"When you go to art school, you'll find everybody sitting around [practicing] their signature. Don't try to develop a style. Ignore style. Just concentrate on drawing and style will occur." - The Animator's Survival Kit, page 29, author Richard Williams' mother.
Phenomenal approach to learning. You’re absolutely right: analysing the same drawing with multiple variations forces you to see what works and why. But drawing different subjects without analysis means ‘good’ work is usually accidental and harder to repeat.
Wow, is amazing to find you here too. I watched your talk and then I'm watching this video. From tomorrow, I'll practice to be a good artist in the future.
I'm 23 and I'm just starting to try and improve my drawing - it's really intimidating when so many people my age and younger have incredible skill already, but I'm trying to have high hopes! Thanks for the amazing advice!
Also a fav piece of advice I got from an art teacher was this: never stop thinking when you’re drawing or painting. “Stay focused on what youre doing or you’ll revert to what you always do and that doesn’t work. “. I swear it’s the best advice
I have been trying to draw for 15 years. But all I kept doing in that time was trying to copy finished works others had done. I always got stuck on trying to replicate the details and could never break them down to simple shapes and forms. And worse, when copying something, I never felt like I learned anything. It just felt like a fruitless exercise. I watched this video few years ago, not really understanding how to implement it. I got what Sycra was trying to say, but I couldn't drop my fears and pride enough to actually follow the advice. I thought that using a source would be faster than just blindly trying to draw stuff on my own. And I definitely was too scared to try and draw stuff from memory before attempting to look at a source. I mean, who can draw something without looking at it first? THAT must be the phantom talent everyone talks about. So I just kept going back to copying stuff. Just this last week, when I was trying for the umpteenth time to copy a drawing, it never came out the way I wanted it to. I could see every little mistake I was making, but had no basis of understanding how to correct the mistakes. And as a result, every new drawing I did ended up worse than the one before. And I got frustrated more than I ever had. I hit my breaking point and, as if the years of failure were all piled up at once, I vowed to give up on drawing. But in my blind anger, I also had a small revelation. "If I can't copy the source correctly, then to hell with the source!" Out of simple spite, I decided to draw one last thing. I set myself to purposefully draw the source incorrectly. I made the hips too fat, drew the chin off center, tried to make the arms like noodles, put the mouth too far up, made one leg longer than the other, etc. I wanted to vent all my frustration on this one drawing, since I had gotten myself into a mental state where I assumed anything I did would look bad anyway. But I was shocked to find that the figure I purposefully drew wrong looked better than all the copies I had attempted. I thought it was a fluke so I drew a couple more. And again, these strange variations on the source I doodled in about 1 minute ended up looking better than the meticulous, time consuming copies that took me 15 minutes a piece. And more importantly, I had actual fun drawing them, unlike the copying which felt like work. Soul crushing, annoying work that made me dread drawing. So I experimented further and tried drawing random body shapes and faces without a source. And again, the results were surprising. I was drawing better stuff without looking at a source than I ever did when trying to copy a finished piece of art. Somehow in all those years of painfully trying to copy, I had learned some of the basics of anatomy and perspective. But I never felt like I had because I was only using those skills to try and copy a completed image. In effect, I was discouraging myself because my rough sketches didn't look exactly like a fully inked and colored final image. During all this realization, I remembered this video and rewatched it. And suddenly everything clicked. I tried Sycra's suggestion of drawing 20 heads and it worked. After about 10 heads, I found new tricks which drastically improved the placement of eyes and mouth. And after all 20, I had already gotten to a point that I could replicate it in just a few seconds without much effort. And I didn't even look at a source to create the head. I just kept refining the first basic head I came up with. I don't know if someone new to drawing can start right away with this or if you need the years of copying to build the mental library/muscle memory to get to this point. But all I can say is, in my experience, it finally started working. After I dropped my stubbornness and accepted it. And I thank Sycra for expanding on this process. Now I'm going to keep trying this process with all the parts of the body and hopefully move onto landscapes after that.
@ maxis2k That's truly an amazing story you have there. It was similar to mine, but in my case it was the opposite: I always had drawn out of imagination alone, never trying to use any reference. But as time passed, I grew tired of the "luck based" approach that was, so I figued I hated drawing. I instantly knew that was the first step for a great change, then I tried to find out how to make the process more about knowledge and less about intuition. After a while, I discovered about using the arm and shoulder to freely control the strokes, as well as figuring out how studying anatomy was important. Hope you're doing good progress man, as well as myself from now on!
I spent sixty thousand on Design school and became a creative director and then owned a visual design company.....I love what you are teaching here and everything is spot on. Thanks for what you do, I hope you save some of the young souls of today from some of the financial burden of Art and Design College.
@@sakuranakamura5060 depends on what compamy you apply to from what I've heard. A lot of art-oriented companies like gaming and animation studios could care less about a sheet of paper saying that you spent 60 grand on an art class.
As a student with ADHD and both intuitive/analytical sides of thinking, I've watched countless tutorials on drawing but have never been able to replicate their methods. I almost quit art because I thought there was just something wrong with me; after you explained it, I'm finally able to actually get better at drawing after 6 years. I'm not sure if you know it, but we (people with ADHD) are so thankful for your videos
my attention span isn't helping to watch the video the whole way through in one sitting. Is it possible to divide the video and still learn a lot from it?
@@samandy24sorry I didn’t see this comment until today. Basically: focus on one thing you want to draw (head shot of a face, eye stylization, body part, etc; He just uses faces here). On your paper/canvas, draw guidelines of the heads, and make the first head. I recommend having a general reference nearby (like stylizing or just an actual reference). Then, analyze it to see what you wanna change; maybe fuller lips, eyes that are higher, etc. Keep implementing these changes. He also mentions maybe spreading the tries out throughout the day, to doing it after going to bed
2nd part: he also encourages you to play with your colors. Make a simple character headshot. Then, copy it and keep changing the colors or saturation of the head to learn what colors work best, what palettes you like, etc. this is even easier if you are a digital painter, since you can just change the values with a filter. Big take away: You are repeating the page of what you want to practice, to analyze *your own work.* For this, he recommends not looking at a reference so you don’t copy and paste it (because it’s harder to analyze WHY the illustrator drew things in certain ways). When you DO look at references, you use it AFTER your practice sheets, to see what you should improve on and realizing what looks good. You are basically peer reviewing yourself.
To anyone who wants to do anything in life: "The difference between the novice and the master is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried." - Korosensei
When it comes to art i think talent can only get you so far. Practice is really the way to go. Find a style you like and try to analyse it, study it. No one just naturally knows how to draw. Keep going!
Another tip when using this method: do ur exercises in pen. i have a bad habit of spending too long on stuff to try and get it 'perfect' but by doing it in pen it forces u to analyze ur mistakes and move on to the next thing to try again and thus increase drawing mileage
Agreed. Just snapped out of a pen phase and I forgot an eraser exists. I’d say working with pen makes you brain deal with mistakes and work with them. I kinda figured out how my hand in different positions makes different emotions of lines.
I switched to pen year ago :D it improved my drawing significantly! (and saved me a TON of time) I would just struggle on one drawing for hours, and now well its just done. the end
I don't use eraser since it usually gets lost, but I'm using pencil and whenever I get mistakes I just stick with it or just redraw it when it gets too messy, so does it still work?
+EglesArt I think his greatest one will always be the video about comfort zones and when he used an analogy of someone riding a sled down a snowy mountain to the finish and he said "And if you're wondering why it is red...let's just say it's a girl on her period."
EglesArt Well, Bob Ross is funny too. XD His jokes are just less frequent than Sycra's though, you really have to watch many episodes in a row to hear Bob Ross's jokes (and that reminded me that I forgot to watch his stream yesterday! D:). Sycra is like the Bob Ross of human artwork.
This is the essence of deliberate practice. Practice and drill. Practice and drill. Practice and drill. Pause occasionally to look at your work with discernment. Don't worry about getting it 'right'. Look for one or two ways to improve. Embrace failure as your teacher. Fail differently next time. Stay in touch with your feelings. When you feel bored take it to the next level. It takes hard effort and persistence to re-wire your brain.
@@uglee6433 It'll *feel* wrong if you're familiar with the subject drawn. If you're around or exposed to many say, black people, and you try drawing black people, your unconscious brain will naturally know what may seem "off" about the drawing.
Getting it "right" means getting it 100% controlled in 3D in your spatial imagination and making it 100% clearly understandable as a 3D object when put on a canvas. This is when you succeed.
Gauzzy I read drawing on the right side of the brain, no it is not written there and so are tons of other things I learned from sycra. I don't even think it was that good of a book, Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson did the same thing much better
+element1988 It's psudoscience and shouldn't be taken literally. While it did help me realise that "Wow, I can actually draw", I found Keys to Drawing to be 100x better.
@@JaggedCanvas he got what sycra was trying to say i think, you can see it in the example of the eye, dont try to do a lot of different eyes, just get one and redraw it over and over and each time change something slightly. Thats what i got tho
Ker Shal funny thing , you called me kid but you're pretty immature lol. And i didnt say to just do one eye all your life, i gave you the example he shows, if you are going to practice something, hey that something and do it a lot in diferent Ways, if you do a character do that one character in different poses, or if got a pose do that pose in different characters. But yo I’ll just leave at that kid
Drawing from reference is not bad at all. It's actually really helpful. I draw whenever I can with reference, then in class or in any other place without one. Please, know that there's nothing wrong with drawing from reference as long as it helps you improve, try both, someday you won't need one at all.
yep, i took a lot from this video and the moment he said that I thought to myself.. ok i'll do this but i'll use reference.. i'd honestly have nothing to draw without it
I try to draw from reference a few times then attempt doing it without one. Then comparing to see my mistakes but I might get a happy accident sometimes
I was starting to use this method on a notepad while watching this and I SAW myself improving WHILE you were still explaining. You are such a big help! People always say "Just practice a lot" but you're the first to tell me why and how. Thanks a bunch!
I think you've captured the idea of learning. Learning anything. Very good. We need this. Nobody really knows how to learn. They don't teach it anywhere. Good job.
I love how I changed from completely creative into completely analytical over the past years and I'm not sure why. When I was like 10 years old I loved drawing vehicles, tanks and robots, mostly under the influence of video games I played at the time including Starcraft and Red Alert. I drew thousands of them, some generic, some unique, and some outlandish. I kinda just imagine something and immediately make an attempt, like "I'm gonna draw a tank that has a satellite for cannon" and if it doesn't end up looking like what I imagined I'll just call it something else based on what it does look like. 15 years later, now I'm somehow overthinking basically everything almost like OCD. I'm unable to proceed with something I feel proportionally incorrect or even unrealistic. If I were to draw a satellite cannon tank again, I'd have to look up what a tank looks like, what a satellite looks like, do a research on which of the components are necessary for it to function, make sure I draw those parts, etc.
