oh hi it's you again i'm mark an art teacher a professional artist and today's video is for you if you're a beginner artist or if you're just starting because this is a beginner's guide to drawing we'll take a look at all the art fundamentals how to study better and a couple other basic stuff this should be the first video of mine that you watch so let's get started [Music] all right before we even begin i think it's worth asking the question why learn art in the first place easy answer at its core drawing is just like any other skill and learning new things and getting a feeling of personal growth is directly linked to happiness when it comes to art the main appeal in my opinion and the reason why i've been drawing for 30 years is that i find it's just way too cool to be able to create something out of nothing whether it be like dreamy environments or fantasy characters or anything else really it's just fascinating to me to be able to create something that can inspire so many others regardless of their political views their race culture geography and age brings us all together and that's dope also it can pay your bills and more so not only is it super fun but you can make a living out of it hell yeah this video is made out of three parts first we'll take a look at the basics what kind of stuff that's you know it's good to think about before you get started then we'll learn about the main art skills you'll learn throughout your journey as an artist and then the final part will focus on studying how to do it well to get the best results with the least amount of work just how i like it now talking about the basics the first thing to look at should probably be the tools that we'll use to draw in the first place what do we use to draw most people's first taste of art was likely with pencils as a kid that's one reason why art is such a nice skill to tackle the bar of entry is as low as it gets if cavemen were doing it you can too now we have drawing pads pen display tablets and all sorts of mediums to choose from the main thing to remember however here is that the tools are just that they're tools they don't make the artist you don't need a pen display tablet to make good art you don't even need a tablet for many years i use the mouse and i work just fine just a little slow getting a tablet is relatively inexpensive now so it's definitely something i'd recommend you know get it like a cheap wacom intuos if you're testing the waters as an artist or if budget is a concern or you know get yourself a more expensive pen display tablet if you're more serious about it you can get some relatively cheap ones now and you might want to check out my reviews if you're looking into that i've been reviewing quite a few all in all though your foundation as an artist is completely dissociated from the tools you'll choose when you start to specialize later down the road that might change and you might prefer to go like all digital but initially this shouldn't be a concern art skills carry over to most mediums once you get past the initial familiarization phase that can take a few weeks similar stuff you would get you know just learning a new painting software for example so now you might be just starting or have some experience and after a quick look around you start to realize there are some kids all over the place that are super good already far younger than you are you start to wonder wait am i too old for this art thing or maybe you're wondering if you might be too young no there's no age for art no age for professional artists either something they'll never get to work in a studio if they're past a certain age and that couldn't be farther from the truth all that matters is what you can do the content of your portfolio studios don't look ahead too far into the future when making hiring decisions during the interview it's not like you'll be judged based on how many years you'll be able to stay at the company we're not boomers looking to get a job for life we're in a fast moving industry so as long as you've got you know a few or a few good years ahead of you aka pretty much everybody you're all good you might be surprised but a lot of teams will prefer older adults as they're usually more professional a better addition to the team generalizing big time here keep in mind to learn most skills from zero to pro takes only about five years of invested and guided studies and you certainly don't need to be a pro to start making money even better news for older artists we tend to study better with age this is a broad generalization but i've been noticing this for years with my own students older adults have a sense of urgency and professionalism again generalizing here but they have a sense of urgency and professionalism with their studies not as commonly found in younger students if you can't put in as much time because of responsibilities this should be at least some comfort in knowing that you might not need as much time to learn the same thing in the case of younger artists though the younger you start the better just like with any skill it is an advantage to have more time so don't squander it the last point i wanted to cover for the basics is to manage expectations it's easy today to have false assumptions about what it takes to be an artist and what you should realistically expect you look around and see all this amazing art all the time with just a swipe of a thumb on instagram and of course those are the people most will compare themselves to and that's not helpful you never know everything that went into making that art possible in the first place on top of that you might also see artists misrepresenting their art there's so much of that everywhere artists not mentioning when they used references or how heavily they relied on those references or when they trace even or just how much help they got from others and that's true for a professional artist too