I feel social media in general makes art look so quick and easy because we only ever see finished pieces. It makes a lot of artist give up without realizing that the amazing art pieces they see on the internet took years and years of practice.
I can relate. Working as a software engineer i have some colleagues with 10+ years experience who can do magical things and think so far beyond what we're currently doing. Their code resembles visual artwork to me, making it appear effortless and far less complex than it truly is
An important realization that I had in my life: you can always get to a level that looks like magic to outsiders. You're already there, I'm already there with drawing. You're even one rung further than me, because those figures you whipping up look like magic to me. But you can only really see that it's NOT magic from the other end. So don't be fooled, it's not.
Yes you can become who you think you could be. You have already demonstrated some impressive solid drawing skill. Your problem is that you have knowledge gaps in your constructive drawing skills. You need to fill in these gaps in order to progress, and this video shows you are struggling with understanding what those skills are. According to how constructive drawing is taught in art schools, you are learning things in the incorrect order, an order required to master and further develop drawing skills. As long these knowledge gaps remains you will get the feeling you are not capable of progressing. E.g. One such basic skill is how to draw boxes, cylinders etc and freely rotate them in 3D space. However this is a primordial skill which is assumed to be known before you learn other stuff e.g. human anatomy and how to deconstruct it). However, you went straight to the "fun part" and skipped the basic. This has consequences, unwanted such. In doing so, you have not taught yourself the proper skill on how to visualize the body but merely a bunch of anatomical details. Then as you started to discover, you also need to learn how to deconstruct the body in order to rotate it in space because, unless you are a savant, there is a limit onto how many details the human mind can keep track on at the same time and thus be able to rotate in space. To rotate a few simple form in the mind is a possible task and then pick one of these forms and then recall the details of that form is also possible to do. This is a well defined and precise task which can be taught and learned to anyone. capable of learning However, you did not do this. You did not know how to rotate boxes and cylinders in space before you taught yourself anatomy and because of this all you actually learned in the human anatomy course was not to draw a human without a reference but a bunch of details about the human body, and then trying to rotate all those details in your head and confidently draw them is an almost impossible task and would require some kind of savant skill or magic, i.e. talent. Therefore, lacking the LEARNED SET OF SKILL doing a mental rotation result in your "chicken scratching". However, once you know how to deconstruct the human body into its simpler forms, rotate those form in your mind and then fill in the anatomical details afterwards you will be able to actually draw confidently without a reference. But not until then. This is not magic that clicks after "a lot of time" time spend drawing, nor does it require talent, it is a learnt set of skills. Yes, we do learn at different rates and unless you have learning difficulties preventing you from learning certain skills eventually with methodical and structured learning everyone can get to the same level. So the good news is; talent is not required to become a master artist. And as you discovered yourself in your previous videos, drawing a human body in any position with no reference but memory only is a LEARNT SET OF skill. A person that knows how to draw is doing so by rotating simplistic forms in the mind and then fill in more and more details on the form as you focus in onto a single part of the body. I.e it break sup an impossible task into few manageable simpler task, What kind of details that goes with each form is learnt knowledge recalled from memory, i.e a learned skill . This is how and why someone who can draw confidently can draw anything in one single stroke And this is why uncomfortable from "draw a box" says that they don't use hatching in his course for shading because,as Uncomfortable said, "hatching is just another way of saying "I don't know what goes into this space"". I.e. you don't learn anything from a blob of nothing. In conclusion, drawing is not a talent but a learnt skill including building up a visual memory of how things looks like. These learned skill takes many years to memorize by studding. However, in order to draw them, one thing must be known before the others can be applied. E.g. I believe you now have developed a better sense and understanding of why tedious rotating boxes and cylinders in 3d space is a more basic, but important necessary skills, to master before you get into anatomy and how this affect your abilities to draw the human body without any reference but straight form memory. And as you noticed, the combined skill also allows you to be more productive and creative, i.e. you have become more skilled in your drawing. Once you know how to rotate forms and deconstruct complex form into simpler, the rest is just about learning and memorize forms and their textures. Learning about colour and light theory theory is learning physics, anatomy is learning biology, urban sketching is learning architecture etc etc. It is very hard work, but at no step is any talent needed to learn any of these things. However, by taking the learning path you have, you first learnt to copy details and like you experienced, trying to rotate all those detail from memory is and will be an impossible task for the majority of us and this is why you previously have been struggling with drawing without a reference; i.e. you have not learnt things in the incorrect order and in doing so you lacked the ability to achieve a certain things without really knowing why that is. Being self-taught your drawing skills has become a mix of that of an expert and a first year student at children art school. Maybe by drawing more you may fill in the gaps by luck or coincident. However, to explain any other further progress requiring some kind of unspecified talent of some sort, i.e. you can only progress due to magic, wont help you progress - it will just hinder your further development. In summary, unless you fill in the knowledge gaps you wont be able to progress and become what you think you could be. I am not sure you have the motivation/time/resources to do all the hard work and years of study and education to become a master, but just want to jump into drawing what you find is fun to do, and that is fine, but please don't think of yourself as not being capable to progress or reach a master level, because you can if you dedicate yourself to it. My hope is that this inspired you, and others, to progress further in your development.
