more video like this!!
I really like the quiet yet wholesome element of this video >< ❤❤
Thank you! I think all of my videos will be this kind of vibe since I love showing people my pets and I don’t like screaming 😂
One thing ive learned to do is to start with straight lines showing approximately where the limbs will go, and then drawing curves around those lines. Even if you dont follow them much, it really helps to add structure because the curves have to rely on those lines, like muscles on bones. It helped me a lot and it might also help others when their pose seems strange.
Muscles on bones is a great way to put it!
Those are some charming drawing references. Very huggable :)
Thank you! Yes, they are very affectionate references ☺️
your cat is so freaking cute id improve my art skills to draw him too hehehe
anyway it was really cool to see your process of improvement
Aw thank you!
So useful, and I love the music
Thank you! So glad you liked it!
The masses yearn to Draw A Box
The form is peak
magnificent video, thank you and im grateful for reminding me this.
Thank you! I’m so glad you liked it!
edit) this is said after watching for a short period, and I didnt have full context from the video, what I meant from this comment is "dont ONLY use reference, let yourself learn from it and try to grow into someone who doesnt always need it for everything" but to also not take art so seriously, pressure beats everyone in art and every picasso could've stopped because they felt like they needed every piece to be perfect, but unless it's being paid for you really shouldnt need to be amazing and even though this video gives great tips, dont pressure yourself under being a "bad artist" because you cant do this. this videos main tip is "imagine it as shapes" and my main goal with this comment was to say "train yourself to be able to imagine" try to actively draw things without needing a reference, because to break down something into 3d shapes, you need to draw those shapes without a reference. right under this is the original comment, bye bye.
you say "for the first 5 to 6 years I've been doodling"
I have been drawing since about 2018 (digitally), if you look at any of my art between the year 2018 to 2021, I only really doodled, I didn't post my art or care too much about how "good" it was, and if you look at any of it as a byproduct it will be very VERY stylized because, the next point you bring up
"I couldn't draw much without a reference image"
I would draw EVERYTHING without a reference, even now most of it is memory besides if I'm drawing peoples OC's or general art for other people. you look at any of my art it will be stylized because I learned ONLY from my imagination, I saw other art and tried to put it to my own but my only reference was the mind, each stroke was engrained because I learned it only by picturing what I want and getting there through sweat and tears. for 3 years I couldnt draw hands AT ALL. for 5 years I couldn't draw in perspective. for 5 years I couldnt draw a semi-accurate body. it wasn't till 2023 that I stepped up my game and learned how to actually draw arms at different angles, draw hands (like actually, like yknow, 5 fingers, and all the stuff that makes a hand look like a hand)
you look at my art now and say "wow that's like kinda cool" but its buried under years of "nice" it smelled of beginner but it was only because I NEVER tried to learn how to draw using references. and yet, it was my (kinda) blessing, I recently learned how to do angles, how to draw bodys, not really how to do head shapes, still suck at that, but it was all that quick progression because I could picture what I wanted in my head better because I learned off imagination and not off just reference (not to say I wasn't only using imagination, sometimes I tried to use reference but never seriously enough to do the same as now because only recently did I actually apply all that time building up to learning to use a reference. (this is actually another edit I wanted to clear this up)). I wasnt recreating an image I was recreating the ideas in my head, and I can tinker the things in my head to my will and get the correct image. I wont say I'm professional for being able to, but I think I have improved enough to be consistent enough for me to apply criticism, instead of having a really good one piece of work, (the one piece is REALL!!!) it's a slow slow process, I'm not gonna say everything magically fit together, again I cant draw heads, but the way I to grow as an artist, is to not rely on images, and rely on yourself too, I've seen people who seriously cant draw without references and it actually baffles me because I've just not thought of it, cause it never occurred to me as an issue, it seems detrimental that you could have that issue. because to me the first part of being an artist is to let your mind go wild and that needs to be curated. people quit because their art isnt good enough but what makes art