How to draw from your imagination - people sketching - episode 9 

I usually tell my students that they won't find their style, others will. When people start to say 'oh that's one of yours' and pick your work out from a bunch of others, you have a style.

Surprisingly, for the first time since I have started copying drawings to raise my skill for five or so months, I decided to follow your advice since I was getting frustrated of always being horrible of drawing from imagination. So, when I finished the copy, right away I went to drawing it by memory. It turned out better than the actual copy itself! I was shocked, and now I'm going to definitely try it again since I've improved by some because of this skill. It can get annoying, but trust me, it'll work out well for you. Thanks, keep posting more! Your artwork is amazing by the way :) You are so talented!

Your drawings always make me smile! I've been drawing for 32 years and my "style" is always evolving and changing!

I grew up drawing from my own mind only. I remember reading that Hayao Miyazaki only draws from childhood memories, he never actually goes back to look at whatever he saw as a kid because it kills the child-like wonder in his mind. That doesn't mean he doesn't use references, it means he first starts from memory and then fills in the blanks with references. That's the best way from my own experience. Oh, and if you try to create your own style, it totally looks contrived. Stop it, people.

Your laugh is so adorable; I always smile when you giggle at your own sketches or something you're talking about. Love the videos and the drawings. The stories behind them are extremely interesting! Subscribed!

I've been watching these videos all day while I draw in my sketchbook and work on sketch commissions. I feel like I'm absorbing so much - thanks SO much for being so generous with your time and giving all your tips and anecdotes from your life! I also love seeing your drawing process in these! I might also add I love that you laugh so much at yourself or your drawings - it's really genuine and it really makes me smile. :D

I agree. don't worry about how to come up with your own style. it's going to come naturally because you're gonna want to draw the way that makes you happy anyway

I tried sketching from multiple references on the same subject and then put it away like you said. It was so tedious but my artwork turned out so much better and matched what I wanted it to turn out to be like! Your videos are awesome and so informative! Keep it up. It really does help artists of any skill level.

Thank you!!! I watched every single video of your people sketching series about 5 times. As soon as I sit down on my desk with my new sketchbook (thanks to you it's almost filled up after two weeks!!!) in front of me, I open your channel and let it go ;) Nice voice, very motivating. Every day. Thank you, Will!

Your people sketching video series is so great because you keep sharing your insight, perspective, wisdom, and experience with us!

I like how delighted you get when a character turns out well. Almost like it's your kid. I'm enjoying watching your people sketches, an listening to you share your learning.

Another great talk Will! My favourite part was your impression of the woman ordering her food. :D

I really appreciated what you said about how to get better at drawing from your own imagination by drawing from reference and then put the reference away. I am definitely going to try that. I also appreciate what you said about developing a "style". I've been agonizing about that and now I realize that I just need to relax and let it develop on it's own. Good advice and I love your work.

Oh my god the couple that you drew in this video remind me so much of my grandparents just the kinda crazy lady and the mellow husband

your drawings are dope, and thanks I kinda figured I had to branch out. That was one of the reasons why I stopped drawing, I was tired of drawing what i could or other people's drawing (even though I was good at it), I wanted to draw my own things from my imagination.

This video made me ponder my whole entire drawing method. You just gained a subscriber, thank you.

I absolutely love this format of video uploads, showing the drawing to music and then later uploading the same drawing with commentary. I like being able to appreciate the drawing on its own and form a story in my mind before hearing the actual thought processes :) as you say people can recognise their own stories through the personalities you portray. I also love listening to you talk over them later. you inspire me a lot and calm me down about my illustrator worries! Thank you for that!

Awesome work! I love the back story about the couple in the sketch :D

Will those are great insights! I think you really captured the dichotomy between these two people, especially in their facial expressions. I get the feeling that she's been oblivious to his sad state for a really long time. Maybe he even needs the cart because her overbearing personality finally took a physical toll. I also like the sort of spiral pattern that you put on her jacket. Nice job!

Lately I've been studying a lot,so it's refreshing to just sit down and listen to him talk while I draw.

This really helped a dilemma I was having with drawing. I am one of those people that usually copies someone else's work to acquire better skills, I am frustrated when I don't have a reference! So I'm going to sign up for classes to free my mind a bit. Thanks again for this video.

No, not getting tired of the people sketching videos. Like the visual, but also like that I can just listen while working on something else and get a lot out of your videos. Then, I can go back later to watch what I missed.

