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LIFE
DRAWING
SUCCESS
Avoid the 1 big
mistake that led to all
my other mistakes
 INTRO
My name is Kenzo, and I love to do life
drawing. My mum Mayko is a profes-
sional artist who also loves life drawing.
We started Love Life Drawing to help peo-
ple through the struggles described in this
guide.
This guide is based on our own experi-
ences as well as the many beginners we
chat to through Love Life Drawing and at
life drawing classes in London. Your expe-
riences may differ, but I think most people
will identify with many (if not most!) of
these things.
That word in the title - ‘mistake’ - is a dan-
gerous one. It’s the sort of language that
makes life drawing intimidating and it’s
the sort of language I used when beat-
ing myself up as a beginner - ‘why do I
make so many mistakes!’ And the truth is
I still beat myself up this way, and so does
Mayko, even when her drawings look
beautiful, like the one on the left. She ac-
tually told me not to put this drawing on
Instagram because it has too many ‘mis-
takes’.

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 What are life drawing mistakes?
There isn’t a correct way to draw. There isn’t some abso-
lute list of correct and incorrect techniques carved into
stone somewhere by the art gods.

But there are such things as mistakes. You want to draw

differently to how you draw now. Some of you will want
TECHNICAL the ability to draw realistically, some more stylised and B EAUTY > LEA R N ING
so on. Wherever you want to get to, there are ways of
MISTAKES CAN practising that will get you to that destination and there THE BIG MISTAKE
are ways that won’t.
BE FIXED AFTER
When you think of drawing mistakes, you probably think
MINDSET MISTAKES of some technical problem with how you’re drawing,
WHEN YOU VALUE YOUR DRAWINGS’ CURRENT BEAUTY (OR LACK
ARE FIXED like getting proportions wrong or something like that.
But technical ‘mistakes’ are inevitable as a beginner, and THEREOF) OVER WHAT YOUR DRAWINGS TEACH YOU, YOU START TO
there’s no way to progress past them without making
them. So it’s not damaging to make lots of technical mis- MAKE FURTHER MISTAKES
takes. In fact, it’s a necessity.

There is another type of mistake which actually can be

damaging. These are not part of the journey, they are
just roadblocks. These are ways of approaching practice
which cause you to get trapped in a cycle that you can’t
escape from.

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 B UMPY
PRO G R ES S
The quality of your drawings won’t
go up in a nice straight line, where
GOOD, UGLY LEARNING each drawing is a little better than
the last.

Sometimes, you will have whole

Your drawings now are not supposed to be beautiful, because you are still learn- drawing sessions where every draw-
ing to draw. Your drawings are supposed to be learning experiences, so that in the ing looks worse than something you
future, you will do beautiful drawings. Those learning drawings are ugly ducklings did 6 months ago. Sometimes you
that will one day become swans. Love those ducklings. Unfortunately, I can’t say that won’t feel much progress for what
I have mastered this mindset yet, but I’m working on it. feels like forever.

I’ve been practising landscape sketches with watercolour when I take my dog Maggie Those are not a failed practice ses-
to the park. It’s totally new to me and I’m not good at it. I told myself, if I can fit in sions, they’re part of the process. If
three 30 minute sketches a week, one day maybe next year I’ll be happy with one of you are practising consistently and
them. I told myself I’ll need to do a few hundred that I don’t like before I get one I do deliberately working on specific skills,
like. But then each time I see the actual sketch, I still get annoyed with myself that you will eventually arrive at break-
I’m not ‘good’ right now! I have to remind myself of the same things we’ve laid out throughs. They’ll be exciting and well
in this guide - that the problem isn’t the bad sketch, the problem is that I’m getting earned.
annoyed by the bad sketch.

Further mistakes happen when you value the current beauty of your drawing over
the learning you got from the drawing. We’ll look at some of those below. These
again are often mindset mistakes rather than technical mistakes. But the worst part
is that mindset mistakes lead to further technical problems.

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 T H E L E AR NI NG CYCLE THE DEMORAL ISATION CYC L E

it’s not pretty but I’m

I want it to look respectable.
learning...
i need to keep learn- it looks a bit silly ...
ing, then i’ll be able ugh, i give up...
to draw beautifully
one day...

so i better practise
more... my skill level
my skill level isn’t isn’t shooting
shooting up... up...

ok, i’ll try again, i do still want to

and force it to draw though...
look good...
then one
day...

hey wait a minute... that

isn’t bad!