Oh thank god i looked through the comments. Just got excited someone else played red alert lol. On he more serious side, It's unfortunate that sometimes as we grow we can become alot more critical and lose sight of out crazy creative side.
Every artist I've know including myself, critique ourselves too harshly while we notice every mistake and yet somehow we won't see or acknowledge our good aspects. Seemingly we focus on were we want to be and how far away we are from an.honestly good oil painting or becoming our fave anime or manga character
Your 5 face or 100 face thing reminds me of Bruce Lee "I'm not afraid of the man who has done a hundred kicks once....but of the man who has done one kick a hundred times." Paraphrased of course, but you get the idea.
I really needed this video. I felt my art was stuck at the same level for awhile now, and I realized I was relying way too much on drawing from references. Making a whole bunch of mediocre "complete" pieces. I will try this first thing in the morning (2am atm lol). Wish me luck! And good luck to everyone else inspired by this video.
I relate with this hard. One thing i struggle with is the fact that I dont need to make 'completed'/refined pieces all the time (even with something like anatomy studies i do this). I keep thinking that every drawing i make i have to spend at least more time on to make it more 'good' or 'refined'. when in reality im improving much slower due to not making more drawings than I should be doing. I also rely wayyy too heavily with references without really thinking about why im using them 😔
@@TheRealSimeon pretty good. I've filled about half of a sketchbook already. Started with face drawing from memory. Looked like trash for 3 pages, roughly 20 faces in it started looking decent. Then I started doing hands in different poses and feet, and some body poses(which is pretty difficult, theres a lot of variations). This method is definitely time consuming, but it absolutely made me better at drawing the things i've practiced. If you're curious you can check out my work on insta @m.shao89
As someone with an analytical brain, this video is such an amazing help. I feel like I've seen a lot of "how-to" draw videos from people mostly of the intuitive mind type, and they just...never really clicked with me. This video made so much sense to me, so thank you very much for the time and effort you put into it ^^
dont limmit youself by thinking you have an analytical brain. On some parts you are more analytical, some other parts youre creative. Youre not one type of person, your brain doesnt have one dominant side. This myth will lead you away from trying new things or stuff as you just assume that it isnt suited for your analytical brain.
it boils down to practice. any of the techniques will work this is a good one, but it boils down to discipline. you cant escape it. thousands of hours doing anything you want to be good at.
Good video but not a secret. Writers have known for ever that free writing -- even if you write really lame stuff about what you did for a day -- is the key to building a mental form of muscle memory that leads to better writing skills. Those that sit and wait for inspriation rarely get good. Simply the act of writing ANYTHING makes your brain start generating better ideas. The process of learning to touch type is another tried and true iterative process to build muscle memory so you can type without thinking. I took art classes years ago and we were taught to draw copy after copy of some basic shape to build muscle memory, so it's a well known technique in art classes too. Not to say this is not very useful for those who aren't aware of the process, but it's a well known technique for learning in general.
i have adhd. it is Extremely difficult for me to sit down and simply watch a video. but i had to pause what i was doing to devote myself fully to this video because your explanations are so good and i wanted to pay attention. im typing while the video is still playing (sorry, cant keep up that long) but still. this really captivated me. thank you. looking forward to trying this.
pro tip for my fellow adhd-ers: put the video speed at 1.75x or 2x speed. you'll pay more attention and its much shorter making the length of it much more bearable. i do this for all of the educational youtube videos now and it does wonders
i have adhd too and i had to listen to him talking while practicing drawing/looking through the comments lol. drawing/doodling is so good for me cuz i can have my hands doing something so i'm actually able to sit through yt videos
There's a fantastic book that explains and tells stories about the effectiveness of deliberate practice: "Grit" by Angela Duckworth. Worth a read for inspiration. But this video is describing it well in a shorter format.
@@kool4209 - Not so. Drawing is a skill and as a skill, practice brings improvement. Keep and date all your drawing pads and intermittently look back through them - you WILL SEE how much improvement there has been.
@@MossyMozart Yes, your ceiling still exist. some can draw what a normal human would be able to decipher as a Apple. Vs Someone who can make you question if its a drawing or not. That's what I'm referring to
randomly came across your video in recommended I don't draw, used to entertain the thought of getting into it I was going to click away, but then I recognized how practical everything you were saying is. really really good content, subbed
the way you approach this is incredibly straightforward and elementary. i can't express how much I appreciate that. this is honestly one of the best instructional videos I've ever seen.
What you refer to as mileage is summed up perfectly in a concept attributed to Chuck Jones. He said, essentially, that everyone has 100,000 bad drawings in them. The sooner you get them out, the sooner you're a good artist.
Thank you so much for creating this video. I see so many videos telling me that I need to draw everyday to improve, but they also tell me not to force it. I don't have the motivation to draw everyday so I do end up pushing, but then I burn out really quickly. The method you're using is allowing room for error, and how to figure out what's not working. You're showing that we need to experiment and see what does and doesn't look right, and I also like how you show examples while others have a voice over of them sketching or drawing something unrelated. I'm learning a lot from you, thank you so much!
This video was perfect for me. As a person who finally got back into drawing to improve ability to convey my ideas and concepts better for my game-design work, I remembered why I gave up drawing to begin with - my inability to capture the images in my head and convey them to paper, and this video so clearly puts words to what was wrong and how I need to go about addressing it. If I were to add anything, it would be that I don't think the analytical/intuitive spectrum is actually *a* spectrum - I think it's multiple "spectrums". For instance, when it comes to shapes, I'm highly analytical. When it comes to colors I'm highly intuitive. I have no idea why, but there it is... Anyways, thanks for the video.
I know this video is 7 yrs old and Idk if you still read the comments, but I just want to tell you-- I cannot express how helpful this was, just like the rest of your channel. It's like you think the same way I do; everything you explain just resonates with me. You put my thought processes, struggles, and concerns into words and provide solutions. And for free, no charge? I don't have to spend tons of money on college courses, just to find out they're not as helpful as I'd hoped, because I process things a little differently? You're just a bloody wonderful person. Thank you so, so much.
EXCELLENT. The viewer must understand that the goal with this video is to get people to practice drawing repeatedly to not only improve hand to eye coordination, but also to develop a style of their own. It is accurate in that their are people who are more analytical and those more intuitive. He is bridging that gap in a clever manner. Be supportive in your comments and understand that this is not giving you specific models for drawing but rather to keep you from becoming robotic in an effort to achieve perfection. Artists are just that, ARTISTS. If you want a photographic representation, use a camera. Thank you
I can’t believe I’m 6 years late to seeing this, this video has really inspired me to continue art and gave me kind of like the guidelines on how I should improve. Thanks, I sincerely appreciate it.
Woah! the whole draw the same thing 20 times and try to find what looks wrong in the previous drawing REALLY fucking made my mind open! I felt like such trash before but now after just drawing like 10 heads in a certain direction it just felt so different! Thanks my dude :D
It's a common thing, iterative drawing, to use for learning. My drawing professor assigned it to our class in 1986, and had been doing it for years before I started there. It's very useful! But can drive you nuts after 40, 50, 60, or more of the same drawing.
Art style does not exist, you are just shit at art....art is just like math, formulas and big brain processing... Some people are good at math from intuition others need to learn it.
@Cei Um.. no. Art style does exist lmao. There’s not *one* single ideal/correct way that art should look. Your “art style” is just patterns/tendencies in your drawings that make your art identifiable as yours.
I’m almost crying happy tears. I lost my intuitive creativity the older I got and now I know a way to create again with my adult analytical mind. Thank you so much for this video!!!
Coming from someone who has always struggled artistically, I appreciate this concept a LOT. Ive always had these same ideas floating in brain, and it's incredibly helpful to have another person put it into words for me.
As an engineering student, I just want to say that iterative processes require something important. Normally when using a formula to find the answer through iteration, there is always some criteria where you stop iterating. Normally it is an error calculation which falls below a certain percentage. In drawing, I believe its important to refer to reference images after every iteration so that you know where you're heading. Great technique though. Will definitely start applying this.
this video speaks to my soul, thank you SO much for posting it. i'm pretty analytical (i'd say on the range halfway between the center and fully analytical) and i really struggle. it helps that #1 it's not just me and #2 you give ways to help me improve with (hopefully) less frustration and stopping because "oh that's wrong and that's wrong. i'm the worst i'm gonna do something else."
+gwenhyfarbeati I'm the same, I think I kind of shut myself into a little box by thinking there is just one way of doing things... like everything we need to do should be based on one simple thing or set of rules or something, I dunno. It makes things quite restrictive doesn't it lol That's why I love Sycra's vids, they address the whole mindset towards art and overcoming them
I can’t thank you enough. I’m extremely analytical, and often times I don’t draw because I know how imperfect everything is and notice all of it. But focusing on individual parts help me to compartmentalize and tone down the judgement and focus more on the creative and intuitive parts of drawing
I am so thankful to sycra for this video, cos i started art quite late in life and i had no idea how much mileage one has to get and what method you use to learn some art skill ,i used to think that'gifted artsy kids' could just learn by drawing something just once and have it stored in their perfect memory forever....now i have started using this method and i love it, iteration drawing is really helpful in gaining artskills.
Id like to know as well. Just started a month ago and im 25. I love drawing and i dont feel im as worried with my progress as people seem to think you should be but i am concerned with not progressing in the span of 3-5 years to the point of me being able to show off work proudly. My sister was practically born an artist but even her work took about a decade before it looked incredible. Granted she was a little kid so i imagine her dexterity played a hindrance in her early work. Still.. i am slightly worried my platou will come before i get anywhere significant. I don't stress it though, drawing has been very therapeutic and reinvigorating on goals i had given up on. It's brought a lot of happiness to what was a monotonous life
I love the message of going outside the rules, keeping the art personal for the individual. I’ve found it so freeing stepping away from the rules and techniques, and just going for it. Thank you for pushing that message!
omg @ that moment i paused the video to scour the comments for someone else who was amused by that as i was and i’m SHOCKED by how far down i had to scroll. stop letting me down and being mature, internet!
This is really interesting and helpful - I take like 5 hours to draw a simple thing because I'm being all perfectionistic and it still doesn't look good. I think that this will be very good for me to learn to let go and just be okay with producing something not good - not to mention spending half my time trying to find the perfect reference for what I want to draw.
