Why UGLY sketches will define YOUR ART style 

This video got me to 1k thank you all so much for your feedback and for sharing your art journeys! I am so glad you’re here 🙏🏼 Update (Feb 24, 2024): WOW this video has gained so much traction. Thank you so much for the 2k!!! Blessings, Eleanor

This is great. I was struggling to get back into art because everything I drew wasn't feeling and looking "perfect" so my wife came up with a great idea. She gives me a prompt, I look for a single reference I like, and I'm limited to 30 minutes to create it. Every day. It's such a fun exercise that's brought back my love for art. I don't have time in those 30 minutes to be a perfectionist but naturally my art is starting to look better and most importantly (to me) I'm developing my art style without thinking about it.

THIS!! Why no big artists talks about this??

"God gave us a beautiful world, with beautiful qualities, and it's ok to love the same beautiful things [that others love]" made me tear up. I've been struggling a lot with my art for a couple years, and being told to lean into the ugly of my art to find what makes it unique really helps a lot. It's what I need to hear right now ❤

"God gave us a beautiful world with beautiful qualities." That's a really awesome quote. Love that! Subbed!

This was super nice advice!! I've always been someone who majorly overthinks their art, and especially the sketching and shapes part. Ive just seen soo many videos about how to structure ur shapes correctly, use squares for this use circles for that blah blah and i just forget that i should just draw what i think will look best and is most enjoyable for me!! It was good for me to hear that :] I hope this video reaches more people it was fantastic!!! Thank you!

That is a great video. I see so much people buying some "find your art style" courses that are just "learn to draw my style". Finding your style is a long and evolving process.

This is a great mindset to have. I love drawing triangles on my animal drawings. Instead of just lines on the fur, I draw thin triangles. For people, I use a lot of circles. Circular eyes, fluffy hair, circular noses. I find myself using stars a lot too. I also realized that I use bright colors layered on top of dark colors a lot. But, who knows. In a years time my style could be completely different, because styles don't have to stay stagnant. That's the beauty of art. It's always changing and developing, just like how you change and develop as a person.

This is by far the absolute best explanation about the purpose of everyone in art, including the journey of slowly realizing one’s true identity is in one’s art! Thank you so much!

I think its also important to keep all our sketches and pieces so we can see over time how we improved and from that, likely see our style...the one or two things we can't seem to make art without. Great video!

I got PLENTY of ugly sketches, this should be a cake walk lol.

seeing someone elswe talk about drawing without purpose is so refreshing. i had to take a break from art because drawing without a purpose was the only thing I knew how to do so now I'm tryna relearn how to sketch fun stuff with purpose without reference when I'm out and about without my phone and don't feel like drawingmy surroundings

Solid advice for any skill level. It's good to just go back and look at your work to find your style. I look forward to more of your vids.

This helps a lot, I am drawing again and I realized I love expressive art, I just hate to have my art look stiff with the same pose and expression, I do need to experiment more and get out of perfectionism to see what I like! ✨

4:45 that's called subsurface scattering if you're interested

sometimes bad habits during drawing also could define artstyle. i have a messy sketch and i like sketch more than lineart. these makes me create an artstyle.

thank you for posting this. i have a really bad habit of hating my art and then immediately giving up after finishing an “ugly” sketch. i’ve been drawing for years and i’ve struggled with not knowing what my style looks like. i think this video will help me moving forward in terms of appreciating my “ugly” sketching phases.

Listening to your voice was super relaxing, I felt like there is nothing wrong, everything will be okay and I'm loved and just perfect the way I am. I am an artist who mostly copies existing pictures, photograps and art pieces. If I draw something out of my head I end up adding too much details and the picture ends up being restless and something I didn't want. But I'm quite good at drawing my feelings, I go to art therapy and it has been powerful way to express myself when I can't find words. I also like drawing s's and vines and I like painting reflective surfaces like shiny black cars.

