Normally I'd tell students asking about it that their speed is a reflection of their level as an artist - the more experienced you are the faster you get, but it's more nuanced than that and I explain why in this class. Best part is even less experienced artists can take advantage of this knowledge and improve their speed far beyond what it would normally be 💥💥
It is incredible how you can work with so few layers. You call it confidence, but I need layers for greyscale, lineart, background greyscale, forground/character color, background color, effects, forground elements, ambient occlusion. I am working on entirely too many layers having to make too many selections that slow down my pace. I really need to start thinking about simplyfying things. Talking about comic/webtoons here. There are also the panels and bubbles of course. Layout is a whole different piece of work.
Vid summed up: 1. Stick to your drawing process and figure one out 2. dont waste time on bits that dont grab ppls attention, usually BG etc, max amount of time anyone looks at ur art is gonna be 5 seconds anyway 3. Dont have a thousand brushes, good rule of thumb is having three main brushes and more than 10 is overkill 4. stop guessing, if u unsure whip out some ref 5. act confident, aka. if something looks good enough it properly is, dont waste time trying to perfect everything
The “no pencil only pen”/“no undo or eraser” method is so useful. My lines have not only become more confident, but I’m putting down more correct lines than wrong ones. Our brains need the “this was the wrong line” feedback on paper to actively learn from the mistake. At least my brain does.
Thanks to Marco Bucci's courses I started out always painting on one layer, and whenever I made a mistake I just painted over it again. As he said, confidence comes from knowing how to fix your mistakes and I can't agree more. This made me not afraid to completely obliterate something and just repaint it if needed.
speed is literally my biggest problem , many times i work very zoomed in and i realise i was polishing for 1 hour a detail that when you zoom out is barely noticable. very useful tips
I really have the problem where I end up adding detail to EVERYTHING. Once had a client who commissioned me contact me a few months later and say how they just started realizing how much extra detail I had put into every corner of the piece. From noticing how I rendered every single nail, to how I added texture and effects to every piece of clothing or how I even did etched marking on even the tiniest jewelries or had seperate strands of slightly different colors for the robe. They even sent me $20 as a tip after that and went on about how they just keep noticing more and more. It really made my day! But this is probably only like 1 in a 50 client. Most people don't even care about me sending them the high-res file.
before art school, I used to make two finished pieces a month to hang up at my local pizza store. Now, currently in art school, I am assigned to complete a minimum of 40-50 drawings a week. Whenever I do a personal piece now, I can achieve the quality that used to take me 15 days in only 2. Alot of resources will shit on art school, but my teacher broke it down pretty simply for me- pressure makes practice, makes perfect.
the whole thing about using less layers or non-eraseable tools is solid advice, but... well, as a recovering perfectionist/former gifted kid, the thing about that, is that you need to learn to stop giving so much of shit first. To let go of the idea of being good. Might sound dumb, but hear me out! I was so nervous about doing new things or stuff I wasn't really good at, that I shied away from trying out new things, or beat myself up over it too much when I did try new things and was bad at them - essentially the "what's the point of doing it, if I'm not perfect at it?" mindset that a lot of perfectionists fall prey to. You want to be GOOD at drawing, and for perfectionists that means there can't be _any_ mistakes or inadequacies, so you overwork your pieces, and quickly burn out, or even drop art entirely. You can't bring yourself to really "finish" a piece, bc there will always be more things oyu feel like you could improve upon, and if you DO deem a work finished, it still doesn't FEEL like you're finished. It feels more like "I gave up and said stop when it was good enough". Like phoning it in. And that's where you need to stop, step back, and learn to stop giving so much of a shit. Stop trying to be perfect, or even all that good, and fully embrace a mediocre skill-level, or, hell, even a bad one! See a mistake? So what? It's whatever! Keep going! Like he said, you need to learn to be confident with your decisions, and that also means to move on even if you _aren't_ fully confident. Stop constantly going back. It's perfectly fine to be bad at something you're just starting out with. Now, that may _sound_ logical and obvious, but once you're older, there's a sort of pressure there - a feeling like you can't be bad at something that's so easy for other people. Like you should already HAVE those skills, or the capability to pick them up really quickly. It feels shameful to be struggling, essentially, _especially_ if you're a former gifted kid. But if you can let go of that *need* to be good and always better, and accept your skill as it is, that will actually help you improve, because it means you're DOING art more. If you stop shying away from the possibility of making mistakes or not being good at something, you'll stop waffling about instead of just drawing, too. You'll get a lot more done, and if it's not perfect, then so what? It's better than nothing! You can't have quality without quantity, and you can't have quantity if you're so petrified of making a mistake that you re-draw the same line 50 times, and still end up unhappy about it. Even if it sounds dumb or paradoxical, but you can only get better if you stop caring too much about being better.
Thank you SO MUCH!!! I can not describe how much I needed it. Your point of view really brought me so needed change to my own mindset. The only thought I came with in my situation was "If you dont like the result, dont correct it. Leave it. Next time you'll do it better". And every next time end up really better, it may be subtle, but! At least now I do not go over the top with correcting things over and over, again and again. It was so ridiculous, I could spend months on a single piece to never be satisfied with it. Your position is definitely a breath of fresh air! Thank you a hundred times! (And sorry for my english, I hope its readable and wont hurt your eyes) 💜
@@agate6492 I'm so so glad it helped!! I'm happy for you, and yeah, just go go go! Keep going and going and enjoy the journey! (your English is fine, no worries 👍)
As a former gifted kid and continued perfectionist… yeah 😢 The problem is I don’t know HOW to care less. Especially when it comes to drawing OCs I am very attached to, which I have been too afraid to even try… Edit: Good news, after watching advice videos like this and reading encouraging comments like these, I drew one of my main characters for the very first time!!!
