The Best Medium to Learn Shape Design - Watts Weekly

[@Drumaier]

This guy is obviously a great artist but I'm impressed by how well articulated he is. Probably one of the best art teachers of this generation?

[@wattsatelier]

Thank you! Jeff has been teaching the past 30 years, more or less and of course many of us at the Atelier would agree that he is one of the greatest and most inspirational teachers of all time. If you wanted to see some work from students that he's helped train over the years you can check out wattsatelier.com/student-progression or just the student gallery of images at wattsatelier.com/student-gallery. We are working on updating these things as time goes on. It's a bit hard to get a lot of student progressions from the very beginning just because many people don't end up keeping their first drawings when they start.

[@vllad74]

Well put! It is pleasure listening to and learning from him.

[@daikayll1897]

Exactly , we , artists , need images and less , much less words. When a painting needs loads of words to help it along , I nearly always don't rate it. Love the channel

[@valdislode9778]

Art was the same to me during lockdowns-OASIS IN A DESERT. Totally agree with this statement!!! I've painted 10 time more during the pandemic than during my studies at the Uni!!! Doing art kept my sanity alive!!!

[@neilkay-jones401]

The amount of times I watch videos with Jeff in would almost be seen as having OCD, I even put them on when I am working to just listen to sometimes. For me this is is a great example of why artists should just not put so much pressure on themselves to race to greatness. Thank you Jeff for fighting the good fight as you say and it truly is a wonder to watch you draw and paint. I think I have watched this video 20 times over!

[@JosephElliottColeman]

Yes. I've been doing the same thing. I've been studying Charles Dana Gibson religiously and making multiple studies of his work. I now appreciate him more than ever.

[@wattsatelier]

Fun fact, Gibson was one of the highest paid artists to have ever lived! During that time when he was producing work he would get paid quite a lot for just 1 inked image, and sometimes a story could include dozens of them. There is a great Muddy Colors article on him you can check out!

[@TheAzhighwayman]

Jeff is one of greatest artist I've ever known!

[@chiptenor]

Jeff. you always give such in-depth thoughts and nuanced descriptions as you explorer the many different aspects of art (principally drawing and painting), Although I've been most of my life involved with artistic pursuit, after listening to your passionate talks based on your feelings and experience, I always come away feeling like simply an 'advanced beginner'. And that is probably a 'good thing'. Thanks, Jeff.

[@Chaoslorden]

I have returned to Graphite after many years of just loosely keeping it alive. I mostly paint tiny tiny things or paintings but drawing was my first passion. It has however taken a backseat and I really have to put the hours into getting back in the motion. You inspire me alot with this channel, all of you. Cheers!

[@DevinC_]

Love doing graphite drawings and hearing Jeff’s thoughts.

[@skaramoosh1497]

Jeff's right! I used to be the kind of constipated artist he was talking about - in the end I worked it out with a pencil! 😉

[@blonski]

12:10 The Best! Thank you so much for this! My wife recently passed away, and it's really hard to get my Art on track again...

[@bzxshor67mpts]

so sorry to hear that. Maybe try doing a portrait of her as therapy. I have done a few of my mum and dad and it helped me.

[@nunuallen4327]

Thank you for this. Glad I came across this.

[@markraatsart5049]

Another superb video Jeff. Many thanks!

[@Dechavannes34]

highly inspirational... Thank you so much Jeff !

[@filipchung2121]

This graphic pencil figure drawing is a masterpiece. You are e awesome!👍🙏😀

[@aarna_arts_123]

Greatest artist Jeff ! He is master period!

[@vllad74]

"glassy, smooth, sugary, constipated looking drawings" :) Yes I absolutely agree. We have cameras for that purpose, btw. The funny thing is that these types of drawings take the a lot more time.

[@MeshRoun]

I love Jeff!

[@Althmash]

Yeayyy

[@HakuhoVento]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience!

[@lefthandstory1280]

Great job friend,nice😃keep sharing friend😃✌️...beautiful.

[@lawadelante2813]

Really enjoy the content thank you very much.

