DO #1: Do understand the role that anatomy is going to play in your figure drawings It’s not just a case of learning where muscles start and end, and then suddenly your figure drawings will all look amazing. Anatomy is part of a bigger machine of skills. There’s gesture, there’s simplifying your values into interesting […]
Even though learning to draw and paint is one of life’s great joys, you’ll notice that most of the stages described below include some form of painful feeling, like you’re doing badly. As you’re learning any art skill, rather than thinking, ‘oh, there’s something wrong with me’, it might be more porductive to think instead, […]
This article isn’t about advice that’s obviously wrong and really easy to avoid, like to draw a hand just put your hand down and draw around it. We’ll focus on stuff where it’s more nuanced and difficult to see that it’s not great, because those are the ones that’ll catch you out. These are […]
It is useful to see the big picture and the various things that we have to learn to be able to draw (and that it isn’t as overwhelming as it sometimes feels!). The above is a video that aims to capture all the skills that matter in drawing in 10 minutes. It is also laid […]
Consistent practice of the fundamental principles of art will get you the results you are dreaming of. The above statement is true, but that consistency is not always easy to achieve. I think a lot of us judge ourselves for not being consistent enough with the things we want to do, whether it’s art, fitness […]
Before throwing my old life drawings away, I took a marker pen and saw if I could fix them quickly. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be! I was so much closer to good figure drawings than I thought I was, and maybe you are too. Some of the adjustments required […]
If you’ve not seen part 1 where we covered the first 7 skills, you can view it HERE. This is part 2 of the roadmap, where we transition towards intermediate level skills. It’s with these skills that your drawings are really going to start to transform, so this is an exciting time. Let’s get straight […]
We want beautiful artwork and to do that, we want really good skills. The approach I first took to trying to get those skills can be described as ‘all at once’. I wanted results immediately. It didn’t work out as you can imagine. What you need is a series of exercises in the right […]
If you follow the steps below, you will be surprised by what you can do by the end of 2021. That’s a big promise but I think you’ll agree by the end it’s reasonable. We are going to make a monthly plan and I’m going to show you the things to put into your […]
What if you were the same artist, same experience and skill level, but just with loads more confidence. Would your work turn out better? Does confidence itself add something? I’m going to argue it does, and then tell you how to get it. First here are 17 ways confidence itself adds to your drawings […]