Announcing Painting for Programmers

I've spent years trying to figure out how to teach Drawing and Painting to my fellow code monkeys and I simply couldn't quite figure it out. Actually I couldn't even articulate why a programmer would want to learn how to Art other than...uh...it's like fun? After 6 months of game development I'm confident in saying that being able to paint and draw is an absolute super power, and that motivated me to finally make a course.

The put it bluntly, if you're trying to get into game development and you don't at least have a basic ability to draw then you're severely limiting your ability transform your vision into reality. Thankfully learning to Draw (and Paint) isn't magic and anyone can learn it with some effort. All it takes is learning a few basic exercises and lots of practice, which is what I hope my videos provide.

The reason I say this is I've spent the last 6 months making about 4 games and I can easily say that my ability to paint has helped tremendously. If I have an idea I can mostly just go for it. I can do concept sketches, textures, character art, effects, and most anything else I need. Combine that with my ability to code and I can mostly make anything 2D I want, and even some 3D games. The only skill I'm lacking in at the moment is 3D modeling, which I'll be tackling in the near future.

I can also say that I weirdly can comprehend code that involves graphics and art without consciously knowing how it works. This is a very strange experience since normally you'd need to know the math behind many of the algorithms to be able to change how they work, but I've many times had weird epiphanies I can't explain and could just fix or alter code I didn't really understand. This definitely isn't ideal since I should know how these algorithms work, but I'm also fascinated at how my skills in art let me intuitively know how these work without consciously knowing. Trust me, it's weird, and I know it.

That's probably the biggest reason I can give for programmers learning to paint. In addition to being a nice hobby that's very relaxing it's also a gateway into making video games and visual experiences. Art won't help you in your programming, but it will help you envision and create many of the things you want to create, and that's why I created the Painting for Programmers course series.

You Don't Need a Course

Here's a secret about learning to draw: The only thing you actually need to learn how to draw is a pencil, some paper, and a ton of time trying to draw. If you committed to doing 2-3 sketches a day with a pencil, and did this for a few years, you'd end up being able to draw pretty well. The key point though is you have to try to be accurate. If you just take your pencil and paper and slosh around then you won't have much progress, but the act of simply trying to accurately draw what you see will eventually train your brain to actually do it.

I'm saying this not because I don't think you should do it, but more to point out that anyone can learn to draw what they see, it's just most of us have limited time. The purpose of a course like mine is to give you a structured set of exercises that will speed up your skill acquisition. So rather than learning to draw in 2-4 years maybe it'll only take 2-6 months.

I'm also saying this so that you don't think my course is the only way to learn to draw. There are so many ways to learn to draw, even simply getting a pencil and sketch pad and doing it a ton. If you start doing my course and it's not working then try some other videos or seek out an in-person teacher. Maybe the things I have you do just don't mesh with you, or maybe I'm just not that good at teaching it yet.

Whatever you do, don't think that if you don't see progress using my method this means you are broken and can't learn it. It's me, not you. Just keep trying and you'll get it...just like learning to code.

What "Learning to Draw" Means

I also need to set expectations here when I say "Learn to Draw." The initial 6 videos are about teaching you the basics of drawing, with a goal of becoming reasonable good at sketching. Sketching is the first level of drawing and is probably the most useful for most people who want to get into art as it's a fast way to record what you're imagining or see, and it's a style of drawing you can do quickly. Doing a ton of sketches will usually advance your skills faster than doing a few photorealistic drawings.

I know programmers, and I know they're going to think that if they can't do a perfect copy of a Michelangelo drawing after watching one 7 hour course, then the course and/or they are total failures. Drawing and Painting is very similar to programming in that it's easy to learn the basics, but has a very high skill ceiling. You could learn the basics of drawing and then spend the next 10 years improving your skill and still not reach the pinnacle of what's possible. I know, it's been 10 years for me and I still suck at painting flowers so I still work on flowers. I also constantly work on drawing since that's my weakest skill.

