How I began to Draw Characters 10x FASTER! (best technique to become faster at character design)

Summary

The video offers insights on enhancing character drawing skills by breaking free from copying and embracing originality. The artist shares their journey of self-discovery, where they stopped relying on visual references and instead tapped into their memory and imagination to create unique characters. They emphasize the importance of line fluency and practicing with random lines to trigger creativity and improve drawing speed and style, resulting in a significant boost in their artistic growth.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The video aims to teach viewers how to improve their speed and productivity in character drawing.
• 🔄 The speaker admits to previously copying other artists' characters, which lacked their own style and led to creative dissatisfaction.
• 🚫 To break the cycle of copying, the speaker suggests eliminating visual references and relying on one's own memories and imagination.
• 🌟 The speaker emphasizes the importance of originality and developing a personal style by drawing from scratch without external influences.
• 🔍 The process of drawing without references is said to activate imagination and innovation, leading to unique creations.
• 📈 The speaker experienced significant growth in their art by practicing drawing every morning for a month without references.
• 💡 Discovering techniques for drawing elements like hair can simplify the process and enhance the artist's ability to create detailed features.
• 📝 The video highlights the importance of line fluency in character drawing, as stable and confident lines can make the drawing process faster and more efficient.
• 🔧 Practicing with random lines can help artists find their preferred character style and improve their drawing skills.
• 🤯 The speaker was amazed by the transformation in their art skills and encourages others to try this method for rapid improvement.
• 👍 The video concludes with an invitation for viewers to like and share their thoughts if they found the content valuable.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to demonstrate how to become faster and more productive at drawing characters by developing one's own style and avoiding the habit of copying others.

Why did the speaker feel unsatisfied with their previous character drawings?

The speaker felt unsatisfied because they were merely copying other artists' characters, which lacked their own style and novelty, leading to a lack of interest in repeating the process.

What did the speaker realize about their drawing process that led to a change?

The speaker realized that they were stuck in a loop of creating the same thing repeatedly without adding their own unique touch, which made them question why they were lying to themselves about the effectiveness of their approach.

What strategy did the speaker adopt to break free from the habit of copying?

The speaker adopted a strategy of drawing randomly without any visual references, relying solely on their own memories, imagination, and the styles they had absorbed from others.

How long did the speaker practice drawing without references?

The speaker practiced drawing without references for about a month, drawing every morning.

What effect did this practice have on the speaker's creativity?

This practice activated the speaker's imagination and innovational capacity, leading to the creation of super original ideas and features they never thought they would be able to draw.

What role did the lack of visual references play in the speaker's drawing process?

The lack of visual references forced the speaker to rely on their own creative capacity, which in turn led to the development of new techniques and styles that were unique to them.

How did the speaker's approach to hair drawing change after this practice?

The speaker discovered that once they understood the techniques needed for drawing hair, such as using curved lines for curly hair, it became much easier and they no longer needed references.

What was the speaker's realization about the importance of line drawing in character creation?

The speaker realized that having fluency in line drawing is crucial for character creation, as it shows the artist's skill level and makes it easier to quickly draw characters without the need for constant erasing and enhancement.

What additional practice did the speaker find beneficial for improving character drawing speed?

The speaker found practicing with random lines to be beneficial, as it triggered their brain in a unique way and helped them to find characters within the mess of squiggly lines.

What was the speaker's final advice for viewers interested in improving their character drawing skills?

The speaker's final advice was to practice drawing without references and to experiment with random lines, as these practices helped them to greatly improve their character drawing skills.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Overcoming Copycat Syndrome in Character Drawing

The speaker discusses their journey to improve character drawing by moving away from copying others' work and developing their own style. They express frustration with past practices and the realization that copying does not lead to personal growth. The key takeaway is the importance of drawing from one's own imagination and memories, without relying on visual references, to foster creativity and originality. The speaker also emphasizes the benefits of daily practice and how it can activate one's imaginative capacity, leading to the discovery of unique drawing techniques that reflect personal preferences.

05:03

🖌️ Mastering Line Drawing for Character Art Fluency

This paragraph focuses on the significance of line quality in character drawing and how it can indicate an artist's skill level. The speaker shares personal experiences with the struggle for perfection in early drawings, often resulting in unstable lines and the need for constant erasure and enhancement. They then discovered the power of drawing from random lines, which helped them to quickly and effortlessly create characters. The practice of drawing with random, squiggly lines is highlighted as a catalyst for unlocking the brain's creative potential, leading to faster and more proficient character drawing. The speaker concludes by encouraging viewers to embrace this method and to look forward to the next video.

