Eugene - My Artistic Journey

[Sthingz]

It's Monday, and it's time to debrief!

Monday 10/31:
Since I posted my progress report on this day, I took it easy and just watched two videos:
1. David Finch's Monday Night Draw of Sub Zero (in this video, I learned that Kim Jung Gi passed away. May he rest in peace).
2. Anatomy & Perspective Art Lesson from Kim Jung Gi.

Tuesday 11/1:
I started the day by watching a video from Akihito Yoshitomi on drawing waists. I liked his method, so I might incorporate it once I get passed the robo-bean and/or get a better grasp of perspective.
Talking about beans, I watched Proko's video on "the bean" since Mike Mattesi puts a big emphasis on it. On that note, I read the whole Preface to Mike Mattesi's FORCE book.
Then, I read pages 50 to 55 of Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing book. I stopped at page 55 because the next chapter goes into the construction of the head, which is something I am trying to hold off on until I get my gesture-drawing skills to a competent level.
As far as drawing goes, I practiced my line art, followed by gesture drawing in 30, 60, and 90-sec intervals. Here, I tried to focus on drawing "the bean" for the torso. I ended my practice by drawing a leg from different angles since I was struggling with the curvature of the two limbs that make up the leg.

Wednesday 11/2:
This day, I delved into Chapter 1 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book and read pages 1 to 36.
Since I practiced drawing legs on Tuesday, my focus this day was on drawing arms (more on this later). For this purpose, I rewatched Mike Mattesi's video on drawing arms and legs.
After I finished reading and watching the above video, I warmed up by practicing my line art, and then I gesture drew in 30 and 60-sec intervals.
Next, I practiced some more gesture drawings but with no specific time constraint, though they roughly took about 2-3 minutes. Here, I focused on the construction of the arms by drawing a curve adjacent to a straight line and vice versa.

Thursday 11/3
I continued reading Chapter 1 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book and read pages 37 to 65.
This day, I really focused on the concepts of directional and applied force, for which reason, after I finished practicing my line art and gesture drawings in 30 and 60-sec intervals, I gesture drew some more and indicated where each of the two forces was present.

Friday 11/4:
I only had enough time to read Mike Mattesi's FORCE book. I read pages 37 to 65.

Saturday 11/5:
I finished reading Chapter 1 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book. I read pages 66 to 78.
I continued to practice the same concepts as I did on Thursday with a heavier emphasis on line fluidity using C and S curves to describe the torso and where force is being applied.

Sunday 11/6:
I had to create a study guide for an exam I had today, so I just watched the following two videos and practiced on my iPad the material being taught:
1. Structure Basics from Proko
2. Robo-bean from Proko

Key Takeaways:

• Lines to flow from one to the next
• Applied force determines whether the torso is drawn with a C or S curve
• When the bean twists, the lines that follow the motion overlap

This week's commitments:

• Work with cubes and cylinders more
• Test my knowledge of human proportions and facial features
• Draw a face and a pose in a detailed manner (give it my best)

Note: Thanks everyone for checking my post. I am trying to take my learning slowly because I want to make sure I get the fundamentals down first. Any feedback is really appreciated. I hope y'all have a good day

[Lockenheim]

Loving this practice! Keep it up!

[Sthingz]

Quick update: I am super busy today, so I'll be posting my progress report tomorrow morning. Believe me, I haven't forgotten to practice my art skills

[Sthingz]

Okay, so hear me out - never mind, I don't have an excuse. What I can say is that I did not forget, I just didn't manage my time wisely so I was not able to upload this post sooner, sorry (▰˘︹˘▰). But here's my progress for the past week:

Tuesday 11/8:
- Per usual, I warmed up by practicing my line art followed by gesture drawing in 30 and 60-sec intervals. I then drew a couple of poses that took roughly 2-3 minutes. On top of these poses, I drew simple shapes to describe each part of the body. After that, I tried drawing a character from my imagination to see what I could accomplish in less than 5 minutes. I redrew this character several times in order to expose areas of opportunity. I ended this day's practice by drawing two weird characters from different perspectives using simple shapes.

