ART PSYCHOLOGY - Why Are You Such A SLOW LEARNER? - BTS Episode 28
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- Inspired by the UA-cam video The Science Of Learning by Veritasium, we tackle the subject of artistic learning and why many of us struggle so much - and we aim to ANSWER this question.
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Thank you for this video! I'm a very slow artist and I always feel I'm not suited for art because of that. Seeing people posting daily on social media is very discouraging. It's good to know there're professional artists who take their time on their works as well.
Spent 2 years trying to post regularly on social media. No more. It's a full nightmare. It makes you focus on quantity and not quality, I even lost most of my knowledge with painting. It was absurd!
Its unfortunate that the algorithm ultimately favors the fast but we need to learn to create for ourselves and not others :") (as useful as social media attention is :"D)
This explains so much for me! I lean toward working brain, and I tend to get bored with things once they’re in my automatic brain. I thought I was lazy, but I actually make my process more difficult for myself. I just need to balance a bit and utilize the advantages of my automatic brain too!
I am the same way I just realized. I always fantasize about art making as a therapeutic meditative process but in reality, it never is for me. It is stressful in a good way.
what u said, resonates with me too!! :)
I've only started my bachelor's in film animation, and I keep letting my animation teacher know that I might be late to submit my assignments. I could just draw very simple things, well animated... I just feel like I wouldn't be true to myself and what I want to produce. I believe my teacher sees how much effort I put into every assignment. I don't want to pump out art, I want to pour a bit of myself in all or some of what I do.
Life is a limited amount of time. If we spend most of it on our work, it shouldn't be something that makes us feel like we're digging a grave for our mental and physical state earlier than expected. We shouldn't be constantly feeling shattered. I am not a Mcdonald's burger and refuse to be consumed as such.
Thank you for the kind, wise words in your videos. I wish for all of us fellow artists to shape the future into a more wholesome one.
I Love this video! Not only for it’s quality message but also because, for the first time, I do not fully agree with you :)
I have had the same mindset towards speedpaintings for a long time and I know some great artists that are stuck in limbo there. HOWEVER, I find that doing these types of excercises are super helpful for artistic growth and here’s why:
1. Communication:
1. What speedpaintings force you to do is get to the core of the message and try to communicate it as clear as possible and as clean as possible within a short period of time. Many artist, such as myself, often lose sight of what they’re trying to communicate by adding more “awesomesauce”. Which often clutters the core message. Speedpaintings help me to think about the ESSENTIALS required to communicate the message and leave the rest out. Because more than often it is not what you put in a painting, but what you leave out that makes it work.
2. Efficiency:
1. This ties in with what I said above. The most harmful thing about speedpainting I find is its name...It should be called “slow painting within a short time frame”, but that’s a long hashtag... One of my favourite teachers Jeffrey Watts often refers to it as the “illusion of speed”, meaning that he can produce a masterful portrait gesture within 30 minutes that would take most of us a week. Not because he moves his brush very fast, but because he analyses every stroke he’s about to put down and therefor makes far less “mistakes” when putting down a brushstroke thus giving us the illusion of speed. While in reality he just doesn’t lose time correcting what he painted.
3. Eureka moments:
1. Speedpaintings WILL engage your “working brain” when you do enough of them with the right mindset. Let’s say you care to improve your colour harmony. Making 50 landscape speedpaintings with an emphasis on colour will result in a couple of epiphany moments (due to happy accidents or better understanding of fundamentals through application) that will increase your understanding of the skill you were trying to improve.
I totally agree that speedpaintings WILL NOT help you master fundamentals or make you better at certain skills like rendering, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful to your education.
Like thumbnails, speedpaintings are an accumulations of your understanding of fundamentals AND they can help you become more efficient at applying them. Therefor I also want to disclaim that they are not IDEAL for beginners, but they are very useful for advanced or professional artists. Look at John Park’s lunch sketches...they are valuable “speedpaintigs” helping him become more efficient.