fun isnt the reaction but the meat of it, drawing, you're able to take any idea and make it maluable, a visual thing, something you can cling onto. and all of that comes from the journey of doodles, of being creative, I personally have been in a slump of creating art for other people recently but the most fun I had making pieces were ones I made ENTIRELY from my imagination or my own will, some guy said something kinda mean on discord to me so I drew him getting a lethal injection and seizing and he liked it. when people say "artists can draw anything" you can, you just need to use your mind to find the work arounds to get there, I parted the drawing of the guy into 1, the injection, and 2, death, and I struggled most with the injection because I couldnt get the angle of holding the syringe without compromising the aspect of the guy being held like a cat being held by the scruff because the hand had to be at a specific angle that would only allow the wrong hand, what did I do? added a second person holding him from the side like he was at the vet getting put down. instead of feeling horrible about what you cant do, you make a work around no matter how lazy the work around is, sure I didnt improve but you also need to go easy on yourself and have fun more than torture yourself to get a presentable piece. your art can't be locked behind a paywall of your own happiness too. also I should add, I wasn't using any specific pose reference, there isnt a guideline to me drawing a guy seizing and dying so I should just draw anyway. you need to gauge how serious your art is, is it a book cover? a movie poster? a comic slide? or is it a request? an art trade? a doodle? not to say you shouldnt improve but you should in your own time, of course dont stagnate, I dont think one person should stay the same forever but it's great to just allow yourself to have fun.
and that's also to say IN that piece I was doing something new, a weird angle with the syringe and hands, a funny expression, (for context, I asked the guy for his character, and it was in a server based on a specific anonymous vr game I AM ashamed to mention, and the guys character was an animal) being held by the scruff, it was funny and dumb but I did new things and that's why I had fun drawing it. you can make compromisations but also equally you need to do something new, not just add small details but a new angle, a new character, a new pose, a new expression, a whole new species if you're willing. you have the most fun when you let your creativity drive a piece and let your mind make the compromisations for things you need to do with the piece and figure out the shape of things. do I know how to draw a wet cat? barely, do I love drawing wet cats? yes, they look stupid but it's why I love it. do I know how to draw dogs? hell no, quite literally 7 drawings in 6 years. did I draw my fatass puppy after he was in the weirdest pose ever and did something dumb just to illustrate what happened? yes because it was funny. even if I was doodling for 5 years, I learned alot with just doodles, you learn the most when you're having fun because those moments stick.
I used to be such a perfectionist and I also had this belief that the best art was classical realism. I’ve since learned to enjoy all kinds of art and experiment with things and in that I learn where I still need to grow. It is a wonderful journey!
my one single art teacher gave some really good advice about references
they're useful, but as the artist, you still have total control (and thus responsibility) over the final picture
so even when drawing by reference, I like to go over the picture just on its own merit after I've done my best to capture the source
I like to think this also means it's not that important to copy the reference. cameras can do that better already. the reference is essentially just a tool
Right, we should transform into something new or different. I try to just get the “essence” of the reference rather than have it be an exact 1:1 copy
the tumb is a fractal, i like it
Thank you!
congratz on coming to this point!
Thank you!!
Very well made and underrated video!
Thank you very much!
they're both good. one is more stylized and one is more realistic. it's good to be able to do both so you can choose which one to use when you need to
It’s good to be able to do both! But, the first one came from a lack of understanding in my case, not from intentional, stylistic choice
@@GraceDeGrace yes it's different when we learn and understand what we're doing! thanks for sharing your insights
@ thanks for watching !
In all skills there will be a gap between understanding a concept and applying a concept. That gap will vary in length depending on the skill and the individual but it's always there.
True but I wish my gap had been shorter 😅😂
Thats why lines that dont ever end up matching the orignal look better :O i was trying to understand how good artist place lines for sooo long
So glad this helped!
