Hey everyone, thanks for watching ! You can get the ebook "The Practice and Science of Drawing" by Harold Speed from the Gutenberg Project Website (public domain). Link in the description. Also, hope you can follow me on Instagram as well ! See you there !
Florent Farges - arts check out the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was written several decades ago and deals with this subject. It has some examples to practice. I used it as a lesson plan for teaching drawing about 40 years ago.
I wondered if I was going to have to tell people that this book was free, or if somebody in the comments already mentioned it, and here's the guy who actually _made the video_ telling everybody they can get it for free. Good man.
you come across as having a lovely spirit - you're smiling eyes and warm nature. Great for a teacher. And you're content is always insightful and useful. 🙏
I’ve found that the best way to see shapes is to draw something upside down so the brain doesn’t try to see things intellectually. I once did a drawing of an armoured knight on a horse upside down purely concentrating on the shapes I saw. When I finished I turned my drawing around the right way up, and, voila, a near perfect drawing of the knight riding a horse. It was an amazing experience.
I redo the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain course once every couple years, and my art skill always gets a boost and I learn a bit more each time :) I highly recommend it to anyone, beginner or advanced.
i did the same thing in high school art class. the teacher forced us to basically. my piece was some model wearing flowers in her hair. i thought it would be impossible but it turned out nearly perfect
"Forget about the idea of drawing an eye but drawing the shapes that represent the light and the shadows that create the visual impression of this eye." Great point, Thank you!
I think Sargent said "If we artists had better eyesight we wouldn't be called 'impressionists'" I don't even think most people would call him an impressionist these days, but idk. All of these comments make me think about all the artists who say "if you draw from reference get really crisp highdef photos." - Sounds like you might make something better with a blocky piece of crap.
Precisely how I was thinking about going forward with getting back into acrylic painting again to make an impressionist piece I've been imagining doing. Being far sighted has benefits too.
I was drawing an apple. I tried to find some other shapes and ended up seeing a shadow that looked just like a lazy eyed midget (little person) who had a lot of gambling debts and was robbing a 7-11 convenience store to try and pay them off before the Mafia could make an example out of him. To make a long story short I drew a very weird looking apple.
This tutorial literally opened my eyes about drawing. I just turned 68 and I’m now retired. I’m just starting to learn to draw/paint. I don’t think of things I do as mistakes. I think of it as an opportunity for growth and development. I use this philosophy for my art and my profession as well as my personal relationships. You’re a gifted teacher. I say this because you have a way of logically explaining drawing/painting. Not everyone has that talent with words. Plus, your eyes twinkle and you glow when you talk about art. These are very endearing qualities. Thank you for sharing your gifts and talents.
Hi, don't listen to that hurt kid above, it's lovely to have such a way with words, always. Whenever people see something above mediocrity today, they feel the need to hate because they can't do that by themselves. Have a great art journey and a nice day! Never stop learning!
@@nathalieksghdvjk8422 Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. When I read that kids comments, I took a A few meditative minutes to wish him peace happiness and prosperity via the universe. Actually I did that for a couple of days.
That is exactly how I went from no artistic ability to actually being able to draw and paint. When I started drawing the shadows and not the features, the features just appeared!
Loved the video! I dropped out of art school when I was 18 and tried to teach myself to draw from life by drawing every day in my sketchbook with a pen. I got pretty good at a certain point, but when it came to shading I struggled to understand the breakdown of values. Everything either became too dark or too muddied up in mid tones. Luckily I had run out of contacts one day, and while drawing I realized that I could basically break down everything into 3 values, and expand from there. Its strange how one of the keys to realistic drawing is to abstract the way you observe the subject.
This is what is taught in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She has the student draw things upside-down to force them to see the actual shapes and disconnect them from the symbols that the brain imposes on what is seen.
I did a figurative drawing class, one day a week for a year a few years ago. One of the tutors taught us to use something like a knitting needle, to help with alignment of the features, and to looks for shapes too, I tend to break things up into angular shapes, and look for say triangles for example. I am nowhere near your standard, but these tips help me to at least get my proportions reasonably right. Thank you for sharing your tips as always.
Why would anyone have given this a thumbs down? It never ceases to shock me. Thanks from me for all the work you put in on these videos. I know how much work it takes and the time it takes away from painting. Have a wonderful new year
I know....they probably think they have it all figured out! Even if they do they should support someone so willing to share his knowledge with the rest of us!
