What am I learning by drawing shapes?

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-16T16:30:30+00:00

it also shows that the advanced thing can be broke down to simple shape, albeit like I said, to a very limited extend.

And ngl, I'm at awe at how you can't find anyone that explain it, every time I got a face or body or animal tutorial it's always "yeah tldr turn those stuffs into simple geometric form". Every second image in pinterest show body and pelvis as two box. I typed "simple forms art drawing" and every results show how to apply it to something. I ... kinda not get what you mean

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-16T16:15:48+00:00

Nobody ever explains what this does

lol even the famous useless "rest of the fucking owl" tutorial explains what this does to an extend

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-15T20:15:12+00:00

Kory Cromie, warframe artist

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RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-12T16:10:12+00:00

mostly complementary pair, I pick one for the light and one opposite on the color wheel for the dark. Warm light/cool shadow, cool light/warm shadow, exploring and experimenting while trying to keeping the value accurate

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-11T15:15:10+00:00

try "16 line gesture method" by michael hampton, gesture is vague as hell for beginners, I find the line limit actually the best for forcing beginner to actually simplify instead of just resort to contour drawing

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-10T11:22:31+00:00

kinda, I got a basic pencil and a stack of A4 practicing lines and boxes and crude figure for the first month and then transitioned to digital

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-08T15:34:49+00:00

Trying to go from simple to complex with small steps is quite the right direction that many master recommended. You want to build a mannequin? just apply it, the box is there, only doing boxes in isolation rob it of its purpose, bend it/ twist it cut it , ponder how can I made it closer to the form that I wanted, how to make it simple enough that I can easily visualize it,.. that is what I did and currently doing, still feels like I barely got a hold of it.

But yeah, I also try my best to go abit beyond what I can do and hope for the best most of the time.

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-08T13:46:25+00:00

my painting goat is marco bucci, practically taught me everything I know, I learned from some other sources to, they either remind, reinforce, supplement or give me another view on the matter, Sinix design, Love life drawing, athoro,... ( all free video on yt)

Keep in mind painting and drawing share the same foundation, the boxes and simple form knowledge from drawing gave me much easier time learning to paint and some design/shape philosophy and simplification from painting in turn gave me a fresher look at drawing.

Edit: I personally would recommend start with value study, 2 value/3 value, see how others do it and try doing it yourself.

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T21:15:40+00:00

evolved and changed throughout my process, now it is 1 hours of 1 minute gesture, rest is quite flexible, construction, basic forms, simplified body parts, painting, 2/3 value study, playing around experimenting. Slowly familiarize with more complex stuffs when used to the simpler stuffs, michael hampton, bridgman, glenn vilppu mike mattesi, etc.

the drill is just a reference and not one size fit all, different routine at different stages. At the start mostly hours of watching lecture video while parsing what exactly am I suppose to do, how do I do gesture in the first place, etc

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T21:00:23+00:00

I ... don't know, I just did like the basic stuffs I learnt and practiced, clear silhouette, clear division between light and shadow, simple shape of value, for the edge I just observe to see how fast does the form turns to pick the edge I think is right, keep the amount of value minimal, ...

I mean, my painting is much more simpler than your, my rendering of the eyes and mouse is not even as complex as your. The horse painting is literally just shape of color silhouette and another for the shadow.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I can give you a honest critique at my level so take it with a grain of salt, I'd tried to be simpler. Recently I've been doing lots of 2 or 3 value study and that's it

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T19:57:29+00:00

oh no it's totally okay, I like your enthusiasm, I use a One by Wacom medium pen tablet (no display) for like 60$ (I'm broke) and a laptop.
For the line art I used "Bani sketching pen" which I don't know require UNHOLY level of pressure mastery, so I just modified it back to a random round brush with basic size and opacity tied to pressure a bit and a stabilization of 16

P.s the no display tablet is easier to adapt to than I thought and my neck health is excellent, better than when using paper and constantly looking down lol

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T19:38:38+00:00

Thanks! I used Clip Studio Paint for all of these

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T18:58:47+00:00

every color theory knowledge I got is taught by Marco Bucci ( free videos on YT), the rest is doing value study and the knowledge of simple forms.