@@canilearntodraw2579 Hi, I hope you are good. I was watching this video with Jeffrey R. Watts yesterday: th-cam.com/video/KX0MrnzBJ8M/w-d-xo.html I think Watts address many, if not all of the things you ponder and struggle with in this video of yours. His video was uploaded 9 years ago, and at that time Watts had 30 years of drawing experience,a nd he has taught many student to learn to draw fine arts. What I think is interesting is that Watts says about the development of drawing skills. He says the first 3 years is a beginning stage and then year 3-6 is the intermediate skill level, and at years 6 to ten you start to see, not there yet, but you start to see master level of skills forming. But after ten year, learning does not stop there. Watts say it's a never ending learning curve; when you reach what you thought was the top of the hill, you just discover there is another edge/top behind that one. As such you never stop learning. That was one interesting point he made, but another interesting point he made which I think is very relevant to your current situations is how he describe what an artist feel at their intermediate skill level, i.e. from year 3 to 6. And what he describes reminded me very much your feeling which you expressed in this video, and that suggest to me you are in the process transforming into the intermediate level (well it obvious you are not at beginner from your solid consistent drawing skills - but your mental/emotional state also reflect a mature understanding of drawing). And to inspire you art journey; Watts said, when you start the transformation into the third level, i.e years 6 and beyond, it is marked by a shift in your entire experience being an artist, and that I guess is something to look forward to, and if you persist in your continual learning you may very well be there within the next 3-4 years. :) I wish you all the best on your art journey, take care!
This was an amazing response, thank you. I started DAB about a month ago, and so am thankful to have found this. I've copied/pasted this into my notes to refer back to.
I feel social media in general makes art look so quick and easy because we only ever see finished pieces. It makes a lot of artist give up without realizing that the amazing art pieces they see on the internet took years and years of practice.
Truth
I can relate. Working as a software engineer i have some colleagues with 10+ years experience who can do magical things and think so far beyond what we're currently doing.
Their code resembles visual artwork to me, making it appear effortless and far less complex than it truly is
We must manifest more "fuck it we ball"
lol 😆
An important realization that I had in my life: you can always get to a level that looks like magic to outsiders. You're already there, I'm already there with drawing.
You're even one rung further than me, because those figures you whipping up look like magic to me. But you can only really see that it's NOT magic from the other end.
So don't be fooled, it's not.
Wow … how did I miss this comment. Really appreciate the feedback. Made my day ☺️
the pens you using during the first and second minute of drawing are the same or are they different?
One is a slightly thicker width. Otherwise the same.
Nice man.
could you make a video or maybe shed some light about foreshortening limbs?
Yes you can become who you think you could be.
You have already demonstrated some impressive solid drawing skill. Your problem is that you have knowledge gaps in your constructive drawing skills. You need to fill in these gaps in order to progress, and this video shows you are struggling with understanding what those skills are.
According to how constructive drawing is taught in art schools, you are learning things in the incorrect order, an order required to master and further develop drawing skills. As long these knowledge gaps remains you will get the feeling you are not capable of progressing.
E.g. One such basic skill is how to draw boxes, cylinders etc and freely rotate them in 3D space. However this is a primordial skill which is assumed to be known before you learn other stuff e.g. human anatomy and how to deconstruct it). However, you went straight to the "fun part" and skipped the basic. This has consequences, unwanted such.
In doing so, you have not taught yourself the proper skill on how to visualize the body but merely a bunch of anatomical details. Then as you started to discover, you also need to learn how to deconstruct the body in order to rotate it in space because, unless you are a savant, there is a limit onto how many details the human mind can keep track on at the same time and thus be able to rotate in space. To rotate a few simple form in the mind is a possible task and then pick one of these forms and then recall the details of that form is also possible to do. This is a well defined and precise task which can be taught and learned to anyone. capable of learning
However, you did not do this. You did not know how to rotate boxes and cylinders in space before you taught yourself anatomy and because of this all you actually learned in the human anatomy course was not to draw a human without a reference but a bunch of details about the human body, and then trying to rotate all those details in your head and confidently draw them is an almost impossible task and would require some kind of savant skill or magic, i.e. talent.
Therefore, lacking the LEARNED SET OF SKILL doing a mental rotation result in your "chicken scratching".
