Best Strategy For Learning To Draw? Endless Studies Are Not The Answer...

Free Illustration Mini Workshop: www.thedrawingcodex.com/illus...
In this video I talk through different strategies for getting better at drawing. There are a lot of exercises and studies that are recommended for aspiring artists. It can be difficult to figure out which ones apply to you and which ones are important.
The main point I I make is that while there is a foundational level of knowledge that applies to all artists, the way we access and use these concepts is unique. The same goes for how we learn them. In my opinion many of the drawing and art exercises and studies that are suggested out there are not going to be useful. And that you should use your own artistic goals to define what to study.
Most of our 'Art Learning' Is just about practice & constant self improvement. There is no point at which a pre-defined pile of technique and theory (perspective, rendering, anatomy, etc) will finally allow us to create the art we want. Our understanding and mastery of this craft will evolve over time as we find deeper and deeper knowledge of the fundamentals and understand better how it applies to what we are doing.
There is also a lot of misinformation about whether you need to learn to draw 'properly' in a realistic way before you can draw stylized comics or manga etc. I address these common misconceptions and try to explain why it's important to start with your goal art in mind from the beginning. As your desired outcome will define the specific techniques you need to work on.
The best part about being an artist is that there is always something new to learn, always something new to improve, always a deeper understanding of ourselves and the craft. It's important to enjoy the journey and embrace the challenge.
Happy Drawing!
Tim Mcburnie
Learn Drawing and Illustration from me: www.thedrawingcodex.com
Portfolio: www.timmcburnie.com
www.artstation.com/tim-mcburnie
timmcburnie
timmcburnie

[@omeed9015]

So essentially, learning the fundamentals (that are relevant to the type of art you want to create) is important, but most of your drawing time should be spent on *what you actually want to draw* -- too many blocky construction heads and you'll risk just getting good at blocky construction heads. Thanks for the vid!!

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Hey Omeed! Yeah that's it! You summed it up perfectly :) I think this sort of logic is pretty simple and easy for everyone to understand. I am mostly underlining these concepts so that if you are out there worrying if you need to draw anatomy studies till your fingers bleed... my answer is not really... and I have had a lot of success improving while just drawing fun stuff and doing a reasonable (but regular) amount of technical drawing study. I have a lot more videos coming that will unpack these concepts a bit further.

[@Simon-et4hu]

Thanks for the summary! Now I'll just watch the video for fun instead haha

[@TheMaxxbiff]

Agreed, you can get in a never ending loop of doing exercises and never get around to actually creating anything final. Good stuff.

[@TeKn1qe]

One thing that flys under the radar today from people who want to learn to draw is the amount of mileage and sheer enjoyment young artists have under their belt. No fundamentals, just drawing or copying, from artists they like just for the enjoyment of it. The fundamentals make so much more sense when you don’t have to think of putting the right line in the right place. That part is automatic. I think copying and having fun are almost prerequisite to learning fundamentals for most.

[@errohaze2683]

I've certainly fallen into the trap of just doing the exercises and not incorporating it into my workflow, now there's a big difference in the quality of my studies and my original work. Makes it so difficult to do work from imagination, also stopped practicing the creativity muscle, which has been another blow. Hope to get that spark back soon! Thanks for the content!

[@Darknessseeker0]

Thank you so much for making this video! I've spent almost a decade now focusing on improving by taking various art classes, watching and listening to art videos, doing studies and exercises and while they have 500% helped, it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to even try to draw the things I want. There's a huge amount of fear of still not being good enough to draw x, y, z and instead of just trying to draw the thing, I find it easier to just fall back into doing studies and assignments. Your pointing out that this just results in getting good at said assignments rather than better at the art you actually want to create is spot on. Thank you!

[@Gboy5587]

Same for me, glad you shared your comment

[@Madkingstow]

As my favorite artist I can't tell you how happy I am to see you uploading videos again. Thanks for sharing your fantastic insight and advice.

