Ash - Art School Journey

[ashley.durnall1]

Hello all,

I'm Ash, I've started Term 1 this week and wanted to share/document my progress while enabling full critique and advise to fuel improvement.
Please bear with me as I've never used a forum before (the asynchronous communication confuses me a little).

I've been trying to learn to draw/create art for approximately 2 years now (with small improvements), but i've not gotten anywhere closer to my personal goals. So, I hope that going through Art School and coming here for advice and guidance helps me achieve that.
My main hurdle is Aphantasia, which simply means I can't visualise anything... +It's made learning difficult, but I haven't given up yet!

I started with a the tasks in the Nude Figure video, drawing the skeleton and cylinders for foreshortening. For these, i've used both my Huion Inspiroy Q11K, and Ipad Pro.
First Attempt:

My first attempt was a 'quick' try at drawing the skeleton over the image. I had watched some of the video and then closed it and forgotten quite a few things that had been said - such as the seated figures making it difficult.
Second Attempt (Huion): img src="//cubebrush-forums.s3.amazonaws.com/original/3X/f/7/f7155565d40338f3f9ae2dc92cc483b53b3756bd.jpg" width="3500" height="2625">

The second attempt went much better. I had the video on and went through it properly, pausing and replaying bits I didn't understand. Despite not being all too comfortable with my Huion tablet, I'm quite happy with how these turned out. My cylinders are not perfect but both myself and my partner could understand the 3D orientation. I also cut out the unsuitable images.
Ipad Attempt:

I'll probably be using my iPad more due to work etc. I think the attempts here weren't all as good as the Huion attempts, I think it may be due to me not liking the Technical Pen inking brush on Procreate as much (Though I'm not used to the tapering brushes all that much). I think the issues here stem from the cylinders and the elipses I drew; not all are the best fit.

Any and all advice/critique is welcomed, to which I thank in advance .
I think the main issues here are due to experience, but anything I can do to improve I will try (be it possible for me to).

[Vonschlippe]

Hello and welcome!

It's interesting that you have aphantasia but you're not letting that stop you in your art journey, kudos for that!

A surprising amount of artists have very little to no mind-visualisation but they don't let it stop them. Through reference boards, studying and perseverance, it's still totally possible for them to make amazing artwork.

As for your skeleton drawings, they look clean and proper, but it will help us tremendously in terms of critique if you allow us to see the reference picture, either in transparency or beside your skeletons. Otherwise there's very little that we can comment on.

Good luck!

[JP]

I also have (severe) aphantasia. It's a very different way of thinking about things, but don't let it get in your way. Alternative methods of association is just as strong and I think it's still possible to build that kind of mental library - but you just have to go about things a little differently.

Good progress, though like Vonshclippe says - it helps to see the ref you're working from for any crit - but looking solid. If you keep up with the reference work; it's mainly practice and muscle memory. Building up that understanding of gesture as well as volume.

[ashley.durnall1]

Nice to meet you both

Good shout on the references @Vonschlippe. I did think about it and must have just completely forgotten that the references are key.

Here's my second attempt again - I need to learn a few general things (such as accidentally saving over images I use - I think that got rid of the image in my original post.

The one area I think I have issues with this is getting the correct orientation of the elipses. There were many times I went over the images and struggled to identify how far the cylinder should be tilted.
@JP thanks for the confidence boost; the only other artistic person with Aphantasia I'd spoken to ultimately told me they gave up due to it and I guess it was disheartening. But I guess that perseverance and practise still win out.

[ashley.durnall1]

This week was my first back at work after a month long furlough. It's definitely impacted the time I have spent drawing a lot more than I liked.
It saddens me because I seem to lose motivation, and I really want to succeed with this. I don't know whether it's a product of work, or maybe other stressors that affect me in other ways (I'm diagnosed with Asperger's, so it could be the changes in routine or that i'm just a bit overwhelmed).
I really want to make some meaningful progress and actually create some of my own artwork - I am dedicated, just not always motivated. Any tips for this?

This week I tackled drawing the skeletons and cylinders over references again. It took me a lot longer than I wanted to complete the tasks this week. I managed to remember to keep the references in this time - though i'm unsure how easy-to-see everything is.