I'm glad I found this video, I've always been a creative person but over time I've found myself becoming analytical and while that can be a benefit to improvement and getting more mileage for your creative endeavors, in the past few years in my life I've found it to be solely a detriment to my creativity. Sadly a lot of it has been struggling with mental illness, which has turned art and music into a form of expression into more of a frustration for a while now. The root of the problem is simply not doing what I used to love. I sit down and start drawing, and at the earliest sign of encountering a problem, I get frustrated and either give up or tear up my drawing. I stare at paper and become overwhelmed with dread and anxiety, which is sad because I used to absolutely fly through pages of loose-leaf pages as a kid making my own comics and immersing myself in strange character and enviornments, it's as if I've built up this roadblock that steers me away from being creative. I've had similarly affect me in my writing and music, two other forms of expression I've always loved. Of everything I've seen and through all the time I've spent videos (and of course, not changing my habits and going to the page excited to try something only for nothing to really change in my approach), I think this gives me the most confidence going forward. I need to toss out this idea of the drawing being sacred, that there is some innate genius in people and that I've simply eroded my skills and just don't have the "talent" to do what I want to do. I make every drawing too sacred and being as analytical and aware of mistakes as I am, it's like a person trying to draw the Mona Lisa and tossing out every single thing they make trying to get there. It's incredibly masochistic, and the idea of just making 20 disposal drawings, not trying to make something I have to be acutely "proud of" and want to show the world, seems like a good way to proceed. I will say I learn from my mistakes a great deal, but even then I have a habit of simply not warming up enough or getting anxious in the process and being afraid to keep going or organize my steps getting there. Already doing a bit of this just to try it out, I found that I started on square one with something I'd usually get angry with and dismiss as a "child's drawing", but doing nothing but calming down and taking note of what went wrong resulted in frame 4 being ridiculously better to the point of looking like someone else drew it. It's not good, but I don't feel angry that I made it and it gave me the baseline where I can keep drawing and making improvements. I guess I should still be drawing rather than typing this out but it feels good and I am glad I found this video and channel to help. It's almost a case where I have most of the information, fundamentals, and raw skills to where I can make nice drawings, but I've just cluttered the process up so bad being critical on myself and not knowing how to reconcile my inate ability to have creative ideas and thoughts with my now overbearing-critical analytical brain. There is such a feeling of content I get looking at my awful drawing 1 and my drawing 4 right below it knowing quite certainly that with practice and the right approach, it is very much possible for me to make drawing 7 just as much a leap in quality. I really suggest this for people like me who get so stressed they stop drawing altogether because they feel stuck in their inability to create or imrprove who also have this analytical problem of destroying their artwork throughout the whole process, because it forces you to move forward, it forces you from 1 to 20, and it gives you undeniable proof that you can do better, that improvement is not some abstract thing you can't reach, and that seeing your mistakes can give you the opportunity for growth and doesn't have to mean you have to shred your drawing because you feel like you left shore on a boat that you capsized 10 minutes into your journey.
I always tell people, "When learning, duplicate your muse (reference) first" you'll get more out of that than immediately trying to make your own. It will teach you what to look out for, rather than waste too much time relearning a lesson you could have gotten the first time!
My drawing skill has not been getting better for years. I felt pretty hopeless these days. I just watching other tutorials and following the way. and today I follow your way, I feel this really fits on me. And I remembered I did this way a long time ago when I started drawing (at that moment I didn't know why but I think I just did it naturally. and some how I forgot doing it.) Thank you. I really appreciate this. Thanks a lot.
Even after doing the first exercise (heads) once, I improved so much. I know practice makes perfect etc. but still pretty impressed with how I developed a greater "intuitive" ability with the proportions, sizing etc within about 30 minutes.
As a kid in the sixties I got my first cartooning book. Learning about perspectives at an early age was a big help. Lots of practice with eyes and expressions and poses. Now with digital options, it's a whole new playground.
Had a few people ask about how effective this method works so I thought I would post my thoughts after a few months doing this. I've definitely had an interesting experience with this. I've tried this method with faces, hands, torso, poses etc pretty much the human figure. However, i should also add that there are limitations to this method, at least for myself. The pros: - allows you to learn one specific thing very fast (ex faces, muscles, anatomy, inanimate objects...) - forces you to understand what you're drawing, which leads to better improvisation when you can't find the perfect reference - promotes quantity over quality. Meaning the person that draws MORE at the end of a year will get better faster. Dont spent days polishing a shit art piece, learn to move on. - drawing from memory will point out your weaknesses really fast, which can be EVERYTHING at times lmao The cons: - you have to do this for EVERYTHING you want to get good at, a bit time consuming if you want to be good at drawing many things - your art will look like shit for awhile, until you master whatever you're studying. This will take some time. - does not work as well with complex ideas like facial expressions, color, lighting, shading, poses etc. I feel a good reference in these cases helped more. Overall I dont think this method is the only one you'll ever need, but its definitely useful in certain situations. What I do now to improve is I study a reference as much as I can, try to memorize all the big shapes and major details, then I put away the reference and try to draw what I just studied. This way you're forced to not just "copy" a reference, but actually learn something from it. Thanks for reading this long rant. If anyone is curious how I've improved you can compare my earlier works to now on IG @m.shao89. Any support is appreciated 🙏
In the vond you say ‘have to do this for everything’. Got me thinking, isn’t that just practicing? Learning something new? Basically what art students do Durlinger theorie education? 😉 I do follow you on the complex stuff. When trying implement Some ‘new’ expression I to have to turn towards books, examples, etc. The only thing helping here is studying anatomy. Or simply, make the face and feel it with your fingers
Even if you theoretically have to do this for everything you want to draw practicing even a few things will make you faster and better at applying the overall technique to anything you want. I Wouldn't say its drastically more time consuming than other techniques because you get faster and more efficient with each new thing apply this to.
I really love your approach and thinking about using quick iterations to get a lot of mileage. I teach math to high-schoolers, and the best I've done is to get a few students to think about math intuitively--most approach it analytically. I'm going to share this video with them and think more about how I can tighten up their feedback loop so they can iterate more.
Only 15 minutes in but it's such a good video. Everyone says "just draw more" but nobody explains what to draw and how to practice. I'm glad I finally found it.
One of the best videos with information I can ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY USE! I now feel like I can pick up the pencil and draw. I have actual tips and most of all, a STARTING POINT! I've taken screen grabs and will use them. Amazing video!
All this time, I feel like I've been constrained by the need to make a piece that a professional illustrator could make on their first try...so perhaps I knew that it would take more than one try, but I needed an experienced artist to go in-depth to tell me that themselves. Thank you!
31:00 This part really spoke to me! I'm a very intuitive person but lately I've been focusing on improving my art skills and for that I'm keeping way more attention on the things I do. One of the things I started doing was testing other colors changing the hue/saturation of the colors I already chose til I get the "oh that looks better!" feeling. I also started playing with curves, and after a few times doing it I noticed how the first colors I chose needed less and less modification afterwards. Like my brain is already retaining what colors look better and it has only been like a week. Thanks to this vid I understand the reason behind all of this (since I just started doing it just because I wanted better colors haha). Is amazing how you can learn for little changes and testing.
Yeah, same here. I draw intuitively most of the time since im self taught artist. I always try different things and sometimes im like what if i take this and that and mix it. Lets try, if it doesnt work i can always undo. I never studied colors, trough years of practice i became familiar what work and what doesnt. But i also work on analytical side of mine.🙏
Interesting vid. My take on it is this.. There is no such thing as a born talent. I know many will disagree, but it's kinda' bullcrap. Stay with me on this before sending in the firing squad, please. The theory of natural born talent does apply to certain individuals, such as one's favorite singer. We'll use Beyonce' as an example. She's what I would consider a natural talent in that her vocal chords are constructed in such a specific way that through many years of practice and conditioning she's able to control her vocal chords to produce certain sounds. Now, in the case of a comic strip artist, or anyone who draws, those rules don't really apply. To give an example, I was on a flight where I was drawing on my tablet. I got up and walked to the rear to use the restroom and nearby were two flight attendants chatting. One turns to me and said "I saw what you were doing on your tablet. That's really incredible. How did you learn to do that?" I thanked him, then asked if he'd ever learned to write in cursive. Confused, he replied yes. I told him that means you can do what I can do. It's the same muscle memory! I've been drawing since the age of five, so I'd better be pretty good at it by now ("good" being highly subjective). I can remember being a child and looking at my renderings, thinking that they should and could be better. I sucked at drawing hands, so I drew nothing but hands for weeks. Same with feet. Now I can draw them in my sleep. Why? PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE! These are the keys to becoming a better anything! Most peeps attempt a few drawings and get discouraged, leading to them not picking up that pencil/brush/bloody stump ever again. Every single artist through history sucked big time when they started. PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE! Natural born talent is an excuse from peeps who sit around wishing they can be great at something but are unwilling to develop a passion and spend hours in a room by themselves practicing. I find it hard to believe that out of trillions of people only a select few will be granted the ability to create work that resonates. We're all born with more or less the same potential. Stop making excuses and PRACTICE! Every day. Every hour. Carry that sketchbook with you everywhere. Put down that video game for a few hours. Put that blunt down. Say laterz to your pals at the pub. PRACTICE! Tell your woman/man/plant that you need to focus for a few hours on drawing every day. And accept that you will fail. A lot. Many, many times and throughout your entire life. Failure teaches us what works and what doesn't. You can take a million classes and watch a million hours of tutorials but if you don't put pencil to paper, it just ain't gonna' happen. PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE! And if you're expecting to be as good as that person who's work you're forever admiring, forget it. Why? Because the world doesn't need another version of that guy. That shouldn't be the goal. Through enough practice, one starts to develop their own style and approach anyway. That's when drawing becomes personal style, which is why every artist's work looks different. Use inspiration as a starting point in order to learn basics and build a foundation. Believe me, you'll get bored trying to be the next Alex Ross, 'cuz there already is one. Artists should continue to challenge themselves until they can't. In doing so, personal style will thrive and change in ways that will surprise you. PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE! My God, that was long. Sorry.
I started doing this tonight, basically as a new artist, and I noticed a huge improvement in my heads after just a couple of hours of drawing circles and posing the heads in all different ways. I found when I started out an actual sketch later on, it was much easier to imagine where the main outline would be and get straight into it. Also, it was much easier to spot when something was really off. It's like the musical equivalent of warming up, and also developing your ear by transposing things on your own, without having sheet music or video to help. As a musician, doing this over and over is also the best way to develop your ear and your fundamental understanding of music, so I guess it stands for art as well.
