How to Draw a Cylinder with a Pencil
Step-by-step video lesson: building a cylinder from two ovals, analyzing light and shadow, hatching, and cast shadow.
Азат НургалеевJuly 5, 20261.6K8 min
19 masterclasses
Masterclasses
Full video lessons from the artists of Skills Up: each masterclass is a detailed analysis of one topic from start to finish. Watch the first 10 minutes for free.
Азат Нургалеев
How to Draw a Pelvis
Two video lessons: I build a pelvis from a cone and a cylinder, examine the iliac crests, sacrum, and greater trochanter, rotate the pelvis-block in profile, from above, and in perspective through boxes.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.6K9 min
How to Draw a Character
Three video analyses of concept art by Azat: a super mutant, a ghoul, and a girl from Fallout. How to come up with a character from a small thumbnail to a colored rendering, construct a figure and a monster, define materials and color.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.7K13 min
How to Draw Shoulders and the Shoulder Girdle
Step-by-step video lesson: I build the male shoulder girdle from volumes to anatomy. I draw the shoulder masses and box form, the clavicles with two arcs, the deltoid, trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, and pectoral muscles.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.6K7 min
How to Draw a Knee
Step-by-step video lesson: I analyze the knee joint. The femur, tibial plateau, and patella, patellar ligaments, condyles, straight and bent knee, complex angle and hatching according to the shape.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.6K8 min
How to Draw the Neck
Step-by-step video lesson: I draw a male neck from a frontal angle. I depict the cylinder of the neck, the jugular notch, and the seventh cervical vertebra. I add the sternocleidomastoid muscle, Adam's apple, trapezius, and hatching according to the shape.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.5K7 min
How to Draw a Back
Step-by-step video lesson: I draw a male figure from the back with an anatomical analysis. The construction and bony landmarks, the scapulae and seventh cervical vertebra, the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, deltoid, and erector spinae muscles.
Азат НургалеевJuly 1, 20261.6K8 min
How to Draw an Ear
Step-by-step video lesson: I draw an ear from different angles. Five parts of the ear, block-in, volume through form breaks, hatching by planes, and stylization into a square, circle, and triangle.
Азат НургалеевJune 30, 20261.5K7 min
How to Draw a Skull
Two video lessons in one: I analyze the anatomy of the skull through ecorche and paint a painting study in color. From the bone structure and head muscles to the volume, value, and skull drawing.
Азат НургалеевJune 30, 20261.7K9 min
How to draw folds and drapery
Step-by-step video lesson: drawing folds and drapery on a clothed figure. Silhouette and proportions, how clothing emphasizes the shape, the rhythm of folds from tension points, light and shadow on the fabric, and accordion folds at the ankles.
Азат НургалеевJune 30, 20261.3K11 min
How to Draw a Flower
Step-by-step painting video lesson: composition, warm and cool, leaves, tone and edges.
Азат НургалеевJune 28, 20261.8K10 min
How to Draw the Ribcage: Female and Male
Two video lessons in one: drawing the female and male ribcage. From the oval framework to volume, the sternum, costal arch, clavicles, breast placement, and muscles in different perspectives.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.7K8 min
How to draw clouds
Step-by-step video lesson: cumulus clouds over a summer landscape in digital painting. Warm underpainting, sky gradient, cloud volume through light and shadow, colored shadows with blue from the sky.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.7K8 min
How to draw a still life
Step-by-step video lesson: still life with a teapot and lemons in digital painting. Composition using three shapes, background fill, big masses, palette and saturation, drapery, light and shadow of objects.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.7K9 min
How to draw the human skeleton
Step-by-step video lesson: proportions, ribcage, pelvis, limbs, skull.
Азат НургалеевJune 28, 20262.8K12 min
How to Draw a Plaster Head
Step-by-step video lesson: drawing a plaster head from scratch. Composition and silhouette, centre line and tilt, facial proportions in thirds, large planes, light and shadow from shadows to halftones, hatching along the form.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.6K10 min
How to draw a landscape
Step-by-step video lesson: how to paint a night landscape with the moon. Close cool palette, the 60-30-10 rule, large shapes, spruce trees in silhouette, and foreground grass.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.6K10 min
How to Draw Legs
Step-by-step video lesson: pelvic tilt, bones and leg volume, knee joint, quadriceps and sartorius, gastrocnemius and soleus, shin and foot.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.6K10 min
How to draw a foot
Step-by-step video lesson: four blocks of the foot, metatarsal bones in a house shape, toes along an arc, arches and pads, view from above and below.
Азат НургалеевJune 29, 20261.5K9 min
Drawing masterclasses from Skills Up
Hello, this is Azat Nurgaleev, artist and founder of Skills Up School. Masterclasses are my format for those who want to understand drawing truly deeply. Unlike short lessons and articles, where I show the general path, each masterclass is a complete video analysis of one topic from the first line to the final touch.
I conduct them in the same way as I work myself: first, we analyze the structure and logic of the form, then we build it, and only then we add tone and accents. No water and obscure terms for the sake of terms, only what really works at the easel and on the tablet. I choose the most necessary topics: anatomy and human figure, bones and muscles, painting and color, composition.
The format is simple and honest. The first ten minutes of each masterclass can be viewed for free to see if this approach is right for you. If it resonates, you open the full lesson and draw with me from start to finish, at your own pace, as many times as you like.
These video lessons will suit both a beginner who is tired of copying blindly and wants to finally understand how the form works, and a practicing artist who needs to improve a specific topic. I don't promise a magic pill. But if you are ready to draw thoughtfully, these analyses will give you a solid foundation on which you can rely in any work. Choose a topic and come and draw.