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 M Y D E M O RALI SATI ON STORY
WE ALL HAVE ONE...
I GOT TRAPPED IN THE DEMORALISATION CYCLE FOR ABOUT
15 YEARS
When I was a kid I thought I was mak-
ing good progress with drawing. I loved
drawing and drew everyday. My mum
Mayko encouraged me. My brother
Gez (now an art director at a big games
studio) was also drawing constantly.
I mostly made comic books and new
superheroes that I thought would make
good members of the X-Men. It was a
lot of work, but I loved it.
Then we got a new art teacher at
school, and she told me my drawings
were no good. She said that I needed
to study real art, pointing me to high
brow contemporary galleries. Those
paintings always looked awful to me.
I remember she used to draw on top
of my drawings with a crayon to show
me what ‘real art’ was like. So I got it
into my head that I didn’t understand
art and that it wasn’t for me. I stopped
drawing completely.
But as the years went on and I became
an adult, I unconsciously floated back
to drawing all the time. At university, I
filled every margin in every book with
doodles. My notes were 30% words
and 70% imaginary figure drawings.
I would realise that I simply had to
draw, and would go to a figure drawing
class. But the drawings wouldn’t look
great, which makes sense since I’d not
been doing any proper practice. I’d re-
member that I was ‘no good’ at art, and
I’d stop again. I’d go through this cycle
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12 YEARS OLD WORRIED ADULT IMPATIENT
HAVING A LOT OF FUN FULL OF SELF DOUBT WANT TO BE GOOD NOW!
a few times a year for most of my 20s. I remember thinking my cre- Having not drawn much for a Once I accepted that I would
ation, XTRAORDINARY X- long time, I’d go to life draw- always have a deep desire
When I hit about 30, life was going well
MEN, was as good as anything ing, quickly convince myself I to draw, I started to practise
in terms of career and family. But still
you could buy in the shops, didn’t have ‘talent’, and give up regularly, but beat myself for
here was this incredible itch to draw.
and only going to get better. until next time. not being amazing at it.
My mum has been amazing at figure
drawing for as long as I can remember,
so I asked her to come along with me
to some figure drawing classes.
After each class, we’d walk to the tube
station together, and she’d give me a LOVE THE UGLY DUC KLIN G S
few simple tips. She also told me that
she wondered why I didn’t draw as
much anymore, because she used to
love my old drawings. Here was a sup-
portive art teacher with simple but use-
ful tips - my own mum! It turned out to
be just what I needed and I started to
gain a little bit of my confidence back.
Learning is not a smooth upward path
though. Some weeks I’d feel like I was
back at square one. But, I was going
every week, and even if I couldn’t see
improvement week to week, I could see
big changes from the previous year. I
realised that if I can accept some ‘bad
drawings’, I’ll be able to make progress.
I started to think ‘these drawings are
not beautiful, but they are good learn-
ing’. It hasn’t been a fast transition, and STARTING TO LEARN OPTIMISTIC HAVING FUN AGAIN
I often find myself annoyed with ‘bad
SLOWING DOWN THAT’S ... NOT BAD EXCITED TO TRY MORE
drawings’. But the more I shift to the
learning mindset, the more I want to
practise, the more I try new things, and As lessons about drawing This drawing was a turning And finally, it became clear
more rapid my progress becomes. slowly started to sink in, I point for me. I saw the power that mistakes are part of a
realised this was no sprint, it of practice. For the first time powerful cycle of learning and
wasn’t even a marathon. This since my homemade comics, I that this journey is only going
was going to be a journey. thought ‘that’s ... not bad’. to get better.
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 T H E L E A R NI NG ZONE THE COMFORT ZON E

my drawings should teach all my drawings should

me something, and they look good, now! but they
d0! don’t...

i’ll work on new skills, i’ll make it as good as

even though they’re so possible by doing what I
unfamiliar... know...

my skill level isn’t my skill level isn’t

shooting up... shooting up...

ugh... I’m getting no-

where. I give up.
it’s not perfect, but it’s
evolving!