Very useful tip, I found this out on my own when I started painting a couple of years ago. I think it is even easier when I’m painting other things than portraits (e.g. landscapes, objects) because the 🧠 is so wired to look for our preconceived ideas of what 👁 , 👃🏻 , 👂🏽 and 👄 looks like. But it does work if you’re able to free yourself. - Painting upside down is also very useful, but that’s restricted to painting from photographs or devices. - Squinting helps a lot to reduce forms to areas of light and shadow. - Taking a picture of what you’re drawing and looking at a small thumbnail picture of this can also help spot your mistakes. 🤗
I actually discovered this trick by accident while I was doing some paintings, and I also use this same concept for colors. For example, shadows are rarely black. They are almost always a shade of blue/purple. I also learned to look at the placement of components in the same way - relative to something else.
I had a similar breakthrough that greatly improved my work when I was first learning. For me it was the realization that there is so little white when you draw anything. So much of what I drew was on white paper and I wasn't filling in everything which led to a very bland and overly highlighted looking drawing. I started filling in everything and leaving only pure white for the small highlights here and there and this greatly helped me. Another approach was to use tan or gray paper so you already have your mid-tone. Then I drew in all the shadowed areas and used a white pencil to do the highlights.
When you said that you tried to draw the features using your brain instead of your eyes I remembered that one time my arts teacher told me I was trying to draw the features of the face like I thought they looked and not how they actually looked.
Excellent! I’ve drawn upside down (encouraged by “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, by Betty Edwards) or looked at my drawing in a mirror as well as used drawing practice of things like my hand, or tree bark to train my eye to see other details, but I’ve never quite thought about it in the way you described. I favor portraits so I have no doubt I will use this in my own work and also in helping others learn to see more like an artist. Thank you!
Get yourself an old set of french curves which can produce any shape/s ...use a soft brush with a light charcoal dust and brush up to the french curve edge which leaves you sharp edges and defines the shape required ..if a blend is required use your tonal values required to blend in to the shape ..no outline strokes are required using this method ..use the sharp edges as reference points to check measurements before adding tonal values ...hope this helps ..give it a try ..you will amaze yourself ..good luck
That's interesting because I always feel my way through a drawing. People remark on how good my proportions are and I'm sure its because I feel my way through. Color mixing though? Florent has saved my life! Lol! Wow! This is a great trick! It actually made my brain hurt which is a good thing.
This idea of drawing what you see instead of drawing what you think is the crux of the book "drawing on the right side of the brain" by betty edwards as well. The idea in that book is that we store simplified concepts of real world objects in our brain as symbols, and when we draw, we tend to draw those symbols instead of drawing what the object actually looks like. This, along with the idea of learning to draw negative space helped me a lot in learning to do realism better.
Wow! I wish my drawing professors at university would have had explained it this way day one. Would have saved a lot of tears and frustration for me as an art history major with fine art classes as requirements. In art history classes you are taught to notice light and shading and such, but in the studio courses I found there was no explanation from professors at all. No instruction on how to change the way you are communicating with your hands to interpret what you are seeing. This was an excellent video!
Awesome..i agree and this is the way they teach in the academy of realist art, seeing shapes not "eye, nose, mouth" that is why people tend to draw things upside down faces or unknown things better than seeing it the right way, cause your brain tend to kick in everytime and try to tell you how it " should be drawn" not how "you draw what u see"...it is seeing abstract shapes and link it to animals or things to drag your brain away from its literally interpretation...thank you!
@@alc3781 Ok, thank you. It isn't practical for me either. I saw a PDF online a year or so ago where you could download the files and have them printed. But at 18 x 24 that would be ridiculously expensive. I like your idea and you said it was very useful. All I need to know.
Yeah, it’s pretty much one of the best books on drawing anatomy using shapes and tones. That and “drawing on the right side of the brain” were very fundamental for me as an artist.
@@LynnePriceStudio 11x17 copiers are pretty common, you could probably high res scan plates at your local library. Then crop it down to remove the empty space and get a larger reference that can be close to an uncropped 18x24.
Huh, I’ve been pretty good about laying in the shapes of light, shadow and negative areas when doing a portrait, but I never thought about associating them with real world things. I’ll definitely give it a go and thanks for your insight!
I echo this video. I started on pencil sketch for over a year now from a complete beginner. After a few still life drawing, I start to get the idea. It is much easier to analyze the subjects as values and shapes instead of outlines. This is especially important for complex settings. I also feel this suddenly clicked after some frustrations attempting a group of objects in complex background.
Great video, Florent. Once I realized this, there was a huge shift in my work as well. When I am asked for advice, this subject is the advice I offer. 🤘
Arvid Broms art. Abstract, kubistic and realistic art from Finland. Arvid Broms was influenced by Moise Kisling. See the video below ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rGQw-jDhKoQ.html
Thats actually how I drew since 3rd grade. But it lead me to the problem of overall compositions not looking so great. Later I fixed that, which resulted in one of the biggest level ups for my personal drawing "career"
An earlier book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain had a similar message. But my problem is that my sense of size, angle, and proportion change depending on which part of the reference I am looking at. I have bought a tool called at proportional divider but haven't used it much yet.
