Gibson - Art School Journey - Term 1

[Gibson]

Hi everyone, my name is Ken, I bought Marc's School because I have always had a passion for art and drawing but to be honest I haven't drawn anything since I was probably 13 years old. I'm now 45 and I just want to draw, and create. I love PC Games and the Art that is in them and I've always wanted to create great concept type art.
Who knows maybe I'm too old to get into this stuff now, maybe not, but I'm going to try and see where this course takes me.
So far I have done some of the Assignments in the Term 1.
I really don't know what to do first or how much to do.. I've watched all the videos in Term 1 so far and now I'm just doing Assignments every day for an hour or so that I have to do them. I saw Marc is coming out with a better Schedule so we can have a bit more focus on what and when we should be doing things.
So anyway here is some of my work that I have been doing.
Some Construction

Proportions

Gesture Drawing

Attempt at Free Hand

[alwaysneedsleep]

Welcome! Can’t wait to see your progress Ken!

[mitsuki-youko]

Welcome to the forums! i don't think anyone is ever too old to learn something in fact i've heard that so long as you're learning you're never really "old"

[Gibson]

Did some Proportion work before Bed It is looking better than my last try. I just really struggle with arms and calves.

[Gibson]

I can't wait to see it either! lol I feel so Excited to be on this journey and I have also noticed that drawing brings calm over me and everything just leaves my mind and it's just peaceful.

[Gibson]

Tell that to my Bones! lol Maybe one day I will be able to draw some strong healthy bones that don't ache every time they move haha!

[alwaysneedsleep]

Absolutely I know the feeling, it’s almost a trance, before you know if several hours have passed and you haven’t noticed.

[mitsuki-youko]

LMAO XD haha!

[strelok_2012]

Welcome to Art school Ken!

I'll say what a few others have said and that's you're never too old to learn new things.

Of things I'd suggest it would be line confidence. In the first exercise (pen control), try to draw lines in one continuous stroke. To further help with this, try ghosting your lines (hovering the pen over the tablet as you execute the line) to help with keeping it accurate.

Otherwise, you're doing quite well.

[Gibson]

Ya i seem to be doing the "sketching" thing because for some reason my pen strokes are always so light, I have the Opacity button off but still even when I press pretty hard the stroke is not dark enough so I end up going over it a few times.
I'm using a Wacom 22 Cintiq and Photoshop. Not sure what the issue is.
Like sometimes when I open the Brushes panel the Brushes are all Rounded or Square at the ends like this.

Then other times they are like this, and I'm not changing anything. It's just different every time I start PS up.

[Gibson]

Only had about an hour today but I stretched it to 2 because it's 11 pm lol.
I did some Hand Control and then some construction then on to some free hand proportion with reference work.
I really don't like calves and forearms nor hands lol.

[Gibson]

Just a bit of Sketching I did. I did some gesture drawing today and I just wasn't feeling it. I'm really bad with proportions obviously because i have no clue what im doing wrong with that, but I was getting frustrated a bit. I'm pretty sure it was because a LOT of the poses had foreshortening in them.

So then I went on to just free sketching and it calmed me a bit, tried drawing a couple heads then some shapes and my first try at some fingers.

[Gibson]

[julia_a_dunn]

When it's complicated it's easy, when it's simple we try to make it complicated to the point of frustration! I'm the same way

[Gibson]

I guess you're right. I want to Draw Heads using Loomis method but the Circle frustrates me so much, same with the Ellipse. Then I watch Marc or someone do it and their circles are unreal.

[alwaysneedsleep]

It is very frustrating for sure, just keep at the loomis method it will come to you. I’m not sure if you have an iPhone or iPad but I use headmodelstudio, I can give you a 3D model of the loomis head, simplified all the way up to more complex.

[Gibson]

I'm on a 22" Wacom Cintiq. I understand "how" to draw the loomis head, the issue is my Circles and ellipse's are not so great so the angle of the face always ends up wrong or fat on one side and flat on the other.
It's just a practice thing. I guess I need to just sit down and draw circles for 4 hours a day till it's just muscle memory lol.
Like for the Skull, I didn't construct it at all. I just looked at reference and started drawing.
I feel like when I use the Loomis my drawing doesn't look the way it would if I just drew what I see.

[Gibson]

[Gibson]

Well wanted to post something today, I worked on some construction, still trying to get proportions correct most of all.
I tried using the "Bean" method I saw on Proko and it kinda works for me more so than boxes for the rib cage and hips.
Then I tried some painting with shading and screwed the layers up and just stopped before I messed it up even more lol..
I'll try again tomorrow.

[Gibson]

Since the New Schedule is out now I'm so happy! I will be following that to the T. After doing the schedule I will be doing regular studies like gesture, construction and fun stuff like just drawing what comes to mind.
Day 1: New Schedule 3/11/23
Assignments
Daily Visual Communication 5 Minutes: I Studied Hands, because they are super hard for me.

Daily Pen Control: For some reason I think as I keep getting older, I'm 45 now, my Lines will get worse over time not better lol.

Daily Image Adjustments: My GOD! The last image took me over an hour, the first try I messed it up so bad I had to just go back in History and start over. It was hard but I figured it out as much as possible.

I'll post later today what other sketches I do.