Best Materials for Figure Drawing

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it :) Let me know what drawing tools you work with?? I'd love to learn from you and try out if you have any recommendations. Wishing you a really wonderful week! ❤

[@noah295463]

Excellent video. Great content as always.

[@jerryaubill163]

Love this video!! Thanks for the information!

[@lmpeck4329]

Very helpful as always! Thanks!

[@christianbond1561]

I immediately “like” before any content- such a great channel thank you!🙏

[@Drawing-Life]

Ah wow, thank you Christian!! that's amazing to hear 😊 I really appreciate that ❤

[@brannonmcclure6970]

Here’s Siobhan! I’m going to do some oil on paper.

[@maryf.1956]

Thank you for sharing

[@galereginald12]

I love the Conte' a Paris 1710 B pencil the most but sadly I can't recommend them anymore since some of them come broken when I order them. I'm a pro at sharpening pencils but they tend to break much more often, so I've switched to the Wolff's Carbon 4b or 6b.

[@profumodispezie6701]

Hi Siobhan, thank you for sharing your favorite tools. I like compressed charcoal a lot. I am going to check out about that paper. It looks great! Where is your beautiful dog? Roberta

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Roberta! Yes, let me know if you try it out and what you think of it! Jessie stayed at home today - she likes to take one day off from the hard job of studio assistant haha ❤But thanks for asking for her, I'll let her know! 😆

[@atheransari8038]

Good

[@Coach_Norm]

Merci beaucoup!😊 May I ask. Where did you get this Pencil kit you put your Pencil in. It’s so nice. Can’t find something Edith similar quality!

[@Drawing-Life]

De rien! Thanks for this question about the pencil roll, I should have mentioned - I picked it up in a local art shop, the brand is Derwent, if that helps. i hope you can find it, it's actually a GREAT asset in the studio.

[@Coach_Norm]

@@Drawing-Life❤

[@reenadatta3802]

Love your channel. Thanks. Do you stand and draw or sit on a chair?

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much!! I'm so happy to hear that. Normally I stand, and draw at an upright easle, but for these videos i have to draw on the table so that i can film my process, and then sometimes I sit down. It's awkward because I don't have the same eye-line on my drawing as when I'm standing, so I don't recommend it. Some people have a desk easle though which is useful and then you can be seated and have a good eye-line to your work.

[@reenadatta3802]

@@Drawing-Life thanks dear. I find my hand doesn’t move freely if I’m seated. Standing with an upright easel gives most freedom of movement of the arm. But it’s tiring.

[@wackywanderlust1545]

I like your videos just because these are to-the-point instructions. Anyway, in my opinion, for beginners it is always better to use pencils because it is very tempting to use charcoal or even Conte to draw figures and make it "artistic" with more lines and textures, but that will not serve the purpose...I also do not want to recommend draw quick figure sketches for absolute beginners. I know this statement is quite contrary to popular belief of gesture drawing practices. Nevertheless, I think it is first to draw accurately the anatomy, if possible, parts of bodies correctly.. The human body is too complex; even a simple fold can change the feel of a figure. Expressions, gestures, action lines, etc., are okay.but I think all these are for people who know anatomy who can properly draw an 8 or 7 and a half figure without much thinking..they can go through various forms, textures, charcoal, perspective figure drawing, various gestures, artistic expressions and experimentation, and abstraction of figure. I still feel Russian modern art schools are the best in figurative art because students spend 2-3 years learning anatomy. Of course, there is negative consequence of this type of practice..it is like too much grammar can eliminate the process of experimentation of writing and imagination..but then in the first place if i do not know the grammar, how can i dare to break the rules of grammar.

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi! Firstly, thanks so much for watching and for your great comment. I really appreciate this comment because it's exactly the topic I'm most interested in. I have a lot to say in response, haha! .... so I hope you don't mind this long answer, but I do feel it's important from my point of view, because a lot of videos are critical of this point exactly. In fact, it's definitely not going against conventional wisdom, I think most videos on KZbin espouse the opinion that beginners should avoid gesture drawing; there are very few people advocating for the approach I talk about on this channel. In my view, learning gesture is an absolute fundamental and crucial skill for a beginner. Because it teaches one thing: a way to understand your own natural way of drawing. And furthermore gesture drawing has nothing to do with drawing anatomy, it's simply about drawing movement in the forms. So people often conflate gesture and correct anatomy when in fact the two are separate disciplines. Sure, you can FOLLOW anatomy on the model to find the gesture, but certainly a true gesture drawing is about a dynamic flow through the pose and not about anatomical detail, Hence the short time frames in which to make a gesture. Trying to draw the figure (in an anatomical sense) in one minute is a pointless exercise, but drawing your impression of the dynamic within the pose should be achievable in a few seconds. Doing this has a complete and profound effect on your drawing. It makes you confident in your line work and in your discernment. And this is the crucial skill that 90% of online drawing tutorials are missing. If a beginner knows how to draw confidently, not only will their boxes, cubes and ovals suddenly be way better; their study of anatomy will be far more relevant to their overall pursuit, and their drawings will actually be much, much stronger, less one-dimensional. Students who avoid gesture drawing, and learn rigid structural approaches to drawing can rarely if ever undo that strict adherence to conceptualized form, and they judge every line according to that, even when making a gesture drawing. Lastly , I will add that students in the Russian academy and formal academic programs like Florence etc, already have control over their drawing, They already know "how to draw" they've been drawing their whole life, they are not beginners. They are in complete control of their drawing voice. I will say that every student needs to find their own way in drawing, and certainly one way is not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution or indeed formula. That's the beauty of a platform like youtube in that there really is an approach for everyone. I'm very committed to offering this approach so that people can know that there is an alternative way to approach drawing the figure, and I feel that a lot of people resonate with this. Anyway, that's my long answer!! Haha, i hope it makes sense and you have a better idea of where I'm coming from. I love that you brought up this point, it's really important for figure drawing students to see and learn all options, and vital that they not be told by instructors (including me!): "my approach is best, and don't listen to others who say different!" ... That's really the "worst art advice" ! So, I really appreciate this, thank you so much! Let me know if it makes sense or if you have anything to add?

[@wackywanderlust1545]

@@Drawing-Life Thanks for your response..really long answer, took me some time to understand your opinion.

[@Drawing-Life]

@@wackywanderlust1545 Haha! Thank you for reading it!! I apologize for the lengthy response, but glad it made sense in the end. Thanks again for this

[@Eliel7230]

Ok, it's official. "Glidey" is now a term for artistic flow in our community. 😄

[@Drawing-Life]

Yesss! haha, I love it 😊❤