CYP2C19's Art School Journey

[CYP2C19]

Haha thank you, I didn't have any ideas for a light source so that happened xp

[CYP2C19]

Random Update #5

Did my Typical 4 Hour Draw a Box Session which I'm still keeping secret.. Ssh you didn't read any of this.
And yes I said yesterday that It's a typical 2 hour session with Draw a Box, But that was wrong, I just took the time today and it's roughly 4 hours per session xp

Then I just went straight to my Volumes In Perspective practices again, took roughly 2 hours. Not really as finished as it could've been but I really wanted to get back into constructing people again cause I'm really getting rusty

And just 2 quick little constructions, I really need to get back into these again cause I struggled a bit with these, roughly 1 hour for 2 when that was 30 mins for 2 before, and my proportions are more off than usual too.

And yes that's all I had to post, the Draw a Box sessions really take up A LOT of time.
I still love you all, GO GET THAT ART EXP!.

[CYP2C19]

Random Update #6
Maan time is going by so fast, I was supposed to post an update yesterday but I got distracted by games and fell asleep early.

Starting off yesterday and today with my usual 3-4 hour DrawaBox session to help my pen control, It's still in secrecy though, so sshh..

Yesterday I did another bean study, Still need to incorporate it into actual gesture drawings, maybe I'll do that over the weekend.

I also went "back to the basics" and did some quick little boxes in perspective, cause I really felt myself struggling to draw boxes in perspective for my construction attempts 2 days ago.

Then I did 2 constructions yesterday, and 2 today. I'm slightly time constrained due to my DrawaBox sessions taking so long. But I will not stop doing them regardless.

And to finish things off, I decided to dip my toes into the very basics of the Head construction, I haven't started with anatomy just yet, I wanted to get feedback first to see if there was anything to improve on with the very basics.
Any feedback here is GREATLY appreciated, I don't know if I'm doing things right here.

Alright, Thanks for checking out this little update. I wish you the very best for this weekend, take care of yourself! ♥

[snakker]

Nice studies, I think those head block ins are excellent. I always struggle connecting heads to bodies, make necks too long or don't see the connection too clearly/make the head too big or too small. So at least from my experience those would be some super basics that you could look into as well, as those can be established very early on (and or fixed with liquify XD

cheers

[CYP2C19]

Thank you so much for the valuable feedback and kind words Snakker!, Next session I'll definitely look into everything you just mentioned, much appreciated!.

[CYP2C19]

Rando' Update #7

As usual, drawabox exercises take like 4-5hrs each day, and it really started to bother me, I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere in terms of my actual studies, all I did was trying to improve my pencontrol by drawing roughly 480 straight lines and a boat load of ghosted lines, ghosted panels and cylinders/circles each day, It has improved my pencontrol to some extent, mainly straight lines, but I'm only on day 11 so I've still got 19 more days before I'm posting anything related to it, So I've decided to do the drawabox exercises every other day instead of daily, hopefully I can feel like I'm actually doing something xp..

Anyways here is what I've been doing the 4 days I've been gone, minus yesterday, had a sudden blood sugar drop so I didn't get anything done.

Starting with gesture drawings, I tried to practice more on the Force method, Now I'm still miles away from being good at them, But I find these way more fun to draw as they're not just stick figures, Each took roughly 5 mins on average.

Here's some more basic head constructions, No anatomy cause I haven't started yet, I want to get a good grip on the basics first. C&C is very welcome on everything!.

And to finish it off, just some more body constructions.

Wish you all the best onwards!.

[snakker]

Good stuff, not much to critique. Those head studies are very clean. Cylinder skellies are easy to read and gestures also.

As an aside I recommend increasing contrast of lowering brightness of the gestures when you post the gesture studies for easier viewing as I note them a little on the light side

cheers, keep at em!

[prinzmoana]

480 straight lines for 4-5 hrs? Seems a lot xD And I'm honestly not even sure if this is so helpful 😅 There is a video from Marc, where he says something like: Learn smart, 20/80 rule... and so on. Basically use 20% time to learn 80% effectively.
Maybe you could spice the exercise up by drawing simple objects (cubes, cylinders,...) in perspective and try to draw them with straight lines? So you would at least combine some exercises 🤔Idk I'm not an expert 🙈

I'm sure you'll find a solution that suits your need and if you feel like you don't really learn sth from this exercise, it maybe means you're good enough to move on and tackle sth new 😄

[snakker]

I agree with that line of thought. One of the things that makes me feel I am progressing a lot faster than ever before is that I am varying all sorts of exercises, and in doing so I am both reinforcing things from other exercises and lso learning new things. And also, somehow starting to actually imagine and dream art stuff that was never in my head spontaneously, it sounds silly, but really kind of opens a pandoras box for me

I think, I used to be like you in a lot of things, trying to perfect one thing before moving to the next, but now I just go with the flow a little. More imperfect, just doing the motions and believing in the process, but also aware of my weaknesses along the way

Wow that was a lot of thinking, im going to go for a cup of tea or something

Cheers!

