My artsy friend just showed me you because she felt your art would speak to me because I stifle myself trying to be perfect. Your art is showing me how to be me, so thanks! You are definitely my inspiration.
Great tips! I get really frustrated at not being able to create the loose kind of work that I love so much. Your tips with the time constraints and blind contours sound like a very good start in loosening up. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos!
Blind contours are one of my favorite things I learned in college... thanks for the reminder, I need to do them more often! A few years back I taught my young niece how to do them. She felt like she couldn't draw well, and I told her with a blind contour she is not expected to draw well, just enjoy it (..of course, while learning eye/hand coordination and learning to draw what you see not what you think should be there,) and when "greatness" wasn't expected, she flourished :) --great video, look forward to watching the others and seeing more from you ....and kitty is too cute! :)
Yes that’s why i like blind contours so much- anybody can do them and get interesting results. Really can help people to see that their work need not be perfect.
Thanks for the tips! I've done the blind contour drawing before and found it really helpful. For me it helps to train my eyes to focus on what I'm looking at more when drawing rather than what I think something should look like (which isn't usually quite accurate), and I get more into the details that are really there in the particular thing, which I think is one thing that can make a drawing interesting.
I agree with you. Even when not doing a blind contour, if you're drawing from reference it helps to really study the reference and then put it away before you start drawing. that way you're not obsessed with trying to get your drawing to look exactly like the reference.
as one who has made art for 40 some years I am always surprised when something new comes my way. your thoughts and tid bits may not be new but they sure brought a smile to my face and an inspiration to my finger! Thank you! I will be watching all of our UT's for sure! Sigh****
love these ideas and big fan of your work on instagram. i switch tools (pencils, fountain pens, dip pens, watercolor, colored pencils, markers, etc) every few days to keep me way out of my comfort zone...and i find it results in looser drawings (hopefully not just loser drawings?). artwork like yours inspires me and reminds me that loose is beautiful and energetic. thanks.
I m here because i follow you on instagram and love your art very unique i think. As an artist myself i find tips i already use like making random marks and scriptures on the paper because you re right the white page kind of stressfull lol ! Really good vidéos and tips keep going i m waintin for the next !!😉
Every time i draw, i obsess about the details and getting everything right. I struggle to make my drawings look relaxed. Great tips. Thanks for sharing them, especially the bit about the blank page. So glad i found you on instagram!
Thanks Lewis, I think that it will. Sometimes I can just hit the paper running, other times my work seems doomed from the first stroke of the pen. However if I purposely make my first mark irrelevant, as you suggest, then it could work for me. I once had the privilege of working with a brilliant watercolour painter called John Blockley (johnblockley.com). He worked very loose and confidently, using big decorating brushes to create what ended up as really sensitive images. He would always begin by applying huge sweeping wet splats of water or very diluted paint - now I can understand why. Thanks again.
I am not a visual artist, I am a classical singer, but it is interesting how some concepts absolutely apply to music. To get a pristine new score is absolutely intimidating. I can see how making a few marks (breath marks, for instance) can help loosen up that initial tension. Usually when I'm "done" studying a piece my score ends up with a ton of markings like vowels, translations, IPA symbols, crescendos and decrescendos, etc. Still, one is never really done with a piece, there is always an extra "human" layer that can be added to it. However, all this starts by getting over that first moment of intimidation. Also, singers can relate to letting go of trying control a piece of music to make it "exactly right" (there is no such a thing!). Singing with confidence can transform a piece into something genuine. Thanks for this! It's always interesting to take ideas from other forms of art.
Thanks for the comparison, I enjoyed it and agree. I always like music that isn’t overproduced and has the human element of imperfections. Perfection is unattainable yet so many still reach for it.
Great ideas and nice meeting your new kitten. Another thing i stumbled on to loosen up. I have done several illustrations using a hunk of graphite. I was used to doing line drawings and lines weren’t working for the image I was making which was a sand castle. The graphite completely changed my approach. Now I use it a lot.
Thanks for all the tips. I love sketch books it's a place to experiment and explore ideas and colour. I'm my classes we always begin with 'blind' contour drawing. Inhibitions go right out the window. It's great fun too and areas of the drawing will actually be quite accurate. Portraits are fun. Drawing with the less dominant hand is great as well.Anything to loosen up. Great stuff.I have your book love it.Another great way to loosen up is to attach a pen or crayon to a long piece of stick or bamboo about a meter long stand up and draw with the paper onthe floor. The control is less because of the length and it's lots of fun.Living the vids. Elizabeth Wilson
Thanks again....your videos are so helpful. I really want (need) to loosen my drawing style. Your work is so fab....when I look at it, I know that I am not pushing myself enough to develop as a drawer! Super cute kitty too.
