The Secret to Drawing Overwhelming Detail!

How often do we not draw a scene that really appeals to us because parts of it are just too full of detail we know we could never draw properly? Hear the secrets of an artist with a reputation for capturing detail effectively. The principles are demonstrated with a field of flowers, but with additional explanation after that, with a detailed interior architectural scene.

[otterlyoliver]

This absolutely blew my mind. This is basically just a psychology hack. Your brain doesn't immediately start assessing every detail of a scene, it captures a few prominent details and then just assumes the rest. The fact that you draw the main details in the foreground lets your brain fill in the "gaps" in the background. This is genius.

[Kerlasia]

When I first started digital painting, I sat for hours drawing every individual blade of grass in a field while thinking "this is crazy, how does anyone do this?" ....They don't. At some point when I learned that you're not meant to include every single detail of a scene, it was a game changer. Painting became far less intimidating - in fact, I enjoy it now!

[williamdrum]

I realized this not too long ago. "This isn't a tree, it's just a bunch of lines!" And that's when it hit me, that sometimes in order to make something look better you have to make it look worse. What a paradox.

[absurdtyhiggins]

Just like many of my drawing professors have told me. "You don't have to really draw it, you just need the viewer to think you've drawn it."

[danielwilliams]

It seems like the contrast of detail vs non-detail creates a pleasing tension/relief relationship in a drawing. In the first drawing there's so much chaos in all the weeds that my eyes tend to rest on those simple flower shapes. Whereas in the second drawing, there's plenty of white space so my eye is drawn to those little islands of architectural detail. I guess that's why my usual strategy when adding detail (just scribble all over the place) doesn't work. You need contrast to give the eye a place to rest.

[DeadlyLazer]

This was pretty much the most important thing I learned in drawing. When we draw trees, we're not drawing trees, we're drawing things that look like trees. When we draw cars, we're not drawing cars, we're drawing things that look like cars. If a blob with two white dots already looks like a car, then that's a car. No need to go any further than that. Drawing isn't about detail. It's about the illusion of detail. Learning this fact immensely sped up my drawing process.

[en]

I've always struggled with being impatient when drawing and struggling with detail- my eyes just get lost in the pattern and I lose where I "am" in the drawing constantly. Thank you for helping to demystify how artists create awe-inspiring detail!

[richvirtue]

I learned more in this single video than I could have ever imagined.

[Seneca]

This came up in my stream at the perfect time. I have found myself getting alternatively too engrossed in detail and then, bored by the repetition necessary to complete the piece.

The techniques you have shared using shape, negative space and lighter strokes- make total sense. I’m looking forward to applying them ☺️.

Thank you for the excellent tutorial.

[sasentaiko]

I’m not into drawing but I’m a (visual) perception researcher. I loved how you explain what you see and your consciousness of how we put together a scene, how we gain information. It’s so neat listening to artists in different mediums (watercolor, acrylic, digital) and the techniques are a bit different, but it’s all meant to capture the same thing. The effects of the detail. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us all; it’s really inspiring.

[laureldavis]

I have cataracts in my right eye, can only see light and dark, shadows and colors. So it was really interesting to look at the photo of the flowers and see exactly what you meant about the shadows creating a path for the eye to follow. So glad I found you on YouTube! Love your work!

[mwiltfang]

Drawing the effect of detail rather than all the detail itself makes perfect sense to me. That's exactly how the human eye and brain take in and process very complex and detailed images in order to not be overwhelmed by the detail- - "you can't see the forest for the trees".
It's a bit of a metaphor for how we should move through life in general. Unfortunately, people who can see "the big picture" are comparatively rare.

[finglucasthehobophatcat]

I have been an artist for almost 40 years and have studied countless numbers of styles from anywhere and everywhere.
I have to say sir... You are one of the best teachers I have come across. Thank you!

[andrewlyon]

The way I like to think about it is that detailed art like this isn't meant to spoon feed the viewer with all the tiny details, but rather to give enough context to direct their imagination to the details you implied. It's really clever, and I think a more extreme example would be how people can use just a few lines and negative space to give the illusion of a complete shape. The more I learn about the clever ways that artists are able to use negative space and implied details, the more I really admire art as a whole.

[sheilasinghal]

This is genius! I'm a very non-detail person who hates fiddly work and would look at a reference photo like this and say, "Nope. Too much trouble." I'm definitely going to try this. 😊

[psyekl]

I needed this. I absolutely LOVE drawing intricate detail that is so tiny that no one will ever be able to appreciate it unless they zoom in or possess a magnifying glass. For my digital art, the detail is so fine it won't show up unless printed at a massive size. I need to adopt this practical method and stop wasting time.

[artscience]

I once drew a New York City street scene, and I thought, for once I’m going to draw all the detail. As Steven says, it really is impossible! To get all the detail, your placement of larger shapes would have to be impossibly exact, and you would need to use really fine pen tips with great control of where the pen lands. I gave up on that idea about one third of the way through and fell back on my painting experience, fading out the detail in the distance and making the detailed area the focal area of the drawing. I guess you could say I kind of discovered Steven’s approach by accident. Definitely cured me of wanting to do all the detail!

[argusfleibeit]

Thank you for verbalizing the process of drawing, like I never heard before. In "art classes" they seem to think you just "know" how to look and what to put down. This was stunning. Also the bit about HOW to use the pen was something never explained to me. It seems so obvious, but it you don't know, you don't know.

[christianagassaway]

As an aspiring manga artist, this is incredibly helpful of a video! I've been struggling to understand how to make quicker backgrounds without losing the details, so I'm definitely going to give this a try!

[TysonJensen]

The thing I admire most about the skill of the artist is the artist knows to draw what the eye actually sees, not what the brain pretends the eye sees, but doing this while using one of those very same lying brains... it's always impressed me. I'd love to be better at it myself.