ART/VIDEO – Drawing Good Girls with Adam Hughes, The Pros and Cons.

Adam Hughes is one of my favorite artists.  He’s an incredible draftsman.  I follow him on Twitter, and Deviant Art, and I belong to the Adam Hughes Yahoo Group.

I own quite a few of his sketchbooks and I’ve downloaded tons of his art. I also try to pick up as many of his comics as I can.

He is worth studying.

If you’re not familiar with his work, he’s mostly known for his “Good Girl” art. Which is to say, he draws a lot of pretty girls.  Although he can do much more than that.

He’s a comic book artist who mostly does covers now a days.  Mostly because he’s really slow (or so I’ve heard).

His art is heavily influence by the Art Nouveau movement.

Here’s a teeny tiny sample of his work.  He’s super prolific:

Learn to Draw Like Adam Hughes

I’d like to know some of his secrets. How he approaches stuff, what he thinks about when he draws…that sort of thing.

To that end, I picked up the DVD: Drawing Good Girls with Adam Hughes.

This a great DVD with some really annoying cons.

I thought I’d put down the Pros and Cons of this DVD and then show you a good place you can pick up a copy if you’re interested.

The Cons

I thought I’d start with the Cons.

1. They cut out chunks of the his drawing process!
   I don’t know why but in the DVD the editor cuts stuff out.  Adam is drawing the girl from start to finish, which is great because you think you’re going to see the whole process. Then suddenly the video fades and you jump to a slightly more finished drawing.  We don’t actually get to see it all.I don’t know why they did this.  I mean, you’re paying to watch the guy draw for a reason.  It’s part of the learning experience.  Why cut some of it out?
2. This is NOT for beginner
   On the bottom of the DVD box it reads: “Recommended for All Skill Levels.” BOLONEY! This is absolutely not a video for beginners.  Adam Hughes talks about his process as he draws but a LOT of what he’s doing he’s not talking about at all.I have a lot of experience drawing.  I could see what he’s doing that he’s not talking about or telling the audience about but a beginners would never catch any of that.This isn’t to say that a beginner might not pick up a thing or two watching him draw, but if you think you’re going to learn to draw watching this, you might be disappointed.
3. It’s a $30.00 DVD
   The MSRP on the box is $30.00.  That’s really steep.  Especially for a DVD that has the Cons above.  If it didn’t cut parts of the process out, I think it would be much more valuable and worth the price.  But because it edits out part of the process, I find it less valuable than the MSRP.Below, I’ll give you a link where you can get it cheaper.

The Pros

Okay, all that said, here are the Pros:

1. You get to see Adam Hughes Draw.
   I learned a ton simply watching him draw.  Yes, some of it skipped over and that’s annoying but doesn’t mean it all got skipped over.There’s plenty of drawing to be seen here. As an artist, you learn as much if not more from watching someone do it than simply listening to them do it.
2. You’re taught a lot about using Copic Markers.
   This is especially good if you want to learn his marker technique.  I learned a ton watching him draw and apply his markers. He shares a lot about using Copic Markers in your drawing.
3. You learn his Art Nouveau inking style.
   I’ve developed my own way of inking, but watching this video has added to my repertoire.Watching him ink is ridiculously useful.  He uses a few different inking techniques that I never thought to do.  It’s great.I learned a lot from his example. He straight up shows you how he does his Art Nouveau inking.  It’s cool.
4. You get some good drawing tips.
   Even though he doesn’t straight up teach you to draw, he does give out some really helpful drawing tips.You hear his thinking behind the things he does. Sometimes as he draws and other times as voice over. Some things I already knew while other things where I’d never thought of.  Good stuff.
5. There’s some nice bonus lessons.
   Perhaps the DVD cut out some of the drawing in the main part of the video to make space for the bonus lessons.  I hope not.That said, the lessons are nice.  One is on using markers do flesh tones, one is on using markers to draw fabric, and one is on eyes. The good news is that you can see the bonus lessons online for free. This gives you a small peek what you can expect from the video.You can watch them below:

This DVD inspired me so much so that I drew these drawings after watching it. I used the techniques I learned from it:

Would You Like a Copy of the DVD?

I managed to get my hands on copies of this DVD. You can get them through my drawing website.

The MSRP is $30.00 (no joke) but your investment is $17.97 plus shipping (Sorry, no shipping outside the U.S., otherwise the shipping ends up being as much as the DVD itself).

The price is much more reasonable.

Watch the bonus videos above and read my pros and cons, then decide whether it’s worth your investment.  I’m really glad I bought and watched this DVD. It’s great.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to sell these before my wholesaler runs out of stock so order one now before you miss out.

Click the link below to get a copy. I’ll ship them out personally, and perhaps add a few extra bonus goodies. Who knows:

http://www.thedrawingwebsite.com/product/drawing-good-girls-with-adam-hughes/