How To Draw Anything You See by Will Jack

1. 1. Intro: What's up, guys? I'm well, Jack, and I'm gonna teach you how to draw Good in this tutorial, assured the approach and techniques I used when I draw from reference. Although it may drawing a portrait, these methods could be used to try literally anything. We'll start by showing you some exercises that will help train your brain to eliminate details and correctly identify big shapes, which are the building blocks for any good artwork. With a solid foundation, details will easily fall in place. It was in practice. These techniques will become second nature, and images alone start to draw themselves. Not really all still up dropping through a process of simplification and working from loose to tight or big shapes of small shapes, I'll show you a formula that anyone can learn to greatly improve your art, make a drawing fun, expressive and fast, while allowing you to achieve likeness and realism in a way that feels natural. And these methods won't just teach you how to draw in a specific program or with a specific medium. I will teach you how to see and that'll translate into any avenue. Are you choose to dio. I hope you enjoy it 2. 2. How to See: all right. First, let's talk about how to see if you look at this reference. You can see it's packed with detail. There's hair, there's eyelashes, etcetera. You have to eliminate all these details and get the big shapes first. A common practice among artists is squinting, squinting, blurs the reference, eliminating details and small shapes So you can better see the big shapes to simulate this . I'm gonna blur my reference. Now you can start to see the big shapes. I don't generally do this. This is just to illustrate my point. Okay, Say I want to draw this. I I need to focus on the overall shape and the angles that make up that shape. This is the overall shape. This is what we have to match. So I'll start by extending the angles through. So I could really see what the angle is. And you can see me doing this for each angle extending through and indicating where each line starts and stops. I can also check relationships of points by drawing angles between them like this. Okay, so that shape is pretty accurate. Now I know what you're thinking. This is a tedious technical way of drawing and you're right at first. But once you start thinking this way, you won't have to draw these lines, and you could jump straight into a big value like I'm doing here well, quickly smudged that around, getting something close to the shape quickly indicate the angles, soften up that edge of it and move right into the smaller shapes within the shape. Creating Accurate aren't quickly. You can see that because I have a big shape that's relatively accurate. Placing the small shapes inside of that shape becomes much easier, and then it's just a point of adding highlights, low lights and details. So if you can do this, you can do this. 3. 3. Exercise 1: Drawing Over Reference: exercise. One is gonna be drawing big shapes over your reference. You want to do this with straight lines and the fewest possible angles. You want to eliminate all subtleties and nuances and simplify into long straight lines. The reason for using straight lines is there much easier to duplicate than a curved line. You can see where a straight line is pointing. You can't really see where occur. Blends pointing it should only take a couple of minutes, and when you're done, it should look incredibly simplified. Something like this again. The reason for this approach is once you've established big shapes, it's much easier to place medium and small shapes within those big shapes. I'd recommend doing this exercise at the beginning of each drawing until you really have the hang of this process and even set that drawn over reference aside as a secondary reference and a reminder of how you want to be thinking and how you want to be moving forward with your drawing 4. 4. Exercise 2: Understanding Angles: Now we'll go into a little more depth about understanding angles and ankle relationships. Now this is going to seem like a tedious process, which it is. But as you'll see in later videos, I don't actually draw this way. But because I understand these drawing fundamentals, I gotta think and see this way without actually having a measure anything and jump straight in the foot part. Okay, starting with this, I I'll blur my eyes and identify with the overall shape. It's This is the shape you should be saying now, if I draw a line from this point to this point, I'll get the overall tilt of the shape. It will start the drawing by duplicating this angle and just working out from there one angle at a time. If I draw a line from this point to this point, that gives me the angle relationship of those two points, which is easy to duplicate. So once again, if I draw a line from this point to this point, it gives me the ankle relationship of those two points. And if I just look at the simple shapes and creating, it's really easy to duplicate. All right, on to the other I once again, we want to. There are eyes and identify with big shape is if you need to draw over your reference to help you see what the big shape actually is, then do that. I can see that these two points lined up horizontally. This is the angle between these two points, and the top and bottom of the eye shapes pretty much matchup horizontally, so I'll just transfer that information over to my drawing, paying close attention to each angle. I'll observe the angle between these two points and mash that on my drive. Even though we're focusing on angles and not measurements, I'll go ahead and measure one I into the other. I. So to do that will observe the width of the smaller I on the left, and I'll see that it goes into the eye on the right just under two times. Pretty accurate. All right now we'll move on to the big shapes underneath in us, it's always the same process. First squint. Identify with big shapes. Our draw them on your reference if you have to and then transfer them over here drawing. All right, let's when these two points. If I draw angles from any existing points, where those lines intersect is where that point goes. I could also draw a vertical line up through the eye shape and see where that intersex we'll do the same thing for the other side of the nose, drawing angles from arbitrary points that are already established and where those lines intersect is the mark. Now will draw this angle, remembering the picture, these lines extending through to better understand what this angle is. So this is the process, and I will continue to repeat this process until all of my big shapes are established. Euro measure the height of my eye into the height of the nose and lip ship, noting that one I falls just under the lip. Quick proportion Checks like this will keep your drawing from getting off. If I draw a vertical line up from this point, I'll see that it hits here on the eye shape. Then I'll draw that corresponding line down as well as another arbitrary angle to intersect with and find the point of this mouth shape. Maybe one were angle just to check, and there's the mark, but you afford with the drawing. You can start to measure off what you've already established, and it becomes like a puzzle where the more you have down, the easier it becomes to find the rest of the shapes. Now let's find the point of the chin. We'll take this angle here, and then I'll drop a vertical all the way through the eye shape. And as you can see, it's directly below this point. So if I drop that vertical on my drawing and match the other angle, there's my mark. I worked my way out from that point and find this long angle of the cheek, and if I extend outline, I could see where the outside contour the face goes and quickly drop in those angles now for the hair First identified, the big shape blocked that out in blue, so I could really see what's going on, and I'll start with this point here. Drop a vertical line to see where hits on the eye shape, and then I'll take an angle from this point over here and see where the Intersect. Then I'll draw the angles that come out of that point. They're pretty much vertical and horizontal, so that's easy. I could find this point by pulling an angle from here and this point by pulling enable from here the corner of this year shaped lines up perfectly with the tilt of the first, I withdrew and we can find its exact location drawing an ankle. From this point, we'll extend the angle of that Europe and then find, with top of the year is extending an angle from this point? No, in a double check where have placed the back of the head. So measure this I and I'll see that it's the same with as from the I to the back of the head double. Check that on my drawing and keep moving. To find this point, I use these two angles. Duplicate them over to my drawing, and there's that point for this point. Well taken angle from over here. Also, drop a vertical and see where hits on the your shape. For this point, drop the vertical sea where it's on the eye shape pulling angle from over here. Then, on my drawing, I will duplicate that angle as well as the vertical find work. Extend that angle outlook for the next point drawn angle from here, drop vertical and see that it had to this point on the I recreate that observation of my drawing and so on and so forth. So the whole idea is your paying very close attention to angles. And were those angles lined up horizontally and vertically and also extend angles through drawing to see where the Intersect. I know this is repetitive, but it's a good thing to start thinking about wrapping your head around and again. You really don't have to draw like this. But if you do this exercise a few times, you'll start to understand it and you'll start to be able to see angles a lot better. Remember the importance of checking where things lined up horizontally and vertically. This is a very useful technique, and I use it all the time when I'm trying to achieve likeness certain aspects of the drawing me to be more accurate than others, like the eyes, nose and mouth need to be more accurate than the color, for example. So I spent more time measuring the eyes, nose and mouth than I would the collar or even the year. But some points, like this point of the chin are very important, and I would definitely drive a vertical up through the eye and see where that pointed the chin lines up with the I Okay, I think that sums up this lesson of understanding angles. I know there's a lot of information to take in. I recommend watching through this a few times. It'll start to really sink in, and this will become second nature after a while. As complicated and tedious is, this is it only took me about an hour to do this, and then within a few minutes I could knock in some values and jump right into the drawing if I wanted to. I hope you learned something from this. This is very valuable, drawing fundamental information, in my opinion and should help you in all facets of drawing and painting. All right, I'll see in the next video 5. 