Gordon - Art School Journey (Term 3)

[Gordon003]

Sprint Review #2 (16/1/23 - 29/1/23)

Already the end of January this year... my god, time has passed when you continued to practice and not realised the time!

I only had 1 week of work since I was on a slight work holiday. On that holiday, I meet another art friend @kaobara as we mainly chat not just on art and our interest but the challenges and mentality of doing and progressing in art. Even though we chat on Discord, it was noice to chat face-to-face; a thing highly valued due to COVID past.

Anyway, Here are the following update.

Update

Gesture Drawing

After looking over my numerous amount of gesture drawing, I feel that even I got the flow, my line economy is... not good to say the least. I draw way too many strokes to represent the same line which results in a very messy sketches. I still consider it expressive but I knew I'm not thinking before drawing.

I had a look on Proko video on gesture and understood I should keep it simple and avoid using too much line (KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid). I took note and draw along with Proko and instantly noticed how his style is more relaxing and more thinking than just raw power and repetitive drawing.

So yeah, my main focus will be focusing on my line economy by forcing myself to draw max 2 line to represent the same line.

Proko Gesture Study

Facial Anatomy

Studied more on eye and other features. It has been some long time but I really feel I have past facial anatomy in term 2. Yes, my shading needs a lot of work but that's a different medium I can worry about in another time.

Just one more sprint and I can finally look at Perspective (II) in Term 2 without worrying about my facial anatomy.

Shading

Didn't do much practice on shading but I'm currently reading Scott Robertson's book "How to Render" which I bought last year. Very interested in how sunlight works and cast shadow. Will continue to read more on his book.

Cartoon Work

Currently working on car commission where I was asked to joined in my friend's commission as she has trouble drawing cars in cartoon style. So far so good.

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Study and take note on Mouth Anatomy (Once and for all)
2. Continue practice on Shading by reading Scott Robertson's book "How to Render"
3. Continue to do 3 facial whole piece (without shading) per week
4. Work on line economy for my gesture drawing

Thx for reading and here to a new year! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!

[AlexZoinks]

Breaking art down into sprints (Agile, I'm assuming) is interesting - what made you think of that?

[Gordon003]

I work in the technology sector and one of the main team challenge is to know who's working where and what in both short term (e.g. 2 weeks) and long term (e.g. 3 months). Using Agile allows us to do this efficiently.

For individual, you don't need to use all of the concept of agile. For me, I only use Sprint Backlog (List of stuff I want to do), Sprint Retrospective (how do I go and what to improve) and the points (How much work is there).

Now, it's important to note that I don't think it works for most people. I had experience working in this methodology in the team; beginners may be confused on some concept usefulness (e.g. points allocated). It may not work for me too but I aim to experiment and this is one approach I'm trying compared to a normal weekly schedule I did last year... which didn't went well.

Here's there for more info on sprints and agile if you are interested. HMU here or Discord if more question. Thx!
https://www.amazon.com.au/Scrum-Jeff-Sutherland/dp/038534645X

[Gordon003]

Sprint Retrospective #3 (30/1/23 - 12/2/23)

Another sprint down and another review required to see what went well and what didn't.

I enforced more Sprint methodologies as I implement Sprint Retrospective where:

• What went well?
• What could be better?
• Improvement to consider?

Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work

Mouth Anatomy

The last part of facial anatomy in Term 2. But this time, I have finally understood and confident enough to progress without the need to keep going back due to lack of understanding.

Shading via Scott Robertson's book

I have finished reading and taking note of Chapter 2 of his book which covers Light Types and Casting Shadows from both Sunlight and Local Light Source.

Next Chapter is Rendering Geo Form but I want to practice on Chapter 2 concept for the time being.

Facial Anatomy Practice

Now I have adequate understanding of key facial anatomy, I'm more focused on practice overall face. Still not doing shading and rather more focused on face plane atm.

Got feedbacks regarding about some facial placement which is expected.

Line Economy in Gesture Drawing

Although I haven't done much gesture drawing, I did put more emphasis on my line economy in my work as I noticed that I keep putting line down before I thought about it. You can see less messiness in my facial anatomy practice up above.

Latest 1 min gesture drawing

Other

Did 1 comm and nearly finish another car comm

Enrolled into Marco Bucci Course on Facial plane. So far has covered brow and cheek.

What could have gone better?

1. Perhaps more focus into practice than just keep consuming concept
2. Lack of improvement/adjustment to cartoon works

Improvement to make in next sprint

1. Practice more on non-TD style (from other artist?)

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Facial Anatomy Practice (3 Heads per week)
2. Complete 1 Cartoon Comm and other arts
3. Bucci Face Course - Jaw & Chin
4. Watch Brunet Video on Perspective 2

Thx for reading! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!