This is it. This is the video I have been searching for. I knew I was missing something, something keeping me from improving past a certain point and I didn't know why. This is the answer. IT HAS TO BE.
Honestly this has been the most helpful art advice I've ever gotten, I must have an analytical mind. I thought I was as good as I was going to get and I'd hit a brick wall but this has increased my skill nearly exponentially, so much happier with my drawing ability after this, thank you
This is so weird for me, before I went to college i was extremely Iterative but after learning stuff like rule of third I became analytical and hated everything I made, I deffo think the key to making it natural is iterative but if we go full iterative we´d just role around in poo all day
its 1:30am where i am and i lost it at the "we'd just roll around in poo all day" comment lmao But I agree with you; i feel like iterative drawing is something to be practiced consistently on your own, while analytical is something that should stay in school when youre learning, so it could be applied later etc etc
Yeah I don't think we really see things correctly in dreams. I think they we experience random thoughts and just imagine they seem real because we are not fully alert.
ok so to put it simply, your brain sees dreams, memories thoughts (movies games etc.) as memories, it thinks you did em all, like you know the difference but they are stored and read the same way, anyway dreams are a number of things: what you think as you sleep, what you did during the day, random, or what you want it to be. typically you think your dreams were real because you don't know you are dreaming, you can create identifies to tell the difference between the dream world and the real world, people who master this call it lucid dreaming, which is a fancy way of saying you know you are dreaming, basically you can do whatever you want in the dream now, if you can't well you still have learning to do. anyway even now dreams are not fully understood, like it is believed you dream about what you did during the day but that could be wrong and you simply learn skills you practiced while sleeping but without the need to dream about it i dunno.
For me it's sorta like suspension of disbelief; like I'm being told a story and I just take the narrator word for it without questioning if it makes sense. I'm almost never awake enough inside my dreams to realize things don't make sense; usually, at most I might realize something is wrong but just accept it is normal for it to be wrong.
This is a fantastic approach and genuinely helped me improve. I do mileage, but fail to learn from that mileage because I'm not analyzing and taking notes. Once I analyze it like you said, I was able to learn a lot. Thank you so much for this video, and the extra ideas you inserted such as the sides of your brain and everything was just perfect. Really helped me find a consistent learning path.
I tried this with a page of raccoon faces + using google image searched photo references... I can literally see the improvement from the 1st face to the 20th.
can't believe people are saying things like "don't do this, improve naturally by drawing a lot and studying!" which is literally what he's saying to do. if you don't think drawing 20 heads in a day and analysing them isn't "drawing a lot and studying" then idk what is. this is just a streamlined approach to exercising so that certain things like proportions and angles become second nature quicker than finishing an entire picture and THEN figuring out where to go from there. someone who took 3 hours drawing and coloring a full body picture didn't improve as much as the person who, in the same amount of time, drew ten heads, ten sets of eyes, and ten hands. that's what sycra is saying. and if you watch the whole video he shows how you can do the same process with coloring, perspective, light, poses, etc. it's practicing fundamentals so that when you draw something you intend to finish, you can focus on polishing cuz you already know what you've practiced. now I'm off to draw 20 heads, l8r
I spent a whole fckin year in the art academy and learned a lesser amount of content than it was in this video. Amazing view on how to practice for a distinct individual. Thank you
I'm so grateful for this video. To be honest your long videos are the best ones in my opinion, because we get to learn a lot. Again, thank you for this video, is just brilliant
I'm very intuitive when it comes to art and I have been trying to teach my daughter who wants to learn but I can never really explain my process to her. I was looking for a way to teach her and I think this both explains my problem and gives me a path to lead her on. Thank you!
Hey! This reminds me of the hill climbing algorithm! Repeat a single task some number of times, make small changes with each iteration, and compare the previous and current versions. Keep the changes that increase the iteration's "fitness", and toss the ones that lower it.
most useful and most under-rated video on the internet about drawing, this is all anyone needs. I will start maybe when i watch it 50 times. i am a huge procrastinator.
This is one of those videos where EVERY point he was saying was just hitting home - especially with the whole art school thing (Do it once, looks right - but I don't bother exploring other options)
Great video. I did something similar to this as part of my 100 day project this year. I did 100 things a day. So day 1 I drew 100 eyes, day 2 100 noses etc. I am analytical, so doing the reps and building familiarity with a subject was great. The mileage was enormous as was the progress. The day I did 100 hands was a long one as was the faces day! I even did 100 thumbnails on a few of days. Brilliant experience. I think 10-20 is much more manageable than 100. I just wanted a challenge for the 100 day project! I got one. I switched to 100 minutes of drawing or art a day near the end, as I found a direction I wanted to explore further. But the thousands of drawings done have made this year one of real development.
I have bad memory and all my drawings and sketches have a lot of notes just to make sure of what I was doing different, it helps a lot because you externally express that analytical part
You know, there are courses that teach this exact same thing for $80-100. I really appreciate you, man.
tán meg is tetszett venni, hogy így tudja Mária?
@@szuzmariacsatkai3496 Világos. Így minden tiszta.
Uh, wasnt this comment in english?
@@Maxer110 Yeah, why
Jajaja wtf
"When you go to art school, you'll find everybody sitting around [practicing] their signature.
Don't try to develop a style. Ignore style. Just concentrate on drawing and style will occur."
- The Animator's Survival Kit, page 29, author Richard Williams' mother.
Can agree. Ive drawn often and I kinda just found, when not drawing 100% realistically, that i have a way I like to draw eyes.
the college I went to, they pressed hard about style, maybe they should have focused on other important things.
I have that book, and he is completely right.
@@misterNicarus Same but i learned more from teaching myself than from teachers in my entire life experience
@@misterNicarus Well, that's because they teach style. The most important thing is practice, but you can't teach practice.
Phenomenal approach to learning. You’re absolutely right: analysing the same drawing with multiple variations forces you to see what works and why. But drawing different subjects without analysis means ‘good’ work is usually accidental and harder to repeat.
Wtf are you doing here?
Who knew I'd find the one and only Blender Guru in this video. I've finished your donut tutorials btw!
I just realized this comment was by you xD
Thanks a lot for your blender tutorials btw, I very much appreciate them!
Wow, is amazing to find you here too. I watched your talk and then I'm watching this video. From tomorrow, I'll practice to be a good artist in the future.
😑this thread is cancerous...
I'm 23 and I'm just starting to try and improve my drawing - it's really intimidating when so many people my age and younger have incredible skill already, but I'm trying to have high hopes! Thanks for the amazing advice!
I’m in the same boat. While I’ve been drawing for a while, I realize that I never really practiced it a lot
It's never too late to start! If you really want to improve and keep at it, I promise you will.
Good luck!!
26
Doing it after I quit in high school. Let's go.
keep going nadia
me on art twitter and my mutuals r all so young and talented 😭
Also a fav piece of advice I got from an art teacher was this: never stop thinking when you’re drawing or painting. “Stay focused on what youre doing or you’ll revert to what you always do and that doesn’t work. “. I swear it’s the best advice
People with adhd:
I have been trying to draw for 15 years. But all I kept doing in that time was trying to copy finished works others had done. I always got stuck on trying to replicate the details and could never break them down to simple shapes and forms. And worse, when copying something, I never felt like I learned anything. It just felt like a fruitless exercise.
I watched this video few years ago, not really understanding how to implement it. I got what Sycra was trying to say, but I couldn't drop my fears and pride enough to actually follow the advice. I thought that using a source would be faster than just blindly trying to draw stuff on my own. And I definitely was too scared to try and draw stuff from memory before attempting to look at a source. I mean, who can draw something without looking at it first? THAT must be the phantom talent everyone talks about. So I just kept going back to copying stuff.
Just this last week, when I was trying for the umpteenth time to copy a drawing, it never came out the way I wanted it to. I could see every little mistake I was making, but had no basis of understanding how to correct the mistakes. And as a result, every new drawing I did ended up worse than the one before. And I got frustrated more than I ever had. I hit my breaking point and, as if the years of failure were all piled up at once, I vowed to give up on drawing. But in my blind anger, I also had a small revelation. "If I can't copy the source correctly, then to hell with the source!"
Out of simple spite, I decided to draw one last thing. I set myself to purposefully draw the source incorrectly. I made the hips too fat, drew the chin off center, tried to make the arms like noodles, put the mouth too far up, made one leg longer than the other, etc. I wanted to vent all my frustration on this one drawing, since I had gotten myself into a mental state where I assumed anything I did would look bad anyway. But I was shocked to find that the figure I purposefully drew wrong looked better than all the copies I had attempted. I thought it was a fluke so I drew a couple more. And again, these strange variations on the source I doodled in about 1 minute ended up looking better than the meticulous, time consuming copies that took me 15 minutes a piece. And more importantly, I had actual fun drawing them, unlike the copying which felt like work. Soul crushing, annoying work that made me dread drawing.
So I experimented further and tried drawing random body shapes and faces without a source. And again, the results were surprising. I was drawing better stuff without looking at a source than I ever did when trying to copy a finished piece of art. Somehow in all those years of painfully trying to copy, I had learned some of the basics of anatomy and perspective. But I never felt like I had because I was only using those skills to try and copy a completed image. In effect, I was discouraging myself because my rough sketches didn't look exactly like a fully inked and colored final image.
During all this realization, I remembered this video and rewatched it. And suddenly everything clicked. I tried Sycra's suggestion of drawing 20 heads and it worked. After about 10 heads, I found new tricks which drastically improved the placement of eyes and mouth. And after all 20, I had already gotten to a point that I could replicate it in just a few seconds without much effort. And I didn't even look at a source to create the head. I just kept refining the first basic head I came up with. I don't know if someone new to drawing can start right away with this or if you need the years of copying to build the mental library/muscle memory to get to this point. But all I can say is, in my experience, it finally started working. After I dropped my stubbornness and accepted it. And I thank Sycra for expanding on this process. Now I'm going to keep trying this process with all the parts of the body and hopefully move onto landscapes after that.
Someone finally put it into words
I'm sorry but
>time consuming
>15 minutes a piece
What the fUCK
@@Zayats_MW I was legit about to ask how you capitalized a lower case letter
@
maxis2k That's truly an amazing story you have there. It was similar to mine, but in my case it was the opposite: I always had drawn out of imagination alone, never trying to use any reference. But as time passed, I grew tired of the "luck based" approach that was, so I figued I hated drawing. I instantly knew that was the first step for a great change, then I tried to find out how to make the process more about knowledge and less about intuition. After a while, I discovered about using the arm and shoulder to freely control the strokes, as well as figuring out how studying anatomy was important. Hope you're doing good progress man, as well as myself from now on!
