Shadowing Practice: Sketch A Day: Super tip!!! The Scribble Method - Learn English Speaking with Video

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hey guys welcome to sketch a day I'm Spencer and I'm

so excited that you're here you made it thank you

so much I'm consistently blown away by the fact

that you guys are interested but you know what I'm gonna roll with it

because today I'm gonna show you one of my favorite techniques

that I like to use when I sketch sci -fi creatures monsters robots

and spaceships but before we begin if you haven't yet

if you're new if you're just like who is this dude hit subscribe turn on alerts

or if you just like the stuff hit subscribe

and turn on alerts that way you don't miss

when I actually post my videos the other thing you want to do head over to instagram

instagram .com slash sketchaday .com or just add sketchaday .com

and follow me there because I just post stuff to my story

and other sketches as well

and you'll want to sign up for my newsletter sketchaday .com slash newsletter why would you do

that you actually get a free downloadable I put together a guide with some killer advice

that I've picked up over the years I've been doing this for over a decade now

and I put some of

that together to share with you along with a step -by -step tutorial on how I render this chair okay

and some additional information on materials so be sure to check

that out so today we're gonna be using copic markers we're gonna using some brush pens

and I will put those materials down below you can always check there for the links

if you want to buy some materials use those links it actually helps support me

and what I'm doing here as I do this full time

so with that let's get started okay

so the the method I'm gonna be using today is just silhouetting shapes okay

so oft times when I go into an illustration or design,

I kind of have a fuzzy idea of what I want to do and where it's going to go,

but I may not be able to see and represent those details all up front.

So this is a way for me to

extract the complex details from the design and just really focus on the expression

and my intent of what I'm trying to do.

So to do that, I'm using a neutral N3 Copic marker today.

And let's start with something like just a scribble

and see you see what we come up with let's just have some fun today

so you can kind of just start scribbling

and you know you may as you as you're scribbling

you may think oh okay what what is he doing this is this is

so weird okay

but as I as I started scribbling I kind of thought whoa wouldn't

this be like a cool monster of some sort okay so with

that with these scribbles i'm just trying to create some silhouette

you can kind of see there's maybe some legs here

and something but now that i have my silhouette i can start to just quickly work

and this can act as a guide for me as i draw

and i'm using this pentel pen i've recently gotten into brush pens i'll put links again um below

but they tend to be just a little bit more expressive

and i just really really like to use them

so now at this point i can start to kind of pull out these shapes from the marker strokes okay

and it really just helps act as a quick

quick guide for what i'm doing so i can move quickly

and there's some built -in tone as well some shadow

you know as I as I'm going I'm thinking okay what are these things

you know what what can what can these marker strokes become

so maybe this thing's about to take a step forward

and I'm gonna sketch in a back leg here

and this should be really quick just keeping it nice

and loose okay

and I get to decide ultimately what these forms these shapes

are this is a bit outside of the the more rigid construction

that I I tend to do but it's a good way to loosen up

if you're just used to kind of sketching a certain way okay so

if you're interested in trying something different

this is just a good way to just get a little bit looser with your sketching

and hopefully as you sketch okay maybe this thing has like some crazy weird antenna of some sort

and I can just keep that nice and loose just like

so but it's a good way to just break the habits

and just shake things up if you're used to doing things a certain way okay um

so let me just add a little contrast here

because i really want the legs in the front to pop

so just by shading the the body a little darker in this back leg hopefully

you can kind of see this this front leg i can start to pull out some of that detail

right right through there just like so and maybe let's add just a quick shadow

underneath this guy just gonna also you'll notice

I'm leaving some spots white okay I'm even changing the direction

I shade all those things are going to contrast with each other or show up as a difference.

And so that's going to help these elements just kind of pop on the page, even just by using one pen, okay?

