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hey everyone Synnex here now every
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artist has some concept of the
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fundamental things that will help you
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improve it art form perspective lighting
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value design anatomy and so on these are
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all essential but there are certainly
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other factors that go into making good
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art one of the most important and
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overlooked aspects of art comes from how
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we interact with the canvas and when it
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comes to interacting with the canvas one
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fundamental component is tempo in this
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video I'm not only going to explain why
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tempo is probably the missing ingredient
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in your art education but I'm going to
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give you some exercises that will help
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you improve your sense of tempo as well
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a quick cyno for this video if you see
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that 1x icon up at the top that means
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you are seeing any drawing that's being
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done in real actual time so I feel like
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that's very important for a video on
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tempo to actually show you how fast I'm
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really drawing when I'm drawing so if
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you're an observant person you might
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have noticed that when a professional
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draws anything they do it with a
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graceful sense of movement and rhythm as
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if they were conducting music most of
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them might not even notice as they've
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developed a good sense of temple over
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many years of drawing without ever even
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realizing it on a similar note all of us
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have certainly felt the sting of having
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a bad drawing day everything you draw
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looks horrible in every fundamental that
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you've been working so hard at is just
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failing you this can be caused by many
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factors you know stress health just all
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kinds of random stuff but chances are
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it's actually your tempo that is being
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affected you might not have even noticed
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but there's a strong possibility you
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were actually drawing either too slow or
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too fast on that day and it's throwing
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off your intuition and once again this
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can be affected by moods focus and all
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sorts of factors but once you realize
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that this is actually what's causing
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your bad drawing day it can at least be
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a relief to understand and maybe you can
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even adjust it and on a more general
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note just improving your tempo it's just
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gonna make you a way better artist all
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right so let's be more specific what do
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I mean by
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quite simply it's the rhythmic pacing at
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which you're drawing this doesn't refer
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to a single lock speed it refers to the
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comfortable cadence of speeding up and
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slowing down that can help each
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individual achieve their peak intuitive
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ability so like I brought up a moment
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ago while a bad drawing day might mean
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you're either drawing too fast or too
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slow it can also just mean that you're
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drawing too consistently at a single
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speed and not finding the right in flow
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of your tempo when I was younger I
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certainly recognized the importance of
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line confidence in line energy and art
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and if you've been around on this
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channel a while you might have even
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watched my video on drawing with energy
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from way back in many ways this is just
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an evolution in my comprehension of that
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subject drawing with energy is certainly
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key but it can be hard to define what
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energy means so I think drawing with
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tempo is a much more accurate
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description you can certainly have too
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much energy and fall into a chaotic
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dissonance but a good tempo will provide
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both moments of energy and an ideal
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level of confidence man the older I've
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gotten the more blatantly obvious a lot
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of these non taught theories have become
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I've often gone long stretches of time
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without drawing but even when I come
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back to it I know I can rely on making
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some decent looking art simply because I
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understand how to draw with tempo and
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honestly it's a bit disgusting how much
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quality that you can add to your
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artistic ability with just that it's
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certainly enough that I feel like I
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would be a trashy teacher if I ignored
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this principle completely do you know
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how many young artists there are in the
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world that are called gifted talented or
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just praised for their cool style when
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often they just have a better innate
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sense of tempo and they're drawing now
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that can be from confidence but if you
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can at least break down those factors
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then everyone can improve at it even if
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your confidence isn't great aside from
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having different visual libraries which
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is a huge part of becoming a better
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artist the main difference I see between
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the quote talented and the talent less
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is a sense of natural confidence like I
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mentioned and that extends into their
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drawing at a better tempo
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and if we can focus on just improving
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tempo then we can help bypass any innate
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insecurities or confidence issues that
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you might have now you still might be
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thinking how could the pacing and tempo
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possibly make that huge of a difference
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is it really impossible to become an
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amazing artist if I'm not drawing at the
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right speed when you put it like that it
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might sound kind of silly but the
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fundamental of tempo is not for the sake
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of timing or speed the real God of art
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is intuition and everything you can do
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to achieve an intuitive state of mind is
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a huge stride forward your knowledge of
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art is vast more vast than you can
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really comprehend encompassing not only
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the incalculable expanses of your visual
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library but your core animalistic brain
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has this pure sense of understanding for
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aesthetics and appeal and generally all
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animals across the spectrum have some
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sense of desire for rhythm and
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musicality and just everything that's
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what design theory is all about
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discovering those hidden underlying
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structures and rhythms that we find most
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appealing so anyway there's so much
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hidden inside and the only way you will
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ever be able to pull from even just the
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small fraction of this knowledge is
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through intuitive means in that sense
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there's no point studying all these hard
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core fundamentals non-stop your whole
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life if you're not going to work on your
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tempo as well you'd be leaving a lot of
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unrealized potential on the table yet
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again this is what happens to us on a
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regular basis when we have a bad
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trawling day that's just the most
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obvious moment of when you know you're
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not accessing enough of what's hidden
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inside you all right all right I'm still
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trying to figure out how to teach these
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subjects so I'm sorry if I sound like a
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crazy person rambling around but
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hopefully you're starting to understand
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the importance of this topic if you're a
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musician you probably already understand
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that playing a song well it's often
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achieved in the subtleties not just
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mechanically playing every note at the
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right moment but anyway let's start
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getting into some real exercises that