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T HE COM FO RTA BLE PLATE AU
WE ALL HAVE ONE...
STRUGGLING WITH CHARCOAL HELPED ME LOVE DRAWING
MORE THAN COMFORTABLE PENCIL
When I was in my negative, ‘I can’t
draw well and that’s a problem’ mode,
I would use an A4 pad and a pencil. I
wondered why my lines always looked
furry or hairy, instead of smooth and
clean like good artists. I decided that
I was simply a messy person. At the
same time, I was very worried about
doing a drawing that looked really bad.
I wanted to reduce the ‘badness’ as
much as I could. That was my goal - not
do a drawing that’s too awful. So my
best chance was by using an approach
where I felt more control. In other
words, making small, controlled marks
like I was writing.
The very first thing my mum said to me
after our first class together was ‘draw
bigger’. That was the only advice. And
in fact, it was the main thing she em-
phasised for a few months. I was resis-
tant. I wasn’t comfortable with drawing
bigger. Eventually, I gave in and tried it.
It was awkward. I couldn’t really figure
out the sense of scale. My proportions
became worse. I was still doing the
tentative little marks, but trying to get
them to cover more of the paper.
I complained about all of this, and
wanted to go back to drawing small.
She said ‘now use a stick of willow
charcoal instead of a graphite pencil’.
I thought she was mad. How could
adding another challenge help with the
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first challenge that I was already failing
at? I hated the charcoal. It was messy
and the lines were heavy and gloomy. I
really wanted to get back to a graphite
pencil in a nice little A4 sketchbook,
where I had some control.
Next up, Mayko said I should use large
sweeping arm movements to draw, and
I should just ‘go for it’. I tried it, and the
drawing was wrong in many ways. But
I saw something in the drawing I hadn’t
before. It was all horribly wrong, but
there was something nice in the line
quality. I thought ‘maybe charcoal isn’t
so bad’.
And that was the tipping point. I’d seen
a little progress. I realised that moving
outside my comfort zone means ini-
tial discomfort, but is the only path to
eventual progress. I also realised that:
a) my mum knew what she was talking
about
b) that progress means taking baby
steps and
c) you need to have faith in the learning
process.
This experience is basically the main
reason we started Love Life Drawing -
to help people in a similar position to
the one I was in.
COMFORT ZONE MISTAKES
These come from those earlier mindset mistakes. We’ll describe them
here, but remember the mindset problems need fixing before these do.
DRAWING SMALL
WITH TRIPOD GRIP
Drawing to a small scale can feel
easier because you can control
little precise movements of your
fingers to create little marks.
STRAIGHTENING
REDUCING MOVEMENT
If the pose has dynamic big
curves and wild angles, beginners
get nervous & straighten every-
thing out.
LEARNING IS UNCOMFORTA B L E
LEARNING ZONE ACTIVITIES
The learning zone is a scary place at first. But staying in this zone is how
you get to truly beautiful drawings in the future.
WHOLE ARM
BIG SWEEPING LINES
Drawing bigger and making
sweeping arm movements is
unfamiliar and takes time to learn.
Do it and persevere!
EXAGGERATING
ADDING WILDNESS
Since you’re likely to reduce the
movement and straighten angles,
fight this by exaggerating them.
Make the drawing extra dynamic.
PENCIL & RUBBER
FALSE SENSE OF CONTROL
Again this is about having a sense
of control - a graphite pencil can
be very precise, and mistakes can
be erased. The marks are also a
sort of shiny grey - not the deep
tones of charcoal or rich colour
of pastel, watercolour, or stark
marks of pen. So a pencil feeds
into a cautious approach. We
love graphite pencils, but not the
effect they can have on a begin-
ner’s mindset.
CHARCOAL, PEN
PASTEL ETC
Charcoal creates expressive
marks and will teach you so
much. Pen requires commit-
ted lines and acceptance of risk.
We are not saying one material
is better than another, but they
each teach you something dif-
ferent. When you overcome the
challenges each one presents,
you become a better artist. So if
you’re stuck on something famil-
iar, break out into the learning
zone with a new material.
CAUTIOUS LINES
FEARFUL DRAWING
Beginners feel less confident and
are afraid to do a drawing that
looks silly, so their lines are tenta-
tive.
SMALL HANDS
AND FEET
Not really a comfort zone thing,
but I wanted to squeeze this in
somewhere. Beginners often
draw hands & feet way too small!
RISKY LINES
GO FOR IT DRAWING
Lines that could go very wrong
- loose and uncontrolled - also
stand the best chance of being
beautiful.
BIGGER HANDS
AND FEET
Draw hands and feet bigger than
you feel you should. Come back
a few days later and see - was it
too big? Or just right?
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01
GOING TUTORIAL
AND BOOK CRAZY
Sometimes after a learning
drawing that looks bad, my
brain tries to stop me from
drawing more. It wants to pro-
tect me from this “failure”.
But I still want to learn to
draw, so it offers a compromise
- watch tons of tutorial videos
and read books on drawing.
This way, I can tell myself I’m
learning while not actually
having to practise, which is the
only way to truly learn.
I’m not saying don’t watch
tutorials (especially ours, of
course), but I am saying that
the learning happens in the
practice. You can enhance
practice by basing it on tutori-
als, but do way more practice
than tutorial watching!
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Further mistakes, described here, are
born when you make those earlier
mindset mistakes. Fixing these starts
with shifting to the learning mindset.
02
BELIEVING PRE-
CONCEPTIONS
I’m not sure where our pre-
conceived ideas of how figures
and faces should be drawn
come from. They might be
drilled into us when we are
young. An eye is a circle inside
an oval. Arms and legs are long
lines, heads always go above
shoulders and so on.
Those ideas are wildly wrong
and somehow override the in-
formation our wonderful eyes
are telling us. That’s because
our minds want to avoid a ‘silly
looking’ drawing, and it thinks
it knows how to make sure the
drawing looks like a person.
It’s great if you can start to
unravel those preconceptions,
and replace them with some
better ideas, start to trust your
eyes and get your brain to do
something useful.
03
VALUING
PROPORTIONS OVER
EVERYTHING ELSE
When starting to draw, a major
aim is often to not draw some-
thing that looks ‘wrong’ - a
term often used for a figure
that’s out of proportion.
When a figure drawing is in
proportion, but has lost all its
movement and everything that
makes it interesting, it is not
thought of as ‘wrong’ for some
reason. If it retains all that en-
ergy, but the head is too big or
something, it’s ‘wrong’.
Proportions are important
to some drawing styles, and
personally I do want my pro-
portions to be right. But don’t
forget to give yourself credit
for the other things in the
drawing that are working, or to
strive for other things than just
proportionate figures.
04
QUICK TO DETAILS
Often when starting out, we
think that a drawing can be
made to look good, or at least
look more ‘right’, if it’s got lots
of details. We get caught up in
unimportant little bits of infor-
mation before we have the big
shapes in place.
The truth is that a figure draw-
ing can look good with just a
few lines, if the big important
shapes are captured. Adding
details is more about your style
- it’s not necessary for captur-
ing the pose or making things
look natural.
It’s hard to resist the urge to
add details early, because it
all seems important and like it
would help explain things to
the viewer’s eyes.
If you are doing any of these don’t
beat yourself up. All of this is part of
the learning process, and being kind to
yourself helps make that process more
fun and more successful.
05
VALUING EVERY
CONTRAST
Our eyes are drawn to con-
trast. That’s something you
can use to your advantage in
a drawing. Guide the viewer’s
eyes using contrast.
But the problem is that when
observing the figure, your
eyes will go to every contrast
in tone, and then you’ll fill the
drawing with all of them.
For example, you might strong-
ly draw the tones between
every rib, because your eyes
are drawn to those changes
in value. But these variations
don’t explain the big important
shapes of the figure, they are
just little undulations. Empha-
sising them creates a skeleton
look.
06
DRAWING MORE
THAN OBSERVING
The information you need is
in the figure. But as we have
seen, your brain thinks it
knows better and uses precon-
ceptions more than observing
the reality. It tries to control
the outcome of the drawing
more than being fascinated by
the figure itself.
So you might spend more time
pouring over the drawing than
observing the figure. With
time, you’ll learn to build your
understanding of the pose
starting from important land-
marks, and draw from there.
That’s why we love the blind
drawing exercise - you cannot
try to control the drawing by
staring at it and tinkering with
details the whole time.
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 IN-DEPTH LESSONS