It's going to take some time for me to become confident using my Huion tablet as it's not a display tablet, my coordination isn't there quite yet (but that will improve the more I use it). One of the issues I've found with doing this task is that I struggle identifying the correct orientation of the cylinder. I may be overly critical, but it seems that some of the cylinders aren't the best fit - though it's difficult to identify the 'best fit' while i'm doing it.

On my iPad, again I found the same cylinder issue - but I feel like I have a little more control. I'm still not a fan of pen pressure, but i'm going to keep practising with it on.
I found some different references to keep my attention, and I like how they turned out. The cylinders are helping me orient things a little better.

I want to start attempting this task next to my references instead of on-top. My only hiccup is the width of the cylinders - I have this suspicion that i'm not going to be able to correctly gauge the width & orientation of the cylinders without being over the image. I do tend to find problems with limb girth when attempting to use reference. I'm not sure how to train this skill.

I also attempted the proportions task.

My lines are not all that confident, I noted all the scratchy lines while I was doing the exercise - i'm trying to work on it. I don't know whether work space has any impact on this, my desk is possibly a bit to high up. Turning my canvas definitely helps with the lines though and I find myself doing that more often than not.
I definitely struggled splitting the boxes and making circular shapes to fill the relevant areas. I like the proportions of the end results, they look human - which is all I can ask for
The female doesn't look all too female - but I think it's because i'm more used to seeing the exaggerated proportions, and indicating breasts (or any curves for that matter) is something I just can't seem to get down

if there are also any other points of improvement, I'd be happy to know them, as always.

[mau.wamp]

You did a great job on the proportion exercise, @ashley.durnall1!
One thing I'd like to point out is the size of your character's hands. They seem a little too small for me...
Everything else looks good to me

Cheers, Mau

[ashley.durnall1]

I don't get much time in the week to get on here, but I saw this and wanted to say thanks.
I can honestly say that hand size eludes me - I know they're approximately face size but other than that i'm lost. But i'm definitely trying to implement it when i'm drawing out the proportions like this.

[ashley.durnall1]

I usually post on the weekend due to time, but I've found a potential roadblock and want to ask for help/tips before I let it get to me.

I moved onto the gesture drawing - I feel like i've gotten the 'stick skeleton' down, so I wanted to focus more on gesture and then figure drawing (I am making sure to revisit previous tasks, as that helps cement the concepts).
The roadblock i'm facing though is proportion - I know general proportions, and I do tend to doodle out figures when my mind wanders at work/home etc. But something about gesture drawing throws me off and I end up with oddly proportioned stick gestures.
Below are my first 3 attempts at 1 minute drawings (I wanted to go a bit longer to familiarise myself with simplification/proportion before going down to 30seconds).

It's not all bad, and I'm not going to quit yet because i've far from spent enough time on this. However, I constantly find myself misplacing the legs and arms so my gestures just look weird.
I look at the reference images and find that I struggle to transpose any of the proportions to canvas in the short time. Is there anything I can try to do to help smooth this process?

I have checked the video a couple of times, but there's nothing really that seems to help.

Thanks in advance

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Hi! Sorry I do not have an answer for your problem, because I have the same question hahah
That's not a real question but I started today gesture drawing and my proportions are, orribol Maybe we have just to gain the skill Just saying that I feel you.
Keep us update!

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @ashley.durnall1

One thing you could do is start from an even longer time and slowly move to a shorter time - instead of jumping right into 30 sec or a 1 min, try to have more time to observe and than slowly move towards having less and less time.

But honestly, this one is really a matter of practice. If you do the work, you'll get there.

And also, try to "ignore" the proportions at first. The focus now initially - I think - is more about the dynamism of the pose instead of the proportions, so focus on that first and allow yourself to do some really weird sticky figures 😅 and with time, after you are more used to nail the poses, you'll slowly move up to adjust the proportions as well.

Hope that helps 👍 Amazing stuff so far, keep the updates coming!

