Eugene - My Artistic Journey

[Sthingz]

It's the end of the week brahs, so you know what time it is....recap time! But before I get into it, let me say that I'll be organizing this post a little different than last week's. I believe that my last progress report wasn't tidy. Therefore, I am going to switch things up. Here we go!

Monday 9/12:

1. I practiced line art for 30 minutes
2. Before practicing gesture drawing, I asked for help from the Art School discord server. Members pointed out that I was drawing contour lines and they suggested I watch the following video on FORCE: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=force+proko. This was really helpful. Moreover, Erik Nguyen, one of the server's members, was kind enough to give me some tips while on a call, and he challenged me to gesture draw w/ a pen to build my line confidence (this was hell! lol) After this, I moved on to practice gesture drawing for 30 minutes
3. In 20 minutes, I drew the male and female proportions from memory.
4. I ended the day by drawing the torso per Dan Beardshaw's method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5vg-jA_utE&list=PLh33PBNTMQJd3WE3q4djHolYvDOBUptDp&index=8&t=189s. When I finished, I realized I was not at the level of drawing the torso, even if it just meant simply drawing boxes.

Tuesday 9/12:

1. I practiced line art for 30 minutes.
2. I practiced gesture drawing for another 30 minutes.
3. In 20 minutes, I drew the male and female proportions from memory.
4. I scaled back my torso drawing practice to just drawing cubes from different perspectives. While doing so, I stumbled upon the following video by the channel Plainly Simple, and it came in very handy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_k4aCknZY&t=182s.

Wednesday 9/14:

1. I repeated #1-3 from last week and drew cubes from a different perspective. In addition, I drew heads at different angles to test my knowledge of the human head.
2. I started watching "Term 1 - Perspective."

Thursday 9/15:

1. I repeated #1 -3 from Tuesday and drew cubes, again, but from a 2-point perspective. I found this very hard because I was drawing something which I had not even learned at the time. In fact, I only knew I was drawing 2-point perspective when I finished watching "Term 1 - Perspective." Anyways, throughout this process, I used an interactive, 3D cube: https://www.atksolutions.com/games/cubedemo.html and a cube that I made out of paper lol.

Friday 9/16:

1. I began the day by watching this awesome video that appeared on my YT feed and was reposted in the discord server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbmVKmAA2XU It was very instructive and motivational.
2. I repeated #1 from yesterday (including #1-3 from Tuesday) and I drew heads at different angles in addition to the cubes.

Saturday 9/17 and Sunday 9/18:

1. I practically finished watching "Term 1 - Perspective" (I stopped like 3/4 into the assignment portion of the video, though I do plan to finish it this upcoming week) and I watched one of DD Mark's videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_twSX8C0is&t=8s
2. I reduce my line art practice time from 30 to 20 minutes (I believe I was worrying too much about the length of my practice rather than the quality of work I put in) In the next few days, I'll make sure to post my line art practice for yawl to see.
3. I repeated #2-3 from Tuesday and I drew heads from ALL kinds of angles.
4. I tried quickly practicing one-point perspective and I finished the week by sketching a portrait of Natsumefrom Tsuchimikado from reference (I didn't go into too much detail since I wanted to focus on speed and drawing hair better by bundling it up more). I spent 1 hour on the latter, but it really took me like 30 minutes, so a huge improvement

For next week, I would like to...

• Practice drawing simple shapes in one-point perspective
• Start working on the assignment from "Term - 1 Perspective," that is, drawing my own room in one-point perspective
• Go back to gesture drawing w/ pencil (perhaps, just temporarily)
• Do some figure drawing and tracing

Really, this upcoming week will be all about one-point perspective. I will return to drawing the torso once I have mastered one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective (I need to approach anatomy, which I have barely scratched the surface of, one step at a time).

Thanks to anyone who views this post. Any feedback is appreciated I will be checking others' forums as well and learning from them. Have a great week!

[prinzmoana]

Really good perspective studies 😄

[Lockenheim]

Really lovely box studies! Well done!

[Sthingz]

Hello everyone! I am a little late to report on last week's progress just because I have today off (woohoo!) Anyhow, let's get right into it...

I did not post any work that I did on my iPad. Rather, I took a video which you can check here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o4l0XHQg-BmHckGsf7wBCJKBVNhw_dHn/view?usp=sharing

Monday (9/19):
- I warmed up by practicing my line art (e.g., circles, ellipses, C-curves, S-curves, straight lines).
- I then drew the male-female proportions from memory in a 10-minute time interval each
- After that, I moved on to practice gesture drawing; 30 and 60 sec time intervals
- To understand a bit more about perspective, I watched the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkp1xfWJ9n4&t=246s. After that, I practiced drawing simple shapes in 1-point perspective and traced an image.

Tuesday (9/20):
- I repeated what I did on Monday, with the only difference being that I used my iPad for gesture drawing and proportions (I am still drawing 1-point perspective on paper).