TO GUIDE YOUR LEARNING, TRY OUR FREE TUTORIALS AND

LESSONS THROUGH THE FOLLOWING LINKS

Beginner Figure Gesture Drawing Artist Analysis Series

Drawing Course
This is a series of 10 lessons
and exercises designed to help
you build foundational life
drawing skills.
You’ll learn to see major land-
marks and big shapes in the
figure, simplify tones and lines
and start to capture movement
and gesture.
Series
This is a 3-part series of les-
sons and exercises designed
to help you see and capture
movement and gesture.
We go over the mindset, ex-
ercises and techniques you’ll
need to create expressive and
dynamic gesture drawings.
In this series we break down
the drawings and paintings
of great artists both past and
present.
We look at their technique,
composition, style and other
characteristics of their work to
understand why it is so attrac-
tive or interesting and what we
can incorporate into our own
work.

Hatching Series Drawing Faces Series Draw Along Club

In this 3 part series, we look at
the different types of hatching
including cross-hatching, single
hatching, contour hatching and
parallel hatching.
We go over exercises and the
mechanics of hatching, and
how to do colourful pastel
hatching like Degas.
In this series, we go over tips
for drawing faces in life draw-
ing, from the side and from the
front.
We look at how to build up
and position the facial fea-
tures, as well as some little
tricks for capturing each facial
feature.
Ultimately, your progress
depends on doing plenty of
practice. So in this series, we
practise by drawing reference
photos, and you can draw
along with us.
Mayko and I narrate each 20-
30 minute session.

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