Submitted my work for Draw A Box Lesson 1 and started the 250 BOX CHALLENGE! _ MUSIC: The Loyalist - Lotus Lane by Preconceived Notions #DrawingProgress #DrawABox #PerspectiveDrawing
While drawing with your hand hovering is an option, it's not one I'd recommend most people to pursue. Generally I urge people to rest their hand *gently* on their drawing surface (with minimal pressure/weight), for the stability. Now this definitely does anchor your hand, making it more likely that you're going to draw form your wrist. It's not generally to such a strong degree that I recommend avoiding it though. Leaning on your elbow, for instance, tends to be a much bigger problem because it tends to serve as a much more substantial anchor that really limits your ability to use your shoulder. When you've got your hand resting on the page, it's important that you continually remind yourself - as you said you had been - to draw from the shoulder, and catch yourself whenever you do inevitably shift back to the wrist or elbow. Every time you find yourself doing that, try the exercise where you pivot your arm from the wrist, then elbow, then shoulder that I describe in the intro-to-drawabox video. It can help reinforce the awareness of what it feels like to work from each pivot. Ultimately it does take time and practice to build up that sense of what your arm is doing, so don't be too hard on yourself. I think drawing with your arm hovering is going to be considerably more taxing (not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it has clear benefits) while also not actually dealing with the matter of self-awareness. It's more of a bandaid solution, avoiding the need to have as much of a sense of what your arm is doing.
Say no more, Sensei. I went back to "hand on paper" and I'm really focusing on using proper form this week. I think it's helping! Bad habits are amazingly stubborn.
Ghosting all the way back to the vanishing point is totally okay. While eventually (when you hit things like the organic perspective boxes and the 250 box challenge) you won't have a concrete vanishing point on the page, the same methodology of ghosting way beyond your intended line will still come in quite handy as you ghost towards an implied vanishing point (likely way off the page).
Good luck with the box challenge! It's a tough one , but seeing the improvement is so satisfying! I'm on lesson 4 right now + I'm working on the cyllinder challenge , it's so challenging!
I'm on this challenge now, got my go ahead from lesson 1 as well. Your initial ellipsis(es?) from lesson 1 are wayyy neater than mine. I also had a rougher time in the beginning, from my bad disciplines, but later ideas seem to be going okay for now. Thanks for the inspiration!
Currently at box 145. The thing that drives me crazy the most is outlining the silhouette of the box, which inevitably brings to at least one side ending up as a double line. I cannot for the love of me remain over the same lines consistently when engaging the shoulder.
awesome perseverance! keep going, i agree with everyone, posture helps a lot. Try taping paper on a tilted surface perpendicular to your viewing angle. This was recommended to me in Architectural drafting class where I was required to draw technical details (plans, sections and perspectives) 6-8 hours a day on regular basis.
Re: Your elbow. Maybe you could tilt your drawing board up so there is less surface to rest your elbow on as if you were painting. Or maybe raise your chair if it is adjustable or stand while you draw? Hold your drawing pad/sketchbook in your lap? Something to alter your posture as this seems like a posture thing. Good job on the boxes!
I think you have gotten some wonderful advice in the comments, that I also taking advantage of :D. It was great to hear your opinion on this, as I hadn't considered drawing this many boxes before, in fact I don't even think I have ever drawn 250 boxes, maybe ever! But easily more than a 1000 circles :) since i draw mostly faces. So I can't wait to hear what you have learned at the end of this challenge. By the way, are you focus completely on this box challenge at the moment or are you still doing some of your face and body drawing here and there? Cheers!
I've been just doing the draw a box stuff, mainly because it takes time to adjust my table, wrangle the ipad, get the supplies set up, etc for charcoal. I'm trying to figure out how to do both while not spreading myself too thin-it's a challenge with limited time and space.
Hi I love your videos. Although this video has nothing to do with Watts Atelier, I was wondering if you could answer a question. So I'm taking the online course and I noticed that the course makes you do figure drawing but barely any anatomy. Do you think its beneficial to study anatomy while doing the figure drawing or did you wait until you finished the drawing phase course?
Thank you! That is really good question, one that I am still trying to figure out. I know some basic anatomy and can find certain landmarks, but it's pretty limited. I think (in terms of progression), that truly understanding how to draw and shade 3D forms (cubes, spheres, etc) will get you farther than knowing specific anatomy. Anatomy is helpful if you're trying to enhance/alter the image from what you're seeing (so if you want to get into visual development or character design), but without a good grasp on the fundamentals, it won't get you far. If you want to get started with anatomy, I'd start with the skeleton because that's pretty consistent from one person to the next, but I wouldn't worry too much about the names or muscles too early. Hope that helps!