Thank you very much for your advices. I also use collage to loosen up. Just get together lots of pieces of photos from magazines to achieve a certain mood. And that helps me to see my next painting.
Yay! You're a Tuber now!!! I so love seeing your process...I've wondered about it during the time that I've been following you on Insta. I got the techniques...I just wanted to see your process some time and here it is! I love the looseness in it and the way it's spot on every time. I'm sure your videos are going to be reflected in my visual journal the coming time... Thanks for sharing!
And yep....the lightbox sucks the life out of my work time and time again. I hate it! Did a visual journal illustration about my daughter playing the piano...the original was so lively and then the final result way too tight. And you're right...it's all about the confidence to hit it spot on again. But I'm having another chance. My other daughter started out playing the acoustic guitar this week, so I will do it without a lightbox...promise. Might loosen up big time...yikes!
Great to find you on you tube. Love this video, I would love to be looser and freer in my artwork. I look forward to watching all your videos as I really admire your artwork 😄
Thanks for the tips! I used to do blind contours all the time but tend to do less of these kinds of exercises as time goes on but I recognize that I need to loosen up sometimes. Great reminder to get back to this practice. I also love your suggestion to get messy for breaking through the blank page. Your work is awesome! Looking forward to watching more of your videos.
Hi Lewis! I hope you don't mind me saying that I discovered you while looking at Felix Scheinberger's work on Pinterest. And I'm so glad I did that, or I wouldn't have found your wonderful collage/assemblage. I really am drawn to your pieces. I'm afraid of collage because I just don't know how to go about doing it. I like your subtle use of bits here and there with your drawings. I hope you keep the videos coming. I admire your work and your methodologies.
Wow...these tips were amazing. The blank paper one really stuck with me I'm going to try that. Definitely subscribed! I love your work, thanks for sharing!
Hello from France. Thanks a lot. I am trying to get back into drawing. I always try to draw realistically but it is not what I want, and I find my drawings too stiff.
Great ideas and observations. I'm intimidated by the cost of my art supplies including the paper. Feel like every stroke costs a few cents. : ( I should go to the dollar store and get myself some crappy supplies.
Wow, I didn’t know you had a TH-cam channel! The contest on Instagram was my opportunity to discover it and I’m so glad to get to know your art even better than I do now!
Hey Lewis! Clicked through from your Instagram account (Crafty Auntie on there!). These videos are great, thank you. I love the timed sketch exercise and the private sketchbook idea... and the kitties🤗 Looking forward to seeing more videos.
I inadvertently found out about the smudged paper beginning, but now I will make it a conscious habit. Also, the pursuit of total realism in art, I discovered, is a path to blandness. Now, how to reverse it....Keep up the videos if you can, I like your style.
Thank you Anne. I agree that total realism can be bland. It takes a very talented illustrator to turn realistic drawings into interesting illustration.
This is a great video. I have done all those exercises at one point or another. I do get bogged down with making beautiful drawings and paintings. I am going to try out some of these exercises. I am redoing my portfolio to rebrand myself as an illustrator and I am not sure which side of illustration I sit. I love drawing and painting to great detail but I also love lose free art. How do I find a place where my work sits when doing either one all the time is to much. Thanks allot for reading my comment and keep the videos coming.
I like contour drawing the most for the unintentional highly expressive quality it gives to your drawing but I really like the other techniques you showed here. Would like to tryout those. It’s really hard to loosen up especially when you are trained as a fine Art student. I wish they focused more on teaching how to create more expressive works than only focusing on anatomically or technically correct works in art schools. Your kitten is super cute.
Thanks for taking the time to share tips!!!! I love your art, found you through instagram (my username is concrete belly) would love to be entered into winning your original art and book, was really happy with our recent print we purchased from you too!!!!
I started getting better when I stopped caring and began drawing just for fun AND just for myself!
No reason to be ‘sorry’, or to ‘should’ on one’s self. You help others and that is enough !
My artsy friend just showed me you because she felt your art would speak to me because I stifle myself trying to be perfect. Your art is showing me how to be me, so thanks! You are definitely my inspiration.
Great talk! Do not worry about anything, we are focused on what you are teaching, which is great.
