I have just realised that I can simply take my glasses off and I can see the blocks/forms without having to squint (or use any software); getting a bit closer, I can actually see the four values - OMG! Many thanks for the video.
"Learning to recognize the main values is actualyl one of the most difficult things we have to do when painting. In our everyday lives we dont need to see the whole before the parts, we need to see the item we are looking for in a supermarket shelf, or the number of a bus we waiting for, so our brains have been programmed to focus on detail. Learning to simplify the world into simple light and dark shapes goes against our nature and requires a great deal of effort and practice." To me, thats the best teaching in this whole video, thank you for that!
I have taught this way to my Art students for years. Sadly, they have been given technology as a distraction from birth and it's now a safety blanket/addiction. Making them focus on anything for more than 2 seconds is impossible.
Such a great demonstration. Really clear and informative. I wouldn't worry about repetition - I usually need to be told stuff repeatedly before it goes in :)
Honestly, the median trick changed my life as a painter. I have a full education in graphic design, fine art, and illustration so most tips and tricks on youtube and ''advanced photoshop techniques'' are just not useful or new to me, it is so rare to find a small thing like this that just absolutely changes everthing.
It's great isn't it. It does what we're supposed to be doing in our heads when we squint at our subjects. One of my students who is a graphic designer showed it to me. I was explaining the idea of simplifying the values, and he was like, "I get it, you want us to do what the median tool does in photoshop". I now use it all the time, when I work from photos, or to critique my online students work.
Median tool is awesome. But i use it only to check if i got shapes and values right with squinting. So i look at reference and do my best at simplifying and putting down values and shapes, then i compare with median tool.
This is the exact problem my professor was trying to explain to me in my work. I was over modeling! You have freaking saved my grade! I'm going to fix my work tonight! Thank you so much!
I'm a total beginner, and your videos on the fundamentals are super-helpful for me! Proportions, Values, Edges and Modelling, Colour . . . thanks for teaching about all this! I'm grateful to have found your channel. Simplify, Alex! :D
This is one of the most useful tutorials on portrait painting I've ever come across! None of my teachers in school or uni ever elaborated on this! We were just expected to know!
This was incredible, thank you so much! All things I knew in theory, but it’s hard to apply them in practice so it’s so useful to see the entire process broken down.
I didn't know about that median tool. I usually use the function 'posterize' to achieve a similar result. The median function seems to give a softer transition between the values though
Thank you so much for this demonstration!! Ive been trying to teach myself to paint with values but Ive hit a road-block cause I would always over-model and then get really discouraged by just how bad it would end up looking. I cant wait to give it another shot with this new info!
This is exactly what I learned through trial and error when I started digital painting in 2020. I got pretty good fast! This information is on POINT! I did watch an older video from this channel back in 2020 when I was learning. I wanted to learn traditionally instead of from digital painters because concepts in traditional painting IS the foundation. Of course now that I have some understanding of painting, I am going back and cleaning up areas I ignored. Color, scene building, having good lighting on the subject, etc.
You remind me of my dad, but a calmer, more comforting version of him. This video was very comforting as a whole. Very lovely painting, thank you for the tips!
Casey Baugh taught how to look using peripheral vision where you see everything as a whole when you judge values you dont want to go tunnel vision. which kinda same with what you said. i love it.
I think when he's talking about using peripheral vision, hit has more to do with judging colour correctly? When you stare at colours for a long time, they often appear to change in front of our eyes and can be hard to judge. Whereas you often get a better sense of colour out of your peripheral vision. Other artists talk about talking quick glances and mixing the colours you remember seeing and trying not to stare for too long. To simplify the values, you must squint at your subject.
At around 8 minutes in, you add the nose and lower lip specular highlights. According to the order you're using, shouldn't that type of detail be added later on? Or are you using them as reference marks to place other small features?
Yes, I use the highlights as landmarks. A lot of Artists consider the highlights as details that should be left to the end. But I find them quite useful for drawing, particularly if you're in a situation without many strong shadow shapes. I can always refine the highlights and tone them down if need me in the later stages of a painting.
Thank you! Yes indeed. These phenomena of shapes, values and also colour are visual, so learning how to see and interpret them applies to any media when working from life.
I struggled with over modelling for years. Establishing the larger values masses early on, during the block-in, is the way managed to prevent myself from doing it. Then all you have to do is to try and avoid completely destroying them as you add subtle half tones and reflected lights etc.
Amazing. When he started blocking in the painting the likeness was instantly recognizable. It was almost startling how suddenly the image took shape at that point.