Very inspiring, thanks! As someone who's so judgemental about his own drawings, it's comforting to realize that sketching and experimenting is a great way to simply develop and find your own style. Now I feel ready to draw again :)

You're talking about zeroing in on one's "voice" in their ugly sketches. It the thing that makes art valuable. An artist's voice appears everywhere in one's work, not just subject matter, even (as you've pointed out) in the shapes and lines we're drawn to! Thanks! Nice work 👍

This is nice, it feels like there is hidden treasure in every sketch to learn and improve

Thank you so much for sharing this advice with us! Looking back at my past sketches, I can definitely see and recall the small things that help define my art. I really love soft and light lines, but I also really love rigid and dark lines to contrast them. I want to work on incorporating more line variation in my work, and I also want to return my focus to my favorite subject to draw--hands. Hands are what I am best at drawing, and they are above all else my favorite subjects to draw. I took a foundational art class and I really noticed how much happier I was drawing hands and incorporating mark making more into my work. I also love using a blender and focusing on shading and contrast. This video couldn't have come at a better time for me, as more recently I've been trying to draw for others. And in the pursuit of drawing for others, I have almost entirely abandoned what I most love about art in the first place. I love the process and applying fun techniques and ideas (I love cutting parts of my art out and overlaying those cutouts over other areas; using an exacto knife is very fun!), and I especially love making my art feel gentle. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. 💚

Great tips and advice!! It can be tough to find your unique style, and I think you gave some great advice for finding it.

I leave this in the back of my mind somewhere and see if I see if it pops up sometime. It’s a nice idea and shows how you think about drawing as well as working as a unique idea for a video.

You're by far the greatest youtuber who teach me that i shouldn't be upset about my ugly drawing and to not totally copy the references. Thank you for this video!

Everyone says that you need to look at the artists you like and see what you like in their works, but i never thought that the answer could be within ourselves. Well i do still have a hindrance because I've spent most of my time practicing instead of drawing for myself so I'll have to do that first. Great video!

You’re so open and accessible: in your communication style and your art. Love it 😊

I liked how calm this was. It was nice to to listen to such thoughtful advice, thank you for sharing!

I really like your energy, and the points that you made in this video were really good and something no one talks about. I've been struggling to get out of this art block and prepare to make this year my most productive year, and this video definitely helped me try to REALLY look into my sketches and see what i like about them. You just earned yourself a new subscriber! 💜 keep up the good work! 👍

i tried drawing ugly sketches of you, but they all came out beautiful

Ugly sketches are a masterpiece in the making. - EVERY blackbelt was once a white belt. 😊

This is the clearest I’ve seen a feeling-related subject like this be explained. Like wow Thanks a lot, it’s like your explanation unlocked a door in my head that leads to a whole new way of learning. I will apply this to so many things. So many many thanks for that!

Wow this video really changed my perspective on style a lot! Thanks so much for putting up this video!

So I've been combining different things from different artists into my sketchbook but my sketchbook isn't just sketches. It's my sh*tbook - notes, grocery lists, ideas, things I need to remember later, everything gets put in there BECAUSE I hate carrying more than one book with me. So I'll copy a portion of another artist's style or a bit of one of their works and then make notes next to it. So when I do turn to my paper to make my pieces I can then refer back to my sh*tbook and I remember what/where/when/why of a piece or something I learned.

So so true! I also do curvy lines always and it's in everything i draw

I feel like I just found a missing puzzle piece. Thank you so much for this video ❤

Thank you for making this video!

Finally some follow what you feel type advice and not the typical methodical, fundamental chore type advice. Now I just gotta get rid of distractions haha and actually draw

I love how cozy this video is! Im just getting into drawing and been struggling with the inner critic but I got a little more confidence to keep going thanks :)

Amazing advice, thank you so much!! I'm saving this and taking notes later, definitely will try to be more aware of what I feel drawing in my art!

I would like to hear more art tips from you in the future, please and thank you! I really enjoyed the video! Have a great day!

What a beautiful video. Thank you for this! :)

love your advice, especially the pep talk at the end!

I'm new to art and I'm still trying to figure things out and this has been really helpful

Thank you soo much! This was very helpful, for a while I have been feeling like the art I make is very emotionless, I don't feel attached to it I don't even know what I like or don't like but this has definitely helped me to figure those things out a bit!

Now I just have to find out how to let go and ugly sketch. :D I always want to draw something with "perfection" and then lose motivation to keep on trying and practicing, because it never turns out how I see it in my head. But I thing, learning to ugly sketch would make things easier for me.

This is a amazing Tipp right here !!!

Thank you for giving me one of those perspective shifts that we all need as artists to get re-inspired. New subscriber. 🤎

Thank you! This gave me the understanding needed to finally begin to figure out my style!

