Thank you so much for watching! Hope this breakdown of the drawing skillset makes sense and resonates with you. Let me know in the comments below how your drawing is going, and if there is anything you are struggling with at the moment in your practice ❤
That's amazingly kind of you!! Thank you so much for this - UA-cam is certainly an odd medium to be teaching life drawing through, haha - but I am so glad to connect with you on here. This is hugely validating, coming from you. Thank you so much.
Thank you Siobhan for making this video. I have recently found your video’s which have been very helpful as I have just started life drawing classes as a beginner. This video has taken it to the next level for me as there was so much valuable information, I just had to stop the video and take notes. The part on observation, in particular, was full of info that I wasn’t quite sure of regarding using all of the senses so I need to explore that further. I am just looking at your courses on Skill-share so hope that doing those, starting perhaps at the Drawing Foundations will help. Thanks again, for being such an amazing tutor.
Hi Arlene! Thanks for this message - that's so exciting that you are starting your life drawing journey!! It is really a practice that unlocks so much of your creativity, in other areas of art as well. Do let me know if you have any questions along the way. I highly recommend to check out "The Natural Way to Draw" by Kimon Nicolaides - it's a wonderful companion book for life drawing, and he explains in way better detail about how your other senses inform your sense of sight when drawing. The book presents drawing schedules which I would say you don't have to follow to the letter, but certainly the information in the book is worth reading (i also have an older video on this channel about the book). Happy drawing!!
Thanks for your reply Siobhan and your book recommendation. I will definitely look into that. I watched your classes for beginners on skillshare over the weekend and am going to give the gesture drawing a go. I’m a bit apprehensive about it as it’s something new to me and you make it look so easy. It’s interesting to see that you sometimes use pen and other times what looks like charcoal pencil. I’ll try them both. I also like to see how you hold the pencils in different ways to make various marks. Something else I need to practice. Thanks again.
Hi Arlene, sorry for late reply! So happy to hear you took one of my Skillshare classes, let me know if you have any questions there! And yes, you should definitely give the gesture drawing a go! Just practice in a sketchbook for a while, don't feel that with this technique you have to necessarily "make a drawing". The absolute best way to practice this is at a life drawing session if you can get to one? (fyi I try to respond to all q's here on YT, but if you would like further support, consider joining my Substack, link in description, where I can respond more!)
Hey @Drawing-Life! I have recently switched (after 3 months of exercises) from studying Nicolaides methods to studying Glenn Vilppu's more constructive approach in order to look for a clearer path to employment in the entertainment industry. I really respect your knowledge on figure drawing and I was wondering your thoughts on Glenn's more analytical and constructive methodology in comparison to a more free form approach like Nicolaides. Thank you!
Hi Adam! thanks for this comment - wow, great to know that you worked through Nicolaides' methods. I think studying Glenn's approach now is going to have a major positive benefit to your work. In my opinion you've laid the ground work in Nicolaides for a lifetime of intuitive and expressive drawing, and now by adding the more constructive approach you are in a perfect position to hone your skills towards more careful and precise anatomy and proportion. In general, the industry you mention - whether it's Animation, Comic art - appreciates the gesture drawing because art directors want to see that you can draw the figure in various dynamic poses. But ultimately they want to see stylized characters and concepts. So, I would also highly recommend @DavidFinchartist 's channel (I'm sure you're following him already), he has a great sense of anatomy, and construction but is a master at loose, and gestural lines that under-pin his drawing. Wishing you the best in your job search! www.youtube.com/@DavidFinchartist/featured
Thanks so much! Appreciate this feedback - I worry sometimes, but I personally love seeming demos, and I learnt so much in life drawing from watching my teacher demo, so I do think it's helpful. Thanks for this!!
I love the part at 5:50 where you refine the shoulder shape. I'm pretty good at the general, big shapes but I struggle with details and what to emphasize.