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Wow thanks! I appreciate the kind words. That means a lot. More videos are incoming :)

[@cranberrymymo]

Thank you for those videos. I've been struggling for a couple of years already, barely drawing anything just for fun, thinking about how I should study anatomy, perspective etc first, feeling I'm still not good enough for actual drawing. Your ideas changed my point of view on that matter :) I hope it would help me get back to drawing again and remember how fun it is.

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Hey Daria! Thanks, I'm glad this advice helped you out! It's easy to get sidetracked and lose the passion for drawing, It's a challenging task with a lot of twists and turns to mastery. Keep at it, and remember it's a constant process of staying focused and motivated (especially if you are not drawing full time as a job). You need to develop and build a lot of good rituals and art to surround yourself with a positive relationship to drawing and creating. The things we are interested in change over time, but as long as you hold on to the truth that it should be mostly fun and enjoyable in some way then that will help guide you. Even very experienced successful artists struggle with keeping it fun :) It's about finding strategies that work for you.

[@TeKn1qe]

This video is spot on, ive become so accustom to doing exercises and assignments, i find myself only doing that and really feeling like i lost my way. Like if im not studying im almost waiting for permission to draw and lost my creative mojo. I actually stepped away for the past 2 months and trying to get excited or rekindle why i was looking to improve to begin with. Love your channel, your content has made me realize im studying things that really have no bearing on what i want to create. All the fundamentals are important to a certain extent.

[@darioscomicschool1111]

Thank you so much for making THIS!!!

[@lucasmoreira3237]

Amazing content! Thank you. ❤

[@ByrdD3]

Great video, I fully agree with the points you made. It's so much better to draw what you want to create than spend your limited time doing things that don't interest you. Steven Zapata is another good person to listen to on the subject of enjoying your art.

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Thanks David! Yeah I feel like it's an important message. I'll check out Steven Zapata's videos. I have seen them around but never spent the time to listen fully. I will make some more videos around this subject too.

[@minseokwon6484]

Really one of the best video I ever watched on these subject. Thank you! ;)

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Thanks Minseo!!

[@artwhat..]

Hi.. thanks Tim..

[@travisnobleart]

This was helpful for where I am at the moment. It's almost as if the exercises and techniques have little effect unless they have something to relate to in application. It can be a sort of incestuous effect giving the mind only mountains of exercises to relate to. When we apply (and likely fail) and then work on the technique, the mind has a story to relate to about what we were trying to do and it seems to be much more effective at working out the results you desire. I can see for myself what is going wrong now in my own practice and this video has helped a lot in putting that in clearer perspective.

[@travisnobleart]

By the way, the books are beautifully done. First time seeing them. I hadn't yet sorted out how my own final products would be, but an equivalent design to yours is something to strive for.

[@frcastro1981]

Great class

[@nonsensicalrants1703]

Summarized one of my biggest mistakes. Grinding. Do not grind. Learn the basics, and just draw. But keep my second biggest mistakes in mind. Draw FROM REFERENCE! I gave up on learning art so many times because I would spend months practicing the fundamentals, the proko videos, the other lessons. And I thought I was worthless because I couldn't draw from imagination afterwards, which is what I THOUGHT was my goal.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I'm not so sure that references are that important. It's better to just draw the thing if you're going to draw it. References are for people that aren't interested enough in it to go see it. If you're not that interested, then why are you drawing it?

[@nonsensicalrants1703]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade I'm sorry, what? Not being an ahole here, I just genuinely don't understand what you're trying to say.

[@darioscomicschool1111]

16:18 Thank you so much for this Talk and LEsson! 26:28 Thank you!

[@eytanlevy4971]

Three things that i learned : - train in what you need - find a good environnement to work in or smn to learn from that is pertinent to your research - GRIND THOSE PERSPECTIVES !!!!!

[@bluefeena5142]

Hi Tim. Do you have a suggestion if you want to take your in a more 'realistic cartoon' style? I've seen some artists who can execute this type of art at a professional level, but when I look at their very old work, all of it was quite basic looking. Despite being basic and simple, all of the art would still look sound at a fundamental level (ie, no egregious anatomy errors, even if the anatomy was simple otherwise.) Sorry if this question seems redundant; I'm just interested in pursuing stylized art that still pulls from life. Currently, I'm doing almost exclusively studies; I feel the knowledge is helpful but I don't know when it's 'enough' if that makes any sense.