I've been drawing for 25 years. I've never taken classes or done studies, and I rarely draw from reference. I mostly draw people/things, and haven't drawn anything abstract since highschool. What I've noticed looking back at my art are these drastic steps in improvement every 2-4 years as I feel like I figure out some massive aspect of construction and really key in a mental 3D map of how an object should be constructed. It's always the same pattern, though. I figure out something new, there's a very small window of rapid improvement and then long periods of stagnation, or maybe a kinder way to put it would be refinement.
I do wonder if I had a more focused lesson-oriented approach then how different my development might have been. I guess it's impossible to say, and maybe if I had forced myself (or been forced) to do that approach, I wouldn't have stuck with it for as long as I have.
I bet you got very good at capturing things from your head though! I still definitely struggle drawing most things from memory or just a concept of idea in my head
@@GraceDeGrace Considering it's almost entirely what I scope to draw, I'm ashamed to admit I often struggle quite a bit with it. While yes, a lot of things come quite easily to me to shape out and render, there's a huge library of stuff that I realize I've spent a decade or more forming bad habits and will slide into, making everything seem off.
But, I suppose it's better than it was- where I didn't notice just how off it was in the first place.
I appreciate the pet videos throughout.
Thank you, I love them so much!
I would advise you to do some drawing exercises that focus on perspective and foreshortening. Don't worry about drawing a cat. Try to animate just rectangles, triangles cones, and cylinders.
When you get to successfully animate those groups of shapes, don't change the pose but change the perspective and foreshortening.
When you get to where you have a lot of successful drawings with nothing interfering such as couch cushions, add an interference.
After that decide the setting, make sure the setting is right in terms of perspective, and foreshortening place the cat or dog in that setting. If you want the cat to be on the couch decide on how much space you want the cat to take up. That tells you how far away you are from the subject.
Hint: Drawing a cat stretching with their paws extended is a good lesson in foreshortening.
Get a good book on drawing animals, and animal anatomy. Replicate in sketches the examples you see in the book. Don't worry about drawing your own cat. You want to develop muscle memory by doing that. That way when you see your cat doing something cute you can start drawing with pencil and paper.
You want to rely on your own skills rather than a computer or photograph with respect to fundamentals.
The most important thing is to take assessment of your cat's individual personality. You want to convey that you know the cat. That the drawing is not done by someone in a park that was watching a cat it doesn't know. That's more important than doing anything else.
In fact a fun exercise is remembering something our cat did or felt and convey the emotions the cat was displaying. Do that by using as little time and pencil lines as possible.
That helps in developing your line quality and style.
A good resource or reference to look at is Snoopy. I can tell you from always having beagles Charles Schultz nailed the beagle when he created Snoopy.
Convey your cat's persona as simply as you can. Do a drawing from the standpoint of if your cat saw the drawing the cat would recognize itself and say you nailed me.
Doing that prevents you from concentrating on things that don't matter like the eye color is not totally right, things like that.
Thanks for the tips! It’s been very fun rewarding studying art!
I'm 100% sure that this is an important video, but I was totally distracted by that cute cat and her doggo friends. 🐈❤
They are so distracting in real life too, they demand your attention!!
3:19 is so important. SO important.
P.S. i loved watching that little dog grow up omg
Omg thanks! I know she’s the cutest little dog!! I’m making another update video soon about her
great video! i was also having a similar issue with improving and understanding what i was drawing. i learned that form can be built through contour lines when i was drawing along to your cat :) form can also be built through shading and probably color. there's soooo much to learn from drawing and trying out different things!
I definitely used to use shading as a crutch to try to add some life into my drawings. Always having some new things to learn definitely helps keep drawing fun and exciting!
Clicked for the advice, stayed for the dogs.
I guess I'll have to try this strategy somehow.
Haha thanks for sticking around
Your pets are mesmerizing. I loved your video
Thank you!
Really insightful! I learned a lot form this
I’m so happy to hear that!