Cutting Sketch Designs we need to have a more in depth conversation about this Antonio - you’ve got on many crucial points which I overlooked in this talk - ones which I’d love to follow up on
Maybe a collab?!
Actually the more I think of it, the more I love the idea of a collab with you (confided you have the time for one of course) - talking about the benefits of speedpainting. Let me know if this is something that tickles your fancy :)
I'd love one! How can I say no to a collaboration with my favourite mentor :) I'll have my people call your people!
@@AdamDuffArt sometimes you seemed to me like a know it all, a bit arogant, ill be honest(maybe im a bit jealous of what youve done artisticaly and your bravery and ambition at life). I just started listening to you when i was very stressed because u have a very calming voice and talk about art and that calmed me down. BUT now the way i see you interacting with oposing views, i honestly love you so much! What a humble human being! Please never stop being you and this humble and generous, you just gave me hopein humanity. Btw after listening to you a bit deeper for a bit i think i am definitley benefiting from your wisdom in order to improve my art. Sending all the best wishes
Thank you for your video, Adam.
I have always thought of myself as a slow worker in art and animation.
I tried to make myself quicker by learning how to be fast, but I couldn't because of my working brain and also the fact I am autistic. Your video made me realise that being a slow worker and learner is not bad, and I can be happy learning and working at my own pace. I am so glad that someone in the creative industry is a slow learner and worker like me. Thank you for your teaching, Adam.
I happen to also have an eye-opening feeling when my art teacher told us about the secret of the colorful greys.
Art has to be the most difficult thing I've ever tried to learn.
This week I started to do artwork for the first time in almost thirty years. I've worked hard on what I've made and I've been proud of it, but it was very tiring and slow. I now understand why it made me so tired. Thank you for this. I always enjoy seeing your videos.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I desperately needed to hear this.
I was trying to sketch and it was turning out so bad my mind went into this dark place where I wanted to cut my hands off. Then I accidentally found this video and it calmed me down so much. Thank you so much for it, it really helped me and I was actually able to focus on what I was doing while also listening to you. Before I realised, all those bad feelings had passed and I was able to sketch peacefully.
I always thought there was something wrong with me but now this just encourages me more than I've felt in a long time. You're an amazing teacher. Thanks for posting this.
"They started adding warmth into the light, and cool into the shadows. Or cool into the shadows and warmth into the light". I get what you mean but it made me chuckle a little as thats something id probably say too. When I learned this, I also learned a new term called "coolth" which I never knew was a word until then.
yup same... i started seeing the true color of the world after i started my art journey, everything was new and full of color... how amazing
thanks Adam for showing me the colors of the world!
When I started to learn digital art speed painting made a huge impact on me. It allowed me to adapt to my tablet and stylus. I forced myself to draw at least 1 hour a day, and there were many days when I didn't want to do it, but still did, and back then I thought there was no way it could be useful. Now looking back at it I can say it was a tremendous thing and I am glad I did it. I don't speed paint now tho xd
So for growth would recommend studying speed painting?
This is gold. I've been searching for videos like this for so much time... this is the kind of precious stuff that will make you think and help you on your journey into becoming a better artist. Thank you so much for this! Please keep delivering great content like this :)
Well Joao, I love hearing that this makes a difference for you - I'll most definitely keep them coming :) thank you.
Cheers Adam, I needed to hear this, I've been studying some basic perspective fundamentals for the last few weeks instead of producing an illustration.Which means I have to let my instagram grow quiet for a while. I have been beating myself up for how long it took but your video has reassured me that taking my time isn't as bad especially when you're already with a full time art job too.
It's funny you're talking about Instagram. I am just starting to refresh my instagram game (been pretty much neglecting it for years), but I quickly realized that I had to put my priorities in the right place. I simply am not the kind of artist who can post something every day - I'm not that type - even every week is hard with my teaching schedule. But I can't sacrifice the integrity of my work by rushing to produce for a hungry instagram crowd - which will inevitably come at the cost of followers
Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL it’s true, if you have higher priorities then best not to try and play to a crowd. Heck you have a UA-cam following so you’re already internet famous. While I want to have a healthy Instagram following, I try not to do everything to feel validated by others (at least not all the time anyway), and try to do things for myself ie currently learning to swim to resolve my back issues and fix a missing life skill.
