Don England
Don England
Earth
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Don England
On interesting, will try using color when digitally sketching too.
Marek Krząszcz
My same thought exactly! I am hoping it will help to put myself into sketching mode rather than drawing mode.
Samantha Maggard
I drew this dang arm over and over again. I just can’t quite get it.
Don England
Relative proportions have been tricky for me. One thing I've started looking for is things that have the same relative lengths. In this image I've moved the same length red line around to compare lengths. Also dropped a plumb line to help see how those three finger tips align. I didn't do this before the assignment, but it's something that I'm thinking about when trying to draw something with accurate proportions.
Don England
Another one, this time on hedgehog. At the end of the first sheet, I noticed that he looked like a guy in a huge coat, so pushed that element in the final.
Don England
Exactly the project I need to do. One of my drawing goals is to produce the kinds of concepts that I want to sculpt. Keep putting this off, but need to start somewhere. Boar exploration, last idea of first page reminded me of pitbulls. Pushed that a bit, but lost the thing I liked about the simpler base. Finished with Staedtler leadholder and mechanical on paper
@ericknunez
Amazing job exploring the shapes and likeness of the boar! I really like the concepts and sketches in the second picture.
Don England
Sketching is pretty neat. Order of completion was Girl-Arm-Penguin. Noticed that it was better to get a rough approximation of the proportions before trying to place specific lines. Even then, the penguin's head and bottom shifted further apart as I blocked in the flippers.
Pedro Branco
I love doing stuff like this, the sketchy feeling brings a lot of character to the drawing. I've been meaning to write this for a bit, but never really know how to put it. I don't mean to be rude by what I'm about to write and obviously, no one owes me anything but I still feel like I need to put this forward. I put a lot of time into art. I got into it for the first time in my life during the pandemic and I was set. I want to create comics and illustrations, they've been a big part of my life. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to afford taking some time off, won't bore you with the details. The crux is that after a few years I came back to my parents, and with their blessing I've taken the last 2 years to pursue art. Due to local policy circumstances I can't enroll into an art program, I am however enrolled into loose art courses, this semester: naked model drawing 2h, Scribbling 3h, 3d software 2h and general art 2h per week. My time in them while packed is very short and the teachers don't go too into depth. Talking to them hasn't really helped much. The rest of my time I dedicate to becoming better at art. After one year, I won't say I wasted my time, my general knowledge of how things should look, line quality and 3d notions have improved significantly, but I'm nowhere near where I though I'd be. I still struggle with quite a few things I thought would I'd be better by now, in particular, I can't seem to draw any details on anything. And lately, it's becoming harder and harder to just do anything art related. I do my drills and that's that I can't muster myself. I actually drew this horse the day before yesterday and a friend of mine that used to do art told me I've been "doing things like these for a while" and "I'm in my comfort zone". I was quite proud of my work and that pretty much deflated me. As someone with so much free time I'd like to fill my day with more meaningful practice, I've been going on a bit of a round trip of invest heavily in figure and gesture > I don't have the fundamentals down > do a lot of geometry > do 1-2-3 point perspective> practice strokes> feeling confident go back to anatomy> do some copies> do some figure> still doesn't look good> go back to fundamentals> ad nauseum at this point. I feel a bit lost to put it mildly. Apart from this course I dip into the figure drawing and I've also started poking at Steven Zapata's shading course. I'm also following Marc Brunet's 1 year plan he made on his Youtube Channel. I've no doubt that this year I'll reach some sort of expertise in the things that I want to do just by virtue of following these, but I'm treating this as my job and some days I just can't do more than the absolute bare minimum. Today was one of those days, and last week I had a few as well. I feel somewhat aimless. Lastly, this is the last year I'll be as free as I am at the moment. Next year I need to get back to work and my free time will obviously dip. I really want to pour it as much as possible in the time that I have at the moment. I'm not expecting to become a professional just like this, that would be spitting on other's hard work. But I'd like to be in a position where I can lift off from the ground confidently. If anyone can help me in maybe getting things in better order? I feel like I'm running in place. I know I am making progress, but for the free time that I have I feel like I'm wasting most of it. And I'll never have a better opportunity to really learn Art as well as now. I'm not asking the course to be sped up, far be it from me to demand anything. But I really don't know what to ask, maybe some insight? I'll probably be told that I'm burning out on Art but honestly, I feel closer to burning out on always doing the same thing, never really doing what I'd like to be doing, and if I ever dare do what I want it just looks horrible, forcing me to go back to the things I'm doing now.
Don England
There is really too much here to address, but here are some thoughts. Art is about doing rather than knowing. Stan will provide the insights of experience for us, but until you've experienced it yourself it will be hard to see those insights appear in your own work. There is still a great deal to learn from CSI. Not simply doing the assignments repeatedly, but really applying CSI to the things you want to draw. Have you seen Chommang_drawing on youtube? He describes an excellent mindset and his latest video really digs into this "How to better at drawing" I think your horse is wonderful and has a great deal of life and flow. Don't lose sight of the part of drawing that you enjoy.
Don England
Day 14: Fashion Ref. Mostly CSI with some light tone on the face. I've been drawing nearly everyday for a long time, but this challenge makes me want to do more than just doodles. Definitely need to study clothing more.
Don England
Pretty exciting to see my assignment come up. Thanks for the feedback! Will try to incorporate some of the other feedback in here. Will try to keep the shape and gesture that feels fun while working on proportions.
Pedro Branco
Sad not to see any of my stuff this time around but I definitely did learn a few things from this critique video. If I may though. Proko you mention practicing straight lines, now I've done quite a bit of another free art program called Drawabox and that's one of the starting drills. The instructor does mention that it's fine to rotate the page around when drawing, does this apply to drawing straight lines as well? I feel like that would defeat the purpose. I ask this because I recently went back to doing this drill and there's definitely some angles where I can't draw a straight line, my arm's movement is just way too awkward for that angle.
Don England
I would definitely rotate the page especially in the beginning. Short straight lines I do without rotation, but longer lines need good muscle memory. Generally, if I'm ghosting the line and it feels a bit wobbly, I'll just rotate the page to get something more comfortable. Overtime you won't need to rotate the page as much.
Don England
Day 13 - Figure from ref, boxes from imagination.
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