Full Art School Journey - Alexandra

[alexandra.d.93]

Hello again,
I have been absent for a couple of days. Mostly because of work, but also because a friend of mine wanted to have an art trade with me. I asked that we'd keep it non-realistic for now, as I didn't feel like i would have time finishing a completely realistic piece for him in a reasonable timeframe. Therefore we agreed to draw a "Chibi" version of eachothers original characters. This is his original character Marie.

Even though this isn't a realistic piece, I felt like I could make use of the practices I've done in this education so far. Making a less stiff pose like the other pictures I've made thus far.

Here are the references I worked from:
Marie reference 1 - Marie reference 2.
Marie reference 3

This is the piece he drew for me:
My OC Kir'aara that he drew for me.

[dangras-almeida]

It turned out adorable! Congratz!
Loves the colors and the shades here. Really impressive! Good job 👍

[alexandra.d.93]

Thank you so much! It was a lot of fun drawing it !

[alexandra.d.93]

Hello again !
About a week ago I begun the female/male proportion assignment. The first try I did for this was very sloppy, and I made the shapes and proportions from what I could remember from my first look through the video. As you can see this did not turn out that well, it is rather uncanny ! Most likely because I didn't put enough effort into it. I did follow the guidelines, but rather roughly ^^. (Also I gave the female some hair, I don't know why though ). Honestly this try is making me a bit upset with myself x) !

When tackling the second one (which I did today, one week after the first try) I made sure to follow the video closely to take note of the different measurements and try to capture the proportions better than the first try. While this one is better, I am still going to do this exercise at the very least one more time ! I felt like I learned much more through properly taking notes of the different measurements though ! Most of the measurement were about the same for the female and male model, which lead me to not make the same notes for both genders .

[dangras-almeida]

Wow, you can clearly see the progress between one and the other! Congratz!

I loved your notes as well (the "End of butt" made me laugh a lot 🤣), and even tho simple, I also really liked the way you draw their feet! 👍

Honestly I think the last one turned out great. And you saw in the video, this exercise is more about getting the hand of proportions than the muscles and volumes, so if you got that out of it, it's great.

I would recommend keeping doing it a few more times tho, to really "tattoo" that in your brain.

Congrats for the good work and keep 'em updates coming!

[mau.wamp]

Nice progress, Alexandra!
I also really like your butt-note
They turned out pretty symmetrical, which is great!

[alexandra.d.93]

Hi @dangras-almeida, Thank you very much for the kind feedback !
I did have to remind myself about the fact that they should be focused on proportions and not so much about anatomy, but I noticed that I could easily be carried away . I will definitely give this a few more tries. At the very least until I can identify the different measurements for the body parts without consulting with the video ^^.

Hi @mau.wamp Thank you very much for your kind feedback !
I did indeed try to make it symmetrical, I tried to be a little pedantic about the different measurements. Like splitting squares into thirds and so on ^^ !

[alexandra.d.93]

Good day .
I hope you're all staying safe, still .

Today I finished another study, I desperately tried to measure the guy just to burn the 1/3 marks into my brain. By the time I started measuring out the woman I didn't make as many red lines to measure. Although I did very often take a look at my previous try as I made some helpful notes .
I'm still noticing I'm uncertain about the top half, and of course the bottom half still needs a lot of work . The lady also ended up with very small feet, and not as thick hips as last time, but that might not be objectively wrong ^^. So I'll definitely make sure to do this assignment a couple of times more ^^.

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @alexandra.d.93

Good job there, congrats!
And food is always nice 😅

They look pretty good. One question tho: the male model has a lot of the red lines.
Doesn't it get overwhelming/confusing after some point? Or you start with fewer lines and this is just how it ends up after placing the markers?

I like how clean the lines turned out also

Cheers,

[alexandra.d.93]

Thank you very much !

I added the red lines as I needed them, and even then I could get confused. But I mostly drew them to check a specific point, and then hid that layer ^^.

And thank you for the feedback on the lines, I do draw them in a very messy manner and clean it up later. Although I should be trying to make longer, single strokes more. But my wrist is messed up !

[alexandra.d.93]

I tried to make some gesture drawings today...
It did not go well .

I have some problems with stress, so I started with 60 second gesture drawings and made a little over 30 of them I think. As I expected, and as Marc has mentioned, you can very easily start thinking more about anatomy on a 60 second session. But I guess you could call it a soft start at least .
For the poses I used https://line-of-action.com/
There were so many kids in these sessions :c . I was hardly ready to draw a full grown human .

After I was done I felt a little braver and a little more used to the quick flow of the pencil, so I tied a few 30 second sessions. But not before making a quick one in between to kind of try using what little I had learned in the first try above.

One of the biggest issue I have noticed is that I always focus on everything but the hand and feet, I should definitely try to get the feet in as soon as possible after I've made a rough line of the limbs. I also need to think about making a single line, not many small ones .

[alexandra.d.93]

Hello again ,
I made a few more 30 second gesture drawings. Still got a long way to go until I can feel the slightest bit happy with these results. But I do feel like these 30 second sessions went better than the 30 second ones yesterday.
I have noticed the I can get mind flooded if there is much foreshortening or many overlapping limbs in the pose. But I do try my best, even though I might not always finish the entire gesture drawing because of it ^^.

Hope you all will have an amazing weekend .

[dangras-almeida]

Really liked how, in this second new exercise, you use more single lines instead of multiple ones. They feel sharper and makes it more clear to understand the pose

[alexandra.d.93]

Thank you very much for the feedback , yes i did try my best to capture the pose through fewer brushstrokes, I'm glad they come across as easier to read !

[alexandra.d.93]

I have been continuing my work on my comic "United We Stand". I didn't work too much on the human, but rather the creatures and surroundings !

[alexandra.d.93]

I have been feeling bad for not getting anywhere on my comic. So i've been trying to get some frames finished. But I Will try to make a schedule for myself to draw frames for my comic and balancing these studies. I am currently drawing some gesture drawings, Will upload them later

[alexandra.d.93]

Third try of making gesture drawings. These ones below are also 30 second sessions and there are 48 of them. Meaning I went on for about 23-24 minutes. At this point I got very tired, I noticed I started making very shaky lines. So I'll quit for today .

[alexandra.d.93]

Honestly just got such depressing news today, I'm not sure I could bare to share them straight away. But as a coping mechanism I made a very quick anatomy sketch. Of course far from perfect as usual. But I really needed something to distract me. I have honestly spent far too long crying for today.

[dangras-almeida]

Sorry to hear that @alexandra.d.93 and I hope things get well soon.
Drawing definitely helps to distract and cope with things but also, please reach out to people near you that you feel confident enough to talk about what is going on. That always helps!

[alexandra.d.93]

Hi @dangras-almeida,
Thank you kindly for your words of encouragement. Sorry for not replying earlier, I have been a bit bummed lately. But I'm doing better !