IS IT TALLER OR IS IT WIDER? Jesus, I've been drawing for years, watching lots of tutorials and this question rings a bell. How simple it is and I never thought about it! Thanks for sharing your experience! Hugs from Brazil!

I am an art instructor as well and agree 100% with your process and explanation of it. Great job.

I have been a drawing professor for adults during three years. Maybe you do not know, but you are a genius.

You said something that made a big difference for me. You shared you early work, and spoke about how long it took you to reach your current level of skill. You made the process enjoyable, exciting. It’s not about being a master now, but the joy is in becoming skilled through practice. Stick to it, you said, and that says a lot coming from someone with your skill. Thanks for remembering us, the beginners, those of us engaged - happily - in the process. Frustration with my lack of greatness is nothing next to the joy I feel in practicing and developing fundamental skills. Cheers.

Thank you for this beautiful demonstration, so helpful and inspiring.

hats off to the work you are doing and the wealth you are sharing ....!

This is a great explanation of the process! Thank you!!!

"Sight size” is GREAT, if you are charging students by the week or harnessing students to a production piece schedule, aka “you graduate when you have done these exercises & finally get approved to finish your Master Piece” (Toronto School of Realistic Art, for instance)

Yes! Live modeling ...I have been drawing this way for years. Excellent way to explain!

Learned to use comparative measurement using pencil in high school art class. Best thing ever. Thanks for posting this.

Thank you for this video, having had graduated from the art school, can't even recall the sight size drawing technique being ever mentioned. We were always taught to use comparative measurement with eventual standing a few meters back to check for the mistakes.

Great artist and teacher, thanks for your work....

When I was younger this was part of my art training. I started off with pencil with the picture I was doing taped next to my paper. Then I did 4 sight size, with charcoal. After that I moved onto oil paint. He definitely used sight size as a way to train my eyes.

Best mantra I have ever heard in my entire life of drawing! thank you!

Wonderful explanation! I like your approach.

That is what i call hard working.. Thank you Mr Alex

Very clearly put...many thanks ...great concepts - drawing and redrawing, and comparative measurements, and simplifying the large shapes, plus your approach or technique...thanks again...well done.

I am not good at painting, AT ALL...But, i swear my oil paintings have drastically improved from watching your videos. Thank you SO much. You're awesome

This is just what I needed. I am an instructor as well. I have learned in an atelier and prefer to work from sight size. I have been rather unpleasant to deal with because most schools don't have the equipment that an atelier has . I try to assimilate an atelier situation and get very frustrated. I could probably give much more of myself if I gave up the idea of having everything just wright and work by eye and proportions. I had taken many work shops myself before my academic training .

The academic process with week long bargue drawings, several week long cast drawings, etc, using sight size is great because you have a 1:1 comparison to see your mistakes and correct them. Doing this greatly improves the way you correct yourself and is massively helpful to do for a while before you start using comparative measuring. Standing back to compare and then walking to your paper also improves your visual memory. Also it's good to burn some calories.

you're amazing! thanks for posting these amazing videos!!!

In my class in Vietnam, we mesure by eyes too and my teacher've taught it for 3 years. All other classes I've come in my country use pencil to measuring and it's much more slower. Our method have 4 parts: Direction, Distance, Shape and ... I dunno how to call it, like using vertical and horizional line from a part to find another part.

This artist is a great teacher.

Great channel btw! Appreciated! Very helpful - THANKS!!!

You are the best so far, feels like you know exactly what I want as I am following your footsteps and learning myself

A very mature explanation.

Excellent method u have demonstrated.

Yes! I teach this to my students at private studio I work at. We have a small space so can only do so much.

Marvelous and liberating!

Very beatiful drawing and nice counseling.

amazing content. amazing teacher. beautifully executed

Great information thanks a lot. I´m trying to learn how to draw. My biggest problems I recon is proportion and perspective. Can´t afford going to an atellier school. This was very informative, thanks a lot!

Watching it appear from the shadows is cathartic

Love the content !

This is true creativity, thank you, my teacher 👏🙏

The sight size method is great for first education, because train your skills to sketch with free hand. I believe the comparative method is a natural evolution of artistic approach, and this is so beautiful! Hugs from a brazilian friend Alex, the channel is so helpful.

I followed your method at 3:59 and the drawing came out beautifully. Thank you!

Thanks for the video and your thoughts on size drawing.

Reeally cool, thank you!

Love you sir....I'm looking for this content....thank you much

Excellent work

Comparative measurement by eye , width , length and angles. That's how I do it . Thx for another great video.

Thanks - great explanation.

That's excellent, thanks so much.

Magnífico. Fabuloso. Me encanta

Very well said! I agree completely!!

Really helpfull thanks so much

awesome as usual

Super helpful. Thank you :)

Amazing art work exelent work like it wonderful

Amazing!!!

This drawing is beautiful. I am drawn to this more then the long Atelier cast drawings in a lot of ways.

Well done!

Thanks for the wisdom, friend.

This is awesome

great video

Thank you so much I learn a new think from you.

Thank you!!

Awesome

Thank you!

I did not know that sight size thing - I usually go with your method , but good to know the atelier method anyway . thanks

Really its amazing😊

Great job

Great Tutorial.

Thanks for posting this wonderful video, thorough but so simple. This is the method by which I was taught at university. I went to a school which focused very heavily on conceptual art and theory, and have always felt that I missed out on more foundational, representational techniques, thus I have considered attending some courses at a local atelier school to learn the sight size drawing, but have dreaded the heavy-handedness and wondered whether it is actually better than the comparative method or simply different. Thanks for reminding me that comparative is a completely viable method, in short you have just saved me a lot of time. I am not knocking what they are producing at all, but their methods are not my thing. Excellent drawing by the way.