@@mildlymarvelous try mindless freeform doodles: You start with a random shape and built onto it, and nothing has to really be anything recognisable (like those images that simulate what having a stroke looks like), just shapes and lines and maybe some shading, totally abstract. It's great for a warm-up or to fill out five minutes, and to get your creative juices flowing, bc you essentially create new "problems" for yourself, that you then solve by filling out random lines to make shapes. It builds confidence, and since you're drawing nonsense, you can't do it wrong, bc there _is_ no right or wrong to it. So long as you do it at all, you did it! Then, do more mindless drawing, listen to a podcast, audiobook or video while you do, draw flashes of poses, or anatomy studies, or literally try to draw the next best object in your vicinity. Essentially start drawing stuff you _don't_ care about. Make messy sketches and leave them like that, don't turn them into finished pieces. Make a blob shape and try to turn it into a face or figure, as cartoony as necessary to vaguely fit the shape, and don't keep yourself confined to the blob if it doesn't quite fit the blob. Colour over the lines on purpose, make it artsy. Try to draw something super pretentious, and _act_ super pretentious while you're at it, like playing a character! "Yes, I am An Artist, and I do Important Art, ho ho ho!" It's fun, and it's so you actually get into the habit of drawing _at all_ *without* a care for the outcome, so you can sit down to draw things you actually care about with more ease. Those things eventually hammer into your brain that mistakes or unplanned lines aren't bad at all. And if you don't like how a piece is turning out? Fuck it. Leave it be, move on to the next, try again if you want. You could burn it or rip it and make something with that, or simply file it away, an idea stored for later. Step away from Serious Art for a bit. Doodle on napkins, on book pages, take a bunch of washi-tape if you have any and try to use it as colouring a drawing of for example a dress. Pick a theme and make a colage. Different styles, different mediums, and don't try to avoid getting messy! Get that paint on your hands, smudge those lines, rip a tear and cover the edges in gold, and most importantly: do it with vindictive pride as you mentally give that perfectionism the middle finger!
Limiting your layers to only 2-3 active working layers safes TONS of time and mental energy. I know every artist is tempted to think, "Hey if I don't flatten my 20 layers, I can always fix things easily", but in fact it's the opposite: you waste time simply trying to find the right layer AND struggle to see your artwork as a whole image.
I am an artist and I DO tend to look at how much effort and detail an artist put into their art lol I tend to like/appreciate pieces with lots of clear details more than those that look rushed.
They say the difference between a good piece and a great piece is the level of detail put into it. A good artist can get relatively good drawings relatively fast, but great artists will be able to look for those tiny details to add to their pieces.
i can get out fully rendered comms in around 4-5 hours, sometimes longer depending on complexity - it definitely helps to learn how to make your art faster. time is money!
This combined with learning about the 20:80 rule (whatever it's called) has already made a significant difference in how fast I draw. As someone previously obsessed with perfecting every piece of work...this has been a lifesaver.
Ive always thought i was good at drawing - and i think im okay - but drawing on screen less tablet really humbled me and made realize how bad my sketching technique is. I’ve really tried to slowdown and draw single confident lines now and I do feel like im improving. Great vid as always Marc!
I would appreciate a video on endurance. One of my friends recently spent 117 hours on an art project whereas I usually lose my motivation after, like, two. My uncle commissioned me to draw a full-body portrait of him on March 25th, but due to my lack of endurance, it took me until April 20th to finish it. I really need to learn how to push through such projects so I can complete commissions for people outside of my family who won’t be as patient.
Maybe I can give some tips? 1) Motivation is something you can train. If you keep giving up in the middle of projects, you end up putting work into them without the reward of finishing and sharing them with others, which is a _huge_ motivation tool for most artists. Instead of starting huge projects (something all artists are guilty of), force yourself to work within your means. If two hours is your limit, do more two-hour works. Then expand it to three hours until you feel comfortable with that. Then four hours, and so on. Do it consistently, but take breaks when needed (too much narrow focus for too long can burn you out and make you less efficient). 2) Don't worry if you struggle with motivation past a certain point. Some people (like myself) have ADHD or other issues that obstruct us more than others from sticking to one thing for long. You don't have to be a 17-hour-per-piece type of artist. You can find a happy compromise. Even then, a few times every year, I get the random urge to do something bigger than usual and finish it. 3) Allow yourself to give up on some projects. Sometimes they don't work. Most professionals in any creative profession have a huge pile of unfinished works. JRR Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, is _still_ getting his personal notes on unfinished stories released post-humously. My favorite manga artist group, CLAMP, are notorious for not finishing a handful of their published series and moving on. It's not "ideal", but it is normal. Let yourself be normal. =) Hope this helps!
Isn't it a bit strange how SENPAI does that, posts on a topic U just happen to looking for or trying to study..!? [guess we're all a bit "telepathetic" 😂]
If yall wanna figure out your method on how you go about your painting personally in my case, I looked at the speed paints of my older pieces and I looked at how long it took me to make those pieces and or a similar process I knew I could replicate really quickly and I just kind of wrote down my steps so that I could remember my method. 😅
Hey Marc! I wanted to ask, would you consider making a video on how to properly use references insyead of just copying them? I am an artist that has complete aphantasia, which means it takes me longer to understand some shapes, and using references my brain defaults to just 1:1 copy and then adjust it for my needs. If you could show us how to properly break refs into maybe geometric shaped or sth like that, it would be amazing! I know you get tons of requests like that, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in :) Thank you for sharing your knowledge, you taught me more in a year than I learned in previous 12 years
i think getting advice from someone like him isn't that good because he draws a lot from imagination. he mentions it in a lot of his vids about visualization and how he draws from imagination which doesn't apply to us aphants. I hope there are art channels that are actually geared towards aphants.
Phew, back on track. I've been wandering what to do, good thing I have art school. ty mark. Also the "ah!" at the beginning was way too relatable. I have thrown my pen in that exact way, three consecutive times one day, and that's not even a joke .
You’re doing a very beautiful piece of art like always you do. You always caught me at your videos because the stunning way of the values and lights. My favorite bald, ever.
I really loved the only refine the focal point part, because it's true!, the other day I was watching some amazing art, wondering how do they make such amazing renders, but the closer I looked the rougher the shading and lineart actually was
Thanks, Marc! I recently purchased your Art School program a couple weeks ago, but am having trouble building it into my daily life and make it a habit (on top of the fear of starting/blank page/being bad etc. Typical newbie stuff). Every time I watch one of your videos, it rekindles my desire to stick with it. Thanks for everything you do!
I got a little sketch book that I'll occasionally draw in. And I pretty much only use a pen to draw in it. Even though most of those were simple sketches, I definitely noticed improvement just from doing that. I'd wholeheartedly recommend trying it out. And don't forget that pressure is important. You can lightly sketch out the forms with the pen, then use firm strokes over top of it.
