What are the art fundamentals?

Art fundamentals, art fundamentals. When working on our art, we hear this word all the time, but what does it actually mean? In this video, I talk about what SPECIFICALLY is fundamental to your art.

Notes:

[Sazazezer]

I'd also argue that there are the absolute art fundamentals, those which apply for pretty much any artwork that you do. I view these as basically 'if you think you're art never looks quite right, it's probably because you need to be better at one of these'. Beginners tend to start trying to get serious at art by over-complicating or drawing specific things. As such the absolute basics can get left behind.

I'd list these as:
Line - drawing straight lines, curvy lines, jagged lines. Drawing lines consistently. Drawing clean lines without resorting to chicken scratches.
Shape - drawing squares, circles, triangles and other geometry. Sounds simple, but it's good for your hand to practise these as well.
Form - drawing cubes, cylinders and spheres, and then moving from your standard geometrical forms to irregular versions. These will be your building blocks to future artwork
Value - tone and gradients. Understanding how shadow and light works.
Colour - understand how colours work with each other, how they contrast with each other, how they reflect off each other
Space - Leads to composition, understand negative space, silhouettes. This will lead to cleaner, more striking visuals.
Perspective - 1st-3rd point perspective should at least be understood by every artist

[jballs]

I hate when people just say "learn the fundamentals." But that's really useless advice because it's such a broad term. Like tell me actually what I need to improve on, whether it's anatomy, shading, gestures, perspective, etc.

[BobbyChiu]

Every time Schoolism ends their sale, there’s always a ton of people that say they didn’t know and they missed it. I’m just trying to make sure people know about it while explaining the fundamentals.

[ameviaart]

Been practicing anatomy, perspective, and composition a good bit lately. I think another good thing to point out is that reading and observation are also super important for learning the fundamentals. And how a lot of the fundamentals interrelate and kinda help each other out. Like how learning perspective can help your anatomy, because you will know how to place things better in space, therefore making your figures more believable. Gives them more Structure as Bobby put it. And mirrors are my best friend! Great video Bobby, you can never stress how important the fundamentals are enough! Scary and boring as it may sound, it always pays off immediately in my art after having practiced them!

[cucumberwhale]

It's been 10 years and you still get me out art block. Thanks. <3

[okishop]

Thank you for these vids. They've really been motivating me to push myself to a higher height in art. Thanks you.

[agreedboarart]

Telling artists to "learn the fundamentals" is so unhelpful. It's essentially just telling them to learn art. But the problem is they don't have any idea what to do or where to go to learn.

[GrimaceColoredSquid]

I personally think that gesture is a good starting point in drawing not just humans, but anything else because It can aid in composition and making your art feel more "alive"

[scittz]

Kinda felt like a huge ad to me, I didn’t learn much, but if others did, good.

[BreaPotts]

I'm in a tight pinch with money right now after being injured in a car wreck, but I'm really hoping things smooth out so I can join schoolism. You are so inspirational and I know your platform for teaching is going to be excellent. I can't wait to expand my knowledge, but for now I will keep practicing with free resources. I'm going to make my art dreams a reality and hopefully I'll have the first draft of my comic done soon. Thanks again for all you do Bobby!

[joelkoh]

what a video. I definitely thought this was a video to answer the title, but after watching it, it was definitely asking the title.

[muffinguy]

Hey, i was practicing perspective right now.
Thank you, Bobby

[natanaelabreu]

I'm really glad that you always bring some great advices and knowledge to beginners. Is really nice to see the great things that amazing guys like you do for the artistic community and how many great projects you work on, and yet, I feel like you understand and are connected with us, young padawans. Thank you for making the world a better place, Bobby!
Greetings from Brazil, btw! :)

[jbeihl]

Color theory, Two point perspective, and anatomy

[jessicasartrestraint]

I love your little plant characters, Bobby! 😍 They are so cute and they always make me smile 💖

[Kiko-ezeh]

The timing of the video is perfect! Right before New Years so I can get my goals and learning objectives in line for this new year. :)

[DianaHernandez-feio]

I use to learn fudamentals on old books when I was student, but now u can find so many art online so I am learning again with your courses though they are a bit advanced

[Markerton]

Hey Bobby would be great to see animation course and environment design in line, Nathans courses accented more on the painting light, composition and mood, but if I don't know how to draw an environment I can do nothing with it, please add a course - "drawing and designing an environment" - Ian Mcque would be the best teacher.

[StarlightAkari]

99% of my artistic inspirations come from Schoolism or were interviewed by Bobby.

[redefinedliving]

Love this video. Very big-picture which some people are more comfortable with when it comes to learning. I hope learning is approached more this way....One thing though, why is this video so