Something Kim Jung Gi once said as he was drawing - "I wish others could see the lines I see" as an explanation for how he laid out complicated figures freehand without apparent preparation or guides. In reality, he had enough experience that he mentally overlaid his own personal waypoints and guides as he drew. This is what is tough for people to learn, but it has to be done. All the process techniques repeated in art - circles, blocks, measurement tics, vanishing points, scales... these things often don't work well for beginners at first because unfortunately, they're not actually generic and mechanistic steps to follow. They're concepts. As you learn, you will intuitively create your own version of these concepts. The circle with line drawn around it will come to be part of a specific strategy you develop for building a head. Your own measuring tics will become a habit, rather than simply and rigidly following a generic system or guide. I feel a lot of stress from learning to draw goes away once a person understands this. It's discouraging to try following a system precisely yet not see what you expect to be the results.
I relate to this; when I took a figure drawing class I imitated the structure the teacher used for the collar bone and other shorthand on the figure, and when he came by and saw my work he said I was only seeing his structure and not using it correctly. It frustrated me back then because he only said this without telling me how to use his structure, landmarks and other shorthand to successfully depict the figure. If you’re gonna say I’m not using your structure correctly at least tell me how to map the features correctly
@@Artofcarissa It sucks, doesn't it? When someone who is supposed to TEACH us ends up just being dismissive without ever actually showing how to do it. Had one of these once; he failed almost the entire class, based on things he did NOT teach at all.
I'm not sure if you're saying people have to learn to work like that, but if you are I'd have to disagree. It takes a very specific mindset to do that and while I believe that everyone is capable of drawing (and doing it well), I don't think everyone is capable of 'that' particular skill. It's almost like he has an eidetic memory, as it's just just from decades of practice. Kim Jung Gi has pretty much always been able to do that as long as he's been able to draw as I understand it?
@@RosheenQuynh totally. As an artist, I see it as just a another tool, to be used for the creation of new and unique art ideas, but it doesn't replace artists.
@@zanleekain117 Yeah! AI shouldn't be used to replace jobs (and in my personal opinion, there are jobs that AI are not able to replace). Like, I'm a writer but I don't let ChatGPT do my job for me, I use it to help me. And it absolutely has so far! So I am ALL in support of using AI to help people. That's what it should do.
@@RosheenQuynh of artists were using AI the upheaval wouldn’t be so big. The problem is that people who aren’t artist are using it and calling themselves artists. That’s why the backlash. It’s people who can’t draw, use these apps to generate new images that are being made using already existing art. And you and me may scoff at it and say how trash it is. A lot of people starting accounts with AI generated images and getting 1000s of engagements and making a lot of money selling prints and other stuff.
Here's a personal example: I distinctly remember a drawing class I took early in college where one of our life drawing studies involved a skeleton wearing a straw hat with lots of spikey loose ends. I never struggled to understand the idea that, for example, if I was going to draw the spikey bits of the hat, I should look carefully at them and accurately depict each loose piece of straw, the way it might be folded or bent, the way it might pass behind or in front of another piece, etc. That always just seemed obvious to me. Some of the other students also got this, but some of them just drew in a bunch of cartoonish, uniform spikes at the end. The thought process didn't seem to be "draw what I'm currently seeing," it was "there are spikey pieces of straw on the ends of the hat, so draw spikes on the hat." It's like the difference between seeing an actual photograph of something, and having something described to you but having to create the actual in the image in your head based on those vague descriptions. And that was the day I understood what this advice meant ^^^
The irony to this advice, from my own experience, was that I ended up, like the circle example, doing a lot of studies of the fundamentals but without any of it sinking in. It was like: "oh, if I nake a show of doing this thing I find boring long enough, then I will automatically be a better artist." Didn't work. 😅 It DID work, when I started applying all the fundamentals to the things I was interested in! Want to understand muscles? Draw a muscle map using your favourite character! Started a portrait only to realise my lighting is off? Well, now I know to focus on lighting in studies! Adhd brain and all. Learning isn't just about what to think, but understanding how your own brain absorbs info and learns on an individual basis, through trial and error! (Thank you for listening to my TED Talk 😂)
Brilliant to compare art making to conversation. We really do need to listen metaphorically rather than just draw out of assumption. I think this is why using projects as a guide where each time you hit a roadblock you mindfully learn the process behind why and how something works instead of dismissing it with a few familiar strokes is a great way to learn. I have so many automatic marks I make that I need to break the bad habits of.
I think a lot of people struggle to stop using symbols when drawing. Even when they are actively trying not to its easy to default back to what we think something should look like
That story about head circles absolutely reflects my experience - I knew that was how you were "supposed" to draw a head but didn't understand *why* it was being done. Drawing a drawing.
I think this applies a lot to music as well. Many beginner composers (including me) tend to skip or avoid learning music theory and just wing it. While music theory may seem daunting or even restrictive, it provides a lot of beneficial tools you can use once you understand them.
and similar to drawing, once you know some principles, it also helps you to learn how to listen to things you like and figure out what things they do you like
If you want to succeed as a modern band, music theory isn't just not helpful, it's actually harmful, because you're basically restricting yourself with the theory. For example no one in Nirvana or Slipknot learned music theory, and yet they blew up. However if you want to be a composer, or play in the orchestra music theory may be necessary I think kinda the same thing more or less goes with art. You don't necessary need theory in order to do appealing drawings or interesting concepts, and if you're just 100% about theory - you're basically do functions of a camera, which, let's be real, no one really is interested in
@@JeeJeen I wouldn't say that learning music theory is restrictive, because there's no celestial authority that forces you to follow the rules of music theory all the time. I think it's just beneficial to learn what others have found works, which is what music theory is, so you can use it when you desire to. But I'll admit I may be a bit biased being a more classical composer. And I don't think you need to learn music theory to be good a writing music, but you'll most likely know basic theory concepts (key signatures, time signatures, rhythm, chords) from learning how to play an instrument anyway.
@@BiggMilk i corroborate this with drawing too. learning more additional knowledge should only be a gain, not subtract anything - you can compare it to writing as well, like, learning more about words, syntax, grammar etc. doesn't stop you from doing the talking of in the way you are most of the wanting to be do
@@JeeJeen I don't think you quite understand what music/art theory is and how artists use it. Art theory applies even to abstract art. It's literally just understanding how shapes, perspective, composition, colours, light and values work. When you understand these concepts well, you can use them however you want. If you're good at art without ever consciously learning theory, that's because you understand some of the theory intuitively, not because it somehow doesn't apply to your art. it's pretty cocky to assume you'd be able to intuitively apply theory that took centuries to develop though. Some of it, sure, and it may be enough to produce something good, but not all of it. Learning theory directly frees us from having to invent everything on our own before we can use it. And to quickly address your example of musicians who didn't "study theory", they absolutely did study some theory when they learned how to play their instruments. Chords are music theory. Scales are music theory. Tempo is music theory. They learned enough to make the music they wanted to make and that's fine. But it is absolutely false to assume learning more theory would somehow limit their creativity.
Man the circle head thing really hit home. For a while I tried drawing a cross in a circle for faces, but I never really understood why. So eventually I took it out and started free handing the faces (bad idea). It took taking a college drawing 1 class and a study breaking down my own face to make me realize /why/ that cross was in there in the first place. Now I use it to properly place eyes and my nose and my art is doing better for it. I seriously need to do more studies though, I just don't have the time with school. Seriously can't wait for summer to roll around
Yeah, not to mention that it was unclear whether the eyes go above the line or halfway through the lines cause artists use that circle with the cross on it in different ways
@@Artofcarissa gosh yeah. I personally place the eyes below the line and then draw a second line below that to keep my eye sizes consistent. But I never would have learned that trying to mimic other artists
I dont even do stylised art and I'm not really a beginner anymore, but this was still a good reminder and an excellent explanation of why learning to draw just from simplified instagram tutorials isn't enough and will likely slow you down. Which is absolutely what I did when I WAS a beginner. I wanted to learn how to draw faces and figures, but i wasnt studying real people, I was studying youtube tutorials that teach you how to construct a stylised figure. Of course I couldn't construct a figure on my own before I ever drew one well from reference. But I didn't know that back then. My biggest leap in skill happened after years of not drawing, when I suddenly got into fanart. I wasn't concerned with being able to draw manga or some shit, I just drew from photos of real people. Now I can paint pretty good oil portraits.
Copying lines vs understanding forms really hit home for me. This is a wonderful video that really gets at one of the fundamental elements not just of learning art, but education in general. Amazing work!
An insightful and helpful breakdown of advice we hear all too often without further explanation! I love that this video is in and of itself an example of the principle you describe in it - you've listened, understood, and then communicated something in your own terms. Heck yeah.
This reminds me of Brent Eviston, he talked about the canonical perspective. His example was students drawing teacups, and how they would draw in features that weren't in the real object or reference. Such as handles, or a flat base or even a saucer, because it's what they expect a teacup to have. We're very prone to taking mental shortcuts, it's a difficult lesson to internalise, often because we take those same shortcuts in our attempts to learn.