Great tips! I get really frustrated at not being able to create the loose kind of work that I love so much. Your tips with the time constraints and blind contours sound like a very good start in loosening up. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos!
Art can be frustrating at times but hopefully these ideas will help loosen you up.
I needed something to give me a new spark. I have been feeling a bit "Meh" about my art lately. This was the ticket I needed.
Blind contours are one of my favorite things I learned in college... thanks for the reminder, I need to do them more often! A few years back I taught my young niece how to do them. She felt like she couldn't draw well, and I told her with a blind contour she is not expected to draw well, just enjoy it (..of course, while learning eye/hand coordination and learning to draw what you see not what you think should be there,) and when "greatness" wasn't expected, she flourished :) --great video, look forward to watching the others and seeing more from you ....and kitty is too cute! :)
Yes that’s why i like blind contours so much- anybody can do them and get interesting results. Really can help people to see that their work need not be perfect.
Thanks for the tips! I've done the blind contour drawing before and found it really helpful. For me it helps to train my eyes to focus on what I'm looking at more when drawing rather than what I think something should look like (which isn't usually quite accurate), and I get more into the details that are really there in the particular thing, which I think is one thing that can make a drawing interesting.
I agree with you. Even when not doing a blind contour, if you're drawing from reference it helps to really study the reference and then put it away before you start drawing. that way you're not obsessed with trying to get your drawing to look exactly like the reference.
as one who has made art for 40 some years I am always surprised when something new comes my way. your thoughts and tid bits may not be new but they sure brought a smile to my face and an inspiration to my finger! Thank you! I will be watching all of our UT's for sure! Sigh****
love these ideas and big fan of your work on instagram. i switch tools (pencils, fountain pens, dip pens, watercolor, colored pencils, markers, etc) every few days to keep me way out of my comfort zone...and i find it results in looser drawings (hopefully not just loser drawings?). artwork like yours inspires me and reminds me that loose is beautiful and energetic. thanks.
You are authentic !!!
Fantastic video! And I love your kitten❤️
i feel like this is why little kid drawing be good good sometimes they have like no judgement on it they just do it
Let loose! Let the creativity flow freely!
absolutely
Great video!
thank you
Fantastic video. Love your loose style
Hello ...Someone shared a link, and what a great video. I love the exercises and will try them out. Thank you for sharing.
Loved all of your tips! Especially the ways to get past the intimidation of pristine paper-definitely going to test that out.
good luck. hope it works out for you.
I m here because i follow you on instagram and love your art very unique i think. As an artist myself i find tips i already use like making random marks and scriptures on the paper because you re right the white page kind of stressfull lol ! Really good vidéos and tips keep going i m waintin for the next !!😉
you got me a drawring :] ...... thx for sharing your process.
thank you
Thank you for the tips! I like the results of the timer exercise. I am going to try it!
I really love that exercise. I think you will too.
Excellent video, I wrote heaps of notes. Thanks so much
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on art!
thanks
Really good
Every time i draw, i obsess about the details and getting everything right. I struggle to make my drawings look relaxed. Great tips. Thanks for sharing them, especially the bit about the blank page. So glad i found you on instagram!
that's something most artists struggle with. you'll work through it.
Blind contour drawings are fun; try old mugshots and see what happens!
Good idea.
great tips thanks, I particularly like the one about not starting with a blank sheet of paper, so practical, I'll be using that from now on. Cheers
hope it works for you.
Thanks Lewis, I think that it will.
Sometimes I can just hit the paper running, other times my work seems doomed from the first stroke of the pen. However if I purposely make my first mark irrelevant, as you suggest, then it could work for me. I once had the privilege of working with a brilliant watercolour painter called John Blockley (johnblockley.com). He worked very loose and confidently, using big decorating brushes to create what ended up as really sensitive images. He would always begin by applying huge sweeping wet splats of water or very diluted paint - now I can understand why. Thanks again.
Thank you for sharing these awesome ideas!!
Omg, good art advice and cure cat!!! I couldn't wish anything more :)))
Me encanta tu trabajo 🤗
Wow, the best advice! Thank you❤
I already bought your book and I love it. I love your videos too
thank you
Great and very helpfull tips, thank you
Great suggestions Thank you
I am not a visual artist, I am a classical singer, but it is interesting how some concepts absolutely apply to music. To get a pristine new score is absolutely intimidating. I can see how making a few marks (breath marks, for instance) can help loosen up that initial tension. Usually when I'm "done" studying a piece my score ends up with a ton of markings like vowels, translations, IPA symbols, crescendos and decrescendos, etc. Still, one is never really done with a piece, there is always an extra "human" layer that can be added to it. However, all this starts by getting over that first moment of intimidation. Also, singers can relate to letting go of trying control a piece of music to make it "exactly right" (there is no such a thing!). Singing with confidence can transform a piece into something genuine. Thanks for this! It's always interesting to take ideas from other forms of art.