Woah. I haven’t ever had it explained like this before and I think I can look all of my art, even the very abstract and find these threads of what I actually like and am good at. Thank you.

You are such a blessing. Your peace is just emanating off you. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!

I dont have a style, but some tendencies. Yet i cant stop creating, so i just accept i dont have a concise style yet and finish the animation/drawing anyway. Dunno if ever will. This is nice to pay more attention in what im doing, thank you.

This is so true. Art is so intuitive and since I have respected that fact its been easier to draw. Not because I am getting better but because I feel it’s reflecting me truly.

I saved tons and tons of sketches. 😂 in an art 101 course, the professor rly loved my gesture lines, and he was shocked it was persistent throughout the year. After a decade self teaching with digital, I find using textures brushes and carving the sketches to look finished, is 1. lot of fun and 2. Similar to analog sketching. ❤ Im gonna pay attention to this find the style in sketches

I dig your take. I spend countless hours in studying from tutorials and other artists which is profit in my journey. I do regular free sketching that serves as a snapshot of where I am knowledge-wise from my study efforts. Each time i can see improvement but also something of myself coming through which i nurture and gives me direction.

This is very inspiring! I’m going to try the ideas you suggested. Thank you!! ❤

This is insightful. I've been procrastinating on my personal project for a weeks already. I have what I'd call a "fake art style" where I draw in a way that I think most other people will like, however, drawing this way is so exhausting. I actually can draw in a way that is super enjoyable, but I feel like my "effortless artstyle" looks so ugly and uncommon. But once I tried drawing this way, I could go on for hours and hours. So I was "drawing in an ugly way" while watching youtube then this video came up in the recommendation, what a coincidence! Watching this makes me want to start seeing things differently. Thanks for the video!

Just wow!!!! Thank you! I’m going to dig deeper to figure out what it is that calls to me naturally with my art

This is a super interesting approach. Never thought deep about it but I love doodles drawing because they re fast and usually I draw them with gesture I love. Same stuff when you do gesture pose drawing, it has that energy you found in expressive calligraphy. Loved the video and you’re cute!

I'm on my journey with applying my style to fundamentals. I never went to art school or took any classes so I never drew pictures with any structure or knowledge, when I was younger, I would mostly spend hours everyday working on portraits heavily relying on style and intuition to make them beautiful(to my eyes). I finally realized at 29 years old that I need the fundamentals if I ever want to get serious with art(art wasn't my job, it was a hobby passion). I'm in the process of trying to combine my style in conjunction with learning the fundamentals from scratch, this way, my style can have an element of fundamental inherent to it. There are so many parallels to what I am learning to what you talk about in this video (: Loved the video! Another thing I observed as I was watching your video is this: you need to be really aware of what YOU like to do and really be grateful that you get to make whatever you are creating the way you like it. And not try to be like someone else in a "I wish my art was like this" kinda way. But that it's okay to learn from other people

Getting back to analog mediums is very important. I had so many comics all captured inside the pixel. It felt so good to buy pens and paper again and create with those tools. There's something special about creating something that's tangible. Great vid!

Looking forward to hear more from you. . This is an absolute value of learnings. Also, The thumbnail works good too.

Great points to think about! You’ve given me some ideas on how to figure things out! Thank you so much!

As someone who is unlearning how to draw improperly and relearning the fundamentals, RU-vid recommended your video. Very informative. Hope your channel grows up. Take my sub

For some reason this video almost made me cry xD. Such a simple, obvious thing. Overshadowed by the intricacies of drawing. Find we are to what makes our art pop only to be pointed out by another. This was definitely eye-opening. Thank ya Rabbit!!! Now let's climb that mountain!!! Letsssss!!!! Gooooo!!!!!

Just started drawing. Did two studies of a tea kettle. First was charcoal on newsprint. Free and easy. Second pencil on nicer paper. More studied. Liked the first so much more. Your video just reinforced why that was. Thank you. Keep it up. Nice work. Appreciated.

Great video this is the first I’ve heard of this concept it’s a really well thought out discussion with great advice. I just subbed looking forward to more content and checking out more of your videos thank you 😀

Wow, that is such an eye-opener. Thank you.

Love this! I am definitely going to try this more and see what I enjoy :) Thank you.

