How to Draw Using Comparative Measurement 

I am an art instructor as well and agree 100% with your process and explanation of it. Great job.

IS IT TALLER OR IS IT WIDER? Jesus, I've been drawing for years, watching lots of tutorials and this question rings a bell. How simple it is and I never thought about it! Thanks for sharing your experience! Hugs from Brazil!

I have been a drawing professor for adults during three years. Maybe you do not know, but you are a genius.

You said something that made a big difference for me. You shared you early work, and spoke about how long it took you to reach your current level of skill. You made the process enjoyable, exciting. It’s not about being a master now, but the joy is in becoming skilled through practice. Stick to it, you said, and that says a lot coming from someone with your skill. Thanks for remembering us, the beginners, those of us engaged - happily - in the process. Frustration with my lack of greatness is nothing next to the joy I feel in practicing and developing fundamental skills. Cheers.

"Sight size” is GREAT, if you are charging students by the week or harnessing students to a production piece schedule, aka “you graduate when you have done these exercises & finally get approved to finish your Master Piece” (Toronto School of Realistic Art, for instance)

I am not good at painting, AT ALL...But, i swear my oil paintings have drastically improved from watching your videos. Thank you SO much. You're awesome

Thank you for this beautiful demonstration, so helpful and inspiring.

Thank you for this video, having had graduated from the art school, can't even recall the sight size drawing technique being ever mentioned. We were always taught to use comparative measurement with eventual standing a few meters back to check for the mistakes.

hats off to the work you are doing and the wealth you are sharing ....!

This is a great explanation of the process! Thank you!!!

Great artist and teacher, thanks for your work....

Yes! Live modeling ...I have been drawing this way for years. Excellent way to explain!

Learned to use comparative measurement using pencil in high school art class. Best thing ever. Thanks for posting this.

The academic process with week long bargue drawings, several week long cast drawings, etc, using sight size is great because you have a 1:1 comparison to see your mistakes and correct them. Doing this greatly improves the way you correct yourself and is massively helpful to do for a while before you start using comparative measuring. Standing back to compare and then walking to your paper also improves your visual memory. Also it's good to burn some calories.

Best mantra I have ever heard in my entire life of drawing! thank you!

That is what i call hard working.. Thank you Mr Alex

This artist is a great teacher.

Wonderful explanation! I like your approach.

A very mature explanation.

When I was younger this was part of my art training. I started off with pencil with the picture I was doing taped next to my paper. Then I did 4 sight size, with charcoal. After that I moved onto oil paint. He definitely used sight size as a way to train my eyes.

Excellent method u have demonstrated.

In my class in Vietnam, we mesure by eyes too and my teacher've taught it for 3 years. All other classes I've come in my country use pencil to measuring and it's much more slower. Our method have 4 parts: Direction, Distance, Shape and ... I dunno how to call it, like using vertical and horizional line from a part to find another part.

you're amazing! thanks for posting these amazing videos!!!

Very clearly put...many thanks ...great concepts - drawing and redrawing, and comparative measurements, and simplifying the large shapes, plus your approach or technique...thanks again...well done.

Marvelous and liberating!

amazing content. amazing teacher. beautifully executed

Very well said! I agree completely!!

Reeally cool, thank you!

Magnífico. Fabuloso. Me encanta

Love the content !

Great channel btw! Appreciated! Very helpful - THANKS!!!

Very beatiful drawing and nice counseling.

Thanks - great explanation.

Love you sir....I'm looking for this content....thank you much

This is just what I needed. I am an instructor as well. I have learned in an atelier and prefer to work from sight size. I have been rather unpleasant to deal with because most schools don't have the equipment that an atelier has . I try to assimilate an atelier situation and get very frustrated. I could probably give much more of myself if I gave up the idea of having everything just wright and work by eye and proportions. I had taken many work shops myself before my academic training .

Excellent work

awesome as usual

Watching it appear from the shadows is cathartic

Amazing!!!

Amazing art work exelent work like it wonderful

Really helpfull thanks so much

That's excellent, thanks so much.

You are the best so far, feels like you know exactly what I want as I am following your footsteps and learning myself

This drawing is beautiful. I am drawn to this more then the long Atelier cast drawings in a lot of ways.

Super helpful. Thank you :)

This is true creativity, thank you, my teacher 👏🙏

I followed your method at 3:59 and the drawing came out beautifully. Thank you!

Well done!

this is amazing

Great information thanks a lot. I´m trying to learn how to draw. My biggest problems I recon is proportion and perspective. Can´t afford going to an atellier school. This was very informative, thanks a lot!

Thanks for the video and your thoughts on size drawing.

Really its amazing😊

This is awesome

Thanks for the wisdom, friend.

Thank you!!

Comparative measurement by eye , width , length and angles. That's how I do it . Thx for another great video.

The sight size method is great for first education, because train your skills to sketch with free hand. I believe the comparative method is a natural evolution of artistic approach, and this is so beautiful! Hugs from a brazilian friend Alex, the channel is so helpful.

Yes! I teach this to my students at private studio I work at. We have a small space so can only do so much.

great video

Thank you!

Great job

Thank you so much I learn a new think from you.

Sooooo great

Great Tutorial.

Awesome

That's how I draw. I get it right from seeing my mistakes but I need to make the mistakes first. I could never get the hang of measuring

it's perfect

Wow - Brilliant. My art teacher taught me nothing... My dad did though. Love that - Thanks ✌

Brilliant

An other good video. Thank you.

Thanks!

