Do you feel as though you are moving forwards or backwards with your drawings? It’s very easy for you to turn a few degrees off course when you are working alone in your studio. Not getting feedback on a weekly or bi-weekly basis could really be hurting your forward progress.
I see this a lot as owner and founder of Drawing Tutorials Online. I’ve been critiquing work on DTO since 2008. When you film weekly video critiques for roughly eight years you start to see glaring trends. The members who sign up watch the tutorials and pursue feedback through our Group Coaching Gallery constantly improve.
The members who sign up and just watch the tutorials usually get a little overwhelmed. They then proceed to loose their focus not knowing what to work on next. That is when they bounce around from online video to online video looking for that secret technique.
There is no secret drawing technique. It’s called study, apply what you learned, then get feedback to see if you are doing it right. Rinse and repeat on a consistent basis. That’s the secret sauce.
You see watching tutorials is great. Signing up for online courses is awesome, I’m in the midst of a course right now. You just have to combine the course with feedback. Call it what you want, feedback, coaching, or getting a critique it’s all the same.
If you consistently ask for feedback from a qualified instructor you will improve one hundred times faster. You won’t loose your focus, you won’t get frustrated either. Destructive negative self talk dooms so many aspiring artists. You might think your work sucks, but perhaps with one tweak it could be so much better.
I really want to encourage you to look for feedback. Whether it be from Drawing Tutorials Online or a local instructor in your home town. If you are really serious about improving your craft it’s a must for you.
Of course we would be happy to help you. We offer Group Coaching via a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. If you are a bit shy with sharing your work we also offer One Time Coaching. It’s very private and very effective.
I hope you enjoy the example critique below taken from this weeks Group Coaching Gallery.
Diane has been a member for a few months now. Her figure drawings keep getting better and better. Mainly because of her consistent hard work and a little feedback. A little goes a long way.
– Hi, Matt!
Just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful coaching you gave me last week. As the self help gurus say, you gave MUCH more than expected! Thank you! I am now a bit more structured and clear about what I need to do, including making the time to practice art. I also have four people to help hold me accountable for the hours I work on art each week. Yes, just a start, but a great one!
Again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. It is much appreciated!
Kelly Hatfield (and husband, Rob, too!)
If I had to use one word to describe Anna, it would be “Drawaholic”. Wow Anna has such a strong work ethic for such a young student. It was such a pleasure to have Anna in class. She has since changed her major. She is now in the 3-D Computer Animation department. We all miss her a lot.
As you can see in the sketchbook video what I love most about Anna is her willingness to experiment. I mean heck if you don’t experiment in foundation year of college when will you? Some artist’s are born with a style while others have to seek it out through drawing in different styles. It’s quite difficult to seek out a style. I’ve always had one style, I’ve always loved realism. I consider myself lucky just having to experiment with different mediums.
What Anna is doing in her sketchbook takes guts. You have to be willing to fail. You have to be will to take chances. Putting in the time to see if a drawing style clicks with you. I think what Anna discovered in her sketchbook in that she draws really slow. I saw that for myself in class. I believe that is what encouraged her to switch into the computer animation department. To be a traditional animator you have to draw fast. Now you can always train yourself to draw faster. But the question is do you want to?
I don’t really think Anna enjoyed drawing fast. You can just see that Anna loved hanging out with her art. She loves hanging out for long periods of time just getting lost in the details of her drawings.
That totally speaks to me. That is the reason why I love being an artist. Just hanging out in my studio listening to music and getting lost in the details of my work.
How about you, do you have a style? Do you like to draw fast or slow? What do you love about drawing?
To become a successful artist you have to have clear answers for these difficult questions.
I want to thank you for taking the time to view Anna’s sketchbook video.
Remember you cannot force a style, you have to be patient giving it time to develop through lot’s of pencil mileage. Just like Anna:)
My favorite part of having Ron as a student is teasing her about not liking Chocolate. Every once it a while I’ll purchase fun snacks for my students. Sometimes it’s candy while on other days it could be donuts. One day I noticed Ron didn’t touch any of it, she told me she hated chocolate. So I started buying her fruit, it gave us both a good laugh.