Appreciate the clarity of your descriptions (as a brand new subscriber). My preferred medium is pan pastel which requires different techniques than the typical soft pastel ... value id and matching is the immediate challenge & this video is a help - thank you from British Columbia, Canada.
really glad I found this material. I knew that there is some basis I didn't get, not the form but the value frst. I used to draw complicated sketch involving huge amount of planes of the head, but never really I have been able to paint it then. Turns out I was focusing on the local relationships of value, but not looking at the overall relationships! Thanks a lot!
Yes Indeed. You need to think about the big planes first as this will enable to establish a few main values. The value of the smaller planes will always be more subtle and fit in-between the main values if that makes sense.
Your demos are very helpful and your style admirable. I have been making work in acrylics (and drawings) for many years and show then in galleries, and recently switched to oils in hope of taking my work to another level. Instead so far it's been humbling and downright depressing at times how difficult oils really are, but your videos definitely are helping a bit.
Thanks David. Once you get the hang of oils they're actually quite forgiving, because they take longer to dry you can scrape back and correct endlessly.
This is an incredibly helpful refresher for me. I feel bad his ability has been lost on my 10 year gap of not painting. I have been struggling with overworking, over complicating. I can see myself do it in real time but I haven’t been able to break the bad habit yet.
Glad to hear you've taken up painting again. The tendency to zoom in and focus in detail, is hardwired into us. It's how our attention is designed to function for our day to day survival. It never really goes away, so resisting it is a constant struggle.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I'm going to join Patreon.. never have joined one for painting, but your style is what I need to improve, and your expertise. Thanks again.
Thank you very much! I would love to be able to release videos more regularly, but at is it I try to post one video a month. Since starting my patreon channel, I also have to post a video on there every month. My videos on there are all filmed in real time so are usually one hour long, so they take much longer to write. Then there is also trying to find time to do my own painting.
Very pratical and objective. I didnt know This painter and his Chanel, he seems to be a great master in portrait Stile his is fantástico. Very well educated in ART painting.
Thank you. i actually realised this yesterday, the mistakes you talk about it. the values change was too dramatic and weird, especially in eye and forehead. I realised this but didnt know what to do, now i understand better, i tried to do the sutil things too early and i actually have too little mid tone variation, i would separate like 4 values for the painting and use the same ones for all the painting, but like for example i had a "highlight value" and would use for all the hightlight in the painting, now i realise, the highlight in some places are different in value as the highlight in other places.
Thank you Diego! Glad this was helpful. You may find that there will eventually be a few more values than the 4 values, with subtle shifts in between the main 4. But by establishing the main value relation ships at the start of the painting you have them to compare, with the subtle shifts so that you don't over exaggerate them. If that makes sense?
Happy new year Alex! Another brilliant video, thank you! I'm definitely planning to take some of your courses this year, I'm really keen to push my painting forward this year.
I have just realised that I can simply take my glasses off and I can see the blocks/forms without having to squint (or use any software); getting a bit closer, I can actually see the four values - OMG!
Many thanks for the video.
Thank you very much! Glad this was helpful.
Short sighted super powers
hahah congrats, making lemonade from lemons
"Learning to recognize the main values is actualyl one of the most difficult things we have to do when painting. In our everyday lives we dont need to see the whole before the parts, we need to see the item we are looking for in a supermarket shelf, or the number of a bus we waiting for, so our brains have been programmed to focus on detail. Learning to simplify the world into simple light and dark shapes goes against our nature and requires a great deal of effort and practice."
To me, thats the best teaching in this whole video, thank you for that!
I have taught this way to my Art students for years. Sadly, they have been given technology as a distraction from birth and it's now a safety blanket/addiction. Making them focus on anything for more than 2 seconds is impossible.
Such a great demonstration. Really clear and informative. I wouldn't worry about repetition - I usually need to be told stuff repeatedly before it goes in :)
B.
Same here. 😉
Honestly, the median trick changed my life as a painter.
I have a full education in graphic design, fine art, and illustration so most tips and tricks on youtube and ''advanced photoshop techniques'' are just not useful or new to me, it is so rare to find a small thing like this that just absolutely changes everthing.
It's great isn't it. It does what we're supposed to be doing in our heads when we squint at our subjects. One of my students who is a graphic designer showed it to me. I was explaining the idea of simplifying the values, and he was like, "I get it, you want us to do what the median tool does in photoshop". I now use it all the time, when I work from photos, or to critique my online students work.
