Recommend some good YouTube channels for learning how to draw.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2025
- Messages
- 332
- Level up in
- 168 posts
- Reaction score
- 587
- Points
- 1,427
Sorry. I don't watch YouTube that much at the moment.Hello, I am someone who is interested in drawing, but I have no knowledge of it. So I would like you to recommend YouTube channels for people who are just starting out in drawing.
- Joined
- May 30, 2025
- Messages
- 2,745
- Level up in
- 2255 posts
- Reaction score
- 5,210
- Points
- 5,977
It is rather easy to learn but too time-consuming to practice actually:
- Learn what objects look like by drawing them by looking at them. Most artists never draws/paints without a reference image. However even with a reference image it is hard to draw people therefore learning about anatomy is necessary. You gotta learn how skeleton, fat, muscles and all changes the way body looks like. In this regard learning how to draw people is no different than Anatomy 101 class lol. You may either learn it you will go with bad-looking anime drawing that people kinda look like PS1 graphics or overly exaggerated wrong representation of what a human looks like lol.
It is a me thing that I cannot draw shit with the generic "perspective lines" and "drawing people as you just draw generic body parts" idea. I cannot draw people without first drawing their skeleton, fat, and muscle underneath their clothes and then I calculate empty spaces and gravity when I draw their clothes. I also calculate perspective's depth on the surface of objects area by area in my mind so perspective lines means nothing to me. When I don't follow these steps or don't care my drawings looks like shit, that's why I try to come up with my own shortcuts to make drawing faster.
- Study depth and perspective. That's why artists tend to use reference images, or you will need to study mathematics and geometry in art context. It is kinda necessary to learn drawing postures that don't look shit and too 2 dimensional flat like people were crushed under a big heavy flat object lol.
- Study how objects are shaded and therefore looks like in real life due to darkness to lightness ratio. The tip is the default state of real life is darkness that when there is lightness in it objects light up and the areas got less light has shadows instead depending on where the light comes from. Sometimes I see people draw in a way default state of reality is lightness so they add darkness later. You gotta at least design images in your mind starting from darkness. It is relevant to how to create hair for example. First start from dark parts and then add light parts. Lightness is always on top of darkness.
- Study pencil types and simple pencil methods for what you wanna draw, however they are kinda "overkill". Any pencil is fine to draw whatever.
- Get used to the way a logical point of view is bad for art, so you gotta learn how to pour your emotions into paper for the actual "art", otherwise your art will never look good despite it may be logically look proper. So you gotta ignore how your logic says "it is technically looks right" but listen to how your emotions says "it looks good" by following what makes you like your art.
- As you draw on a blank paper you may cannot pour the image in your mind onto the paper and that's okay. I could never draw what I wanted, but I realized as I draw I decide what would make my drawing better and better and sometimes it leads to "perfect" drawings that are way better than what I had in my mind. The bad thing is until you draw enough you may never realize "how bad it looks" so you gotta get used to erasing a lot until you find the right way.
However the hardest part no one can teach you: Coming up with your own style that you are satisfied with.
Youtube channels can give you tip on, for example "how to draw anime style characters" and they may even teach you how the silver ratio is key in anime art especially when it comes to designing faces. To understand it you would need to study psychology but who bothers lol. For shortcut lots of artists using reference images without having any understanding of how they can create a visual art without any reference image. They can spam great "3D looking" people drawings via reference images but with it they can hardly draw a person lol. This is also corporate way to do "visual arts" especially in the anime industry. They record a video of a person and an artist draws on the video frame and you say "wow the animation quality is so high" but we call this method rotoscoping lol. And most of images and animations are done by using automated tools instead of plain hand-made ways.
TL;DR: Just get a pencil and enough paper and draw objects exactly as you see them as much as you can to practice it until you git gud. Use reference images until you are good enough without them. You may get used to drawing by changing images like changing faces, hair style and clothes of people before going for drawing a whole person phase.