Wednesday 11/9:
- I repeated my warmup from the previous day. Since I had a relatively easier time drawing the eyes and mouth than other parts of the face, I focused on drawing the nose and ears. I first tried drawing these two without reference, then using a generic picture reference, and finally using a video reference. I ended this practice by drawing the head from different angles before briefly testing my knowledge of measuring proportions according to Marc's method.

Thursday 11/10:
- I did not follow my usual practice routine and, instead, drew Kindred's dynamic pose in her pocelain skin splash art (and no, I don't care about the whole pronouns controversy with this champ). I also took inspiration from one of the backgrounds of xKito Music and drew a girl in the manga art style.

Friday 11/11:
- I won't sugarcoat it: I tried playing LoL again and it was a mistake. I played the whole evening only to get tilted and delete it the next day. As a result, I did not draw. Shame on me!

Saturday 11/12:
- I began reading Chapter 2 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book. I read from page 79 to page 103.
- I warmed up in the same way I did earlier in the week and, subsequently, I drew two figures in 15 minutes or less using FORCE. In doing this, I did a lot of ghosting, as Mike Mike Mattesi calls it. I finished by drawing 5-minute poses showing directional and applied force within each one of them as well as using simple shapes to describe the torso.

Sunday 11/15:
- I read pages 104 to 125 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book.

Key takeaways:

• Don't be afraid to make mistakes - this is the reason my poses either took too long
  or were unfinished.
• Be messy! I feel pressured to make each one of my strokes as precise as possible when that really isn't the point of sketching, especially in traditional art. Just focus on drawing lightly and erasing as needed.
• Digital art is way different than traditional art, at least in terms of feel. Nevertheless, I need to practice both with a greater emphasis on traditional art since this is the most fundamental.
• Although this shouldn't be the exception but the norm, it is worth noting that I accomplished all of last week's commitments. Hurray!! ( ﾟヮﾟ)/

This week's commitments:

• Try practicing "blind force" in different time intervals
• Draw (at least 2) scenes from anime that I watch like Ranma 1/2 or Maison Ikkoku (they offer simple perspective backgrounds that I feel I can draw in under 30 minutes)
• Sculpt with and without FORCE (i.e., draw nonforceful and forceful lines)

[snakker]

Duude

I can’t believe I missed this sketchbook. Snakker here, I have to say I am very impressed with your work, you are progressing very very nicely. I am a noob on this journey myself and this sketchbook is very inspiring. I commend your discipline - making this sketchbook goal oriented and as a form of journal, it also makes it very educational

Great work, I’ll male sure to come by and critique what I can woth my limited knowledge

Cheers!

[Sthingz]

Thank you for checking my post. Your words are inspiring, and I look forward to your feedback

[Sthingz]

UPDATE: Happy Holidays everyone! I will not be uploading my progress this Monday because there wasn't any. Lucky me, I had to do someone else's work for a project, so I didn't get to draw until the weekend. Given these circumstances, I believe it's best that I upload my progress report next week--when I have more work to show. Until then, take care.

[Sthingz]

Greetings fellow artists - I have some great progress to share with y'all. Let's go!

Saturday 11/19:
- Warmed up by practicing my lineart
- Gesture drew 30, 60, and 120-sec poses
- Drew a couple of poses with basic shapes
- Drew a few scenes from Ranma 1/2 under 10 minutes and then under 30 minutes

Sunday 11/20:
- Warmed up by practicing my lineart
- Gesture drew 30 and 60-sec poses
- Drew 120-sec poses with either a C or S shape
- Watched a video on the different torso types with FORCE and drew them

Monday 11/21:
- Drew a couple of poses with FORCE and then represented the ribcage and torso with simple shapes

Tuesday 11/22:
- Warmed up by practicing my lineart
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZjMfY0yrolzT2UfXg7irmw1He97HlmH1/view?usp=sharing
- Gesture drew 30 and 60-poses
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Amd82IMYQrFDV7NphlQWxYjR5whrTc-i/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VST3OiGN3UB9zh7Mr3fulldSRZqudj5j/view?usp=sharing

Wednesday 11/23:
- Gesture drew 40 poses in under 2 minutes each
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QdQyYBxISXPxwAPnq9HyPEFyv5nnkweG/view?usp=sharing
- Drew (a model) from reference in under 30 minutes

