Normally I'd tell students asking about it that their speed is a reflection of their level as an artist - the more experienced you are the faster you get, but it's more nuanced than that and I explain why in this class. Best part is even less experienced artists can take advantage of this knowledge and improve their speed far beyond what it would normally be 💥💥

20 hrs on one basic piece is rediculous. I needed this lol

The “no pencil only pen”/“no undo or eraser” method is so useful. My lines have not only become more confident, but I’m putting down more correct lines than wrong ones. Our brains need the “this was the wrong line” feedback on paper to actively learn from the mistake. At least my brain does.

speed is literally my biggest problem , many times i work very zoomed in and i realise i was polishing for 1 hour a detail that when you zoom out is barely noticable. very useful tips

Vid summed up: 1. Stick to your drawing process and figure one out 2. dont waste time on bits that dont grab ppls attention, usually BG etc, max amount of time anyone looks at ur art is gonna be 5 seconds anyway 3. Dont have a thousand brushes, good rule of thumb is having three main brushes and more than 10 is overkill 4. stop guessing, if u unsure whip out some ref 5. act confident, aka. if something looks good enough it properly is, dont waste time trying to perfect everything

He drew a background and then changed his mind! My confidence is boosted.

before art school, I used to make two finished pieces a month to hang up at my local pizza store. Now, currently in art school, I am assigned to complete a minimum of 40-50 drawings a week. Whenever I do a personal piece now, I can achieve the quality that used to take me 15 days in only 2. Alot of resources will shit on art school, but my teacher broke it down pretty simply for me- pressure makes practice, makes perfect.

I really have the problem where I end up adding detail to EVERYTHING. Once had a client who commissioned me contact me a few months later and say how they just started realizing how much extra detail I had put into every corner of the piece. From noticing how I rendered every single nail, to how I added texture and effects to every piece of clothing or how I even did etched marking on even the tiniest jewelries or had seperate strands of slightly different colors for the robe. They even sent me $20 as a tip after that and went on about how they just keep noticing more and more. It really made my day! But this is probably only like 1 in a 50 client. Most people don't even care about me sending them the high-res file.

the whole thing about using less layers or non-eraseable tools is solid advice, but... well, as a recovering perfectionist/former gifted kid, the thing about that, is that you need to learn to stop giving so much of shit first. To let go of the idea of being good. Might sound dumb, but hear me out! I was so nervous about doing new things or stuff I wasn't really good at, that I shied away from trying out new things, or beat myself up over it too much when I did try new things and was bad at them - essentially the "what's the point of doing it, if I'm not perfect at it?" mindset that a lot of perfectionists fall prey to. You want to be GOOD at drawing, and for perfectionists that means there can't be _any_ mistakes or inadequacies, so you overwork your pieces, and quickly burn out, or even drop art entirely. You can't bring yourself to really "finish" a piece, bc there will always be more things oyu feel like you could improve upon, and if you DO deem a work finished, it still doesn't FEEL like you're finished. It feels more like "I gave up and said stop when it was good enough". Like phoning it in. And that's where you need to stop, step back, and learn to stop giving so much of a shit. Stop trying to be perfect, or even all that good, and fully embrace a mediocre skill-level, or, hell, even a bad one! See a mistake? So what? It's whatever! Keep going! Like he said, you need to learn to be confident with your decisions, and that also means to move on even if you _aren't_ fully confident. Stop constantly going back. It's perfectly fine to be bad at something you're just starting out with. Now, that may _sound_ logical and obvious, but once you're older, there's a sort of pressure there - a feeling like you can't be bad at something that's so easy for other people. Like you should already HAVE those skills, or the capability to pick them up really quickly. It feels shameful to be struggling, essentially, _especially_ if you're a former gifted kid. But if you can let go of that *need* to be good and always better, and accept your skill as it is, that will actually help you improve, because it means you're DOING art more. If you stop shying away from the possibility of making mistakes or not being good at something, you'll stop waffling about instead of just drawing, too. You'll get a lot more done, and if it's not perfect, then so what? It's better than nothing! You can't have quality without quantity, and you can't have quantity if you're so petrified of making a mistake that you re-draw the same line 50 times, and still end up unhappy about it. Even if it sounds dumb or paradoxical, but you can only get better if you stop caring too much about being better.

