ArtKouki's Daily Sketch

[Kigakura]

@brianhermelijn Umm, that's a difficult question to answer for me. There are several problems (for me):
- Time:
I have like 1-5hours a day to paint/sketch/study. That's not a lot and I always want to strengthen my foundation so I keep studying quickly and the most that I can.
- Base sketch:
If I'd start a painting with the goal in mind to finish it (8-12hours) I'd need to spend 3-5 days only on that one. That's not fun for me, especially cause I always see flaws in my foundation sketch and have to correct it during to painting process (have finished like 4 paintings and I spent correcting stuff for 70% of the time cause my foundation was weak).
- Fun factor:
I'm currently starting university (non art stuff just to improve myself as a person, mainly culture and language stuff (japan) and other speech stuff that I can choose) which will take 3 years from now on to finish. So I'm currently drawing/painting/studying only to improve my foundation cause I will not be able to work during these 3 years.
That's why I'm asking myself everyday: 'What am I interested in today? What do I want to learn?' If I want to know sth specific I will have fun studying it -> fast sketches, dont need to be finished; only interested in the information. (currently interested in animation, clothing, anatomy). I would concentrate on finishing paintings during the weekend cause I have the most free time there but I'm always getting distracted because painting on one picture for 10 hours is just not fun to me. I want to create new ideas haha. But maybe later in a couple of months/years I will enjoy it.
- Extra:
I'm actually working on 3 projects which I want to finish atm. Cubebrush weekly, CrimsonCrucible Challenge 6 and an animation contest. The ideas I have in mind for these projects are fun atm so I wont mind finishing sth for this haha.

Hope I could 'paint you a picture' here Cheers!

@sketchwars Thank you very much! Yeah I will go as long as I can haha Hope you enjoy my future drawings/paintings

@lawrysega I'm not getting distracted when I'm having fun with the concept/idea/theme that I'm working with, so I always ask myself 'what I really want to learn today'.
I also get distracted very fast if I'm working at home because I'm always sitting infront of my computer. But I'm going to change that in the next weeks. Because I got myself an iPad Pro I can finally paint 'outside' digitally.
Also because I just started university I'm going to spend most of my day in uni or in the library which wil hopefully give me the concentration I need to level up my progress haha
Maybe it's also your environment that keeps distracting you. Seperating 'relaxing' area and 'working' area is a very good way to keep distractions away. Most often just buying a new table only for studying works (cheap and always keep it empty, use only for studying)
Hope this answer could help you out!

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DS #546:
Today's topic: Exploration (style explroration and research for a project)
Not the cleanest drawings, still figuring out stuff. Need to draw a looot more haha

Animation:
Today was not a good day for my animation brain. Could not figure out how to move the characters correctly. Need to get out and observe real people
Here are 2 ideas from today's animation:

[hermidraws]

Ah makes total sense! This reminds me exactly of what Anthony Jones mentioned about studying. Like having a mini-study/quick study where you're learning, and after that immediate application.

Which you're constantly doing, and eventually this helps you grow your visual library at a tremendous speed. Which brings me to question, have you noticed yourself been able to produce any subjects much easier?

As in, recalling a subject immediately, and been able to do it without a problem, since the day you started than before you started?

[JesterSeraph]

Hey, I recommend you try animating some stuff with slightly higher frame rates. Practice something really simple like an oval rolling.

The reason for the oval is that when it rolls up onto a point, it loses momentum, then regains it as it tips over back down to rock along the side. It's good for practicing pacing, anticipation, and weight. I noticed in a lot of your quick animations the motions of people are very precisely measured.

The ball bouncing against the wall, for instance, hits, falls, and bounces all around the same speed. It comes in at a different speed, but as soon as the ball hits the wall every distance moved feels equal. You could have instead exaggerated it to hit the wall, squish against it, bounce into the air and hover a little, then fall, squish into the ground, and then wobble as if it were Jell-O and not a solid shape, maybe bouncing just a little back off the ground (but not back to the full height it fell from).

[Liveman]

Thank you! I do draw at home on the computer I'll try to change my environment and see how everything goes

[mar_cynwer]

You have some really great sketches here, I like the sketchy feel of them . And I like your animations, great sense of movement in them.
You mentioned your projects, the weekly in here, a CrimsonCrucible challenge and an animation contest. Since I'm interested in animation, what would the animation contenst be?