- Learn what objects look like by drawing them by looking at them. Most artists never draws/paints without a reference image. However even with a reference image it is hard to draw people therefore learning about anatomy is necessary. You gotta learn how skeleton, fat, muscles and all changes the way body looks like. In this regard learning how to draw people is no different than Anatomy 101 class lol. You may either learn it you will go with bad-looking anime drawing that people kinda look like PS1 graphics or overly exaggerated wrong representation of what a human looks like lol.
It is a me thing that I cannot draw shit with the generic "perspective lines" and "drawing people as you just draw generic body parts" idea. I cannot draw people without first drawing their skeleton, fat, and muscle underneath their clothes and then I calculate empty spaces and gravity when I draw their clothes. I also calculate perspective's depth on the surface of objects area by area in my mind so perspective lines means nothing to me. When I don't follow these steps or don't care my drawings looks like shit, that's why I try to come up with my own shortcuts to make drawing faster.
- Study depth and perspective. That's why artists tend to use reference images, or you will need to study mathematics and geometry in art context. It is kinda necessary to learn drawing postures that don't look shit and too 2 dimensional flat like people were crushed under a big heavy flat object lol.
- Study how objects are shaded and therefore looks like in real life due to darkness to lightness ratio. The tip is the default state of real life is darkness that when there is lightness in it objects light up and the areas got less light has shadows instead depending on where the light comes from. Sometimes I see people draw in a way default state of reality is lightness so they add darkness later. You gotta at least design images in your mind starting from darkness. It is relevant to how to create hair for example. First start from dark parts and then add light parts. Lightness is always on top of darkness.
- Study pencil types and simple pencil methods for what you wanna draw, however they are kinda "overkill". Any pencil is fine to draw whatever.
- Get used to the way a logical point of view is bad for art, so you gotta learn how to pour your emotions into paper for the actual "art", otherwise your art will never look good despite it may be logically look proper. So you gotta ignore how your logic says "it is technically looks right" but listen to how your emotions says "it looks good" by following what makes you like your art.
- As you draw on a blank paper you may cannot pour the image in your mind onto the paper and that's okay. I could never draw what I wanted, but I realized as I draw I decide what would make my drawing better and better and sometimes it leads to "perfect" drawings that are way better than what I had in my mind. The bad thing is until you draw enough you may never realize "how bad it looks" so you gotta get used to erasing a lot until you find the right way.
However the hardest part no one can teach you: Coming up with your own style that you are satisfied with.
Youtube channels can give you tip on, for example "how to draw anime style characters" and they may even teach you how the silver ratio is key in anime art especially when it comes to designing faces. To understand it you would need to study psychology but who bothers lol. For shortcut lots of artists using reference images without having any understanding of how they can create a visual art without any reference image. They can spam great "3D looking" people drawings via reference images but with it they can hardly draw a person lol. This is also corporate way to do "visual arts" especially in the anime industry. They record a video of a person and an artist draws on the video frame and you say "wow the animation quality is so high" but we call this method rotoscoping lol. And most of images and animations are done by using automated tools instead of plain hand-made ways.
TL;DR: Just get a pencil and enough paper and draw objects exactly as you see them as much as you can to practice it until you git gud. Use reference images until you are good enough without them. You may get used to drawing by changing images like changing faces, hair style and clothes of people before going for drawing a whole person phase.
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2024
- Messages
- 1,633
- Level up in
- 867 posts
- Reaction score
- 4,406
- Points
- 3,577
- Location
- Nowhere
If you understand spanish this one could help
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2024
- Messages
- 2,115
- Level up in
- 385 posts
- Reaction score
- 6,009
- Points
- 3,577
- Location
- Puerto Rico
it really depends on how far you are along as an artist. If you are an absolute beginner, I suggest you avoid youtube and start drawing stuff. Yes, your drawings might not be good yet, but that's the best thing to do. Look at real life and draw, or photographic reference. Try to copy what you see in your favorite anime. The best first step is to learn proportion. Like capturing what you see and conveying it 2D. Maybe there's a good resource for that on youtube, search for "drawing with correct proportions" or something like that. I personally used the book "Drawing with the right side of the brain" to help me with that.