Maybe it’s best that Ron doesn’t get that sugar low. The sheer volume of drawing’s in her sketchbook is pretty inspiring. The craziest thing about Ron, she primarily drew digitally before enrolling in my class. No pencil. When you look at the improvement it has got to push you to draw more.
I hope you enjoy browsing through Ron’s sketchbook. She flipped through it at a pretty fast rate. There is so much to see. The more detail Ron puts in her art the more it pulls me in. I love that about her work. What do you like about Ron’s sketchbook?
I wanted to take a moment to share another student sketchbook with you. Clara has an awesome sense of design. Her use of color is pretty cool too.
As I browse through Clara’s sketchbook it’s almost as if I’m taking a tour of her home. With each page representing a different room with it’s unique feel.
I’m really fortunate to have met Clara. Clara was not originally enrolled in my class, thank goodness she stopped by on week two to ask if she could register. Thank goodness I said said yes!
Clara has so much to offer. All of the the other students gain so much from watching her work. She offers so much diversity in her technique and design.
Clara just really rounds out the classroom with her sophisticated design.
As you work in your sketchbook experiment with some of the techniques used by Clara in her sketchbook. Try adding some more color, shape and texture.
Also try using different pencils and markers. Your sketchbook should be a fun safe place to experiment. Be different and unique.
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out Clara’s sketchbook video. Leave us a comment letting us know what you think.
Looking for some help with your drawing technique? Sign up for a monthly membership to Drawing Tutorials Online today!
What is going on in your brain while drawing a portrait? Are you stressing over your pencil paper combination? Are you concerned about not being able to draw the models likeness?
Wow that sounds really familiar to me. I’ve stressed over both of those concerns many many times. Especially when I first started drawing. What works much better is thinking about several core portrait drawing techniques.
Don’t think about what is not working in your portrait drawing, instead focus on what will help you. Take a moment to watch this short video critique below.
The question you should be asking yourself, where is the light coming from. Get a clear picture of the light shapes and shadow shapes. Of course when you start physically drawing you want to draw with angles and measurements. Specifically with portraits you want to focus on the negative space around the head.
Form is another element you should be thinking about. How are you going to draw a three dimensional portrait? Do you know the major landmarks of the skull?
How about your value set up? Having a clear goal for your value set up in huge when drawing a portrait.
Below is a list of several core drawing techniques you want to focus on. Write them down and keep them close by the next time you start a new portrait drawing.
Start with angles and measurements.
Be aware of the negative Space.
Be clear on the light direction.
Draw the shape of the hair versus the shape of the face.
Promote form, be clear with showing surface planes.
Shade the shadow shapes in a top to bottom solid way. Use a simple three value set up.
Stay loose working the whole drawing, don’t get stuck in one area.
Of course when it comes to teaching portrait drawing words can be clumsy. However rotating this short list of drawing techniques will help you tremendously.
If you would like to learn more about portrait drawing consider subscribing to Drawing Tutorials Online. We love drawing portraits, it is certainly our biggest department.
I wanted to take a moment this Holiday weekend to share a pretty cool sketchbook with you. Phoebe is an incredibly talented student enrolled in my foundation drawing class at the School Of Visual Arts in Manhattan New York. First off I have to thank Phoebe for sharing her sketchbook. Phoebe is wonderful to have in class. She puts her full effort into every assignment.
What I love most about Phoebe’s work is the diversity in her character design. No two characters look the same. She has a natural ability to draw a characters personality with little effort. Her characters show both emotion and movement. Certainly not an easy thing to accomplish.
Phoebe’s life drawings and character designs are one in the same. She can really draw people with their emotions shining through.
This is certainly a unique gift Phoebe has been blessed with. Phoebe’s work will certainly grow and mature with time. I am really looking forward to watching her progression, it will be amazing.