Limiting your layers to only 2-3 active working layers safes TONS of time and mental energy. I know every artist is tempted to think, "Hey if I don't flatten my 20 layers, I can always fix things easily", but in fact it's the opposite: you waste time simply trying to find the right layer AND struggle to see your artwork as a whole image.

I am an artist and I DO tend to look at how much effort and detail an artist put into their art lol I tend to like/appreciate pieces with lots of clear details more than those that look rushed.

i can get out fully rendered comms in around 4-5 hours, sometimes longer depending on complexity - it definitely helps to learn how to make your art faster. time is money!

Marc is my favorite teacher, those videos helped me so much. I can´t thank him enough helping me enjoying art again.

BRO I WAS JUST SEARCHING THAT-

4:24 Marc: “See if you zoom in you can tell I left the background and lower body pretty rough-“ Me: “T-This is rough?”

Holy sylphie thumbnail! Based!!

Ive always thought i was good at drawing - and i think im okay - but drawing on screen less tablet really humbled me and made realize how bad my sketching technique is. I’ve really tried to slowdown and draw single confident lines now and I do feel like im improving. Great vid as always Marc!

Hey Marc! I wanted to ask, would you consider making a video on how to properly use references insyead of just copying them? I am an artist that has complete aphantasia, which means it takes me longer to understand some shapes, and using references my brain defaults to just 1:1 copy and then adjust it for my needs. If you could show us how to properly break refs into maybe geometric shaped or sth like that, it would be amazing! I know you get tons of requests like that, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in :) Thank you for sharing your knowledge, you taught me more in a year than I learned in previous 12 years

Phew, back on track. I've been wandering what to do, good thing I have art school. ty mark. Also the "ah!" at the beginning was way too relatable. I have thrown my pen in that exact way, three consecutive times one day, and that's not even a joke .

Coloring has improved my hand and eye coordination.

Agreed on sticking the same recipe and tools u used for a period of time it definitely helps to make your art better

I really loved the only refine the focal point part, because it's true!, the other day I was watching some amazing art, wondering how do they make such amazing renders, but the closer I looked the rougher the shading and lineart actually was

It's comforting seeing in the comments just how many other people struggle with this Thanks for the vid, these are really helpful tips!

A great collection of tips here SENPAI, as usual, but they're all very practical for advancement when in use, so THANX!!! 🙇

I've been searching for the music in the background for three years, not only was this video super helpful for tips but it was also super helpful for me trying to find that song.

Your colours and palette choices have improved immensely.

this speedpaint was so satisfying to watch!!! and thank you for the good tips as always!

this is so helpful! a couple of these i learned in college (confident strokes, gesture first, reference reference reference..), but the ones about using the same tools was a totally new idea to me and it makes a lot of sense! (though sometimes i get bored with a brush i’m using and/or my art process so i feel the need to change and it try something new.. probably partly why i’m a slow artist most of the time 😅.) and the “fake it ‘till you make it” tip.. i knew about it for a while, i really have to try using < 5 layers at some point. it’s been a hard mental barrier for me, but i’m going to give it a try after work tonight! thank you for making this video, much appreciate 🙏

You’re doing a very beautiful piece of art like always you do. You always caught me at your videos because the stunning way of the values and lights. My favorite bald, ever.

beautiful work, thank you for all the tips and encouragement. I especially love the videos where you start a drawing from scratch and we can follow along. your brushes and some from DG are the only ones i use now.

Thanks, Marc! I recently purchased your Art School program a couple weeks ago, but am having trouble building it into my daily life and make it a habit (on top of the fear of starting/blank page/being bad etc. Typical newbie stuff). Every time I watch one of your videos, it rekindles my desire to stick with it. Thanks for everything you do!

I needed this. thank you so much!! The focus on your effort part was such a wake-up call. I always over-fixate on details that don't show that much on the final result. the many layers were always a problem for me. I keep on creating backups of certain layers in fear of making a mistake and I might need to go back and redo it. This is a great video every tip and and suggestion made me realize what I've been doing that made me stop finishing an artwork because I get so overwhelmed that I never go back to finish it. Definitely gonna apply and create some changes to my process (which I never have because I usually wing it gonna work on that too LOL).