I did not know that sight size thing - I usually go with your method , but good to know the atelier method anyway . thanks

Nice!

that's not just a lesson, it's great art. I mean it. drawing is magic. I was "correcting" a mistake or two at my board here, and went looking for something about measuring better w/ my eyes. went decades w/ out drawing, and I want to draw as well as I once did before I started a little business. though I never produced anything as beautiful as this. I thought it was Darwin, at first. he's in my sketchbook. great subject. that is a great adage about mistakes ,and how we learn from them. I've got a boatload. and then there's my drawings. but seriously, I'd like to essentially try to be a cartoonist. I will return, sir. keep making great art .thank you. watching someone draw like that is better than seeing it on a gallery wall. it comes alive. well, back to the board.

I'd fix and frame it! Beautiful drawing!

funny, i like you and your sense of humour

Thanks for posting this wonderful video, thorough but so simple. This is the method by which I was taught at university. I went to a school which focused very heavily on conceptual art and theory, and have always felt that I missed out on more foundational, representational techniques, thus I have considered attending some courses at a local atelier school to learn the sight size drawing, but have dreaded the heavy-handedness and wondered whether it is actually better than the comparative method or simply different. Thanks for reminding me that comparative is a completely viable method, in short you have just saved me a lot of time. I am not knocking what they are producing at all, but their methods are not my thing. Excellent drawing by the way.

I agree so much! That measuring is so specific and a pain in the a$$. I'm practicing to get good at likenesses and I don't want to do an elaborate set up every time. I want to simply have a sketchbook and some pencils right now.

wow!

Wow 🦊❤️❤️❤️❤️

Great

nice video drawing

I'm not a fan of this method (sight size)...thank you for your insight!

Tu si che sei bravo aspetto insegnare 👏👏👏

Thank you for putting in the effort to make this video. The way you transform a few simple shapes into an amalgam of life, colour and meaning is breathtaking. I truly believe art is not about being entirely accurate or detailed, but perceiving something so beautifully that you change the way others see. I’ve always struggled with accuracy, especially in faces, so this really helps. What type of paper do you use for charcoal? Amazing work as always.

Rather relieved you're not an advocate of sight-size. 😄

Alex this is such a succinct video explaining the benefits and techniques of mass drawing! It is so amazing to see how you can make this technique work with different mediums such as charcoal! I was wondering if this technique could be used with watercolour too? Watercolour tends to be laid down light to dark, so that is where I'm struggling to merge the technique of mass drawing with it. Thanks again for your amazing channel and descriptions! ❤️

If it's "taller" no problem, you will have the El Greco feel... Just kidding. Great and masterful presentation, drawing is at the heart of everything! Thank you for the instructions!

we love you

Sir can you make another charcoal drawing video.

AHHH I love this so much! It looks amazing!Thank you for sharing. Also, I was trying to find the paper that you use for your drawings and I thought you said medium grain paper but the one that I could find on amazon doesn't look like yours bc it doesn't have the gride like yours has. Is there a specific place I can get the paper online?

Thank you for this, this is also how I work. Too much measurement kills a drawing.

I just discovered the Bargue method...got all excited...then watched this...and now im like wtf!!! lol!

Hi. You're video just came up on my yt stream. Very nice, ty. A couple of things I'd like to ask please : with the atelier sight size using the string, how does one make a mark if both hands are used to measure? Is an estimate made first on paper, then related to the string then re - drawn if incorrect? I usually draw on a3 with charcoal and have a photo on my tablet next to me that I try to draw a portrait from. I just estimate the size I want that fills the paper then correct as I go along. I'm ok, but I think I could progress more if I had a way of transferring properly the small size to big paper accurately. This seems to be key to getting a likeness. I can't measure from the tablet as it's too small, but I compare say the distance from the eyes to the side of the head is the same as some other measurement I can find on the face and do it that way. Should I use a proportional divider? Although, I'm not sure it would work up to A2 size or so? If you follow what I'm saying, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

I can't even get my charcoal to erase enough to create highlights, so if I go over a light spot its going to get muddy as I try to erase the marks.

Hey Alex, another great video, How is it that your drawing is so accurate? I know you say to trust the eye, but in terms of working out how the overall image fits on the paper, do you say, measure a head length and then count how many times it fits into the figure then plot it down on your paper? or in this case do you for instance measure the length from the nose bridge to the bottom of the nose and use that as a unit of length to workout sizes like the overall height and width? I hope this question makes sense. I have been practicing gestural drawing ie loomis method of using circles and rhythms of the face, the drawings come out ok, but i think this is more of a method for illustrators inventing faces/figures vs a representational aim. What is a good book or reference for practicing the way you were taught?

Bro 👍 ✌ 👏

As for the walking back part, wouldn't it make more sense to relocate your easel at a further distance from the object in order for the object to match canvas size? Either way I would agree with your criticisms of using sight size drawing though. To me it doesn't make much sense either training only the ability to draw something from the 'optimal' distance. Yes, it is hard to draw proportionally at first, however once you understand the translation within the framework of the canvas it is actually quite easy. Well, easy is perhaps the wrong word, as it still requires accurate drawing. But in a sense you'd block in with large shapes subdividing the canvas so the general proportions and large features are there. Then add smaller shapes and details from there. As each shape is measured relative to total canvas size and shape sizes in proximity, you'll end up with a fairly accurate drawing that way too. Angles can be measured with a brush handle to check. Anyway, good video. I'd like to see more someday!

I love this video so much! So helpful!! One question, with what tool are you "pushing" the charcoal with? I like the way those strokes look like but I can't achieve that look. Thx

This is such a great explanation, but as an art teacher in a high school in the Middle East, unfortunately I can't share with my students due to the nudity, groin area specifically, it's just not worth it if I want to keep my job!