Can You Give 5 Minutes to Improve Your Freehand Drawing! 

My search for the perfect pen drawing tutorial on RU-vid ends with your channel. I look no further. Thanks for your wonderful teaching.

A pro showing off mistakes they make, and how it happened is an amazingly helpful thing! Thank you so much. I feel a little less like an imposter now ;)

As a painter - I can say that this exactly right. It is the observation that is lacking when trying to get fresh "easy" marks. Doing some little studies like this - just a few minutes worth - makes you observe these sections so much more closely! And that then relates to being able to make the marks more easily in a fresh way. Really great video!

Observation. I could observe that word for a while. Why on Earth was (and am) I so impatient? Your deeper secret, I think, is your willingness to spend time with mistakes. You cannot believe how important this tutorial is for me. Your work has invited me back to all my 'demons', and, really, that is the job of the guru.❤

When my final sketches look like his practice scratches

I just finished a drawing class in perspective and composition. You summarized a month of teaching beautifully. Our instructor really stressed the importance of making five minute thumbnail sketches before embarking on the final drawings. So glad that your channel was in my RU-vid recommendations. Thanks from a grateful new subscriber.

For some reason this made me think of walking out into an area you don't know & having someone point & say 'watch your step here'. Or like being the 2nd person on a hiking trail after the first person scouted out the best way thru. I just found your videos last night & after the first one on drawing the effects of detail, I subscribed. I look forward to watching all of your generously helpful videos.

I have a couple notebooks that are just for my practice sketches or dress rehearsal even if its just for a small detail. What I find is how fun it is to go back through those notebooks and remember the lessons learned and the struggles and even finally success at getting the drawing right. Lol others like to look at those notebooks. I had a friend once who wanted to look at my notebook, I was so nervous because they were full of mess ups, she said in a glee moment while brushing her hand across the page of many attempts " Now that's art". I was stunned. People like to see others dress rehearsals. 😊

Drawing complex castles or estate homes is above my skill level, however I think your suggestions will help beginners as myself to better draw even simple shapes, such as a coffee cup or vase. Thank you for a wonderful lesson.

Not only did i enjoy hearing all the tips, but i sure enjoyed the visual treat as well. Man, all those sketches are astonishing.

Framing, muscle memory, eye-hand coordination, the position of pen/pencil and paper... who would have thought all these matter! I thought perspective, angles and flow was fun when I rediscovered the joy of drawing some weeks ago (trees with awesome branch systems). I was lucky the first drawing, a slow start, was mostly on target. But your extensive vocab on the very drawing process, focusing also on how we ourselves are interacting with the task at hand, is very on point. Self awareness, "catching" ourselves in the process of it all is central to learning. Are we getting it or are we not? Why not? What do we need to do differently? By helping us to help ourselves, you are the wonderful Art teacher we never had 😊

When I do a watercolour I will often do two little studies before. The 1st is a pen line study to observe the form. The 2nd is a worksheet on problem effects and textures, like how will I render the gradient of colour on a flower with those specks. So this way I am solving problems before hand. Going in hot, rather than cold.

I find this really great. He's an advanced artist, but just now is recounting the fundamentals of "Dynamic sketching theory" that many ink practitioners will teach you on; except he is literally just immediately adapting to the medium through his own experience and his own visual lense. I feel like this really shows the flexibility of a good artist, and how we shouldn't be afraid to experiment and branch out. I took a class with Peter Han that actually went over a lot of these things but just with a slightly different take, but that is someone who predominantly works in ink. Thank you for the video. This was quite interesting.

Tried this recently on accident, when i was drawing some figures from reference. Instead of rubbing wrong lines, i did multiple attempts at the same pose. It really helped with getting the proportions and angles right. The best part of it was my boosted confidence in drawing, since i already „broke the ice“ with putting the first lines down! Ty so much for reminding, had sorta forgotten it. ❤

very productive video about freehand drawing

Wonderful, thanks, Stephen. Great advice as always.

Thanks! At 68, 3.5 months ago, I started drawing. Actually, I started with watercolor but realized I needed/wanted to be able to draw for my watercolor and also for the enjoyment of drawing. So, like another commenter, I am at the "drawing my coffee cup" stage and mostly from reference photos although practicing with objects also. I put the concepts of this video into practice and am finding things a bit easier - Thank you!! The other thing I have done when I can't get the proportion/curve, etc. right is to trace from a reference photo and compare that with my tries to see where I am going wrong. YIKES ... it is the observation ... what I think I see vs what it is. Bottomline, new and happy subscriber!

One of the greatest and the best lessons for the life time. Thank you Stephen. I can personally feel your voice.

Brilliant advice as usual, thank you so much, Steven! I'm definitely guilty of making my marks and lines too precious, of trying to get it right at the first try. I can see how quick rehearsal drawings could help here. The problem I have is that I only have a limited amount of time for drawing, and it's not every day, so I end up wanting to have achieved something, have some drawing done in a session - and because of that I put that pressure on myself to try and make it finished with a single session. That in turn makes me want to skip preparations, to go right into it. I recently thought that I could use a pencil underdrawing as my preliminary sketch, but actually it did not turn out great either - I did get the perspective right, but proportions were not accurate, and I faced having to figure out some aspects of the texture and details on the go. So I think I'll try out your suggestion next time, see where it takes me.

