Glitch - Art School Journey

asteriacomic 2025-08-15 06:18:27 UTC #1

Hey folks. I've been having a go at this 'art' thing for quite a few years now, on and off as life's challenges got in the way. Eventually I just hit a point where I went, "Look, this learning on my own via youtube tutorials thing isn't cutting it anymore and I can't stand one more anatomy video."

And so, here I am. Trying to take a swing at it from a more structured path. I have some experience in both 3d and 2d work, but I can do better. I spend a lot of time trying to work on personal projects, so I think balancing that, this course, and the rest of life will probably be the biggest challenge.

For the sake of tracking progress, here's a few things I've done over the past 5 years:

JimSt 2025-08-16 14:45:03 UTC #2

Welcome to the forums!
You look to have a solid start and I look forward to seeing how you progress throughout the program!

asteriacomic 2025-08-17 09:00:56 UTC #3

Fight the good fight... I did end up connecting the dots and doing pressure practice several times.

Something about the angle I hold my pen and the way it sort of 'creaks' and shifts to the next pressure level... maybe I need to shift the way I hold my pen. I rarely use a bunch of force, I usually use very light pressure for everything. Less than 50% as per my pen pressure settings.

But onwards we go. One thing at a time!

JimSt 2025-08-17 11:58:24 UTC #4

Nice!
Angle: Good self observation. That will come in handy as you progress. In addition to pressure, there are other angles (of holding the pen, of moving their arm, of angling their paper/canvas/tablet/etc) that people are most accustom to. People tend to be better at "pulling" or "throwing" certain strokes too. Explore that and find where yours is and learn to expand it and get better at the different ways, as you hone your preferred angles.

For what it's worth, I do about 5-10min at the start of my sessions basically doing a freeform version of those sheets: fill a layer with freehand circles (use the whole arm, not just the wrist) and sometimes ellipses, a layer of straight lines (sometimes trying to connect the dots in a quick smooth stroke, other times just quick parallel movements), and a layer of S and C curves. All of which working on controlling my pressure through the strokes. I find it a great way to warm-up and focus my mind on what I'm getting ready to do.

asteriacomic 2025-08-18 01:11:20 UTC #5

Thanks for the feedback!

I typically use about a page on my canvas with warmups as well. C and S curves, several horizontal and vertical lines, drawing repeated lines between 2 points, circles, squares, triangles, a few loose lines as close together as I can get them without touching, at least one pen pressure exercise ( small -> large ), and usually one boxy object I see on my desk in perspective. Trying to warm up all those little cogs in my brain and arm.

Regarding angles: I do have 'favorite' angles ( from bottom left -> top right is very easy ), but varying the angle that I hold the pen would definitely be new to me. I think that's just dexterity I haven't built, and I don't want to enter the 'clamp the pencil like a toddler would' grip because I don't think I can get much out of that.

asteriacomic 2025-08-18 02:55:09 UTC #6

At this point I'm just writing notes to myself as I go. Hue/Saturation was... okay. I was a bit off.

Levels/Curves - I tried one tool for each picture. Getting those midtones to not blur together in the b/w picture with just levels was... tough.

Color balance was a huge struggle for me. And I had a ton of notes about the final piece, but I struggled with it for an hour and felt a bit like I was trying to get a fitted sheet on a bed. Fix one part and another part doesn't look right anymore, so I settled for the result you see here.

JimSt 2025-08-18 20:01:45 UTC #7

There are some brushes that use Tilt, so it's like using the edge of a pencil vs the tip of it. Can get some cool gestural effects using it that way (if your tablet/pen has tilt)

asteriacomic 2025-08-23 10:26:59 UTC #8

I took a little pause to go do Term 7's Enhanced Learning segment, and then I went back to photoshop for digital prod's assignments... and missed that I was supposed to 1) Be doing digital prod assignment 1 daily. Oops! And 2) that I was maybe supposed to do the nude drawings assignment before this. Second oops! I got a bit turned around.

So, a little earlier than the study sheet says: Term 1, Week 2, Photoshop for Digital Prod Assignment 3. Source images + result. This one was a bit of a doozy.

I do not know what I was thinking with the random mesa. I suspect the error there is that's the one where I moved the horizon, and the perspective gets a bit wonky as a result.

Result:

Sources:

https://media.istockphoto.com/id/598237910/photo/monument-valley-west-thumb-arizona.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=vkTjVtvDzHhJV2WJ7HttfmUe2cDoJMgx4Fut9OInwqY=
https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1078823062/photo/amazing-mountains-of-the-atacama-desert.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=RLPp7YB77j2VWiRP7stWpNA7u8tELHEHMe9pkgK6prE=
https://as1.ftcdn.net/jpg/01/82/32/24/1000_F_182322465_g21dYTeaUiIHmwfkG6o4UqsIl52uj6cG.jpg
https://gratisography.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/gratisography-234H-free-stock-photo-1170x780.jpg

Next up, stepping backwards to go do Nude Figure Drawing & start doing the daily pen control exercises. Normally I do a few of my own warmups and exercises anyway, but... this. I will go back to doing this. Yipee.

Nosnibor 2025-08-29 13:32:16 UTC #9

Welcome to the forums, goodwork so far : ) Your connect the dots linework looks great

asteriacomic 2025-08-30 23:52:20 UTC #10

Week 2 stuff. I've been doing the nude figure drawing practice separately but it's a ton of images so, not much to post. Skeletons be skeletoning.

I do not get how the example for liquify got the lips to look like that. I guess I lost the 'white' part on the original image on the lips. CSP has quite a few liquify brushes so I messed around a bit. I think using those other various brushes caused some smearing, but a better eye shape on the right.

asteriacomic 2025-08-31 21:16:44 UTC #11

Week 3's warmups. Pressure dexterity is about to become my arch rival.

I do feel pretty good about color blending though, I like that part.

edit:

Aaaand 30s gesture. Cripes. 27 tries. A lot to work on.

asteriacomic 2025-09-06 23:27:42 UTC #12

1 point perspective practice from term 1. Hopefully it does have that sense of scale I was gunning for. A semi futuristic 'mecha garage', about 40 feet tall.

Mistake I spotted after finishing: I didn't measure the height of the desk and I should've, it looks too tall.

A friend said something is messing with his sense of scale looking at this and so it doesn't quite look right to him? I wonder if anyone else feels that way or if there's something more I can do to improve this?

I think I should've put in a little guy here or there maybe since even the cabinets are 8 feet tall - tall for normal cabinets.

At any rate, that's 1 point perspective done. I might skip the 2 point perspective one, since I feel pretty confident about perspective already. Maybe. Maybe not. I need to go back and do the 5 lineart copies as well but gesture and I do not get along.

asteriacomic 2025-09-12 02:31:00 UTC #13

Aoyama Tsuruko from Akamatsu Ken's 'Love Hina' - lineart copy 1. Cripes, these are tough. Hopefully I can get a little faster, these take foreeeeever. A few discrepancies for sure ( head tilt, sword angle, a few other things ), but eeeeeh. At some point you just have to put it down and go "Good enough."

asteriacomic 2025-09-13 05:21:34 UTC #14

Little break to do something for myself.

I decided to take it easy and just get something out there. I ignored a lot of my anatomy knowledge, and just sent it, which was honestly a little liberating. I could've pushed the pose a lot more, but it's already pushed more than I would've before so this is what we call improvement.

Nosnibor 2025-10-15 13:03:23 UTC #15

Cool work so far

I need to do stuff like this more myself : )