The timing of this video is perfect! I have an art project for a class that’s due tomorrow and I need to learn how to render it FAST 🏃🏾‍♀️💨💨💨💨

If yall wanna figure out your method on how you go about your painting personally in my case, I looked at the speed paints of my older pieces and I looked at how long it took me to make those pieces and or a similar process I knew I could replicate really quickly and I just kind of wrote down my steps so that I could remember my method. 😅

Having confidence is the thing that working for me right now, speeding up. Big strokes, little more messy but speeding up gradually. I was hesitant about my strokes cause I tried to do it perfect from beginning, but actually looking for other artist do things made me realize how messy their work is in process. Thats actually can be another tip - to see how people doing things, not observing results, observing process.

I was just thinking about this topic haha, and here is sensei to the rescue!! love you sensei 💜

i definitely needed this i often find myself stuck with one work for days or even weeks because i use too many layers and easily get overwhelmed by that but then i remembered how i used to draw on an online board (what was it again? malmal?) with friends and there were no layers but surprisingly i felt more free back then and this was also the time when I made the most progress at drawing i will take note of every tip in the video, thank you for your hard work!

I needed to hear this. Thank you so much!

AGAIN MARC!!! Dang! I been grinding with trying to find a technique (Recipe) that works for me and got frustrated becase I mastered many but all took too long. Now, I decided on one way I developed for myself two years ago and I AM STICKING WITH IT TILL IT LOOKS GOOD!!!! And here you are again VERIFYING ME! I made this decision yesterday. THANK YOU AGAIN MARC!!! Please keep up with great work.

Thank you Marc!

Great advice and great art love Sylphie :)

Thank you Marc amazing lessons and advice as always ❤

I've been stuck for a while, thank you, this video came in handy. Greetings from Uruguay bro!

You are truly incredible, I love your art and classes, I think you are the teacher I am most inspired by watching. I really love this style of painting in this video and Zelda's painting, It would be amazing to see more videos with this style, it's very beautiful.

trying to follow bob ross in real time with nothing but the few brushes from marc's kit and the defaults led me to find a basic style to start painting with, still trying to iron out the details and refine and learn and all that but i'm getting there when it comes to using color in my drawings.

GUY DROPPED JUST WHAT I NEEDED LIKE AN ANGEL OF ART

Great advice as always!

The layer one was something I only recently let go of. That fear of making a mistake I couldn't undo was near crippling, but the longer you paint, the more you understand materials, or lighting, or just your own process. In the last few months, I went from a file of 100+ layers to maybe 10. And it does go faster, eventually. The faking bit, I'm still trying to learn lol. Never thought I'd get to this point tbh lol. Thanks Marc!

Everytime I think “I wish Marc would have a video of this topic” you come out with a video of the topic. THANK YOU! As an anime artist thank you so much speed is my biggest downfall so I’m excited to be able to improve with this video. Thank you so much ❤

Great advice! Thank you Marc!

Love your videos MB! Yay mushoku tenshi, and sylphie ! Can you do Eris too?

I needed this

Thanks. Reay needed to see this!

My comment is that you've inspired me to work consistently for a year now. If that's what you intended, keep going ;) For everyone out there. Art School is worth it.

Amazing video and tips, like always~ Thank you!

Thank you for everything ❤

I would appreciate a video on endurance. One of my friends recently spent 117 hours on an art project whereas I usually lose my motivation after, like, two. My uncle commissioned me to draw a full-body portrait of him on March 25th, but due to my lack of endurance, it took me until April 20th to finish it. I really need to learn how to push through such projects so I can complete commissions for people outside of my family who won’t be as patient.

Marc gotta be the best art teacher I've ever had

Thanks Marc

Thanks, Mark!

Great and helpful advice, thank you!

Used to work at a digital art studio where we did extremely elaborate realism artwork and everything had to be perfect and highly detailed when you zoom in due to the nature of the target audience. Learned to polish everything, but my speed suffered highly as a result, making the next gamedev job I had a nightmare. Thank you for the tips!