Very common - i often make a great gesture drawing and then dialing into the details, the energy is often lost. Two things just to respond here - yes I don't mind making corrections like that - it's ok to shift and move things around in your drawing, even if the pervious marks remain ( especially if it's a gesture drawing), because the eye naturally will see the "correct" lines! And second, to practice emphasis and shapes, I recommend setting a timer and doing a series of poses where you place constraints on yourself - only draw the torso in 2 mins, or only draw shoulder and arm in 1 min.... etc That will feed into your longer drawings and help a lot I think. Let me know if this works! 😊
You have articulated exactly what I have been discovering as of late in my own drawing style. I have found it to be very fluid and freeing. Thank you for posting this one. Have you written a book about this yet ? 😃
Your videos are so awesome and helpful! Thank you! I'm somewhat new to figure drawing, and I find since my approach has been generally more expressive/intuitive, I tend to get confusion over the construction aspect (for example relationship of hips to torso, how the shoulders connect to the body, etc.). How do you recommend getting a better understanding of construction without relying on a method that solely focuses on construction?
Thank you so much for this comment! It's a great question, especially for beginners, or if you are starting out with the figure. My approach is to treat construction and structure as a learning tool, not an end goal - so don't be too worried about focusing on this, if you are willing to treat it as a learning tool. Studying structure in a rigid, rules-based way might actually help you to conceptualist the forms into something you understand (eg, realizing the hips counter the shoulders, and that makes the torso move). But then, ..... I definitely believe that this study needs to be accompanied by an equal focus on gesture and expressive drawing in order to put that academic understanding into a DRAWN, felt, and personal expression. The two sides to drawing the figure - anatomy, and gesture - are separate but very much mutually supportive. i hope this answer helps in some way?! Let me know if you have any other questions. (Also, try to go to life drawing if you can!).
@@Drawing-Life Thank you so much for your informative reply! I will definitely be working toward studying both the structure and expressive/gesture drawing. I think since I find the construction aspect to be less interesting I'm already naturally more inclined for the emphasis to be on expressive/gesture drawing but alas I will probably try to work on construction at least a little. Also, have been attending life drawing and will continue! Thanks again!
Thank you so much for watching! Hope this breakdown of the drawing skillset makes sense and resonates with you. Let me know in the comments below how your drawing is going, and if there is anything you are struggling with at the moment in your practice ❤
I am an art teacher, and I think you're one of the best teachers on You tube.
That's amazingly kind of you!! Thank you so much for this - UA-cam is certainly an odd medium to be teaching life drawing through, haha - but I am so glad to connect with you on here. This is hugely validating, coming from you. Thank you so much.
Thank you Siobhan for making this video. I have recently found your video’s which have been very helpful as I have just started life drawing classes as a beginner. This video has taken it to the next level for me as there was so much valuable information, I just had to stop the video and take notes. The part on observation, in particular, was full of info that I wasn’t quite sure of regarding using all of the senses so I need to explore that further. I am just looking at your courses on Skill-share so hope that doing those, starting perhaps at the Drawing Foundations will help. Thanks again, for being such an amazing tutor.
Hi Arlene! Thanks for this message - that's so exciting that you are starting your life drawing journey!! It is really a practice that unlocks so much of your creativity, in other areas of art as well. Do let me know if you have any questions along the way. I highly recommend to check out "The Natural Way to Draw" by Kimon Nicolaides - it's a wonderful companion book for life drawing, and he explains in way better detail about how your other senses inform your sense of sight when drawing. The book presents drawing schedules which I would say you don't have to follow to the letter, but certainly the information in the book is worth reading (i also have an older video on this channel about the book). Happy drawing!!
Thanks for your reply Siobhan and your book recommendation. I will definitely look into that. I watched your classes for beginners on skillshare over the weekend and am going to give the gesture drawing a go. I’m a bit apprehensive about it as it’s something new to me and you make it look so easy. It’s interesting to see that you sometimes use pen and other times what looks like charcoal pencil. I’ll try them both. I also like to see how you hold the pencils in different ways to make various marks. Something else I need to practice. Thanks again.
Hi Arlene, sorry for late reply! So happy to hear you took one of my Skillshare classes, let me know if you have any questions there! And yes, you should definitely give the gesture drawing a go! Just practice in a sketchbook for a while, don't feel that with this technique you have to necessarily "make a drawing". The absolute best way to practice this is at a life drawing session if you can get to one? (fyi I try to respond to all q's here on YT, but if you would like further support, consider joining my Substack, link in description, where I can respond more!)