That is so cool.
I spent sixty thousand on Design school and became a creative director and then owned a visual design company.....I love what you are teaching here and everything is spot on. Thanks for what you do, I hope you save some of the young souls of today from some of the financial burden of Art and Design College.
60 grand $?!
Including me!
rip
But doesn't it get easier to get jobs while you have a degree? I'm mostly self taught, learning from tutorials like this.
@@sakuranakamura5060 depends on what compamy you apply to from what I've heard. A lot of art-oriented companies like gaming and animation studios could care less about a sheet of paper saying that you spent 60 grand on an art class.
As a student with ADHD and both intuitive/analytical sides of thinking, I've watched countless tutorials on drawing but have never been able to replicate their methods. I almost quit art because I thought there was just something wrong with me; after you explained it, I'm finally able to actually get better at drawing after 6 years.
I'm not sure if you know it, but we (people with ADHD) are so thankful for your videos
my attention span isn't helping to watch the video the whole way through in one sitting. Is it possible to divide the video and still learn a lot from it?
@@samandy24sorry I didn’t see this comment until today.
Basically: focus on one thing you want to draw (head shot of a face, eye stylization, body part, etc; He just uses faces here).
On your paper/canvas, draw guidelines of the heads, and make the first head. I recommend having a general reference nearby (like stylizing or just an actual reference). Then, analyze it to see what you wanna change; maybe fuller lips, eyes that are higher, etc.
Keep implementing these changes. He also mentions maybe spreading the tries out throughout the day, to doing it after going to bed
2nd part: he also encourages you to play with your colors. Make a simple character headshot. Then, copy it and keep changing the colors or saturation of the head to learn what colors work best, what palettes you like, etc. this is even easier if you are a digital painter, since you can just change the values with a filter.
Big take away: You are repeating the page of what you want to practice, to analyze *your own work.* For this, he recommends not looking at a reference so you don’t copy and paste it (because it’s harder to analyze WHY the illustrator drew things in certain ways).
When you DO look at references, you use it AFTER your practice sheets, to see what you should improve on and realizing what looks good. You are basically peer reviewing yourself.
@@samandy24I watch on 1.5 speed
god me
20 faces, 20 poses, 20 color practices, 20 compositions. Every day, for 3 years.
Or until your hair falls out from drawing so much. ;D
One Draw Man
your pencil will grow bald but you'll be able to draw anything in one stroke
Bynine B this sounds like double entendre.
+Alex Kozliayev and 10 km run
To anyone who wants to do anything in life:
"The difference between the novice and the master is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried." - Korosensei
Good one! Who is Korosensei?
Alexander Laheij assasination classroom
i was like... yeah that's a good quote-. Oh hi korosensei, didn't think i'd see you here
that and talent... a lot of people try a very hard and still fail- sometimes its better not to waste any more energy and just give up ;)
When it comes to art i think talent can only get you so far. Practice is really the way to go. Find a style you like and try to analyse it, study it. No one just naturally knows how to draw. Keep going!
It's almost frightening how fast you can improve with this method.
This Sycra is something else... The real deal.
I'm really impressed.
No shit man...i did like 8 skulls drawings and i already see improvement!
it's really impreseve you are almost at 666 likes keep going
LOL
Another tip when using this method: do ur exercises in pen. i have a bad habit of spending too long on stuff to try and get it 'perfect' but by doing it in pen it forces u to analyze ur mistakes and move on to the next thing to try again and thus increase drawing mileage
Agreed. Just snapped out of a pen phase and I forgot an eraser exists. I’d say working with pen makes you brain deal with mistakes and work with them. I kinda figured out how my hand in different positions makes different emotions of lines.
A pen truly is the embodiment of perfection through minor failures.
I switched to pen year ago :D it improved my drawing significantly! (and saved me a TON of time) I would just struggle on one drawing for hours, and now well its just done. the end
I don't use eraser since it usually gets lost, but I'm using pencil and whenever I get mistakes I just stick with it or just redraw it when it gets too messy, so does it still work?
@@blumae1170 the finality of a pen seems pretty scary at first but it’s at least worth trying out cuz it’s so worth it bro
"If you have just icing, well uh wait that's actually not that bad" Oh, Sycra is truly one relatable person.
I started laughing when he said that
+EglesArt I think his greatest one will always be the video about comfort zones and when he used an analogy of someone riding a sled down a snowy mountain to the finish and he said "And if you're wondering why it is red...let's just say it's a girl on her period."
+Phantomhive Haha! He's like the funny version Bob Ross.
EglesArt Well, Bob Ross is funny too. XD His jokes are just less frequent than Sycra's though, you really have to watch many episodes in a row to hear Bob Ross's jokes (and that reminded me that I forgot to watch his stream yesterday! D:).
Sycra is like the Bob Ross of human artwork.
+Phantomhive exactly.
This is the essence of deliberate practice. Practice and drill. Practice and drill. Practice and drill. Pause occasionally to look at your work with discernment. Don't worry about getting it 'right'. Look for one or two ways to improve. Embrace failure as your teacher. Fail differently next time. Stay in touch with your feelings. When you feel bored take it to the next level. It takes hard effort and persistence to re-wire your brain.
I "rewired" my brain, but the fuse blew.
how do you discern if its right or wrong?
@@uglee6433 It'll *feel* wrong if you're familiar with the subject drawn. If you're around or exposed to many say, black people, and you try drawing black people, your unconscious brain will naturally know what may seem "off" about the drawing.
Getting it "right" means getting it 100% controlled in 3D in your spatial imagination and making it 100% clearly understandable as a 3D object when put on a canvas. This is when you succeed.
16:13 "A thousand (heads) isn't a lot"
Oh yes indeed, that's definitely what a certain infamous 13th century Khan would love to hear..
Indeed
@@owenbagwell8997 KHAN???
Except the Mongols....
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dude, this is perfect, hit me in the best ways.
Hey! What are you doing here?
dude perfect
Do a kickflip
I may be 2 years late but, damn you draw?
Lmao
this was actually really helpful...
Most guides were like 'practice every day' without explaining how.
This was what I was looking for.
Probably one of the best videos on your channel now, Sycra you should think about writing a book
Gauzzy
I read drawing on the right side of the brain, no it is not written there and so are tons of other things I learned from sycra. I don't even think it was that good of a book, Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson did the same thing much better
+element1988 It's psudoscience and shouldn't be taken literally. While it did help me realise that "Wow, I can actually draw", I found Keys to Drawing to be 100x better.
Selcuk Yasa Selcuk du Jude
+DarkAnimaYT Huh... write a book.... write a book about what? Write a book about WHAT?!
DarkAnimaYT Agreed.
I fear not the man who has practiced a 1000 kicks 1 time, I fear the man who has practiced 1 kick a 1000 times - Bruce Lee
@@JaggedCanvas why are tou calling him idiot oh god calm down
@@JaggedCanvas he got what sycra was trying to say i think, you can see it in the example of the eye, dont try to do a lot of different eyes, just get one and redraw it over and over and each time change something slightly. Thats what i got tho
Ker Shal you the kind of guy everybody pass on huh buddy
Ker Shal funny thing , you called me kid but you're pretty immature lol. And i didnt say to just do one eye all your life, i gave you the example he shows, if you are going to practice something, hey that something and do it a lot in diferent Ways, if you do a character do that one character in different poses, or if got a pose do that pose in different characters. But yo I’ll just leave at that kid
@@JaggedCanvas don't be such a jackass
16:57
‘A full frontal-ah... uhh, no, uhhhhhh...’
‘There are no accidents’- Master Ooguway
had to come to the comments immediately he said that lmao
You almost never find master ooguway memes anymore
😂😂😂😂
Drawing from reference is not bad at all. It's actually really helpful. I draw whenever I can with reference, then in class or in any other place without one. Please, know that there's nothing wrong with drawing from reference as long as it helps you improve, try both, someday you won't need one at all.
yep, i took a lot from this video and the moment he said that I thought to myself.. ok i'll do this but i'll use reference.. i'd honestly have nothing to draw without it
I try to draw from reference a few times then attempt doing it without one. Then comparing to see my mistakes but I might get a happy accident sometimes
He said there is nothing wrong with using reference. He was just saying you need to understand how to use a reference properly.
@@ChayceInJapan yeah, iheard it too !
Yeah, if i dont use a reference to draw, i find that i dont learn anything new.
I was starting to use this method on a notepad while watching this and I SAW myself improving WHILE you were still explaining. You are such a big help! People always say "Just practice a lot" but you're the first to tell me why and how. Thanks a bunch!
I think you've captured the idea of learning. Learning anything. Very good. We need this. Nobody really knows how to learn. They don't teach it anywhere. Good job.
I love how I changed from completely creative into completely analytical over the past years and I'm not sure why.
When I was like 10 years old I loved drawing vehicles, tanks and robots, mostly under the influence of video games I played at the time including Starcraft and Red Alert. I drew thousands of them, some generic, some unique, and some outlandish. I kinda just imagine something and immediately make an attempt, like "I'm gonna draw a tank that has a satellite for cannon" and if it doesn't end up looking like what I imagined I'll just call it something else based on what it does look like.
15 years later, now I'm somehow overthinking basically everything almost like OCD. I'm unable to proceed with something I feel proportionally incorrect or even unrealistic. If I were to draw a satellite cannon tank again, I'd have to look up what a tank looks like, what a satellite looks like, do a research on which of the components are necessary for it to function, make sure I draw those parts, etc.
Oh thank god i looked through the comments. Just got excited someone else played red alert lol. On he more serious side, It's unfortunate that sometimes as we grow we can become alot more critical and lose sight of out crazy creative side.
Every artist I've know including myself, critique ourselves too harshly while we notice every mistake and yet somehow we won't see or acknowledge our good aspects. Seemingly we focus on were we want to be and how far away we are from an.honestly good oil painting or becoming our fave anime or manga character
Oh wow you just reminded me, I used to draw the wierdest tractors and cars when i was really young.
That’s hilarious
Your 5 face or 100 face thing reminds me of Bruce Lee "I'm not afraid of the man who has done a hundred kicks once....but of the man who has done one kick a hundred times." Paraphrased of course, but you get the idea.
I really needed this video. I felt my art was stuck at the same level for awhile now, and I realized I was relying way too much on drawing from references. Making a whole bunch of mediocre "complete" pieces.
I will try this first thing in the morning (2am atm lol). Wish me luck! And good luck to everyone else inspired by this video.
