Amanda’s art school journey

Hello, feel free to call me ‘A’ or ‘Gon’ - either works! I’m 32 years old and very recently decided I wanted to take the chance to improve my art with Marc’s course so here I am. I’ve got an art blog space here already, but I’ve only recently saw that there’s a space dedicated to the art school program and it’s a good idea as I wanted to keep my non-program art separated from little daily drawings and things!

Here are some notes quick and messy notes from the first lesson and as I said in the art blog, I’m trying to make it a habit of observing things around me such as the shapes and lighting, etc!

In this next one, this is the first actual assignment which deals with pen control. This was before I had actually gotten to that point of the video which explained a bit of what you were supposed to be learning from it I believe, but it was a bit difficult as I’d never done it before.

For the last brush with all the repeated circles, I wasn’t sure how to replicate that, and I’d probably have to go through the video again to grasp it, but it’s just the beginning , so I won’t be harsh on myself about it.

I completed the second assignment just yesterday (12/19) and because I am working on an iPad instead of having a computer with the full photoshop available to me, I had to really figure out how to use the tools to do anything haha! The interface is very different and simplified for the iPad (and less intimidating to me).

Combining everything I learned on the fourth section gave me trouble (and the second section tbh), and at this point, I still don’t understand how to achieve the desired colors like in the photo after over an hour or so of going back and fourth between CB/H&S/Levels/Curves over and over. I will say this assignment made me think A LOT about colors. It was also fun albeit frustrating.

" Thanks for the warm welcomes and comments everyone. I really appreciate all the feedback so far.

Today, I finished up the rest of the initial photoshop assignments (attempted the fantasy home twice with better results the second time around, but I only used two images since that kept it from getting too complicated.)

Assignment number 3… oh boy, it was not great. I mean, the spot removal tool is very cool, but I got lost in how to make the image appear real especially in using shading. The mark removal tool is incredible tho!

Total lost cause on the old man ‘ young man photo and though I eventually figured after some research that I COULD use liquify - just in another app - I was ready to move on from my frustrations.

At the end of this, the alien and woman piece was really, really fun to work on as a first timer. I actually felt like I knew what I was doing to a degree in the fresco app even though I was just messing around with trying to humanize the alien so to speak. It definitely looks fairly different so I consider it a success!!

Thanks for the comments! I struggled with color matching but I actually just didn't understand how to do it. It's been very fun though so far.

Okay. On to the next assignments!

I have finally reached figure drawing and though it starts off simply, the difficulty gradually increases—as it should. Here are the first two parts just before Christmas.

Oh the cyclinders were tough and I still don’t like them as a whole but it’s done!!

After looking at them for a couple of days, the cylinders have grown on me so thanks!

— - -

Today, on New Years Eve, I’ve finally finished yet another part of the assignment, but it was definitely difficult and though I understand it’s not supposed to be perfect, it still leaves me feeling unsatisfied to a degree.

I wasn’t sure how to contend with the overlapping though and I probably picked poses that were a little too difficult, but I simply picked them from the poses I already had stored on my iPad.

Here they are:

These were rough and show that I still have a lot to learn as far as creating decent looking cylinders imo, but Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you for the response. I’ve been trying to keep your advice in mind as I continue to practice!

Best of luck to you as well!