[@pentachronic]

IMO Fundamentally Academia only measures things they can measure and can test easily due to volume of students/work. The issue is how can you be creative and develop ? Same problem with Music. Most musicians don't go to academia to hone their craft, they do it the hard way by actually doing and learning from each other. At the end of the day Arts are skills (obviously some people have an innate ability) and they need to be refined. Community is key in lots of these cases. It's the old "trades" school of thought. Want to be a carpenter, apprentice and then do carpentry a lot. Animation? - apprentice with a studio and animate a lot. Problem is lot's of places want Degrees or above as entry requirements. Best answer to that is art clubs, internet forums, meetup groups, conventions, etc.

[@pentachronic]

As Alan Watts said [paraphrasing], "If you want to be an XYZ, then go and do XYZ, the money will come later. However you will be with people who want to do the same and you get your skills from being with the same like-minded people".

[@throughthewatcherseyes3482]

So let me get this right, instead of doing exercises and studies, I should apply what I’ve learned from a resource basically. Like for example. Let’s say I’m learning about torsos, after looking at a few torso resources, I should apply what I learned to a new drawing or an old drawing what I learned about torsos?

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Yeah good question, let me try and clarify- I’ll use myself as an example- I like to draw fantasy stuff, so everyday I draw fantasy characters. Let’s say I draw for 6 hours a day. If I do some more academic abstract study where I study the torso I’ll do it for an hour or so max. And then I’ll keep drawing fantasy characters… ideally I’ll try to apply the torso information I just learnt to my latest fantasy drawing of an ork. Always drawing what I like and doing a bit of study. And always trying to apply what I am learning to the next drawing/s where possible. I avoid studying the torso all day…

[@keelobrown4991]

I agree, i think studies are important but so many teachers stop at that. Its near impossible to find any advice thats more than just “draw from life” or “do master studies”, I honestly have learnt more from just doodling my own stuff and keeping to the fundamentals whilst doing it.

[@darylbiegtrucke4456]

The teachers Ive seen actually try and force the student from doing anything beyond rigid exercises, and then when the student goes back to doing their art, its just as bad as it was before because the rigid exercises are separate from the creative process. And then the teacher is surprised and finds a way of blaming the student for it anyway.

[@3dness449]

Great video. One question: I don't see "style" on your list. How important is for you? I ask because Because clients ask for specific style for their projects. For me is so overwhelming because master just one specific style is hard and there are many.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Honestly, it's more important to be good than to have many styles. There's no point in having many styles if they all look crap. Choose one style and build from there and until you can do that style well enough to attract clients, there's little point in learning another one. Unless you're good enough, and more importantly popular enough, to attract attention on the basis of your name, it's far more important that the work look good enough for people to want to pay for. (Obviously, assuming you're wanting to continue making art for money) Switching styles frequently makes it hard to attract the kind of clients that like the kind of work you're doing. There's over 7 billion people in the world. If you even manage to get $1 form 1,000 of them, you'd be a millionaire. Even at 10,000 you'd still be doing really well.

[@OctoberSaint500]

how long did it take for you to draw such comics on average, i find myself burning hours on one drawing.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That is going to depend a lot on how detailed you're drawing and how much you've worked out what the compositional needs of the frame are going to be. There is no inherent right or wrong there, it's going to depend a lot on how much you can do in your head before you start drawing.

[@patrikarte]

I have your books, Ara and Pinocchio 😃 but not that cards

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Thanks! :) I'm glad you have the books! I have no idea how to get the WOW cards, they are really old. I think you can still get a copy of Mythic Arcana around the place (Tony Go has some copies on Tau Leader Games last time I checked).

[@shadowtheory7500]

@@TheDrawingCodex Those cards are a HUGE blast from the past for me! I'll have to dig up my old collection and see if I have copies with your art!

[@mraucin1]

AGAIN