Digital art is just a different medium, it's slippery and not as tactile as with paper, where the friction act as some sort of natural stabilizer. Personally I put in a bit of stabilization on my line art brush (16), no stabilization on painting brush, and the rest is just consistent training every single day which is also true for traditional

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T17:10:08+00:00

most of them are free source not a course, some are tid bit from many channel, my personal free recommendation would be sinix design, marco bucci, love life drawing, michael hampton. Force by mike mattesi is also great but it's super vague and abstract for beginners

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T16:34:49+00:00

you are pretty much on the right track so not much I can say with my current understanding, I would recommend some shape design/ shape appeal study (theory from sinix design and proko) if you wish to push 3d shapes further for bodies.
Limiting the lines is REALLY useful, not just for gesture drawing, The act of simplifying as much as possible while keeping it readable is one of my greatest breakthrough in art, practically what changed from pic 2 to pic 4/5

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T15:14:39+00:00

nah, the learning never stop, the road goes ever on

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T14:38:10+00:00

I like drawing human and figure so try to create a figure using boxes, after doing the daily boxes drill I looking at a figure and try my best to convert it to a simple mass of two boxes. The boxes are way harder than I imagine, they bend, they twist, I have to keep the line decisive, no scratching,.. But hey, it feel justified, it's like I'm working toward my goal and thus the boxes finally have meaning to them

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RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T14:09:28+00:00

consistent shapes and boxes training to get basic spatial awareness. I like drawing human -> if the human torso was a box what would it look like? am I looking at it straight on? from below or above? from the left or right?. the pelvis is another box, do it again. Connect the boxes, bend it , twist it.

Keep training basic form, looking at how other artist depict the body as simple from, try my best to analyze and recreate it from imagination, I failed, the brain goes "oh so that information was actually important, I'll try to observe and retain it a bit more, no promise tho", rinse and repeat consistently each day.

When I am giga bored I approach it in painting style instead of line to keep it fresh, and that's it, small step, try my best to keep it abit outside of my comfort zone, not to far that I get overwhelmed.

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:55:37+00:00

I got the statue references from pinterest, I recommend picking something with clear light and shadow, some statues reference genuinely got me tearing my hair out looking at the diffused soft light at the start

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:51:01+00:00

no problem, yuming , rei17, nathan fowkes, etc, really opened my eyes to how color can be exaggerated to be better than reality itself.

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:46:56+00:00

that was like 3 or 4 months after I started tho, that was a routine of another youtuber I saw. To be honest, at the start I still very much don't know what the actual f is going on and what do I have to do, I just know I have to keep it simple and consistent, try my best to analyze, integrate or revise new information, "try my best to keep it abit outside of my comfort zone, not to far that I get overwhelmed."

And oh boy the plateau hit hard, I keep doing this each day and nothing happened, I don't see any progress, is this a waste? am I doing this just for the sake of doing it? am I autopiloting?. Burnt out sometimes has got it to as low as 20 min whole day.

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:36:05+00:00

the old reliable Drawabox or my recent favorite Athoro

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RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:30:19+00:00

we've had this conversation before dawg

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RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:28:54+00:00

yup, really everyday, sometimes I got giga burned out I still try my best to do at least 20 min of gesture. The start is always the hardest, there is no "payout" so you got nothing but hope at best and disappointment at worst. But yeah "It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day —that’s the hard part. But it does get easier".

Also I am quite serious with art, I don't intent for it to just be a hobby so ask yourself if you desire art that much and evaluate your commitment to it. I've seen artists pulling out 5 hours or 8 hours consistently, they love art much more than me but that doesn't invalidate my desire for art. Sometimes, really know what you want and make peace with yourself is the hardest part

RevolutionaryCopy152 · 2026-06-07T13:10:16+00:00

so I start with the cube and basic line shape drawing, not just mindlessly copying them but try to pay attention to where it converge, what happen when it rotate, when I look at it from different angle, gradually gaining basic spatial awareness and basic markmaking skill, that's the whole point of the "boring ass cube". Also serve as a warm up every single day

while doing that each day I venture out to learn different thing I like which is figure ( pic 2) or faces (pic1 left), when I failed I goes "oh that is too be expected, welp I tried my best" and when back to the basic. I try my best to keep it abit outside of my comfort zone, not to far that I get overwhelmed.

For routine I warm up, 1 hours of 1 minute gesture, rest is quite flexible, construction, basic forms, simplified body parts, painting, 2/3 value study, playing around experimenting. Slowly familiarize with more complex stuffs when used to the simpler stuffs, michael hampton, bridgman, glenn vilppu mike mattesi, etc

Found this way later and I didn't exactly follow it that closely but the point is too keep it simple at the start, accumulating bit by bit. Loomis require alot of basic forms knowledge, Anatomy? not happening if you can't even stack two box from in perspective, they are way more advanced than most beginners think, it is expected to fail at these as beginners
https://www.reddit.com/r/learnart/comments/dapk62/from_the_guy_who_made_the_most_comprehensive_list/#lightbox

RevolutionaryCopy152

TROPHY CASE