Drawing with arm hovering on the paper is a legendary skill.........dont do that while learning and you will get tired soon, try to focus on accuracy by drawing line over line and circle over circle with hands touching on paper, I mean some part of your wrist. It could be as jeff said or pinky knuckle as bradwynn jones said when I contacted him(He has a youtube channel)or complete pinky and ring finger on the paper as I do(a slightly different approach from jeff, more or like proko style with my secret ingredients on it :)). I think Jeff watts said that earlier.....................I think you might have missed that. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand boxes are awesome....... :)
@@eduardobarboza9499 I dont think its important for drawing and yes you get tired, but as you progress you forget that your arm is even on the paper. Right now my ring and pinky finger is on the paper as feather touch and works as pivot. Happy drawing
Saw this and went to test it out, while holding my hand over the paper I could draw my straight lines without a problem as long as it was at a slight angle and visibly lost some of the control when the drawing surface was flat Not sure what your drawing position is, sorry if its not relevant at all lol p.s. thanks for the great vids!
Thank you! I had much better control when I switched to an angled surface, very helpful and much less uncomfortable on my shoulder. I was getting these weird shoulder cramps (which I realized was from trying to get my arm further from the surface).
I don't see "shoulder drawing" as really a great thing unless you are working with an easel. Watch Proko channel as he draws this way. For this exercise, elbow motion with a fixed wrist and some shouolder sympathy is best. IMO
I have been thinking about this a lot because I sometimes draw in a more large-scale easel setup and sometimes I draw in a sketchbook. It seems like the techniques for one don't really work for the other! I'm not really sure what's better but I agree, there is not one "right way" to draw.
I've actually never drawn a comic character... however, I will be drawing some more portraits and figures in the upcoming months! That's gotta count for something!
While drawing with your hand hovering is an option, it's not one I'd recommend most people to pursue. Generally I urge people to rest their hand *gently* on their drawing surface (with minimal pressure/weight), for the stability. Now this definitely does anchor your hand, making it more likely that you're going to draw form your wrist. It's not generally to such a strong degree that I recommend avoiding it though. Leaning on your elbow, for instance, tends to be a much bigger problem because it tends to serve as a much more substantial anchor that really limits your ability to use your shoulder.
When you've got your hand resting on the page, it's important that you continually remind yourself - as you said you had been - to draw from the shoulder, and catch yourself whenever you do inevitably shift back to the wrist or elbow. Every time you find yourself doing that, try the exercise where you pivot your arm from the wrist, then elbow, then shoulder that I describe in the intro-to-drawabox video. It can help reinforce the awareness of what it feels like to work from each pivot.
Ultimately it does take time and practice to build up that sense of what your arm is doing, so don't be too hard on yourself. I think drawing with your arm hovering is going to be considerably more taxing (not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it has clear benefits) while also not actually dealing with the matter of self-awareness. It's more of a bandaid solution, avoiding the need to have as much of a sense of what your arm is doing.
Say no more, Sensei. I went back to "hand on paper" and I'm really focusing on using proper form this week. I think it's helping! Bad habits are amazingly stubborn.
Ghosting all the way back to the vanishing point is totally okay. While eventually (when you hit things like the organic perspective boxes and the 250 box challenge) you won't have a concrete vanishing point on the page, the same methodology of ghosting way beyond your intended line will still come in quite handy as you ghost towards an implied vanishing point (likely way off the page).
1:12 Haha such a cute moment. But I feel ya.
40 boxes in and now i realize that ive also used my elbow for many of the boxes
Good thing you have a lot more to do hahahahha. Good luck!
This is a very interesting channel, It motivates me to work more on fundamentals. I wish you luck on your journey.
Good luck with the box challenge! It's a tough one , but seeing the improvement is so satisfying! I'm on lesson 4 right now + I'm working on the cyllinder challenge , it's so challenging!
I was just looking ahead thinking "omg. so. many. challenges." Baby steps!
I'm on this challenge now, got my go ahead from lesson 1 as well. Your initial ellipsis(es?) from lesson 1 are wayyy neater than mine. I also had a rougher time in the beginning, from my bad disciplines, but later ideas seem to be going okay for now. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hang in there! You will be so happy with the results.