[Lockenheim]

I really like the construction on these facial features especially the eyes! Keep up the good work!

[Gordon003]

Work Done This Week (13/2/23 - 19/2/23)

Some of them are in work collaboration with @Sthingz

[Gordon003]

Sprint Retrospective #4 (13/2/23 - 26/2/23)

Another productive 2 weeks! Here we go into it...

Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work

Facial Anatomy

I was mainly working with @Sthingz as we are looking to practice and challenge ourselves on facial practice.

In the near future, I may look into doing the hair but atm, I still working on facial anatomy and key plane.

Also made a physical Loomis Head to help myself learn more on side.

Cartoon Comm

After some discussion, my first cartoon car commission has finally been done!

Next car is already started as I already sent my shape draft to the commissioner.

Facial Anatomy

Bucci Video on Jaw and Chin

Next Part - Underside and Nose

Brunet's Perspective

Haven't really practiced on perspective but made some notes on 3,4 and 5 point perspective. Next up is environmental perspective.

Other

Did a random TD personal art. Mixing TD and NFL.

What could have gone better?

1. Perhaps more practice on perspective via cartoon
2. More digital line art confidence

Improvement to make in next sprint

1. Work on digital line confidence (avoid chicken scratch)

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Facial Anatomy Practice (3 Heads per week)
2. Complete 1 Cartoon Comm
3. Bucci Face Course - Underside & Nose
4. Watch Brunet Video on Perspective 2 - Environmental Perspective

Thx for reading! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!

[snakker]

Great stuff, always love your cartoon work - the character has a lot of character XD

Bucci notes seem very practical. Do note on your constructions, the first one has the dorsal nose plane facing us and is off perspective and in the second one, be placing the nostril off the nostril line it seems the nose is tilted to the side of the figure’s midline contour

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

[Gordon003]

noted. recent facial drawing shows the lack of focus on construction phase before adding particular details. Will be focusing more on construction phase. Thx for your word on the nose!

[alwaysneedsleep]

Love the flow and energy of your sketches @gordon003, doesn’t look stiff at all. Good stuff!

[Gordon003]

@alwaysneedsleep Wish I can translate that to digital sketches

Much appreciated with your kind words!

[Gordon003]

Sprint Retrospective #5 (27/2/23 - 12/3/23)

Allo! Back from another 2 weeks and I have to say, this has been an hectic 2 weeks mentally as some face-to-face chat with non-art colleagues force me to re-evaluate not just on my art hobby but also my ambition and future career.

As a result, I haven't really done much art study wise. But sometime, you need a conversation with other people (especially face-to-face) to really reshape your perspective and current outlook.

My conversation with other non-art people

I had a conversation with one of my work colleague for a whole night when we start discussing on our hobby/side-interest. For me, I obviously said my drawing hobby (well it's that or procrastination) and I show both my drawing and cartoon work on paper and digitally.

Impressed (Despite the fact that I rambled on the obvious mistake I make), he asked me if I want to further my art hobby and potentially consider it as a career to which I answer no. My colleague has a particular interest he loves to do and said he want to pursue this before he gets any older and regrets not doing more about it.

Even though I'm younger than my colleague, it does question me on whether I may regret not taking art seriously enough to make it a career given how much energy I devoted to it ever since I started art school. I may argue my art passion is slightly more than technical passion but my technical skill surpass my art skill in every way.

So even though I'm confident and happy enough to continue working in technology field, may I regret to not devote that passion to art? That's something I has to ask myself for the next 2 months minimum.

Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work

Facial Anatomy

Began to trace head plane to force myself to look at construction at the end of drawing.

Now some are constructed in the wrong way and that's fine because it shows I'm willing to make mistake and fix it up to improve. If you can see particular trait among them all, make a comment!

Cartoon Comm

Still working on 2nd car cartoon comm

Bucci Video on Underside and Nose

Didn't make much note on Nose as I have existing one from Proko but I did some random sketches while rewatching Bucci vid the 2nd time.

Next up - Mouth and Nose

Perspective (II)

Finished watching environmental perspective. Nothing much to note aside from these 2 points:
- The further the object is, the more blue tint appears on the object
- Object appears brighter proportional to distance from viewer.

Gonna have a look at perspective assignment in Perspective (II) by Brunet

Other

• Decide to do cartoon fashion study to work on flow and my weakness on expressive clothes.

What could have gone better?