[@SebastianTinajero]

When I completely Nerd out over an artist I can’t help but want to absorb and study them. Its very similar to what I’d do when I’d play a-lot of Music and would help me grow as a musician.

[@wattsatelier]

Music and art are very similar in that regard. It takes so much repetition and copying of other people's styles and work to help you get a better sense of how you want to design and where you want to take your work stylistically.

[@jackson4625]

Hello! What’s the Russian book you mentioned in this video? Looks great!

[@DavidWoodArtist]

Wise words, thanks

[@ashutoshk11]

really inspirational.

[@marcosjosegomesdossantos1577]

Ótima suas artes. Parabéns pelo seu talento.👏👏👏

[@ShirleiBarnes]

Yes, that was inspirational 🙂

[@Azidust]

Minute12 best life lesson that’s what I love aboutir Jeff very wise

[@fatmanhulk]

What's the name of the artist at 2:38? I couldn't understand the last name when Jeff said it.

[@Graphico_1]

Mike Butkus. Richard Friend on YT has a video on his work.

[@wattsatelier]

Yup, Graphico is right. Mike Butkus, amazing movie illustrator. Check out his instagram page.

[@urielprado5810]

Thank you!!

[@moadeeb2002]

Once again, so incredibly helpful and inspiring. Thanks Jeff! “Sugary, constipated drawings…” HA!!!

[@wattsatelier]

Glad you found some inspiration from it!

[@TheGrandmaster1]

I've been drawing off and on my entire lifetime. And I have been heavily into computer graphics for 25 years now. I have a wacom tablet and a Huion tablet monitor. I also have an entire case of drawing and art supplies. But quiet simple...nothing I have ever found in my life is as purely satisfying to draw with as graphite. The texture, feel, control, responsiveness, and look.... nothing, not charcoal, colored pencil, pen, ink, or digital...matches it for me. A good set of caran d'ache grafwood pencils on Strathmore bristle vellum...nothing feels as good to draw with.

[@livinglight1566]

man those grafwoods are smooth

[@Drumaier]

I totally agree about the grafwood pencils being the absolute best. I like tombow monos second and lumograph third place. I never tried the UNI which have amazing reputation too. I'll check that paper you mention btw thanks for sharing. Btw don't you like watercolors?

[@wattsatelier]

Graphite is an amazing medium. Another great combo to try is using a soft 6b graphite pencil on some Hammermill color copy paper. It goes down really nice and smooth and is pretty cheap!

[@TheGrandmaster1]

@@Drumaier The Mitsubishi Hi-Uni's are in my opinion, pretty much a complete equal to the grafwoods. They are AMAZING, and for a great price you can get the tin that has 22 pencils and everything you'd ever need. Definately get you a set of those Uni's if you can. And I havent' used watercolor before. I'm thinking of trying Oil though.

[@gardeniainbloom812]

@@TheGrandmaster1 2 CD technalo pencils came in their watercolour set and boy I was surprised at the smoothness. I may have to check out their graftwoods. FC is also nice as they keep a beautiful point. Hi Uni is on the list to try.

[@vannigio6234]

uah! what a wise man, per aspera ad astra!

[@salvadornavarro3240]

HI, greetings from Mexico City!!!, sorry...what is the translation in english or spanish for the russian book title?. hugs

[@lornejensen6414]

"sugary constipated drawings" hahaha couldn't agree more

[@raphaelschwind5899]

What is the best way to learn the reily mehtod?

[@wattsatelier]

A ton of repetition. Figure Quicksketch helps quite a bit, but doing a mix of short and long studies can be really helpful to memorize the information. If you look around online or on our online program you can see many examples of us utilizing the the Reilly Method in many different figure scenarios. Once you start to learn the abstraction lines and get an intuitive sense for them you'll start to understand the Reilly Method not only in terms of head and figure relationships but as a way of thinking and breaking down any visual information.

[@raphaelschwind5899]

@@wattsatelier what books and artists should I look into?

[@evanlilley8986]

I'm more familiar with his student Proko's work, but I'm now more curious about Watts.