The difficulty is to unlearn the wrongly learned stuff. I spent years just drawing stuff based on the Anime/Manga I have seen, and now I struggle so much trying changing my style completely into something of my own. Whenever I sit down to actually re-learn the basics now for that, my aquired knowledge pipes in and is a pain in my butt. I also quickly lose patience when I go in detail about correct anatomy and just go back to my boring pop-up cartoon/manga style, it's so bad.
I think the best exercise I did in college was a still life but we had to draw the negative space instead of the objects. Really helped click into draw what you see, referencing the shapes to eachother rather than what it "should" be.
I struggle with getting what I see in my head vs what I can manage to express. People can tell me my arts expressing what I intended but it's not nearly on the scale of what I want it to be. But arts something you continuously improve on. You can sit on one piece your whole life and continuously change things that you consider "improvements" but you're also the one who decides when the piece is actually finished.
This video makes me wish I could show you my art. You make me look at things differently & understand things I see I am trying to do on a deeper level.
Really appreciate that! I offer critiques through Patreon and my website for that exact purpose- it's the best way for me to get eyes on your work and offer some help.
I still remember how proud I was in 3rd grade when I figured out how to draw ears based on looking at other people's ears. They were a little over-realistic for how cartoony the people who had them were, but it was a type of drawing that I myself made up, and it was really satisfying.
This was INSANELY helpful! I'm not much of an artist anymore, but I am fiction writer. The tips here very easily translate into that field as well. Thanks for the video!
I have a degree in linguistics and have taken courses on language acquisition, and you're more or less right about the baby thing! Two caveats, tho: (1) it seems to be a very automatic thing, almost instinctual , as if humans are preprogrammed to communicate - and babies do both vocalizations and hand motions, and if the parents are deaf and use sign language on the baby, the baby will reduce the amount of vocalizations it does and focus on learning to sign instead - both seem to be deeply ingrained methods of communication And (2) people usually learn to speak their home language pretty fluently before going to school, even if they learned 2 or more languages as a child - they will learn whatever dialect(s) the people they are around that they most identify with speak, often parents but sometimes peers - it takes time, but people reach speech fluency without formal education, but only for the dialect they are exposed to, and any given language is made up of countless dialects caused by differences in location or in social group Usually in grammar classes what people are teaching is a new dialect of the language, one that is primarily used in professional or academic contexts and acts as a social Marker that you are an "educated" person, giving you cultural capital - even if you already speak something close to that dialect you will be learning new vocabulary, syntax, and modalities (most notably, writing or computer fluency rather than speaking) - even after you can do both they might be teaching you meta-linguistic knowledge, i.e. knowing how language works rather than simply how to do it by reflex (though a lot of that Meta knowledge can be confusingly taught and based on bad or outdated info)
Super fascinating stuff! Especially how babies learn to sign. I do not have a degree in linguistics. But I have spent a few weekends satisfying an intense curiosity lol. Out of curiosity, if we were to look at developing artistic ability as a form of communication in a similar way to language acquisition (not saying it's 1:1 but if we were to approach it as if it were) and watching videos like Brooke's, taking a course, or studying an art book would be considered "studying" or learning about art, what do you think would contribute directly to acquisition? My limited "research" primarily consists of Krashen talks and skimming through books and papers, and so I wonder what the equivalent of comprehensible input would be for learning art. I assume it would have a lot to do with observation as that is the "listening" of the medium as Brooke's brought out.
A lovely video on all fronts! The ideas covered as well as how they were communicated through the script and editing (really enjoy the simple but highly engaging editing). Advice that is common in general but that I don't hear a lot in the art community is the importance of balance! You may not be ready for that comic or big passion project you want to work on. And stopping to practice the fundamentals will progress you toward your goals. But don't get stuck there! It is okay to make things that are imperfect so long as you learn what you need to improve upon for the next project.
This is a really great way of explaining it!! Rn I'm trying to shore up my skills on the communication side of art and expressing ideas not just accurate to observation but really conveying what I want.
Thanks for the correction and explanation why understanding the physical makeup of real life is a must in order to draw ideas in a highly skilled and attractive way! I learned the hard way, but your effort cut the time wasting short. Going to fix it right now. God Bless you Brookes Eggleston.
It really helps that you explained the why for me. I'm trying to get into art, but whenever I ask people who are more experienced if I really need to draw circles and anatomy (also other traditional learning methodologies) when I'm into character art, they just blow it off as me not wanting to put in the work. This just leaves me more confused on what I should learn to draw certain types of art.
This is like a much more empathetic and understanding way of saying the classic middle school art teacher phrase "dont just draw anime". i think a big reason why a lot of newer and especially younger artists dont follow or understand that advice is because it isnt explained or conveyed to them the reason why it can hurt their development, since most people want to learn a skill in the first place because they want to emulate someone they admire. Fittingly the thing that stops people from understanding the breakdown of this visual communication is the breakdown of verbal communication in the first place.
Fantastic advice for beginners or even mid level artists with gaps in their knowledge like myself! I struggled a lot early on with drawing heads using "the circle with lines technique" and only started to improve when I started drawing the head shape as a cube and learning how to move around the variables of the face within this cube.
The biggest difference for me tends to be in how well I understand the topic I'm drawing. I can do reference studies with photos, but I'll just be copying the lines and curves. A better way is having a 3D or live model so I can also spatially understand why a curve looks like that in the 2D drawing I'm making. Personally I prefer to focus on understanding the context, besides just the visual part. For example, if I didn't know what a kangaroo's pouch was or how it worked, I would for sure draw it differently. Or maybe a better example would be mechs, where basic engineering/mechanical knowledge can help immensely to understand what you're seeing. That being said, we might not be talking about the _exact_ same thing, they are two aspects that can help in different ways to improve your drawing. I guess the point I mentioned applies more to design than the pure drawing aspect.
I do want to point out that this advice is more like roadmap than a hard rule. Art doesn't have to have any specific quality for you to feel good about making it. Practice in whatever way keeps you drawing, you WILL improve regardless. Just don't forget to challenge yourself a little sometimes!
Yep… this is the piece of advice I give anyone when they ask how to get better (I work for dc and do concept art). I also add to that… and take note of the object, don’t just draw it. When you draw something like comics, the more you can draw something that genuinely looks like the object it is meant to be, without looking at it, the quicker you’ll be and the more likely you’ll hit those deadlines. A good example of this is have someone draw a table and chairs… you can see they are table and chairs, but they don’t really look like a table and chairs. This is usually in the chairs, and the angles of the back rest and the legs… Anyway… it is the greatest piece of art advice, and as you say… understanding it is key. Great video.
I got my Biko plushie now I'm soo happy, I was bumb when I missed my first chance but now it is mine at last. insert evil laughter and crack of lighting.
I've looked at so many art tutorials on this platform and never improve or really understand what I should be doing. Something about your teaching method and actually explaining what you mean is so incredibly helpful! Keep up the great work!
I learned this when I started doing drawing studies of animals - I wasn't going for photo realism or anything, but I was going for accurate proportions and shape It taught me just how much I "assume" something about the shape and form of an animal, as well as how and where parts of their body connect, rather than what's actually there or how a body part actually connects. Suffice to say, my form has improved a lot in general since starting these animal studies, even without references.
Thanks for this video as I feel a lot of people these days are definitely missing things like perspective and anatomical knowledge. I am a classically trained artist and part of my degree course was studying anatomy. I have since veered into illustration but I really feel that classical training has helped me a lot in terms of knowing when aspects of my drawing are just not quite right or whether a character looks believable or not. It is also important to know what your character looks like in 3D so you can draw them from all different angles. You are right that there is really no shortcut to learning the fundamentals. Picasso's early work was very conventional before he developed his style further.
Since you brought up how important the fundamentals are, I want to jump in and say I think this is major problem, not just with art AI, but AI in general. It appears to cut out the "heavy lifting"-the basics that it takes years and years to master. Whether its the structure of anatomy, or the structure of a cohesive sentence. But what is that doing to us mentally if we do not have to stretch and build those skills?
True, true, and...true. You have to put the work to go from what you see in real life to an stylized representation of that reality. Many people want the result without going through the process.Really good adviced. Pleasure to hear you sharing this. Thanks
I struggle a lot with drawing what I see instead of what I think I see when it comes to things like tree branches. I'll start putting down lines for branches without studying how they actually look, or just put a bunch of strokes down for grass without putting the planning and reference into it.