Keywords

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency and effectiveness in which tasks are completed. In the context of the video, it is about improving the speed and efficiency of drawing characters without sacrificing quality. The script mentions becoming 'so much faster, and so much more productive at drawing characters', indicating the goal of enhancing the creative process.

💡Character Drawing

Character drawing is the act of illustrating characters, often for stories, comics, or animations. The video focuses on this skill, discussing the challenges the speaker faced in the past with drawing characters and their journey towards improving this ability. The script emphasizes the importance of originality in character creation and the process of developing one's unique style.

💡Copycat

A copycat is someone who imitates others, often without adding their own creative input. In the script, the term is used to describe the speaker's previous approach to character drawing, where they would draw characters similar to those of other artists without developing their own style. The video encourages moving away from being a 'copycat' to create original work.

💡Imagination

Imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, images, or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. The video script discusses the importance of relying on one's imagination when drawing characters without visual references. It is highlighted as a key factor in creating original and unique characters, as the speaker shares their experience of drawing from 'memories and imagination'.

💡Innovation

Innovation refers to the process of translating an existing idea, practice, or product into a new context or application. In the script, the speaker talks about how the absence of visual references 'activates our imagination and our innovational capacity', leading to the creation of original features and styles in character drawing.

💡Technique

Technique in art refers to the way in which an artist applies their skills and tools to produce a work. The video emphasizes the discovery of techniques as a crucial part of improving character drawing, such as learning how to draw hair in different styles. The speaker mentions that once they found the right 'technique', it became easier to create characters.

💡Style

Style in art is a distinctive way in which an artist or school expresses their ideas and emotions through their work. The script discusses the development of a personal style as a way to avoid being a 'copycat' and to make character drawing more fulfilling. The speaker's journey involved creating characters that matched their 'likings' and developing a style that was uniquely theirs.

💡Fluency

Fluency in drawing refers to the smoothness and confidence with which an artist can create lines and shapes. The video script mentions the importance of having 'fluency in your line drawing', suggesting that mastering the ability to draw smooth and confident lines can significantly improve the speed and quality of character drawing.

💡Line Drawing

Line drawing is a technique of creating images using lines. It is a fundamental aspect of character drawing, as the script points out that 'your lines are really important'. The speaker shares their experience of moving from trying to be perfect with every line to embracing the imperfections and using them to find the character within the 'mess' of lines.

💡Practice

Practice is the act of performing an activity repeatedly with the goal of improving one's skill. The video script discusses the speaker's month-long practice of drawing without references as a way to enhance their character drawing abilities. The practice of drawing 'random lines' is highlighted as a method to trigger creativity and improve drawing speed.

💡Originality

Originality is the quality of being novel or innovative, and being unique in character or style. The video's theme revolves around the importance of originality in character drawing. The speaker shares their realization of the need to move away from copying others and towards creating characters with their own 'original' ideas and styles.

Highlights

The video aims to teach viewers how to become faster and more productive at drawing characters.

The speaker admits past struggles with drawing characters by copying others' styles.

Copying other artists' characters led to a lack of personal style and interest in the drawing process.

The realization of the need to avoid the 'copycat' process in order to develop a unique style.

The idea of eliminating visual references to rely solely on memory and imagination for drawing.

A month-long practice of drawing without references to enhance creativity.

The belief that limited resources can activate imagination and innovation.

The discovery of original features through drawing without any reference.

Understanding the simplicity of complex elements like hair once the right techniques are found.

The importance of mastering line drawing for character fluency and professionalism.

The speaker's transformation from striving for perfection to embracing imperfect lines for character creation.

The practice of drawing from squiggly lines to find and refine character designs.

The idea of making a video about using random lines to improve art.

The effectiveness of drawing random lines as a practice to trigger creativity.

The speaker's personal experience and improvement in character drawing through unconventional practices.

An invitation for viewers to engage with the video and look forward to future content.