Median tool is awesome. But i use it only to check if i got shapes and values right with squinting. So i look at reference and do my best at simplifying and putting down values and shapes, then i compare with median tool.
Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter’s identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing
beautifully put
This is the exact problem my professor was trying to explain to me in my work. I was over modeling! You have freaking saved my grade! I'm going to fix my work tonight! Thank you so much!
Thank you Kyla! Glad it was helpful.
I'm a total beginner, and your videos on the fundamentals are super-helpful for me!
Proportions, Values, Edges and Modelling, Colour . . . thanks for teaching about all this! I'm grateful to have found your channel. Simplify, Alex! :D
Thank you very much! Glad you find my videos so helpful.
I'm primarily a digital artist, and I constantly refer to your lessons to help my approach to painting digitally.
This is one of the most useful tutorials on portrait painting I've ever come across! None of my teachers in school or uni ever elaborated on this! We were just expected to know!
That's because teachers at main stream art schools no longer know any of this stuff.
This was incredible, thank you so much! All things I knew in theory, but it’s hard to apply them in practice so it’s so useful to see the entire process broken down.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
I didn't know about that median tool. I usually use the function 'posterize' to achieve a similar result. The median function seems to give a softer transition between the values though
The posterise simplifies the values just as well, but I prefer the medium because it looks just like squinting.
Love it. 3 general tones, a darkest dark and a lightest light.
Yes, this is key. Then they will give you a scale for when you add more subtle shifts in value.
Thanks Alex, really enjoying the Patreon content. Worth every cent.
Thank you very much! Glad you think so.
this makes me miss painting so much
Hopefully you might get back into it?
I like this analytical approach. Art world needs more teachers like that.
Thank you so much for this demonstration!! Ive been trying to teach myself to paint with values but Ive hit a road-block cause I would always over-model and then get really discouraged by just how bad it would end up looking. I cant wait to give it another shot with this new info!
This is exactly what I learned through trial and error when I started digital painting in 2020. I got pretty good fast! This information is on POINT! I did watch an older video from this channel back in 2020 when I was learning. I wanted to learn traditionally instead of from digital painters because concepts in traditional painting IS the foundation.
Of course now that I have some understanding of painting, I am going back and cleaning up areas I ignored. Color, scene building, having good lighting on the subject, etc.
Exactly! This is idea of simplifying your subject into a few main light and dark tonal values at the start of a painting is so important.
Could you show us your work?
@@邹炭 Post something on your channel and I'll reply there. They aren't letting me post anything here.
@@RatusMax I can search for the profile name on the due website
@@邹炭 Oh so you were still able to see the comment? I placed the profile and the website with no link and it was still removed.
One of the better portrait tutorials I’ve seen. Clear and informative. I’ll use this advice.
Thank you very much Leslie! Glad you found it helpful.
Thank you so much! Never stop educating us please. And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thank you Laura!
You remind me of my dad, but a calmer, more comforting version of him. This video was very comforting as a whole. Very lovely painting, thank you for the tips!
Thank you!
I must say, you actually got his likeness at this stage - something other youtubers rarely accomplish.
Thank you Jose!
brilliant video, shared it with a life class that I attend.
Thank you for sharing. Much appreciated.
Casey Baugh taught how to look using peripheral vision
where you see everything as a whole
when you judge values you dont want to go tunnel vision. which kinda same with what you said. i love it.
I think when he's talking about using peripheral vision, hit has more to do with judging colour correctly? When you stare at colours for a long time, they often appear to change in front of our eyes and can be hard to judge. Whereas you often get a better sense of colour out of your peripheral vision. Other artists talk about talking quick glances and mixing the colours you remember seeing and trying not to stare for too long. To simplify the values, you must squint at your subject.
Fantastic! Thank you.
Thank you Lauren!
At around 8 minutes in, you add the nose and lower lip specular highlights. According to the order you're using, shouldn't that type of detail be added later on? Or are you using them as reference marks to place other small features?
Yes, I use the highlights as landmarks. A lot of Artists consider the highlights as details that should be left to the end. But I find them quite useful for drawing, particularly if you're in a situation without many strong shadow shapes. I can always refine the highlights and tone them down if need me in the later stages of a painting.
Perfeckt. die geschwindigkeit ist aber so schnell. 💖danke
sweet another video. thank you for being generous with your knowledge. i appreciate from Philippines 26 yrs old impressionist painter
Happy New year Alex Tezavares 🌟🤝
Happy new year to you too!
Absolutely stunning there is a lot of useful info here for both digital and traditional artist alike.
