Sketching Five Portraits a Day

how to get good drawing skills by making five portraits a day video by vladimir london many beginning artists think that getting good drawing skills requires a lot of time they also believe that drawing portraits is difficult lack of time is one of the classic excuses in this video i will show you how to get good drawing skills with little effort at your end here's one of my sketchbooks i fill such books with various sketches mostly portraits figures anatomy and other things now i will make a quick sketch in pen and ink to show you that you don't need a lot of time to draw a portrait the timer is on so you can see exactly how long it takes to make a simple sketch the choice of medium pen and ink is not accidental i was using different mediums for sketching for many years i used to sketch in graphite pencil colored pencils ball pen gel pen and even in silver point finally i settled down on pen and ink because it is a laconic and unforgiving medium every line in ink is final and plays its role in the artwork it develops confident drawing style because you cannot erase lines this makes you care about every line you draw if you make some mistake that's it you have a mistake if you see that mistake that is great you learn from it next time you try to avoid it instead of erasing and redrawing ink forces you to keep going it is easier and faster to make another sketch than to scrape ink marks with a scalpel or craft knife and redraw over it this is what makes pen and ink so great for practicing you have no choice but to draw sketch after sketch to make them better i already see a number of mistakes in this sketch but that is fine this is one of many disposable portrait drawings and there is no pressure to make it perfect as you can see every contour and outline is done in a single pen stroke because every stroke is important it develops discipline in drawing this style makes you think before committing to a pen stroke in a few seconds i will end this sketch there are only a few hair curls left i drew this portrait from imagination it is a very stylized image rather than a realistic portrait so here it is one portrait sketch that is done in under 3 minutes i will sign and date this sketch to keep a record of when it was made it is not a perfect portrait but good enough for the purpose of practicing it's time to make another sketch i will continue the timer to get the total time for all the sketches i do in this video again i will make a stylized image of a face this time trying to fix mistakes i've made in the previous sketch one of the mistakes was distorted perspective and misaligned levels you may see that i start sketching without any preliminary calculations of how big this portrait will be instead i will be using the height of the nose as a measuring unit in relation to the nose i can depict the mouth the distance from the base of the nose to the top lip is the same as the height of this lip which in turn is equal to the height of the lower lip when drawing eyes there are many rules as well in the three-quarters view the inner corner of the eye shouldn't touch the virtual vertical line aligned with the nose wing in this sketch i already made this mistake so next time i have to be more careful with such measurement now it's time to fix the previous sketch mistake and improve the alignment of eyebrows they have to be on the same level even when making fast sketches an artist has to use the knowledge of proportions and anatomy especially when drawing from imagination because there is no model to check proportions on needless to say it is only possible when you know those proportions and rules of drawing facial features here's a quick test can you name 20 proportions and alignments of a human head if not how would you make sure they are correct in your drawing what measuring guides would you use to draw a realistic portrait here's another challenge with sketching from imagination even if you know all the proportions anatomy and alignments you still need good drawing skills to apply your knowledge on paper this is what sketching really helps with developing good drawing skills when you have no pressure of making perfect drawings every single time this sketch is almost complete there is one stroke left let's draw another quick portrait this time i will rotate the head so it looks to the right hand side i will keep the timer going only you can see this timer i do not have a stopwatch in front of me i just go at my pace you can notice that although these sketches are rather fast i do not rush but put down every line carefully with enough time for planning it i'm afraid i'm making the same repetitive error once again placing the eye too close to the nose that's fine at least i know what i have to work on to improve many artists complain that they have some kind of artist block which prevents them from making art i've heard this excuse so many times and would like to address it in this video one of the reasons why an artist might stop drawing is a subconscious fear of failure if someone expects to make a beautiful artwork but is not sure about the outcome this could be a reason for artists block here's the thing if you have no expectations of making a wonderful piece of art every single time then you have nothing to be disappointed with your sketch will come out as your skills permit if a sketch looks very bad i'm sure you already knew that your drawing skills are not perfect and there is room for improvement this is what you make sketches for anyway to develop a good drawing style to learn new things about proportions and anatomy to capture your thoughts and ideas and who cares that some sketches come out worse than others i will tell you a secret if you place all drawings that you have ever done in the sequence from bad to good 50 of your artworks will be worse than your average piece regardless how good your level of drawing skills is of course