[Kigakura]

@brianhermelijn haha yeah, I also learned a lot from Anthony :> Umm, about applying my knowlegde:
Compared to the day when I started this I definitely notice a difference in applying some things that I studied but It's never 100% correct. That's because for example when I'm studying cloths, I struggle with getting the material thickness right and the folds so I always keep learning more than 1 thing because of the lack of fundamentals.
So I keep forgetting stuff and learning new stuff. Sorry if that explanation is fuzzy, can't explain it right.
But I'm currently trying to change the way I learn cause I want to focus more on fundamentals:
Learning do draw everything in 3D first (scott robertson, krenz cushart, feng zhu are some inspirations). Like drawing boxes and put information in them so that I can just look at a picture and draw it out in every angle. That would be my main goal right now, haha
That way I wouldn't need to remember everything and every detail.

@JesterSeraph Thanks man. I also noticed that I couldn't really do pacings with 6fps, would have skipped too much ^^ Also you reminded me that I never really practiced fundamentals for animation which is very bad (started to animate within this thread haha) thank you too for that.
Tried to do one animation with an oval and it really is very hard, needs a lot of brain power right now Hope I'm gonna get used to it! Couldn't do much more than this shitty one (down below) cause I had to do the Cubebrush weekly challenge but it helped me tremendously!
Cheers!

@lawrysega Also I forgot to mention: The best way to learn and concentrate is just to go outside and sketch people/environments. With every drawing you're training your eyes/hands and practice what is important to draw (shapes/details) and you're going to improve your workflow with it. Keep going!

@mar_cynwer Thank you! They're gonna get better with time
Umm the contest is called iAniMagic 2016, you may find it in Google. It's a contest for the software I'm using on my iPad Pro called Animation Desk or Animation+. Not sure if that's available on the PC, though. (^-^)''

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DS #547:
Only worked on the painting for the Cubebrush weekly today (uploaded a smaller version here).
Tried out work on my workflow - how to begin a painting and 'paint out' objects -. Was a good day, learned a lot.
Also noticed that my values aren't very 'realistic', need to work on that.

Tools: PS CC, Wacom Intuos Pro M

Daily animation practice:
Had not much time to do animations today but did something haha^-^...

Tested some stuff with this one.
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Changed the FPS from 6 to 12. A lot more to draw but now I am able to pace the movement better. Also going to work an my animation fundamentals more from now on.
Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

[cedricgo]

I really like that last painting. It has a nice storytelling aspect to it even it's about something ''mundane'' like a chess tournament. I also really like the victory pose and the brooding look of the guy who lost.

[Kigakura]

@cedricgo Haha, thank you very much. Had the idea of the picture in my head since last monday but only had time to get to it yesterday and sadly could not finish it the way i wanted to :3 Glad that you like it!

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DS #548:
Uni + Workday so not much time for art. Sketched sth before a lesson and worked mainly on animating during my free time in the library. Some imagination stuff and some perspective + eyetraining practice...

Tools: Polychromo pencil, Pilot ballpoint pen, Animation+

These ones were really fun to make. I feel like animating is going to be my main thing but that's a hard business haha. Just gonna keep staying on my road and do everything.
Some basics, some effects, some camera shaking techniques...
Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

[Kigakura]

DS #549: Today was a fun day for experimenting
Started some sketches like my first post on this blog (white canvas -> really big round brush pure black -> block out the negative shape around the character -> add forms, details -> add different base values -> add shadow) and they turned out pretty cool. (about 1.5 -2 hours combined)
Might use the right one for the white devil weekly challenge haha

Also tried to paint a quick environment (~15min). Didn't turn out that great haha

Tools: PS CC, Wacom Intuos pro M

Daily Animation: Just tried to do something 'basic' today. Need to be cleaner and had some perspective problems -> more practice needed

Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

[rosebolt]

Ahh I really admire your animations. Also your female figure drawings look amazing!

[Kigakura]

@rosebolt Thank you very much

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DS #550: Just sketching fast today cause I only have 2hours max for art haha (^-^)''
Trying to keep the flow with the painting workflow and did 3 random characters...
Kept them very sketchy to save time
Tools: PS CC, Wacom Intuos Pro M

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Daily Animation Practice:
Did some basics + effects. Still fun to animate.
Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

[Kigakura]

DS #551: Just some gesture studies today to cool down from uni.
Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Procreate

Daily Animation practice:
Tried to do a throw. Messed up the pace/timing of the release. Gonna need to test more some other time.
Energy output is too weak haha^^

Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

[Kigakura]

DS #552: Just some quick photostudy-sketches today

Daily Animation Practice:
Had a scene stuck in my head and tried to animate it. Coudln't get the twisting of the arm quite right. But it's finally the weekend and I will be able to study a lot. Got a few things on my checklist to study haha (mostly from animations).
Animating is a good way to check your general understanding of everything basically which is why I keep doing 'em and it's still fun.