You could also join a local art class, that way you have an experienced art teacher and other students to learn from.
Youtube is great for specific troubleshoots, like how to draw faces, or how to draw boxes in perspective, but a lousy teacher for a beginner. Or at least from my experience.
You could also join a local art class, that way you have an experienced art teacher and other students to learn from.
Youtube is great for specific troubleshoots, like how to draw faces, or how to draw boxes in perspective, but a lousy teacher for a beginner. Or at least from my experience.
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2024
- Messages
- 30
- Level up in
- 70 posts
- Reaction score
- 75
- Points
- 127
First of all, welcome to this amazing art!!
I have 3 recommendations for you. I hope you'll have a great time.
(I wrote a lot in the spoilers so take your time)
-Steven Zapata
That said, i feel like at this point you might benefit from this video:
Beginner at Art? Don't Listen to YouTubers
-Sinix Design
And this video right here is for YOU! Watch Steven's first or this one first, i feel like both are great for you to watch before going after tutorials and stuff like that.
Advice for Starting your Art Journey
-Modern Day James
When i started learning to draw seriously using internet content, the first thing that really captured my attention was Feng Zhu's channel, because i was really into concept art at the time. And in a way it was great. His content is freaking amazing, it was a pioneer on that type of content on the internet and it still holds up in quality to this day! He's still one of the artists i most admire to this day, and it made me really work my ass and learn how to draw. But i do feel like the whole mindset that was spread at the time in a lot of art content on the internet was coming from hardcore artsts from the concept art or animation world, and a lot of people talking about how must they suffer and stuff like that. And i kinda started following that mindset too because i was seeing it so often.
Well, i learned how to draw, indeed.. But i feel like a lot of frustration i faced in those many years could have been avoided had i just been exposed to more people that dont treat drawing as such a painful miserable life or death thing lol. Of course drawing IS a hard skill to build, but i think you get what i mean.
So i hope you will benefit from the suggestions i gave, and also, as i've said before, have a great time! c:
I have 3 recommendations for you. I hope you'll have a great time.
(I wrote a lot in the spoilers so take your time)
-Steven Zapata
I'd Like to recommend this channel because i feel like the philosophical approach Steven has on art is really unlike anything i've seen on youtube. Steven is an extremely knowledgeable artist, and i feel like his thoughts are usually very against the "youtube art content norm" in many really positive ways. But i'll leave you to explore his content on your own. I'd say treat this channel as a content you listen to while you sketch (He speakis very well and a very soft way, its really nice to do it that way), so this way whenever he's talking about a subject that for a total beginner might be too foreign concept, you will still be able to enjoy it for how relaxing it is to listen to. I mean, he has a series of videos called "drawing meditation" for a reason haha.
Beginner at Art? Don't Listen to YouTubers
-Sinix Design
Before i knew Steven, i was constantly re-watching Sinix's videos for the exact same reason.
He treats art in such a fun way, despite definitely being a channel that talks A LOT about technical aspects of drawing and painting - And i mean A LOT! You can learn SO many things from this channel explained in a very clever way, that you would have a harder time learning in a course; Good stuff! Still, i really think that specially for beginners, the sheer amount of content talking about workflows, softwares, hardwares on the internet is very overwhelming and often it makes art become a more frustrating thing than it needs to be.
I feel like Sinix, while talking a lot about technical stuff and very specific design topics, manages to at the same time be great to teach how to learn art in a very fun way and learn to enjoy not only the process, but the technical aspects themselves.
He also hosts many community challenges, i've never participated, but its amazing to see and im sure it must be a ton of fun to join too.