There's art that I love to look at, and there's art that I can connect with in a way that makes me want to draw and create art myself. Pretty much all of your videos and drawings make me want to draw. And your advice is so useful! I've been struggling with drawing from my imagination for years, and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm comfortable (usually) with what I'm able to draw without a reference. I really appreciate your ability to explain things like this in a way that is so simple, it just makes sense. Thank you so much! And of course, I love all your art. ;)

This video is so fun to watch! I really enjoy just listening to people talk whilst im working, so you talking while you're sketching is just as fun!

He'll no don't stop the ppl sketching vids. I love them and find it to be great inspiration for my own work. Thanks for what you do!

Just posted a vid that was a paper animation for class of a character that I got inspired to create after watching one of your videos a while back. I love how you always see the humor in others and in life. It really is an infectious attitude. Thanks again and keep up the good work

Man it is like you have a window into my life! You answered exactly what I have been in turmoil over this past week. I now have homework and a light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you!

I really love this couple - they look so real - like the elderly couple next door :-) And what you said made me smile - don't try to find your style - it will come to you... Please go on with your videos about "people sketching", I love it !!!

I love your people sketching videos. Possibly, it's my favorite type that you do.

I love this video!! I kinda have a photographic imagination (not to brag it can get annoying sometimes) where I just see a character in my head completely finished and draw it. My parents told me that's exactly how it was when Mozart wrote music he saw everything in his head so I just wanted to share that and your videos really help and your talks! You're such a great person and the best teacher I will ever have! Thanks for the smiles! Hugs from me and my sister! Keep smiling!

i never get tired of ur people sketching vids! :) i listen/watch while doing my own work :)

Woah lol who would ever get tired of these? Love your vids. This is the 5th or 6th time I've watched them. I watch them for motivation when I choose to start up drawing, again. I've been spending so much time studying diseases and meds for school that I haven't given time for the thing I used to love. Also, your laugh is adorable xD

literally so glad i found your artwork! your people sketches always make me laugh, and it always amazes me how your coloring can really shape the subject. your so good with prismacolors!

Dude, you are a BEAST. Love your perspective on developing a style. Thank you.

Amazing as always Will! I love how the old man turned out. It's a funny thing how we as aspiring artists must invent a language that everyone can instantly understand but that only we can speak. I've always been the "draw from imagination" type. I spent so many years caught up in my mind, repeating the same mistakes over and over because I drew stuff that I didn't really understand, and wasn't that creative to begin with. All it took was a little observation and thinking to take my stuff to the next level. I'm by no means a pro but now I'm actually having fun with art because it all changed from trying to make a nice set of lines resembling an eye to actively figuring out how things work, solving problems and communicating my thoughts and ideas. The best advice I've ever got from a teacher is to draw, paint and sculpt (because it's all one and the same) in your head all the time. Take the essence of everything you see. Simplify it's forms. And only when you've understood everything about the subject, start drawing.

would you consider selling sketches you do in your videos? or is there somewhere to support you and your work? I absolutely love your style!

I love the part about finding your style. Lol. Great advice. I've been" trying to find my style" because all my work looks so different.

I love your art Will,out of all the artists i know you're the biggest inspiration to me and seeing your art helps me to keep doing mine. I am trying to draw everyday even if it's something super simple like lines are quick gesture drawings. Along with doing that i am taking a drawing class were we are drawing tons of still lifes. But even after that i still struggle to draw from my head, so i am going to try to do what you said by drawing what i see than put it away and than draw from my head, Thanks for the tip!

I learned so much in this video! I will be drawing with little to no reference for a while to get to where I need to go. I've been stuck for a while and you put it into perspective for me. Thank you

Will, this video will help me tremendously. All I've ever done is draw from reference and I've felt lost without it. Thanks for the advice!

Ive herd somewhere "Your style is made up of the mistakes you like." and its funny that you echo that saying so well in this video... shows how true it is.

We're doing a caricature assignment in design class and. I stumbled upon your awesome videos! I must say that I love the humour that you have in each of your people sketching drawings. It's also nice to hear your stories to get to know what the industry is like as well as how to progress as an artist. Keep up the great work and I look forward to watching. More of your videos. P.S. As a side note, I really like how you rendered the old lady's pants and the old man's expression is priceless! :D

Style comes with misstakes, misstakes comes from trying, trying is the need too learn. repeat and redo intill you like it. :3

lol. You hit the nail on the head there for me. I've been saying a lot recently that I need to develop a style. But my instincts keep telling me go back to the basics and learn the rules. Even though i've heard some of this before it really helped drive the point home! I need to keep working on the basics/rules and the style will come. Thanks!! :D smiling. Love the cartoon by the way! its amazing! more specifics to follow! lol

I love these!! Just listening to you talk is relaxing to me for some reason Cx I love drawing while listening to these.

