IMPROVE YOUR ART with these MUST KNOW TIPS! Video Lecture | Become an Artist: Colored Pencil Portrait Drawing Tutorial - Art & Craft

over the last four years I've been
working really hard to try and improve
my drawing skills it was about three
years ago that I actually started to
take drawing a lot more seriously and
really wanted to improve my skills and a
lot of you may know that I'm a huge
Harry Potter fan and in 2015 I actually
did a fan art piece of Harry Potter and
I decided that it'd be really fun to do
that exact same piece of artwork this
year in 2018 just to see how much I have
improved over the last three years and I
think you guys can agree that I
definitely improve so what I wanted to
do today is actually talk about how I
think I have improved and give you guys
some tips that I have learned over the
years for things that you can do to
improve your own artwork for you guys
that are new around here my name is
Kirsty and I basically do a lot of
drawing tutorials and advice videos on
my channel so if you do enjoy this video
make sure you consider subscribing to
see lots more drawing tutorials but
anyway guys let's get on with today's
video when I decided to try using color
pencils about three years ago as you can
see the artwork that I was creating
wasn't particularly realistic and that
really was what I was trying to go for
but as you can see with the 2015 version
it had this sort of cartoony element to
it and I decided that I really needed to
start picking out the things that were
making it look not realistic and not how
I wanted it to be so one of the things
that I've really focused on over the
last few years was actually my value
changes and really identifying how dark
the values needed to go and actually
shading in a lot more because you can
see on the 2015 version particularly
with the eyes there wasn't a lot of
shading to the white of the eyes for
example and this is something that I've
knew I needed to improve on and it was
identifying that weakness and that
problem with my art which really helped
me to actually improve it and get better
and as you can see with the newer
version there is a lot more shading and
it does look a lot more realistic and so
that actually leads me into the first
big piece of advice that I want to give
you guys today so let's get into it my
first tip for you guys is to
self-critique your artwork or just let
someone else critique it for you as well
and this is really good because you need
to identify the things that are
weaknesses with your art and the things
that you actually need to improve on
because if you have a piece of art that
isn't living up to the standard that you
want it to be
and you want your drone skills to be a
lot better then you need to start by
actually picking out and pointing out
the things that you need to improve on
to make that artwork better and the way
to do this is after you do every piece
of artwork make sure you pick out three
things that you want to improve on next
time that could be with your techniques
the way you're applying your medium or
with your proportions or Anatomy just
focus on what is letting your piece of
art work down and if you find it hard to
actually self critique your artwork and
point out the things and look
objectively at your art then find
someone that's close to you someone that
you trust to give their honest opinion
and ask for their help and ask them
what's not quite right with my piece of
artwork hopefully they'll give you their
honest opinion and give you some things
to improve on as well so south
critiquing would definitely be my first
tip and one of my main tips because you
need to identify what's wrong with your
artwork another thing that I really knew
that I needed to improve on with my
artwork was actually the amount of
colors that I was putting down onto the
paper and how I was layering the colors
and you can see the nose on the 2015
version it's okay I've got the
highlights and the shadows but there's
not many different hues there and values
to the actual skin whereas in my 2018
version I focused a lot more on getting
all of the different colors in that I
could see in the reference image and
really getting some texture in on the
skin in order to pick out the things
that I really needed to improve on I
needed to make sure I was in a mindset
where I didn't think everything I
produced was perfect I needed to be open
to criticism which leads me on to tip
number two my second tip is don't be
defensive when someone gives you
criticism so if someone critiques your
art gives you a piece of advice on how
you can improve it don't be defensive
don't think that you're always right and
that everything you do is perfect
because if you don't see any of your
problems or accept any of your
weaknesses then how are you going to
improve if you just make excuses for
example for example if someone says oh
this looks really cartoony it doesn't
look realistic and you say something
like oh no that's just my style that's
how I wanted it to be when really you
didn't really was going for a realistic
look but you don't want to accept that
criticism so you say it's just your
style then that isn't helping you that's
not going to help you get better
on the other hand not everybody's
opinions and criticism can always be
right or nice so people might just be
giving you mean comments and are being
just mean not helpful and in those cases
you don't need to listen to every piece
of criticism that you get but you'll
start to learn what is useful criticism
and what is people just being hateful
towards you I always found drawing the
mouth really really tricky and that is
because I found it really difficult to
actually draw teeth and even though the
teeth looks okay in this Harry Potter
drawing in the 2015 version in other
drawings where I've got big open smiles
with lotsa TV shown was always very very
tricky for me and over and over again I
found that every time I drew teeth they
never turned out how I wanted and it's
because I did the exact same thing every