I swear, if I ever lose my art job and you’re free, I’m coming to you to pick your brain 👍 I’m fascinated by your perspective Mr “ain’t no spring chicken no more” as quoted from one of your earlier videos haha.
Finally, I'm normal !.. 😉 😁
Thank you Adam 👍 💖 🕊
My pleasure Eric :)
This guy talks about things NO ONE talks about. I definitely identify with loving to work slowly and methodically. Gaining speed is a struggle for me but one hack has helped: when im trying to push my speed i find that drawing while standing helps, for some reason when I’m sitting I’m more relaxed and take my time.
“The hardest thing to see is what is really there.” -J. A. Baker, ‘The Peregrine’. This pretty much sums up where I am stuck.
Thanks for the video, I felt kind of bad seeing people create new pieces almost everyday, or finishing an assignment before me while I was still figuring stuff out. Everything always takes me much longer (atleast I had the feeling). That's why I was really glad once I dug into art history and discovered, how much time those artists took to create their work.
Yah many of us artists really need to hear that it's not a sin to not pump out a unit every 48 hours. In fact, I have often found that the slowest learners translated into the strongest artists down the line (and moreso, better teachers - because they've tackled challenges from so many angles they know it inside-out)
Such a great lecture! All this hype around speedpainting bothered me as well.
Monet was a painter who got his eye lenses removed due to catarct, which was a single option in 1923. He lost his ability to see some colours correctly, that is why his water lilies are so bluish or violet
This lighting.👌
So here is something I discovered a few months back when reading a colour theory article online. They had a few of those eye trick tests where they have two colours inside of two other colours and to most people, they look the same but they are really two different colours or vis versa.
Any way. I was all like "I can clearly see the difference in these colours, I'm such a pro." and I felt very confident about my understanding of colour. But then I got to the section on colour hues and I looked at the test and couldn't tell the difference.
Which simultaneously crushed me and give me this huge feeling of relief. It crushed me because I realised that I might have a very small but important problem that could affect my art if I cannot train my brain to fix it. But I was also relieved because it totally explained why I was struggling so hard to get the colour to look right in my paintings. And why, when I tried to study other artists colours, I just couldn't tell the difference between the subtleties in their work.
I'd really like to know if there is a way to teach your brain to recognise the change in tones more easily?
What I used to do was to pick a lot of subtle color, grays in my case of different hues paint them digitally, and then, I d take each one in a ramdom order and I d try to pick the same grayish color. It helped nevertheless
You raised so many questions I've had before, and I enjoyed hearing what you discovered. I found teaching elementary art as an artist because people forget that art is a process. Seeing kids for an hour a week is not enough, it was daunting and discouraging when administration kept expecting xerox copies of the hand turkeys. It broke me as a teacher, and it broke me as an artist. You've helped me shift and remind me that art is about looking and thinking differently. It's like you said, a muscle 💪. Time to get back to practicing. Thank you for your content, and your encouragement. You are a great teacher and a great artist.
By 7 minutes 30 seconds you absolutely had a follower in me, I dont know anything about your art or your other videos, but thank you from the bottom of my heart already! youve put into effective words what Ive been struggling to advise new artists for years, very much looking forward to checking out the rest of your content
Once you open the *eye* , you can never go back unless you forget.
😭
14:15
"Expectation of high output of art"
Actually - I've encountered this on many jobsites for construction work and other kinds of employment too.
It creates performance anxiety, if the "automatic brain" is not sufficiently trained, nor given time to be trained
on the job.
I know this video is old, but it was eye opening. Time to embrace my working brain from now on! Thanks so much.
you aways with the answer that i need. thank you so much Adam.