And one of the reasons I like this pen is I can tip it on the side

and I get a nice wider line, or I can angle the pen a little bit higher,

get something a bit more precise in terms of the line

that I execute okay probably need some eyes

so I'm gonna add some eyes here

and maybe this is its mouth for some reason it's just kind of weird I'm not an etymologist so I'm just

just making stuff up here as we go okay

but some kind of some kind of bug alien creature thing okay

so that's how I use the silhouette marker method to sketch

a bug let's try something else like a robot all right

so same thing taking my neutral gray marker here

and we'll just start sketching some shapes I mean in this in this case

I know I I want to do something like a bipedal robot

and this guy looks like he's gonna be a fat robot I also like sketching fat robots

but again if you're

if you're looking to just mix things up this is a good way to do it right

so I've got all these shapes

and now from these shapes let's use a different brush pen

so I've got these Kuretake brush pens

that I absolutely love I've got a fine medium

and then I've got a big one as well and

so now I can come in

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and start to just like I did with the bug pull shapes out okay just like

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so shapes in the back

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and you can kind of see things are starting to to kind of pull up

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or be pulled to the foreground rather um you know i sketch this thing on the back

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and as i'm doing this i i like to imagine okay

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you know what what could what could this shape be

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or what could what could

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that shape be um maybe this guy uh maybe just has an arm cannon for example

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and no no arm so i can kind of rough

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that in with my pen

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if you notice again how i'm holding my pen almost halfway up the barrel okay

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you want it to be light the pen is an extension of your arm

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and don't bear down on it so much

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that you're like transferring your stress that's in your head into your pen you want to just be chill

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and zen and relaxed and have fun have a good time

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because you can always start over all right then maybe

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this is his actual fist here let's see i I always check my own hands if I'm drawing something.

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I'm like, which side does the thumb go on again?

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And sometimes I'll like pause and look at my hands.

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So now I can start to scribble in maybe a bit more detail.

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Maybe there's some articulation points here.

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What does this robot's head look like?

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I guess it's kind of turning a little bit into a Hulkbuster -style robot here,

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but we'll just roll with it.

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I was working on a toy design project, can't say for who, but I've been doing a lot of Iron Man stuff

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so um yeah let's just say my mind's kind of there right now

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but you can always change that too all right

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so once i've gone over it with kind of this initial marker

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or brush pen rather then i can come in

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and start to introduce a bit more contrast and definition okay

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so shadowing where i need shadow outline like so shade the torso in

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again holding my pen almost halfway up the barrel keeping it light plus if i hold my pen

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too close to the tip i can't really see what i'm doing you know

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so that's also part of the advantage of of uh holding your pen

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this way is you can actually see what you're drawing as you draw it

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Alright, a couple more details,

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line weight adjustments here, and I'll show you another brush pen that I like to use sometimes.

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So again, this one's a Pentel, I think it's a sign pen or something like that.

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We can even tweak this as we go.

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now it's starting to look a little bit like bumblebee but just having fun

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always remember just relax have fun try to come up with a game plan

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if you will as you sketch but don't overthink it and just have a good time

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because if you're having a good time we'll be able to see it in your drawing okay

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so there's another example of using the blob method just really quick fast sketching just getting

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it out okay one last one let's do a spaceship

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I'm gonna start with just a blob like this maybe some other some other blobs like so

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you can kind of see already where this maybe this is going but I'm just

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reassociating keeping it loose okay very loose

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but by keeping it loose you're just like you're not giving yourself time to like stress too much

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and you can almost come up with some cool details as you go all right

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so we'll use this bigger kuretake brush here

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and we'll keep we'll keep this one just maybe a little little loose at the beginning

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but again you can kind of see how

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i'm even using the same method with the brush pen itself to just sketch in some shapes

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you know maybe that's that's a cannon there i've got some sort of intake here maybe this is an engine with

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some sort of wing attachment.

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I'm guessing this is probably something of an alien spaceship here.

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Some booster on the back.

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And I'm not sure what this is, but it was pretty cool when I was sketching it.

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So we're just going to roll with it and make it part of our spaceship design.