Everytime I think “I wish Marc would have a video of this topic” you come out with a video of the topic. THANK YOU! As an anime artist thank you so much speed is my biggest downfall so I’m excited to be able to improve with this video. Thank you so much ❤
Having confidence is the thing that working for me right now, speeding up. Big strokes, little more messy but speeding up gradually. I was hesitant about my strokes cause I tried to do it perfect from beginning, but actually looking for other artist do things made me realize how messy their work is in process. Thats actually can be another tip - to see how people doing things, not observing results, observing process.
this is so helpful! a couple of these i learned in college (confident strokes, gesture first, reference reference reference..), but the ones about using the same tools was a totally new idea to me and it makes a lot of sense! (though sometimes i get bored with a brush i’m using and/or my art process so i feel the need to change and it try something new.. probably partly why i’m a slow artist most of the time 😅.) and the “fake it ‘till you make it” tip.. i knew about it for a while, i really have to try using < 5 layers at some point. it’s been a hard mental barrier for me, but i’m going to give it a try after work tonight! thank you for making this video, much appreciate 🙏
My comment is that you've inspired me to work consistently for a year now. If that's what you intended, keep going ;) For everyone out there. Art School is worth it.
I've been searching for the music in the background for three years, not only was this video super helpful for tips but it was also super helpful for me trying to find that song.
trying to follow bob ross in real time with nothing but the few brushes from marc's kit and the defaults led me to find a basic style to start painting with, still trying to iron out the details and refine and learn and all that but i'm getting there when it comes to using color in my drawings.
The layer one was something I only recently let go of. That fear of making a mistake I couldn't undo was near crippling, but the longer you paint, the more you understand materials, or lighting, or just your own process. In the last few months, I went from a file of 100+ layers to maybe 10. And it does go faster, eventually. The faking bit, I'm still trying to learn lol. Never thought I'd get to this point tbh lol. Thanks Marc!
no way you just deleted a finished background wow you're a chad. I would've never deleted that in a million years, and would have ended up with a worse piece overall because of it.
Used to work at a digital art studio where we did extremely elaborate realism artwork and everything had to be perfect and highly detailed when you zoom in due to the nature of the target audience. Learned to polish everything, but my speed suffered highly as a result, making the next gamedev job I had a nightmare. Thank you for the tips!
Another important thing: KNOW YOUR PROGRAM Knowing shortcuts helps A LOT. Also adjusting them to your needs. It might be annoying at first to learn that but it will make your work much quicker later. I use shortuts for new layer, layer group, lasso tool, unselect all, tools like transform, move and HSV/HSL Adjustment. Also check your drawing program has tools like Palette Docker for saving your most used colors or Popup Palette for quick access to your brushes. And - set auto save!
i met someone who spent dozens of hours on basic digital paintings of portraits. Oh god. Wish I could convince them to draw from observation pen only on a sketchbook to really up their level, passion, speed and lose their fear of drawing lol
for future ref 1only have a few brushes 2 only add details to the focal point like the face 3 think ahead of wht youll do 4 find a reference dont guess wht to do 5 work confidently
Remember that most as people, especially those who are just beginning, taking long in your art is a compliment. If you notice, artists that take so much time have much more detail although it isn't as necessary (that's what this video is for) so don't take "taking long" as a bad thing. Good luck everyone :>
The "focus your efforts" section is very interesting. Gonna share my method of art appreciation. Because when I find an artwork I like I will spend many minutes zooming in on various sections to see what kind of techniques the artist employed for non-focal sections of the work, and if it's unnecessary or indeed harmonizes well with the rest of the work. 80% of the work will be fast, but the last 20% of refinement will take much longer, and I try my best to truly appreciate when artists try to achieve that 100%. Am I in the minority? Probably. But it's how I like to enjoy art, and everyone's method of enjoying art is valid.
Two things that helped me tremendously with managing time was sketching with a pen only no pencil, and drawing for four years on a screen-less tablet. I remember one of my first digital pieces took over forty hours to complete, but something with the same level of detail right now would take me three hours of continuous work or something :]
i definitely needed this i often find myself stuck with one work for days or even weeks because i use too many layers and easily get overwhelmed by that but then i remembered how i used to draw on an online board (what was it again? malmal?) with friends and there were no layers but surprisingly i felt more free back then and this was also the time when I made the most progress at drawing i will take note of every tip in the video, thank you for your hard work!
I needed this. thank you so much!! The focus on your effort part was such a wake-up call. I always over-fixate on details that don't show that much on the final result. the many layers were always a problem for me. I keep on creating backups of certain layers in fear of making a mistake and I might need to go back and redo it. This is a great video every tip and and suggestion made me realize what I've been doing that made me stop finishing an artwork because I get so overwhelmed that I never go back to finish it. Definitely gonna apply and create some changes to my process (which I never have because I usually wing it gonna work on that too LOL).
I've been scared to search up tips that remind me of college due to my old art college failing me despite showing signs of improvement, so this is very refreshing and reassuring that improvement is possible.
OH MY GOD I swear I spend like 4 whole days to do one drawing with simple inn background and I almost lost my mind due to the time amount I wasted and then got art block and blues for another week. My biggest issue is my stupid OCD perfectionism which often pushes me into making EVERY PIXEL PERFECT which is super dumb I know, so I need to take your advices and drill them into my brain. I'm gonna watch this video before every practice I plan on doing until I loose that dumb habit. Thank you so much Marc, you're the best
Hii Marc, I wanted to ask if you can do an anatomy lesson that also talk about human muscles and how they work, I watched a lot of tutorials but they always make me feel bored and also i feel like I don’t understand anything , I really wanna learn how to draw 3D figures in a easy way that my mind can understand , and btw I always rewatch your lessons cuz they really help me! Your the best art teacher I’ve ever known, I believe that there’s no one is better than you in teaching art 🩷 thanks for always helping us improve with your lessons and classes, I really appreciate it 🩷🩷🩷🩷 and btw the way you teach art is not boring that’s why I watched a lot of your lessons and rewatched them!
AGAIN MARC!!! Dang! I been grinding with trying to find a technique (Recipe) that works for me and got frustrated becase I mastered many but all took too long. Now, I decided on one way I developed for myself two years ago and I AM STICKING WITH IT TILL IT LOOKS GOOD!!!! And here you are again VERIFYING ME! I made this decision yesterday. THANK YOU AGAIN MARC!!! Please keep up with great work.