Thank you! Yes indeed. These phenomena of shapes, values and also colour are visual, so learning how to see and interpret them applies to any media when working from life.
Great as always-cheers Alex!
Thanks Tim!
I hope Stephan was able to climb out of the photoshop
Excellent video, that overmodeled version of the portrait is my nightmare!
I struggled with over modelling for years. Establishing the larger values masses early on, during the block-in, is the way managed to prevent myself from doing it. Then all you have to do is to try and avoid completely destroying them as you add subtle half tones and reflected lights etc.
One of the best painting tutorials I have ever watched!
Amazing. When he started blocking in the painting the likeness was instantly recognizable. It was almost startling how suddenly the image took shape at that point.
Thanks for this great video that offers essential insights that I never considered before.
You have changed my fear of painting into one of hope.
I’m going to paint a portrait of my great niece- your videos have given me such insight.
You’re a really good teacher, very educated in what you’re teaching
Thank you!
Always a pleasure to see you have uploaded Alex, really some of the most informative and quality painting advice available on the internet
Thank you very much Zak!
Nice work Sir 👏 👌 👍
This is the best portrait demo I’ve ever seen -Thank You
Thank you Paul! Glad it was helpful.
You always hit the nail on the head
I love your videos. All of them
Thank you very much Ada! Glad you think so.
Great video and tutorial! Thank you!
Thank you Christos! Glad you enjoyed it.
An excellent video with very useful and important information. Thank you.
Thank you Mark! Glad it was helpful.
All your videos are really helpful! Thanks for sharing your knowledge in painting! Happy 2023 and more power to you!
Thank you very much Jaycee. Happy New Year to you too!
your examples are very clear , you are a great teacher and a great artist
Thank you Maria! Glad you found this helpful.
Super video. Simplifying in general is truly one of the biggest challenges when it comes to beginners. Shapes, values, colors. Everything. Thank you
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it.
Thanks Alex , really your art knowlege is bast of the bast .I always learning from your video keep doing this good wark 🤝👍👍👍
Thank you very much. I will do!
Appreciate the clarity of your descriptions (as a brand new subscriber). My preferred medium is pan pastel which requires different techniques than the typical soft pastel ... value id and matching is the immediate challenge & this video is a help - thank you from British Columbia, Canada.
Thank you very much!
Amazing work , and amazingly helpful video on grisaille and monochromatic allaprima. Thx again Alex for you clear and to the point style of narrative.
Thank you. Glad it was helpful.
By far the best explanation on TH-cam👏🏼👏🏼
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it.
this was soooo clear and simple to understand ... You have no idea how much this is helping.. THANK YOU!
Thank you for watching Aiza. Glad my videos have been helpful.
Wow, that median tool trick was awesome. Really helps to see the posterized big form relationships. Cool.
Thanks! Glad this video was helpful.
I think this is the best demonstration I have seen on this subject. Thank you
Thank you very much!
Thank you. This was really helpful. Now I know I must learn how to see again.
You’re a great artist and teacher. Thank you so much for all these teachings!!
My pleasure! Thank you for watching.
You are a great teacher, always explaining everything in so simple way...Thank you !
Thank you Ivelina! Glad you like my videos..
Excellent video and perfect teaching method, thank you, Maestro.
Thank you Regina, glad you found this helpful.
really glad I found this material. I knew that there is some basis I didn't get, not the form but the value frst. I used to draw complicated sketch involving huge amount of planes of the head, but never really I have been able to paint it then.
Turns out I was focusing on the local relationships of value, but not looking at the overall relationships!
Thanks a lot!
Yes Indeed. You need to think about the big planes first as this will enable to establish a few main values. The value of the smaller planes will always be more subtle and fit in-between the main values if that makes sense.
Such a wonderful demo. Very helpful! Thank you for posting
Thank you for watching! Glad it was helpful.
Wow thanks!
Your demos are very helpful and your style admirable. I have been making work in acrylics (and drawings) for many years and show then in galleries, and recently switched to oils in hope of taking my work to another level. Instead so far it's been humbling and downright depressing at times how difficult oils really are, but your videos definitely are helping a bit.
Thanks David. Once you get the hang of oils they're actually quite forgiving, because they take longer to dry you can scrape back and correct endlessly.
Blooming brilliant! Great advice. Thank you!
Thank you very much! Glad it was helpful
Thank you, this contained a piece I've been missing in trying to jump from line drawing and sketching to painting forms.
Big thanks Alex for sharing how to simplifying portrait painting...iv'e learned a lot from you
Thank you very much! Glad it was helpful.