single time I would do really harsh
lines between the teeth really harsh dog
outlines I did the teeth too dark and
they ended up just looking dirty and
really really yellow and it is simply
because I didn't think about what I was
doing wrong I just kept doing the same
thing without thinking why do they not
look how I want them to tip number three
is don't keep practicing that the same
mistakes over and over again and this is
sort of linked with the first tip where
I said you should sell fatique yourself
and this is why because if you keep
practicing the same mistakes over and
over again you're never going to improve
so don't just keep practicing I know
they say practice makes perfect but I
prefer to think of it as practice makes
permanent if you just keep practicing
that the same bad habits the same
techniques over and over again things
that aren't working for you then you're
just gonna get the same results and if
you don't change anything how can you
expect to see different results it's
just gonna be the same thing over and
over again so make sure that with every
drawing you're trying something new
focusing on picking out something that
didn't work and learning to see how you
can improve that so when you practice
again you're practicing a better more
beneficial technique and method for
improving your artwork so all in all
don't practice the same thing over and
over again
don't keep practicing the same mistakes
identify what's the problem with your
artwork and actually work on creating a
resolution for that skin was also a roué
a big issue for me because I found it so
hard to get a good contrast for the skin
a lot of the time when I drew skin it
looked very washed out and pale and
there wasn't much sort of shadowing to
it or any real contours there really and
as you can see this reference was a
really dark battle scene it was a night
sky but you can see on the 2015 version
you wouldn't be able to tell it was at
night it was so bright and I suppose I
was just really scared to use those dark
shadowed values and use dark color
pencils and I think that's a mistake
that a lot of people make they're scared
to go to dark in case they ruin it and
it looks sort of too muddy and dirty
with the colors but as you can see in
the 2018 version it looks so much better
just because I went as dark as it needed
to be in the reference image and this is
something that came over time I didn't
focus on improving all of these
different things at once tip number four
is don't try and practice resolving
every problem that you have with your
artwork all at once if you identify ten
things that you want to improve on with
your artwork then don't try to improve
all ten in one drawing it's just gonna
be really really overwhelming and you'll
find it probably not motivational for
you to actually want to keep drawing if
you are trying to improve on ten
different things it's just gonna be
frustrating overwhelming because if you
don't see instant results with at least
some of them then you'll probably get
demotivated so what are we actually
recommend doing well I actually
recommend focusing on one or maybe two
things that you want to improve on in
that drink so identify two things three
things that you want to improve on and
say you'll focus on improving on one of
those things in your next drawing and to
actually improve on them try and
research tutorials tip videos on YouTube
online anything to actually try and
improve that problem and that way you
won't get too overwhelmed with all of
these things that you've got to improve
on and you'll probably feel more
positive rather than just feeling
negative that there's so many things
that you're doing wrong one of the
biggest improvements that I think I've
made over the last three years is
actually drawing hair before it looked
very clunky and it wasn't very realistic
and soft and natural and is because I
rushed the hair quite a lot it wasn't
something that I used to enjoy it's
something that I dreaded drawing and
used to do
as little as possible as you can see
with the 2015 version I reduce the
amount of hair that I had to draw
because I simply was scared to draw hair
but now it is one of my favorite things
to draw and it is simply because I
decided not to rush through it and I
actually focused on spending a lot more
time drawing the hair and fixing my
mistakes and practicing actually drawing
lots of different types of hairstyles
and that really really helped me improve
and as you can see with this drawing and
lots of my other drawings my hair is
actually I would say one of the best
things that I can draw I've really
really enjoyed drawing hair now my fifth
and final tip is just to be patient
because as you can see my improvement
took three years it took three years of
me practicing different things and
focusing on my weaknesses and improving
on them in order to get to the drawing
level of skill that I am at now and as
well as being patient in actually the
journey of your growth in your drawing
skills it is important to be patient
with the artwork that you're working on
so for example some of your problems and
the thing that might be making your
artwork not as good as it could be is
that you're just rushing through that
piece of artwork you may be taking
currently like an hour to do a portrait
when my portraits take about 15 to 20
hours so it might just be a case of you
slowing down focusing on that drawing
and not trying to rush through
everything really take your time study
the reference look at the details and
really just take it a lot slower if you
guys want to learn how I drew this Harry
Potter drawing in real time with
voiceover then you can follow along with
me over on my patreon a link will be at
the top of the description if you guys
want to check that out anyway guys I
hope you enjoyed that tutorial if you're
new around here make sure to hit that
subscribe button and if you did enjoy
the video make sure to give it a thumbs
up but I'll see you guys in my next
video bye everybody