I think for me it was when I realized that although most shapes look like they can be represented one way there is another that really shows that it has form
I absolutely love your videos! I really appreciate your insights, and as difficult as it is to hear that I need to practice the hard stuff, I still really appreciate it and want to improve. Thanks for all your help, Brookes 😁
reasons why still life is such important practice. if you can get yourself into the habit of breaking down images around you into their visual components, then working from references (which is like 90% of art studies) becomes wayy easier
I never know how to interpret some of these videos, not because they are not communicating properly, but because it's tailored to artists that have a wide range of things they may like to draw, or study. But I stick to one franchise, study all the art, and all the styles of the various artists who have worked on it, and try to replicate what they do. Of course I find myself seeing my reference, usually someone else's art, but I don't look to it to draw every line, I have attempted to create my own characters, but I'm ultimately hindered, as they just come out looking like the characters from the franchise I chose to stick to, as that is the only thing I really have studied. I'm not sure if this is a detrimental road block, or just the usual thing. Great video by all mean, keep working hard!
What I understood from this video is that drawing requires you to know what things are made of in terms of shapes, planes, forms, construction etc., whilst drawing techniques are only tools - shortcuts to achieve a better representation of those forms that you already know.
A really good video thank you for sharing! Annnd honestly made me reflect and then finally able to put my finger on what exactly is going awry when I draw heads tbh haha
This is good advice for many skills. I was thinking about my game development skills during the end. The project I thought was a beginner project is actual a lot more complicated than I thought. I was trying to make a short fire emblem style game, I thought I'd just plug in some equations and damage numbers, do the tile movement and call it there. Managing the game state and organizing all of the actions, menus and animations. I even cut out exp because I thought it would be make it harder. It was still so much bigger than I imagined.
Ok, I do condense features onto a sphere a lot, but is this a problem if it’s an intentional choice to prioritize expressions over realistic anatomy? I often oversimplify purposefully because I like cute chibi simplification and it’s expressive and easy to pose and animate smoothly.
There's a lot of stuff I gotta hammer in my brain and this video is a good help. I still gotta understand 'form' lol. At least I knew what the lines on the circle were for...
also, this video really made me contemplate if I should keep referencing my friend's art instead of *actual* things, I just suck at knowing where to look
I run into this problem where I sketch out a drawing and ink it and then I get worried about ruining a good drawing if I mess up colouring, does anyone have any advice for this?
This is why drawing while being frustrated or stressed just completely messes you up, you forget to understand what you are actually drawing and instead just try replicating the lines and then jt fails :’) I remember one time I was trying to draw the eyes in a character and I got so frustrated and kept doing it, then I gave up and a month later I did way better than all my other past attempts in one try, because I was calm and was just able to think and understand better
Hello, I enjoyed this video as it put something that I have heard in the past but not quite understood from a fresh angle. I have question about this that is something I've haven't yet understood in my drawing experience. I apologize in advance if I ask something that has already been answered in the video. This may sound ignorant, but how can I apply these kinds of processes of studying real-life organisms to create a coherent, logical, and original design of something that is less-realistic or not specifically based on any one single species? Often the "how" is nebulous to me, as a fictional creature may stray farther from one species' anatomy. I already have some ideas on how this may be done (i.e. there may be some general principles in the way living creatures move that can be applied to a fictional creature also trying to produce similar locomotion.) However, I would love to hear your thoughts on this if you can.
Hmm, I’m not Brookes but I’ve done creature design and I’d probably start with a habitat and research adaptations used to survive in said habitat, then pick and choose some (ie, if I was going for desert, big feet, big ears, + thick eyelashes for something cute, but thick hide, large sails, and extra eyelids + ridges for something scary)
So before watching the video... I have always understood 'draw what you see and not what you 'think' you see' to mean break it down into the fundamental shapes and draw based off those. Not the complete picture as you believe you see it.
Hmm one thing I HAVE done before is to look at how another artist stylizes something to get a feel for how you might use that. For instance, usually I draw reptilian dragon talons, but if I’m working in chibi, I’ll draw cat paws like some artists do. When I’m trying to convey expressions rather than anatomy, I’ll draw blob hands which are based on an artist I like, and my style is based off of a cartoon I used to watch a lot, although now it’s evolved into its own style. TL;DR: to clarify, using other artists for reference isn’t bad, but you have to understand the thinking behind it and not blindly copy. Not only is it a cartoon of a cartoon, it’s plagiarism.
As I mentioned in another comment, copying as a means to study is something I advocate for/ I even talked about doing master studies. this video is about learning and studying, so as to understand a subject matter, not a mandate to constantly draw with some kind of realism.
The way i try and think about this is. You can look at something. But then you can see something. The first is passive, automatic, internalized. The second is active, takes effort, doesn't make assumptions.
I dont disagree with any of this! But I do have a question. Where do you see the line for fundamentals versus doing something like realism? Realism and stylization are two different skill sets, after all! I've done art for years, and this was definitely something I picked up on over time, but it's not always super clear where fundamentals 'ends' so to speak. (They never truly end, but hopefully, you get what I mean!) Maybe this needs a whole other video and not just an answer in the comments section of a TH-cam video XD
I’m often shocked when parents try to “help” me teach their kids drawing. I’ve never knew before that people think ie that eyes are in upper third of human faces! Idk if I was a prodigy or just don’t remember! Human psyche is a fascinating thing!
Counter point: I recognize the difference between what I see and the symbols and shortcuts I take. Why I still choose the wrong way is because I'm simply unable to draw what I see. If I try, the entire drawing becomes garbage and I want to die for having created that. So I optimise between accuracy and quality I can get out of it. Not to say I don't work on improving my skills. I just don't push it when it's not worth it and my focus on getting one area right is going to make everything else fall apart.
Ho god that's what people meant by everyone has its own methods. Thx god I wasn't just copying others people work flow. I took but and pieces that made sens in my head. Both to not have to think about it. Or when needing to think about adapting them to different styles. But strangely enouth I'm only happy with that part the one when you make sketches. I don't seem to ever be happy with any of my finished drawing, and I don't what was different when I am. By that I mean that I can see it's better, but I don't know what was different in the process outside of time put into it and other basic stuff like that,so it doesn't mater every time.
I'm not sure if I understand the big takeaway of this video. As someone who wishes to learn to both draw and get good at it, what should I be keeping in mind or doing here?
Its amazing advice, But ive been improving pretty fast without the whole study thing yet I know Im about to hit a brick wall. do you have any advice to get myself to study the things I truely struggle with, instead of just drawing a bunch and hoping I eventually get it right
My main takeaway here is to understand your subject matter so that you can actually see things for what they really are, right? So if I understand the processes then I'd people able to manipulate in different ways. The "why" part of my main takeaway is what I'm confused at.
I don't think copying is bad though. I do get it though. I am not disagreeing, just people starts somewhere. People see cartoon, become cartoonish, only do stuffs from cartoons, instead of real life. People seem to misunderstand why people do certain things, and they just repeat them, without giving second thoughts onto why they do the things they do. The circle thing is more so they keep things in order, but they don't do the exact circle? Humans faces are more than circles. Sorry if I am not understanding well. There can be what you think is a cat, but there are a multitude of cats, so not all of them are going to have the same faces.
Yeah definitely have advocated for the benefit of copying as a learning exercise- and not at all saying you cant have multiple kinds of cats! this is moreso the unavoidable need for artists to have fundamentals- not just imitating
I think this advice can be a bit dangerous. If a person's end goal is stylizing x thing then they should be studying x thing from life and other stylizations from artists that inspire them. But you shouldn't frame it as "you NEED a robust understanding of x from life to stylize it." There isn't a defined amount of experience points you need to gather before being allowed to stylize something, and a subject like the human body or just the head is so complex that you could study it for years. People may fall into a trap of endless practicing and studying thinking they're not ready to do the thing they want. Then when they finally do try to draw x thing it doesn't look good because in order to draw something well you need to draw it as much as you study it they get discouraged and quit. Rappers, writers, and poems didn't become great from just studying the English language. They gained mastery by rapping and writing, and they probably started with trying to rap and write they way they wanted to. Then, they gathered more knowledge of the language as they needed to find more words to express the things they wanted to. I think that unintentionally drawing symbols are beginning steps of an artist's journey. Everyone learned their native language as babies blindly imitating the people around them, got ok results doing that, then went to school and properly learned the fundamentals. I believe a lot of artist have done something similar and that's an ideal way of doing it.
Do you have evidence of work made, based off of this technique you’re positing is superior, or is this more based on resistance of the advice? Is the idea in your scenario that, through power of will, you or I could start rapping in a language we don’t speak, simply because we want to? Is literacy a naturally intuited skill, or something fundamental that is taught and learned intentionally? I welcome other perspectives, but I don’t understand how the word “dangerous” makes it’s way close to a video like this… and frankly sounds hyperbolic, as though I’m actively harming my audience. In my experience, especially in TH-cam comments, this is more an attempt to reconcile not eating your vegetables.