i see it all the time just like the live influencers on instagram portrait is never anywhere close to their reality you gotta keep that in mind for artists as well don't be too impressed compare yourself to only yourself like a year younger and as long as the younger you sucks more compared to the older current you you're on the right track the road to success as an artist is a marathon where not much happens for a very long time it's really those that can keep pushing through that period who will succeed easier said than done of course but it's incredibly important that you keep that in mind you gotta enjoy the process to make it through that initial phase it's like going to school for anything you gotta build a foundation for your skills before they can be used once you start gaining traction though things will feel like they happen very quickly and it's very exciting it makes it all worth it it's usually at that point too where you'll start to see a potential for income and potential there is most of my career i've made more than most doctors and that's what is super exciting with art when people still say there's no money in art they have no idea just how completely wrong they are it's a growing industry and there's no stopping it now moving on to the fundamentals if you compare artists to rpg characters these would be like your base character stats like your strength your agility intelligence etc in my opinion these are seven base skills and art that you'll need to learn to be considered complete as an artist learn these first if your fundamentals are solid you should be able to draw anything you can imagine anything the first fundamental is construction to build anything to create anything there is always a process of construction it's your understanding of the building blocks that allow you to eventually draw technically good drawings from imagination if this fundamental is weak you'll usually feel like you always need to use references and can't draw anything without them of course the goal in using references is to build up your visual library so that eventually you can draw without most things you draw can and should be simplified down to simple geometric shapes the idea here being that you use those simple shapes to block out the drawing to construct it and only then focus on details right it's a lot easier to draw a box in perspective than it is to draw a car with all its details draw the box in the right perspective first then use that box as the foundation for the rest of the details of the car way easier you want to draw a head construction plays a huge part here too it's the same for everything you can see how i construct my heads in one of my recent tutorial i'll link down below in the description in case you want to check it out but yeah you can get good at this fundamental by practicing drawing simple geometric shapes since that's what is used for construction boxes cylinders spheres from different perspectives might seem silly but drawing simple geometric shapes is one of the most important one of the first thing anyone looking to become an artist should get good at the next fundamental is perspective perspective is what makes the things you draw feel like they are in three dimensions it's what gives volumes shapes and it's what will make things you draw feel like they belong in their environments why does everything seem to get smaller as it gets farther away and why can you only see the facade of buildings when you walk in the streets but never their roofs unless you're flying or unless you reach a higher ground the fundamental of perspective makes sense of that you can get started by drawing simple boxes in perspective you only need a horizon line and one vanishing point first draw a square then use the vanishing alliance starting from each of the corners to add depth to your box going from a 2d shape to a 3d volume the third fundamental is gesture gesture is particularly important if you plan to draw characters it's what gives those characters their movement their expressiveness what makes them look not stiff it's really the first thing you should practice if you ever want to get good at drawing characters to practice gesture drawing find photo references of people and dynamic poses and try drawing them using as few lines as possible giving yourself one to five minute max per pose don't focus on details if you're starting think of it as drawing a glorified stick man in the same pose and with the same proportions as your reference the next fundamental is anatomy and this one is likely more familiar is the knowledge of the particular building blocks of the body it focuses on the skeleton the muscles their function basically anything that can help us draw more accurate people or creatures it's the most important skill you should focus on if you want to be a character artist if you only want to draw anime characters and you think you don't need to learn anatomy think again kid most anime characters even if they are very stylized also have correct or at least believable anatomy that you can only achieve with a good grasp on that fundamental don't confuse art style with anatomy knowledge to practice it you can copy from anatomy books copy from like fitness model or slash bodybuilder photos the great references copy from life it's like learning the alphabet as a kid you just gotta learn all the letters or in this case all the body parts the fifth fundamental is a group combining a few things but it all has to do with light so let's go ahead and call it color slash light theory light is what gives everything its color and it's what makes everything visible light theory will focus more on values and shading it's what we use to go from a simple circle to what looks like a sphere values aka all shades of gray from pure white to pure black are influenced by light so you can start practicing your shading and understanding of