Currently at box 145. The thing that drives me crazy the most is outlining the silhouette of the box, which inevitably brings to at least one side ending up as a double line. I cannot for the love of me remain over the same lines consistently when engaging the shoulder.
awesome perseverance! keep going,
i agree with everyone, posture helps a lot. Try taping paper on a tilted surface perpendicular to your viewing angle. This was recommended to me in Architectural drafting class where I was required to draw technical details (plans, sections and perspectives) 6-8 hours a day on regular basis.
The angled table helped!
Re: Your elbow. Maybe you could tilt your drawing board up so there is less surface to rest your elbow on as if you were painting. Or maybe raise your chair if it is adjustable or stand while you draw? Hold your drawing pad/sketchbook in your lap? Something to alter your posture as this seems like a posture thing. Good job on the boxes!
I changed up my table to an angle, definitely helped!
I think you have gotten some wonderful advice in the comments, that I also taking advantage of :D. It was great to hear your opinion on this, as I hadn't considered drawing this many boxes before, in fact I don't even think I have ever drawn 250 boxes, maybe ever! But easily more than a 1000 circles :) since i draw mostly faces. So I can't wait to hear what you have learned at the end of this challenge. By the way, are you focus completely on this box challenge at the moment or are you still doing some of your face and body drawing here and there? Cheers!
I've been just doing the draw a box stuff, mainly because it takes time to adjust my table, wrangle the ipad, get the supplies set up, etc for charcoal. I'm trying to figure out how to do both while not spreading myself too thin-it's a challenge with limited time and space.
Hi I love your videos. Although this video has nothing to do with Watts Atelier, I was wondering if you could answer a question. So I'm taking the online course and I noticed that the course makes you do figure drawing but barely any anatomy. Do you think its beneficial to study anatomy while doing the figure drawing or did you wait until you finished the drawing phase course?
Thank you! That is really good question, one that I am still trying to figure out. I know some basic anatomy and can find certain landmarks, but it's pretty limited. I think (in terms of progression), that truly understanding how to draw and shade 3D forms (cubes, spheres, etc) will get you farther than knowing specific anatomy. Anatomy is helpful if you're trying to enhance/alter the image from what you're seeing (so if you want to get into visual development or character design), but without a good grasp on the fundamentals, it won't get you far.
If you want to get started with anatomy, I'd start with the skeleton because that's pretty consistent from one person to the next, but I wouldn't worry too much about the names or muscles too early. Hope that helps!
Drawing with arm hovering on the paper is a legendary skill.........dont do that while learning and you will get tired soon, try to focus on accuracy by drawing line over line and circle over circle with hands touching on paper, I mean some part of your wrist. It could be as jeff said or pinky knuckle as bradwynn jones said when I contacted him(He has a youtube channel)or complete pinky and ring finger on the paper as I do(a slightly different approach from jeff, more or like proko style with my secret ingredients on it :)). I think Jeff watts said that earlier.....................I think you might have missed that. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand boxes are awesome....... :)
Yeah maybe I'll attempt it again in a decade or so lol
Do you think arm hovering drawing is a skill worth learning in case it's a person that doesn't actually get tired from it?
@@eduardobarboza9499 I dont think its important for drawing and yes you get tired, but as you progress you forget that your arm is even on the paper. Right now my ring and pinky finger is on the paper as feather touch and works as pivot. Happy drawing
Saw this and went to test it out, while holding my hand over the paper I could draw my straight lines without a problem as long as it was at a slight angle and visibly lost some of the control when the drawing surface was flat
Not sure what your drawing position is, sorry if its not relevant at all lol
p.s. thanks for the great vids!
Thank you! I had much better control when I switched to an angled surface, very helpful and much less uncomfortable on my shoulder. I was getting these weird shoulder cramps (which I realized was from trying to get my arm further from the surface).
I don't see "shoulder drawing" as really a great thing unless you are working with an easel. Watch Proko channel
as he draws this way. For this exercise, elbow motion with a fixed wrist and some shouolder sympathy
is best. IMO
I have been thinking about this a lot because I sometimes draw in a more large-scale easel setup and sometimes I draw in a sketchbook. It seems like the techniques for one don't really work for the other! I'm not really sure what's better but I agree, there is not one "right way" to draw.
White Teeth gaddamn😍
Draw a Comic character on another channel since this is just an educational progress channel..we want to see if you can do it now
I've actually never drawn a comic character... however, I will be drawing some more portraits and figures in the upcoming months! That's gotta count for something!
Rebecca Rand do you like comics?...you could just do it for fun