[prinzmoana]

Perfectly said 👌 And you always could go back to more basic exercises 😄

[CYP2C19]

Thank you both @snakker and @prinzmoana for the feedback, And I have to agree, I'm not going by these exercises efficiently at all, Separating the exercises and studies in to individual pieces isn't really helping at all, cause one day I'll have to combine essentially everything and then I might not know where to even start.

I will say though to @prinzmoana, the 480 lines take roughly 1-1.5 hrs on average, the most time consuming is the ghosted lines, and ellipse practice, though your point still stands.
I could easily combine those by drawing a load of cylinders/boxes in different perspectives, but I haven't thought of that until now, So I thank the both of you for opening that idea up to me, Might even add some basic shading on all those practices too, just to reinforce shading cause I still need to work on that.

Much love to the both of you, Keep grinding those Art gains!.

[CYP2C19]

Random Update #8

Alright It's Friday again, time is going by well too fast..
Wishing you all the best for the weekend, In both Art gains and pleasure wise!.

Here's just a little dump of the stuff I did yesterday and today, C&C as always is welcome!.
Gesture Drawings as my warmup, still trying to get a hang of the Force Method.

Just some quick little boxes and shading I did, not much of them cause I screwed myself up with time. I'm also considering migrating to a bigger Canvas size, my current canvas doesn't let me get nice and smooth lines even though I use a Size 5 brush for all my linework.

And some Constructions, Still need to get back into shape with these.

[Lockenheim]

Loving the constructions here! Looking great!

[prinzmoana]

Hey the lines and shapes you used in the last exercise look really clean and confident. All your hard work really payed off 😄

Maybe the shading on the bottom shapes is a bit too high contrast (in my opinion). Almost looks like it goes from totally white to totally black 🤔 I think I would rather stay in one part of the value spectrum. So rather all values more to the dark side or to the light side :}
Actually like you did with the cubes, bc they look very nice 👌

[CYP2C19]

Thank you so much Lockenheim!, really appreciate the kind words!♥

[CYP2C19]

Thank you for your feedback and kind words!, I have been thinking of giving myself a set "ambient" value and keep that as the darkest value on my shading attempts, as I also feel like the contrast is a little harsh, from a flashbang white to a Boötes Void black almost instantly.
But due to life situations imma have to keep off of art for about a week or 2, really sucks having to put a halt on what I love doing, but hopefully I'll be back to it someday soon.

[prinzmoana]

Yo I get that, there is other important stuff besides art in life after all xD
Hope you'll be back soon, we'll wait for you 😊👋

[snakker]

Hey there, sorry to hear that you have to pause, I totally feel you after having a hard time myself. If you do have a chance in the day you can alway doodle with a pen or pencil, I know it helped me sometimes

You’ve got some great progress, as for the values, I might be way ahead of myself but I would say, define a set of values you want to go for, its arbitrary and assign three: use the brighter one for lighted areas, the middle (50%) for the part of the object in shade or dark sides, and the darkest for the actual shadow. It's a formula for basic value practice that I've picked up when reading up on art, but not like a final solution or be all end all, that's for sure. But really cool that you are applying some shading in your drawings

cheers

cheers

[CYP2C19]

@prinzmoana You're absolutely right, there are more important things in life, Thank you for your kind words, and I can't wait to come back to Art!.

@snakker Thank you for the kind words and useful feedback regarding shading!, I really should use 3 main values when shading, and I'll make sure to try it when I return.
As for yourself I'm sorry to hear you went through some tough times yourself, But I'm happy you kept going strong through it all regardless!.
I had a point during my 3 point perspective assignment where I debated quitting Art all together, But the thought of quitting Art made me scared cause I love it so much, So I decided to just push through and see If I'd consider quitting by next week or more, and what do you know, That thought never crossed my mind again. That single moment of self doubt made me consider quitting the 1 Thing I've been doing the last few months or so that's kept me entertained for hours on end, And given me self confidence higher than I'd even thought possible (I'm not a confident person at all, which is why I debated posting my art progress on this forum).

I owe you all my life, You've all given me more joy the past few months than the last 3 years would've ever been able to bring.

[snakker]

Strength brother, you can get through anything and we will be here when you’re back