values by drawing simple balls or boxes under different lights and paying close attention to the gradient going from light to dark color theory then is the knowledge of colors and their impact on human emotions we're talking here about the colors found on the chromatic circle if you draw using pigments instead of pixels use a chromatic circle for pigment colors if you draw digitally use the colors of light instead colors have various properties like their value their hue and their saturation and knowing how to select harmonious colors often comes from color harmonies essentially universal combinations of colors most people will find attractive if you're starting keep things simple by using a complementary color harmony it's made out of two colors opposite on the chromatic circle and you should always pick one as the dominant color the dominant color will often have brighter value and be more saturated this will work for pretty much everything you color once again i have a number of tutorials on these subjects so make sure you check out the video description the sixth fundamental is composition it's how you arrange various elements of art in your pieces it's very similar to text formatting for books for example it allows the viewer to digest the information more easily or if you're trying to tell the story it gives you the tools to organize the various elements of your piece to get that story across you can almost think of composition as presentation you can present things well and you can present things poorly a recent tutorial i made covers that topic so have a look again link in description now the last fundamental is design going back to the book comparison if formatting was like composition the grammar and vocabulary of a book would be equivalent to the design and art i like to think of it as our toolbox as artists the better your tools the better the potential and results by design isn't very engaging it can even be repealing good design on the other hand can spark a lot of positive emotions in people it can oh and can inspire good designs always inspired by nature taking inspiration from the patterns colors the textures you see all around you design is about how you combine all of it to create a unique recipe finally let's take a quick look at studies how do you actually get better at all those fundamental skills there are three points i want to highlight simply saying to practice a lot isn't enough practice in itself doesn't guarantee you'll actually get better there's good practice and bad practice bad practice generally implies that you're not using references no references no new input of information if i asked you to draw the inside of a car engine and you've never seen one before obviously the first thing you do is google what it looks like and use the photos as reference to guide your drawing that's how you use references properly every time you're unsure of how to draw something look it up don't wing it keep using references until you've drawn the same thing so many times you got to a point where you know it by heart inside and out kind of like like a square or a circle most people can draw a simple square since we've practiced it enough times in our lives and we now know what it should look like the same logic applies to everything use references or you'll be doomed to always suck as an artist it's the only way you have to expand your visual library using references is not the whole story though how you observe those references will make all the difference observation is a massively important skill for artists and the thing to remember here is that you can't properly observe something you don't understand take sports or esports for example imagine watching a league of legend game or starcraft game for the first time as a spectator guaranteed you'll have no idea what's happening you can't observe things properly unless you know how they work if you want to study better learn the theory behind the fundamentals and observe your references with an educated eye it makes all the difference between slow and fast progress finally study with a purpose remember how boring certain classes were back in school or maybe you're in school right now what do you remember from those classes probably nothing when information is thrown our way but we don't see an immediate need for it it's a big ask to get our brain to properly memorize it it's information that is usually discarded now instead take yourself right now learning about something that you hopefully have an interest in art you're watching this video after all i will bet you anything you will retain a larger percentage of the information the difference between the two is simply your need for the information if you're actively trying to improve as an artist you'll retain more of the information thrown at you if you're not interested you won't retain much the key to learn and store information long term is to always study with a purpose if you don't think you'll need to know anatomy if you always prefer drawing environments then don't study it right now you'll likely be wasting your time when you ever get to a point where you need to draw characters that would be a great time to pick up anatomy when you need the information it sticks when you don't it's discarded that's it i hope this super basic guide will help you at least give you a better idea of what's coming your way if you're just starting your art journey or maybe you'll help steer the ship in the right direction if you already have some experience but feel maybe a little lost focus on fundamentals level up those skills like you would for an rpg character and that way you'll get the best possible start as an artist and make your path to success as straightforward as possible achieving your goals faster so if you're wondering do i cover all of what we saw today in great depth in my art school program damn right boy [Music] you