He treats art in such a fun way, despite definitely being a channel that talks A LOT about technical aspects of drawing and painting - And i mean A LOT! You can learn SO many things from this channel explained in a very clever way, that you would have a harder time learning in a course; Good stuff! Still, i really think that specially for beginners, the sheer amount of content talking about workflows, softwares, hardwares on the internet is very overwhelming and often it makes art become a more frustrating thing than it needs to be.
I feel like Sinix, while talking a lot about technical stuff and very specific design topics, manages to at the same time be great to teach how to learn art in a very fun way and learn to enjoy not only the process, but the technical aspects themselves.
He also hosts many community challenges, i've never participated, but its amazing to see and im sure it must be a ton of fun to join too.
Advice for Starting your Art Journey
-Modern Day James
Now for 3rd and last im gonna recommend James. In this case, specifically because James has been a teacher for such a long time, and his videos are REALLY good at explaining drawing fundamentals and also demonstrating it. His example drawings are veeery good and easy to grasp, id say just like Sinix is great at explaining painting James is for drawing.
You can find TOONS of channels on youtube teaching technical stuff, but i feel like they tend to be way too much like "How this specific artist does his specific process in his style", and while they all share fundamentals, they dont really explain them (because its not really the goal of course), and a beginner might end up falling in the trap of just learning "cake recipes" lets say and getting stuck into following a specific art tutorial because they still havent developed the basic drawing fundamentals that allow them to understand the logic of drawing that happens before you stylized it into anime or whatever else.
And i think James is one of the best channels i've seen that shows this stuff in a very digestable way to a beginner.
Have fun exploring his playlists!
You can find TOONS of channels on youtube teaching technical stuff, but i feel like they tend to be way too much like "How this specific artist does his specific process in his style", and while they all share fundamentals, they dont really explain them (because its not really the goal of course), and a beginner might end up falling in the trap of just learning "cake recipes" lets say and getting stuck into following a specific art tutorial because they still havent developed the basic drawing fundamentals that allow them to understand the logic of drawing that happens before you stylized it into anime or whatever else.
And i think James is one of the best channels i've seen that shows this stuff in a very digestable way to a beginner.
Have fun exploring his playlists!
When i started learning to draw seriously using internet content, the first thing that really captured my attention was Feng Zhu's channel, because i was really into concept art at the time. And in a way it was great. His content is freaking amazing, it was a pioneer on that type of content on the internet and it still holds up in quality to this day! He's still one of the artists i most admire to this day, and it made me really work my ass and learn how to draw. But i do feel like the whole mindset that was spread at the time in a lot of art content on the internet was coming from hardcore artsts from the concept art or animation world, and a lot of people talking about how must they suffer and stuff like that. And i kinda started following that mindset too because i was seeing it so often.
Well, i learned how to draw, indeed.. But i feel like a lot of frustration i faced in those many years could have been avoided had i just been exposed to more people that dont treat drawing as such a painful miserable life or death thing lol. Of course drawing IS a hard skill to build, but i think you get what i mean.
So i hope you will benefit from the suggestions i gave, and also, as i've said before, have a great time! c:
Users who are viewing this thread
Online statistics
- Members online
- 61
- Guests online
- 718
- Total visitors
- 779
Forum statistics
Staff online
-
JustLooking123Mod-in-Training
Members online
- Lyapotisha
- Allyourbased
- 2112austin
- maximalanders
χKai- blahbleh
- kuraki_tooru
- Required Username
- Sfjeov
- Sir Auriel of Lionel
- BIGCONCON
- yungpimpd
- Daemon_diles
- skbidirizzler
- Ropster
- EcchiL0verMan
- Paterepo45
- Run_Dynamis.exe
- strawberry29
- Sorasamroxas13
- Arthxas3
- JustLooking123
- Dguss03
- Uaeuae
- raycarrot
- Boo Man
- Naltic
- vicv33
- Melina
- Jdan-S
- Maximecool
- Jose342
- maison_astera
- Diadu
- JTalkTalk