Thanks for the comparison, I enjoyed it and agree. I always like music that isn’t overproduced and has the human element of imperfections. Perfection is unattainable yet so many still reach for it.
The most expected video for me recently!!! Thank you so much!!!
Super tips to release the inner artist! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and encouraging all to love and live Art! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏽😉
Thanks for the comment. 🙏
Great ideas and nice meeting your new kitten. Another thing i stumbled on to loosen up. I have done several illustrations using a hunk of graphite. I was used to doing line drawings and lines weren’t working for the image I was making which was a sand castle. The graphite completely changed my approach. Now I use it a lot.
yes, graphite and vine charcoal are great ways to be loose because they're not precise tools, and they smudge a lot.
Thanks for all the tips. I love sketch books it's a place to experiment and explore ideas and colour. I'm my classes we always begin with 'blind' contour drawing. Inhibitions go right out the window. It's great fun too and areas of the drawing will actually be quite accurate. Portraits are fun. Drawing with the less dominant hand is great as well.Anything to loosen up. Great stuff.I have your book love it.Another great way to loosen up is to attach a pen or crayon to a long piece of stick or bamboo about a meter long stand up and draw with the paper onthe floor. The control is less because of the length and it's lots of fun.Living the vids. Elizabeth Wilson
I like that suggestion. I've never tried that but I can see how it could be helpful.
Thanks again....your videos are so helpful. I really want (need) to loosen my drawing style. Your work is so fab....when I look at it, I know that I am not pushing myself enough to develop as a drawer! Super cute kitty too.
Thank you very much for your advices. I also use collage to loosen up. Just get together lots of pieces of photos from magazines to achieve a certain mood. And that helps me to see my next painting.
that's a really great idea.
I have followed you on Instagram for a while now. I absolutely love your art, and am happy to see you have a TH-cam channel!
Thank you for the support👍
Thanks for your tips! Especially the tip with the Not so blank paper, that was always a Problem for me and i will definitly try it. Love your work! ☀️
Thank you and good luck.
So helpful thank you!
I always love other peoples' quick sketches, but hate my own - still, I'll try out your tips (and quickly toss them in the trash, lol!)
Maybe you’ surprise yourself.
06:27....now I'm just waiting for you to show us the kitty! 😂
Yay! You're a Tuber now!!! I so love seeing your process...I've wondered about it during the time that I've been following you on Insta. I got the techniques...I just wanted to see your process some time and here it is! I love the looseness in it and the way it's spot on every time. I'm sure your videos are going to be reflected in my visual journal the coming time... Thanks for sharing!
And yep....the lightbox sucks the life out of my work time and time again. I hate it! Did a visual journal illustration about my daughter playing the piano...the original was so lively and then the final result way too tight. And you're right...it's all about the confidence to hit it spot on again. But I'm having another chance. My other daughter started out playing the acoustic guitar this week, so I will do it without a lightbox...promise. Might loosen up big time...yikes!
Enjoyed the video. Looking forward to the next one.
Thank You Lesley
Great to find you on you tube. Love this video, I would love to be looser and freer in my artwork. I look forward to watching all your videos as I really admire your artwork 😄
Lovely video for inspiration and techniqu.
Thanks
Thank you!
Our cat is called Pip, she is a 13 year old little black cat.
Love your art and much appreciate that you are sharing some of your thoughts and processes on here!
Thank you
Thanks for the tips! I used to do blind contours all the time but tend to do less of these kinds of exercises as time goes on but I recognize that I need to loosen up sometimes. Great reminder to get back to this practice. I also love your suggestion to get messy for breaking through the blank page. Your work is awesome! Looking forward to watching more of your videos.
yes, I don't do these exercises as often as I did at one time, but they are great reminders from time to time.
Great video, thanks for sharing. As someone who's just started out trying to draw/iillustrate on a regular basis these are great tips.
good luck applying them
these tips will definitely come to mind when i next have trouble letting go of control when working - great vid + looking forward to more 👍🏾
thank you. hope they work for you
Very interesting. I'll try the blind drawing. I see you like Steinberger like me ;)
yes absolutely. good luck with the blind drawing.
great stuff! thanks for the video!
thanks
Thank you so much for all these tips, I'm going to try them all. x
Thanks- great topic. I would love to watch you draw during this video!
