Ash's Art School Journey

ash-danielle 2024-05-06 06:33:00 UTC #1

Just a place for me to share some of the assignments we have to do so I can track my progress over time.

Here is the art I've done so far this year prior to starting the Art School lessons. The first image took me almost one month to do and the second one took a few hours. I'm really hoping to cut down on how long it takes me to draw and color simple illustrations like these:

mitsuki-youko 2024-05-07 00:10:49 UTC #2

welcome to the forums

patrycja.lerch 2024-05-07 07:41:12 UTC #3

Welcome to the forums!

daceronine 2024-05-07 15:45:42 UTC #4

Welcome to the forums Danielle! Bests of luck!

ash-danielle 2024-05-12 22:30:40 UTC #5

This is the first lineart study I've done for the week 3 assignment of copying 5 characters from professional artists/shows/hames that I like. I choose to do Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket (2019) since I recently watched it.

I know the lines are horrible but I'm just glad I didn't stop working on it halfway through! For the second study I hope to spend more time on making the lines look more smooth.

daceronine 2024-05-14 05:46:08 UTC #6

Not bad for a first study! You can see a bit of sketchiness in some lines, like you are slowly moving along the line doing a few smaller lines to do a bigger one. For sketches that's fine, we all do it to a big degree, but it helps to then add a new layer on top of the "first sketch" and redraw it, tracing your own sketch with smoother, longer lines using your shoudler and elbow to pivot your hand. Don't be afraid of also doing a lot of "ctrl+z" until you get that "perfect line" or doing a clean line, going over the border and then just coming back to erase the excess.

ash-danielle 2024-05-14 05:58:04 UTC #8

Thanks! That's exactly what I did for the second one. Of course now there's other issues with the new 😅 but I think I've made progress. (Accidentally deleted my reply)

ash-danielle 2024-05-14 06:04:37 UTC #9

This is the second lineart study I've done for the week 3 assignment for term 1. I did Poison Ivy from DC, because she's great.

I went ahead and made a new layer on top of my "sketchy" one so that the lines would be more smooth. After drawing this I realized I made the head too big, which I think will be recurring theme for me as I am currently working on my third lineart study and the head is bigger than it should be, but oh well. I'll really make sure to watch for that in my fourth one!

Seeing my drawing side by side with the reference I also see the jaw is too wide yet the top of the head is too narrow. Maybe, for the fourth image I'll try having the reference side by side with my drawing and not up on my computer screen.

daceronine 2024-05-14 06:08:01 UTC #10

I'd say the lines already look smoother! I don't see those hints of sketchiness from before.
Another tip that helps to keep an eye on proportions is to have the "flip horizontal" on a shortcut so you can flip every now and then. Flipping forces our brain to see the drawing with a "new eye", makes it easier to spot any glaring proportion out of place. Pros flip all the time when creating the base sketch and lineart.

Eventually you'll get more in depth with lineart weight, quality and so on, for starters these are looking good!

ash-danielle 2024-05-15 07:10:20 UTC #11

My third lineart study. I felt like this third one took soo long to do yet I also feel like i rushed it. The proportions came out bad in this one and I didn't feel like doing that second layer to get rid of the sketchiness because of how much I jut didn't like this.

However, I'm glad I finished it and I'll be taking the advice of @daceronine of flipping my canvas horizontally when drawing so I can get a better feel for how my next drawing is going. I'll also spend more time on my next one and and do that second layer so I have a more polished result. I may try a smoother brush as well instead of the "pencil" one I've been using.