This was incredibly motivating, thank you! I'm the type of creative who loses inspiration and motivation as soon as something becomes easy or the end product becomes obvious to me. At the same time, I end up blaming myself a lot for making everything so hard. But you made me remember that I have in fact make stuff that I continue to be proud of whenever I persevered to the end of the hardest path. The only thing that remains is to find people to work with that also appreciate that process when we're in the middle of it. Most people just try - and usually succed in - stopping me, because there's so much low-hanging fruit to be had. I hope you'll make more videos like this, Adam!
Since I found your channel, every video I watch give me so great input about so many things on creativity mindset and my own struggle on art growth.
I appreciate you take the time to guide us as aspiring professionals.
Thanks for all the great talks you share.
God u dont know how much i love love love love you! You are by far my top artist when it comes to talking about the struggles of an artist and how psychological it is wired of an individual. Everything you said is what im dealing with rn. Im 💯 sure that im an efficient worker and i realized why i cant be creative or to put it more accurate why it is HARD to be creative even though i have amazing ideas, and the answer is because im wired to draw or act in such way. I swear this video cleared so many things for me i cant thank you enough for such gold content
Omg I feel so much better now! I am doing it right yay! Thank you so much! 2 years later and your video is still helping!
I can't thank you enough for putting this video out! I have a friend who can blitz out a bunch of work, since he does comic book art, while I feel like I'm just plodding along like a tortoise. This is a game-changer and perfect timing, too!
This is absolutely brilliant. And at exactly the right time as the more I practice the better I get but also the more my mind expands as I analyse not only the methods of art but also who I am in relation to the art I wish to create. Your videos are highly profound, wise and helpful. Especially to someone with a philosophical and intuitive mind. Thank you Adam!
I am a hobbyist but do art seriously. I needed to hear that. My fav medium ae coloured pencils and thy are slow medium but I love the process of putting pigment down and lately this process gives me more joy than the result. Flow is such a great feeling. :)
This has helped a lot, lately the last few years I worked on very short time crunch projects and felt proud how much I could do in my time frame. I would pride myself on my speed growing up and didn't care as much about quality... Then I took on really big projects the last year or so that required quality and skills I didn't quite have and I came to almost a complete halt and almost broke down trying to produce the quality I hoped for. In the end, I had to go back to my speed so I could complete the project, I took my 3 months of my frustrating better quality work and redid it all in a week to hit my deadline. Quality is not what I'm good at yet, I can get stuck if I focus too much on it. Because of my quality issues though, I don't actually like posting on social media, I think I'm getting better it though by learning to slow down and plan out my art. I have a long way to go though.
Hearing this over & over again is pretty relaxing. I've been pursuing Graphic design for 3 years now & a little bit before I knew graphic design was even a thing until an ad got me interested in it more. I slowly remember I used to draw perspective, landscaping & random cartoon characters that were not from any show. I also do remember visually drawing some characters from a Disney book that was very challenging without even tracing anything, because of poor lighting in this room. You've helped me to find a way to make graphic design relatable to my drawings back in the day that I still do there & there at times. Love the inspiring & helpful words. To look at me as me & abandon of trying to be someone else. So, I thank you for those words & your videos too! :D
One of the moments that effected me the most was you talking about things being finished not perfect. Has made a big difference for me.
Art is a journey keep going and growing. You'll make it on your own.
I really appreciate this, I have always been the slow minded artist, really thinking through everything. I find it harder to whip out quick work. I've always felt a little inferior for that because I felt progress was slow. I'll take this in and think about how to change my approach and perspective.