Keep that in mind. My Painting 4 Programmers is similar to my programming courses. I teach you the basics so that you can then go study any art style you want, make art you want, and spend the rest of your life enjoying it. My course (and no course really) is not going to turn you into John Singer Sergeant in 7 hours...or even 7 months.

The Videos

You can access the videos off Youtube, but because Youtube sucks at putting things in order I've collected links to them here. This is temporary as I'm going to make a free course to get things organized soon, but I have to...fix my website first. I know, the cobblers shoes problem all over again. Anyway, here's the videos and there's more coming. I also do frequent painting and drawing demos on my Twitch Stream and I use painting in all of my games, so if you want to see how it applies to real actual life then stop by. You can even pay bits to get me to do a quick 10 minute painting.

Intro to Drawing

Drawing Lesson 01: Contour Drawing

The first lesson shows you how your brain sabotages your attempts at drawing then teaches you how to use Contour Drawing to get into "drawing mode."

Drawing Lesson 02: Values and Cross Hatching

This lesson teaches you what a "value" is, how to do cross hatching, and how to use it to render what you draw.

Drawing Lesson 03: Memory Drawing

This is probably the most important lesson as it teaches you how to draw from memory. Drawing from memory isn't useful as a way to draw, but it is an amazing exercise to improve your ability to draw. It may seem weird at first, but you definitely should try it.

Drawing Lesson 04: Basic Sketching

While contour drawing and memory drawing are excellent exercises to unlock your brain, they aren't so great as methods for actually drawing. Don't get me wrong, you can practice these and eventually get very far, but sketching is where you start to move into really drawing what you see.

Drawing Lesson 05: Measurement

You learn the first style of measurement called "relative measurement" or "unit measurement." This is where you pick one thing in your scene as the "unit" and then base the proportions of every other part of the scene on that one unit. I also show you how to use angles to relate parts of your scene to other parts, and how to properly lock your arm to keep your measurements accurate.

Drawing Lesson 06: Final Shading Demo

I finally take everything you've learned so far and show you how to use cross hatching (shading) to render your scene. After this you'll have all the tools you need to draw, the only thing you need is time and practice to improve.

Full 7 Hour Drawing Basics Course

This is all of the previous lessons in one single 7 hour video. This is usually more convenient for people since it's each lesson in order and you can scrub around the whole lesson set to find what you need.

Planned Future Lessons

I'm currently working on the next series of lessons, which I might do live on Twitch the same way I did these first 6. Right now I have these lesson sets planned:

Introduction to Sight-Sized Drawing

This will demonstrate how to use the sight-sized drawing method to do more realistic and accurate drawings. Sight-sized is a really good method for beginners because it allows you to figure out why your drawings are wrong and how to fix them. Every other method makes this difficult to do reliably.

Beginning Monochrome Painting

This series will teach the basics of painting with paint by focusing on monochrome painting. If you've been drawing for a while then the next logical step is to "draw with paint." I'll most likely do the demo using digital painting but I may also show how to use actual oil paint. I'll also most likely focus on just using a palette knife as that's usually the easiest to work with at first. No solvents needed and with a palette knife you can use absolute trash paints and still get good results.

Beginning Color Theory and Recognition

This is really my true skill in art. I may not be the best at drawing, but I can usually nail a color in a few guesses. In this series I'll show you how to do the same thing and connect it to what you've been doing with Monochrome Painting.

Intermediate Oil Painting

Once you've studied monochrome painting, color theory, and color recognition you're ready to actually attempt oil painting with real colors. I'll most likely have you use a limited palette of colors that works well to render most things, and I may also show how to do the same thing in digital medium so anyone can do it.

Subscribe and Follow for More

You know the drill. Nobody will see this if you don't appease the algorithms and pay tithe to the subscribe, so in the spirit of "hating the game not the player" I'd appreciate a like, a follow, and all that.

• https://twitch.tv/zedashaw
• https://www.youtube.com/@zed-a-shaw
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