Jan '24
2

Hello Everyone! My name is Alana Wittman, I'm working as a software developer and I'm 42. A couple years ago, I went to an art school to study graphic design for 2 years but I didn't finish the formation; I didn't feel comfortable with the teaching methodology used there, besides, I was more interested in illustration. After that, I focused in working for a while but retook my drawing habits a couple of months ago.

I found myself a bit confused for the lack of structure in my self taught path so that's why I'm in ART School. I started a week ago, so this is my first step in ART School journey. I'll do my best to keep the blog up to date. Glad to share with you all :).

TERM 1
Week 1 Photoshop for Digital Prod 1

Lately, I've been drawing in paper instead of using digital environment, so I guess It will be take me some time to get used to digital pen again. Anyway, I still find hard to draw good circles. These below are the first assignments:

There are 67 replies with an estimated read time of 11 minutes.

Jan '24

Welcome to the forums, Alana! It's good to see someone else who decided to pick up drawing again after a hiatus :smile: Looking forward to seeing how your journey goes!

Feb '24

Yo welcome to the forums Alana! Happy to see another 40s companion in this art journey!

Bests of luck! Looking forward to your works!

Feb '24
2

Hello Everyone! Thanks for your welcome.
Not sure how to continue sharing my progress in the same topic, so I replied my own post. If someone knows another way to do It, I would be grateful if you tell me: ).

TERM 1
Week 2 Figure Drawing

This week I focused in pen control exercises and figure drawing, so I guess I'll finish photoshop assignments little by little.

Feelings:
* It seems to me a little hard to control the pen digitally in the tablet (I have a WACOM intous CTL-480), specially when drawing circles. but daily exercises proposed by Mark have helped me a lot to improve pen control.

  • I think I should organize better my drawing exercises :sweat_smile:.
  • I have limited time a long the week so my pace won't be as fast as I would expect, But I keep doing the excercises at least 6 days a week.
  • I thought it would be easier to use liquify tool.


Figure drawing along thi week.

Last Cylinders excercise.

Use of Liquify tool

Open to any feedback. Thanks a lot : )

Feb '24

haha yep thats how ur supposed to do it :smiley:

for the cylinders i can tell you used transform on some of them (I think - unless thats just how they came out) since there are some that are pretty ovally XD

i'd say try drawing a circle and copy and paste that circle, shrink it and move it to the back and then connect the lines if you'd like to use transform but i dont recommend using transform on the whole entire thing

Overall its not bad :smiley:

Feb '24

I usually just reply to my own latest post. Seems to work out well.

Don't sweat it, we all have different schedules and life situations, any pace you have is a good pace.

For the cylinders, based on the strokes it seems like you draw both ends, then the lines, and then the half lines in between. For the most part it's a good idea to draw each circle complete, with the lines bing the guideline that brings them together, then erase extra lines to clean it up. Something like this:

It's all digital, so feel free to use as many layers, rotation, flips and undos as necessary. Many of us actually have undo tied to an easy shortcut we can use so we can "redraw" those lines as many times as needed until it looks "just right". One single stroke might take a few quick tries, and you get faster doing them with time.

It also helps to get used to using the shoulder and elbow more for long strokes, lines or circles. Gets a bit to get used to, and you might not use it all the time, but all the same it helps to practice it.

Bests of luck!

Feb '24

Hello, looking good with the figures, keep at em!

As for cylinders, when in doubt draw an elongated box in perspective to enclose them, as you practice you eventually eyeball it all. Another quick way is to make some radiating lines into a vanishing point on the long axis of the cylinder to guide you at making the far end smaller

Cheers!

Feb '24

Thanks a lot @daceronine, I'm not used to draw in digital yet, and sometimes I forget to take advantage of that. In the other hand, the movement with the shoulder it's relativeliy new for me. I'll keep practicing :smile:

Feb '24

You're doing pretty good so far. Keep it up.

Feb '24

Hello again! Thanks again for your feedback and your advices :).

TERM 1
Week 3 Figure and Gesture Drawing

This week I started top 10 drawing exercises and keep focusing in pen control, figure drawing and gesture drawing. Still pending some photoshop assignments and accomplishing them little by little.

Feelings:

  • Still struggling drawing circles, but I continue seeing some progress performing them, and not only in circles but in all kind of lines.
  • Sometimes not sure which kind of pen sensitive have to use in each
    excercise, so I'm still doing experiments.
  • I'm not able to follow Mark's weekly study proposal pace, but the
    method seems to me effective. I feel as if I were in a drawing Gym.
  • I already had experience in gesture drawing in traditional method,
    but in digital, It feels harder; Anyway, when you only have 30 seconds to draw, the preasure to draw fast at the end makes you to increase the confidence in tracing increases the confidence in tracing.
  • 1 character of 5 :cry: ; As I said, not easy to follow the pace
  • Don't know why I completely forget to draw cylinders exercise this
    week, I need to do it next one and improve.

    Figure drawing along this week.

Last Gesture drawing exercise this week.

Top 10 exercises this week.

1 character study this week.

I'll keep trying to follow the pace and improving digital pen control. Thanks again for all your feedback :blush: