Four questions?
Four questions.
They're all art related, but they're for our beginners.
I don't think I pressed record on it.
That would be bad.
What mistakes do you constantly see people making in drawing?
Rushing.
When I see people drawing...
I've been teaching eight years now and I've seen so many different kinds of exercises,
sketches and drawings and there is a difference between speed and rushing.
Rushing is when they're doing it not for themselves.
They're sketching and drawing for someone else and it's structured, the homework.
But if you're drawing for you, you're going to put the time and the focus and the energy
into it.
But, "Oh my God, my homework is due tomorrow," they'll stay up for hours and they'll try
to bust it out as fast as they can.
And so they're rushing now.
And the rushing, you're not going to really learn from it.
You're not going to really add any kind of memory to it as well and the experience is
also not as fun.
So, over time, that can be very jading as an experience and it has a long-term effect.
So that problem of rushing is a part of also time management as well.
So being able to take your time in the moment, to really invest, to get as much as possible out of it.
Not about how good or bad it is, but making sure the experience is as fun.
I saw a wonderful artist's work just yesterday that I was giving feedback on.
And it is the most common thing, is specializing in horses, specializing in human bodies, specializing
in anything like that and not knowing what they're made of.
That is the most common one, is that if you're going to do a body, it helps to know the anatomy.
In fact, it's almost crucial if you're going to try to get any kind of illusion of reality.
And the classic craft seems like the kind of things people want to jump over because they
see the finished work.
They say, "I think I can do that finished work."
So they go for the finished work and they didn't do all of the work that it takes to
make it so that it has authority to it.
What mistakes do you constantly see people make in their drawings?
People don't really do live drawing enough and study.
Studying is important no matter where you are in your career.
It's like eating your veggies, and that's one thing I actually wasn't doing when I was younger.
And now I am paying the price.
I'm like, "Okay, I have to go back."
I don't know about that. Those are great.
Oh, thank you. Okay.
Yeah, I know the mistakes.
I know where all the mistakes are, but that's usually what I notice is people don't have
good foundation and they make excuses for it by saying, "Oh, that's just my style."
I can tell when somebody genuinely has a style or they're trying to cover something up.
Yeah. I love that. That's like my favorite one.
"That's my style." It's like, "Cool. Good luck with that style."
I mean, nothing wrong with it but if it's not genuine and I can tell that that's not
what it is, you're trying to lie to me, and your work is saying something else.
Well, I think, most of the time, they're lying to themselves. They actually believe.
They want to believe that it's their style, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
What mistakes do you see artists make in their drawings?
The most obvious thing is probably anatomy, but that's an ongoing process anyway, right?
But if you can kind of break it down to something even more rudimentary or whatever it is, I
think the way that they go about starting their drawings.
They start out with this really clean, pristine, straight and nervous line is what I called
it instead of being loose and free and confident.
That is always the issue and that the minute that they don't get it exactly right, they erase.
So instead of just moving through a drawing, they stop before they even start because they're
not confident.
It's already up here.
So that's the most common mistake is this where they're at up here, is that their insecurities
and feeling is not right.
And, you know, you have to deal with that even as a seasoned artist, but even more so
at the beginning.
So I think that's a big issue.
What's the biggest drawing mistake you see students making?
In drawing, the biggest mistake I see is not paying attention to how things are connected
to one another.
So every single thing, like my shirt, even these seams, there's all this stitchwork in there.
My belts has, like...I actually don't have my belt on, but my belt has...
You are not wearing any pants under...
Yeah, no. I'm just completely pantless.
No, there's all these seams and like everything has volume to it.
So like even the edges on a belt has that silhouette edge and then the contour line,
and everybody seems to just flatten it out so it looks like a piece of paper.
And then the other thing is just ellipsis.
Everybody has trouble with the ellipsis.
It's the bane of existence.
I think people should just start by making cylinders over and over again and then when
they're comfortable doing that, move on.
But that's my own philosophy and my students get very frustrated by that.
What mistakes do you constantly see artists make in drawings?
In drawings?
Yeah.
I think anatomy.
I mean, you know that better than me.
They're rushing.
For me, as an inker, I have to fix it every now and then.
Even as the inker?
Yeah.
You fix the drawer...
Yeah, because you have to draw too in order to be a good inker.
Some of the new guys, they don't do a lot of perspective, like backgrounds.
So the old school guys, they know the good school, which is like do all perspective by
hand because that's the hard way to learn it.
And now they have the programs.
Oh, so, artists are using 3D software now?
Some of them.
Do you feel like that makes it a little too stiff?
Yes.
It does?
Yes.
So, it's better to know your perspective and then draw it?
Uh-huh, because even if you build like straight lines with the ruler, you can go in and do
it freehand, and that will give you more organic feel.
And it's like if you see the backgrounds in real life, you don't see perfect lines way
in the back.
It's kind of like foggy.
So it gives more realistic light, you know?
So, yeah.
The thing that I find commonly is that when a student is learning how to draw, their habits
get in the way the most.
If they learned manga before they learned how to draw the figure, they try to draw the
figure with manga eyeballs and manga proportions, thinking that that's figure drawing because
that's all they know the figure to be.
So it gets really difficult for them to understand traditional proportions and foundation principles
because they want to attach it to this other thing that they've learned as they were growing up.
And it's really hard.
It's like stopping or quitting smoking cigarettes to try to break the habit of all of those
manga traditions.
Be more receptive to learning everything and try not to think that those tools that you've
already done are the tools you're always going to be using.
Those were the tools that got you started.
Now learn the rest of the tools because it's like those are the beginner tools, now level
up to the more advanced tools.