However, once you know how to deconstruct the human body into its simpler forms, rotate those form in your mind and then fill in the anatomical details afterwards you will be able to actually draw confidently without a reference. But not until then. This is not magic that clicks after "a lot of time" time spend drawing, nor does it require talent, it is a learnt set of skills.
Yes, we do learn at different rates and unless you have learning difficulties preventing you from learning certain skills eventually with methodical and structured learning everyone can get to the same level.
So the good news is; talent is not required to become a master artist.
And as you discovered yourself in your previous videos, drawing a human body in any position with no reference but memory only is a LEARNT SET OF skill. A person that knows how to draw is doing so by rotating simplistic forms in the mind and then fill in more and more details on the form as you focus in onto a single part of the body. I.e it break sup an impossible task into few manageable simpler task, What kind of details that goes with each form is learnt knowledge recalled from memory, i.e a learned skill . This is how and why someone who can draw confidently can draw anything in one single stroke
And this is why uncomfortable from "draw a box" says that they don't use hatching in his course for shading because,as Uncomfortable said, "hatching is just another way of saying "I don't know what goes into this space"". I.e. you don't learn anything from a blob of nothing.
In conclusion, drawing is not a talent but a learnt skill including building up a visual memory of how things looks like.
These learned skill takes many years to memorize by studding. However, in order to draw them, one thing must be known before the others can be applied. E.g. I believe you now have developed a better sense and understanding of why tedious rotating boxes and cylinders in 3d space is a more basic, but important necessary skills, to master before you get into anatomy and how this affect your abilities to draw the human body without any reference but straight form memory. And as you noticed, the combined skill also allows you to be more productive and creative, i.e. you have become more skilled in your drawing.
Once you know how to rotate forms and deconstruct complex form into simpler, the rest is just about learning and memorize forms and their textures. Learning about colour and light theory theory is learning physics, anatomy is learning biology, urban sketching is learning architecture etc etc. It is very hard work, but at no step is any talent needed to learn any of these things.
However, by taking the learning path you have, you first learnt to copy details and like you experienced, trying to rotate all those detail from memory is and will be an impossible task for the majority of us and this is why you previously have been struggling with drawing without a reference; i.e. you have not learnt things in the incorrect order and in doing so you lacked the ability to achieve a certain things without really knowing why that is.
Being self-taught your drawing skills has become a mix of that of an expert and a first year student at children art school. Maybe by drawing more you may fill in the gaps by luck or coincident. However, to explain any other further progress requiring some kind of unspecified talent of some sort, i.e. you can only progress due to magic, wont help you progress - it will just hinder your further development.
In summary, unless you fill in the knowledge gaps you wont be able to progress and become what you think you could be. I am not sure you have the motivation/time/resources to do all the hard work and years of study and education to become a master, but just want to jump into drawing what you find is fun to do, and that is fine, but please don't think of yourself as not being capable to progress or reach a master level, because you can if you dedicate yourself to it.
My hope is that this inspired you, and others, to progress further in your development.
🙂
@@canilearntodraw2579 Hi, I hope you are good. I was watching this video with Jeffrey R. Watts yesterday: th-cam.com/video/KX0MrnzBJ8M/w-d-xo.html
I think Watts address many, if not all of the things you ponder and struggle with in this video of yours.
His video was uploaded 9 years ago, and at that time Watts had 30 years of drawing experience,a nd he has taught many student to learn to draw fine arts. What I think is interesting is that Watts says about the development of drawing skills. He says the first 3 years is a beginning stage and then year 3-6 is the intermediate skill level, and at years 6 to ten you start to see, not there yet, but you start to see master level of skills forming. But after ten year, learning does not stop there. Watts say it's a never ending learning curve; when you reach what you thought was the top of the hill, you just discover there is another edge/top behind that one. As such you never stop learning.
That was one interesting point he made, but another interesting point he made which I think is very relevant to your current situations is how he describe what an artist feel at their intermediate skill level, i.e. from year 3 to 6.
And what he describes reminded me very much your feeling which you expressed in this video, and that suggest to me you are in the process transforming into the intermediate level (well it obvious you are not at beginner from your solid consistent drawing skills - but your mental/emotional state also reflect a mature understanding of drawing).
And to inspire you art journey; Watts said, when you start the transformation into the third level, i.e years 6 and beyond, it is marked by a shift in your entire experience being an artist, and that I guess is something to look forward to, and if you persist in your continual learning you may very well be there within the next 3-4 years. :)
I wish you all the best on your art journey, take care!
This was an amazing response, thank you. I started DAB about a month ago, and so am thankful to have found this. I've copied/pasted this into my notes to refer back to.
@@genestone4951 With DAB I assume you mean 'Draw A Box" ? It's a great course, I been following it to.
Anyhow, thank you for your kind comment. :)