Again I was inspired by a YouTube video which demonstrates that drawing slow and steady can returns great results. Although my slow and steady speed is much slower than any great draftsman out there, not because it takes me more time to make marks, but because the marks I make have a tendency to be incorrect.
Watch this video, it’s full length, no speed up. Too many videos on YouTube speed up their videos which instill a false since time with the best drawings. It’s nice to see a video in its entirety and experience the time and effort it takes to make a great drawings. This really is a lesson in patience. Not only that, you may think this artist is drawing very slowly, but most of us couldn’t produce the same results in twice the time.
The reason I couldn’t do this drawing in twice the time, and I have heard this repeated often, is that he’s not working fast, he is working accurately. Each stroke is the culmination of the best decision based on careful observation and years of learning to see.
Figure Drawing Slow and Steady
Tonight for my drawing I’m working from a high resolution photo on my 27″ iMac screen positioned right in front of me. My drawing board is resting on my thighs and is leaned against the desk my iMac sits on. Sorry I didn’t take a setup photo of this one.
Here is a comparison of my accuracy. I worked hard for 2.5 hours getting this drawing as accurate as I could. Doing lots of measuring in the process and more correcting than I would like. The main part of the lesson was patience and it payed off. I know that working form photos is much easier than working from life but I’m still happy with the accuracy in which I drew the figure.
Here is the image I drew from. It comes from the New Masters Academy YouTube videos of 4k resolution photos. I’m very close to signing up for a month of this site. There are a ton of great videos and instruction. They provide so much great content for free I feel like I need to reinforce their business model by giving them something.
Drawing slow and steady is great practice in patience and even though I sacrifice completion of work nightly I think it’s best for me to learn this way.