This is so clever and higly observational. Never thought of it this way. I am the person that destroys what I believe is ugly the minute I mess up a drawing. I don't have a lot of my drawings anymore as you can imagine. I started a new sketchbook for illustrations few days ago to learn to live with my mistakes and this came in perfect timing because one frog on one of the pages is killing me 😂 This was short but very rich in value. Thank you for sharing, I am from now on your subscriber.

Just in the nick of time! Great topic! THX!

I mostly notice things that I dont like to draw instead of what I like. Mostly I hate doing line that have to be perfectly paralel to each other, and I end up drawing things like that a lot somehow. But also theres things I like, like thick linearts and sharp shadows

talking about ugly sketches defining art style and showing some of the ugliest art styles I've ever seen is really enlightening, thank you, I'll use this information to only draw beautiful things, unlike the vomit inducing works shown here

This is such simple yet insightful advice. I've never heard it put that way. It's like that aha moment!!

Thanks for the advice! It really helps.

I get a feeling that this is going to be a big channel one day the content is very good

Really great stuff and well putted togheter! Have went back to my sketching and process after a lot of hours put on fundamentals. It's a weird place when you got to focused on work and creating a professional portfolio and loses the passion on creating, you might lose sight of what brought us to art at the first place (as I did, but slowly getting back and figuring out again). Good work :)

I just discovered your channel and I was expecting you to have atleast 10k subs from the quality of this video, but not even a thousand? Atleast now I can say I’ve been subscribed before you blew up.

This is really interesting! I've picked up on the common themes we might do, what we like, but I've never thought to pay attention to how different types of sketching lines feel! Thanks!

intuitive drawing ✨️ now how to cancel out thoughts and enter the flow zone while drawing? that's a difficult challenge for me

I did the hand thing and right after you said not to do it 🤣

I really needed this video. Thank you

Thank you ❤

You created an amazingly uplifting video! This technique gives one permission to do experimentation and practice at the same time: The real reason you are good at what you do. Don't be so quick to give away credit for what you are good at. Subbed and Liked!

Great video 💙

Girl, it's okay, I have several styles throughout my career, my own and original styles.

This was a very useful video! Thank you for making it 😊

Thank you so much for this video, you've given me some food for thought as an artist who learned not to spend more than 5 minutes on defining a sketch 🙏

Good video, I'll probably check out some of your other uploads. The only thing that confused me is I'm not sure how the tendencies you highlighted in your loose sketches relate to your more polished work you showed after, is that something you could go into a bit more? Thanks either way!

I think for me, and its a major issue moving forward. "Afraid to fail" i just got mad at myself messing up my 1 point perspective practice. Cause it looks ugly, i can tell its 1 point perspective though. Its just wobbly. I'm trying to teach myself its ok to fail at something. Thats y i dont have my GED or drivers.

I've given up on trying to make art super realistic because I find that I can't do it no matter how much I try, even eyes are something I've tried to get right but look off when I do them. Instead, it's evolved into a more cartoony style. I like strong colours, too, spirals and borders - most of my art pieces have borders in them. I find that I also favour certain art supplies over others - my favourites have become inks, watercolours, fineliner pens, acrylic inks (I prefer watery acrylics to the thick tube paints), alcohol markers and pencils. I dislike art supplies that make it difficult to put in detail, like oil pastels and soft pastels and I hate charcoal because of the lack of colour in them. Some supplies I don't know if I like them or not and one of those is acrylic paint pens because it depends on the brand I'm using. Gouache paints are also something else I am not so sure about - I think I need to experiment with them more. Don't get hung up on realism in art - I admire the people who can do it, but you waste your time trying to do something that you simply cannot do, and don't force yourself to create art with supplies that you find difficult to use or don't like the results of - you'll never create good art with supplies that you don't like.

Good observations!

I’ve started art not too long ago and I’m not to sure about my art style so this really helped a lot! Like, seriously TYSMMM. YOUR SO PRETTY BTWWW- pls don’t take that in a weird way lol, I’m a girl too

People like my ugly sketches and ask to have them. I kind of li ke them too.

Thank You!!!

Thanks for this!

This was a very good and insightful video!

underrated. ily.

Still looking for my art style, but sadly can't find anything that defines my paintings

Great video! Really enjoyed.