Hey Adam, thank you for sharing your experiences with the world. I love to listen, absorb and learn. Man, how I wish I had access to this type of information when I was in my apprenticeship years. I'm sure my journey may have had more colour and adventure. I guess we evolve in the times gifted to us and somehow we discover inner truths and outer possibilities. Just wanted to say cheers mate....much love from the UK..... x
oh.. it makes sense now. i'm always the slow type of person, my mom always told me (when i'm anxious and jealous of other's fast pace) that i was and always am a late bloomer but i always reach the goal i want to. to this day, even after listening to this video, i still feel that inferiority is clawing into me. but i feel seen and acknowledge more now. it's tough sometimes as you said, learning and growing takes a lot of effort (mentally, physically, heck even spiritually perhaps). i went through that last year, i was so frustrated and stressed bcs i know i can be better and i will be better but when?? well now i do see the results of my effort and i'm still gonna grow more, i believe it. i believe in me even tho it's hard sometimes.
so now if i may ask for opinion or suggestion, i'm honestly still confused what kind of art career to pursue for slow type learner ppl do you think / seen fits? i'm currently a freelance artist. taking commissions (finally) to draw people's fave characters or their OCs and I do take illustrations that will take me more or less 2 months to finish. i always want to try and be a concept character design with how much i like to research but i don't think i'm creative and fast enough to actually be in that field. but overall, for now, it's anything within my scope that i can do to make money to put food on table.
What a great video, I can totally relate! I remember as a child I hated fall season, now it is one of my favorites because I am looking at the colors and it is really amazing!
But yeah, when creating something, it has to feel hard, exhausting and challenging. Often we just to feel comfortable and sure about what we are doing, but that can be a sign of not improving. Comfort zone, so comfy and relaxing but such a trap for creativity.
Oh don't get me started on Autumn! (note that I'm an autumn baby - Nov 7th)
I believe each people in this field should listen your idea.
On social medias, I saw may artists keep a single style for years and repeat themselves each single day.
Some minor changes after time, but no significant change.
I think once an artist became famous, the art style at the time became the limitation of himself/herself.
Industries brain wash people that the all work must keep high consistency to maximize consumer satisfaction which would be much easier on promoting and profiting. However, it kills an artist in so many ways.
I believe Picasso was doing great. He discovers new materials and style even he was an elderly.
Thank you for the video. It is really inspiring!
that was very helpful, a lot of people deny me, and also I was a failure at school, I really don't understand what type of artist I am but today I am trying to assess my work and skills for myself, I never had a fried an artist who shares his work with excitement and teaching me his skills, it sounds funny but its true I never met in reality, but today I am happy to see people like Adem, you are a great inspiration for me, thank you for you ineffable words about art, it really helped my personal growth...
lets be honest here. talent. Thats what you need. I see it everywhere 19 to 21 year olds that become art gods in less then a year and then there's me. drawing everyday trying to learn how to draw boxes cubes cylinders faces box people anatomy perspective. In 9 months and i still cant even do a box right or a box person. And then a video pops up about a guy who learned all of this and mastered it in less then 150 days and i just feel like giving up.
This is a race. Because life is a race. And those that succed are the talented once's not the once that become great att the ripe old age of "one foot in the grave"
Ah colors! Yes, I do see them differently now :) It took me a while to really start noticing them.
I remember when I first saw one of your mentorship videos about colors, when you were saying "soon enough, you'll start seeing amazing colors in what you thought was a grey sidewalk". Back then I had a hard time believing it and thought "it almost sounds like some of those guru-magic-things you hear online, pretending they are going to turn on a magical switch and turn your life upside down". I kept staring at grey sidewalks for a while, only seeing grey and thinking "yeah, that whole "you're gonna see colors in a new way" stuff is definitely not for me".
Fast-forward to now where I am almost staring at blank walls thinking "Oh, I really like this subtle hue! Ooooh, and that tiny blue in that shadow there!" I'm also enjoying looking at some sidewalks as well! ^^
Once you start analyzing colors and doing color studies, you simply can't avoid it.
It's like one part of your brain automatically processes the information you were struggling to analyse before: the tiny variations of values and hues here and there. You end up appreciating paintings and anything you see much much more.
Talking about hues, I'm loving what you've been doing with your light setting in these past two videos: teal background light and teal sweater, now red-pink light with red-pink sweater. I'm curious to see you to try an orange light with that teal sweater, see how it turns out! :)
Regarding the "working vs automatic" mind, I am not really sure where I stand myself. Years of self-teaching set me in an automatic path I believe, with a certain amateurish style I've been trying to change/improve for the past years, forcing me to switch back to a working mind. Sometimes, I really get mentally exhausted when I to focus at learning new things painting-wise. Not sure where I'll stand once most of that learning will become automated!