the word average here means your average ability not someone else and the aim of this game is to constantly push your skills higher this can only be done by making more and more artworks with every new artwork you do you have an opportunity to place it in the category above your average this will make your average level rise together with the level of your drawing skills nevertheless 50 of your artworks will be lower than your new average no matter how hard you work because this average level is not fixed but moving together with your skills and artworks you produce so i hope this busts the artist block excuse statistically your percent mark will always be there at any given time half of your artworks will be below your average ability of making good pieces of art i'm almost done with this sketch it is not perfect and i don't even want to evaluate how it relates to my average it is just another sketch in a book it is a good opportunity to repeat what i know about portrait drawing in a fast and easy way quantity inevitably transfers into quality as long as you practice drawing learn good techniques and apply what you know on paper your drawing skills cannot stay the same they will rise here's the completed sketch i will sign it now let's make another portrait this time i will draw a female face in profile view from imagination for many portraits i take inspiration from ancient greek and roman sculptures that are known for classical proportions and beauty learning classical canons of proportions is a very important topic for every figurative artist and sculptor what ancient artists developed more than 2 000 years ago is still valid today that is why in the life drawing academy course i explain and demonstrate in multiple video lessons numerous proportions of a human head face and body in this course you can learn in depth three classical cannons that are based on different measuring units i will pause the sketching process to show you those cannons one is based on human head measurement another on the height of the face and the third on the measurement of the eyes this was just a small glimpse of topics you can learn in the life drawing academy course there is no right or wrong cannon cannon is a set of rules but a human figure is not set in stone every figure is different so proportions vary from person to person in real life the reason it will be helpful for you to know classical proportions is because you can use that knowledge to see how your model deviates from that set of rules it also will help you to draw from imagination if you know that according to the rules the height of the nose is equal to the distance from the base of the nose to the chin you can use this knowledge to draw from imagination well-proportioned portraits as one of my friends says drawing portraits is very easy every child can do that the challenge begins when you want to make not naive but beautiful and realistic portraits this is when you need to know and use constructive drawing principles human anatomy for artists and head and face proportions to do so you need to learn the anatomy of a human skull muscles beneath the skin how those muscles create emotions on a face what alignments angles and checking points to use when drawing a portrait and how to use constructive drawing principles to build the portrait on paper in the correct sequential order of course the topic of how to draw a portrait cannot be covered in one short video about sketching that is why we created the whole course for figurative artists with more than 20 hours of video lessons where you can learn how to draw from life memory and imagination realistic figures and portraits let's make one more sketch to complete the five portraits a day challenge this is what i want you to do draw five portraits every day in this video i would like to demonstrate that this is not a matter of time quality or drawing skills you have it is about making a commitment of sketching on a daily basis as long as you make multiple sketches every single day your portrait drawing skills will improve with time of course just sketching is not enough you need to learn how to draw portraits the right way this is what we can help you with giving the necessary knowledge of how to draw portraits this topic is fully explained in the life drawing academy course talking of this academy there are two art courses there the online course the self-learn self-paced video course where you can watch 52 lessons on how to draw portraits and figures from life memory and imagination and the correspondence course in which you will receive personal tutoring from the academy teachers the personal tutoring option is truly unique nowhere else would you get unlimited one-to-one tutoring for a lifetime for a one-time low fee should you take this course academy tutors will assess your level of drawing skills and create a special curriculum just for you that will take into account your art skills level your goals and your needs this curriculum will cover all the gaps in drawing skills you have and give you the necessary knowledge of how to make figurative artworks you will study under the personal guidance of tutors until you reach the advanced level of drawing skills coming back to the five portraits a day challenge making portrait sketches is easier than you may think you do not need a model you do not need a reference photo you just draw from memory and imagination the things you know about portrait drawing for example if you know that the line of eyes divides the height of the head in half you apply that knowledge in your sketch if you know that the distance between eyes is equal to the width of one eye you make sure your sketch reflects this know-how if you know that the distance from the base of the nose to the chin divided in half marks the bottom outline of the lower lip and the top half of that distance can be divided into three equal parts to mark the height of the upper