This drawing exercise focuses on developing ideas from simple compositions. As always, consistency is the key. I recommend doing one of my drawing exercises every morning to see maximum results.
Click the link above and download working file to draw with artist Bobby Chiu. Just like athletes, most professional artists warm up before they start their projects. Chiustream is a live broadcast on Livestream with concept artist Bobby Chiu.
Catch live Chiustreams by subscribing to Bobby's Livestream channel.
Instagram:
Twitter:
Facebook:
For more art education related things, go to
Composition exercises from yesterday’s ChiuStream broadcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fIq03CLwQk …
Try them out yourself
Next month? Awwwww yeeeeeaaaah
I apologize for my english, if you can’t understand most of it! (Not my native language)
So, i have some questions:
First, i am stuck into drawing – i have this mindset “If i can’t draw well – there is no need for me to move into colour yet!”
So i practice now for 1-2 years drawing, anatomy, perspective, form, lines, composition, life-drawing, etc..
I can tell myself my drawing-skills are “average” (maybe) – most people tell me that i’m very good at it – but i can’t believe it.
My struggle is, i can draw nearly everything what i see, i can flip it in my head, can draw it from different perspective, so go on. BUT if i want to draw from my imignation i struggle a lot, most part for the human, sometimes i tend to go crazy with perpective – i have this ghost that tells me “you can’t move into colours since you can’t draw humans, vehicles, building, etc. like Kim Jung Gi do!” – i am afraid !
By the way i have never finished a piece by now, i tend to sketch a lot, no SRSLY A LOT! I draw big to small, small to big, i tend to draw too many sketches, and work on too many exercise-stuff, like anatomy, perspective, and everything, but i don’t want to move into colours right now, cause my fukkking brain tells me “NO YOU CANT!” – i am afraid, rly i am afraid of it, i don’t know how to get that BS out of my head, but on the other side, i kinda tell mysel maybe this is how my way needs to go…atm. right now i am stuck into anatomy, i have done now 200 study-pages only for the arm (bone/muscle-structure, including the hand). Now i will move to the leg/foot after – > spine, torso and the last one the head.
I can’t tell if i do right, but i need some advice… cause my time is preciouse. And i know myself even if i have done all these anatomy-studys, i will move into perspective-study (building/vehicles/etc.) and then into clothing blablablabla…. goooood…. -.-” i can’t decide, when i should move into colour… pls help.
Thanks for reading, and i apologize for my english.
And just by the way, yes i am willing to go trough 24/7 learning-process, since in germany there aren’t the best school for concept-art i can’t do much expect self-thaught… i am desperate, i want this so badly… but i am afraid of it, i like to fail cause i will get a lot out of it, i just need a good advice so anybody here, pls feel free to express yourself and tell me the truth, yes i am patient if i know which fundamentals i should go trough, cause my priority is charakter-design at first, but i want to be “average-pro” in other subjects like enviroment/creature/vehicle/building-design…. it’s so hard, but maybe i am just thinking to much and do more work.
I am so desperate….. it’s so difficult to be an artist…. i am 22 now and i am not where i want to be ….
I still doesn’t have a portfolio, cause i believe my work look like shiat… and yes, my selfesteem is on a high level.
+Izanagi Iza
I’m German too, but I’ll reply in english anyway, for the sake of others that may be interested…
1. It is entirely normal to have a gap in quality between your work from reference and your work from imagination. Don’t worry so much about it, it’s not a problem unique to you (I used to believe that, and this mindset set me back quite a bit). Don’t let it stop you trying, design and imagination are skills you need to train as well, nobody is born with them.
2. It’s hard to give advice without knowing your work. If you don’t show it online yet, get to it – right now. Don’t think „I’ll do that later when I’m good enough“, because then in your mind you’ll never be good enough. Taking critique is a hard thing to learn, but if you want to be a pro, you’ll need to learn it sooner rather than later anyway. It’s also worth it, because you’ll improve faster with feedback. It doesn’t have to be a polished portfolio yet, either. There’s lots of forums where you can create an online sketchbook to share studies, WIPs and sketches (Conceptart, Permanoobs, Crimson Daggers), and get into contact with other concept art students without a need to go to school 🙂
3. Don’t let colour intimidate you, there’s no need to get everything right straight away, it’s the best area to learn from experimentation and „mistakes“, honestly. Just play with it, have fun! 🙂 Grab a painting or a photo and try to replicate the colours, then check with a colour picker how far off you were. Also don’t forget values (darkness/lightness), they’re actually way more important to get your point across than colours, and if you get those down, you can go absolutely crazy on the colours, it will still look right 😉
The advice you give about reference always seem backwards to me. You say don’t use reference first but I always think use references first. You use references first to get a grasp and understanding of the thing, then go from your mind to visualize it and make it. Either realistically, or caricature it change it to your artistic style after you understand the thing first.
+NoblesseObliged I don’t like using reference in the beginning because I find ideas are so much more creative and loose. Also when you challenge yourself without reference, you’ll be a much better creator of things rather than a great photo masher of reference. I do believe in reference when you don’t understand something but after you try it on your own first.
+Bobby Chiu I disagree, while looking at reference will sometimes distract you into copying, there is no other way to improve your visual vocabulary than looking at as many thing you can. You can’t imagine something that you’ve never seen(or combine bits of things you haven’t seen to create a new one). That’s how the brain works. If you were doing abstract it would be fine.
I don’t mean not to use reference at all. I’m just saying in the beginning. I find it tightens the initial sketch.
+Bobby Chiu Do you ever manage to paint what’s right there in your mind, then? Before checking the references? And don’t you accidentally stray miles from the first mental image every time?
I’ve always wondered about that. Hope you don’t mind me asking! I’m personally trying to get to the point where I can reliably draw from memory and mind’s eye, but it’s a leeengthy process.
best digital painting channel so far
“There is no file to be downloaded.” 🙁
+Qupo Qu Do a printscreen from the beginnning of the video. Than crop out the compositions. Works just fine…:)
It’s quiet amazing to see how human brain works cause I didn’t understand completely every tips you gave me about portfolio months ago … but now that I’m watching this video again I understand everything.
Thank you again Bobby
a question to Booby Chiu and anyone with the wisdom and the experience to answer this question please fell free to answer. In concept art is it realistic to take multiple projects at the same time, or will that become a night mare
Hi Marcelino Gonsalves, I work at Imaginism/Schoolism. I asked Bobby your question, and he says that personally he doesn’t work on multiple projects at a time. It’s his preference, and he finds that that is what works for him best 🙂 He does know of other artists that choose to work on a few at a time, so it can be done. It would come down to knowing yourself, and what you are capable of coping with, and how you work best 🙂 I hope that helps! ~ Richelle
Thank you Richelle for taking the time to ask Bobby and getting back to me appreciate it. Yes the advice helped thank you
Its Great Help From ur side….Thank u so much…
the opening animation is so cool.
What i would give to attend one of Bob’s Masterclasses.