Thats very intelligent to do and really simplifies things.Since I was a little kid,somehow I mastered drawing anything.My teachers use to steal my artwork and I wouldnt understand why.Now I do.They had never seen a kid that had such a power to create.One thing that I was always doing was,that I would draw alot of things.Or anything I could see.Now as I am 33 years old.I have picked up painting and airbrush it amazes me how much artwork can be put out,using these mediums.One goal that I want to master now is how to paint peoples faces perfectly and with a graceful beauty.One way I start that off by is I first visualize in my mind,where I would like the face positioned on the canvas.Then I began simply with a line straight down or tilted a few,then a line for the eyes.Then I try to memorize the lines forming the head,from chin to hair.Then I add the neck,line it up to the ears.Then I place the nose in between eyes and the chin,right in the middle of both.Then the mouths line,almost by the jaws as they curve down.So I map out from the outside in and just add smaller parts to the bigger shapez.Every single obejact has a shadow and a light.God bless all,Wingo.
Thank you , thank you , thank you! You have just explained how I do portraits ... I paint (draw) in pastels by areas of colour instead of line. I’ve tried so hard to explain this because I don’t use a graph or rough in a sketch. I paint as if I’m putting together a jigsaw. And it works ... it’s just another way of seeing. Thank you for the great video. I will now follow you on Instagram 💓
Symbols. This is the word You try to find. Our brain draws in Symbols, since "drawing" for the Brain means "communicate a concept" , "socialize". This is the reason why this hairless Ape , missing claws, teeth or other weapon, managed to survive as specie. Its Brain could communicate concepts to others in many ways. Essential part of learning to draw is learning to disobey our Brain, be honest with your Eye: "Do I really SEE that line I just have drawn. Or I just THINK it must be there?" You will get scared how much of what you "see" is just not there. only IF, that is, you are Honest.
I've followed you on Instagram, viewed your art and enjoyed it much. Your sincerity and kind eyes are a joy in this video, thanks for the tips and book link. I've added it to my art arsonel. Blessings!
Supers conseils, merci ! Je m'amuse régulièrement à voir des formes sur différents types de matériaux ou autres mais je n'ai jamais pensé à appliquer cette méthode au dessin, ça va beaucoup m'aidé. Pour le Toblerone, la forme de l'ours "dissimulée" dans le Cervin est volontaire. Il s'agit d'une marque bernoise, l'ours est le symbole de Berne. Salutations de Suisse, cher voisin :)
Hi Florent What you said in the video just sent on a light bulb in my head and it makes total sense, I read about shapes by Betty Edwards two sides of the brain author, the way you explain it makes total sense to me,Ah ha! Thank you for this video and all the others you have produced they are very inspiring. Thank you again, you have truly made my day excellent, Bravo sir.😎✌️
When I first started I picked up Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was informative but didn’t help me visually. I then picked up some books by Joseph Sheppard. Learned how to draw form, weight, volume and value. Something clicked immediately and I’ve been drawing in this way ever since. Bought all his books and more from artists like him. Some people just need a different approach.
Perfect video. Florent hits the bulls eye here. The idea is to put on canvas some kind of lines, blobs, patches etc of different shapes, colors and subcolors with the purpose of tricking the brain into seeing 3-D objects on a 2-D canvas. It's like painting a nose means basically painting a shadow of a nose that it casts on a cheek and then leaving up to our brain to process the visual info and letting it figure out where the light source is and what structure must be there to cast this particular shadow.
Thank you so much !! You are are great teacher , you explain everything very clean and straight. I wish I had had an art teacher like you when I went to school. 😁 At least now I have...greetings from Germany
When we draw, paint or make images we are putting flat shapes on a surface. The brain tends to assign symbollic meanings to them based on experience and culture, in reality they are just shapes. Making the separation between both processes, purely visual, seeing the shapes; and the assignment of meaning is the real task of the maker of images. More original painters will be able to create interesting shapes for already known symbols. An eye, a mouth, a ear are anatomical symbols. History, dance, love, friendship are cultural symbols. Light, shadows, perspective, are volumetrical symbols. Flat Shapes can be used interestingly to describe any of them.
It is very important tho. Sometimes you gotta trick your brain into seeing differently. When I’m drawing something, I just see shapes like geometric shapes. Even the shadows as shapes too. So like when drawing lips and eyes, they’re very similar shaped kinda, look at lips eyes like footballs. Cuz kinda look similar to the shape of a football. For the nose, I see to two small circles and one bigger circle, and rectangles for the shades along the bridge of the nose
i tell folks that artists have a secret by "Drawing on the right side of their brains" This a book by Betty Edwards back in 1978. Every 10 years of so she has a new book out on a different topic. The latest was on color theory in 2012. I call her books the "artists bible". I highly recommend all her books.