5. Exercise 3: Practice Studies & Seeing Shapes: and this video will focus on seeing shapes. And I'll be doing some preliminary studies from my reference that'll get me prepared for drawing the full portrait. Alert my reference slightly so it's easier to see what I'm talking about. I'll start with study of the island right First, I just want to lay down a value that's close to the overall shape. I'm visualizing the angles that we talked about in the previous exercise without actually drawing the angles in. Once I have the overall shape established, I'll start hinting at the smaller, dark shapes within that shape but still staying as broad as I can and remembering to blur my eyes. I like to start my drawings with a blocky square brush and then switch over to around finer brush as they move into the smaller shapes. Now that I've indicated some dark shapes, I want to hint at some light shapes, giving me a range of dark smith tones and lights. Now I come in with darks again, this time with a smaller round brush, and now, because I already have some values established, it's kind of like a map, and I can see where the next marks need to go, and each time I repeat this process going to smaller and smaller shapes, the drawing will get more and more accurate as long as I continue to blur my eyes, concentrate on angles, see the overall shapes and hold off on the details. This is finished enough for a study. I'll throw in some highlights on the I just to make myself feel good and I'll start a new one. So again I established the overall shape I'll come in. On top of that wasn darks, hinting at where I think those darks go and then hinting at some lights, giving me my darks, mid tones and light values. I'm always staying very loose and non committal in the beginning. That way it's easy for me to push and pull shapes around and changes. I go. That's good enough, and I'll study that year. We'll lay down a mid value, hinted where the darks go, hinted with lights, go and then come back over that and tightened up with a smaller brush. I'm still visualizing all of the angles and the overall big shape, as well as the small shapes within the big shape and the ankles that make up those smaller shapes. Pretty simple, right? So you drawings easy. This process of thinking big to small, boosted tight is what it's all about, whether you're doing realism from a reference not from a reference. If you're doing landscape our concept art. You always want to start with your big shapes, move into your medium size shapes, followed by your small shapes and say the details for the very pause right here and really drove this point home. Can you tell what I'm drawing here? If you can't, it's gonna be the knows. The point is, look how simple it is. I have a dark value amid value in a light value, and the shapes are pretty much a simple issue could possibly make him. But you can already start to tell what it's gonna be, and having this down to start with makes the process moving forward so much easier. I'll drive the year again just because here's can be challenging. I mean, if you actually look it in here, it's pretty strange. So how do you draw something that's really we're looking? Don't try to drive that thing. Just look at the big shapes and draw the big shapes. I wanted to drop the nose again to see how simply I could draw. So without trying to be too accurate, I lay down amid value late in some darks, late in some lights, and I was done. And even though it wasn't super accurate and didn't really look like the reference, I was using its relatively close and I was able to do it in one or two minutes. Reason for doing this is I learned more in the foundation, part of my drawing than I ever do detail in a drawing out. So if I do a bunch of quick studies of something, we'll be better prepared when it comes to actually drawing it. Then if I were to do fewer studies and spend a bunch of time detail ing and trying to make him look pretty all right, so your homework is due a bunch of practice studies. Now go do your homework and I'll see you in the next video 6. 6. Drawing the Portrait : alright now for drawing the portrait, we'll start by laying down a mid value and smudging it around. I like working this way because it gives you a middle value, which allows you to work with darks as well as lights. If you start your drawing on a white background, your darkening for your darks as well as your midtown's, you don't have anywhere to create your lights. It's exactly the same with painting digitally or traditionally, I'll start by laying down a middle skin tone to work with. In fact, literally. Everything I'm talking about applies to painting. No, blur my eyes and look at my reference and try to identify the big shapes of the eye sockets and as simply as possible with a nice big brush. I'll lay down a few marks to indicate where I think those shapes go. Same thing with the nose or mouth. Notice how simplified it is. At this point, I really can't say it enough. Simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify how you think and simplify how you drop. So move around the rest of the head, flicking my eyes back and forth for my drawing to a reference roughly laying in my big, dark shapes. What's often that by swinging it around and I'll start carving in some of the light ships. The beauty of starting with a mid value is that I have somewhere to go with my lights because I have two dark shapes established. It's easier for me to place these light shapes. I can see basically where they want to go, so this is stage one of the drawing process. I've loosely established a range of dark mid tones and lights using only big shapes. If you have trouble getting to this stage in your drawing, then you should practice this stage for it's the foundation for the entire drawing, and it's really the most important part. So now that I've established something relatively close, I'll go back over my drawing with a smaller