Wednesday (9/21):
- I repeated what I did on Wednesday, with the exception of perspective which I didn't have time to practice.

Thursday (9/22) and Friday (9/23):
- I don't remember why but I bundled these two days together, at least in terms of recordkeeping. That being said, I still practiced line art, gesture drawing, and proportions on both of these days. Moreover, I finally finished watching "Term 1 - Perspective"
- The one thing that I did differently on these days was practice figure drawing which I had not done in the past week or two. And, since I am much of a perfectionist, I set a 5-minute timer to draw each pose (I drew a total of 6 poses).

Saturday (9/24) and Sunday (9/25):
- I group these two days together b/c I did the exact same as the two days prior, with the only addition being that on Sunday I started working on the perspective assignment for Term 1 and I drew a portrait of yet another anime character, this time Angela Balzac from Expelled from Paradise (which, to be honest, I have not watched). Although I did fly through this portrait, I feel that I didn't do a good job on it. I resisted the urge to start over (for like the 10th time) and left the drawing as it is. I like to think that sometimes one's shortcomings can be the best teacher.

For next week, there are only two things I want to work on...

1. I want to finish my perspective assignment for Term 1
2. I want to be more effective w/ my time. In other words, I want to practice more figure drawing and perspective. To this end, I have updated my 2-hour drawing schedule, and here's what it now looks like:
   
   I include the choice b/w anatomy and perspective b/c, before I joined Art School, I taught myself how to draw the different facial features, and I think it is a good habit to practice them once in a while (which I haven't been doing)

[Gordon003]

Looks all good. The 2 hours schedule looks good in concept but make sure to re-evaluate the schedule every week and make some adjustment to avoid burnout. Good luck!

[Sthingz]

Yessir! I'll make sure to keep my schedule dynamic. Thanks for the feedback!

[prinzmoana]

Duuude you did SO much 😵‍💫 I'm impressed ✨

Especially like the perspective exercise with the cubes arranged in a circle. Looks really cool for some reason xD

[battledragon78]

I love your entusiasm and dedication ! Alwys be like this ! you are progressing very well !

[Lockenheim]

Really nice job with this practice! I really love your box constructions. Looking great!

[Sthingz]

It's October! And w/ a new month comes a new post (although a bit late, sorry). Let's go!

Tuesday (9/27):
- I watched David Finch's Monday Night Draw stream from 9/26 where he draws Link. I then watched SomeNormalArtist simplify human proportions. Finally, I watched David Finch describe some gesture drawing tips.
- Per usual, I worked on my line art and gesture drawing but for a shorter duration, 10 minutes and 30 minutes respectively. I kept this up for the rest of the week.
- I filled a whole page (front and back) w/ figure drawing poses on a 5-minute interval each.
- I finished the day by working some more on the perspective assignment at the end of Term 1.

Wednesday (9/28):
- I watched two more videos on basic anatomy and proportions by Bluebiscuits and Xabio Arts (I found this guy extremely annoying lol). I then watched two videos, one by David Finch and the other one by SomeNormalArtist, on how to make my poses more dynamic.
- Repeated the second and third points from 9/27.
- I finished the day by tracing and copying two reference images.

Thursday (9/29):
- I started the day by watching a video where Yoh Yoshinari, the character designer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (great anime btw!), draws a quick sketch of Lucy and David from the same anime. I then watched a video by dr. Draw over perspective (I will explain this below)
- I only repeated the first point from 9/27 as the focus of my studies that day was perspective. Hence, I practiced 1-point perspective on one side of the page and 2-point perspective on the other by drawing a bunch of different shapes.
- I finished the day by grabbing 4 images and trying to find the vanishing points (I struggled so much on the last one that I wasn't able to pinpoint any of the vanishing points - feedback is greatly appreciated).

Friday (9/30):
- I watched Part 1 and Part 2 of the FORCE Series in Proko
- I repeated the second point from 9/27, and I practiced drawing the torso, in isolation and over reference images, using the bean shape for the first time.

Saturday (10/1):
- I repeated the second point from 9/27, and drew the different facial features (for some, I had to go back and watch the videos, but I quickly got the hang of it). One other thing I did is actually practice my lineart by going over my sketches with a pen and boy....I am sure lacking on that department.
- I redrew the Angela Balzac from the previous week. She came out looking better than my previous sketch, but when I went over it w/ my pen, things took a turn. Nevertheless, this drawing looks better than the previous one, so I'm satisfied.

Sunday (10/2):
- I repeated the second point from 9/27, and watched the final part (Part 3) of the FORCE Series in Proko. Then, YT recommended a video about George Bridgman's constructive anatomy which I put into practice. I got curious as to who this man was, which led me to moderndayjames' channel where I watched this video. I stopped at time stamp 4:20 since "I don't have a hang of twisting forms" in different perspectives. On that note, I tried tracing over just one image using simple shapes and I found that difficult, which makes for a good segway into this week's commitments.

