Thank you @gregorya !
Day 2 Progress
Worked on Pen Control, TOP 10 DRAWING EXERCISES (to improve FAST). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C87ZXHPQkh0 and also worked on Assignments 1-3 again! Proportions for my gesture/still life drawing were some what off, still working on using surrounding items to determine the size of things and using the pencil technique.
Looking forward to some feedback
Day 3!
Completed Nude Figure Drawing 6 and Pen Control Practice Again! Nude figure Assignment 6 was hard for me, I don’t know how people can do this in 30 sec 😂 I upped it to 1 minute instead of 30s for 30 minutes. I will gradually decrease time as I get better. So tomorrow I’ll try 45 secs As for Pen control, I definitely had fun drawing some little things in my friends bookshelf. And omg her books🤫🤭😂
Any tips on how to get quicker with gesture drawings ?
Agreed with @mitsuki-youko that it's all about practice. I would only add to take a hard look at how you do it, and see what you can improve in the way you draw.
Using myself as an example, I noticed I spent a few seconds looking up at the gesture (second monitor), then down to draw, so I rearranged my space in my tablet to have the reference at the left of my canvas. Now my eyes just need to flip slightly as I draw.
I also noticed I spent time "looking for brushes", so I adjusted my shortcuts to select the only two brushes I use, now I can switch between them with a single key press at my finger (I bought a keypad, pretty cheap, and helps keep shortcuts at hand.
Just a step back, analyze how you go at things, and see if you can adjust something. If it works, you keep doing it, if not, maybe try something else.
I really don't think Marc means tracing. Tracing in general is not well viewed, and though I believe it does have a place in learning, it easily becomes a crutch if practiced frequently.
What I personally do at time for copies is use a variation of a grid to keep proportions more accurate, something like this:
Here's an example I did recently:
But still, only for the basic construction, afterwards I remove the grid and try to copy through observation (which is why I ended up going outside of the rulers a bit, most noticeable in the hair)
That's only for when I'm doing copies, usually I'll try to use the original as just a reference.
Granted, many will prefer to just go by observation and do construction on their own, which is also great practice.
Overall keep in mind the objective is to "observe" and "absorb" what the artist is doing. How he works his lines, how he constructed and ties around the different elements like muscles, clothes and so on. Tracing will usually not get you this benefit, as you are basically painting over without much consideration for what goes into "building" the fundamentals used.
Hope that makes sense.
Day 5!
Perspective assignment 1 & 2 were great! I remember in middle school art class, we had to write our names in perspective once, so I tried it again and boy the "B" was HARD but definitely fun
For the 1 minute gesture drawings, at the start was difficult, I had to get used to drawing the form on top of also doing the stick figures, but got used to it after I stopped worrying about making it look perfect. Definitely had fun as I got into the groove