Transcripts

[Music]

so the purpose of this video is to show

you how you can become so much faster

and so much more productive at drawing

characters and I know that I've been

really bad at drawing characters in the

past because like I would just draw

copycat of other people's characters

like other artist characters and it

wouldn't really amaze me or interest me

or you know like make me interested in

doing the same thing over and over and I

got really tired of doing the copying

process because like I knew that I'm

adding a little bit of novelty but

there's almost no trace of my own style

and my own character so to say and so

what you should do to really avoid that

process of just like becoming this

copycat that you're always scrolling

through Pinterest to find what really is

cool to copy and then copy it in a

slightly different way so that like it

looks like your character I mean in the

past like for the past couple of years I

might have been in that Loop of creating

the same thing over and over but then

after a while of just doing that I got

really aware of my own flaws and I

thought to myself why am I lying to

myself it's like it's probably not going

to work if I repeat it 100 times right

you have to find the right tool so that

it's going to improve your art not to do

the same thing over and over if it's not

working right now then it's probably not

going to work after aund thousands of

triy so I did something quite magical to

combat all of that I came with an idea I

thought to myself what if I just get rid

of all the references no visuals nothing

just my own memories and Imagination and

all the like likings that I kind of like

like borrowed from all the other styles

that I've ever seen so what I started to

do is to just draw randomly without even

looking at anything like not having any

kind of like Inspirations just forcing

myself to come up with ideas that is

super original and I wanted myself to

have a creative month I guess because I

started to draw like every morning and

it really continued for about a month I

am absolutely incredibly appreciative of

the amount of time that I put into this

whole practice of just like drawing

without having any reference what I

believe that happens is when we don't

really have anything in front of us when

we are limited our imagination uh Works

faster like it really activates our

imagination and our innovational

capacity so we start to innovate

because we don't really have the thing

we don't really have any reference to

copy or you know anything to draw from

it's just not going to be there and so

what we start to do is to rely on our

own capacity to create and that felt so

like so out of this world because I all

of a sudden came up with so many

features that I never thought I would

ever be able to pay attention to like I

would make the hair this way and come up

with different style of hair and how I

can make it look like a hair because

like it's really simple once you get

into the detail of it it's simple what

hair looks like when you're looking at a

hair you're like wo that's a complex

thing how can I possibly you know like

draw all of the strands of the hair and

all of that but once you stumble upon

the techniques that you need to put into

your work then it becomes so much e

easier for example like for a curly ha

you just need to have curved lines and

then you come to realize that there's

always a technique for anything that you

might want to draw and you don't really

need to look at the reference you just

need to come up with the technique and

with a style that really matches your

likings and that was the beginning of my

character drawing journey and so like I

stumbled upon this magical thing magical

practicing and I thought to myself what

the heck why didn't I just found this

earlier because this is absolutely just

like skyrocketing my art growth and I

was absolutely just mind blown because I

never ever had any like not even in my

farthest imagination I would be able to

draw for myself like not having anything

right in front of me there was something

else that happened too in order to

become faster at anything any kind of

art especially character drawing you

need to have have such a fluency in your

line drawing so your lines are really

important they show how Pro like you are

like if you're not really a pro at

character drawing your lines are going

to tell and it's just going to make it

so much harder if your lines are not

stable because you're always like trying

to erase it trying to make it better

trying to enhance it but once you have

the lines in a very masterful way then

you can absolutely just whip up the

character in about a few seconds it's

just going to be as easy as that and I'm

like I'm really speaking from experience

in the past I would just like try to be

so perfect in my drawings and I would

just erase anything but then I just like

draw my characters out of so many

squiggly lines and just like try to find

the character that I really like out of

that mess okay and then like the

character would just appear and I think

that I absolutely should make a video

about like random lines that can make

your art much better because like when

you're practicing with random lines and

you want to find something out of those

random lines like it really triggers

your brain in a way that nothing else

does like no other practices does I

think most of my practicing around this

like becoming faster a character drawing

was absolutely just that was just me

drawing some lines and googly lines or

anything like it's a really magical

thing to do and I'm like I'm sure that

people are going to find it so funny and

so like not true but like it's true it's

it's really true it's something that

really made me much better at dra

characters yeah so that was today's

video thank you for watching I hope that

I can see you in the next video have a

nice week and make sure to give this

video a thumbs up if you really really

enjoyed it you can click on this video

right here if you want to thank

[Music]

you