@@CharacterDesignForge Maybe "dangerous" is a strong word, but what they are saying is that the idea in the video could be taken with a grain of salt. They also never presented a technique, they stated that in the long run people can become accomplished by starting off doing mimicry or whatever and picking up critical information as they go. A completely valid way to learn depending on how your mind works. Saying you need to approach learning art with the specific method/mindset is aguably deterring people who would otherwise succeed from even bothering. I'll explain their philosphy very simply. There's a barrier of entry in terms of the knowledge required to make believable work, but requiring a "robust" understanding to pull that off is debatable. Exactly how to get to that barrier of entry is on the individual. Once they have that level of knowledge, if I'm to use hyperbole to emphasise a point, they dont necessairly need a biology major to make decent figures or a PHd in physics to make effective lighting. Additionally, they add if you don't learn to stylise from somewhere you wont be able to stylise, so you better get on learning that from somewhere or someone outside of the study grind. If you need evidence there are examples of people out there who make good stylised art but claim to have limited understanding of realism or anatomy if you bother to look for them. There was one artist i know of has made professional art yet claims that their understanding of realism is limited. But unless you want to assume bad faith, you can believe I'm not making this up. With that being said, imma study when I feel the need to or encounter an obstacle. It's worked for me so far, people like the results so why should I change it. Maybe I'm just taking the studying I did in the past for granted, but I think I can get away with that. If you wanna dismiss this as "not eating your vegetables" then that's on you, but we're trying to give you another perspective.
@Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge Nope, I have no evidence that the process I described gives you a better end result. That's not what I'm trying to say. My point is while there are many artists who may only draw symbols or stylizations of things without actually understanding them, there are also artists who get trapped in a mindset of grinding studies or building fundamentals before attempting to do the kind of stylizations they want. Then, after they've spent months or years "learning the fundamentals" they make an attempt and it doesn't turn out the way they wanted. A moment like that is devastating to someone's confidence and can make them quit. That's the "danger" of getting too hung up on fundamentals and practice. It's why I don't like that line "you need to understand a subject before stylizing it." It validates that kind of thinking. But if you read into it, How much study does it take to "understand a subject"? Looking at the head as example, do I need to understand the basic forms of the skull? The advance forms of it including all the ridges and cavities? All the muscles that form the face? How much do would I need to know to be allowed to stylize because I could very well be studying the head for years. Language is something that is both intentionally studied and intuitively acquired. To learn a language I'd have to read dictionaries and textbooks just as much if not less as I'd have to listen to the language being spoken and attempt to speak it. And people fall into the same trap here by mass memorizing words afraid that they might not find the right words if they try to speak it. Then they just end up memorizing words instead of ever speaking and learning the language. It's the same with art. You need to study from life but you should never let your lack of knowledge of skill stop you from attempting a stylization.
@@justking2114 There's no need to be defensive, it's simply advice, advice which was never prescriptive of only ever studying things for years on end, or using a possible outcome of that to justify never doing it. The analogies I made to language were to help understand a point I was making, and like all analogies, eventually they must break down or no longer be applicable. In fact, in my experience with students, I have never come across someone who studied too hard, and could therefore not make stylized work. Nor does a person exist that has solely learned their spoken language from books. The advice in this video is lenient towards ones who prefer stylization, concept art, visual storytelling, and fan art. It's a nudge to remind them that vegetables are still important. Feel free to prove me wrong that they aren't in practice, I'd love to see some of this passion funneled into your craft!
@@RandomNaaames I don't believe I used the term realism once in this video, it's a common mistake to conflate drawing fundamentals and realism. One is the principles of art on a foundational level, the other is a technique or rendering "style". I can believe those artists saying that they aren't good at realism, because realism isn't fundamentals. Others probably took a more roundabout path to get to a place of professional quality, but can't necessarily trace it back so clearly- so they humble or self-depricate, and say that they "don't" know something- likely because, as with all things, they still have more they could learn. I could also see some of them being exceptions to a rule, which people always look for as a reason or excuse not to try something difficult. As with all exceptions to rules, they are rare, and probably not an advisable path forward. As I mentioned to King, this is meant as advice and a kind nudge to people who need to focus more of their energy in this direction. Myself included, and my past self included. With the two of you being the standout contrarians, most other people have stated the benefit of the advice in this video, especially when many of them lean heavily toward stylized and conceptual art. The tendency of these ones, especially of the students that I've worked with, is a lack of understanding of these fundamentals. Saying "but where does it end" misses the point that it should be addressed in the first place. If you're saying my video is wrong because you have studied and will continue to study, I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, I didn't make an awful, wrong, *dangerous* video after all.
Children learning to draw show a great example of this: Cephalopods. Not the animal, but those doodles with a big head and feet. The kid knows all the features of a body, mostly of the face, and if they draw a human, they make sure to include all of them. Eyes, nose, ears, ten fingers and so on. But they don't care how those features actually look. They care more about how important those features seem to them. Eyes and other facial features are exagerated and the torso, which should make up most of the body, is reduced to a tiny square below the massive head if not omitted entirely. Drawing what you know instead of what you see in action.
I am already 24 years old, they have told me that I am too old to learn and no matter how hard I practice, I cannot learn to do something as simple as torsos My problem is that I can't make my own drawings, I just do practices and more practices without understanding anything, I buy advanced books, also basic ones, but I just keep copying the studies from the book.
Have you ever tried taking a human anatomy course. Draw from real life, I learned to draw the body from studying from real bones of people, human cadavers in lab, learning the actual functions of each muscle in relation to their origin and insertions, nerves and connective tissue modalities. How each joint functions in relation to what movements the human body can do. Eventually I started to visualize the human body in my head, I can draw anyone’s bones like taking an x ray of someone with my eyes and draw the muscles on top and draw them in any perspective because of experience. You need to break each section of the body and focus on one thing until you can draw it from front, back, side, top view. Like draw the humerus from every angle then attach it to the scapula and draw the scapula and then the clavicle attaches to the acromion lateral and to the sternum medially, then draw the vertebrae, 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, sacrum, coccyx. Then draw the ribs that are 12 ribs within the thoracic cage from T1- T12 vertebrae attach them to the sternum, then add the iliac hip joint to the sacrum to complete the hip and you’ll have the torso complete. Then add muscles on top by looking at individual muscles focusing on superficial muscles deep muscles won’t help you much only know their functions of what they do extension of the arm flexion of the shoulder. You get the gist of how complicated it can be but the human body is like a Lego each piece from appendicular skeleton attaches to the axial, if you can draw one piece just keep adding another. Easier said than done but it can be done because I’ve done and I was older than you as well in my thirties. Become better at observing everything in the world, perspective see the lines of buildings find the eye level of a building in relation to you point of view of from an object rotate the space and imagine it from the floor or Birds Eye view. Be creative in how you learn don’t be discouraged, you have to believe in yourself if you draw everyday 1 thing with purpose you will improve. It becomes fun when you can draw anything and your not hindered by your own skill just by your imagination but it takes time and experience and observing the real thing. You can only learn so much from a book or video, in the end you have to find a way to apply that knowledge. Don’t just copy others, take a picture of yourself and draw yourself look at your body and how it moves, draw yourself naked get comfortable with it. Learn the fundamentals on sketching give simple shapes form.
Something Kim Jung Gi once said as he was drawing - "I wish others could see the lines I see" as an explanation for how he laid out complicated figures freehand without apparent preparation or guides. In reality, he had enough experience that he mentally overlaid his own personal waypoints and guides as he drew.
This is what is tough for people to learn, but it has to be done. All the process techniques repeated in art - circles, blocks, measurement tics, vanishing points, scales... these things often don't work well for beginners at first because unfortunately, they're not actually generic and mechanistic steps to follow. They're concepts. As you learn, you will intuitively create your own version of these concepts. The circle with line drawn around it will come to be part of a specific strategy you develop for building a head. Your own measuring tics will become a habit, rather than simply and rigidly following a generic system or guide.
I feel a lot of stress from learning to draw goes away once a person understands this. It's discouraging to try following a system precisely yet not see what you expect to be the results.
I relate to this; when I took a figure drawing class I imitated the structure the teacher used for the collar bone and other shorthand on the figure, and when he came by and saw my work he said I was only seeing his structure and not using it correctly. It frustrated me back then because he only said this without telling me how to use his structure, landmarks and other shorthand to successfully depict the figure.
If you’re gonna say I’m not using your structure correctly at least tell me how to map the features correctly
@@Artofcarissa It sucks, doesn't it? When someone who is supposed to TEACH us ends up just being dismissive without ever actually showing how to do it.
Had one of these once; he failed almost the entire class, based on things he did NOT teach at all.
some people are incapable of this. it's great for business
I'm not sure if you're saying people have to learn to work like that, but if you are I'd have to disagree.
It takes a very specific mindset to do that and while I believe that everyone is capable of drawing (and doing it well), I don't think everyone is capable of 'that' particular skill. It's almost like he has an eidetic memory, as it's just just from decades of practice. Kim Jung Gi has pretty much always been able to do that as long as he's been able to draw as I understand it?
RIP him for real😔😔
And along that same line, this explains why A.I. art usually falls into uncanny valley, it's like there is something off, but we can't quite place it.