Amazingly done video.
Very nice as always.
Thank you Noah! Really appreciate this , thank you for watching :)
Hey @Drawing-Life! I have recently switched (after 3 months of exercises) from studying Nicolaides methods to studying Glenn Vilppu's more constructive approach in order to look for a clearer path to employment in the entertainment industry.
I really respect your knowledge on figure drawing and I was wondering your thoughts on Glenn's more analytical and constructive methodology in comparison to a more free form approach like Nicolaides.
Thank you!
Hi Adam! thanks for this comment - wow, great to know that you worked through Nicolaides' methods. I think studying Glenn's approach now is going to have a major positive benefit to your work. In my opinion you've laid the ground work in Nicolaides for a lifetime of intuitive and expressive drawing, and now by adding the more constructive approach you are in a perfect position to hone your skills towards more careful and precise anatomy and proportion. In general, the industry you mention - whether it's Animation, Comic art - appreciates the gesture drawing because art directors want to see that you can draw the figure in various dynamic poses. But ultimately they want to see stylized characters and concepts. So, I would also highly recommend @DavidFinchartist 's channel (I'm sure you're following him already), he has a great sense of anatomy, and construction but is a master at loose, and gestural lines that under-pin his drawing. Wishing you the best in your job search!
www.youtube.com/@DavidFinchartist/featured
@@Drawing-Life Thank you so much! I'll check out his channel.
Amazing thank you.
Please keep posting
Thank you Jerry! I will aim to ❤
Hey. I love seeing you demonstrate.🧑🎨♾️✍️
Thanks so much! Appreciate this feedback - I worry sometimes, but I personally love seeming demos, and I learnt so much in life drawing from watching my teacher demo, so I do think it's helpful. Thanks for this!!
I love the part at 5:50 where you refine the shoulder shape. I'm pretty good at the general, big shapes but I struggle with details and what to emphasize.
Very common - i often make a great gesture drawing and then dialing into the details, the energy is often lost. Two things just to respond here - yes I don't mind making corrections like that - it's ok to shift and move things around in your drawing, even if the pervious marks remain ( especially if it's a gesture drawing), because the eye naturally will see the "correct" lines! And second, to practice emphasis and shapes, I recommend setting a timer and doing a series of poses where you place constraints on yourself - only draw the torso in 2 mins, or only draw shoulder and arm in 1 min.... etc That will feed into your longer drawings and help a lot I think. Let me know if this works! 😊
You have articulated exactly what I have been discovering as of late in my own drawing style.
I have found it to be very fluid and freeing.
Thank you for posting this one.
Have you written a book about this yet ? 😃
Ah amazing to hear this!! Thank you for this comment, really glad this resonates with you.
As for the book - haha no, just making videos lol!
Your videos are so awesome and helpful! Thank you! I'm somewhat new to figure drawing, and I find since my approach has been generally more expressive/intuitive, I tend to get confusion over the construction aspect (for example relationship of hips to torso, how the shoulders connect to the body, etc.). How do you recommend getting a better understanding of construction without relying on a method that solely focuses on construction?
Thank you so much for this comment! It's a great question, especially for beginners, or if you are starting out with the figure. My approach is to treat construction and structure as a learning tool, not an end goal - so don't be too worried about focusing on this, if you are willing to treat it as a learning tool. Studying structure in a rigid, rules-based way might actually help you to conceptualist the forms into something you understand (eg, realizing the hips counter the shoulders, and that makes the torso move). But then, ..... I definitely believe that this study needs to be accompanied by an equal focus on gesture and expressive drawing in order to put that academic understanding into a DRAWN, felt, and personal expression. The two sides to drawing the figure - anatomy, and gesture - are separate but very much mutually supportive. i hope this answer helps in some way?! Let me know if you have any other questions. (Also, try to go to life drawing if you can!).
@@Drawing-Life Thank you so much for your informative reply! I will definitely be working toward studying both the structure and expressive/gesture drawing. I think since I find the construction aspect to be less interesting I'm already naturally more inclined for the emphasis to be on expressive/gesture drawing but alas I will probably try to work on construction at least a little. Also, have been attending life drawing and will continue! Thanks again!