I relate with this hard. One thing i struggle with is the fact that I dont need to make 'completed'/refined pieces all the time (even with something like anatomy studies i do this). I keep thinking that every drawing i make i have to spend at least more time on to make it more 'good' or 'refined'. when in reality im improving much slower due to not making more drawings than I should be doing. I also rely wayyy too heavily with references without really thinking about why im using them 😔
Hey
Out of curiosity, how did it go?
@@TheRealSimeon pretty good. I've filled about half of a sketchbook already. Started with face drawing from memory. Looked like trash for 3 pages, roughly 20 faces in it started looking decent. Then I started doing hands in different poses and feet, and some body poses(which is pretty difficult, theres a lot of variations).
This method is definitely time consuming, but it absolutely made me better at drawing the things i've practiced.
If you're curious you can check out my work on insta @m.shao89
@@mylesshao Thanks! I'm glad to hear that it's working for you 💪
I'll definitely have a look at your Insta 👆👉
@@mylesshao are you still doing iterative drawing? If so, how much do you think you improved from before you commented this 7 months ago
Me: *watches sycra draw the skull* that's pretty nice tbh
"this is a pretty bad skull"
oh
😂😂😂 lol yess
+ncshuriken I'm an artist, and I don't think I could do a "sick" picture. But, I am very very self-critical.
Yeah. Me with animation *Finishes whole platform of movement* *Sees unnoticeable error* "DO IT AGAIN!"
same
For me its kind of the oposite, i'm not ok when i draw but after it looks ok
As someone with an analytical brain, this video is such an amazing help. I feel like I've seen a lot of "how-to" draw videos from people mostly of the intuitive mind type, and they just...never really clicked with me. This video made so much sense to me, so thank you very much for the time and effort you put into it ^^
dont limmit youself by thinking you have an analytical brain. On some parts you are more analytical, some other parts youre creative. Youre not one type of person, your brain doesnt have one dominant side. This myth will lead you away from trying new things or stuff as you just assume that it isnt suited for your analytical brain.
I am just baffled at this video. This guy clearly shows one of the biggest secrets in learning.
Thanks so much man. I hope you become a millionaire.
yesssss
it boils down to practice. any of the techniques will work this is a good one, but it boils down to discipline. you cant escape it. thousands of hours doing anything you want to be good at.
Good video but not a secret. Writers have known for ever that free writing -- even if you write really lame stuff about what you did for a day -- is the key to building a mental form of muscle memory that leads to better writing skills. Those that sit and wait for inspriation rarely get good. Simply the act of writing ANYTHING makes your brain start generating better ideas. The process of learning to touch type is another tried and true iterative process to build muscle memory so you can type without thinking. I took art classes years ago and we were taught to draw copy after copy of some basic shape to build muscle memory, so it's a well known technique in art classes too. Not to say this is not very useful for those who aren't aware of the process, but it's a well known technique for learning in general.
He doesn't need a million dollars as he has the greatest pleasure of being wise!
Are any of yall niggas still drawing?
Your videos are the reason I don't give up on drawing, thanks a lot!
i have adhd. it is Extremely difficult for me to sit down and simply watch a video. but i had to pause what i was doing to devote myself fully to this video because your explanations are so good and i wanted to pay attention. im typing while the video is still playing (sorry, cant keep up that long) but still. this really captivated me. thank you. looking forward to trying this.
I feel you.
Trucking along against a really inhibiting mood or nerve condition and still approaching it with force and careful consideration anyway.
Ify I hate it really I had to go back to the very beginning everytime
pro tip for my fellow adhd-ers: put the video speed at 1.75x or 2x speed. you'll pay more attention and its much shorter making the length of it much more bearable. i do this for all of the educational youtube videos now and it does wonders
i have adhd too and i had to listen to him talking while practicing drawing/looking through the comments lol. drawing/doodling is so good for me cuz i can have my hands doing something so i'm actually able to sit through yt videos
yoo i felt this
This technique of learning has an actual name. It's called "deliberate practice".
This technique can apply almost anywhere :)
thanks!
There's a fantastic book that explains and tells stories about the effectiveness of deliberate practice: "Grit" by Angela Duckworth. Worth a read for inspiration. But this video is describing it well in a shorter format.
You either practice enough to be good at drawing or you practice enough to be bad at drawing. Simple as that.
@@kool4209 - Not so. Drawing is a skill and as a skill, practice brings improvement. Keep and date all your drawing pads and intermittently look back through them - you WILL SEE how much improvement there has been.
@@MossyMozart Yes, your ceiling still exist. some can draw what a normal human would be able to decipher as a Apple. Vs Someone who can make you question if its a drawing or not. That's what I'm referring to
"What do you really want to do?.. Let's say you want to draw a stool." This hypothetical student has some.. interesting aspirations.
I just learned 2 point perspective and I really want to draw a stool lmao
@@AngelsAndButterflies me too!! ive been trying it lately and it's so fun,, 3 point is really fun to experiment with too
@@stephaynn yess it was so fun but I made my life too hard and tried to draw a chruch lol
Product design is a thing ;)
Probably this student has greater chances to use his habilities to earn a living than those who draw dragons and manga. That's life.
randomly came across your video in recommended
I don't draw, used to entertain the thought of getting into it
I was going to click away, but then I recognized how practical everything you were saying is.
really really good content, subbed
when you can watch 17 mins of a vid and think only 5 mins passed is when you know it's a good and helpful video
the way you approach this is incredibly straightforward and elementary. i can't express how much I appreciate that. this is honestly one of the best instructional videos I've ever seen.
agree because im slow lol 😭😭
What you refer to as mileage is summed up perfectly in a concept attributed to Chuck Jones. He said, essentially, that everyone has 100,000 bad drawings in them. The sooner you get them out, the sooner you're a good artist.
Thank you so much for creating this video. I see so many videos telling me that I need to draw everyday to improve, but they also tell me not to force it. I don't have the motivation to draw everyday so I do end up pushing, but then I burn out really quickly. The method you're using is allowing room for error, and how to figure out what's not working. You're showing that we need to experiment and see what does and doesn't look right, and I also like how you show examples while others have a voice over of them sketching or drawing something unrelated. I'm learning a lot from you, thank you so much!
This video was perfect for me. As a person who finally got back into drawing to improve ability to convey my ideas and concepts better for my game-design work, I remembered why I gave up drawing to begin with - my inability to capture the images in my head and convey them to paper, and this video so clearly puts words to what was wrong and how I need to go about addressing it.
If I were to add anything, it would be that I don't think the analytical/intuitive spectrum is actually *a* spectrum - I think it's multiple "spectrums".
For instance, when it comes to shapes, I'm highly analytical. When it comes to colors I'm highly intuitive. I have no idea why, but there it is...
Anyways, thanks for the video.
hian Good on you friend. I look forward to playing your games in the future.
I know this video is 7 yrs old and Idk if you still read the comments, but I just want to tell you-- I cannot express how helpful this was, just like the rest of your channel. It's like you think the same way I do; everything you explain just resonates with me. You put my thought processes, struggles, and concerns into words and provide solutions. And for free, no charge? I don't have to spend tons of money on college courses, just to find out they're not as helpful as I'd hoped, because I process things a little differently? You're just a bloody wonderful person. Thank you so, so much.
EXCELLENT. The viewer must understand that the goal with this video is to get people to practice drawing repeatedly to not only improve hand to eye coordination, but also to develop a style of their own. It is accurate in that their are people who are more analytical and those more intuitive. He is bridging that gap in a clever manner. Be supportive in your comments and understand that this is not giving you specific models for drawing but rather to keep you from becoming robotic in an effort to achieve perfection. Artists are just that, ARTISTS. If you want a photographic representation, use a camera. Thank you
You know what I would love? A Sycra podcast.
35:45 "Here's how you use your reference: don't." I gasped like Damian in Mean Girls when Cady broke the tiara.
+Blackbyrd Hehehehehe
+Blackbyrd honestly same
I can’t believe I’m 6 years late to seeing this, this video has really inspired me to continue art and gave me kind of like the guidelines on how I should improve. Thanks, I sincerely appreciate it.
Woah! the whole draw the same thing 20 times and try to find what looks wrong in the previous drawing REALLY fucking made my mind open!
I felt like such trash before but now after just drawing like 10 heads in a certain direction it just felt so different!
Thanks my dude :D
_Stimulated your senses_
I drew like 20 eyes and I can't stop imagining eyes, I think I will be dreaming about eyes
It's a common thing, iterative drawing, to use for learning. My drawing professor assigned it to our class in 1986, and had been doing it for years before I started there. It's very useful! But can drive you nuts after 40, 50, 60, or more of the same drawing.
He really called my art style “chicken-scratchy-unsure-way-of-drawing” 😭
Art style does not exist, you are just shit at art....art is just like math, formulas and big brain processing... Some people are good at math from intuition others need to learn it.
@Cei Um.. no. Art style does exist lmao. There’s not *one* single ideal/correct way that art should look. Your “art style” is just patterns/tendencies in your drawings that make your art identifiable as yours.
@@ellabarncastle4210 that's what people who don't know how to draw say
@@cei2513 ..bruh
@@nou7583 art styles most definitely exist but @DinaHQ sounds much more of a beginner lmao. Dellusional "artists"
I’m almost crying happy tears. I lost my intuitive creativity the older I got and now I know a way to create again with my adult analytical mind. Thank you so much for this video!!!
Wow, this is the only helpful video which is 55minuets long and it doesn't have a "all you got to do is pay £5.99 and you will be drawing in no time!"
+Derrum Bate Welcome to Sycra videos.
agreed! and you always learn a ton with sycra's videos vs the paid one
lol, Proko in a nutshell
Or cubebrush who tries to sell you everything and advertise every chance he gets
+TheDestroyer73 He and Proko need to make money, too. And they both provide so much for free, I think he deserves to at least ask for support.
Coming from someone who has always struggled artistically, I appreciate this concept a LOT. Ive always had these same ideas floating in brain, and it's incredibly helpful to have another person put it into words for me.
in animation we: Draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw. And that's JUST in our sleep.
Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one who draws in their sleep lol.
As an engineering student, I just want to say that iterative processes require something important.
Normally when using a formula to find the answer through iteration, there is always some criteria where you stop iterating. Normally it is an error calculation which falls below a certain percentage.
In drawing, I believe its important to refer to reference images after every iteration so that you know where you're heading.
Great technique though. Will definitely start applying this.
As a fellow engineering student this is actually great advice
I haven't even drawn anything yet but I already feel like an artist
Daniel Bellers Optimist vs Pessimist (I'm the optimist btw. I feel more motivated when I watch Sycra's vids on drawing.)