Hey Marc, could you possibly do a video in the future about different “recipes”. My biggest challenge is it all seems so overwhelming. I’m watching guides and videos but it results to the point of not having an idea how to start, I’m stuck in the cycle and I never ever start. Maybe this is oddly specific because I have inattentive ADHD so I hope it’s worth the time for you.
Art is overwhelming, but the biggest rule is that you just have to start. Draw, and draw when you don't want to. The more you draw, the better you will get. Pick something from things you want to get better at, and just do it until you're better. Don't shy away from difficult things (for example, maybe learn a method to draw heads - but dont fall into only drawing front-facing heads!), but do leave more difficult things like anatomy for later down the line. The most important part is to get started, you can worry about what to do another time! Some progress is better than none. Marc has multiple videos on one-year drawing plans if I remember correctly, so maybe use one of those to guide you roughly.
I've been training myself to draw slower this past few months. I guess what I'm trying to do isn't drawing slower but draw mindfully. Now the average time it took for me to finish a drawing is 5 hours and above
man i keep on trying to get better with digital art and this video really made me ask “why?”. cause ive always been more comfortable with traditional art.
Cool. Will watch later. My biggest time waster is that I'm too perfect and pedantic with my line drawings. And in the end I'm always dissatisfied with something and want to do better
One thing I've learned from sketching and hand-animating at coffee shops is that the more your hand is shaking, the less confident you are... the more you have to pretend you aren't! You can't give your stroke TIME to wobble! Just do that thing and don't dare look back!
I appreciate your tips, Marc! I've been struggling with taking too much time on one part of the painting that I have to take constant breaks. -P.S. Sylphie best girl
You are truly incredible, I love your art and classes, I think you are the teacher I am most inspired by watching. I really love this style of painting in this video and Zelda's painting, It would be amazing to see more videos with this style, it's very beautiful.
I've always believed a tip that Borodante gave in which the painting has to look ready at any stage. You're just adding detail after blocking of the shapes. It's been a useful mindset, but I've also seen people talking about "the ugly stage" of an image.. so I'm not totally confident that the advice always applies.
Anatomy and light theory also is must learn too, i got slow down a lot when it comes to grayscaling because of lack of anatomy knowledge and color compatibility too
It takes me around 2 weeks to finish a piece full time, but to be fair, I'm a perfectionist and like my stuff as detailed as I can, but still, pretty damn slow lol.
Hi Marc! Out of curiosity, is it ok to take time (assuming you have it) to render and add all the details simply out of pure enjoyment for the artist? Or would that slow down progress anyway? Happy belated birthday 🎂 and just wanted to let you know I’ll be going to Montreal in May. It makes me happy and excited to know I’ll be in the city where my favorite artist and teacher was born and lived in! I can’t wait! Lol See you next class!!
Nice! Hope you have a good time:D And if it’s for fun really do whatever you want- fun should always come first! You could probably improve a bit faster by creating more pieces in less time than 1-2 with more time, but if that’s not ad fun don’t do it ;)
For me how to draw faster is when you do drawing with a proper technique, good understanding, observation and knowledge of what you draw (whether is environment or character) just keep it on your pace and do not rush it. As your progressing when you are beginner to intermediate level, as long as you do the all properly, you will getting faster without realizing it. Why?? Because you are focusing on how to be good and when you are getting good you know what to do, how yo solve the problem you to figure out something clear which is faster than before
beautiful work, thank you for all the tips and encouragement. I especially love the videos where you start a drawing from scratch and we can follow along. your brushes and some from DG are the only ones i use now.
Normally I'd tell students asking about it that their speed is a reflection of their level as an artist - the more experienced you are the faster you get, but it's more nuanced than that and I explain why in this class. Best part is even less experienced artists can take advantage of this knowledge and improve their speed far beyond what it would normally be 💥💥
It is incredible how you can work with so few layers. You call it confidence, but I need layers for greyscale, lineart, background greyscale, forground/character color, background color, effects, forground elements, ambient occlusion. I am working on entirely too many layers having to make too many selections that slow down my pace. I really need to start thinking about simplyfying things. Talking about comic/webtoons here. There are also the panels and bubbles of course. Layout is a whole different piece of work.
20 hrs on one basic piece is rediculous. I needed this lol
Came here to make this exact comment! ✌️😁
Get it, boss! 💪
6-8h on a game sprite. i need at least 6 of those
Weeks for me. Takes much less time traditional a few hours.
i take a ungodly amount i aint even gonna say it so i definitely needed this
Don’t worry, I took 2 years to do our DND party of 7… the campaign finished before I did the portraits
Vid summed up:
1. Stick to your drawing process and figure one out
2. dont waste time on bits that dont grab ppls attention, usually BG etc, max amount of time anyone looks at ur art is gonna be 5 seconds anyway
3. Dont have a thousand brushes, good rule of thumb is having three main brushes and more than 10 is overkill
4. stop guessing, if u unsure whip out some ref
5. act confident, aka. if something looks good enough it properly is, dont waste time trying to perfect everything
The “no pencil only pen”/“no undo or eraser” method is so useful. My lines have not only become more confident, but I’m putting down more correct lines than wrong ones. Our brains need the “this was the wrong line” feedback on paper to actively learn from the mistake. At least my brain does.
I took up pen and paper for this reason. I'm loving it.
Nothing wrong with erasing mistakes. As long as you can fix them
The worst but about going back to paper and pen is when you keep tapping on the pad to try and undo a mistake…
Thanks to Marco Bucci's courses I started out always painting on one layer, and whenever I made a mistake I just painted over it again. As he said, confidence comes from knowing how to fix your mistakes and I can't agree more. This made me not afraid to completely obliterate something and just repaint it if needed.
@@M1rFortune overfixing is bad
speed is literally my biggest problem , many times i work very zoomed in and i realise i was polishing for 1 hour a detail that when you zoom out is barely noticable. very useful tips
Same, though I still love my detailed pencil pieces the most 😄
Same here!! I looove details but omg I have a bad habit of lazer focusing on miniscule detauls tgen feeling all my time was wasted when I zoom out
@@ww3196 literally me but is so difficult to focus on the big picture😂
@@ww3196but that's the fun of it all!!!!
