BinChicken - Art School Journey

[BinChicken]

Heyo! I'm BinChicken! Nice to meet you all.
I am 31 and an absolute beginner to drawing. I've had hand tremors (diagnosed) since a young age and drawing just never seemed to be in the books for me. Although I never pursued drawing I do have artistic interest in crocheting amigurumi (figurines/sculptures/dolls) and using hard surface modelling to build functional replicas/cosplay props. I've reached a point in my creative journey that I believe being able to draw out my ideas and create references to work with would greatly improve what I can make! I hope with digital technology I can counter my shortcomings and develop more in all of my artistic interests!

My ultimate goal is to one day be able to digitally design and build my own BJDs, but my realistic goal is to develop enough drawing skills to create usable references from imagination!

My equipment:
-HUION Kamvas Pro 16 V2 Drawing Tablet
-Clip Studio Paint
-Coffee

I've started this post at nearly 2weeks into term 1, I figured now would be as good as a time as any!
I appreciate any and all critiques as I embark on this journey!

[BinChicken]

Term 1 - Week 1:

Daily Pen Control:
I certainly struggle with straight lines and I may have overdone this exercise. I find that drawing left to right is far easier than up-down, so I asked the discord if it was okay to rotate the canvas or if the intent of the exercise was specifically to work lines vertically. I received mixed responses and figured the best approach would just be to do it both ways. I did 2 sets of this exercise every day, one set vertically and another set with the canvas rotated so I was able to draw horizontally.

• Vertical Set:
  
  
• Horizontal Set:
  
  

Photoshop for Digital Prod 1 assignment 2 - Image Adjustments:
I found the color matching exercises really enjoyable but I struggled a lot with the beach scene component. While the exercise isn't relevant to my goals I hope to come back and try and tackle it again in the future as my skills develop and I become more familiar with CSP.

That marks the end of week one! Overall I had a lot of fun tweaking with pen settings and trying to learn pen pressure. On a rough note though, my back and right shoulder feels like it has become a casualty of a paintballing barrage, I keep checking the mirror for welts. Any advice on posture or tools to assist with that would be greatly welcomed!

[JimSt]

Welcome to the forums! I think you've made a wise decision to continue your artistic journey with us!
I think your lines look good. Make your lines however you feel is most comfortable, we all have our favored method. But I encourage being able to throw or pull lines from any direction.
There's a couple things that might help you in general. First, throw your straight lines as quick as you can. Make the motion without the pen touching the tablet, then make the real stroke quickly. And then the second thing is to look at "stabilization" for your tools in your software. And one step beyond that is seeing how something like Nezumi works for you:
https://lazynezumi.com/

Again, welcome aboard!
-jSt.

[StarlitSkvader]

Hey there! Looks like we're starting fairly close to the same time - I'm on Day 1! (And hey, fellow crocheter!)

I am really impressed at your value matching! That's something I've never quite grasped myself, so I'm looking forward to those lessons myself!

Also, some stretches might help! Try looking up Ask Dr Jo's artist stretches.

-Skvader

[BinChicken]

Thank you for your warm welcome! I definitely plan to take advantage of the stabilization settings when getting into drawing things, but for daily exercises I'm practicing without stabilization to try and stay true to the exercises.
Thank you for recommending Lazynezumi, I just looked into it and it seems to be an amazing tool, especially with the perspective settings! I will very likely pick it up once I get deeper into the course.

[BinChicken]

Hi hi! Thats awesome. I hope you find a lot of success with the course! It's great to see a fellow crocheter out in the wild.

Thank you, I actually play a cute little color matching game prior to finding interest in drawing. I was super surprised when it was the first assignment, it felt as though I had been training for it! Here is the game: https://dialed.gg

I will definitely look into Ask Dr Jo, Thank you for the recommendation!

[BinChicken]

Term 1 - Week 2(incomplete) :

I was able to work on the daily pen control everyday but with work my time was limited and I struggled to complete the daily nude figure assignments, I will continue working on them until I complete a full week before attempting the assessment and moving onto week 3!

Pen Control:
I managed to work on pen control everyday, doing both vertical and horizontal sets. I will only post the first day and seventh day.

• Vertical
  
• Horizontal
  

Daily Nude Figure Drawing assignments 1-3:
Each day I did parts 1-3 over top of 10 reference images. I'm not fully confident with my results, but it was a lot of fun building 'sassy' stick figures. I really enjoyed hiding the ref layer at the end and seeing the stick figures take on a life of their own.



On the third day I tried to experiment with oval body sections, but it did not spark joy, so I returned to the boxy style.


For the first reference of day 5 I attempted the cubes style, but it felt really wrong and I reverted back to squares for now.
I was only able to complete 5 days worth for now, but I shall return and update once I have finished the last 2 days and the rest of week 2s assignment! I'm very excited to move up to week 3!
All critiques and feedback is welcome and appreciated!

[StarlitSkvader]

All the forms are looking really good! And your pen control looks so much smoother as well!

[Nosnibor]

A late welcome to the forums from me. I am very inspired by what you wrote about yourself in your introduction : ) Great mileage with your nude figure studies and I look forward to seeing more of your work : )

[BinChicken]

Thank you. For doing the figure drawing parts, I do use stabilization at 20 to counteract the shakyness, otherwise they would take an eternity to finish.

[BinChicken]

Thank you for your welcome! Hopefully all the mileage amounts to something. I appreciate your encouragement and I also stalk your art journey for inspiration! I hope to be as good as you someday!

[BinChicken]

Term 1 - Week 2 (Cont.) :

Work got super overwhelming suddenly and I found the upcoming photoshop assignment tasks to be very daunting. Which led to a lot of procrastination. But I have finally manage to build up enough motivation and time to square away the last bit of week 2! I've also acquired a better stand and setup for my tablet to improve my posture while drawing and working. So time to get back on track.

Daily Nude Figure Drawing assignments 1-3:

I started adding hands and feet outlines as it felt like it gave a clearer vision of the pose and I think it adds some extra personality.

There was a long break before tackling the 7th one. I decided to try something a little different, in the prior works, I would draw the lines of the cylinder first where I felt the encapsulated the limbs and then try to fit the ellipses/circles in place which came out fairly awkward. This time I decided to try doing the ellipses first which felt like it had better shaping.

Photoshop for Digital Prod 1 assignment 3 - Combining Images:

I wasn't really confident with this and struggled a lot. I'm not very happy with the result but photo manipulation isn't really the direction I want to move in anyway..

Photoshop for Digital Prod 1 assignment 4 - Part 1:

The apple exercise was a little fun. I got to experiment with the lasso tool and try out the blend tool to try and clear up jaggy bits.

Photoshop for Digital Prod 1 assignment 4 - Part 2:

I'm using CSP so some of the tools did not line up with photoshop, I used the clone stamp and a little bit of liquify but this activity did not spark joy. Not sure if photoshop is just better for this. But alas, I persist.

Photoshop for Digital Prod 1 assignment 4 - Part 3:

I really did not enjoy this part, Liquify is not shaky hand friendly. And I eventually conceded.
I knew I would find the photoshop section rough which contributed to my procrastination. But photo manipulation is not my goal so it may be better to skip these assignments if the occur in the future.

Onwards to week 3! I'm excited to start experimenting with gesture drawing and refining my understanding of figures.
Funky little thicc-figures inbound!

[Nosnibor]

Thank you for your welcome! Hopefully all the mileage amounts to something. I appreciate your encouragement and I also stalk your art journey for inspiration! I hope to be as good as you someday!

Ahh thank you, that is very kind and motivates me to keep pushing forward : ) Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing your gesture drawings