HOW TO DRAW ACCURATE PROPORTIONS

Madcharcoal.com

[@tommytitmouse]

I`m Gobsmacked at your creations. I`ve done Art all my life in painting , pyrography, and sketching but I`ve never considered charcoal drawing till I saw your videos. now I'm determined to try and emulate your work. I`ve subscribed to your videos in order to watch and learn from you. THANKYOU !

[@lolaandba175]

You have given me a fantastic lesson in understanding proportions and use of values as landmarks

[@KevlarOxyTheARTofVideoGames]

My art teacher always used to say... draw what you see, not what you think you see... so when you said that, it rang so true. I miss my art teacher, Mr Greenwood (RIP)... so cool, he looked like Gandalf without the robe :) Great video.

[@jwills6809]

Same thing my dad taught me as a kid. One of the best lessons

[@guamitoe-]

I want to make it interesting, not just pretty - A Madman

[@vjwm]

I love your long videos like this one. Thanks for sharing.

[@MadAbstracted]

Finally the video i was waiting for! Thank you Josh! 🖤

[@clareblatchford-hanna4265]

You are an incredible tutor! I love that you take risks to get the interest in, fabulous. Thank you so much

[@lorriwilliams3010]

Love this technique, you are very talented....I'm going to practice

[@treestalktoo8117]

Thank you Mat, you taught me a lot in this video and it's always super useful to see the reference you're working with. Thanks again for your generous sharing :)

[@poindexter1387]

I was good up to a point.....

[@phyllisharries2742]

Love this! You are amazing, thank you.

[@RamonGonzalez-xk2ib]

Genial, muy didáctico y con resultado magnífico 👏

[@stevieg3078]

I enjoyed watching your drawing evolve from. I totally did not get tearing your paper. Thanks.

[@rodline9027]

Absolute pleasure to see you work

[@user-rx9js3eh6u]

Your talent for seeing angles to keep all things in proportion has clarified so many things for me. I've always done it without realizing what I was doing. So thank you so much for the help! I find your work amazing. I was wondering where you get your reference photos? Is there a site you can recommend? I'm especially interested in mature male faces showing emotions. Again thank you for sharing your creative techniques!

[@JackFrost-xvxv]

You are absolutely AMAZING 💪🙂

[@LeandroPaulino-qe3dc]

INCREDIBLE!!!👏👏👏👏👏

[@user-xi2uw2nc6m]

I love your works a lot! 😍 If you make a full charcoal portrait, it will be fascinating!

[@user-hq6yf9pn9c]

Just great!!!!!!! 😉😍

[@mrsteve.keepfit6201]

I'm learning lots, thank you. I will try this one alongside you. I would also be interested in the classes and getting the link to them : )

[@diegocardozo2044]

Needless to say that you're an amazing craftsman! So I'm going to ask about the classes you mention in your video. I can't seem do find them in your website. Can you link them? Thanks! Really awesome work :)

[@user-ep7ir3hc3j]

He has a course under “prints”

[@alvaroflorestheflores4692]

AWESOME TEACHER !

[@rubenpartono]

Where do you find your references? They are beautiful and you draw them beautifully.

[@CharcoalChaos]

Nice work Josh, great resemblance

[@Rmagautam]

Good job 👍

[@Mikhail_Philippov]

This is well done. You are just a generator of the new. I have an idea to use this on a canvas. There are several technical solutions, but I will solve them. If it goes well, I'll show you.

[@robbedontuesday]

To be honest, the last thing I was expecting in a "proportions" video was you tearing the paper... LOL! That was extreme, but man, I loved it.

[@philc8622]

I find your drawing magical - how certain lines (or erasures) are so significant, but seem to appear so spontaneously. My questions: I like to draw when I go to watch jazz musicians playing. Is it possible to capture 'portraits' where someone is moving all the time? The maximum amount of time that any person stays in a 'pose' is 5-10 seconds (although they might return to a similar 'pose', the angles will be slightly different). I can see from this video that, despite all the spontaneity, getting proportions/angles correct is really important to obtain a likeness. That is difficult to do when they keep moving. My second question is about lighting. A lot of the 'life' in your drawings is about capturing the lights and darks in the reference. This reference has some great contrasts to work with. At the jazz the lighting is awful and makes everything very 'flat' with very little light and shade, and what there is is constantly changing on the person due to their movement. Any advice on how to deal with this? I feel without the light and shade the drawing would be much less interesting. My final question is about drawing a portrait where the person is in much more of a profile pose. Most portraits are done with the face directly facing or turned at a slight angle. How do you cope with a more 'profile' pose? This means the nose 'sticks out' and I find that more difficult to capture (especially when the person is constantly moving - those constant angle changes make it difficult to get proportions correct). I heard so many times "draw what you see, not what you think something should look like" (and you say that in this video), but when something is constantly moving like a musician, what I see changes every few seconds (but the musician often returns to a similar, but not identical pose - the temptation is to try to draw the 'average pose' of the situation, but that means I am drawing what I remember, not what I am actually seeing - and it seems that I have a very poor memory!). The pianist is probably the easiest to do as their pose is similar for a lot of the time, but even with them, I find it very difficult to get a good likeness or even something that captures their character. Any tips would be helpful, and maybe you could do a video demo on the second/third situation (working from a static reference) as I'm sure you would have a technique for representing these more difficult poses/lighting conditions. Thanks so much for your videos, they are inspirational and I so enjoy the 'magic' happening before my eyes. This one is especially useful as it's has the 'magician' explaining how he does his 'trick'!! We can read things like ' it is important to get the proportions correct', but hearing you explain in detail how you do this in a live example is so much more helpful than reading it or even just watching someone demonstrate it without knowing what their thought processes are. 😊

