Drawing Tutorial: How to Use The Enveloping Method

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Did you enjoy this? Are you going to have a go?

As a graphic designer who got turned off from drawing after too many hours at it. This has inspired me to pick up my tools again after a 25 year absence, thank you.

Phil, I learnt so much more from your videos than any other books combined. I did all the lessons . I wish I had paid more attention to drawing when I was member of ArtTutor . Thanks a bunch. Keep inspiring us.

Thank you! Incredibly helpful all the way round. I will definitely use the envelope method. I also appreciate you walking your viewers through the lightest lights and darkest darks method as well.

Only just stumbled on this video. What a breath of fresh air, you have a great tutorial voice and your editing is very professional, and no anoying adverts during the video. Lovely, and I've learned a lot!

I absolutely love Phil Davies tutorials. He explains everything so well. I will definitely use the envelope method again.

I've done numerous drawing and life drawing courses and never come across this envelope method before. No more grids and proportional dividers! Many thanks.

First time I have ever done this type of excersise and I really enjoyed it. Very easy to follow excellent teacher and instruction. Thank you 🙂

Thank you so much!! This really helped me get away from "Symbol drawing" and showed me how to not get overwhelmed looking at something you don't know how to draw yet.

I learned a lot from this video, and will give it a try! The envelope method is a great way to get things started, and I like it a lot more than using a grid method. Working white on black is also a nice exercise and so different than working black on white. Thank you for taking the time to share your process with all of us!

This has been a great tutorial. I always have trouble with measuring. You have helped me so much. Thank you.🥰

This is the best video on the envelope method I have ever seen. The way you do the first three lines to set the general size of the drawing and the proportion of the first line to the second line, is what most demo on this method miss. This was great. Thank you.

This technique is so interesting and compelling. I think seeing and reproducing value is much more complex than it seems initially and this is quite an exercise in distinguishing subtle and dramatic differences in lights and darks. For me, seeing the subtleties is much more difficult in color ant this white on black technique is like doing push-ups in preparation. Very interested in the enveloping method. It kind of helps blank out the brain's intense desire to skip shapes and "make a person," which inevitably results in getting things out of proportion! This method objectivizes the drawing and calms the brain down! You are a clear and calm teacher like your dad!

God bless you man, you have no idea how much I needed this. People often skip on good explanations for processes in their videos and leave you hanging.

The way you've broken down the reference points and the shapes has clarified some key concepts that I was struggling with. This method will help me a lot -- thank you!

This tutorial was an eye-opener for me. I’ve never heard of the enveloping technique and I’m impressed. I’ve never had trouble drawing, I enjoy it and love doing portraits especially, but what frustrates me no end is the proportions! I get them wrong sometimes. Instinctively I’ve tried to assess the proportions of one line to another but you’ve gone further and explained in more detail. Thank you very much -I’ll certainly have a go myself using a reference of my own, which will test me further. Your drawing was stunning.

Subscribed!! Beginner drawer here. Never imagined it would be possible for me to draw something like this, but when you started drawing angles, it all clicked for me! Thank you!

Incredible lesson,thank you. I am struggling with drawing so this helped me so much. Glad I found you and joined the group.

I've been drawing for many years, but I still learned a lot from this lesson. It's very true what you said about being able to read tonal values. Even though the photo you were working from was very high contrast for the most part it still had areas where there were mid tones. I really enjoyed the video.

Wow! This is so beautiful and incredibly amazing. Very good tutorial too. Everything is explained wonderfully. Thinking to give it a go….