Will, I just watched my third video of yours in one sitting....I can't feel my legs lol, but I am really enjoying your tips, conversations and inspiration!!! thanks a bunch!!!

Will, I just found your channel so this is the first video of yours that I've seen. Very nice work. I like the fact that your own work makes you smile and laugh. And that is the most important thing about drawing, if you enjoy it and it makes you happy then that's your payoff. If others enjoy your work and they like what you are doing then that's the bonus. Once more, nice work and keep the drawings coming!

Love that they look real but also cartoonish. Very unique this would make an awesome funny card with a caption like " when you wish you were so where else, but sadly your not" lol

You are truly an amazing teacher ! I just stumbled upon your videos and I absolutely love them. You really know how to put things into perspective. Thank you for doing this. It really speaks to me as an artist. Looking forward to more of YOU!! :)

You always have the best advice and stories, Will.

I will never get tired of these people sketches! keep it up man

What are u talking about? I can't get enough of these videos. Keep it up Will! Can't wait to see your next video

I LOVE it! Quirky and full of character and expression. Well done!

You have helped me once again Will! I can never draw from my imagination but I can draw from reference. But I'm going to give that technique you mentioned a try. Thanks so much Will! :)

Honestly man. I have watch 5-6 videos today. Thank you keep it up.

I am new to your work and have really enjoyed your videos! You spoke of not drawing the lines. I think that drawings without LINES is super challenging. My eye enjoys lines so much. They are the anchor.... Like core shadows. They connect the shapes.

This is soooo awesome. I just watched a few vids and I'm already addicted. All the stories you tell are not only advice for drawing but for life too. It kinda let's me think of an awesome art teacher that will tell awesome stories with their art lessons. Well... I hope that made sense, Lots of love from The Netherlands -xx Annick

Another awesome vid from the man WILL Funny and insanely educative! Thank you for this grain of knowledge!!~

I so appreciate your content Will! I wish I had discovered these videos far sooner. Keep it up!

I was just like you in high school, I couldn't imagine why my teachers were having fits over realism, still-lifes, and references.(like that one assignment, where we were supposed to draw a bowl of fruit from life and I pulled it out of my head!) Now that I'm trying to have a more flexible style I find myself picking up reference books wherever I can.

So glad I stumbled upon your channel. Really good sketches and advice.

You are one of the best artists i know ! I watched all you're videos, they're great and I learned a lot from them !

Mr.Terrell, I never noticed that I've been "Copying" lines as an ameture artist till just awhile ago and I was just drawing and noticed one of my good artist friends drew something bueatiful and created and noticed he drew it from his head.I then started to try to draw something and I couldn't.I got mad so i went reasearching and found this. It helped alot.Thank you so much. and if you have any other advice about drawing from imagination that would help me that would be great :D

Wow, you hit the nail on the head. I been a plein air artist and really enjoy the outdoors but coming back to the drawing board after a hike... Much of the details are lost in the drawing. I will add details that were not there but then I get this guilt like I am lying and that isn't exactly how I seen it. Like anyone is going to know that tree wasn't really there. Silly huh?

These people sketching vids are great! Thanks for posting.

DUDE! Your drawings are INCREDIBLE! Your skill with markers is just.....wow! Love your work :D

I love watching your videos because you're an awesome artist, you give great advice and when you laugh its kinda contagious (hope i spelt that right) thank you!

You're awesome thank you so much for this! I struggle so much with drawing without a reference. I'm going to try and redraw something I've just done from memory from there as I want to be so much better than I am now.

I know exactly what you mean by learning to draw by emulating others. I bought this book called "Street fonts" which is full of fonts from famous graffiti writers. And its really hard to write a letter by copying. but once I got the flow in lines and curves, I started to draw letters in my own style instead of blandly copying it.. And it looked way more natural :) PS: speaking about writing, your tag looks awesome ;) 14:50

wow, man i literally just found you today! and i love your stuff, instant subscribe

Hey Will, just a heads up, if you decide to purchase the new prismacolor "brush" tip markers, the rubbing alcohol refill technique will ruin the stiffness of the brush tip. When u replace the brush tip after filling it up, the brush tip will all off, they are not made to be removed.

I love of watching you draw and listening to you babbling through the whole video :DD I dont think that I could ever get bored of your vids^^

Eh, reference drawing. The one thing I struggle with. I can draw from the imagination easy, but like you said my stuff comes out weird. I gotta start learning how to reference draw.