[@mikeb3811]

you should get the book "experimental drawing " by robert kaupelis. He mentions Gesture drawings which i think would help you w your first question

[@nanwilder2853]

Perhaps you should try photographing (with permission, of course) instead of drawing the musicians? Then you could create montages from your images. . . Animation would allow you to capture the fluidity you seem to be frustrated by, drawing them as they perform. You have options other than static drawings of movement-oriented musicians!

[@philc8622]

​@nanwilder2853 Hi, thanks for your suggestion. I have taken some photos as well as doing the drawings. My intention was to use these at a later date, either to rework some of the 'live' drawings, or to do some new ones based on the photos (but I haven't actually got around to doing that yet - it's on my 'to do' list 😊). After one particularly frustrating evening, I did find a professionally taken photo of the musician that I had been watching, and did a drawing at home based on that. Of course I was able to get the proportions of the face correct (by measuring accurately) and consequently it did actually look a reasonable likeness of the person I was trying to represent (which my live drawing didn't). Two things have happened since I wrote my original comment. The first was watching Mad Charcoal doing some 30 second portraits on his live stream. Even with 30 seconds (and few people stay perfectly still for 30 seconds whilst playing music) it was difficult for him to get a good likeness. But even in a few seconds, it was sometimes possible to get a good representation of major facial features eg eyes, nose, mouth and their relative positions. Once those are captured, it may be possible to then add more detail when the performer adopts a similar pose (which they often do). The second was that one evening a person I knew to be an art teacher/artist sat next to me in the audience. He commented, having seen me drawing, that I had done a good job capturing the musicians and the spontaneity of their performance and that I had some natural talent. Even though I hadn't, it gave me encouragement that I was not completely wasting my time, and with more practice, I might eventually get to something that I was 'happy' with. But like the music, what people (including myself) think is 'good' is highly subjective and also rather personal. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[@remibouquet]

Hi! Your artwork is simple stunning! It´s so expressive! I love it! Plese, I need some help. I would like to draw on a black wall. I think do it with (white) chalk. Do you know if I can apply some water-repellent product on the wall to completely fix the chalk drawing? THANKS A LOT

[@FIFOPhoto]

you're such a great artist, thx for sharing!!! Can I ask you what kind of charcoal do you use for blocking-in, is it willow charcoal or something else? thanks

[@nrisagire3311]

Bro when u ripped it was so spazz but good just wondering will U recycle or bonfire 🔥

[@allanpennington]

Does the Pan Pastel lift as easily as willow/vine charcoal or is it more like compressed?

[@stephenfularz7573]

Good drawing imformation.

[@dougg1075]

I’m diggin it

[@svetlanalana5666]

Amazing! What paper did you use for this art?

[@honey9309]

Bro im a big fan ♥️

[@CathyHuyghe-dv1oe]

Wow!!!!!!

[@dougg1075]

Can you use the reverse and draw it first then add the lines and squiggles after?

[@fabianputradaiva9906]

Josh, what kind of sponge you use?

[@bozoclown2098]

If you get portrait commissions there is a quick turnout/ production way ,while remaining true. Alike old masters & contemporary adoption of photograohy

[@nanchaidaily]

Great 👍

[@Scoob-hb5eb]

What can you use if you don’t have the sponge to blend or the applicator you’re using?

[@K.ART_vlog]

so nice

[@outtamilk]

This turned out great!! I'm thinking of purchasing a tablet so that I can have a convenient reference set up like you have. Do you by any chance have a video showing the software that you use & how to use it?

[@MadCharcoal]

Any cheap laptop or anything with a screen works. I don’t use any softwares, just find images

[@outtamilk]

@@MadCharcoal Thanks for that. I'm what you call "technologically challenged". Love your work! It's very inspiring.