Sooooo great

Wow - Brilliant. My art teacher taught me nothing... My dad did though. Love that - Thanks ✌

that's not just a lesson, it's great art. I mean it. drawing is magic. I was "correcting" a mistake or two at my board here, and went looking for something about measuring better w/ my eyes. went decades w/ out drawing, and I want to draw as well as I once did before I started a little business. though I never produced anything as beautiful as this. I thought it was Darwin, at first. he's in my sketchbook. great subject. that is a great adage about mistakes ,and how we learn from them. I've got a boatload. and then there's my drawings. but seriously, I'd like to essentially try to be a cartoonist. I will return, sir. keep making great art .thank you. watching someone draw like that is better than seeing it on a gallery wall. it comes alive. well, back to the board.

That's how I draw. I get it right from seeing my mistakes but I need to make the mistakes first. I could never get the hang of measuring

it's perfect

this is amazing

Brilliant

Thanks!

Nice!

An other good video. Thank you.

I'd fix and frame it! Beautiful drawing!

funny, i like you and your sense of humour

I agree so much! That measuring is so specific and a pain in the a$$. I'm practicing to get good at likenesses and I don't want to do an elaborate set up every time. I want to simply have a sketchbook and some pencils right now.

Hi. You're video just came up on my yt stream. Very nice, ty. A couple of things I'd like to ask please : with the atelier sight size using the string, how does one make a mark if both hands are used to measure? Is an estimate made first on paper, then related to the string then re - drawn if incorrect? I usually draw on a3 with charcoal and have a photo on my tablet next to me that I try to draw a portrait from. I just estimate the size I want that fills the paper then correct as I go along. I'm ok, but I think I could progress more if I had a way of transferring properly the small size to big paper accurately. This seems to be key to getting a likeness. I can't measure from the tablet as it's too small, but I compare say the distance from the eyes to the side of the head is the same as some other measurement I can find on the face and do it that way. Should I use a proportional divider? Although, I'm not sure it would work up to A2 size or so? If you follow what I'm saying, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Thank you for putting in the effort to make this video. The way you transform a few simple shapes into an amalgam of life, colour and meaning is breathtaking. I truly believe art is not about being entirely accurate or detailed, but perceiving something so beautifully that you change the way others see. I’ve always struggled with accuracy, especially in faces, so this really helps. What type of paper do you use for charcoal? Amazing work as always.

AHHH I love this so much! It looks amazing!Thank you for sharing. Also, I was trying to find the paper that you use for your drawings and I thought you said medium grain paper but the one that I could find on amazon doesn't look like yours bc it doesn't have the gride like yours has. Is there a specific place I can get the paper online?

Great

Tu si che sei bravo aspetto insegnare 👏👏👏

nice video drawing

Wow 🦊❤️❤️❤️❤️

wow!

Alex this is such a succinct video explaining the benefits and techniques of mass drawing! It is so amazing to see how you can make this technique work with different mediums such as charcoal! I was wondering if this technique could be used with watercolour too? Watercolour tends to be laid down light to dark, so that is where I'm struggling to merge the technique of mass drawing with it. Thanks again for your amazing channel and descriptions! ❤️

I love this video so much! So helpful!! One question, with what tool are you "pushing" the charcoal with? I like the way those strokes look like but I can't achieve that look. Thx

If it's "taller" no problem, you will have the El Greco feel... Just kidding. Great and masterful presentation, drawing is at the heart of everything! Thank you for the instructions!

I just discovered the Bargue method...got all excited...then watched this...and now im like wtf!!! lol!

Hi, can you tell how you set this? How long you stand apart of the model? Thanks was very interesting video.

Hey Alex, another great video, How is it that your drawing is so accurate? I know you say to trust the eye, but in terms of working out how the overall image fits on the paper, do you say, measure a head length and then count how many times it fits into the figure then plot it down on your paper? or in this case do you for instance measure the length from the nose bridge to the bottom of the nose and use that as a unit of length to workout sizes like the overall height and width? I hope this question makes sense. I have been practicing gestural drawing ie loomis method of using circles and rhythms of the face, the drawings come out ok, but i think this is more of a method for illustrators inventing faces/figures vs a representational aim. What is a good book or reference for practicing the way you were taught?

Thank you for this, this is also how I work. Too much measurement kills a drawing.

Rather relieved you're not an advocate of sight-size. 😄

I can't even get my charcoal to erase enough to create highlights, so if I go over a light spot its going to get muddy as I try to erase the marks.

I'm not a fan of this method (sight size)...thank you for your insight!

As for the walking back part, wouldn't it make more sense to relocate your easel at a further distance from the object in order for the object to match canvas size? Either way I would agree with your criticisms of using sight size drawing though. To me it doesn't make much sense either training only the ability to draw something from the 'optimal' distance. Yes, it is hard to draw proportionally at first, however once you understand the translation within the framework of the canvas it is actually quite easy. Well, easy is perhaps the wrong word, as it still requires accurate drawing. But in a sense you'd block in with large shapes subdividing the canvas so the general proportions and large features are there. Then add smaller shapes and details from there. As each shape is measured relative to total canvas size and shape sizes in proximity, you'll end up with a fairly accurate drawing that way too. Angles can be measured with a brush handle to check. Anyway, good video. I'd like to see more someday!

we love you

Alex ,everytime I got into trouble with my drawing gotta See your videos again no matter if it has been years ever since,they are sooo Enlightening!!! Have a question, it maybe stupid but can we apply the same concept when drawing with pencil?

Bro 👍 ✌ 👏