[ashley.durnall1]

It's been a short while! I'm not good at keeping on top of these sorts of things D: so unfortunately, this is going to be a long one. Sorry in advance, but also thanks in advance

My eyes are hurting (from a day staring at computers without my glasses), and I'm also feeling a little stuck, so I wanted to make this post.
I don't quite know where to go next - I want to use my morning drawing sessions to go over the stuff I've done to keep that practised, but I'm not sure where to go in my evening drawing sessions. I don't know when is an appropriate time to move onto the next bit, nor where to go. I do get that fear that I'm not good enough at the stuff I have done, but don't want to burn out by only focusing on those sections until I'm a master of them

I took the advice of @dangras-almeida with a lot more ease than I expected and was a lot more proud of my gesture drawings - also, the compliment made me feel so much more pumped. There's something to a 'stranger' giving you compliments that makes it all that more special, so thanks; you helped strengthen my motivation.

Here's my 4th/5th day's work:

I'm still going for a minute, but the proportions here were so much better. I don't know what changed, either way, i'm crediting @dangras-almeida for assisting with this improvement.

My iPad attempt however, is not as good:

I'm putting this down to difference in hardware; I may need to adjust the pressure curve for opacity to suit me better - I still need experience with pressure controlled size jitter. It might be my pickiness though.

I am able to draw a lot more, I've got about an hour before I start work, and then all night when I'm back. My only issue now is getting out the tablet to actually start. So i'm hoping to improve a little faster and actually make some 'non-studying' art

I also tried out figure drawing from an image - i've done it before in my sketchbook and was a little successful.

It's not perfect, but it's definitely a start. Using my pen to measure, I was pretty accurate with the height of the figure - I drew the lines in afterwards to help me remember where the splits were. I originally squashed the figure a bit too much horizontally, so I may need to work on that a bit more. But I dragged the outline over the image to correct myself, which resulted in the above.

I have to say, aphantasia makes it difficult to use this method without drawing lines over the image. I can't remember where the line should go after I've made my measurement as I can't visualise it on the canvas - but I do feel that this won't help me in the long term.

I also have an issue with certain body curves, mainly the buttocks and breasts. It took many attempts before I left it alone. I do plan to focus specifically on the areas I struggle when i'm happy with my understanding of proportions, so that will fix this 'issue'.

I did however, doodle a couple of figures (from imagination) at work and was incredibly impressed by what I'd drawn. It's weird seeing actual progress.

Sorry this was so long - I do massively appreciate the time taken to give me some advice, and I thank you for helping me with this journey .

[mbarrasa16]

I see it pretty well the drawing from an image ! Maybe it helps you -for the issue with certain body curves, mainly the buttocks and breasts- to thing with the angles a little. Measure with the pen but also see wich angle is getting the line when is not straight (not vertical or horizontal).

Hope i explain myself good enough and it helps!

[dangras-almeida]

Hello there!

Thank you for the kind words, but I had nothing to do with it. You did the work! You did the practice! And the results are SUPER clear! The progress on the last gesture drawing to this one is super visible for me. All the gestures feel more loose and confident. Great job!

And I was amazed by your image reference drawing! All the shapes are really represented. I remembered it took me WEEKS to do something that good, and your first post on it already nails it. Congrats!

I don't think I see the problems you see on the buttocks (and since this image doesn't have breasts, no problem there as well 😅).

But again, one day at a time. Right now, the exercise is to train your eye to spot the angles, negative space, and shapes and transfer to something else. Having the reference really close to the actual drawing should help (I think) not rely on memory so much.

What I do sometimes (even for feature drawing) is: I keep the reference image super close to the actual drawing. Then I look right in the middle of the two pieces and use my peripheral vision to assess whether things are in the right place or not. This way I don't have to "remember" since with the peripheral vision I can almost "see the 2 things at the same time" without having to move the eyes so much. It's kinda weird explaining like this but hopefully, it makes some sense? 😅

Anyway, keep up the good work and keep the updates coming!

[kodaigon.go]

Hello @ashley.durnall1

I read your question about having trouble with misplacing the legs and arms in your gesture drawing and I used to face the same problem too!