Thankyou so much Alex for sharing this demonstration. Really helpful video. 🙏
Thank you Deepinder!
one the best videos about painting that I've seen, thank you!
Thank you very much Nathan!
Thanks
The name of your channel is perfect. You completely simplified something I've struggled with forever in drawing portraits. Great teaching.
Thank you very much! Glad this was helpful.
Bravo! You are one amazing teacher!
Thank you Marlene!
This is exactly what I was struggling with, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
the illustration at 1:40 was very helpful
Thanks Jesse!
This is an incredibly helpful refresher for me. I feel bad his ability has been lost on my 10 year gap of not painting. I have been struggling with overworking, over complicating. I can see myself do it in real time but I haven’t been able to break the bad habit yet.
Glad to hear you've taken up painting again. The tendency to zoom in and focus in detail, is hardwired into us. It's how our attention is designed to function for our day to day survival. It never really goes away, so resisting it is a constant struggle.
Thanks for the great video. For those of us who don't use Photoshop, ¿Does anyone know how to do this using Gimp?
Rare teacher .Great as always .Comments below shows it and explains it .
Thank you Aleksandar!
That was super helpful!
Thank you Erika! Glad you think so
big brush strokes. not overdetailed.love the approach
This is really useful for many mediums
Thank you, Alex. Very informative
Thanks Joe! Glad this was helpful.
Dude, I've been painting for years, know about blocking etc, but your instruction is superb!! Thanks very much. Tremendous help!!
Thank you very much! Glad it was helpful.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I'm going to join Patreon.. never have joined one for painting, but your style is what I need to improve, and your expertise. Thanks again.
Interesting to find out I didn't know what I didn't know! Thank you!
Excellent demo as always . Nice to see you back please continue with weekly or fortnightly videos .
Thank you very much! I would love to be able to release videos more regularly, but at is it I try to post one video a month. Since starting my patreon channel, I also have to post a video on there every month. My videos on there are all filmed in real time so are usually one hour long, so they take much longer to write. Then there is also trying to find time to do my own painting.
Fantastic educational demonstration thank you!
Thank you Henk! Glad it was helpful.
My grandfather used to tell me that mastery of a skill is not about doing more in less time, it is about doing the same amount of work in less steps !
Good advice.
Amazing just watching this come to life. Thank you
Thank you Willie! Glad you enjoyed it.
Great lesson. Informative, but not overly detailed.
Thank you. Glad you liked it.
Very pratical and objective. I didnt know This painter and his Chanel, he seems to be a great master in portrait Stile his is fantástico. Very well educated in ART painting.
Thank you very much Piero, you're very kind.
For the first time I would like to press the like button with all my heart . . thank you very much ️.
Thank you Farhad! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you. i actually realised this yesterday, the mistakes you talk about it. the values change was too dramatic and weird, especially in eye and forehead. I realised this but didnt know what to do, now i understand better, i tried to do the sutil things too early and i actually have too little mid tone variation, i would separate like 4 values for the painting and use the same ones for all the painting, but like for example i had a "highlight value" and would use for all the hightlight in the painting, now i realise, the highlight in some places are different in value as the highlight in other places.
Thank you Diego! Glad this was helpful. You may find that there will eventually be a few more values than the 4 values, with subtle shifts in between the main 4. But by establishing the main value relation ships at the start of the painting you have them to compare, with the subtle shifts so that you don't over exaggerate them. If that makes sense?
Thank you for your bone structure, Stefan!
Good to find out that.... someone doing the right thing on TH-cam 🤘
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
This is so good, your points are a great value, but it's so amazing to see that the values are simplified and yet the likeness is remarkable!
Thank you. Glad you liked it.
Wonderful demonstration. Very very helpful❤
Definitely need to take this alla prima course! Exciting
You can also close you eyelids so that your eyelashes get in the way and defocus a bit. It also helps to look only on one eye.
Love this lesson, thanks for sharing!
Glad it was helpful!
Posterize is also a really useful tool on photoshop that helped me work out light / dark values and helped me with colour too
lovely work and really clear walk through explaination! helped me so much to see the whole rather than hyperfocus on precise line work 😩, thank you 🙏
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
Happy new year Alex! Another brilliant video, thank you! I'm definitely planning to take some of your courses this year, I'm really keen to push my painting forward this year.
Happy New Year to you too! The excellent news, here's to a productive year of painting.
Very well explained.
i like this demo alex its great to know the value when to paint a face hope you are okay
I'm well. Thank you Kaj! Happy new year.