round brush more closely identifying the big shapes that I see in my reference by blurring and flicking my eyes back before I'm still thinking about angles and where things line up vertically horizontally because I have a rough set of values down that's relatively accurate to the shapes, I'm saying as a move through the drawing again and lay down new boundaries or outlines for these shapes. It's easier for me to see where the boundaries of these shapes go. And as I repeat this process a few times, it gets more and more accurate each time. So the second pass on the face is basically done. First, I established big shapes than I refined those big shapes. I'll catch up the collar and the jacket to the rest of the drawing and then tighten these shapes up again. I can see that my darks aren't dark enough, so I moved through the drawing and just darken it up of it all right now we're gonna come in for the third pass. We're going to do the exact same thing where we're blurring our eyes, looking back and forth to the reference, trying to see where the shapes air off and pushing and pulling those shapes around to get them more accurate. I'll flip my drawing in my reference horizontally. At this point, this really helps to see your drawing with fresh eyes and identify what's off. I recommend flipping your drawing a few times throughout the drawing process. If you're using traditional media, you can't do this, but you can turn your drawing or painting upside down as well as reference. And I definitely do this when I'm using traditional media. So now is the move through this drawing again, further tightening the shapes, making the shapes slightly more accurate. I'll start to hint at things like the pupils, because I can start to see where they go inside of the eye shape that I've already established. But I'm still keeping it nice and lose, so it's easy to change. Moving forward, we'll head to the whites of the eyes, observing the distance and angle relationships of those light shapes. It's still a bit off, but that's the reason for staying loose with your drawing, so you can continue to push and pull shapes, getting more and more accurate as you proceed. I'll go through and tighten up these shapes one more time before I'm afford with the final stage, which is detail ing and finalizing the drawing. So once again, I'm squinting and looking back and forth from my reference to my drawing, trying to see which direction the shapes need to be pushed and pulled. I'll keep working this stage until I feel that it's a close as I can make it without really putting a detail in. Remember, if you start detail ing too soon and your big and medium sized shapes aren't accurate, your details. We're gonna be in the wrong place. So this point, I feel like my big shapes are pretty accurate. There's a good amount of likeness, and I feel like I could move into the detail ing stage, but it's really just more of the same. I'm going over the drawing again, this time with a smaller brush continuing to refine. After this point, it's really up to the artist How far you want to take the drawing. Some people like a really loose, unfinished feel. Others really like a super detailed piece. Personally, I like something in between. But as long as you have this solid foundation, no matter how far you take the detail ing of your drawing, it's gonna look good. So detail ing is really the easy part of the drawing process. You're just fine tuning what you've already established. A general rule of thumb is to work from dark to light. You can see me doing this as I add form to the hair. I have a foundation of darks and mid tones that I could then come in and add highlights on top of it's much more difficult to place those highlights. If I don't have a foundation of the darks in mid tones on the same rule of thumb applies for painting. Does it go about finishing this piece? You'll notice that the overall drawing barely changes, and only really doing is adding sharper, thinner lines. Everything is established in the early stages of the drawing, finding your shapes and angles. Detailing really is the easy part. Okay, well, that is a lot of information. Man covers his years of art school and learning from artists that were better than using this approach. I feel like I could literally draw anything I see so your takeaways from this course should be pay very close attention, toe angles and big shapes. Don't move onto small shapes until your big shapes are established. And don't you open the details until you're big and medium sized shapes are as accurate as you could possibly get them. Be patient in the beginning of your drawing and spend extra time getting the foundation accurate. I think it's simply as possible, really You should just focus on shapes, angles and values and do practice studies. Practice Studies were great for working out aspects of the drawing that you'll encounter when you're doing your finished piece. Also find it easier to not be committed to a practice study. This gives me more freedom to explore the shapes and not worry about the outcome. Plus, they're fun. They're fast and they really accelerate your drawing skills more than just about anything you could dio. I know I've said the word angles about 100 times in this tutorial, but always think about angles. Angles make up the big shapes, which are the building blocks for the entire drawing. Learn to really see angles and big shapes, and you'll be on your way to becoming a good artist. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and you learn something on. Hopefully as you fall asleep at night, you hear the words, angles and big shapes repeating over and over in your head.