Now I wonder if artists could use AI as inspiration rather than abusing it 🤔
@@RosheenQuynh totally. As an artist, I see it as just a another tool, to be used for the creation of new and unique art ideas, but it doesn't replace artists.
@@zanleekain117 Yeah! AI shouldn't be used to replace jobs (and in my personal opinion, there are jobs that AI are not able to replace). Like, I'm a writer but I don't let ChatGPT do my job for me, I use it to help me. And it absolutely has so far! So I am ALL in support of using AI to help people. That's what it should do.
@@RosheenQuynh of artists were using AI the upheaval wouldn’t be so big. The problem is that people who aren’t artist are using it and calling themselves artists. That’s why the backlash. It’s people who can’t draw, use these apps to generate new images that are being made using already existing art.
And you and me may scoff at it and say how trash it is. A lot of people starting accounts with AI generated images and getting 1000s of engagements and making a lot of money selling prints and other stuff.
@@sloppynyuszi 😬 Yikes
Here's a personal example: I distinctly remember a drawing class I took early in college where one of our life drawing studies involved a skeleton wearing a straw hat with lots of spikey loose ends. I never struggled to understand the idea that, for example, if I was going to draw the spikey bits of the hat, I should look carefully at them and accurately depict each loose piece of straw, the way it might be folded or bent, the way it might pass behind or in front of another piece, etc. That always just seemed obvious to me. Some of the other students also got this, but some of them just drew in a bunch of cartoonish, uniform spikes at the end. The thought process didn't seem to be "draw what I'm currently seeing," it was "there are spikey pieces of straw on the ends of the hat, so draw spikes on the hat." It's like the difference between seeing an actual photograph of something, and having something described to you but having to create the actual in the image in your head based on those vague descriptions.
And that was the day I understood what this advice meant ^^^
Wow, I feel exactly the same way!
The irony to this advice, from my own experience, was that I ended up, like the circle example, doing a lot of studies of the fundamentals but without any of it sinking in. It was like: "oh, if I nake a show of doing this thing I find boring long enough, then I will automatically be a better artist."
Didn't work. 😅
It DID work, when I started applying all the fundamentals to the things I was interested in! Want to understand muscles? Draw a muscle map using your favourite character! Started a portrait only to realise my lighting is off? Well, now I know to focus on lighting in studies! Adhd brain and all.
Learning isn't just about what to think, but understanding how your own brain absorbs info and learns on an individual basis, through trial and error! (Thank you for listening to my TED Talk 😂)
Absolutely!
Brilliant to compare art making to conversation. We really do need to listen metaphorically rather than just draw out of assumption. I think this is why using projects as a guide where each time you hit a roadblock you mindfully learn the process behind why and how something works instead of dismissing it with a few familiar strokes is a great way to learn. I have so many automatic marks I make that I need to break the bad habits of.
what
Totally agree with your third sentence! I improve the most when I hit a roadblock and have to learn my way through it.
I think a lot of people struggle to stop using symbols when drawing. Even when they are actively trying not to its easy to default back to what we think something should look like
Absolutely- its the muscle memory youve got recorded
what
That story about head circles absolutely reflects my experience - I knew that was how you were "supposed" to draw a head but didn't understand *why* it was being done. Drawing a drawing.
I LOVE explaining it by “listening with your eyes” that’s perfect and I’m stealing it. ♥️
Please do!
I think this applies a lot to music as well. Many beginner composers (including me) tend to skip or avoid learning music theory and just wing it. While music theory may seem daunting or even restrictive, it provides a lot of beneficial tools you can use once you understand them.
and similar to drawing, once you know some principles, it also helps you to learn how to listen to things you like and figure out what things they do you like
If you want to succeed as a modern band, music theory isn't just not helpful, it's actually harmful, because you're basically restricting yourself with the theory. For example no one in Nirvana or Slipknot learned music theory, and yet they blew up.
However if you want to be a composer, or play in the orchestra music theory may be necessary
I think kinda the same thing more or less goes with art. You don't necessary need theory in order to do appealing drawings or interesting concepts, and if you're just 100% about theory - you're basically do functions of a camera, which, let's be real, no one really is interested in
@@JeeJeen I wouldn't say that learning music theory is restrictive, because there's no celestial authority that forces you to follow the rules of music theory all the time. I think it's just beneficial to learn what others have found works, which is what music theory is, so you can use it when you desire to. But I'll admit I may be a bit biased being a more classical composer. And I don't think you need to learn music theory to be good a writing music, but you'll most likely know basic theory concepts (key signatures, time signatures, rhythm, chords) from learning how to play an instrument anyway.
@@BiggMilk i corroborate this with drawing too. learning more additional knowledge should only be a gain, not subtract anything - you can compare it to writing as well, like, learning more about words, syntax, grammar etc. doesn't stop you from doing the talking of in the way you are most of the wanting to be do
@@JeeJeen I don't think you quite understand what music/art theory is and how artists use it. Art theory applies even to abstract art. It's literally just understanding how shapes, perspective, composition, colours, light and values work. When you understand these concepts well, you can use them however you want.
If you're good at art without ever consciously learning theory, that's because you understand some of the theory intuitively, not because it somehow doesn't apply to your art. it's pretty cocky to assume you'd be able to intuitively apply theory that took centuries to develop though. Some of it, sure, and it may be enough to produce something good, but not all of it. Learning theory directly frees us from having to invent everything on our own before we can use it.
And to quickly address your example of musicians who didn't "study theory", they absolutely did study some theory when they learned how to play their instruments. Chords are music theory. Scales are music theory. Tempo is music theory. They learned enough to make the music they wanted to make and that's fine. But it is absolutely false to assume learning more theory would somehow limit their creativity.
Man the circle head thing really hit home. For a while I tried drawing a cross in a circle for faces, but I never really understood why. So eventually I took it out and started free handing the faces (bad idea). It took taking a college drawing 1 class and a study breaking down my own face to make me realize /why/ that cross was in there in the first place. Now I use it to properly place eyes and my nose and my art is doing better for it. I seriously need to do more studies though, I just don't have the time with school. Seriously can't wait for summer to roll around
Yeah, not to mention that it was unclear whether the eyes go above the line or halfway through the lines cause artists use that circle with the cross on it in different ways
@@Artofcarissa gosh yeah. I personally place the eyes below the line and then draw a second line below that to keep my eye sizes consistent. But I never would have learned that trying to mimic other artists
I dont even do stylised art and I'm not really a beginner anymore, but this was still a good reminder and an excellent explanation of why learning to draw just from simplified instagram tutorials isn't enough and will likely slow you down. Which is absolutely what I did when I WAS a beginner. I wanted to learn how to draw faces and figures, but i wasnt studying real people, I was studying youtube tutorials that teach you how to construct a stylised figure. Of course I couldn't construct a figure on my own before I ever drew one well from reference. But I didn't know that back then.
My biggest leap in skill happened after years of not drawing, when I suddenly got into fanart. I wasn't concerned with being able to draw manga or some shit, I just drew from photos of real people. Now I can paint pretty good oil portraits.
Copying lines vs understanding forms really hit home for me. This is a wonderful video that really gets at one of the fundamental elements not just of learning art, but education in general. Amazing work!
An insightful and helpful breakdown of advice we hear all too often without further explanation! I love that this video is in and of itself an example of the principle you describe in it - you've listened, understood, and then communicated something in your own terms. Heck yeah.
This reminds me of Brent Eviston, he talked about the canonical perspective. His example was students drawing teacups, and how they would draw in features that weren't in the real object or reference. Such as handles, or a flat base or even a saucer, because it's what they expect a teacup to have. We're very prone to taking mental shortcuts, it's a difficult lesson to internalise, often because we take those same shortcuts in our attempts to learn.
The difficulty is to unlearn the wrongly learned stuff. I spent years just drawing stuff based on the Anime/Manga I have seen, and now I struggle so much trying changing my style completely into something of my own. Whenever I sit down to actually re-learn the basics now for that, my aquired knowledge pipes in and is a pain in my butt. I also quickly lose patience when I go in detail about correct anatomy and just go back to my boring pop-up cartoon/manga style, it's so bad.
I think the best exercise I did in college was a still life but we had to draw the negative space instead of the objects. Really helped click into draw what you see, referencing the shapes to eachother rather than what it "should" be.
I struggle with getting what I see in my head vs what I can manage to express. People can tell me my arts expressing what I intended but it's not nearly on the scale of what I want it to be. But arts something you continuously improve on.
You can sit on one piece your whole life and continuously change things that you consider "improvements" but you're also the one who decides when the piece is actually finished.
This video makes me wish I could show you my art. You make me look at things differently & understand things I see I am trying to do on a deeper level.
Really appreciate that! I offer critiques through Patreon and my website for that exact purpose- it's the best way for me to get eyes on your work and offer some help.
I still remember how proud I was in 3rd grade when I figured out how to draw ears based on looking at other people's ears. They were a little over-realistic for how cartoony the people who had them were, but it was a type of drawing that I myself made up, and it was really satisfying.