He drew a background and then changed his mind! My confidence is boosted.
yea when I saw that I was mind blown
I really have the problem where I end up adding detail to EVERYTHING.
Once had a client who commissioned me contact me a few months later and say how they just started realizing how much extra detail I had put into every corner of the piece.
From noticing how I rendered every single nail, to how I added texture and effects to every piece of clothing or how I even did etched marking on even the tiniest jewelries or had seperate strands of slightly different colors for the robe.
They even sent me $20 as a tip after that and went on about how they just keep noticing more and more. It really made my day! But this is probably only like 1 in a 50 client.
Most people don't even care about me sending them the high-res file.
before art school, I used to make two finished pieces a month to hang up at my local pizza store. Now, currently in art school, I am assigned to complete a minimum of 40-50 drawings a week. Whenever I do a personal piece now, I can achieve the quality that used to take me 15 days in only 2. Alot of resources will shit on art school, but my teacher broke it down pretty simply for me- pressure makes practice, makes perfect.
the whole thing about using less layers or non-eraseable tools is solid advice, but... well, as a recovering perfectionist/former gifted kid, the thing about that, is that you need to learn to stop giving so much of shit first. To let go of the idea of being good. Might sound dumb, but hear me out!
I was so nervous about doing new things or stuff I wasn't really good at, that I shied away from trying out new things, or beat myself up over it too much when I did try new things and was bad at them - essentially the "what's the point of doing it, if I'm not perfect at it?" mindset that a lot of perfectionists fall prey to.
You want to be GOOD at drawing, and for perfectionists that means there can't be _any_ mistakes or inadequacies, so you overwork your pieces, and quickly burn out, or even drop art entirely. You can't bring yourself to really "finish" a piece, bc there will always be more things oyu feel like you could improve upon, and if you DO deem a work finished, it still doesn't FEEL like you're finished. It feels more like "I gave up and said stop when it was good enough". Like phoning it in.
And that's where you need to stop, step back, and learn to stop giving so much of a shit.
Stop trying to be perfect, or even all that good, and fully embrace a mediocre skill-level, or, hell, even a bad one! See a mistake? So what? It's whatever! Keep going!
Like he said, you need to learn to be confident with your decisions, and that also means to move on even if you _aren't_ fully confident. Stop constantly going back.
It's perfectly fine to be bad at something you're just starting out with. Now, that may _sound_ logical and obvious, but once you're older, there's a sort of pressure there - a feeling like you can't be bad at something that's so easy for other people. Like you should already HAVE those skills, or the capability to pick them up really quickly. It feels shameful to be struggling, essentially, _especially_ if you're a former gifted kid.
But if you can let go of that *need* to be good and always better, and accept your skill as it is, that will actually help you improve, because it means you're DOING art more. If you stop shying away from the possibility of making mistakes or not being good at something, you'll stop waffling about instead of just drawing, too. You'll get a lot more done, and if it's not perfect, then so what? It's better than nothing!
You can't have quality without quantity, and you can't have quantity if you're so petrified of making a mistake that you re-draw the same line 50 times, and still end up unhappy about it. Even if it sounds dumb or paradoxical, but you can only get better if you stop caring too much about being better.
Thank you SO MUCH!!! I can not describe how much I needed it. Your point of view really brought me so needed change to my own mindset.
The only thought I came with in my situation was "If you dont like the result, dont correct it. Leave it. Next time you'll do it better". And every next time end up really better, it may be subtle, but! At least now I do not go over the top with correcting things over and over, again and again. It was so ridiculous, I could spend months on a single piece to never be satisfied with it.
Your position is definitely a breath of fresh air! Thank you a hundred times! (And sorry for my english, I hope its readable and wont hurt your eyes)
💜
@@agate6492 I'm so so glad it helped!! I'm happy for you, and yeah, just go go go! Keep going and going and enjoy the journey!
(your English is fine, no worries 👍)
As a former gifted kid and continued perfectionist… yeah 😢 The problem is I don’t know HOW to care less. Especially when it comes to drawing OCs I am very attached to, which I have been too afraid to even try…
Edit: Good news, after watching advice videos like this and reading encouraging comments like these, I drew one of my main characters for the very first time!!!
@@mildlymarvelous try mindless freeform doodles:
You start with a random shape and built onto it, and nothing has to really be anything recognisable (like those images that simulate what having a stroke looks like), just shapes and lines and maybe some shading, totally abstract. It's great for a warm-up or to fill out five minutes, and to get your creative juices flowing, bc you essentially create new "problems" for yourself, that you then solve by filling out random lines to make shapes. It builds confidence, and since you're drawing nonsense, you can't do it wrong, bc there _is_ no right or wrong to it. So long as you do it at all, you did it!
Then, do more mindless drawing, listen to a podcast, audiobook or video while you do, draw flashes of poses, or anatomy studies, or literally try to draw the next best object in your vicinity. Essentially start drawing stuff you _don't_ care about.
Make messy sketches and leave them like that, don't turn them into finished pieces. Make a blob shape and try to turn it into a face or figure, as cartoony as necessary to vaguely fit the shape, and don't keep yourself confined to the blob if it doesn't quite fit the blob.
Colour over the lines on purpose, make it artsy. Try to draw something super pretentious, and _act_ super pretentious while you're at it, like playing a character! "Yes, I am An Artist, and I do Important Art, ho ho ho!" It's fun, and it's so you actually get into the habit of drawing _at all_ *without* a care for the outcome, so you can sit down to draw things you actually care about with more ease. Those things eventually hammer into your brain that mistakes or unplanned lines aren't bad at all. And if you don't like how a piece is turning out? Fuck it. Leave it be, move on to the next, try again if you want. You could burn it or rip it and make something with that, or simply file it away, an idea stored for later.
Step away from Serious Art for a bit.
Doodle on napkins, on book pages, take a bunch of washi-tape if you have any and try to use it as colouring a drawing of for example a dress. Pick a theme and make a colage.
Different styles, different mediums, and don't try to avoid getting messy!
Get that paint on your hands, smudge those lines, rip a tear and cover the edges in gold, and most importantly: do it with vindictive pride as you mentally give that perfectionism the middle finger!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This is priceless info, really needed that!
Limiting your layers to only 2-3 active working layers safes TONS of time and mental energy. I know every artist is tempted to think, "Hey if I don't flatten my 20 layers, I can always fix things easily", but in fact it's the opposite: you waste time simply trying to find the right layer AND struggle to see your artwork as a whole image.
