Sometimes when I set out looking for something very particular on YouTube I'm met with a tedious video essay that barely touches on the subject, or I get an AI-voiced how-to that kind-of sort-of tries to explain what drawing is. Frankly, these recurring results leave me disappointed and liable to log off the big ole internet completely. But do I do it? No!
But reader, rejoice! For today is not one of those days. I've instead managed to trick the YouTube algorithm into giving me exactly what I looked for, and that's a full video of master illustrator Sergio Toppi drawing in pencil! Nevermind that the whole thing is in Italian and I can only understand every tenth word or so. "Fantasy", "illustration", "composition", "big line", etc. Those are all the buzzwords you need to know start to imitate the greats, right?
Well, if you don't speak Italian like I don't, then the first ten minutes of this video are pertinent to you. Toppi's confident penciling is unbelievable and helps give a sense of how the illustrator worked. Little gems like these are my favorite offerings from the world wide web, I hope you enjoy Toppi's sketching as much as I do.
And if you speak Italian, please, please translate it!
For those of your who don't know Toppi, here's a nice little breakdown of his work. I'm partial to his black and white pieces like this one below