Consistency & Productivity!
Added 2025-04-09 19:14:27 +0000 UTCNew video - not exactly a tutorial, but hopefully has some helpful mindset ideas and tips!
Comments
Good questions man! When it comes to progression, i think this is where books and courses can be useful for giving you an idea of which fundamentals build on top of which (for example, you'll typically encounter gesture drawing and mannequinization before complex anatomy within a figure drawing book or course). A good rule of thumb in general is that smaller ideas are built on top of the larger ones, or alternatively that things you'd naturally expect to come later in your process rely on the earlier ones. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can practice multiple fundamentals at once, and the question then becomes more about which you prioritize and put more time into (for example, you can work on gesture and mannequinization, spending more time on the former earlier on, but eventually over time switching over to doing more complex mannequins as your gesture drawing becomes better and you dont need to work on it so much anymore, and once your mannequins are up to standard, you can slowly start tapering into more finished figure drawings or anatomy). A problem you might encounter then is not knowing when exactly to start incorporating a more complex fundamental to practice, and that's really just something you'd have to figure out through trial and error - maybe you try studying anatomy, but notice all your anatomy drawings are stiff or lack solid perspective, which can prompt you to spend more time on those problems. It's a very organic process (what you refer to in the question as going with the flow). You just have to find out what works for you through experience and over time, and It's very difficult to thoroughly plan these things out, especially since you're not being closely mentored or coached. Regarding personal art, you can slowly start introducing more and more invention and image-making as you notice your fundamentals improving. I think you always do need to spend at least some time sketching and drawing stuff you like, but if your fundamentals aren't there at all, then it's worth spending more time on patching those up. Think of the big pool of time you have to work on art and ask yourself how much you should allocate where, but include both studies and personal image-making. in your personal case, for example, you can spend your study time doing figure drawing studies, but mix that with mostly head sketching/invention (maybe fanart portraits? :D), so you get both types of work and don't disconnect from why you're studying fundamentals in the first place. Hope that helps! These seem to be recurring questions, so I might actually make another video sometime down the line trying to systematize this stuff and create some type of program template you can slot yourself into.
Ognjen Sporin
2025-04-12 08:05:05 +0000 UTCHey thanks for the shoutout! Amazing video, wish I had it a few years ago when I struggled a lot with consistency and motivation, this is a goldmine for anyone pursuing skill improvement long term. I've struggled a lot with this subject and I feel like I've come to some similar conclusions but the video really put everything in one place in a well structured way. One thing I am thinking about lately is the following: Okay let's say you've kinda figured out your rythm, you're kind of consistent, how do you avoid just spinning your wheels and doing the same thing over and over and not progressing your workload. So if we go with the workout analogy, if benching 100 kg is impossible to you, you go back to a weight that is mangeable, lets say 60 kg, then you would have to progressively overload, move to 65 70 75 and so on until you get to the 100 kg over months/years. That is pretty straightforward when lifting weights but is very complex when thinking the same about art. For portraits I did something like this : basic structure(loomis/boxe heads/cylinder heads) > structure tier 2 (similar to asaro) > features > structure tier 3 (muscle indication/exernal details) and then moved to values/color and stylization. However when it comes to figure drawing it seems way harder/more complex. You have gesture, posing, perspective is way more important or impactful, you different structures on torso/limbs, you got anatomy which has a way more impact, these are all aside from all the things you have when studying portraits like proportion, structure etc. I remember you've answered one of my questions last year about moving from drawing figures from ref to drawing from imagination/designing/stylizing, main points were to gradually build up such as instead of sticking with the ref, try changing it a bit, then more and more and eventually you draw mostly from imagination/experience instead of reference (even tho still using ref but mostly for ideas/poses/mood). Finally my question is: How do you build up a progression system? Do you even do that conscientiously? Do you set goals/milestones or just go with the flow? Also related, how do you integrate personal work/finished pieces with studies/within your progression? (this is the thing I am struggling the most at the moment )(feels incredibly hard to do finished work when you have large knowledge gaps, but still creating personal work is crucial for improvement so feel kinda lost in that sense) Sorry for the wall of text. TL;DR good video, now we know how much and when practice. But what practice? How apply?
Rafael Birsan
2025-04-11 19:58:04 +0000 UTCThanks for another great video, on a topic that I think about every now and then.
Stefan
2025-04-10 18:00:38 +0000 UTC