Very interesting point in this video, as we all know -drawing, painting etc it is mainly the way of seeing…. And this is one of the very good examples how to develop this skill:) and the comments actually are very interesting too Thank You!
I'd like to know what were you smoking when started seeing little animals on the portraits! I saw a hand and a 🗡️ stabbed on it in the eye picture! I love that way of viewing but if you think on something very elaborated perhaps it focus you too much on a small part of the painting... I think simple geometric shapes and only two values works better for me.
Bravissimo! Spieghi Molto Bene. ;) ;)!! Grazie per la Passione e la Professionalità. Hai un Grande Talento ed È Meraviglioso Tu lo Condivida anche Insegnando. Bravo! :) :)!! E Complimenti per il Tuo Ebook! ;) ;)!!
As someone who is dyslexic, perceptions of anything, not just the visual, are made by a process of conversions from external things to internal thoughts. Drawing complicates this by going back to the external, and for dyslexics, that can be a a bigger problem. The intake and processing then back to output will offer more chances for things to be misconceived, and misplaced or else not placed correctly. Though tricks can help to add dimension to the problem, and let us get closer to the accuracies of reality, the real issue is exorcising the brain to form more paths to and form this activity of comprehension. In other words, practice, practice, practice. The "trick" you are sharing is a good one to help people get past the awkward stage and not lose interest in the activity itself, but in the end they are forming the "brain muscle" they need to become better at drawing accurately, which has little to do with the accuracy of the activity and more to do with the practice and time they spend trying. I love you videos and techniques you share, please keep sharing them! I don't have the time for instagram, and never have had it in my schedule. To be honest, I do not care to follow your "day to day thoughts", I have too many of my own... so I hope this finds you well, and I will keep watching your weekly videos! Cheerio!
The whole seeing with our Brains thing. It’s similar to how most of what we taste is in the smell. Kinda like if you’re taking a shot of liquor, if you smell it beforehand you know it’s gunna taste disgusting. Plus once we actually take the shot, I’ve seen ppl cover their nose, that’s cuz you can kinda taste the aroma, and covering your nose does help a bit. Lol
Wow you are so amazing! I am following an artist here on YT, and he mostly starts by shadows thru Shapes! That made me curious. Now, it's clear to me. Thank you so much sir!
Interesting concept. I do not do Instagram or Twitter, so I hope you'll stay on RU-vid. I am trying to learn to paint with oils. I've never painted much at all and I find you have interesting things to say. Could you talk about brushes? Maybe you have, but it doesn't seem to be on anyone's list regarding ones to use with oils. Thank you.
Goodness, this thing about drawing things by shape... this is going to change my lif- and you literally took the words out of my fingers as I was typing this you literally said those exact words!
Is this why when I'm walking around i have the urge to touch things. Like the trees leaves on a trail, clothes when shopping, Ceilings when they very low and can be touched.
- Ah, yes, very interesting. I have heard this before but it is nice to see that such an impressive artist also followed this advice. Yes it all makes sense. - You can see a bear in the Toblerone logo. - Wait what?
I have an issue with this personally with my drawings because its like yes you are attempting to see it differently, but at the same time you are just drawing a different shape which is already difficult enough...instead of just drawing the shape that you see. Its almost like an additional step trying to create another shape in your mind rather than just creating what you might see in real time/in a photo? If anyone understands what I mean and can help me think about this concept differently please let me know!
As an artist I could be wrong on his take but what he is saying is take away the concept of the image your drawing but rather looking in shapes. Instead looking it as an eye you look into it as a shape. A Buddhist philosophy. Where you take away concepts or duality of it but rather see it as it is. As a practitioner of this philosophy. You can see things clearly without judgement. It's something really weird because we have been indoctrinated to see things with biases. Its liberating at the same time scary when you are new to it do this in the spectrum of life itself and you will be amazed the delusion we have been into
To paint what you see, not what your brain think it sees is indeed one of the best advices you can give to someone learning to paint/draw. Trying to see animals in the shadowshapes on the other hand is using your brain again to spot patterns and that was what we were trying to avoid in the first place. Your brain is going to try to make you draw a pinguin or an elephant and your shadow shape will be wonky.
I think I understand what you are trying to say Florent Farges. When you see shapes don't engage the brain by giving the shapes names. Instead focus on the actual shapes and activate the right artistic brain, whereas the left side of the brain will name the shapes and dominate the drawing, and it will also not allow you to focus on the details of the shape because of the mental dialogue that pops up in your brain.
Thank you great tutorial! It is true what the practice & science of drawing explains - the internal klick will happen - the deeper we go with the topic