I am an artist and I DO tend to look at how much effort and detail an artist put into their art lol I tend to like/appreciate pieces with lots of clear details more than those that look rushed.
They say the difference between a good piece and a great piece is the level of detail put into it.
A good artist can get relatively good drawings relatively fast, but great artists will be able to look for those tiny details to add to their pieces.
i can get out fully rendered comms in around 4-5 hours, sometimes longer depending on complexity - it definitely helps to learn how to make your art faster. time is money!
Marc is my favorite teacher, those videos helped me so much. I can´t thank him enough helping me enjoying art again.
make him fused with proko
This combined with learning about the 20:80 rule (whatever it's called) has already made a significant difference in how fast I draw. As someone previously obsessed with perfecting every piece of work...this has been a lifesaver.
4:24
Marc: “See if you zoom in you can tell I left the background and lower body pretty rough-“
Me: “T-This is rough?”
Holy sylphie thumbnail! Based!!
I though the same thing 😭
The exact reason why I clicked on this vid 💀
Ive always thought i was good at drawing - and i think im okay - but drawing on screen less tablet really humbled me and made realize how bad my sketching technique is. I’ve really tried to slowdown and draw single confident lines now and I do feel like im improving. Great vid as always Marc!
Getting used to the tablet took me a good 2 months it’s def weird at first, but eventually it becomes second nature;)
Watching the speedpaint in the background made me realize just how much time I could save by not doing lineart
I would appreciate a video on endurance. One of my friends recently spent 117 hours on an art project whereas I usually lose my motivation after, like, two. My uncle commissioned me to draw a full-body portrait of him on March 25th, but due to my lack of endurance, it took me until April 20th to finish it. I really need to learn how to push through such projects so I can complete commissions for people outside of my family who won’t be as patient.
Maybe I can give some tips?
1) Motivation is something you can train. If you keep giving up in the middle of projects, you end up putting work into them without the reward of finishing and sharing them with others, which is a _huge_ motivation tool for most artists. Instead of starting huge projects (something all artists are guilty of), force yourself to work within your means. If two hours is your limit, do more two-hour works. Then expand it to three hours until you feel comfortable with that. Then four hours, and so on. Do it consistently, but take breaks when needed (too much narrow focus for too long can burn you out and make you less efficient).
2) Don't worry if you struggle with motivation past a certain point. Some people (like myself) have ADHD or other issues that obstruct us more than others from sticking to one thing for long. You don't have to be a 17-hour-per-piece type of artist. You can find a happy compromise. Even then, a few times every year, I get the random urge to do something bigger than usual and finish it.
3) Allow yourself to give up on some projects. Sometimes they don't work. Most professionals in any creative profession have a huge pile of unfinished works. JRR Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, is _still_ getting his personal notes on unfinished stories released post-humously. My favorite manga artist group, CLAMP, are notorious for not finishing a handful of their published series and moving on. It's not "ideal", but it is normal. Let yourself be normal. =)
Hope this helps!
@@Junosensei Thanks! I guess my main problem is that most of my ideas are too ambitious for me…
BRO I WAS JUST SEARCHING THAT-
Bro he just knew-
Isn't it a bit strange how SENPAI does that, posts on a topic U just happen to looking for or trying to study..!?
[guess we're all a bit "telepathetic" 😂]
You need to check inside your wall now lmao
I was just thinking of searching that. 😅
He knows 👀
If yall wanna figure out your method on how you go about your painting personally in my case, I looked at the speed paints of my older pieces and I looked at how long it took me to make those pieces and or a similar process I knew I could replicate really quickly and I just kind of wrote down my steps so that I could remember my method. 😅
It's comforting seeing in the comments just how many other people struggle with this
Thanks for the vid, these are really helpful tips!
Hey Marc! I wanted to ask, would you consider making a video on how to properly use references insyead of just copying them?
I am an artist that has complete aphantasia, which means it takes me longer to understand some shapes, and using references my brain defaults to just 1:1 copy and then adjust it for my needs. If you could show us how to properly break refs into maybe geometric shaped or sth like that, it would be amazing!
I know you get tons of requests like that, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in :) Thank you for sharing your knowledge, you taught me more in a year than I learned in previous 12 years
He does have some videos that delve into using references. One of them was a video on character creation
i think getting advice from someone like him isn't that good because he draws a lot from imagination. he mentions it in a lot of his vids about visualization and how he draws from imagination which doesn't apply to us aphants.
I hope there are art channels that are actually geared towards aphants.
Coloring has improved my hand and eye coordination.
Agreed on sticking the same recipe and tools u used for a period of time it definitely helps to make your art better
Nice tips! As a 3D artist who needs stylized texture painting manually, I'm so related with this kind of struggle. Thanks mate!
Phew, back on track. I've been wandering what to do, good thing I have art school. ty mark.
Also the "ah!" at the beginning was way too relatable. I have thrown my pen in that exact way, three consecutive times one day, and that's not even a joke .
You’re doing a very beautiful piece of art like always you do. You always caught me at your videos because the stunning way of the values and lights. My favorite bald, ever.
I really loved the only refine the focal point part, because it's true!, the other day I was watching some amazing art, wondering how do they make such amazing renders, but the closer I looked the rougher the shading and lineart actually was
Thanks, Marc! I recently purchased your Art School program a couple weeks ago, but am having trouble building it into my daily life and make it a habit (on top of the fear of starting/blank page/being bad etc. Typical newbie stuff). Every time I watch one of your videos, it rekindles my desire to stick with it. Thanks for everything you do!
That’s awesome to hear :D Thanks so much for joining! Officially welcome to ARt School ❤️
I got a little sketch book that I'll occasionally draw in. And I pretty much only use a pen to draw in it. Even though most of those were simple sketches, I definitely noticed improvement just from doing that. I'd wholeheartedly recommend trying it out. And don't forget that pressure is important. You can lightly sketch out the forms with the pen, then use firm strokes over top of it.
A great collection of tips here SENPAI, as usual, but they're all very practical for advancement when in use, so THANX!!! 🙇
Everytime I think “I wish Marc would have a video of this topic” you come out with a video of the topic. THANK YOU! As an anime artist thank you so much speed is my biggest downfall so I’m excited to be able to improve with this video. Thank you so much ❤
Having confidence is the thing that working for me right now, speeding up. Big strokes, little more messy but speeding up gradually. I was hesitant about my strokes cause I tried to do it perfect from beginning, but actually looking for other artist do things made me realize how messy their work is in process.