[@BC-sh7en]

ok i give up, I'll just ask. In some video Jeff mentioned a process, and i should have written it down, and now i cry rivers in regret. It was analyse, think, execute? Something like that, i think there was more. Can you tell me?

[@springthyme501]

Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute. If you go through the online program and take a shot every time he says it I think your drawings would actually get worse. And I'm sure if you go through the live streams on the yt channel, he'd have broken it down with more detail.

[@benmmarino]

I’ve been looking for all the Russian books for years. Used. I can’t afford them new currently

[@JosephElliottColeman]

Brother, you and me both.

[@wattsatelier]

We can put some information in the description box on a few of the books that Jeff had shown in this video. But, yeah, the Russian books are usually pretty hard to find or expensive in any state that you find them in.

[@JosephElliottColeman]

@@wattsatelier Maybe *slightly* less expensive here in the UK :-P

[@JosephElliottColeman]

@@wattsatelier please do.

[@DominionCraft]

hello. please can you tell me kindly what paper did you used to make that fantastic drawing? thank you!

[@Althmash]

Smooth news print paper is his personal choice

[@DominionCraft]

@@Althmash nice. thanks. but it is like a Strathmore 300?

[@Althmash]

@@DominionCraft yeah,, that's it. But make sure it's written newsprint

[@DominionCraft]

@@Althmash thanks i will

[@springthyme501]

Jeff only uses smooth newsprint for his charcoal drawings. In long form graphite drawings like this one he's still playing around and trying out different papers so I suggest you do the same. I think he's mentioned a hand made Fabriano several times as well has 400 series Strathmore as some good options.

[@hupaogaming9559]

9:04 i agree with you

[@BhupendraSingh-gd6mw]

Hello sir what is the name of the Russian book

[@ygoroliveira5901]

Teaching Drawing by Vladimir Mogilevtsev

[@bzxshor67mpts]

sometimes drawings where you can make a little story in a drawing makes it a bit more interesting.

[@lisaoloughlin6476]

like those Russian drawings!!!

[@joycesmith5786]

Where can I get the book of Alphonse Mucha?

[@wattsatelier]

I would check amazon. The book shown in this video is only about $15 right now. Search for "Muchas Figures Decoratives"

[@joycesmith5786]

@@wattsatelier Thank you!

[@lisaoloughlin6476]

Cheers

[@marcosjosegomesdossantos1577]

Suas artes são ótimas. Eu também desenho, mas não tão bem quanto você. Gostaria de desenhar assim. Aprecio artes realistas, mas as coloridas. Ela A dão mais realismo as artes.😊😉

[@lainasketches6711]

constipated drawings... same 😅

[@richardteale3217]

How come you only mention Norman Rockwell in passing ? Don’t you rate him ?

[@earth355]

Digital

[@seyyednaqvi6760]

Okay sir bumsalot

[@rgb2296]

@@VoditelIkarusa How??

[@wattsatelier]

Digital is amazing! Sometime soon we'll do a Watts Weekly on it.

[@seyyednaqvi6760]

@@VoditelIkarusa get bummed my guy, Mr Watts said digital was good

[@earth355]

@@VoditelIkarusa ngmi

[@nunyabiznes33]

As someone who is just starting to learn drawing, graphite is the only medium I have.

[@wattsatelier]

It is a really great medium to start out with and usually it's where most people start. There is countless exploration that you can do with it. There are so many amazing artists out there that use it for so many cool things. It's a great sketch study tool as well as a great finish/rendering tool.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@wattsatelier thank you for the encouraging words. I'll try harder.

[@RexiGrex]

"Sugary Constipated drawings".

[@miguelferrariart]

Hi Mr. Watts thank you for this very valuable information. Have a great weekend...Miguel NYC

[@becooldontfreez]

8:54 this guy is so full of himself... your work boring, it looks like illustrations from the 50s.

[@chasechapman9302]

Hes telling you his opinion on illustration and even if his style is more traditional, its still incredible! Hes definitely a tough critic but i personally really appreciate the lack of punches pulled. Were here to improve right?

[@becooldontfreez]

10:35 to me it looks like an unfinished drawing.