Thursday 11/24:
- Gesture drew 2-min poses
- Drew (a model) from reference - did not keep track of time. After the fact, I tried analyzing the picture by tracing over it
- Drew a dynamic pose with basic shapes and then added contour
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qxV20ucaDU9dctKSCJbUT90v9hJaSHLT/view?usp=sharing

Friday 11/25:
- Gesture drew 1-min poses
- Tried 2-min blind gesture drawing. Blind means not looking at my drawing, just the model; half blind means checking on my drawing only for placement for a quick second or two; and traditional means drawing as I normally would.
- Drew from reference. I believe this drawing took me about 1 or 2 hours.

Saturday 11/26:
- Practiced my FORCE gesture drawing skills on one pose

Key Takeaways:

• Observe the model, then draw. Gathering information is key to a proportionate and dynamic drawing
• Be messy with my rough sketch. I shouldn't worry about perfecting my sketch until the 3th or 4th draft

This week's commitments:

• Continue practicing "blind force" (on paper and digitally)
• Incorporate nonforceful and forceful lines into my gesture drawings (I forgot to do this)
• Draw some more scenes from anime I watch
• Resume reading Mike Mattesi's FORCE book (I won't be reading Michael Hampton's figure drawing book this week, but maybe the next)

[CYP2C19]

Amazing dedication to your gesture drawing!, and It's obvious that the FORCE book has done it's job, you can really feel the flow of each line, amazing work!.

[snakker]

Great work all around! Definitely good takeaways. There are no hard rules, just fundamentals that exist and the more you learn about them and practice smart the more they become a part of your artistic language (even the fundamentals you consciously decide to use wrong!)

Gestures really help feel out the pose

Proportions are essential to make the figure look believable, so as you say, observing is essential to make all the corrections

Definitely keep practicing both things and as much as I hate it, don’t neglect perspective to be able to make believable environments that will help tell your story

Cheers!

[Gordon003]

This looks great but be careful to not do asymmetrical shape (in particular, the model's right standing upper leg); otherwise the flow will cancel each other out. Aside from that, love your note on FORCE torso based on his recent YT video.

[Sthingz]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty sure you meant symmetrical instead of asymmetrical, right? If that's the case, then I see where you are going, and I'll make sure to keep an eye out for this. If not, please correct me.

[Gordon003]

Yes, meant to say symmetrical shape, not assymetrical. Good catch Also meant to show what i meant by drawing but i was outside lol.

[Sthingz]

Thanks so much for the visual feedback. I really appreciate it

[Sthingz]

It's December! I'm super excited for Christmas, but even more so about graduating from college since that will free up time to draw more. On the topic of drawing, here's last week's progress:

Tuesday 11/29 - Wednesday 11/30:
I was busy with school these days.

Thursday 12/1:
- I finished reading Chapter 2 of Mike Mattesi's FORCE book (i.e, read pages 125 to 139)

Friday 12/2:
- Warmed up with line art practice.
- Tried gesture drawing 60-sec poses on paper rather than on my IPad (shit was rough lol).
- Drew a pose from reference and deconstructed it (traditional art is messy, that is, there's a lot of erasing involved).
- I did some torso studies with a pose I struggled to copy.

Saturday 12/3:
- Gesture drew 20 60-sec poses, the first half of which I drew while laying on bed and the other half which I drew while seated.
- I drew an image from reference (I really liked how this one came out).

Sunday 12/4:
- I tried blind gesture drawing for the first time on paper.
- Used basic shapes to draw from reference under a timed setting, that is, 2 minutes (The purpose of this study is to help me understand perspective, proportions, and dynamism).
- Drew an image from reference on paper first, and then I finished it on my iPad.

Monday 12/5:
- I warmed up again by practicing my line art and connecting dots with lines to increase my line confidence.
- I again used basic shapes to draw from reference, but I didn't time myself. Nevertheless, I tried drawing as quickly as possible (I believe I drew all poses in 3-minutes or less).
- Found a random location in the world using google earth and drew it on paper to practice perspective (I focused on being quick since I tend to be overly meticulous and waste time. By doing this, I hope to improve my line confidence. Failure is bound to cross my path, but that is the only way I will learn).
- Gesture drew a few 60-sec poses on paper.
- Drew from reference on my iPad.