[Kigakura]

DS #553: Today was a work day so I haven't been able to produce much art. Hope that I can find enough time to finish the cubebrush weekly tomorrow haha

So today I tried to draw figures into the correct perspective mostly and also applied my knowlegde that I gained from animating. Feeling more confident with my drawings Now I need to up my knowledge (anatomy) again.

Daily Animation Practice:
Just testing another scene that I had in mind. The ending just came randomly trying to fill up the rest of the empty frames haha
Need to practice more arms/hands.

[Kigakura]

DS #554: Just couldn't get a good idea for this weekly challenge today ^^''
Tried something out today: 30 seconds face studies just to see how I approach faces and how far I can get. Not satisfied with my process. Might do this every morning + 30 seconds gesture studies for half an hour.

Daily Animation practice:
Needed some practice with 'walking' not satisfied with the perspective.

[Kigakura]

DS #555: Again another Uni + work day, so sadly not enough time to do any art.
Just quickly sketched something out in Photoshop to see how bad my rendering skills have gotten (since I only draw currently). Not too shabby but feeling uncomfortable with painting already.
Hoping to finally get more time to do art next week when I'm finally free of my part time job

Should have made him pop out more with brighter highlights now that I see it here but nevermind, was just a test.

Daily animation practice:
Was kinda discouraged by my bad 'chracter animation in perspective'-skills so I tried to animate only an environment without any characters.
May be practicing putting actual figures into the environments at a later time (gonna be so tedious to draw every line of the environment again lol but that's gonna be a good practice to draw straight lines like I do with the borders so it won't be unnecessary ;D)
Had a lot of fun doing this:
(get.Excuse; Also should have drawn the end in an extra batch of 6 frames or so but I have to study for uni now before going to bed )

[Kigakura]

DS #556: Trying to approach gestures/figures with different workflows today. Pretty quick sketches.

Daily Animation Practice:
This one was quite fun and challenging. Just trying to get the gist of proporttions and 3dspace in drawings.

[karidyas]

So wait all your little animations are done traditionally then scanned in? Or are you just giving yourself the limitation of not re-using any frames?

[JesterSeraph]

It used to get mentioned every time, buuuuut:

Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation+

I'm not familiar with the tools @artkouki uses, so I'm not even sure if he's looking using an onion skin (but I assume such). Generally though, I like his style of animation, since it's such a raw, quick, dirty animation style. It's just practice, after all.

[Kigakura]

@karidyas I would love to do them traditionally but that would require too much paper
As @JesterSeraph mentioned and cited, I'm using my iPad Pro with my Apple Pencil in Animation Desk using the free version with Onion skin on (only the 2 layers below not above).
Rough process steps:
- Creating a file -> chose how many FPS and max Frames (12fps/48frames; -> 4secs)
- Each frame is one layer so I start (obviously) with the first layer and sketch out a scene that I have roughly in mind (without a storyboard or thumbnails which I should probably start doing)
- I draw every single layer. There is a 'copy' layer button but I dont use that. Takes away the practice that I need to draw consitently
- I always press 'Play' and watch it many times after drawing some frames
- If I see a pacing error I can't really delete the frame and add other frames because I'm drawing several 'boxes' on one file -> Erase everything 'above' and draw everything again (good practice but needs patience)
- Draw until I reach frame 48. Most often I need more frames but can't add any more frames (would leave the other animations with blank 'frames' but could also extend them so I may do that in the future if needed haha )
- Export to Photoshop -> crop and everything (no drawing over only resizing) -> export as .gif and upload everywhere^^

Hope that made everything clear

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DS #557:
Just sketched something from imagination within 1 hour. Not satisfied with the quality and speed but will improve as time goes on Had some difficulties with the fabric and pose in perspective -> further study/practice needed.

Tools: PS CC, Wacom Intuos Pro M

Daily Animation Practice:
Again focussing on perspectived and an explosion test. Needed some extra frames to illustrate the impact better... Maybe next time

Tools: iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Animation Desk/Animation+