TRY THESE METHODS ua-cam.com/video/zbFgwf0jgjo/v-deo.html
That's called a con artist
Wow! I really needed this video today. Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to start analyzing my work and learning this stuff.
So true
this video speaks to my soul, thank you SO much for posting it. i'm pretty analytical (i'd say on the range halfway between the center and fully analytical) and i really struggle. it helps that #1 it's not just me and #2 you give ways to help me improve with (hopefully) less frustration and stopping because "oh that's wrong and that's wrong. i'm the worst i'm gonna do something else."
+gwenhyfarbeati I'm the same, I think I kind of shut myself into a little box by thinking there is just one way of doing things... like everything we need to do should be based on one simple thing or set of rules or something, I dunno. It makes things quite restrictive doesn't it lol That's why I love Sycra's vids, they address the whole mindset towards art and overcoming them
"When you're doing a full frontal---errr, uhhhh...." LOL
@ 16:55
hehe
I can’t thank you enough. I’m extremely analytical, and often times I don’t draw because I know how imperfect everything is and notice all of it. But focusing on individual parts help me to compartmentalize and tone down the judgement and focus more on the creative and intuitive parts of drawing
"Twenty heads a day"
It sounds so weird out of context lol
What's with that profile pic, Sue? I didn't know you were that kind of girl...
Alonso Mancini
What can I say I love robot cock
Errol Husaberg Even Balrog's one? Is that the reason Misery turned you into a mimiga? .-.
*****
I think you meant zoophile
*****
Really? Cause her brother's like 30 or something
Wait, that's actually machine learning applied to humans…
Because learning is learning.
Machine learning is human learning applied to machines. Learnception
lovely analogy!
And yet we are still learning to improve how machine learning learn effectively. Life is ridiculous.
@@milefiori7694 we're so well made, and so complex, that we ourselves struggle to figure it out.
I am so thankful to sycra for this video, cos i started art quite late in life and i had no idea how much mileage one has to get and what method you use to learn some art skill ,i used to think that'gifted artsy kids' could just learn by drawing something just once and have it stored in their perfect memory forever....now i have started using this method and i love it, iteration drawing is really helpful in gaining artskills.
1 year later.... So have you improved? Are you able to draw from different perspectives using your imagination? I really struggle with these
Id like to know as well. Just started a month ago and im 25. I love drawing and i dont feel im as worried with my progress as people seem to think you should be but i am concerned with not progressing in the span of 3-5 years to the point of me being able to show off work proudly. My sister was practically born an artist but even her work took about a decade before it looked incredible. Granted she was a little kid so i imagine her dexterity played a hindrance in her early work. Still.. i am slightly worried my platou will come before i get anywhere significant. I don't stress it though, drawing has been very therapeutic and reinvigorating on goals i had given up on. It's brought a lot of happiness to what was a monotonous life
@@Arthetraveler 6 months later.... So have you improved?
@@ulfgarulfson1442 guess we will never get the answer. Once the art improves, questions like these are unseen to the one with answers hahaha
@@Arthetraveler every person is different so comparing yourself to your sis is pointless. + you can learn ANYTHING as long as you *really* want to
I love the message of going outside the rules, keeping the art personal for the individual. I’ve found it so freeing stepping away from the rules and techniques, and just going for it. Thank you for pushing that message!
When he said “full frontal” and then got really awkward about it I DIED.
Very appropriate profile picture.
Everyone makes fun of it yet I don't get it. Is it some artsy joke I'm too peasant to understand? :(
Thank you very much random internet person :)
omg @ that moment i paused the video to scour the comments for someone else who was amused by that as i was and i’m SHOCKED by how far down i had to scroll. stop letting me down and being mature, internet!
@@internetroamer8063 it's a "sex joke".
This is really interesting and helpful - I take like 5 hours to draw a simple thing because I'm being all perfectionistic and it still doesn't look good. I think that this will be very good for me to learn to let go and just be okay with producing something not good - not to mention spending half my time trying to find the perfect reference for what I want to draw.
So, can we get a before and after? :))
Tanavids that is me right now. I’m going to try get out of my habits haha
I hope i can get out of this exact mindset im struggling with as well 😅
I'm glad I found this video, I've always been a creative person but over time I've found myself becoming analytical and while that can be a benefit to improvement and getting more mileage for your creative endeavors, in the past few years in my life I've found it to be solely a detriment to my creativity. Sadly a lot of it has been struggling with mental illness, which has turned art and music into a form of expression into more of a frustration for a while now. The root of the problem is simply not doing what I used to love. I sit down and start drawing, and at the earliest sign of encountering a problem, I get frustrated and either give up or tear up my drawing. I stare at paper and become overwhelmed with dread and anxiety, which is sad because I used to absolutely fly through pages of loose-leaf pages as a kid making my own comics and immersing myself in strange character and enviornments, it's as if I've built up this roadblock that steers me away from being creative. I've had similarly affect me in my writing and music, two other forms of expression I've always loved.
Of everything I've seen and through all the time I've spent videos (and of course, not changing my habits and going to the page excited to try something only for nothing to really change in my approach), I think this gives me the most confidence going forward. I need to toss out this idea of the drawing being sacred, that there is some innate genius in people and that I've simply eroded my skills and just don't have the "talent" to do what I want to do. I make every drawing too sacred and being as analytical and aware of mistakes as I am, it's like a person trying to draw the Mona Lisa and tossing out every single thing they make trying to get there. It's incredibly masochistic, and the idea of just making 20 disposal drawings, not trying to make something I have to be acutely "proud of" and want to show the world, seems like a good way to proceed. I will say I learn from my mistakes a great deal, but even then I have a habit of simply not warming up enough or getting anxious in the process and being afraid to keep going or organize my steps getting there.
Already doing a bit of this just to try it out, I found that I started on square one with something I'd usually get angry with and dismiss as a "child's drawing", but doing nothing but calming down and taking note of what went wrong resulted in frame 4 being ridiculously better to the point of looking like someone else drew it. It's not good, but I don't feel angry that I made it and it gave me the baseline where I can keep drawing and making improvements. I guess I should still be drawing rather than typing this out but it feels good and I am glad I found this video and channel to help. It's almost a case where I have most of the information, fundamentals, and raw skills to where I can make nice drawings, but I've just cluttered the process up so bad being critical on myself and not knowing how to reconcile my inate ability to have creative ideas and thoughts with my now overbearing-critical analytical brain.
There is such a feeling of content I get looking at my awful drawing 1 and my drawing 4 right below it knowing quite certainly that with practice and the right approach, it is very much possible for me to make drawing 7 just as much a leap in quality. I really suggest this for people like me who get so stressed they stop drawing altogether because they feel stuck in their inability to create or imrprove who also have this analytical problem of destroying their artwork throughout the whole process, because it forces you to move forward, it forces you from 1 to 20, and it gives you undeniable proof that you can do better, that improvement is not some abstract thing you can't reach, and that seeing your mistakes can give you the opportunity for growth and doesn't have to mean you have to shred your drawing because you feel like you left shore on a boat that you capsized 10 minutes into your journey.
I always tell people, "When learning, duplicate your muse (reference) first" you'll get more out of that than immediately trying to make your own. It will teach you what to look out for, rather than waste too much time relearning a lesson you could have gotten the first time!
My drawing skill has not been getting better for years. I felt pretty hopeless these days. I just watching other tutorials and following the way. and today I follow your way, I feel this really fits on me. And I remembered I did this way a long time ago when I started drawing (at that moment I didn't know why but I think I just did it naturally. and some how I forgot doing it.) Thank you. I really appreciate this. Thanks a lot.
Even after doing the first exercise (heads) once, I improved so much. I know practice makes perfect etc. but still pretty impressed with how I developed a greater "intuitive" ability with the proportions, sizing etc within about 30 minutes.
"If they're just talented, then I'm screwed." Made my day!
As a kid in the sixties I got my first cartooning book. Learning about perspectives at an early age was a big help. Lots of practice with eyes and expressions and poses. Now with digital options, it's a whole new playground.
Had a few people ask about how effective this method works so I thought I would post my thoughts after a few months doing this.
I've definitely had an interesting experience with this. I've tried this method with faces, hands, torso, poses etc pretty much the human figure. However, i should also add that there are limitations to this method, at least for myself.
The pros:
- allows you to learn one specific thing very fast (ex faces, muscles, anatomy, inanimate objects...)
- forces you to understand what you're drawing, which leads to better improvisation when you can't find the perfect reference
- promotes quantity over quality. Meaning the person that draws MORE at the end of a year will get better faster. Dont spent days polishing a shit art piece, learn to move on.
- drawing from memory will point out your weaknesses really fast, which can be EVERYTHING at times lmao
The cons:
- you have to do this for EVERYTHING you want to get good at, a bit time consuming if you want to be good at drawing many things
- your art will look like shit for awhile, until you master whatever you're studying. This will take some time.
- does not work as well with complex ideas like facial expressions, color, lighting, shading, poses etc. I feel a good reference in these cases helped more.
Overall I dont think this method is the only one you'll ever need, but its definitely useful in certain situations. What I do now to improve is I study a reference as much as I can, try to memorize all the big shapes and major details, then I put away the reference and try to draw what I just studied. This way you're forced to not just "copy" a reference, but actually learn something from it.
Thanks for reading this long rant. If anyone is curious how I've improved you can compare my earlier works to now on IG @m.shao89. Any support is appreciated 🙏
In the vond you say ‘have to do this for everything’. Got me thinking, isn’t that just practicing? Learning something new? Basically what art students do Durlinger theorie education? 😉 I do follow you on the complex stuff. When trying implement Some ‘new’ expression I to have to turn towards books, examples, etc. The only thing helping here is studying anatomy. Or simply, make the face and feel it with your fingers
Great summary, thank you very much!
Thanks for sharing😄
Even if you theoretically have to do this for everything you want to draw practicing even a few things will make you faster and better at applying the overall technique to anything you want. I Wouldn't say its drastically more time consuming than other techniques because you get faster and more efficient with each new thing apply this to.
Interesting evaluation thanks
I really love your approach and thinking about using quick iterations to get a lot of mileage. I teach math to high-schoolers, and the best I've done is to get a few students to think about math intuitively--most approach it analytically. I'm going to share this video with them and think more about how I can tighten up their feedback loop so they can iterate more.
Truth be told, likely the best, most comprehensive art channels on UA-cam.
Only 15 minutes in but it's such a good video. Everyone says "just draw more" but nobody explains what to draw and how to practice. I'm glad I finally found it.
One of the best videos with information I can ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY USE! I now feel like I can pick up the pencil and draw. I have actual tips and most of all, a STARTING POINT! I've taken screen grabs and will use them. Amazing video!