Yeah thats when I started studying too. I hated being unable to create on my own
I felt like I was more like a printer than an artist
@@GraceDeGrace yeah and the constant fear of not being original because I truly couldnt create much that was just me... it takes a toll. I got better at it even before studying but yeah
6:23 these cats, for instance, are large and soft shaped, which is very different from the other cat you drew earlier
It is different, but all cats have some base similarities that make starting to draw them easier over time as you pick up on some of the patterns
having done both 3D modelling/sculpting, it feels supercharging to try drawing 2D crap, knowing full well that i could imagine wireframes and perspective distortion.
except im still uhhh exercising the 2D drawing muscles
It is so hard for me to fully conceptualize things in 3D 😵💫😵💫
When your friends like your drawings 🎉. When they ask you to draw something theres no refrence for😅.
Or when they ask you to draw them and the drawing ends up looking nothing like them 😭
@@GraceDeGrace they look at the portait and get mad like oh that's what you think of me.
I made a portrait of a girlfriend in highschool, and I don't think she liked it so I kept it, my next girlfriend didn't like it either.
@@TomHanks-b1v I was have to give a disclaimer that I’m not a master and that the result may not be a very good drawing
Remember that professionals use reference as well. Nobody from the start can conjure a cat from their mind perfectly onto paper. Although, even if an artist can draw a cat perfectly, we don't know how many times they studied all kinds of cats over and over
Yesss reference is to learn from and study 📚📖
thank you so much...
You’re very welcome!
Amazingly edited video, and cool pets!
Thank you! My pets love the attention so it’s easy to record them
As a fellow self-taught artist, I didn't need anyone to tell me that using 3D shapes to represent what I was drawing was a good idea. I don't mean that as an insult, mind you, everyone has their own path to learning a craft, and I respect that. Just saying, even as a kid, I knew my little doodles didn't look good because I didn't yet know how to draw 3D shapes. When I finally learned that skill, I immediately incorporated it into my drawing, and steadily from that point on, I got better and better at drawing. Especially organic shapes, but I can absolutely draw a mean cube if I want to, but ask me to draw a motorcycle, and I might just flop.
That’s awesome that you started that way! I had books to try to make drawing easier and they always used flat simple shapes never 3D ones so that’s what o started off doing. Glad I’m seeing some improvement now, wishing you all the best with your art!
Thank You!!!
You’re very welcome!
I'm trying to draw shades, trying to understand how to draw them, and still fail
Now I'm considering redrawing one art with shades to see if that would help
My biggest problem when I was learning to shade was being afraid to go too dark.
No matter what you’re drawing, there are going to be spots with deep shadows and you need the contrast between the deep darks and the bright lights to capture that depth
Really like this video, it was very insightful!! Do you have any tips when it comes to just studying art in general? Like, when artists study hands, do they just draw hands for an hour and move on?
I think it depends on the artist!
For me, I’ll have a general thing I want to draw and so while “studying” I’ll make an effort to try to memorize common shapes the thing has.
For a little bit I wanted to get better at drawing robots so I really paid attention to commonalities in robots.
When I did this, I discovered that hinges and circles making up the joints really sold the look of a robot and everything kind of could be whatever. So then I practiced drawing hinges from different angles really tried to understand how hinges worked and what parts they’re made of.
So now, my brain understands the components and can rebuild them from different perspectives easier
@ thank you so much!!
⚠️: simplifying complex forms into simple shapes can break anatomy and structure.
📝📝
So, the product design simple volumes approach
Is this how products are made?! 👀
Not me about to go on my 6th "learning to draw" attemp, before giving up in 2 months again 😈
😂😂 this was me for years!! As long as you keep trying, even with long breaks in between, you’re still learning. Don’t stop attempting!! I believe in you
Thank you for the doggies and that cute, adorable cat
You’re welcome! I can’t help but share their fluffy little faces
cata are very effective at keeping viewer's attention
They are too cute! Those big eyes of theirs
Unfortunately thinking in 3D is really difficult for me. I have very bad proprioception and it makes my capabilities to even process things as being in a 3D space inconsistent at best.
That’s tough! This is just what helped for me but there are a lot of methods of drawing. Hope you find the one that works well for you!!