Super agree! Sometimes it's not just practice but it's also your perception that matters. It adds value to your growth :). Sometimes we need to take a break and take on other hobbies to improve
Very very awesome video sir! After experiencing a lot of things, I personally clicked with what you said. I'm a slow artist (working brain type) and I bashed myself for it in the past until one day I realized everyone is different and I decided to take it at my (slow) pace with more thinking. Strangely, that's when I started really improving. You got yourself a sub!
Exactlyyyy !!!!!!! Thank you so so so much. I was in photo school ; in 4 hours sometimes I was actually shooting for 30 minutes because I needed to take the time to try, turn around the model, move stuff, change modifiers etc. To get the images I actually wanted. Almost never felt happy about what I did and felt shitty because I was still doing tons of mistakes. In school we idolized the master piece producing machine and the industry as a whole privileges the quickly producing side so it is a bit of a concern for my career. This video helped me tremendously
This is amazing point of view Adam! i saw that video earlier, but you made a good point about learning art, even learning things in life. Embracing the true way that we are is the best path to growth conscienciously. Thanks!
Evolution is one of the most gradual processes of all and Art is a part of it. A piece of true evolutionary art requires a great amount of time, it can be the most exhausting and tiresome process but if you keep on moving with it, you'll get there.
Thanks for the advice, Sir.
I really needed that.
I really appreciate your view on this. I was getting caught up in the whole do quick studies will help you in your output. That it would make me a faster artist. I am naturally impatient when working on stuff. I recently saw a vid of the late great Moebius doing a sketch of Blueberry or something and he was sketching quite slowly. Just building up the form. I was taken aback because he is such a prolific artist with his books and he had to have put hundreds of hours into those pages. It was remarkable that he basically took his sweet time drawing an image. Why was I rushing? Thanks for reminding me to enjoy the process with whatever I’m creating.
Tysm for making this
I consider myself a fast artist, whay Im refering to is that I dont like to spend too many hours on a drawing or painting, because i get bored easily. And I practice in short periods of time, and if i realize i cant study or practice something because im lakcing on a skill (perspective, observation, line quality) I practice those until I get better, and continue practicing. Thanks for the video man!
15:27 Thank you for putting that train of thought into words!
wow, you're a deep thinker and great educator/communicator. Thank you for this gift, it had opened up avenues in my mind I didn't know existed. thank you.
Excellent! Great carreer advice.
Thank you for this video. I believe this concept applies for learning practically anything, not just art. When you're first learning something or trying to master it then you will be using the working part of your brain and use significants amounts of glucose in your brain and your neural metabolic rate would spike and so you will feel tired and even hungry. In contrast, when you're trying to be quick, you will revert back to what you've already learnt and that is the automatic part of your brain. This is in contrast to being a student, where you must work hard and learn and understand it's permissable to be slow because you're trying to learn and you're allowed to make mistakes. For example, Medicine (as with many other fields such as art) is a life long process of learning physiology, pathophysiology and treatments and hence you will have to be prepared to consume large amounts of cognitive energy trying to learn and apply information for most of your life.
The reason you gave me an epiphany is because I was wondering what takes me so long to study a chapter and why it would drain so much energy. This would be significantly hard and distressing for my psychology because I'd feel as if I'm wasting time doing this degree. But it turns out that I was in the working part of my brain because I am trying to visualise and truely understand everything because I actually love the subject so very much. My initial slow and steady approach towards learning a concept will not mean I will always be slow because as you learn more and more, you will become faster at learning. I shouldn't feel so bad anymore. I want to give you a hug man for talking about this topic and making me feel better and improving my outlook on life.
A good (art history) teacher makes a difference in life
I fully agree on the speedpainting part. I'm part of many speedpainting group and the artists, understandably, always go for effect. They take the quickest routes to making an effective impression but these routes are inevitably the same. Nothing gets developed further than that. It's fun but it's not the way to grow.