This is unironically the best material on how to get better at drawing ever.
All this time, I feel like I've been constrained by the need to make a piece that a professional illustrator could make on their first try...so perhaps I knew that it would take more than one try, but I needed an experienced artist to go in-depth to tell me that themselves. Thank you!
31:00 This part really spoke to me! I'm a very intuitive person but lately I've been focusing on improving my art skills and for that I'm keeping way more attention on the things I do. One of the things I started doing was testing other colors changing the hue/saturation of the colors I already chose til I get the "oh that looks better!" feeling. I also started playing with curves, and after a few times doing it I noticed how the first colors I chose needed less and less modification afterwards. Like my brain is already retaining what colors look better and it has only been like a week. Thanks to this vid I understand the reason behind all of this (since I just started doing it just because I wanted better colors haha). Is amazing how you can learn for little changes and testing.
Yeah, same here. I draw intuitively most of the time since im self taught artist.
I always try different things and sometimes im like what if i take this and that and mix it. Lets try, if it doesnt work i can always undo.
I never studied colors, trough years of practice i became familiar what work and what doesnt.
But i also work on analytical side of mine.🙏
Interesting vid. My take on it is this.. There is no such thing as a born talent. I know many will disagree, but it's kinda' bullcrap. Stay with me on this before sending in the firing squad, please.
The theory of natural born talent does apply to certain individuals, such as one's favorite singer. We'll use Beyonce' as an example. She's what I would consider a natural talent in that her vocal chords are constructed in such a specific way that through many years of practice and conditioning she's able to control her vocal chords to produce certain sounds. Now, in the case of a comic strip artist, or anyone who draws, those rules don't really apply. To give an example, I was on a flight where I was drawing on my tablet. I got up and walked to the rear to use the restroom and nearby were two flight attendants chatting. One turns to me and said "I saw what you were doing on your tablet. That's really incredible. How did you learn to do that?" I thanked him, then asked if he'd ever learned to write in cursive. Confused, he replied yes. I told him that means you can do what I can do. It's the same muscle memory! I've been drawing since the age of five, so I'd better be pretty good at it by now ("good" being highly subjective). I can remember being a child and looking at my renderings, thinking that they should and could be better. I sucked at drawing hands, so I drew nothing but hands for weeks. Same with feet. Now I can draw them in my sleep. Why?
PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE!
These are the keys to becoming a better anything! Most peeps attempt a few drawings and get discouraged, leading to them not picking up that pencil/brush/bloody stump ever again. Every single artist through history sucked big time when they started.
PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE!
Natural born talent is an excuse from peeps who sit around wishing they can be great at something but are unwilling to develop a passion and spend hours in a room by themselves practicing. I find it hard to believe that out of trillions of people only a select few will be granted the ability to create work that resonates. We're all born with more or less the same potential. Stop making excuses and PRACTICE! Every day. Every hour. Carry that sketchbook with you everywhere. Put down that video game for a few hours. Put that blunt down. Say laterz to your pals at the pub. PRACTICE! Tell your woman/man/plant that you need to focus for a few hours on drawing every day. And accept that you will fail. A lot. Many, many times and throughout your entire life. Failure teaches us what works and what doesn't. You can take a million classes and watch a million hours of tutorials but if you don't put pencil to paper, it just ain't gonna' happen.
PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE!
And if you're expecting to be as good as that person who's work you're forever admiring, forget it. Why? Because the world doesn't need another version of that guy. That shouldn't be the goal. Through enough practice, one starts to develop their own style and approach anyway. That's when drawing becomes personal style, which is why every artist's work looks different. Use inspiration as a starting point in order to learn basics and build a foundation. Believe me, you'll get bored trying to be the next Alex Ross, 'cuz there already is one. Artists should continue to challenge themselves until they can't. In doing so, personal style will thrive and change in ways that will surprise you.
PRACTICE! FOCUS! DISCIPLINE!
My God, that was long. Sorry.
TOO MUCH.......TEXT.... D:
(claps furiously)
what i needed to hear today for sure!
Too long. There are people born with particular talents who dont need to train as much as someone without born talent.
talent is the equivalent of the amount of work out into a craft
I started doing this tonight, basically as a new artist, and I noticed a huge improvement in my heads after just a couple of hours of drawing circles and posing the heads in all different ways. I found when I started out an actual sketch later on, it was much easier to imagine where the main outline would be and get straight into it. Also, it was much easier to spot when something was really off. It's like the musical equivalent of warming up, and also developing your ear by transposing things on your own, without having sheet music or video to help. As a musician, doing this over and over is also the best way to develop your ear and your fundamental understanding of music, so I guess it stands for art as well.
This is it. This is the video I have been searching for. I knew I was missing something, something keeping me from improving past a certain point and I didn't know why. This is the answer. IT HAS TO BE.
No one has ever explained it so well and may have reduced my struggle by 90%. Thank you so much
Honestly this has been the most helpful art advice I've ever gotten, I must have an analytical mind. I thought I was as good as I was going to get and I'd hit a brick wall but this has increased my skill nearly exponentially, so much happier with my drawing ability after this, thank you
This is so weird for me, before I went to college i was extremely Iterative but after learning stuff like rule of third I became analytical and hated everything I made, I deffo think the key to making it natural is iterative but if we go full iterative we´d just role around in poo all day
I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH AHHH THANKS SO MUCH AHHHH
its 1:30am where i am and i lost it at the "we'd just roll around in poo all day" comment lmao
But I agree with you; i feel like iterative drawing is something to be practiced consistently on your own, while analytical is something that should stay in school when youre learning, so it could be applied later etc etc
Hilarious! Loved this comment!
that escalated quickly
Intuitive*
I always thought our brains just tricked us into thinking our dreams were right.
Yeah I don't think we really see things correctly in dreams. I think they we experience random thoughts and just imagine they seem real because we are not fully alert.
dreams are basically our lower brain replaying the emotions felt throughout the day, and our frontal brain area interpreting the raw emotional data.
ok so to put it simply, your brain sees dreams, memories thoughts (movies games etc.) as memories, it thinks you did em all, like you know the difference but they are stored and read the same way, anyway dreams are a number of things: what you think as you sleep, what you did during the day, random, or what you want it to be. typically you think your dreams were real because you don't know you are dreaming, you can create identifies to tell the difference between the dream world and the real world, people who master this call it lucid dreaming, which is a fancy way of saying you know you are dreaming, basically you can do whatever you want in the dream now, if you can't well you still have learning to do. anyway even now dreams are not fully understood, like it is believed you dream about what you did during the day but that could be wrong and you simply learn skills you practiced while sleeping but without the need to dream about it i dunno.
For me it's sorta like suspension of disbelief; like I'm being told a story and I just take the narrator word for it without questioning if it makes sense.
I'm almost never awake enough inside my dreams to realize things don't make sense; usually, at most I might realize something is wrong but just accept it is normal for it to be wrong.
My dreams sometimes change if I think something's off, making it harder to tell.
This is a fantastic approach and genuinely helped me improve. I do mileage, but fail to learn from that mileage because I'm not analyzing and taking notes. Once I analyze it like you said, I was able to learn a lot. Thank you so much for this video, and the extra ideas you inserted such as the sides of your brain and everything was just perfect. Really helped me find a consistent learning path.
I tried this with a page of raccoon faces + using google image searched photo references... I can literally see the improvement from the 1st face to the 20th.
TRY THESE METHODS ua-cam.com/video/zbFgwf0jgjo/v-deo.html
I saw major improvement in 4 drawings 😶
Did you make your pfp?
boptillyouflop ur proflie pic is cute
can't believe people are saying things like "don't do this, improve naturally by drawing a lot and studying!" which is literally what he's saying to do. if you don't think drawing 20 heads in a day and analysing them isn't "drawing a lot and studying" then idk what is.
this is just a streamlined approach to exercising so that certain things like proportions and angles become second nature quicker than finishing an entire picture and THEN figuring out where to go from there.
someone who took 3 hours drawing and coloring a full body picture didn't improve as much as the person who, in the same amount of time, drew ten heads, ten sets of eyes, and ten hands. that's what sycra is saying.
and if you watch the whole video he shows how you can do the same process with coloring, perspective, light, poses, etc. it's practicing fundamentals so that when you draw something you intend to finish, you can focus on polishing cuz you already know what you've practiced.
now I'm off to draw 20 heads, l8r
''What if i draw and put in a ton of milage for 2 years and i still suck?'' This! This is what i keep thinking all the time with anatomy.
I spent a whole fckin year in the art academy and learned a lesser amount of content than it was in this video. Amazing view on how to practice for a distinct individual. Thank you
this is absolutely briliant! these type of videos are so helpful and just a massive THANK YOU!!!
"If you don't have a cake and just have icing...Mmm, that doesn't sound too bad." Sycra XD 10/10
I'm so grateful for this video. To be honest your long videos are the best ones in my opinion, because we get to learn a lot. Again, thank you for this video, is just brilliant
I was waisting what little time I had....I really cant thank you enough,changed my entire perspective.
just in the first 10 minutes alone, i felt so much more confidence that i can improve and get better. Thanks so much!
I'm very intuitive when it comes to art and I have been trying to teach my daughter who wants to learn but I can never really explain my process to her. I was looking for a way to teach her and I think this both explains my problem and gives me a path to lead her on. Thank you!
Hey! This reminds me of the hill climbing algorithm! Repeat a single task some number of times, make small changes with each iteration, and compare the previous and current versions. Keep the changes that increase the iteration's "fitness", and toss the ones that lower it.
most useful and most under-rated video on the internet about drawing, this is all anyone needs. I will start maybe when i watch it 50 times. i am a huge procrastinator.
This is one of those videos where EVERY point he was saying was just hitting home - especially with the whole art school thing (Do it once, looks right - but I don't bother exploring other options)
Great video. I did something similar to this as part of my 100 day project this year. I did 100 things a day. So day 1 I drew 100 eyes, day 2 100 noses etc. I am analytical, so doing the reps and building familiarity with a subject was great. The mileage was enormous as was the progress. The day I did 100 hands was a long one as was the faces day! I even did 100 thumbnails on a few of days. Brilliant experience. I think 10-20 is much more manageable than 100. I just wanted a challenge for the 100 day project! I got one. I switched to 100 minutes of drawing or art a day near the end, as I found a direction I wanted to explore further. But the thousands of drawings done have made this year one of real development.
I have bad memory and all my drawings and sketches have a lot of notes just to make sure of what I was doing different, it helps a lot because you externally express that analytical part
This is probably the number 1 most important and influential video I ever watched when it comes to art.