I've just started to urban sketch and after watching a few dozens of your videos, I can proudly said that I improved so much ! Couldn't find a better channel than yours on the topic. Thank you for your precious tips and the time saver, my sketches are so clean now !

Thank you. This tech helped easing me into just starting to work on a subject I was avoiding. And it's no small thing.

Some very useful tips, which are often overlooked. Thank you so much.

Great advice I will definitely give this idea of preliminary quick sketches a try.

Thank you ! Great motivation to practice practising !😊

It makes sense to warmup. Thank you!

Good info, Steve, I'm a painter, but I often do small color studies to get a feel of the shapes and values for my painting much as you do in your drawing warm ups..

this is huge! thank you a lot for this tip

Great idea!

Thank you very much sir, I'm starting out with architectural drawings tonight and I will say I needed this.

I was attracted to the energy of your voice. I love that kind of love to art which at times can be tiring ❤❤❤

Awesome advice, thanks a lot!

So obvious and yet I never would have done this before- thank you!

Great, learning and problem-solving with pen in hand.

this is exactly why i've recently taken to making my own "sketchbooks" of threehole punched plain white printer paper bound in duotangs, so i can just have access to a wad of cheaper paper for "getting ready" on at all times. great video, as they all are! Thanks!

I am learning so much from your advice: WONDERFUL. IVE SUBSCRIBED TO YOUR CHANNEL NOW. THANK YOU,

This is good info. I’m going to carry some scrap copier paper with me from now on.

I needed this. thanks.

Those drawings are absolutely mind blowing.

👍👍👍👍 your sketches are great

Wonderful! It gave me some light about drawing things from reference. I like the way you draw, friend! Thanks for the tips, +1 subscriber

I'm wondering why my art teacher never told me the reason for making these. I could never get the point, until you made it very clear to me with this video. Thanks

I’ve always thought my issue was not having beautiful lines work and worked hard to improve them but after following your channel I realized that my problem was lack of observation ( drawing quickly)and perspective .

So intricate...commendable 👍

True, sketch it before you sketch it...😅 ❤️

again learnt a lot ...danke

extraordinary video …

5:05, the drawed building looks better than IRL :D

Ya thats a good way to learn.

Worth to try! ❤🤓🙏

I have terrible trouble with angles like roofs etc. I can never see wether they go up or down. And the width of a gable end is also a problem. I seem to have a blind spot with these things. So I measure with my pencil and attempt to put it on paper. I get there eventually but it’s difficult. So thanks for these tips. 👍

Stephen, Are you an Architect by profession using your architectural skills to use in your past time enjoying drawing/painting. I am amazed how you get your one point, two point, three point perspectives almost perfectly right without drawing lines to the perspective points initially as one is advised to do at art classes. You drafts, if they are slightly out of synch, you are able to identify it immediately and correct it in your next draft sketches. It is obviously your constant practice sketches that helps you to almost perfect reproductions in every drafts that you do. It is humbling to see that you make mistakes, but are able to share it with us to help us improve our drawing. I am going to study all your techniques, as you are indeed the best art teacher that I have come across so far. Hope you have a nice day. Till next time. Ciao.👌💯💥

very informative

I only very recently decided to work on learning to draw. Right now I'm still very much in the 'filling a sketchbook with circles and lines' stage. Architecture seems easy enough. Trees can be faked quite a bit detail-wise. It's the organic stuff, bodies and such, that's going to make me throw out the whole endeavor.

Hi, could you please tell about the brand of the fine liner pen you use or probably make a recommendation video about them.... Thanks

I often paint the same watercolour painting twice at the same time. The first one I use as a test for colours and brushstrokes, the second one is the real painting. The difference between the two at the end is … scary!

Excellent from a fellow whitebeard

You should go more micro for a few videos and really get close up to explain the rendering piece, like how all the lines connect around a window and how to make something look complex but isn't actually complex.

drawing as it is

What 🖋️ do you use? Ur videos are very helpful

Hello Steven, I use charcoal because I love the rough finish product I am left with it seems a much more approachable work at my beginner level. Now I realize many draw as realistically or are better rendered with it as you are with the pen with no doubt. My question is, could you show your method of utilizing charcoal from willow (If needed) to compressed?

What kind of pen did you use for the drawings?

❤

I take inspraiton from medieval art and real life into my art, i try to make it simple so the details from the ilumenated book and beasteary books do not take so long.

Do you draw directly with a pen without any pencil sketch?

Do you use guidelines before you start your drawings?

"Often they are stiffer, more wooden looking lines..." Problem: Understood. Solution: Incorporate wooden lines into tree. Dominance: Asserted. Pun: Terrible.

goated

Does anybody know,what pen is this please?

I feel like if you painted it, it would be a completely different picture than drawing it

Your sketches are much better than 95% of youtubers. But I'm not interested in buildings much. Do you draw something else? People?

Is this what "thumbnailing" is all about?