lip you can use this proportion by default when making a portrait sketch if you know that the height of the face can be divided into three equal parts from the hair roots to the eyebrows from that level to the base of the nose and from the nose to the chin you do not need a model or a photo to depict this proportion there are many more proportions you need to know however if you do not know about those simple proportions having a model would not help i have completed 5 portrait sketches in just under 16 and a half minutes if you have only 20 minutes a day you can improve your portrait drawing skills by using those minutes wisely how many sketches have you done yesterday how many portraits did you do last month it is not about time don't tell me that you don't have 20 minutes a day by the way because i'm ahead of time i'll make three more portrait sketches so i will put the timer on once again to get closer to the 20 minute mark when i'm talking about five portraits a day sketching these scribbles are not about quality precision or beauty it doesn't matter if sketches do not come out as intended or look so bad that you can't even show them to your grandma what does matter though is that you make sketches with the intention of putting your knowledge on paper this means that you need to use the knowledge of anatomy proportions and construction in every sketch you do there are right and wrong ways of making portrait sketches if you copy a reference photo or doodle without thinking critically about constructive drawing you waste your time such activity is called copying and doodling doodling won't develop your drawing skills it will simply take your time copying is more dangerous it will actually teach you the wrong set of skills the more you copy from photos the less you will be able to draw from life memory and imagination this is because the set of skills for copying will suppress your constructive drawing ability there are many artists who cannot draw from life or imagination because they are used to copying flat images copying rewires one's brain to look at outlines and contours and copy those lines without understanding why they are there constructive drawing forces an artist to think about construction and anatomy and therefore outlines and contours in such drawings become the sub-product of that knowledge rather than the primary means of making a picture do you know how many sketches you would do in one year should you do just five scribbles a day more than eighteen hundred sketches how many portraits have you done in the last year do you want to see what 1800 sketches look like here are some of my sketchbooks that i used for portrait figure and anatomy sketching i will quickly flip through the pages to show what kind of disposable scribbles i do on a regular basis although i completed my art education quite a while ago i still make endless sketches just to keep my skills in shape drawing is like playing music if you do not draw for one day you may notice your skills decline if you do not draw for one week professional artists might notice the difference if you do not draw for one month everyone will see that for me making sketches is the way to maintain my level of skills to develop new styles to think of new ideas and to describe the sequence and logic of drawing steps among many other things as you can see on these pages i do not worry about the quality of sketches these are disposable exercises they are not meant to be exhibited or published they are for my use only it doesn't mean that you have to draw disproportionate images on purpose but if your sketches come out with wrong proportions and you see that this is much better than if you don't notice your mistakes and by repeating the same errors would become perfect at doing that the five portraits a day challenge doesn't necessarily mean that you have to draw portraits only this is about getting into the good habit of sketching daily for at least 20 minutes you can draw figures anatomy describe in writing and illustrate proportions of a human head face and body sketch ideas for future compositions and so on drawing is a non-verbal language of communication making sketches is like having small talks with someone it is the way of thinking the way of expressing ideas and sharing thoughts the more you sketch the more fluently you will be able to communicate using this non-verbal language sketching portraits is the numbers game you need to draw thousands of portraits to become good at it making five small sketches is a simple way to achieve that it doesn't matter what medium you choose what type of sketchbooks you use or what kind of fountain pen you buy i won't answer questions about art materials because i do not want to support your procrastination and erroneous thinking that some drawing tools will give you better results rules of constructive drawing human anatomy perspective classical cannons of proportions will remain the same whatever pen or pencil you use it is not about drawing tools it is not about the paper you draw on but it is about your skills that make your art beautiful and realistic learn the skills they are for life drawing tools can be purchased anytime by the way if i'm flipping pages too fast let me know if you want to see those sketches in more detail leave a comment and i will make another video for you i hope my example is inspirational enough for you to consider the five portraits a day tip so once again by practicing just 20 minutes a day and drawing at least five portraits every time you sketch it is a great way to make more than 1 800 sketches per year no one can do it for you except you we can help you with good art education you can learn strong drawing skills with us in the life drawing academy course you

Channel: Drawing Art Academy

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Id: 4Za-7SMS500

Length: 25min 16sec (1516 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021