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you can do to improve your tempo each of
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these will help both tempo and at least
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one other thing depending on the
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exercise
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and I will be showing these all once
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again at normal speed so you can get an
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honest feel for the tempo I'm drawing
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yet first up really basic and you've
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seen me do this at the start of any
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drawing session the simplest thing you
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can do to establish some small level of
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comfortable tempo and visual
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coordination is to just make a few
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spirals you can do them in any direction
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you can follow them back around to the
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middle go outward try to get a
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continuous expanding flow to them and
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the upside of this exercise is that it
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only takes a moment the downside is that
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it doesn't do too much to help with the
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actual tempo of highs and lows and
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learning when to speed up and slow down
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it's really just about getting some
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comfortable energy and just loosening up
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your arm bit so now that that's out of
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the way let's move to the good stuff
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this next exercise will help you with
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both tempo visual rhythm and shape
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hierarchy so it's got all kinds of good
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design stuff mixed in there what we're
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gonna do is we're gonna make some
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bubbles follow an imaginary C curve or S
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curve in your mind and draw circles of
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varying sizes and distances from each
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other they can even be overlapping the
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circle should be drawn at an energetic
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pace focusing on the comfortable speed
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at which you're drawing and not
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stressing out about how perfect every
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circle is you shouldn't feel rushed but
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you also shouldn't feel like you're
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allowing your brain enough time to
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really analyze and plan out where the
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next circle will go try to just feel out
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the shape hierarchy naturally does it
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feel like it needs a giant circle or
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more small circles just let bad
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sequences happen and don't get too
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attached to anything good tempo requires
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some level of non-attachment so all of
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that observation and analysis should
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occur after things are drawn not before
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and speaking of analysis there's really
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only one important thing that I want you
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to check for every time you draw a
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sequence of bubbles and that is can you
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find a pattern any pattern whatsoever
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maybe the big circles are too evenly
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spaced
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maybe the negative spaces between the
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small circles is too consistent there's
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a thousand things you could potentially
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turn into a pattern
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even just the same combinations of
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circles next to each other every time
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you find a pattern take note of it and
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try to avoid doing that same pattern in
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the future because the goal is to
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actually not find any patterns the goal
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is to find a comfortable temple and
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visual rhythm that incorporates big
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medium small and produces no obvious
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pattern we want the created feeling of
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randomness if you can do that your
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overall illustration and design skills
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will just improve if you need a hint on
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this one be sure to go watch the big
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medium small video you can't watch it
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enough it really helps you with trying
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to focus on ratios of what should be big
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and what should be small but anyway I
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promise you this exercise will do
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wonders for your just general drawing
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and design skills and saving the best
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for last
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there is one exercise that will help you
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a temple more than anything else and
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that is automatic drawing a topic that
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has seen a resurgence and conversation
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the past years mainly because of the
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proko video that talks about it but this
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exercise will train you to your ideal
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cadence of when to make quicker lines
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and when to slow down it will also
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really diagnose most of your design
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tendencies and really figure out what
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things you need to work on automatic
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drawing if you don't know is one name
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for the act of doodling with a loose and
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unfocused mind just doing your best to
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clear your thoughts and just meditate on
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the canvas with your pencil pen or brush
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the goal is truly to find your ideal
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intuitive state so try your best to flow
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rhythmically into moments of faster
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looser and larger shapes and then back
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into slower and more controlled tighter
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movements find your own musicality what
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you should be looking for is ratio so
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nothing should feel consistent in
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spacing or speed you might find certain
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ratios that work better for you but I
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tend to find that roughly 80% of your
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canvas should feel like larger and open
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stuff while 20% might feel denser and
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more controlled and detailed just avoid
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you know half half everything split down
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the middle so maybe 70% of the time your
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making big fat swooping movements and
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then 30% of the time it's more
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controlled and you're just letting your
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hands kind of detail in a couple of
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things the big goal is to just let your
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intuition start making those calls and
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once again like with the previous
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exercise save the analysis for when
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you've actually finished something and
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don't try to fix what's in the past go
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to the future with new knowledge and
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make something better you can do this as
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much as you want and the more you do it
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the better you'll get at it so it'll be
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a really awkward and probably not look
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great at first but once you keep doing
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it a natural confidence will start to
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emerge in your lines
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I recommend coming back to this exercise
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on a regular basis throughout your art
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journey once again it'll really tell you
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where your brain set for design are you
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doing things that are too even are you
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spacing things out too much
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where is just everything working for you
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are you just always going to angular
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heart shapes are you making everything
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too organic neither of those is a bad
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thing but it'll at least tell you where
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your brain set before you know it all of
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this stuff will start seeping into your
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normal drawing time and you'll realize
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that even your messy stuff starts
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looking stylized and confident that's
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really where the big break happens for a
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lot of artists that's space between
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unconfident messiness and confident
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messiness if you only look at finished
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products you'll always be missing out on
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the hidden fundamental that helps make
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great art tempo so start drawing like a
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conductor and make yourself into the
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true artist you have locked inside all
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right I'm wrapping up this video I hope
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you learned something new today this is
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an incredibly important topic to me and
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I will keep trying to figure out new
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ways to teach it I want to thank you all
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so much for watching and of course my
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extra loving to all of the delightful
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patreon supporters that make this all
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possible see you everyone