This was INSANELY helpful!
I'm not much of an artist anymore, but I am fiction writer. The tips here very easily translate into that field as well. Thanks for the video!
I have a degree in linguistics and have taken courses on language acquisition, and you're more or less right about the baby thing!
Two caveats, tho: (1) it seems to be a very automatic thing, almost instinctual , as if humans are preprogrammed to communicate - and babies do both vocalizations and hand motions, and if the parents are deaf and use sign language on the baby, the baby will reduce the amount of vocalizations it does and focus on learning to sign instead - both seem to be deeply ingrained methods of communication
And (2) people usually learn to speak their home language pretty fluently before going to school, even if they learned 2 or more languages as a child - they will learn whatever dialect(s) the people they are around that they most identify with speak, often parents but sometimes peers - it takes time, but people reach speech fluency without formal education, but only for the dialect they are exposed to, and any given language is made up of countless dialects caused by differences in location or in social group
Usually in grammar classes what people are teaching is a new dialect of the language, one that is primarily used in professional or academic contexts and acts as a social Marker that you are an "educated" person, giving you cultural capital - even if you already speak something close to that dialect you will be learning new vocabulary, syntax, and modalities (most notably, writing or computer fluency rather than speaking) - even after you can do both they might be teaching you meta-linguistic knowledge, i.e. knowing how language works rather than simply how to do it by reflex (though a lot of that Meta knowledge can be confusingly taught and based on bad or outdated info)
Super fascinating stuff! Especially how babies learn to sign. I do not have a degree in linguistics. But I have spent a few weekends satisfying an intense curiosity lol.
Out of curiosity, if we were to look at developing artistic ability as a form of communication in a similar way to language acquisition (not saying it's 1:1 but if we were to approach it as if it were) and watching videos like Brooke's, taking a course, or studying an art book would be considered "studying" or learning about art, what do you think would contribute directly to acquisition? My limited "research" primarily consists of Krashen talks and skimming through books and papers, and so I wonder what the equivalent of comprehensible input would be for learning art. I assume it would have a lot to do with observation as that is the "listening" of the medium as Brooke's brought out.
Thank you for putting it into expert's words!
A lovely video on all fronts! The ideas covered as well as how they were communicated through the script and editing (really enjoy the simple but highly engaging editing). Advice that is common in general but that I don't hear a lot in the art community is the importance of balance! You may not be ready for that comic or big passion project you want to work on. And stopping to practice the fundamentals will progress you toward your goals. But don't get stuck there! It is okay to make things that are imperfect so long as you learn what you need to improve upon for the next project.
This is a really great way of explaining it!! Rn I'm trying to shore up my skills on the communication side of art and expressing ideas not just accurate to observation but really conveying what I want.
Thanks for the correction and explanation why understanding the physical makeup of real life is a must in order to draw ideas in a highly skilled and attractive way! I learned the hard way, but your effort cut the time wasting short. Going to fix it right now. God Bless you Brookes Eggleston.
It really helps that you explained the why for me. I'm trying to get into art, but whenever I ask people who are more experienced if I really need to draw circles and anatomy (also other traditional learning methodologies) when I'm into character art, they just blow it off as me not wanting to put in the work. This just leaves me more confused on what I should learn to draw certain types of art.
This is like a much more empathetic and understanding way of saying the classic middle school art teacher phrase "dont just draw anime". i think a big reason why a lot of newer and especially younger artists dont follow or understand that advice is because it isnt explained or conveyed to them the reason why it can hurt their development, since most people want to learn a skill in the first place because they want to emulate someone they admire. Fittingly the thing that stops people from understanding the breakdown of this visual communication is the breakdown of verbal communication in the first place.
Fantastic advice for beginners or even mid level artists with gaps in their knowledge like myself! I struggled a lot early on with drawing heads using "the circle with lines technique" and only started to improve when I started drawing the head shape as a cube and learning how to move around the variables of the face within this cube.
The biggest difference for me tends to be in how well I understand the topic I'm drawing.
I can do reference studies with photos, but I'll just be copying the lines and curves. A better way is having a 3D or live model so I can also spatially understand why a curve looks like that in the 2D drawing I'm making.
Personally I prefer to focus on understanding the context, besides just the visual part. For example, if I didn't know what a kangaroo's pouch was or how it worked, I would for sure draw it differently. Or maybe a better example would be mechs, where basic engineering/mechanical knowledge can help immensely to understand what you're seeing.
That being said, we might not be talking about the _exact_ same thing, they are two aspects that can help in different ways to improve your drawing. I guess the point I mentioned applies more to design than the pure drawing aspect.
I do want to point out that this advice is more like roadmap than a hard rule. Art doesn't have to have any specific quality for you to feel good about making it. Practice in whatever way keeps you drawing, you WILL improve regardless. Just don't forget to challenge yourself a little sometimes!
Yep… this is the piece of advice I give anyone when they ask how to get better (I work for dc and do concept art). I also add to that… and take note of the object, don’t just draw it.
When you draw something like comics, the more you can draw something that genuinely looks like the object it is meant to be, without looking at it, the quicker you’ll be and the more likely you’ll hit those deadlines.
A good example of this is have someone draw a table and chairs… you can see they are table and chairs, but they don’t really look like a table and chairs. This is usually in the chairs, and the angles of the back rest and the legs…
Anyway… it is the greatest piece of art advice, and as you say… understanding it is key. Great video.
I got my Biko plushie now I'm soo happy, I was bumb when I missed my first chance but now it is mine at last. insert evil laughter and crack of lighting.
Oh man thanks so much for the support Ethan!!
@@CharacterDesignForge thank you for your videos they provide great information, well entertaining, and I'm looking forward to Stormfellers.
I've looked at so many art tutorials on this platform and never improve or really understand what I should be doing. Something about your teaching method and actually explaining what you mean is so incredibly helpful! Keep up the great work!
I learned this when I started doing drawing studies of animals - I wasn't going for photo realism or anything, but I was going for accurate proportions and shape
It taught me just how much I "assume" something about the shape and form of an animal, as well as how and where parts of their body connect, rather than what's actually there or how a body part actually connects. Suffice to say, my form has improved a lot in general since starting these animal studies, even without references.
I’m glad I clicked on this video, It’s really helpful since I noticed my stuff is also a lot of plopping down what I’ve seen others do 😅
Thanks for this video as I feel a lot of people these days are definitely missing things like perspective and anatomical knowledge. I am a classically trained artist and part of my degree course was studying anatomy. I have since veered into illustration but I really feel that classical training has helped me a lot in terms of knowing when aspects of my drawing are just not quite right or whether a character looks believable or not. It is also important to know what your character looks like in 3D so you can draw them from all different angles. You are right that there is really no shortcut to learning the fundamentals. Picasso's early work was very conventional before he developed his style further.
Since you brought up how important the fundamentals are, I want to jump in and say I think this is major problem, not just with art AI, but AI in general. It appears to cut out the "heavy lifting"-the basics that it takes years and years to master. Whether its the structure of anatomy, or the structure of a cohesive sentence. But what is that doing to us mentally if we do not have to stretch and build those skills?
True, true, and...true. You have to put the work to go from what you see in real life to an stylized representation of that reality. Many people want the result without going through the process.Really good adviced. Pleasure to hear you sharing this. Thanks
I struggle a lot with drawing what I see instead of what I think I see when it comes to things like tree branches. I'll start putting down lines for branches without studying how they actually look, or just put a bunch of strokes down for grass without putting the planning and reference into it.
this applies to many things, my biggest struggle in learning fighting games for example was just understanding why I should do x y z thing
Absolutely brilliant and particularly well explained. Thank you Brookes
Thanks so much!
BROOKE MY MAN im so glad u consistently give out such good videos with good topics, theyre underated fr
Pretty much the reason art teachers hate manga. People copy a formulaic abstraction without having learned the underlying basics.
Exactly- when those manga artists largely DO understand those principles and stylize from there!
I think for me it was when I realized that although most shapes look like they can be represented one way there is another that really shows that it has form
I absolutely love your videos! I really appreciate your insights, and as difficult as it is to hear that I need to practice the hard stuff, I still really appreciate it and want to improve. Thanks for all your help, Brookes 😁
Much appreciated!
This vid actually helped me out a lot, not only in drawing but in every other form of art too
reasons why still life is such important practice. if you can get yourself into the habit of breaking down images around you into their visual components, then working from references (which is like 90% of art studies) becomes wayy easier
I never know how to interpret some of these videos, not because they are not communicating properly, but because it's tailored to artists that have a wide range of things they may like to draw, or study. But I stick to one franchise, study all the art, and all the styles of the various artists who have worked on it, and try to replicate what they do. Of course I find myself seeing my reference, usually someone else's art, but I don't look to it to draw every line, I have attempted to create my own characters, but I'm ultimately hindered, as they just come out looking like the characters from the franchise I chose to stick to, as that is the only thing I really have studied. I'm not sure if this is a detrimental road block, or just the usual thing. Great video by all mean, keep working hard!
