Realizing this One Thing Will Instantly Improve Your Drawing Skills

Over the years, many students have asked me for help, saying that they struggle with figurative drawing, that they can’t get the right likeness and, in most cases, it’s the same problem: they try to draw what they know not what they see. We all know what an eye is supposed to look like right, but it doesn’t mean that it actually looks like that on the model. We all know what a nose is supposed to look like but depending on the angle, the lights and shadows, it might make it look unusually different from our expectations.
The fundamental problem is that we tend to draw what we know, not what we see but it’s not even sure that we see what we see.
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About me (bio) :
Website :
www.florentfarges.com
I am an artist living and working in France. I learned the techniques of the Atelier of the Nineteenth century and now I try to share some of my knowledge with the rest of the world, because I think that beauty still has an important role to play in artistic creation. I do mostly drawing and oil painting, and my goal is always to provide techniques, thoughts and explanations that can be useful to anyone, from beginners to more advanced artists.
The material I use most of the time (not necessarily in this video) :
Drawing
✓ Kneaded eraser
✓ Plumb line (DIY)
✓ Small mirror
✓ An old synthetic brush
✓ Masking tape
✓ Cutter
✓ Sandpaper or sanding block
✓ Mahlstick or Hand rest (DIY)
✓ Level ruler
Graphite
✓ Pencils 2H, HB and 2B
Charcoal
✓ If available: Nitram charcoals (H, HB and B)
✓ Square charcoals
Black and white chalk
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
✓ Square Conté noir : HB and 2B
✓ Chalk or pencil holder
✓ Pencil sketch Conté Pierre noire : H and HB
Sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté : Blood and blood Medici
✓ Crayon Polychromos Faber-Castel : sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
Oil painting
Palette
(Extra-fine paint, recommended brands depending on availability: Sennelier, Lefranc Bourgeois, Winsor and Newton, Royal Talens Rembrandt, Blockx, Michael Harding, Gamblin)
✓ Titanium White PW6
✓ Flake White (or substitute) PW1
✓ Cadmium Yellow light (or "lemon") PY35
✓ Yellow Ochre PY42
✓ Raw Umber PBr7
✓ Transparent Red Oxyde PR101
✓ Burnt Umber PBr7
✓ Venetian Red PR101
✓ Pyrrole Red PR255
✓ Quinacridone Rose PV19
✓ Quinacridone Magenta PV19
✓ Ultramarine Blue PB29
✓ Mars Black PBk11
✓ Cobalt Teal Blue (turquoise light) PG50
✓ Phthalo green warm PG36
Brushes
✓ Filbert hog bristle and Synthetic sizes n° 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
✓ Flat Synthetic brushes (same size)
✓ Round sable brush or round Kolinsky sable n° 4, 8, 10, 12 (from the size of the nail (about one inch) or synthetic imitation
Medium
✓ Linseed stand oil
✓ Odorless mineral spirits
✓ Or Alkyd medium (Liquin, Galkyd, Flow'n'Dry etc.)
✓ Safflower oil
Surface
✓ Linen canvas, fine grain universal coating
✓ For studies : Canson oil-acrylic oil paper Figueras
Others
✓ Palette
✓ Sponge and spalter brushes
✓ Palette knife in the shape of a water drop, no souldering
✓ A few small pots, containers, jars...
✓ Paper towels
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#art #painting #inspiration
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Thanks for watching !

[@gideonk123]

Regarding the book mentioned in this video, The Practice and Science of Drawing, by Harold Speed: it can be legally downloaded in several formats from project Gutenberg (it’s out of copyright)

[@kharlostique270]

You are amazing for sharing and letting us know about this website.

[@gideonk123]

@@kharlostique270 There are many interesting books there, some only of historic significance, others can still be useful today

[@RatusMax]

This is what I realized during the pandemic and helped me move from cartoon to actual real looking paintings. It came to me simply because I am extremely nearsighted and remembered how I when I lost my glasses, I found different ways to identify people. I couldn't see their eyes, nose, mouth, etc. Yet I knew it was them. So I unravelled how I was able to identify them without the known details of their face. That's when I stared using shapes to paint. You really go in depth as to why. It was hard for me to explain it to others not everybody is nearsighted.

[@EDX2308]

An art technique is to squint at a say face of a person or object to get the general idea of the mass of the subject. If you wear glasses you can just take off off or lift up your glasses and you don't have to squint at all to get the blurry overall idea.

[@gideonk123]

Great explanation and tips, thanks!

[@FlorentFargesarts]

Thank you very much 😊🙏✨

[@pameladiez4933]

A beautiful lesson for sure .thank you

[@rodeastell3615]

Great video .. thanks for posting.

[@luisadebarnot3251]

C'est trop beau!!

[@shuvoDhar.5537]

Very helpful tips. Thank you 🥰❤❤

[@jaqstitch]

Thanks for another wonderful video :)

[@philipu150]

Thoughtful and insightful as always.

[@FlorentFargesarts]

Thank you very much 😊🙏✨

[@felicityfourie1785]

SO understandable! Thank you.

[@FlorentFargesarts]

most welcome 😊🙏✨

[@buddycollier5056]

I found your talk fascinating. I have lost some vision and my doctors tell me that I’ll lose more. So, learning how we see (the eye and the mind’s interpretation of stimulation) is a mystery that I strive to learn more about. Vision is not explained by my doctor beyond the mechanical. I think I must turn to the artist for a deeper understanding. Both perspectives are good, but I want more than mere physiological explanations of the eye. Thank you.

[@pauljerome01]

This is definitely what I was missing!!

[@FlorentFargesarts]

Thanks glad you liked the video 😊🙏✨

[@tumblingrosesstudio]

The book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" has fantastic lessons on exactly this

[@kerriemckinstry-jett8625]

This... weirdly makes a ton of sense. Things don't really have lines or boundaries anyway, especially if you look at small enough scales. Solid objects aren't actually solid or anything (atoms are mostly empty space & things are fuzzy in a quantum mechanical sense anyway). So even just in that sense, our brains are tricking us. It makes sense that our brains would go "nose" & have a definite concept of "nose" which doesn't necessarily fit the particular nose we're trying to draw & then if we try to draw it with actual lines, which things don't really have anyway... no wonder it looks so odd. I always thought Leonardo da Vinci was on to something with his sfumato technique. I would've loved to have watched him draw things. I wonder how he'd tackle visualization? Thank you. I will have to give this a whirl.