Key Takeaways:

• Hands are hard to draw lol.
• "Ghosting" is difficult while drawing traditionally unless I have a charcoal stick or pencil. For this reason, I need to either utilize Michael Hampton's gesture drawing style more or visualize FORCE while gesture drawing on paper.
• Contour is deceiving. I tend to be dissatisfied with my drawings because they do not accurately reflect the pose. This should not be a source of concern when I am gesture drawing, and I need to get over it.
  • My lines do not need to be exact, they just need to be confident.

Next Week's Commitments:

• Practice using nonforceful and forceful lines more (I did this while warming up, but only briefly. I want to dedicate more time towards this).
• Draw shapes or, if possible, figures in 4-point perspective.
• Go back to Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing book and memorize anatomical landmarks in order to attain a better grasp of proportions and be ready for Term 2.
• Try contour drawing!
• Keep up the habit of fully drawing one pose from reference a day, and try to fit at least two perspective drawings in the week.
• Continue to focus on blind gesture drawing and drawing poses with basic shapes. However, try using only one stroke for the latter (i.e., avoid hairy lines).
• Let's try to make this the last week before I start Term 2.

[Gordon003]

First of all, congrats with your college graduation.

Secondary, your construction skill (both FORCE and basic shapes) are looking good as you begin to break the body into boxes/shapes in perspective. Here are some notes I got while reading:

• I assume your gesture drawing on paper utilise FORCE principle. If so, then you can remedy your paper trouble by drawing "inside the body". Along with ghosting technique, it will allows you to find the body rhythm easily. Example may be on digital but I do the same thing on paper.

• Ghosting technique is best practiced with fine liner pen (or something that can't be erased at all).

Doing on pencil is too easy as you can easily convinced yourself that you can erase it at any time. With a pen, you force yourself to accept that whatever you do is permanent.

This is an example of "deep practice" where you make the challenge a bit harder in order to make mistake and improve upon it. Proko explained it pretty well on Draftmen.

I guess you got the ghosting exercise from DrawABox which even recommends using a pen over a pencil.

Anyway, hope that helps and good luck with your next week commitments!

[Sthingz]

Gordon, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insight with me. Going forward, I'll gesture draw w/ a ball pen instead of using a pencil per your suggestion. I will also draw "inside the body" to find the pose's rhythm, which I have avoided because I don't like being messy - I need to overcome this. On that note, I will watch the video you linked me to get more information on this matter. Thanks again

[Gordon003]

I wouldn't say to do gesture drawing with pen as you can use pencil to help "find the flow/essence of pose" by multiple strokes. This was my process to work on my line confidence:

• Practice on Ghosting technique with pen
• Do gesture drawing with pencil. With ghosting experience with pen, it should be more easier for you to do ghosting with pencil.

[snakker]

This is very interesting.

I think that methods for learning line drawings, confidence gesture etc vary widely by school and instructor. For me personally, I find thicker media that can vary line width and character are the best for gesture drawing. For example using a larger brush in digital that has pressure opacity and pressure size, using charcoal (which I personally hate in real life die to it being messy and prone to break when sharpening) or soft graphite (like the way Glen Keane draws his disney characters with a 10B pencil

In the end, I would say to experiment. All methods have something to learn from, and they all have value. But there shouldn’t be a dogma for it. It should be fun and challenging. If it’s only fun and not challenging maybe you aren’t going to advance much - if it’s all challenge and no fun- you’re prone to burn out

Cheers

[Sthingz]

@Gordon003 - thanks for the clarification, I now see the relationship b/w drawing with a pen vs. a pencil.
@snakker - I completely agree that everybody has their own way of gesture drawing. When I gesture draw on my IPad, for example, I find it much easier to draw w/ FORCE because, as you said, I can manipulate the width and pressure of the brush (I use the PSKI brush set). That being said, I will keep in mind the diversity of styles when it comes to drawing, and that there is no one correct way to do it.