I do plan on doing some videos where I draw in the video. (other than the time-lapse ones)
Hi Lewis! I hope you don't mind me saying that I discovered you while looking at Felix Scheinberger's work on Pinterest. And I'm so glad I did that, or I wouldn't have found your wonderful collage/assemblage. I really am drawn to your pieces. I'm afraid of collage because I just don't know how to go about doing it. I like your subtle use of bits here and there with your drawings. I hope you keep the videos coming. I admire your work and your methodologies.
Wow...these tips were amazing. The blank paper one really stuck with me I'm going to try that. Definitely subscribed! I love your work, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Elizabeth. I think working on a pristine piece of paper intimidates many artists.
those are really good ideas actually. i will try to exercise with a timer. thanks!
good luck. share your results.
Beautiful, thank you for sharing your process
thanks
love your vids. :)
Great video, thank you! I’ve become addicted to drawing with my non-dominant hand. It is very freeing as you say and maybe reduces your expectations?
exactly. You're not expecting a masterpiece anyway so you're free to just draw.
Great tutorial, really energetic drawings man! Have a sub
thank you
very helpful and interesting tips!
thank You
Did you publish a how to do book? I like many tips: the timer exercise, the sketchbook none can see, to use the left hand. I'm waiting the next :)
Not a how to book, but I do have an artbook available.
Thanks man... a great video!!
PS I have tried the left hand technique and was surprised at how easy it was.
Thanks for sharing, Lewis! :) Good tips! Love your work. And loved to see the drawings during the video.
Looking forward to more. :)
thanks for watching.
Nice vid :)
thanks
Hello from France.
Thanks a lot. I am trying to get back into drawing. I always try to draw realistically but it is not what I want, and I find my drawings too stiff.
Thank you, love your work!
thank you
Great ideas and observations. I'm intimidated by the cost of my art supplies including the paper. Feel like every stroke costs a few cents. : ( I should go to the dollar store and get myself some crappy supplies.
Wow, I didn’t know you had a TH-cam channel! The contest on Instagram was my opportunity to discover it and I’m so glad to get to know your art even better than I do now!
Great tips! I'm looking forward to putting them into practice. Thank you!
good luck
This is actually really helpful!! Also I love your work!
thank you Lena
Hey Lewis! Clicked through from your Instagram account (Crafty Auntie on there!). These videos are great, thank you. I love the timed sketch exercise and the private sketchbook idea... and the kitties🤗 Looking forward to seeing more videos.
thank you Natasha. Glad you enjoyed the video.
thnx^^
I inadvertently found out about the smudged paper beginning, but now I will make it a conscious habit. Also, the pursuit of total realism in art, I discovered, is a path to blandness. Now, how to reverse it....Keep up the videos if you can, I like your style.
Thank you Anne. I agree that total realism can be bland. It takes a very talented illustrator to turn realistic drawings into interesting illustration.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing~
Thanks Donna
Love your stuff, man.
Thank You
I can't wait to try the exercises because my drawing is WAY to stiff!
Good luck
This is a great video. I have done all those exercises at one point or another. I do get bogged down with making beautiful drawings and paintings. I am going to try out some of these exercises. I am redoing my portfolio to rebrand myself as an illustrator and I am not sure which side of illustration I sit. I love drawing and painting to great detail but I also love lose free art. How do I find a place where my work sits when doing either one all the time is to much. Thanks allot for reading my comment and keep the videos coming.
I have always been curious about your process, thanks for sharing and what are you drinking? Looks so good 😃
It's a cappuccino.
😁😁😁
I like contour drawing the most for the unintentional highly expressive quality it gives to your drawing but I really like the other techniques you showed here. Would like to tryout those. It’s really hard to loosen up especially when you are trained as a fine Art student. I wish they focused more on teaching how to create more expressive works than only focusing on anatomically or technically correct works in art schools.
Your kitten is super cute.
Thanks for taking the time to share tips!!!! I love your art, found you through instagram (my username is concrete belly) would love to be entered into winning your original art and book, was really happy with our recent print we purchased from you too!!!!
you've been entered. I'm going to chose at random this weekend and will announce it on Instagram by Sunday. good luck.
El gato xDD
Hi Lewis! I follow you on Insta! I’d love to win your book!! tsm artist