• Need to stop using my earphone as I'm feeling slightly dizzy thx to extended usage of earphone. If I have to listen for some reason, I use my headphone instead.
• Still working on sleep schedule as I want to maintain 7-8 hours from 11pm, not 2am lmao.
• Be more confident with lineart and construction as I spent too long fixing up during lineart stage.

Improvement to make in next sprint

• Stop using earphone in both work and art
• Sleep schedule -> 12am to 7:30am

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Facial Anatomy Practice (3 Heads per week)
2. Complete 1 Car Comm
3. Bucci Face Course - Mouth and Ear
4. Watch Brunet Video on Perspective 2 - Environmental Perspective
5. Continued on cartoon fashion art study

Thx for reading! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!

[Sthingz]

Good stuff! Your comms never fail to impress me. I appreciate you focusing on the construction of the head in your head studies. Also, I see you conducted some nose studies - this facial feature definitely has a lot of different planes to it. The paragraph you included in the beginning regarding your conversations with non-art people was very relatable as I would have loved to have taken art more seriously before. Anyhow, there's nothing we can do about the past, just the future. As you said, you are still pretty young, and so am I, so continue striving toward your dreams. So long as you are determined, you'll go places

[snakker]

Great stuff as always, it’s really cool how you write everything down
Career paths are definitely a very personal question to ask yourself so I don’t think I am in much of a position to really help there - that said, one thing that helps me is thinking of phrases said to me such as “do what makes you happy, and wealthy”. In the end though, not everyone has the privilege of choice, and sometimes there’s a lot more to it than that

As for critique, I must say I am not sure about this, but I think you make the side plane ellipses a bit too narrow. At the initial construction phase I think the minor axis of the ellipse would reach the angle of the eyebrow to help aid the construction and measuring of the features - though you clearly show knowledge of the “thickness” of that area so o ce you place the lines and start building you will know the actual side contour of the face with the temporal region and muscle go behind it

I also totally agree with the other commenter about construction first features second, trying to be as on point in proportions and base construction goes a long way in helping male the portrait - but we are blessed with a forgiving medium in digital thanks to liquify lasso and transform. The other thing that I realized is drawing over smudging. In both traditional and digital I will sometimes avoid erasing and just draw lightly, get proportions and constructions initially sketched, smudge and correct smudge and correct and move on to shading

Cheers!

[Gordon003]

Few things to note

• That's the main point of sprint retrospective. Write/Say everything we have done/learnt this sprint and evaluate how to use/learn from it in the near future
• I think I may need to rephrase my question to "Will my future self regret my current self not doing art as a career?" In other word avoid this scene. XD

• That's an interesting take on my side plane ellipses. I'm still disputing myself on the side plan construction which is why I made a physical Loomis head in the first place. I will definitely focus and worry more on construction than refinement phase.
• I think smudging is alright for study purpose as I done it to feel the movement/flow more than once. That's fine for cartoon but for facial drawing, that's a different story and something I need to work on more - light sketching. Thx for highlighting that.

As always, thx for your feedback @snakker !

[Gordon003]

Sprint Retrospective #6 (13/3/23 - 26/3/23)

Compared to last 2 weeks, this 2 weeks is much more work in my job as my manager was on leave for those 2 weeks; forcing me to answer some question and manage particular tasks which involves me connecting and discussing with multiple co-workers. As a result, I hardly spent some time on my art work but alas, let go.

Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work

Facial Anatomy

Didn't do a lot aside from some Loomis head construction practice.
May aim to do facial gesture drawing (1 or 2 mins practice)

Car Comm

So this is a kinda funny story as there was some miscommunication between me, my art friend and the art commissioner. After some discussion on Discord, we later realised that he wanted the car in a different perspective!

I eventually said we need to restart everything again as it's impossible to fix the current art to the car angle he wanted. Oh well, back to square one.

Bucci Face Course

Didn't have the time to study and practice on mouth and eye so move onward to next sprint.

Brunet Perspective (II)

Watched the final part of Brunet Perspective (II) which is environmental perspective. As far as I know:

• Blue tint intensifies the further the distance are due to blue colour which dispels quicker than other colour.
• Object appear brighter with distance

As much as I want to do the assignment, I decide to postpone and focus more on finishing facial anatomy and continuing with cartoon study.

Cartoon Fashion Art Study

Focusing more on construction as I force myself to draw multiple straight lines for human figure rather than a single curve line. Curve line is good for gesture/dress flow but not so for construction IMO.

Other

Had a go at anime face construction. It was kinda fun.

What could have gone better?

Given the work situation and also the fact that I was working in my state election on Saturday, i can forgive myself for not doing a lot of art on the past 2 weeks.

