Drawing for the Absolute Beginner

1) "Click here to download the reference photo" - should be noted either directly under the photo or after the title. It needs to be a lot more noticeable (bold large black or red lettering) since the artist does not mention it in the introduction, nor does he have the photo displayed behind him which would also help immensely instead of the artwork that's shown of a bridge. 2) Very talented artist but how are we to learn if we can't see what he's doing -- the resolution is very low quality and his lines are barely visible. They say "Draw what you see" ... almost impossible with this demo. 3) Lovely subject matter but it becomes an exercise in frustration trying to deal with the current format...video totally needs to be completely redone correctly. Mark seems to have a lot to offer but its just too time consuming trying to struggle with when there are so many others available that were shot correctly that we can watch and learn from. I've just wasted almost an entire morning trying to follow virtually invisible lines. My rating would be a 4 for the artist but I can only give the video 1 star because of its lack of professionalism. I truly hope the artist will make the investment to have this video re-shot in a high quality format - as it should have been in the first go-round, as I'd be very interested in watching it as it should be presented.

I understand your frustration, it happened quite often. So what I do I take a photo from the picture with my smart phone and have it for the reference in front of me all the time...problem solved :-) and we can now enjoy the video and working with MW.

I did not watch all of Mark's instruction, and I'll tell you why: Despite the fact that I have excellent bandwidth (I typically have download speeds of around 30 mbps), the resolution on the original video was not very good. Even without expanding the picture, it was hard to see the lines when he was working with a 2 HB pencil. For our subscription prices, every video should be high quality, so that we can see the details. As to instruction, whereas I see the value of simply watch in someone draw, it would be helpful to hear explanation of placement and perspective that show students how to draw in proportion, etc.

when I first followed along and drew the gate house, my representation was close to mark's, considering I did not know there was a reference photo that I could download. had the same problems with camera angles and a few things that were not shown while verbally referenced by mark. I am satisfied with the drawing I did, though as I progress, I will surely come back to this lesson-with the ref. photo and improve greatly. steve

the dvd skipped from beginning introduction to more advanced work on the subject photo. I restarted it several times with the same problem each time.

the material was solid. it was discouraging to try to follow along because I was not able to see the part of the photo he was talking about and the camera angles were not correct either. I just turned it off halfway through because I couldn't really follow along. Nothing wrong with the artist. the visual part could use some improvement.

Lots of good tips. I was trying to draw the gate house while watching the video and it would have been helpful to be able to see the photo more often. Perhaps the gate house photo should have been on the background easel rather than the photo of the bridge.

I am so pleased with my first attempt at a drawing. I have never felt like I could draw anything, and Mark gives you the information and the confidence to be successful. Mark even includes some of the small details like a slip sheet that us lefties always know is a problem, but never think about. Many thanks, I look forward to more instructions.