Adam!!! Thank you, that you spend your time for this type of questions. Thank you for your help. Keep it up. Greetings from Hungary :)
What a teacher, amazing info there
Thank you for this video. Thank you for your thoughts on learning and seeing. Powerfully insightful. Learning to understand what kind of artist I am and how I learn. Thank you.
This video will help me have better conversations about my fine art paintings by understanding my lens. Thank you
very good, i learned a lot!
Your channel is amazing, alot of the things you say can be applied to anything, not just art.
So there is hope for me. 😊
Ty, mr. Duff
Dude your videos are awesome, so glad I recently found you. Have been watching your videos and they are reigniting my artistic flame that I feel has been diminishing over a long stressful career. Keep it up, much thanks. 🙏
this was very clarifying and sobering about some nebulous feelings i've struggled to find the right words and help for.. thanks for sharing your advice. :] it matters so much.
Excellent! I love painting & don’t mind being slow! Thank you for your time & expertise
Thank you for these talks, they are so helpful and inspiring. This is Art Philosophy, and it is quite a rare topic in art channels to talk about, but very much needed!
As soon as he mentioned lots of smaller tasks being processed in our brain as a single task due to muscle memory, It immediately made me think of playing fighting games. How I can walk away from a game for months and months at a time, and then come back and perform button combinations that are literally hundreds of inputs long, with very precise timing, with absolutely no issues because i have done them so many times over the years it is just ingrained in my mind.
I couldnt tell you off the top of my head what buttons i am pressing because i no dont think of it as individual actions, but only as 1 single action that just happens automatically whenever i want to do it.
Im not there with my chosen art medium yet (sculpture) but i hope i can some day :)
This video really hit home for me, Adam. Thank you so much.
Damn, this is my lucky day! I'm very happy to discover your channel!
Thank you for this video. I do art in my spare time and I'm also a PhD student and everything you said applies to both.
Thank you for this video, I feel a lot better about myself now.
That was absolute mind-blower (in a good way) ❤️🔥✨🤯
I often feel like taking a nap after I work on my drawing for a while. Thumbs up if you agree!
Smart as heck!
There’s many good concepts to think about thanks mate
Loved the video. Thank you very much for sharing it.
It’s funny, I’m the opposite, I’m the automatic kind of artist. In art school I often would get professors who were angry at me for overworking things. This may also be strongly influenced by the school of thought you are taught by. I suspect illustrators in general are taught to go deeper with thought, but painters (especially those who lean toward abstraction) are taught to go with intuitive reasoning more.
So I’ve had to learn to let go of my thinking brain. To let my HAND be my guide. I actually strongly prefer to do the labor intensive, heavily thought oriented artwork but it’s actually the faster art that I just make in a moment that seems to have the most impact.
I’m trying to go for a “finished to unfinished” approach to a lot of my work now, just so I can get the crunchy detail in that I love, while keeping the airy and fresh look of my impulsive choices. Part of it for me is the medium itself, yes trying to master it, but also letting nature be as much a part of the work as I am. I’m a watercolorist as you might have suspected 😂
I really enjoyed this video and I swear we had the same experience in discovering that shadows are cool! I’ve learned a ton from you, just wanted to share my oddball (amongst this comment section at least!) experience! :)
This was so so helpful THANK YOU !
Great video dude, it's kinda incredible how little books and tutorials out there avoid talking about this topic, so they ended with quick formulas that maybe can make your work look pretty on the outside, but you miss the entire point and ended just knowing how to apply an specific equation to solve a problem.
The other thing im currently realizing is how important focused drawing is, and how it lets you to visualize what you want to do.
Observation lets you comprehend the world around you, but visualization let you take what you observed and practiced and put it in your painting, I'd love to hear you talk about that topic in a video about visualization and all. They're really things that if people learn how to see and visualize, their work would skyrocket in quality.