[@faisalhayat3147]

​@@MadCharcoalhi I want to join your course. I want to learn from u n keep on the legacy... It's passion to be an artist drawings sketches paintings always fascinated me n I have started to sketch without any guidance and I think with little help I can do wonders. I don't sell but I draw and gift my pieces to people I like the most or make my own collection.

[@tabaldak5184]

🔥🔥🔥👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽

[@bozoclown2098]

What brand device. Is that a power cord attached

[@ericlesageel68]

Formidable

[@bozoclown2098]

Teaching . Do some cast drawings

[@c.a.5808]

Thank you for this, Sir. You're very generous, with your talent and knowledge. I think your years of devotion to your craft offer others... a rare opportunity in learning what they may or couldn't have otherwise achieved. Perhaps beause of financial constraints, family obligations, or even to those who have not been able to grasp a technique. You offer here an open door, and years saved... for them to learn, (I know it is so, in my case.) Your time and your love of your craft speak volumes of your character, Sir. Helping others is why I think we are here. Our talents are a gift from above, to share with others, be it visual or in spirit! I wish to note, the time you made for us... was time away from your own work, son, and family. So please, convey my deep and sincere appreciation to them, for it. May God bless you and yours Sir. A grateful old cowgirl,🏇 in the High Desert 🏜 of So. CA

[@bozoclown2098]

I make MANY of my tools

[@toondot]

Why did you tear the sheet, i didn't understand?

[@johnpaul2285]

😎👍

[@abookhaa7437]

Could you kindly draw Rabindronath Tagore

[@angelaverbowski995]

#10-✅👍

[@bozoclown2098]

The torn shape remind me of rusted corrugated aluminum

[@bozoclown2098]

So many high profile drawing teachers SUCK.. You are great

[@tabaldak5184]

Are you native?

[@bozoclown2098]

Alike a R.Kelly demo !!

[@celestialteapot309]

mad

[@pentachronic]

Interesting approach. IMO having another under drawing with the same guy but with different value scales would really mess with the viewer!!

[@pentachronic]

Ie the under drawing appears through the rip. Just tear a corner off the top paper and use it! Ha ha!! 😁

[@hannahcurtis3728]

You are an actual magician. Wtf.

[@bozoclown2098]

Name the items used and they will fill your mailbox

[@oneupjr]

Thas the giver ain’t it?😂

[@robbedontuesday]

I don't know how old you are, but having TRIED to teach sketching-free-hand drawing in the university for 4-5 years, I find that young generations avoid the analytic side of art/drawing. They feel that anything they put on paper "spontaneously" is already some kind of ART. It's a cultural issue.

[@nanwilder2853]

It’s a parenting issue.

[@z1522]

As an experiment, may be okay. I find such manipulations as tearing and folding to be overtly distracting, and far too gimmicky in this day and age. It feels like a cliche, a trick to invoke some greater "meaning" that is not actually there in the first place. Collages of various different efforts, materials, or techniques can be done successfully, or backfire in a similar way, where mechanical devices can feel forced, arbitrary, rather than integrated, and holistically unified. Advanced stuff, in general. The effect of pulling an image out of chaos feels more organically whole, for some reason, versus a common overdone tactic nowadays, of overlaying smears or obliterating portions of a portrait with either abstract marks, or "wallpaper" of floral prints, a particularly overused cliche by even very renowned portraitists who shall remain nameless. The trite symbolism of hiding or obscuring portions has become a tired shortcut, to signalling some "hidden aspect" of the person's personality or life story, when the reality is that usually the artist is incapable of capturing a variety of subtle expressions.

[@byronbuchanan3066]

I don't understand the point of ripping your drawing.... seems pointless and gimmicky. nice drawing other than that.

[@andreasschnegg5837]

by ripping e. g. You can avoid drawing the other eye. With the second eye is everytime difficult to catch te exact facial expression. If its is not drawn, there is less risk to miss the Models expression. Often seen... and also done by this brillant artist in other drawings. B.t.w. I admire his work

[@MadCharcoal]

The paper was already damaged so I want to use it to add to the piece

[@fernanddurler4709]

Sorry just cant follow your steps/system it’s a bit jumpy ….more for advanced classes not beginners like me.

[@mattpickles2831]

pointless rips only for dramatic effects.

[@nanwilder2853]

What a waste of a great model/reference photo! The emphasis was supposed to be on accurate proportions, and yes, you went over your method for measuring-with a relatively simple image for doing so. . . You took much less care with accuracy, however, choosing to tear up the face, rather than to draw it. Had I known that your intention was literally to deconstruct that beautiful, aging face, I wouldn’t have wasted my time on such pretentious, gimmicky content.