Here’s a hint: studying only one franchise means studying only work that has been stylized. The video’s advice will still be helpful for you. 😉
What I understood from this video is that drawing requires you to know what things are made of in terms of shapes, planes, forms, construction etc., whilst drawing techniques are only tools - shortcuts to achieve a better representation of those forms that you already know.
A really good video thank you for sharing!
Annnd honestly made me reflect and then finally able to put my finger on what exactly is going awry when I draw heads tbh haha
I really loved how brookes evolved his way of content delivery. more charismatic and smooth !! Great video and highly overlooked advice
This is good advice for many skills. I was thinking about my game development skills during the end. The project I thought was a beginner project is actual a lot more complicated than I thought.
I was trying to make a short fire emblem style game, I thought I'd just plug in some equations and damage numbers, do the tile movement and call it there. Managing the game state and organizing all of the actions, menus and animations. I even cut out exp because I thought it would be make it harder. It was still so much bigger than I imagined.
Ok, I do condense features onto a sphere a lot, but is this a problem if it’s an intentional choice to prioritize expressions over realistic anatomy? I often oversimplify purposefully because I like cute chibi simplification and it’s expressive and easy to pose and animate smoothly.
7:13 WHOA WHOA, HOOOOOOLD up! What's that curve tool you're using in Procreate??
My god - the time I could save on some of my repetitive strokes!
I hope your day is amazing because you are loved
There's a lot of stuff I gotta hammer in my brain and this video is a good help. I still gotta understand 'form' lol. At least I knew what the lines on the circle were for...
also, this video really made me contemplate if I should keep referencing my friend's art instead of *actual* things, I just suck at knowing where to look
What an insightful analogy, this actually helped me understand the process better
The biggest and best advice I was ever given that took some time for me to grasp was "loosen up".
I run into this problem where I sketch out a drawing and ink it and then I get worried about ruining a good drawing if I mess up colouring, does anyone have any advice for this?
very good and CLEAR video.
Glad you liked it!
This is why drawing while being frustrated or stressed just completely messes you up, you forget to understand what you are actually drawing and instead just try replicating the lines and then jt fails :’) I remember one time I was trying to draw the eyes in a character and I got so frustrated and kept doing it, then I gave up and a month later I did way better than all my other past attempts in one try, because I was calm and was just able to think and understand better
I like how you cleared up this confusing piece of advice from your past, and ended the video with another confusing piece of advice
Which part at the end is confusing?
really needed this right now
This is brilliant. Compare art to conversation. It opened up my eyes. Thank you so-so much=3
Hello, I enjoyed this video as it put something that I have heard in the past but not quite understood from a fresh angle.
I have question about this that is something I've haven't yet understood in my drawing experience. I apologize in advance if I ask something that has already been answered in the video.
This may sound ignorant, but how can I apply these kinds of processes of studying real-life organisms to create a coherent, logical, and original design of something that is less-realistic or not specifically based on any one single species? Often the "how" is nebulous to me, as a fictional creature may stray farther from one species' anatomy. I already have some ideas on how this may be done (i.e. there may be some general principles in the way living creatures move that can be applied to a fictional creature also trying to produce similar locomotion.) However, I would love to hear your thoughts on this if you can.
Hmm, I’m not Brookes but I’ve done creature design and I’d probably start with a habitat and research adaptations used to survive in said habitat, then pick and choose some (ie, if I was going for desert, big feet, big ears, + thick eyelashes for something cute, but thick hide, large sails, and extra eyelids + ridges for something scary)
This helped, thank you
So before watching the video...
I have always understood 'draw what you see and not what you 'think' you see' to mean break it down into the fundamental shapes and draw based off those. Not the complete picture as you believe you see it.
Hmm one thing I HAVE done before is to look at how another artist stylizes something to get a feel for how you might use that. For instance, usually I draw reptilian dragon talons, but if I’m working in chibi, I’ll draw cat paws like some artists do. When I’m trying to convey expressions rather than anatomy, I’ll draw blob hands which are based on an artist I like, and my style is based off of a cartoon I used to watch a lot, although now it’s evolved into its own style.
TL;DR: to clarify, using other artists for reference isn’t bad, but you have to understand the thinking behind it and not blindly copy. Not only is it a cartoon of a cartoon, it’s plagiarism.
As I mentioned in another comment, copying as a means to study is something I advocate for/ I even talked about doing master studies. this video is about learning and studying, so as to understand a subject matter, not a mandate to constantly draw with some kind of realism.
@@CharacterDesignForge Ah!
I received that advice when we had to draw for biology. It was a revelation.
The way i try and think about this is. You can look at something. But then you can see something. The first is passive, automatic, internalized. The second is active, takes effort, doesn't make assumptions.
I dont disagree with any of this! But I do have a question. Where do you see the line for fundamentals versus doing something like realism? Realism and stylization are two different skill sets, after all! I've done art for years, and this was definitely something I picked up on over time, but it's not always super clear where fundamentals 'ends' so to speak. (They never truly end, but hopefully, you get what I mean!) Maybe this needs a whole other video and not just an answer in the comments section of a TH-cam video XD
Absolutely- fundamentals and realism are completely different! One is a final look/approach/rendering style, the other is the tools any artist needs
curves are a pain to draw for me. I know what one I need but end up getting the same one over and over despite knowing the one I need
The segment on the head was a god damn epiphany because I am doing this so much... right down to the trying to fit everything on the circle.
man your videos r great and i always look forward to them
I appreciate that!
@@CharacterDesignForge :)
"Listening" with the feckin glittery noise lol.
That is an EXCELLENT shirt.
Usually I struggle with trying to get back into the grooves and foundations.
Thank you for this! Super helpful!
I’m often shocked when parents try to “help” me teach their kids drawing. I’ve never knew before that people think ie that eyes are in upper third of human faces! Idk if I was a prodigy or just don’t remember! Human psyche is a fascinating thing!
Counter point: I recognize the difference between what I see and the symbols and shortcuts I take. Why I still choose the wrong way is because I'm simply unable to draw what I see. If I try, the entire drawing becomes garbage and I want to die for having created that. So I optimise between accuracy and quality I can get out of it.
Not to say I don't work on improving my skills. I just don't push it when it's not worth it and my focus on getting one area right is going to make everything else fall apart.
As Howard Moon said to. e a Maverick you first have to learn all the rules before you know how to bteak them.
A whole ocean away so I can't go to comicon, but I hope you have a good time regardless. Hopefully this comment will also help with the algorithm.
Ho god that's what people meant by everyone has its own methods.
Thx god I wasn't just copying others people work flow. I took but and pieces that made sens in my head. Both to not have to think about it. Or when needing to think about adapting them to different styles.
But strangely enouth I'm only happy with that part the one when you make sketches. I don't seem to ever be happy with any of my finished drawing, and I don't what was different when I am. By that I mean that I can see it's better, but I don't know what was different in the process outside of time put into it and other basic stuff like that,so it doesn't mater every time.
And good luck at the con Brookes!
Thanks man!
@@CharacterDesignForge I definitely want to go to lightbox this year as well! Hope to see you there :P
I just want to draw those really epic images that come to head wtf is all this that I have to learn to do that
Patience :) Every artist that made those did this
I'm not sure if I understand the big takeaway of this video. As someone who wishes to learn to both draw and get good at it, what should I be keeping in mind or doing here?
Its amazing advice, But ive been improving pretty fast without the whole study thing
yet I know Im about to hit a brick wall. do you have any advice to get myself to study the things I truely struggle with, instead of just drawing a bunch and hoping I eventually get it right
My main takeaway here is to understand your subject matter so that you can actually see things for what they really are, right? So if I understand the processes then I'd people able to manipulate in different ways. The "why" part of my main takeaway is what I'm confused at.
I don't think copying is bad though. I do get it though. I am not disagreeing, just people starts somewhere. People see cartoon, become cartoonish, only do stuffs from cartoons, instead of real life. People seem to misunderstand why people do certain things, and they just repeat them, without giving second thoughts onto why they do the things they do. The circle thing is more so they keep things in order, but they don't do the exact circle? Humans faces are more than circles. Sorry if I am not understanding well. There can be what you think is a cat, but there are a multitude of cats, so not all of them are going to have the same faces.
Yeah definitely have advocated for the benefit of copying as a learning exercise- and not at all saying you cant have multiple kinds of cats! this is moreso the unavoidable need for artists to have fundamentals- not just imitating
@@CharacterDesignForge Yeah, I see.
I think this advice can be a bit dangerous. If a person's end goal is stylizing x thing then they should be studying x thing from life and other stylizations from artists that inspire them. But you shouldn't frame it as "you NEED a robust understanding of x from life to stylize it."