Edit: I just remembered when I truly understood perspective and for a while I saw the world like another dimension or something haha
Bobby Chiu is a huge advocate for "visualization" - simply closing your eyes and imagining. And he's spot-on. It's remarkable how we can dive blindly into a work of art without giving it much thought.
@@AdamDuffArt I have a very difficult time doing a painting or any other creations if I can't first "See" it in my mind. Once I do I can give myself directions on how to achieve it. I'm constantly learning new things and pushing so I have a hard time getting that "Working brain" to take a rest and just play. I often feel pressure to get more done faster, but that could be because there is so much I want to do. Could you possibly talk about being overwhelmed by so many possibilities and how to narrow focus when I want it all? Thanks. Love to listen to you while I'm working, it truly means a lot.
I loved the video!! but it was too funny to not mention lol:
warmth into the light and cool into the shadow
OR
cool into the shadow and warmth into the light.
Thank you!
This was incredibly useful for me, thank you.
I’m 45 years old, learning to draw for the first time ever and perspective kicks my arse, can’t seem to get it so frustrating… and I can follow sketch tutorials but can’t do the same sketch on my own. UGH. I’m 2.5 months in and I’m just so sooooo frustrated. Taking me forever to learn
Thank you for this video
I took up drawing again in 2019. Barely had any growth the last three years, and it's quite similar to when I stopped drawing around the time after highschool.
I dont mind. Right now I dont care about improvement all that much. I started again when I got really sick with a heavy psycotic break and was admitted to a mental health institution. My brain is still quite mushy and all I want to do is get through every day life, enjoy my hobby and not worry about improving skills to much. I experiment a lot, I enjoy beeing effective and creative. I like having exhibitions with my small drawings and uniqe motives. People spend time looking at it, they smile and ask about something they think is interesting. I wont say Im an artist, mostly I feel wery alienated among people who do this seriously ... but then again, I am allowed to have fun, and art and writing can be shared and sold even though it's mainly for the enjoyment of the artist/writer. And maybe I'll focus on improvement again the day my brain have the capasity and interest to do so.
Today many things clicked together: a friend of mine that had cool drawings is making some awesome drawings and she said "i had to go slower", you said the same and I consider myself slow, even thou i hand a full illustration per week with a deadline of 1 or 2 days. In my studies i tend to rush to get speed, in my free time I tend to think not finishing that drawing or that painting in the same day is bad. After your video, all things clicked together and I might know what to do right now, thanks for this insight :3
So here's the thing, my mind is just empty. I can't seem to access the things I've "learned". It's like there's a barrier around my memory. My brain just starts to kinda hurt and I get tired when I even attempt to think about how to do anything, whether it's art-related or not. I don't know what type of learner I am.
that's called burn out, you need a big break from stress
I share this video frequently and its helped so many people.
Thanks Adam.
art always pursuited me as long as I remember. Thanks to art, I've discovered the way that I fonctionned, and you put a word on it thnak you !
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO!!!
I'm so used to watching your videos where it's the speedpaint (and half the time not even looking at it) that it's so jarring but also so cool to see your face as you talk xD
Sometime, it's good to be able to see the face of the person I'm hearing to. It feels, somewhat, real, reassuring. Thank you Adam, for all your videos
I like how you think!
It's such a good point and very much worth to think about! Crossed my mind before if I am trying to rush too much but I never deeply thought about it. How does one figure out which speed fits them best? I feel like, personally I can do good at fast drawings, especially when they are expressive characters, but then when I try to put more time into it, things I did well get lost in an effort to make it look "finished" and I end up thinking the fast and "messy" work actually looked better. When I do landscapes though, I like to spend time and can get a good result out of it. Anyway this feeling of "oh, the fast and simple stuff actually looked more interesting" sometimes leads me to rush a piece that I want to look "finished" in a hope that it'll come out better, if that makes any sense... Right now I am taking a step back and do art only for myself and my own creative development instead of thinking of my portfolio or social media or whatever... If anyone has a similar experience or tips I'd love to know your thoughts and/or approaches and experiences :)