Change How You THINK about PAINTING...

If you want to get better at drawing & painting ⤵️

Description: At some point we are all going to experience some kind of art block. Being a professional or a student the answer can never be: "I will just wait until I am inspired again."

In this video I will tell you what I do when my art making process is stuck in a rut. Hint: it's all in your head...

Btw- Block In Bootcamp starts today (April 30) on Patreon. The live lesson will be available to watch after it is completed as well, but only for 1 month. Then it's gone FOREVER ;) Follow the Patreon link above to sign up^

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#artlessons #paintingtips #howtodraw

About me:
My work focuses on the human figure. I've given drawing and painting workshops and demos throughout the United States and Europe. I have been making realist drawing and painting tutorials for 3 years now that I release on my Patreon page.

[christopheyoungart]

Thanks Stephen, this subject resonates so much with me! Even if I work digitally, I find I approach "drawing" and "painting" with different mentalities (pulled from working with traditional mediums) and it feels like a never-ending struggle to synthesize the things I love about each approach. Even if it's frustrating at times, I think this kind of distillation process is what gives each artist their individuality, and is a fun puzzle to solve. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom.

[lizporter]

Wow this has been so helpful. I have just spent a year doing nothing but pencil, now moving onto oils I was missing the elements of pencil this is just empowered me while I learn paint without feeling I was starting again.

[onionpainter]

Howdy! When it comes to different mediums, oil painting is actually my experimental branch, as I work as a digital illustrator. I love digital illustration but as you also said, working only within a single medium can get so monotonous, so I had to add another medium. When I was starting out painting it was mostly a motivational tool for illustration [when I didn't want to work on illustrations I would paint in oil which was much more difficult, and as soon as I was done oil painting it was a relief to use an easier medium again], but now painting is a part time job that I'm building as a career.

There are limits to adding mediums of course, just because of time. If I could clone myself then I could learn all of the mediums I want, haha.

Nice video!

[Anatomei]

Since going digital as my industry required, I've been doing nearly no traditional work, so it's very refreshing to be reminded of the cross medium learning that I've always noticed growing up drawing! I've spent more time doing traditional (gouache, charcoal, watercolor, pen, never oil tho) than digital in my life so I'm relating more to your videos than most other YT who are digital.
I've also experienced similar cross medium learning, but it's when I begin to study and drew like people from the animation industry(I was predominately an illustrator). I'm able to learn to drawing much more dynamically and learn to push shape design by embodying a completely different approach to make a picture. It feels really good since I've felt stagnant for years.

[vonkatartistry]

I really appreciate it when artists on YouTube leave the reference photo on the screen while painting/drawing. I'm such a deep visual learner, and love seeing why you're putting this here and that there - does that make sense? 😬😂
I find in other videos I'm wondering why they're placing green in a certain spot and spend a lot of time focusing on why, instead of just watching the process

So thank you for helping my brain 😂🫶🫶🫶🫶

[rasamasala]

Yeah, it's definitely true. Im a student for Entertainment Design which involves a lot of painting and drawing. I didn't have enough money to go to school so I ended up finding a job as a graphic designer (something completely out of what I was doing).

I've been doing it for 3 years and dabbling back in my drawing/painting and I noticed that my approach to it is completely different.

Rather than just making art pieces, I'm thinking as a designer, I can organize my project, I'm able to think through the function of what I'm working on and now I can actually style it so it looks professionally acceptable.

I never thought graphic design would help open up my drawing a bit more

[YoshiMario]

I used to hate or be afraid of drawing with a pen. So I decided to study perspective using a pen! and anatomy and gesture, and then suddenly when I picked up a prismacolor pencil or a regular pencil, they felt much more accessible, and I found myself needing to erase a whole lot less! Pen is unforgiving, but it is that which forces you to be deliberate while drawing. Also, I tried Crayola crayons for gesture drawing, and they work PHENOMENALLY Definitely it is great to try different mediums, especially unforgiving mediums like ink.

[michaeljohnangel]

Another excellent video, maestro!! I always teach our students that PAINTING IS DRAWING WITH COLOUR.
Apropos of autopilot, a million years ago, I had a student who said to me that Raphael said, "Painting always goes better when you think of something else." I told him that Raphael never said that: it was Irving Stone who wrote that (in The Agony and the Ecstasy), and Irving Stone doesn't know how to paint.

[markbarrera]

I'm drawing exclusively for the last two years, having set aside my brushes- Love the control of graphite and am nervous to return to paint.

[davirosa]

Stephen, thank you for your thinking out loud - it rings a bell!! And that is a beautiful portrait that you paint!! Hugs from Brazil!!

[MeganFoldenauer]

Since you asked, I work in carbon dust/pencil and graphite and occasionally watercolor for portraiture. I very much appreciated this video because I'm trying to "get over" my trepidation around oils and begin using them. I didn't do any coursework in oils when I was in school. So intimidated! Sigh. Anyway, I appreciate this video so much. Thank you!

[stevecaudell]

In the recent painting of Lamar I did this and it resulted in my most successful painting yet. I was nervous about drawing with paint but wanted to give it a try. Learned a lot and found it really helped me. Since I don’t use solvents I used linseed oil on a paper towel to erase.

[Chaoslorden]

This is interesting that this video popped up in my feed now. I am currently experimenting with painting figurative art in a very small space. I'm an artist that paints alot of miniature art for people either on Magic the Gathering cards or Warhammer 40000 and such. And I have been struggling with getting the art to feel painterly on such a small size.

What I have done is to approach it like drawing first, but with rough and worn small brushes instead of the fresh pointy brushes I could use and that unlocked a whole new world for me.

I paint, draw, sculpt sometime and generally the more different things you do the more crossover tricks you find that makes each of them feel better. It is kind of like learning how to cheat better hehe.

Thank you for the video.

[warkentien]

I just connected a new drawing tablet today, after 7 years, and was lucky enough to run into your video.
I'm was more of a cartoon artist (hobbyist) but now I want to learn traditional/realistic techniques. I will stick around.

Your drawings convinced me.

[orenjaffe]

Thanks for this, Stephen. I am a ceramics BFA student (mostly pottery with some sculpture) but used to do mostly watercolor painting and illustration, so I really resonated with what you said about cross-pollination of disciplines. This video helped me to look at those times with less frustration that I did not specialize earlier and more gratitude for what they brought my current practice. Thanks for your insights.

[redmondartwork]

i draw. im ok. i want to learn oil painting. i have very little interest in color. this is perfect. im going to try this. i have no schooling, no real classes. im faking it as i go. my experimentation, has been with digital. it really opened my mind to light being just as important as the shadows.

[hotsauce]

I love this. I'm learning how to use Procreate on the Ipad. I would love to achieve a level of draftsmanship and love of portraiture that you have.

[richardrodriguez-ljuf]

Right now I’m working on oil and I’m struggling with color matching because oil colors all have an undertone that i have to study . But I’m tackling that first with a preliminary painting before i create an enlarge version. Thanks Stephen for your videos i really learn a lot from watching them

[tegian]

over the past 2 years I have been trying to get used to painting with oils but something didn't feel right so I thought maybe I need to draw more and I picked up charcoal drawing and then later I introduced white chalk to it and I learned so much, I felt like I was painting but with a dry medium I could control the shadows and the lights same thing happened with toning the paper in charcoal and picking up the lights with an eraser.

[themysteriousdomainmoviepalace]

I love the black and white one! Do you know Daniel Bilmes? He preferred his drawibgs to his paintings and came up with a beautiful style.