DuelisticNature - Art School Journey (Current - Term 1)

Nude figure drawing assignments. I feel like I'm spending way too much time on these... 3 hours a piece... averages to about 40 to 45 minute on each cylinder puppet.

Maybe I'm too picky on how they look? I'm concerned I might not have the time to do these during my work weeks if the intended goal is to do this daily.

Do I need to time myself? just keep on the grind?

First off thank you for the kinds words @snakker. I suppose I'm expecting too much progress in too little time, it's about forming habits and those are notoriously hard to create, especially the 'healthy' ones.
I'm not entirely sure how often I can post progress on here given I rarely get anything done during the week days with my job being what it is... let alone post it on the Forums.

Last week's been an absolute nightmare for me at work and it affecting my health, making me very very prone to headache and migraine attacks which kill all creative flow/ concentration in me. Steps are being taken to remedy that, but it puts this progress to a grind.

However I will try to make a commitment to at least doing 30 minutes each day of a gesture reel. 10 minutes of 30 second poses, 10 minutes of 1 minute poses, 5 minute slow gesture, 5 minute imagination gesture.

Day 2 30 minute gesture scedule.jpg4000x4000 1.94 MB

Alright I'm back. I figured the best I can do so far is post every week on a Sunday/ Monday to post my progress and ask for feedback.

Sooooo let's begin.

I've started to get in the habit of daily 30 minute practice of Gestures:
10 minutes, 30 seconds long
10 minutes, 1 minute long
5 minute, 1 gesture
5 minute freestyle.

I had to skip Thursday though for my own health's sake.

Day 3 30 minute gesture scedule.jpg4000x4000 1.98 MB

Especially towards my latter 2 I started to watch Proko's video's about gesture drawings ft. Tim Gula and the way he goes about 5 minute poses really clicked with me about how to go about constructing them. Head, ear, eyesocket, keep it simple, just an indication. Almost like how Bob Ross goes about making indications of mountains or foothills.
I've also watched one featuring Mike Mattesi using the FORCE method, focusing more on a cause and effect style approach. Where is the balance of the body aimed at? what direction is the tension going?

Now as for today. I broke my head for a good 3 hours on trying to get a room in 1 point perspective to paper, but I've kept messing up with the proportions. I'm no stranger to perspective and got a good idea what 1, 2 and 3 point perspective are most commonly used for, but getting the sizes down right... man oh man.

Here's a quicksketch of a scene I wanted to paint. However I struggled so long with proportion work I sorta gave up (for now!). And instead went for a more heads on approach with a draw along with Marc.

you'll probably notice a lot of medieval influences in my works since it's one that appeals to me the most. I need to clean up quite a bit on this one, but I've got ideas how to spruce up the room with tapestries, heraldry banners, candles, bits and bobs around the fireplace in the back. Maybe even above the slab stones above the door.

Anyone got suggestions for what to hang on the roof? maybe a pinned banner? chandelier?

This was my inspiration for both rooms:

Next week's gonna be a doozy for getting art to progress. Lots and LOTS of art to consume for Darktide's pre-order beta releases the 17th. And I'm an avid fan of Warhammer 40k's universe, dripping with atmosphere and lore... soooo... not sure how much work I'm gonna get done coming Thursday onward. There's heretic's to be purged.

Here I am again, on the first day of a new year.

I feel like I've given myself a bit of a false start in this art program, mainly because the longer I spent working on it, the more I realized something was off in my working environment which has been sapping my spirits ever since spring last year.

Long story short, I've had to spend the last 1.5 month doing some serious soul-searching to come to a couple of tough decisions I had to make for myself.
One of them commiting more time to the pursuit of studying art, I currently have the resources, materials and goal in mind to commit to something I want to do in my life, however I simply lack flexibility of time to really commit to this.

I'm not quitting my job, it's too fun for that and adds a nice bit of variety, but I am in a position where I can spend 1 day less working and instead spend that on commiting to learning art. Spend more time for myself and the pursuit of my own passions.

Here's to things changing for me in 2023. I've got a clear goal in mind, I know what motivates me, what drives me, now to see it through 1 year at a time.

Also here's what I managed to cobble together in the past 5 days. Spent more time really hammering home the proportions of the human figure and dipping my toes into figure drawing. Each human figure took me around 1 hour to make so I'm really fretting much over details which I need to loosen up on.