My commitments for this week are:

1. Make progress on the perspective assignment from Term 1.
2. Practice George Bridgman's constructive anatomy, that is, using box forms to analyze the human body in different perspectives
3. Practice drawing the torso using the bean shape

Note: Thank you everyone for checking out my progress. I sometimes don't feel like drawing because my art is not up to par, but your words of encouragement keep me going. Although my art may not look the way I want it to, I have to understand that building up my skills will take time. There's still a long journey ahead, and your feedback only makes that journey all the more enlightening . Cheers!

[prinzmoana]

Wow you did A TON of studies 😳
And its very helpful you put all the links of the videos in your descriptions,
thank you 😄

[Lockenheim]

Really nice work! Really love the shapes in perspective especially! Keep it up!

[Sthingz]

This past week was hell - there was sooo much schoolwork. Nevertheless, I did not forget to get my art practice in.

Tuesday 10/4:
- Practiced line art and gesture drawing (30 and 60-sec intervals)
- I drew the human torso using boxes to improve my perspective skills

Wednesday 10/5:
- Unfortunately, I was super busy this day so I didn't get to draw at all.

Thursday 10/6:
- Practiced line art and gesture drawing (30 and 60-sec intervals)
- I did a bunch of perspective studies using boxes. I had a lot of trouble understanding how perspective changes in the real world, so I watched the following video

Friday 10/7:
- Although I didn't get to draw this day because I was loaded with schoolwork, I was able to watch some very helpful gesture drawing videos from Proko. This first video features Stan Prokopenko sharing a whole bunch of advice on gesture drawing and quicksketch. The second video, which I was shocked was free, has Michael Hampton explaining how to gesture draw.

Saturday 10/8:
- Practiced line art and gesture drawing (30 and 60-sec intervals)
- I downloaded Blender and used it as a reference for my perspective studies. Honestly, I found that this to be more helpful than watching videos since I could interact with the cube.
- I finished the day by putting into practice what I watched yesterday, that is, Michael Hampton's gesture drawing style

Sunday 10/9:
- Practiced line art and gesture drawing (30 and 60-sec intervals)
- I finished the week by drawing poses on a 180-sec interval each using the egg shape for the rib cage and a rectangle for the pelvis as well as implementing what I learned from Michael Hampton's video

This past week, I feel that I have gained a better grasp of gesture drawing and perspective. On that note, I did not work on the perspective assignment for Term 1. I need ample time to sit down and work on that assignment, something which did not present itself this past week. Hopefully, I will get working on it this soon, which leads me to my commitments for this week:

1. Continue to gesture draw using Michael Hampton's style but add more detail towards the end
2. Practice drawing the whole human body using simple shapes to improve my perspective skills
3. Work on my line confidence while still employing the FORCE method

[prinzmoana]

Amazing commitment ^.^

[Sthingz]

Hello everyone. I hope you guys are having a fantastic day. Regarding last and next week's progress, I won't be uploading much given that I will be dealing with numerous school assignments and projects. Once I get these out of the way, I should return to uploading artwork daily. That being said, let's get into this past week's progress:

Monday 10/10:
- The YT algorithm did me a solid by recommending a video by Mike Mattesi on how to draw arms and legs using FORCE. This is just what I needed considering how much trouble these two extremities have caused me.

Tuesday 10/11:
- Per usual, I practiced my line art and tried gesture drawing w/ a different style before moving on to 180-sec figure drawings. In these exercises, I focused on drawing the human figure using basic shapes.

Wednesday 10/12:
- I skipped David Finch's latest Monday Night Draw, so I went back and watched it. He had some very good gesture drawing tips at 38:51.

Thursday 10/13:
- I found a very similar lecture of Michael Hampton's gesture drawing Proko demo from the previous post. After watching it, I felt that Michael Hampton's gesture drawing style resonated more with me than Mike Mattesi's FORCE, at least for now. For this reason, I picked up his figure drawing book.

Friday 10/14:
- I practiced my line art and gesture drawing. When gesture drawing, however, I gave myself two attempts, with the second one not being time-constrained though I tried my best not to take longer than 1-2 minutes. The point of the second attempt was to implement what I learned from Michael Hamptom's gesture drawing method.

Saturday 10/15:
- I did not get to do anything art-related this day

Sunday 10/16:
- I practiced my line and returned to gesture drawing w/ only 1 attempt.
- I watched another gesture drawing video by Michael Hamptom and drew along

Given how busy I will be this week, I want to make only two commitments:

1. Read Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing book and practice his gesture drawing style
2. Continue using basic shapes to describe the human body (this is also a great perspective exercise)

[matthewwemes]

These are really good gestures! your commitment and productivity level is keeping me inspired!

[nikolinkanikolova]

You have improvement in your gesture drawings. Try to relax torso`s line even more, to be more curved. Your limbs lines are better than torso lines. Good work

[CYP2C19]

Insane dedication despite school related work!, Can't wait to see where you end up!.

[Sthingz]

Noted! Thanks for the feedback

[Lockenheim]

Keep it up! Gestures looking great!