Forum posts by Heirloomtomato

this is an impressive amount of progress from the last video! i wrote a critique on your last thread, and i noticed improvement in both of the points i brought up. there are still drawings where the figure isn't centered or extends off the side of the page, but far fewer than in the last video. at around 4:15-4:30 you show a couple of drawings i feel are particularly strong- especially the poses where the figures are doing gymnatics/hanging from cloth and the one where the woman has her head on her knees. they have a good sense of rhythm, especially in the alternating curves you tend to use for the torso.

it feels kinda lame to just say "keep up the good work", but whatever you're doing is working. you mentioned in your last thread that you're focusing on measuring proportions and better understanding the arms and legs this month, which is great! i'm excited to see your next update.

if you want examples of strong gesture drawings, michael mattesi has a gallery of his work here (https://www.drawingforce.com/gallery), i've found this really helpful to learn from. his drawings have a great sense of rhythm.

the thing about pewdiepie's art progress videos is that he has a number of factors that made it easier for him to succeed. pewdiepie is rich and has plenty of free time, so he can focus on drawing for 30 minutes a day while someone who needs to work for a living might be tired. most of his artwork is headshots of young looking women in an anime style, and most of his work is copied from other people. He does not focus on drawing the full body, or understanding anatomy, or drawing a wide variety of subject matter, or improving his line quality. he's still made a pretty impressive amount of improvement, but it's in a very limited area.

gesture drawing and learning anatomy requires a number of different skills- you need to learn to understand the human form, to simplify complex human anatomy into lines, to draw long gestural lines, the list goes on and on. it's challenging!

pewdiepie was only drawing headshots based off of other people's stylized artwork. he didn't need to understand the human form, he was only drawing the head. he didn't need to simplify anything because the art he was drawing from was already stylized. he didn't focus on drawing long lines or improving his line quality- a lot of his lines have a chicken scratchy quality to them. it's still challenging, especially when you're starting from having never drawn before, but it's not at the same level as what you're attempting to do.

it's also a lot harder to gauge what you need to improve on when you're gesture drawing or learning anatomy. the human body is complex, and there's a million different ways to go about drawing the human body depending on what you want to accomplish. pewdiepie was only copying other artwork- he could look at his work, look at his source image, and immediately know "oh, i need to make the eyes bigger" or "oh, i put the nose in the wrong spot". it's not as easy to see your mistakes when you're drawing from life.

the important thing to take away from these videos is that it is always possible to become an artist and improve your artwork, no matter where you come from. your progress will not look like pewdiepie's because he is studying and trying to improve at different skills, and using a different method than you.

progress is not linear, there will always be days where you draw better or worse based on any number of factors in your life. your gesture drawings should ideally be exercises and warm ups, and not a full representation of your skill as an artist. when i get discouraged or feel frustrated i like to go back in my sketchbooks and redraw an illustration from a couple years ago to see how i've improved, or draw something in my comfort zone (like a character i love or a headshot). these help me to find the fun in drawing again and see how much i've improved. i hope this helps.

• Heirloomtomato edited this post on March 3, 2024 12:27am. Reason: forgot to add a sentence

i've heard people talk about "appeal" as a component of art like composition or color, and i've seen art and known that i personally find it appealing. the problem for me is that i can draw things that are somewhat accurate, things that mechanically communicate what i'm trying to convey, but still lack appeal. i've been trying to look at artists i admire and dissect what i feel makes their art so appealing, but it hasn't been translating to the work i make. any advice?

there's been an uptick in spam posts lately, and i was wondering if anything could be done about them. i try to report them when i see them, but i'm worried about people clicking the links they contain and going to possibly unsafe websites.

making a video is a really cool way to show your progress! i can definitely see an improvement from the beginning of the video to the end- your lines get more confident, your drawings improve, and i like the hatched shading you start adding.

i notice that a lot of times (though this does get better towards the end of your flip through) you tend to have your figures go off the page like your last figure at 4:41 in your video. i wasn't sure if you were just trying to focus on certain parts of the body, but if not i think it could benefit you to try and get the whole body on the page when you draw. i found it helpful to put a more conscious effort into drawing the whole figure in my studies, so maybe it can help you?

i'd reccomend moving away from trying to accurately represent the figure on your shorter 30 sec-1 min drawings and trying to focus on capturing the flow of the whole pose. you seem a lot more confident in drawing the torso than the extremeties of the body, and i feel focusing more on gesture could help with that.

you've already made excellent progress in one month of sketches, and i'm excited to see your sketches next month!

https://imgur.com/a/z9A0e7d

a quick practice session to get back in the saddle- i'm trying brush pens to experiment a little but i don't think my sketchbook paper works well with it

it's nice to be able to commiserate, but i'm sorry you're dealing with this as well. im sure there are brighter days ahead, though!

hi! these look like really accurate recreations of the 3d model. i don't really have anything to comment on there. i figure it might be more helpful to look at a real skeleton at this point, or find photos online to draw from. i found this 3d model of a human skeleton that could be useful here

i've recently been unable to keep up with my usual drawing practice, and even though it's only been a couple weeks i've noticed a significant degradation in my figure drawing. i'm taking longer to do poses than usual, or having a harder time breaking down shapes. does anyone else deal with this? are there any good ways to work on retaining what i practice?

https://imgur.com/a/SkFstLn

here's some of my practice from the last week or two, hoping to get some new eyes on it and advice on how to progress

thanks in advance!

i've heard good things about the morpho: anatomy for artists series, and it has a book on fat and skin folds

one thing i'm noticing is that the hair on the top head does a great job describing the forms of the head- the lines curve with the skull and help make things look 3d. on the second head the lines you use for the hair are straighter, even at the back of the head where the hair isn't being pulled behind the ears. if you made those lines curved and had them follow the curve of the skull it would help your drawing have a bit more dimension.

i'm really a fan of how loose and expressive your drawings are, and i love how confident your lines are! you really captured a sense of dynamic movement in the figure in the bottom right corner of the page and i love how you handled the legs, they look great. if i had to point out anything i'd advise taking some time to measure out the proportions of your figures a bit more?

it can always be frustrating and disheartening to not be at the level you think you should be at, and everyone struggles with that. but you're working at it and taking steps to improve, which you should take pride in! i wanted to highlight the eighth picture you posted in the imgur link- i really like the way you handled the torso and pelvis, the back looks great. the sitting pose on the second sheet also stands out to me as a really successful drawing with a great understanding of the pose.

the good thing about improving at art is that you don't even have to do studies every day to improve. if you get discouraged you can always take a day to relax and just focus on observing the people around you, look at art that inspires you, or draw something that makes you happy. when you come back the next day to practice you'll be able to use your observations or improved coordination on your next drawings. art is as much about observation as it is about actually putting something to paper, and skills like fine motor control carry over across different disciplines.

best of luck!!

i've found that i like using the environments and still life options to practice sight measuring and breaking things down into shapes based on value. i try to make sure im taking the time to measure out the angles and measures with my pencil or pen, and then go in and block out the values. on longer ones (anywhere from 2 mins- 10 mins depending on how complex the image is) i try and add more developed shading. then again you should take this with a grain of salt, i'm not really a qualified teacher or anything lol