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Description
I felt it was necessary to draw this kind of mini tutorial just to give an idea how I work on drawings and why I can draw without references. I'll use hands as an example.

I believe most people, me included, started with a thought "now I want to draw hands" or something like that. But why would you try drawing hands if you can't draw anything at all? Sure, you need to practice drawing hands, but you will just keep failing a looong time if you jump straight into it. You can look references and study anatomy, but in the end, you probably will just tire yourself. At least I would, which is why I chose a different route. To learn drawing hands, you don't practice hands. You start from basics (note that this is not step by step tutorial, so these aren't necessarily the steps you need for drawing a hand).

Skill jump 1
This is the most deceiving jump as it looks there is hardly any improvement. This is the biggest leap you will take. If you are a beginner, you will come to realize that drawing even a very basic cube is difficult. It's pretty much as simple as it can get and it's still hard. At the same time you may feel expert of drawing cubes after a while. But no, you need to keep drawing those cubes in order to reach mastery of perspective. Now, at this point you may not really need to know how to use one, two or three point perspective, it's just about understanding how a cube looks from different viewing angle

So when you can actually draw a fairly decent (not necessarily perfect cube) you can take the next jump

Skill jump 2
Surprise, it's about drawing even more cubes! This phase is about getting used to work in perspective and build up some mileage in drawing skills. Even if you can draw a nice cube once doesn't mean you can draw a nice cube next time. If you keep drawing a lot of cubes in one go, you will find that you will start to loose your grip and they end up looking just like the bad cube on the first jump. Perseverance and patience is the key here. Btw, this still has nothing to do with hands at all.

Skill jump 3
This isn't really any different from previous jump. It's just about combining some cubes to form chains. Now they actually start looking like fingers already. Draw these kind of chains from different angles and bend them in different ways.

Skill jump 4
This looks like a big jump, but it's just like the skill jump 2 really. Just more cubes next to each other. At this point you most likely need some references, namely your own hand. You also need to study things like symmetry, proportions, scales, etc (but for the simplicity I have opted those out, they have their own skill jumps). The big challenge is to compile a full hand so that it looks convincing even in its cube form

Skill jump 5
This can be difficult but you should also have a lot of experience about drawing by now. You ought to be able to draw just about anything by constructing it with cubes (although here is demonstrate only hands). Now you just observe and study and apply that knowledge on top of your cubes. In fact, if you have done your practice well, you may not need to draw the cubes anymore. The point is to visualize the cubes in your mind as imaginary guides. (It's never wrong to keep drawing the cubes, in fact, at difficult parts a drawn cube will make it easier to visualize how you need to draw the hand. Skipping cubes is just about saving some time).

If you understand how 3D forms work by now, you ought to know how to shade as well. A free skill yay!

Skill jump 6
At this point you will actually make those hands do something. This gets tricky only because you will need to know how hands interact with other objects. But if you have good memory, you may not need references at all. However, if you want to be correct with your drawings (like playing a distinct chord on a guitar) you have to study the subject. I'm satisfied if it resembles the real thing even remotely.

So what's the actual point of this method? The big idea is to make it easier to remember everything. You see, basically you only need to know how a cube behaves in perspective. Then you just draw more cubes next to each other. It's just about applying one memory of how a cube work. You can also use organic forms if you prefer, they behave just like cubes too. That will save a lot of processing power to things that really matter. When you draw this way, you don't need to go trough everything you have learned over and over again. You jump into creating art and you then paste your knowledge of skin texture, anatomy etc on these basic wireframe drawings. The good thing is that you will be able to start drawing much earlier than by spending all your time on tedious anatomy studies (which you will eventually need, but they become much more useful when you can already draw something).

Nsio of the Hermit Mystics

Description
I felt it was necessary to draw this kind of mini tutorial just to give an idea how I work on drawings and why I can draw without references. I'll use hands as an example.

I believe most people, me included, started with a thought "now I want to draw hands" or something like that. But why would you try drawing hands if you can't draw anything at all? Sure, you need to practice drawing hands, but you will just keep failing a looong time if you jump straight into it. You can look references and study anatomy, but in the end, you probably will just tire yourself. At least I would, which is why I chose a different route. To learn drawing hands, you don't practice hands. You start from basics (note that this is not step by step tutorial, so these aren't necessarily the steps you need for drawing a hand).

Skill jump 1
This is the most deceiving jump as it looks there is hardly any improvement. This is the biggest leap you will take. If you are a beginner, you will come to realize that drawing even a very basic cube is difficult. It's pretty much as simple as it can get and it's still hard. At the same time you may feel expert of drawing cubes after a while. But no, you need to keep drawing those cubes in order to reach mastery of perspective. Now, at this point you may not really need to know how to use one, two or three point perspective, it's just about understanding how a cube looks from different viewing angle

So when you can actually draw a fairly decent (not necessarily perfect cube) you can take the next jump

Skill jump 2
Surprise, it's about drawing even more cubes! This phase is about getting used to work in perspective and build up some mileage in drawing skills. Even if you can draw a nice cube once doesn't mean you can draw a nice cube next time. If you keep drawing a lot of cubes in one go, you will find that you will start to loose your grip and they end up looking just like the bad cube on the first jump. Perseverance and patience is the key here. Btw, this still has nothing to do with hands at all.

Skill jump 3
This isn't really any different from previous jump. It's just about combining some cubes to form chains. Now they actually start looking like fingers already. Draw these kind of chains from different angles and bend them in different ways.

Skill jump 4
This looks like a big jump, but it's just like the skill jump 2 really. Just more cubes next to each other. At this point you most likely need some references, namely your own hand. You also need to study things like symmetry, proportions, scales, etc (but for the simplicity I have opted those out, they have their own skill jumps). The big challenge is to compile a full hand so that it looks convincing even in its cube form

Skill jump 5
This can be difficult but you should also have a lot of experience about drawing by now. You ought to be able to draw just about anything by constructing it with cubes (although here is demonstrate only hands). Now you just observe and study and apply that knowledge on top of your cubes. In fact, if you have done your practice well, you may not need to draw the cubes anymore. The point is to visualize the cubes in your mind as imaginary guides. (It's never wrong to keep drawing the cubes, in fact, at difficult parts a drawn cube will make it easier to visualize how you need to draw the hand. Skipping cubes is just about saving some time).

If you understand how 3D forms work by now, you ought to know how to shade as well. A free skill yay!

Skill jump 6
At this point you will actually make those hands do something. This gets tricky only because you will need to know how hands interact with other objects. But if you have good memory, you may not need references at all. However, if you want to be correct with your drawings (like playing a distinct chord on a guitar) you have to study the subject. I'm satisfied if it resembles the real thing even remotely.

So what's the actual point of this method? The big idea is to make it easier to remember everything. You see, basically you only need to know how a cube behaves in perspective. Then you just draw more cubes next to each other. It's just about applying one memory of how a cube work. You can also use organic forms if you prefer, they behave just like cubes too. That will save a lot of processing power to things that really matter. When you draw this way, you don't need to go trough everything you have learned over and over again. You jump into creating art and you then paste your knowledge of skin texture, anatomy etc on these basic wireframe drawings. The good thing is that you will be able to start drawing much earlier than by spending all your time on tedious anatomy studies (which you will eventually need, but they become much more useful when you can already draw something).

Nsio of the Hermit Mystics