And that'll get you anywhere you want to go.
Those tools are very limited where the advanced ones get you the broader range in the industry.
What mistakes do you constantly see beginner artists make in their drawings?
One thing I was kind of messing up with a lot is like anatomy.
So one thing that I like to do is a lot of figure drawing where you would go and like
try to draw people live.
Definitely drawing the body, drawing the hands, drawing the feet, you know, it's important.
A lot of people like to focus on the face or just the eyes, but it's important to, even
like for background, things that aren't as much fun to draw, it's important to practice
those things too.
He's brilliant.
You've been doing this for years?
You know your shit and I love it.
What mistakes do you constantly see people making?
I see mostly anatomy.
Anatomy is really hard.
It's like the number one thing people say.
Yeah, because I think it's really hard for people to get it.
I think another one is gesture.
I think people give up really fast on those.
Like, "Oh, it's really hard to control this. Okay.
I'm not going to do that."
Okay.
What mistakes do you constantly see artists making in their drawings?
In their drawing.
I feel like there is not enough drawing.
Like...
What?
No, hold on. Let me rephrase that better!
So they just don't draw enough?
Yes, they don't draw enough.
I feel like the foundation, usually, it can be improved on because a lot of people try
to jump into style and painting.
But without the drawing foundation, you know, your painting is gonna look a little wobbly or weak.
So I would say practice more and draw from life more, and I feel like you're painting
will look better.
Second question, what booth are you at?
My booth is 2046.
Okay. That was for my wife actually.
Oh, okay. Cool.
Sorry. She's texting me while I'm interviewing.
No, it's all good.
I'm a professional. I'm a professional.
You're the best professional.
What mistakes do you constantly see artists make in their drawings?
The biggest one is overdetailing and really getting into the details without understanding
what makes the details work, what makes everything come together.
So a lot of it comes back to the foundations.
And everyone says, "Oh, the foundation," but it's true.
If you don't know your foundation is all the stuff you put on top, it's like, "Oh, that's
a beautiful eye.
But why is it three degrees over there and this one's three degrees down here?"
Or usually it's something more subtle like it's slightly tilted the other way or something.
No, no, no. It's really that far off.
Oh, really?
Yeah. Or it could be that far off.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Maybe not actually, but it was like, "Wow, that's...
Okay, let's go to the next person," type of thing.
But, no, I think it's the details, like just really rendering and getting into all that
because you love to do it, which is great, but it's just overdone.
What's the biggest mistake you see people making in their drawings?
Structure, generally, is a huge one.
You know, there's a lot of really quick kind of paintings nowadays, where it's kind of
like concept art, but it's not really a concept for anything because they can't finish a painting
because they lack structure.
Bad anatomy and bad inking.
Bank inking, do you mean like sloppy?
Sloppy, yeah.
They just practice making lines.
And even though a lot of guys go digitally today, it's good to learn how to master how
using a brush so that you're doing it subconsciously so that you're not even thinking about it.
It just requires practice.
The number one mistake I see people using in their drawings all the time is jumping
to details too quickly.
They're getting a little impatient with themselves and they tend to want to finish the drawing
as quickly as they can.
But, in doing so, they tend to confuse economy with structure.
They think that they can, by jumping into the detail stage of a drawing, that they're
finished, when, in fact, they're really just putting the cart before the horse.
You still need to follow the same form.
You still need to follow the same sort of strategy, the same plan of attack, and I see
it all the time, drawings that don't have solid value structure, drawings that are very,
very detailed, but there's nothing anchoring it so that it doesn't look like it's actually
telling a story.
Innumerable examples of that, especially in school.
What are the most common mistakes you see people making in their drawings?
Probably the biggest one is just a lack of structure.
I see a lot, especially digital artists, I see a lot of beautiful compositions and beautiful
color palettes and beautiful everything.
And you zoom in a bit closer and you look at someone's face and it's just flat, and
it's really disappointing because so much work I see that, you know, first glance is great.
Second glance is just kind of a letdown.
So I wish people would just learn how to get a bit more of a sculptural feel of their work.
Don't even take a lot, just a bit more, a bit less smudgy digital work or even smudgy
painter work, or smudgy charcoal work and a bit more structure.
Planar?
Planar, three dimensional, you know.
You don't have to go full Frazetta or Bridgman.
Just a bit more.
What mistakes do you constantly see artists make in their drawings?
Most of the time it's just basic anatomy things, like knowing the anatomy and then breaking
it to bend it to like making more stuff.
Like what I do, a lot of the anatomy doesn't make sense, man.
It's intentional
Yeah. It's because I'm stretching the anatomy to exaggerate my characters, you know.
But knowing, like going through that process of learning it properly first to be able to
bend and shape it where it still looks right afterwards is one of the main things I think.
Awesome.
What's the biggest mistake you see artists make in their drawings?
The biggest mistake I feel is like just rushing too much to the details.
They just kind of want to rush to the finish and I can see that and I see that they're
missing the story.
They're missing the feeling.
They're missing the gesture, and over and over again.
That's why I see just a lot of dead drawings.
They're just missing the life and the energy because of the lack of sometimes just really
observing and looking at people all the time and paying attention and drawing when you're
not drawing so that you're...
"Hey, wow. Look at that person's mannerism."
Looks at posture and put it back into that artwork.
But that's the biggest thing, the mistake that I see over and over is trying to get
to the details too quickly.
Yeah. Cool.
Hey, guys. In the comments, let me know what you think are the biggest drawing mistakes you're making
now and what you're going to do to fix it.
You can comment below, get the discussion going.
And stick around.
I've got two more Asking Pros videos coming soon.
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We'll put that in there.