FeralFenra - Art School Journey

[FeralFenra]

Hello! My name is Fenra and I live in Alaska. Nice to meet you!
Not much to say about my previous attempts at drawing, I've been at it off and on since I was a kid, but in recent years I've rediscovered it as my passion. I love to study and understand things, so I hope one day to get good at art ^^;;
I'm not sure what style or direction I want to go in yet, but I love drawing animals, people, furries, fantasy, nature and landscapes.
I recently began Art School, and have been plugging away at my first term assignments, and practicing a bit every day. I have been working on DrawABox as well which is helping me to rote learn how to see the structure of things.
My main problems that hold me back are self confidence, and time management. I'm super shy too, so instead of lurking around, I want to try to participate more.
Glad to be here on this journey with everyone, I love seeing everyone's progress - you all inspire me so much!
Here's my old DA account I've had forever: https://www.deviantart.com/eycewolf
Other galleries: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/feralfenra/
https://fenra.artstation.com/

[FeralFenra]

Here are my first assignments. I am using Clip Studio, so I ran into problems with the file not opening because CSP can only handle 8 bit files. I had to make the adjustments in one or 2 attempts, or else I had to start over. I think maybe I was fairly close with most of them, except the last one. That one took me 2 full days to try to get it, oof! Did my best though!

[xdarts]

Good job Fenra, your pen control is looking solid!
Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[FeralFenra]

Combining Images Assignment:
I'd never tried doing a photo collage before, but I feel much more at ease with the adjustment tools now. I ended up having quite a bit of fun with it. I always wanted to try making day to night scenes.

Assignment: Add more apples to the basket.
Got a little creative using Clip Studio that does not have PS's healing tools.

[FeralFenra]

Thank you kindly! I've been working really hard at pen control lately, so it's a real boost to know that it's starting to pay off

[Kosmonaut]

welcome to the forums!

[FeralFenra]

Anatomy Construction 1

Anatomy Construction 2

[FeralFenra]

Been doing my daily gesture practice. I've done gesture sketching a little before starting Art School, but I didn't stick with it, because I was worried I was getting worse/making poor habits >.< But I'm committed to sticking with it now, even if I have bad days.

I kinda have a personal problem with time management, so I made a big long canvas, and I just fill it up. I find that doing 4 mini sessions like this is helping me keep focus better. Been averaging about 45 - 60 minutes/daily.
I started off the first 3 days doing all 30 second gestures, then I switched to 3x30 sec + 1x60sec.

Daily Gesture Sketches - Day 1

Day 7

And this too. They're a bit wonky, but I was happy to see some more distinct dimorphism for once.

[FeralFenra]

Another try at this exercise.

First attempt at the reference measurement exercise. I was pretty far off the mark in lots of places, so I will have another try at it tomorrow.

[gellenvera]

Great job on the gesture drawings and making a habit of drawing every day! Time management is not an easy task, but you're doing great

[FeralFenra]

Thanks for all the encouragement!

Daily gesture sketching progress, Day 14

3rd try at this one. I think I've committed it to memory now.

Tried again with this one. I found this one super duper hard to do using my stylus as a measuring tool, my judgement seems to be way off. I ended up using the Show Grid (like a graph paper overlay) to get everything in pretty much the right spot. Not sure if that was cheating, but it looks fairly accurate, so I'm pretty happy about that at least. Looks like I'll have to try this exercise few more times ^^;;

[dangras-almeida]

Solid progress so far @FeralFenra!

I also struggled A LOT with he grid and "pen mapping" exercises, but believe me, with enough practice you'll get there.

In the context of "digital drawing", what worked for me was to worry less about all the "arm stretching and head tilting" techniques and just focus on using the stylus as something that could help me measure the distance to things.

The main landmarks I was focusing on were:

• Chin
• Clavicules and sternum
• Tips of rib cage
• Elbows and Knees
• Waist
• Feet

Hope that helps!

[FeralFenra]

Thank you, Dangras, and yes, that does help That's a more realistic list of important landmarks, rather than getting caught up in trying to make weird disparate points more exact.
I tried this exercise again, keeping that in mind, and I did it in half the time, and still fairly accurate.

[dangras-almeida]

NICE! Amazing job! Congrats 🎉