Thank you. Marc ! 👍🏻😁

Can you please make a video on how to finish a work and make it more appealing by adding light affects flares or shiny

always an inspiration ❤❤❤

8 hours on a tiny drawing i dont like our look at anymore 😢 i needed this

Two things that helped me tremendously with managing time was sketching with a pen only no pencil, and drawing for four years on a screen-less tablet. I remember one of my first digital pieces took over forty hours to complete, but something with the same level of detail right now would take me three hours of continuous work or something :]

Incredibly late but this is such a crucial video for me!! Thanks for teach :)

YES!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

Hii Marc, I wanted to ask if you can do an anatomy lesson that also talk about human muscles and how they work, I watched a lot of tutorials but they always make me feel bored and also i feel like I don’t understand anything , I really wanna learn how to draw 3D figures in a easy way that my mind can understand , and btw I always rewatch your lessons cuz they really help me! Your the best art teacher I’ve ever known, I believe that there’s no one is better than you in teaching art 🩷 thanks for always helping us improve with your lessons and classes, I really appreciate it 🩷🩷🩷🩷 and btw the way you teach art is not boring that’s why I watched a lot of your lessons and rewatched them!

thank you! ❤

I zoned out when watching and now I need to rewatch it all 😭

Anatomy and light theory also is must learn too, i got slow down a lot when it comes to grayscaling because of lack of anatomy knowledge and color compatibility too

Another important thing: KNOW YOUR PROGRAM Knowing shortcuts helps A LOT. Also adjusting them to your needs. It might be annoying at first to learn that but it will make your work much quicker later. I use shortuts for new layer, layer group, lasso tool, unselect all, tools like transform, move and HSV/HSL Adjustment. Also check your drawing program has tools like Palette Docker for saving your most used colors or Popup Palette for quick access to your brushes. And - set auto save!

Remember that most as people, especially those who are just beginning, taking long in your art is a compliment. If you notice, artists that take so much time have much more detail although it isn't as necessary (that's what this video is for) so don't take "taking long" as a bad thing. Good luck everyone :>

After a long time, this is just what I needed

man i keep on trying to get better with digital art and this video really made me ask “why?”. cause ive always been more comfortable with traditional art.

Yeaaa, let's go!!!

The MB Cubebrush (legendary) is really an amazing brush to use. Been using it for the past year and it's tough to move away from it.

Great tips!

Thank you ❤

Cute sylphie

On one side i use very few brushes and layers, on the other i really obsess with details, for most of the painting um zoomed in.

OH MY GOD I swear I spend like 4 whole days to do one drawing with simple inn background and I almost lost my mind due to the time amount I wasted and then got art block and blues for another week. My biggest issue is my stupid OCD perfectionism which often pushes me into making EVERY PIXEL PERFECT which is super dumb I know, so I need to take your advices and drill them into my brain. I'm gonna watch this video before every practice I plan on doing until I loose that dumb habit. Thank you so much Marc, you're the best

I've been scared to search up tips that remind me of college due to my old art college failing me despite showing signs of improvement, so this is very refreshing and reassuring that improvement is possible.

bro is living in my head, i didnt even search abt this topic i was just thinking about it

I saw this and instantly clicked. Thank you for the advice!!

Thank you

I’m impressed you change your art style tbh

Good tips, especially the one with the brushes. I used to collect tons of brushes as well and in the end only used a hand full of them. Nowadays I have like 3 or 4 brushes I use for everything and then an extra folder with a bunch of highly specialized fx brushes. The point with the limited layers is one I would disagree with. I personally hate to use the lasso tool to get sharp edges and use clipping masks on seperated layers for that instead and it doesn't really cost me any speed. With both methods it's a matter of finding an effiecient way to work with and getting used to, so I wouldn't prioritize one over the other.

I need the opposite of this, I need to be able to gain the patience to draw more then a few hours. If I can't draw a full piece in 2 hours I scrap it cause I speed draw literally everything!

Happy 7th anniversary to your program Marc ! I'm glad I'm part of your student,even tho I'm not the most diligent.I have one question about the level of detail in artwork,for concept art do I need to detail everything or to only detail some part of it like focus point etc ?

My biggest problem in drawing fr Besides motivation Thank you!

Marc, could you please also tell us every time how long you needed to finish your painting in the respective video?

Same again make a video on how to make splash art like riot games I'm waiting for that class love u mark ur great❤❤❤

for future ref 1only have a few brushes 2 only add details to the focal point like the face 3 think ahead of wht youll do 4 find a reference dont guess wht to do 5 work confidently

Thank you.

Can we get an updated hair tutorial please? 🥺😙

Thank you so much for the video I did these steps and instead of drawing for many hours my drawings only took like 1 - 3 hours 🙏🙏

The best art prof doesnt exis.... omg