Apart from practice, I think the problem is not knowing exactly where the shapes and sticks ( aka. landmarks of the body, it changes with the artist but it depends which one you decide to go with ), used in the gestures, are inferred from?
Below I attached, like a simple breakdown of the body from the book framed. You can use it as a guideline of where to look out for the landmarks etc. straight line for the shoulder you can infer from the person's collar bone etc.

For your gesture drawing, I don't think you need to place the landmarks exactly, but it will be good to keep a mental note about it!

I think being aware of this helped me out! I hope it will for you too!

[ghostmonster]

nice proportions built from scale

[ashley.durnall1]

Hey all,
I'm going to make an effort to post more - I think having a goal of posting somewhere makes me want to do more to actually improve. Motivation is probably my worst obstacle.

This week's been weird - I took a break most of the week while I waited for my new tablet (XP-Pen 24 Artist Pro display tablet). I think the dual pairing of Asperger's and waiting for the delivery overwhelmed me..
Despite this, I have been doodling while I have a couple minutes at work (which isn't as bad as it seems), and have come up with a little character, which I don't have any images of yet. But for those with an internal imagination, its currently heavily inspired by Bellsprout (Pokemon) - I may have to alter it a bit more....

I have done some gesture drawings - I got down to 30 seconds!!! And they don't look terrible. I feel like this is a massive improvement and I aim to continue doing this - mainly as a warm up now I think.

The bottom right is from using my new tablet - being able to see where I'm drawing feels like it's helped. Though it's maybe not too visible in gesture drawings Though i now wish i finished the page >.>

I've also done a couple more figure drawings:

Now I look at these on here, I feel like my lines are too thick - maybe. I don't know. I think improvement here is definitely just a case of practising and putting the time into this - anatomy included.
Due to the contrast of the reference in the bottom image I wanted to try and play with the shadows a little. It's also the first figure drawing with the display tablet, and I wanted to push myself a little. I definitely need to practise this - I haven't really experienced adding shadow/colour to my drawings - but that's something that will have to change.
The main thing I've noticed is that I'm going to struggle using my pen to measure - being so close to the drawing surface, i can't stick my arm out. But I used the ruler in PS once I'd identified my distances. That may be the tradeoff possibly.

I feel confident in my abilities so far, and think I might move onto one of the other videos in term 1. So there'll be a bit more variety in my next posts (hopefully).

I am very grateful to all the kind words and advice given here. I want to be able to spread my experiences and maybe help some other people out too - but I'm not feeling that confident yet.

[ghostmonster]

your figure and gesture drawings show a good grasp and confidence for what your seeing. keep it up

[ashley.durnall1]

Thank you Ghostmonst3r I take full advantage of the rulers on Photoshop - without them I struggle a lot to get the measurements down.

I have a question though for anyone who can advise... How do you get past the 'wall'. I'm starting to find that going over things is starting to get less exciting and I feel like I'm reaching a point of stagnation with my learning. With gesture drawings I am trying to do them as warm ups, which keeps me doing it - but with figure drawing I'm struggling to identify how to improve. How do you identify where improvements are needed?
One place I know I need to improve is cleaner lines, but I'm not sure how to do this effectively..
I also know anatomy is a thing I should really focus on, but I am aware its covered in some of the other terms.
I am going to be moving onto perspective this week for a change up, but I want to keep practising figure drawing as well. I just don't want to start becoming bored and start sliding off the drawing wagon.

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @ashley.durnall1 ,

I would say 2 things here:
1) Don't repeat one thing too much to a point where it becomes too boring. When you feel you got the hang of something, move on to the next lesson. Or even if you didn't entirely, nothing keeps you from moving on to something and then coming back to it. It's important to manage that energy so you keep moving forward.

2) Feedback is one of the keys to learning and improving, in my opinion. Share your pieces here, at the discord channel, and ask people for feedback. It's through feedback we can start seeing things from a different perspective and we can improve. And off course keep on the daily practice.

Hope that helps 😊

[ghostmonster]

keep going with the lessons. one thing I have found is that marc has structured the classes so that many of the skills will compound on each other. by that i mean the perspective class has definitely helped me with my anatomy. you can always go back and revisit.