Thats actually can be another tip - to see how people doing things, not observing results, observing process.
this is so helpful! a couple of these i learned in college (confident strokes, gesture first, reference reference reference..), but the ones about using the same tools was a totally new idea to me and it makes a lot of sense! (though sometimes i get bored with a brush i’m using and/or my art process so i feel the need to change and it try something new.. probably partly why i’m a slow artist most of the time 😅.)
and the “fake it ‘till you make it” tip.. i knew about it for a while, i really have to try using < 5 layers at some point. it’s been a hard mental barrier for me, but i’m going to give it a try after work tonight! thank you for making this video, much appreciate 🙏
My comment is that you've inspired me to work consistently for a year now. If that's what you intended, keep going ;) For everyone out there. Art School is worth it.
I've been searching for the music in the background for three years, not only was this video super helpful for tips but it was also super helpful for me trying to find that song.
trying to follow bob ross in real time with nothing but the few brushes from marc's kit and the defaults led me to find a basic style to start painting with, still trying to iron out the details and refine and learn and all that but i'm getting there when it comes to using color in my drawings.
The layer one was something I only recently let go of. That fear of making a mistake I couldn't undo was near crippling, but the longer you paint, the more you understand materials, or lighting, or just your own process. In the last few months, I went from a file of 100+ layers to maybe 10. And it does go faster, eventually. The faking bit, I'm still trying to learn lol. Never thought I'd get to this point tbh lol.
Thanks Marc!
2:05 The chef was baking the bread while explaining the recipe,
2:20 Making curry with the bread dough
L'adorable petite Sylphiette .
no way you just deleted a finished background wow you're a chad. I would've never deleted that in a million years, and would have ended up with a worse piece overall because of it.
Love your videos MB! Yay mushoku tenshi, and sylphie ! Can you do Eris too?
Used to work at a digital art studio where we did extremely elaborate realism artwork and everything had to be perfect and highly detailed when you zoom in due to the nature of the target audience.
Learned to polish everything, but my speed suffered highly as a result, making the next gamedev job I had a nightmare. Thank you for the tips!
Another important thing: KNOW YOUR PROGRAM
Knowing shortcuts helps A LOT. Also adjusting them to your needs. It might be annoying at first to learn that but it will make your work much quicker later. I use shortuts for new layer, layer group, lasso tool, unselect all, tools like transform, move and HSV/HSL Adjustment.
Also check your drawing program has tools like Palette Docker for saving your most used colors or Popup Palette for quick access to your brushes.
And - set auto save!
i met someone who spent dozens of hours on basic digital paintings of portraits. Oh god.
Wish I could convince them to draw from observation pen only on a sketchbook to really up their level, passion, speed and lose their fear of drawing lol
for future ref 1only have a few brushes
2 only add details to the focal point like the face
3 think ahead of wht youll do
4 find a reference dont guess wht to do
5 work confidently
Remember that most as people, especially those who are just beginning, taking long in your art is a compliment. If you notice, artists that take so much time have much more detail although it isn't as necessary (that's what this video is for) so don't take "taking long" as a bad thing. Good luck everyone :>
The "focus your efforts" section is very interesting. Gonna share my method of art appreciation.
Because when I find an artwork I like I will spend many minutes zooming in on various sections to see what kind of techniques the artist employed for non-focal sections of the work, and if it's unnecessary or indeed harmonizes well with the rest of the work.
80% of the work will be fast, but the last 20% of refinement will take much longer, and I try my best to truly appreciate when artists try to achieve that 100%.
Am I in the minority? Probably. But it's how I like to enjoy art, and everyone's method of enjoying art is valid.
Two things that helped me tremendously with managing time was sketching with a pen only no pencil, and drawing for four years on a screen-less tablet. I remember one of my first digital pieces took over forty hours to complete, but something with the same level of detail right now would take me three hours of continuous work or something :]
i definitely needed this
i often find myself stuck with one work for days or even weeks because i use too many layers and easily get overwhelmed by that
but then i remembered how i used to draw on an online board (what was it again? malmal?) with friends and there were no layers but surprisingly i felt more free back then and this was also the time when I made the most progress at drawing
i will take note of every tip in the video, thank you for your hard work!
I needed this. thank you so much!! The focus on your effort part was such a wake-up call. I always over-fixate on details that don't show that much on the final result. the many layers were always a problem for me. I keep on creating backups of certain layers in fear of making a mistake and I might need to go back and redo it. This is a great video every tip and and suggestion made me realize what I've been doing that made me stop finishing an artwork because I get so overwhelmed that I never go back to finish it. Definitely gonna apply and create some changes to my process (which I never have because I usually wing it gonna work on that too LOL).
I've been scared to search up tips that remind me of college due to my old art college failing me despite showing signs of improvement, so this is very refreshing and reassuring that improvement is possible.
8 hours on a tiny drawing i dont like our look at anymore 😢 i needed this
I saw Sylphiette and clicked immediately. I didn’t even read the title or notice it was a MB video until I was already here 😅
OH MY GOD I swear I spend like 4 whole days to do one drawing with simple inn background and I almost lost my mind due to the time amount I wasted and then got art block and blues for another week. My biggest issue is my stupid OCD perfectionism which often pushes me into making EVERY PIXEL PERFECT which is super dumb I know, so I need to take your advices and drill them into my brain. I'm gonna watch this video before every practice I plan on doing until I loose that dumb habit. Thank you so much Marc, you're the best
this speedpaint was so satisfying to watch!!! and thank you for the good tips as always!
Hii Marc, I wanted to ask if you can do an anatomy lesson that also talk about human muscles and how they work, I watched a lot of tutorials but they always make me feel bored and also i feel like I don’t understand anything , I really wanna learn how to draw 3D figures in a easy way that my mind can understand , and btw I always rewatch your lessons cuz they really help me! Your the best art teacher I’ve ever known, I believe that there’s no one is better than you in teaching art 🩷 thanks for always helping us improve with your lessons and classes, I really appreciate it 🩷🩷🩷🩷 and btw the way you teach art is not boring that’s why I watched a lot of your lessons and rewatched them!