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okay maybe this is some prototype prototype weapon that this this enemy is uh developed

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okay this is what i sketched in here is the opposite of

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that fin okay so now that i have

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that in place i can jump to my other uh kuretake pen here

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and maybe just start to add some details some part breaks things like

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that rivets if necessary although it is an alien ship

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so maybe they don't really have or use rivets who knows i haven't met them personally so it's hard to say

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it's hard to say what they're like maybe they're like we come in peace

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but we're gonna leave you in pieces hopefully you got my joke

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so with that you can kind of see just how quickly this this method can work

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and you could apply this to a variety of product design things

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I believe I did a video in the past on the blob method

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and how I use that to kind of sketch a car out

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but in this case you know here's here's this maybe alien craft design

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and with a little bit more work maybe another five minutes

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which I will spare you from seeing but with another five minutes

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or so you can you can imagine how this might continue to develop

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and there's just my quick gestural drawing of a spaceship in fact one of the cool things

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you can do is you can take that same marker and

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if you want to you know show off some of the

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forms just come back in that's some shadow core shadows just with one marker

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okay one marker and some brush pins

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and there we have a quick super quick drawing based on using this this blob method

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or silhouetting method

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if you will kind of just scribbling to map out some

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quick forms make sense of it come up with a concept you can do this over

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and over if you want to generate lots of ideas with similar maybe similar strokes

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or similar style just to to pump out lots of ideas well thanks for hanging with me

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i'm having fun i hope you are if you love this video

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if you like it even

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if you hate it just hit subscribe turn on those alert alerts

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so you can continue to hate or continue to love but

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if you've got something good out of this channel

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or these videos be sure to give back find a friend

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who's struggling someone who maybe is trying to understand a certain concept show them a video

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or better yet sit down with them

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and show them how to do it I'm a big believer in giving back

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so be sure to do that hit me up on Instagram

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if you have any questions leave a comment below as well

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and if you're looking for ways to support all I ask is

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that you continue to subscribe tell a friend and

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so forth thanks again we'll see you next time right here on sketch a day

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Sketch A Day: Super tip!!! The Scribble Method”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pen, shape, marker, sketch. This video has 201 sentences and 2452 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:32. The speaker talks at a steady 148 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
sketch noun	/ˈskɛt͡ʃ/	A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
marker noun	/ˈmɑː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)/	A felt-tipped pen, a marker pen.
brush noun	/bɹʌʃ/	An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including…
loose adjective	/lus/	Not fixed in place tightly or firmly.
shadow noun	/ˈʃædəʊ̯/	A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
robot noun	/ˈɹoʊ.bɑt/	An intelligent mechanical being designed to look like a human or other creature, and usually made from metal.
alert adjective	/əˈlɝt/	Attentive; awake; on guard.
subscribe verb	/səbˈskɹaɪb/	To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).
contrast noun	/kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/	The degree of this difference.
pen noun	/pɪn/	A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
shade noun	/ʃeɪd/	Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
relax verb	/ɹɪˈlæks/	To make something loose.
neutral adjective	/ˈnuː.tɹəl/	Not taking sides in a conflict such as war; nonaligned.
barrel noun	/ˈbæɹəl/	A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends…
halfway adverb	/ˌhæfˈweɪ/	Half of the way between two points.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
give back verb		To return, restore (a thing to its original owner or location etc.).
pull out verb		To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat.
bear down on verb		To approach someone in a very determined way.
blow away verb		To cause to go away by blowing, or by wind.
go over verb		To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
pull up verb	/ˌpʊl ˈʌp/	To lift upwards or vertically.
put together verb		To assemble, construct, build, or formulate.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been doing
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've picked · i've recently gotten · i've gone
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	may not be · may think · might continue
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start scribbling · started scribbling · start sketching

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 96 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: brush /bɹʌʃ/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, shade /ʃeɪd/, extension /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, articulation /ɑɹˌtɪk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like sketch, marker, brush.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Sketch A Day: Super tip!!! The Scribble Method - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?