Your advices are really useful in every of your video !

you seriously just answered the top 2 questions that bug me the most. The first one was what made me click on the video, but the second one? well...that was just gravy!! thank you, and great video

Yeah, I totally agree... it is so hard to draw from the head; I have always learnt to draw from looking at photos etc... I really dislike what comes out whenever I drew from my head. I'll keep trying though, to come up with my own.

Love it:) That old man is just so adorable.

Thanks for the awesome advice! :D And I know what you mean about that whole thing with style. When I'd finally given up and stop caring about finding a style, that was when I finally found one :) I guess you've just got to stop thinking about it, and do it how you'd do it normally, and voila! you're style was right there all along :D And you said you loved it when people said your drawings reminded them of someone, so I'd just like to say that old lady reminds me of my mom's friend Carol! My mom used to force me and my brother to play with her two daughters, (the older one was the spawn of SATAN! Like a wild animal, blegh. And her little sister was the most selfish girl I have ever met), while she had tea with Carol and all the other posh ladies *eye roll*. But that woman was just so obnoxious, ugh!

Lol you're absolutely adorable !!! I love the way you blended the markers and pencils. May I suggest Copic markers the next time around you can get more detail with the brush tip ( even though prisms color came out with their own brush tip I still back Copic brand lol ) also they have refills that you can purchase as well as nib replacements. :)

Thanks for this Will! I find that the best way that I have learned to practice drawing from both imagination and reference is to combine the two in the form of Emulation. Draw only in the style of Cheeks, Bruce Timms, Stephen Silver, or another artist that I enjoy the style of and draw characters from your imagination and from photos in their style :D I have learned so much practicing this way!

Thank you so much for this! I have been wondering about how I can only draw well if I have a reference and how to break out of it and now I have an answer. So thank you very much and God bless!

I just tried to... like watch a film or a movie with my parents, capture a moment, set myself a minute of placing in my mind all the details, trying to place that on the page. Now i can see how the OWN STYLE is born - it just slipps out naturally!

i have been struggling with drawing from my imagination for a while now, i like your idea, ill try it :3

Hey, Will! Thanks so much for the video, nice to talk about style! I'd really like to be able to order it from a catalog, but it really seems that it will just come with time! =) I really liked your technique for the skin, as I've been watching since the first half-tone sketchbook video, I've been noticing interesting changes! Btw, I think to work with the markers a bit dryer helps to blend the colors in a nice/different ways, but I'd love to see what you'd do with copics! Keep smiling too!=)

The best advice I have heard with learning to draw from ones imagination. Even the part about not liking it at first. :) Was there ever a point in your drawing career where you just weren't happy with the way you drew?(Like your 'style')

That was really helpful. I'll try that for sure! Thank you

about styles, everyone tells me that my drawings are very "disney" and they mean it as a compliment most of the time, but some people criticize me without having my own style.... its just the way I've always drawn and its not like I'm purposefully trying to copy disney it's just what happens. What you said about style really made me a little more confident tho

You're right xD I really can't draw anything from my imagination because they look weird... but I can copy anything whether it's in a soft copy or hard copy xD I'll try creating my own visual language.. thanks for this video and you're sketch is great :D

growing up, i've always wanted to draw something that doesn't exist. something that I could communicate with myself like telling an inside joke, that nobody understands. I have tried drawing from a reference photo but it's frustrating because it feels like you're limited to what you can do, and too me, I draw to have a sense freedom. it's also frustrating to draw from my imagination because sometimes, you have so many ideas to implement on a paper that you don't know where to start. One thing I learned from a reference photo, or copying is learning from it, using those ideas and twisting it for the type of drawing genre i use.

Thank you! I was struggling to draw from my imagination :3 You inspire me

Thank you, your the only person who gave me a answer to my question, your really the best. Like and subscribed you got a new fan

its amazing the cool people you find on the internet

So great! Awesome technique and really good advice.

Your drawings are so awesome. You are an inspiration I'm so happy I subscribed.

Thank you, thank you thank you! I so needed this. I'm the person you are talking about bein frustrated that I can't just make stuff up out of my head.

really helpful video!! Thank you for posting this, I just started watching your episodes and your drawing are amazing. But I'm going to start doing what you said in this video see what comes up.

Man you are such an awesome inspiration for me! Your videos also helped me a lot so I hope you will keep up the cool work and stay awesome :)

I have watched this video 4 times !Lol love your stuff

Thanks, yes your video has helped. I just have to say you're so funny and your laugh is adorable.

You, sir, are a great teacher.