I love how marc is like....
Me: "Man, I wish I was better at this and that"
Marc: *casually slides video across the table* "I gotchu"
I hate that his advice "Give less of a sh**" is actually incredibly helpful
AGAIN MARC!!! Dang!
I been grinding with trying to find a technique (Recipe) that works for me and got frustrated becase I mastered many but all took too long. Now, I decided on one way I developed for myself two years ago and I AM STICKING WITH IT TILL IT LOOKS GOOD!!!! And here you are again VERIFYING ME! I made this decision yesterday. THANK YOU AGAIN MARC!!! Please keep up with great work.
Usually I spend on average 5-10 minutes looking at the art I like
You’re def an outlier! Great if you take all that time to really observe tho 💪
Your colours and palette choices have improved immensely.
Hey Marc, could you possibly do a video in the future about different “recipes”. My biggest challenge is it all seems so overwhelming. I’m watching guides and videos but it results to the point of not having an idea how to start, I’m stuck in the cycle and I never ever start. Maybe this is oddly specific because I have inattentive ADHD so I hope it’s worth the time for you.
Art is overwhelming, but the biggest rule is that you just have to start. Draw, and draw when you don't want to. The more you draw, the better you will get. Pick something from things you want to get better at, and just do it until you're better. Don't shy away from difficult things (for example, maybe learn a method to draw heads - but dont fall into only drawing front-facing heads!), but do leave more difficult things like anatomy for later down the line. The most important part is to get started, you can worry about what to do another time! Some progress is better than none. Marc has multiple videos on one-year drawing plans if I remember correctly, so maybe use one of those to guide you roughly.
The timing of this video is perfect! I have an art project for a class that’s due tomorrow and I need to learn how to render it FAST 🏃🏾♀️💨💨💨💨
At this point I think Marc has a cam somewhere watching me struggle, cuz this really came at the right moment lmao
I've been training myself to draw slower this past few months. I guess what I'm trying to do isn't drawing slower but draw mindfully. Now the average time it took for me to finish a drawing is 5 hours and above
man i keep on trying to get better with digital art and this video really made me ask “why?”. cause ive always been more comfortable with traditional art.
Someone was like "yeah 20 hours is a lot" and I'm over here rocking an 80 hour piece.
I've done a few of those myself in my days 👀
Cool. Will watch later. My biggest time waster is that I'm too perfect and pedantic with my line drawings. And in the end I'm always dissatisfied with something and want to do better
One thing I've learned from sketching and hand-animating at coffee shops is that the more your hand is shaking, the less confident you are... the more you have to pretend you aren't! You can't give your stroke TIME to wobble! Just do that thing and don't dare look back!
This helped me so much,I was searching for it. I waste 2 hours on a face, that's ridiculous
I've been stuck for a while, thank you, this video came in handy. Greetings from Uruguay bro!
It takes me like 6 hours to make a drawing which is DIABOLICAL😭😭 2 hours only for the lineart is crazy for me
I appreciate your tips, Marc! I've been struggling with taking too much time on one part of the painting that I have to take constant breaks.
-P.S. Sylphie best girl
Cute sylphie
Can you please make a video on how to finish a work and make it more appealing by adding light affects flares or shiny
You are truly incredible, I love your art and classes, I think you are the teacher I am most inspired by watching. I really love this style of painting in this video and Zelda's painting, It would be amazing to see more videos with this style, it's very beautiful.
I’m impressed you change your art style tbh
I've always believed a tip that Borodante gave in which the painting has to look ready at any stage. You're just adding detail after blocking of the shapes. It's been a useful mindset, but I've also seen people talking about "the ugly stage" of an image.. so I'm not totally confident that the advice always applies.
Anatomy and light theory also is must learn too, i got slow down a lot when it comes to grayscaling because of lack of anatomy knowledge and color compatibility too
It takes me around 2 weeks to finish a piece full time, but to be fair, I'm a perfectionist and like my stuff as detailed as I can, but still, pretty damn slow lol.
Marc gotta be the best art teacher I've ever had
Same again make a video on how to make splash art like riot games I'm waiting for that class love u mark ur great❤❤❤
GUY DROPPED JUST WHAT I NEEDED LIKE AN ANGEL OF ART
Holy shit that rendering probably took a while but it looked relaxing and quick to I'll try this
Thank you so much for the video I did these steps and instead of drawing for many hours my drawings only took like 1 - 3 hours 🙏🙏
Marc, could you please also tell us every time how long you needed to finish your painting in the respective video?
Of course, everyone is different, but this might be useful information for people interested working in the industry.
A mushoku tensei fan I see. Love sylphie
Hi Marc! Out of curiosity, is it ok to take time (assuming you have it) to render and add all the details simply out of pure enjoyment for the artist? Or would that slow down progress anyway?
Happy belated birthday 🎂 and just wanted to let you know I’ll be going to Montreal in May. It makes me happy and excited to know I’ll be in the city where my favorite artist and teacher was born and lived in! I can’t wait! Lol
See you next class!!
Nice! Hope you have a good time:D And if it’s for fun really do whatever you want- fun should always come first! You could probably improve a bit faster by creating more pieces in less time than 1-2 with more time, but if that’s not ad fun don’t do it ;)
Thanks, honestly!
Sylphy best grill no cap
Im just here procrastinating on my term 3 anatomy homework assignment :-D
For me how to draw faster is when you do drawing with a proper technique, good understanding, observation and knowledge of what you draw (whether is environment or character) just keep it on your pace and do not rush it.
As your progressing when you are beginner to intermediate level, as long as you do the all properly, you will getting faster without realizing it. Why?? Because you are focusing on how to be good and when you are getting good you know what to do, how yo solve the problem you to figure out something clear which is faster than before
On one side i use very few brushes and layers, on the other i really obsess with details, for most of the painting um zoomed in.
I'm so slowpoke it takes me weeks to finish my drawings 🫠
We aren't slo we lazy 💀
Great advice and great art love Sylphie :)
beautiful work, thank you for all the tips and encouragement. I especially love the videos where you start a drawing from scratch and we can follow along. your brushes and some from DG are the only ones i use now.
draw fast, gonna learn to draw EVEN FASTER. Eventually I will trancend light.
My biggest problem in drawing fr
Besides motivation
Thank you!