There isn't a defined amount of experience points you need to gather before being allowed to stylize something, and a subject like the human body or just the head is so complex that you could study it for years. People may fall into a trap of endless practicing and studying thinking they're not ready to do the thing they want. Then when they finally do try to draw x thing it doesn't look good because in order to draw something well you need to draw it as much as you study it they get discouraged and quit.
Rappers, writers, and poems didn't become great from just studying the English language. They gained mastery by rapping and writing, and they probably started with trying to rap and write they way they wanted to. Then, they gathered more knowledge of the language as they needed to find more words to express the things they wanted to.
I think that unintentionally drawing symbols are beginning steps of an artist's journey. Everyone learned their native language as babies blindly imitating the people around them, got ok results doing that, then went to school and properly learned the fundamentals. I believe a lot of artist have done something similar and that's an ideal way of doing it.
Do you have evidence of work made, based off of this technique you’re positing is superior, or is this more based on resistance of the advice? Is the idea in your scenario that, through power of will, you or I could start rapping in a language we don’t speak, simply because we want to? Is literacy a naturally intuited skill, or something fundamental that is taught and learned intentionally?
I welcome other perspectives, but I don’t understand how the word “dangerous” makes it’s way close to a video like this… and frankly sounds hyperbolic, as though I’m actively harming my audience. In my experience, especially in TH-cam comments, this is more an attempt to reconcile not eating your vegetables.
@@CharacterDesignForge Maybe "dangerous" is a strong word, but what they are saying is that the idea in the video could be taken with a grain of salt. They also never presented a technique, they stated that in the long run people can become accomplished by starting off doing mimicry or whatever and picking up critical information as they go. A completely valid way to learn depending on how your mind works. Saying you need to approach learning art with the specific method/mindset is aguably deterring people who would otherwise succeed from even bothering.
I'll explain their philosphy very simply. There's a barrier of entry in terms of the knowledge required to make believable work, but requiring a "robust" understanding to pull that off is debatable. Exactly how to get to that barrier of entry is on the individual. Once they have that level of knowledge, if I'm to use hyperbole to emphasise a point, they dont necessairly need a biology major to make decent figures or a PHd in physics to make effective lighting. Additionally, they add if you don't learn to stylise from somewhere you wont be able to stylise, so you better get on learning that from somewhere or someone outside of the study grind.
If you need evidence there are examples of people out there who make good stylised art but claim to have limited understanding of realism or anatomy if you bother to look for them. There was one artist i know of has made professional art yet claims that their understanding of realism is limited. But unless you want to assume bad faith, you can believe I'm not making this up.
With that being said, imma study when I feel the need to or encounter an obstacle. It's worked for me so far, people like the results so why should I change it. Maybe I'm just taking the studying I did in the past for granted, but I think I can get away with that. If you wanna dismiss this as "not eating your vegetables" then that's on you, but we're trying to give you another perspective.
@Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge Nope, I have no evidence that the process I described gives you a better end result. That's not what I'm trying to say. My point is while there are many artists who may only draw symbols or stylizations of things without actually understanding them, there are also artists who get trapped in a mindset of grinding studies or building fundamentals before attempting to do the kind of stylizations they want. Then, after they've spent months or years "learning the fundamentals" they make an attempt and it doesn't turn out the way they wanted. A moment like that is devastating to someone's confidence and can make them quit. That's the "danger" of getting too hung up on fundamentals and practice. It's why I don't like that line "you need to understand a subject before stylizing it." It validates that kind of thinking. But if you read into it, How much study does it take to "understand a subject"? Looking at the head as example, do I need to understand the basic forms of the skull? The advance forms of it including all the ridges and cavities? All the muscles that form the face? How much do would I need to know to be allowed to stylize because I could very well be studying the head for years.
Language is something that is both intentionally studied and intuitively acquired. To learn a language I'd have to read dictionaries and textbooks just as much if not less as I'd have to listen to the language being spoken and attempt to speak it. And people fall into the same trap here by mass memorizing words afraid that they might not find the right words if they try to speak it. Then they just end up memorizing words instead of ever speaking and learning the language. It's the same with art. You need to study from life but you should never let your lack of knowledge of skill stop you from attempting a stylization.
@@justking2114 There's no need to be defensive, it's simply advice, advice which was never prescriptive of only ever studying things for years on end, or using a possible outcome of that to justify never doing it. The analogies I made to language were to help understand a point I was making, and like all analogies, eventually they must break down or no longer be applicable. In fact, in my experience with students, I have never come across someone who studied too hard, and could therefore not make stylized work. Nor does a person exist that has solely learned their spoken language from books. The advice in this video is lenient towards ones who prefer stylization, concept art, visual storytelling, and fan art. It's a nudge to remind them that vegetables are still important. Feel free to prove me wrong that they aren't in practice, I'd love to see some of this passion funneled into your craft!
@@RandomNaaames I don't believe I used the term realism once in this video, it's a common mistake to conflate drawing fundamentals and realism. One is the principles of art on a foundational level, the other is a technique or rendering "style". I can believe those artists saying that they aren't good at realism, because realism isn't fundamentals. Others probably took a more roundabout path to get to a place of professional quality, but can't necessarily trace it back so clearly- so they humble or self-depricate, and say that they "don't" know something- likely because, as with all things, they still have more they could learn. I could also see some of them being exceptions to a rule, which people always look for as a reason or excuse not to try something difficult. As with all exceptions to rules, they are rare, and probably not an advisable path forward.
As I mentioned to King, this is meant as advice and a kind nudge to people who need to focus more of their energy in this direction. Myself included, and my past self included. With the two of you being the standout contrarians, most other people have stated the benefit of the advice in this video, especially when many of them lean heavily toward stylized and conceptual art. The tendency of these ones, especially of the students that I've worked with, is a lack of understanding of these fundamentals. Saying "but where does it end" misses the point that it should be addressed in the first place. If you're saying my video is wrong because you have studied and will continue to study, I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, I didn't make an awful, wrong, *dangerous* video after all.
cant you tell--just how fine..
Hello Bro I Love Your Videos So Much My Birthday Is March 29th
Thank you!!! 🖤
I just feel like I never know what I’m doing when it comes to art.
Children learning to draw show a great example of this: Cephalopods. Not the animal, but those doodles with a big head and feet. The kid knows all the features of a body, mostly of the face, and if they draw a human, they make sure to include all of them. Eyes, nose, ears, ten fingers and so on. But they don't care how those features actually look. They care more about how important those features seem to them. Eyes and other facial features are exagerated and the torso, which should make up most of the body, is reduced to a tiny square below the massive head if not omitted entirely. Drawing what you know instead of what you see in action.
Weirdly, the only one i dont do it check curves and ive never seen this video before.
Very true
i like your shirt
great video
3:00 took me right tf out 😂
I am already 24 years old, they have told me that I am too old to learn and no matter how hard I practice, I cannot learn to do something as simple as torsos
My problem is that I can't make my own drawings, I just do practices and more practices without understanding anything, I buy advanced books, also basic ones, but I just keep copying the studies from the book.
Have you ever tried taking a human anatomy course. Draw from real life, I learned to draw the body from studying from real bones of people, human cadavers in lab, learning the actual functions of each muscle in relation to their origin and insertions, nerves and connective tissue modalities. How each joint functions in relation to what movements the human body can do. Eventually I started to visualize the human body in my head, I can draw anyone’s bones like taking an x ray of someone with my eyes and draw the muscles on top and draw them in any perspective because of experience. You need to break each section of the body and focus on one thing until you can draw it from front, back, side, top view. Like draw the humerus from every angle then attach it to the scapula and draw the scapula and then the clavicle attaches to the acromion lateral and to the sternum medially, then draw the vertebrae, 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, sacrum, coccyx. Then draw the ribs that are 12 ribs within the thoracic cage from T1- T12 vertebrae attach them to the sternum, then add the iliac hip joint to the sacrum to complete the hip and you’ll have the torso complete. Then add muscles on top by looking at individual muscles focusing on superficial muscles deep muscles won’t help you much only know their functions of what they do extension of the arm flexion of the shoulder. You get the gist of how complicated it can be but the human body is like a Lego each piece from appendicular skeleton attaches to the axial, if you can draw one piece just keep adding another. Easier said than done but it can be done because I’ve done and I was older than you as well in my thirties. Become better at observing everything in the world, perspective see the lines of buildings find the eye level of a building in relation to you point of view of from an object rotate the space and imagine it from the floor or Birds Eye view. Be creative in how you learn don’t be discouraged, you have to believe in yourself if you draw everyday 1 thing with purpose you will improve. It becomes fun when you can draw anything and your not hindered by your own skill just by your imagination but it takes time and experience and observing the real thing. You can only learn so much from a book or video, in the end you have to find a way to apply that knowledge. Don’t just copy others, take a picture of yourself and draw yourself look at your body and how it moves, draw yourself naked get comfortable with it. Learn the fundamentals on sketching give simple shapes form.
Also applies to Blender??
In theory id say yes!
kool