Improvement to make in next sprint

• Putting more energy on gesture rather than do deliberate practice to focus more on practicing my understanding

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Facial Anatomy Practice (3 Heads per week)
2. Restart that Car Comm
3. Bucci Face Course - Mouth and Ear (Back)
4. Continued on cartoon fashion art study

Thx for reading! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!

[Pauline_art]

I love the shape language! The contrast between angular and curved edges creates appealing silhouettes!!

[snakker]

Yo great work as always.

About your practice while doing heads vs gestures/cartooning. I don't know how fast you draw or how loose, so assumptions could be made, but I recommend slowing down a bit on heads when adding features. Ears for example, unlike gestures, I don't think would require showing a lot of dynamism and strength in the line, and when adding multiple lines on top of each other, if they are not accurate, make fuzzy lines that are distracting. I feel a more controlled, slow, measured approach is more appropriate for adding details. I could be reading wrong into this, but I feel it has to do with how the force method works and though it works great in your gestures and adding life to poses, I don't think it would do you any favors when drawing more rigid constructions and delicate features

cheers

[Gordon003]

@Pauline_art thx for the kind words! That's definitely my aim on that sprint - curve vs straight line to create interesting shape

@snakker I see what you mean as I struggle with finer detail after doing the major construction. (e.g. gesture, big shape). Also, I do go slightly too quick which results in me drawing the same line multiple times. Line efficiency is definitely something I need to work.

FORCE wise, i feel FORCE is more about feeling than drawing at all. For me, I don't do FORCE drawing and then place finer detail upon (e.g. muscle). I use it to feel key areas which allows me to place more emphasis on interesting feature (e.g model bending so focus on the torso)

[Gordon003]

Sprint Retrospective #7 (27/3/23 - 9/4/23)

Allo. Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a productive art study the past 2 weeks! I'm mostly certainly didn't due to more workload in my job (so much fun lmao!). Anyway, let get going...

Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work

Facial Anatomy Practice

Didn't do as much as I hope to due to much workload and Easter Holiday; especially head gesture. Nevertheless, I did some regardless; though I aim to do more in the upcoming sprint.

Also re-go on facial anatomy practice digitally, using @Sthingz reference

That's also something else I want to work on.

Also, thx to @Sthingz, I have started reading Loomis book "Drawing the Heads and Hands", starting with Chapter 1 on Male's Head. I finished with Plate #1 - 5 so far. Here are my summary so far:

• Plate #1 - The cranium is a ball with flattened side. The centre of the ball is established by its axis (horizontal axis representing brow line while vertical represents middle of face).
• Plate #2 - The cross of the face is the intersection between those 2 axis. This helps determine the angle and rotation of ball.
• Plate #3 - Practice on setting up the ball and facial plane. Construction Construction Construction
• Plate #4 - Place facial feature (e.g. nose) AFTER ball construction. Facial features will only look good if placed correctly in line with construction line.
• Plate #5 - Think of skull as framework of the head construction.

Car Comm

No progress at all due to other work taking more priority than this. Will aim to contact commissioner and artist friend on what to do next.

Bucci Face Course

Not much progress there too. Though I did watch and make some digital notes on mouth anatomy. Much more to come in the upcoming sprint.

Cartoon Fashion Art Study

Others

Yo great work as always. About your practice while doing heads vs gestures/cartooning. I don't know how fast you draw or how loose, so assumptions could be made, but I recommend slowing down a bit on heads when adding features. Ears for example, unlike gestures, I don't think would require showing a lot of dynamism and strength in the line, and when adding multiple lines on top of each other, if they are not accurate, make fuzzy lines that are distracting. I feel a more controlled, slow, measu…

This is something worth noting. Ever since I started gesture drawing, I have noticed that I'm going faster and faster which is good... and also bad. As @snakker said, that gonna makes a messy and distracting drawing; no matter if it's a sketch or not. I wholeheartedly agreed as I feel sometime that my hand is moving quicker than my mind is deciding for the hand.

The gesture drawing will continue in order to exercise my hand for upcoming art session but for other session; especially anatomy detail session; I have to make sure that I stop if my mind is completely blanking and yet my hand is still moving like crazy.

Luckily, Proko has published a video on having and maintaining good luck quality. This is something I need to track on for multiple sprints.

What could have gone better?

More consistency to setup art study habits. I have finished listening to an audiobook called "Atomic Habit" by James Clear who details steps on how to create, build and refine our existing and new habit we desire. More to come about in next sprint.

Improvement to make in next sprint

Focus on setting up the following habit:

• Digital Gesture Drawing (1 min)/ Head Paper Sketch (2 min) Drawing every morning (10 times)
• Quick Cartoon Fashion Sketch every night (30 mins)

Sprint Goals towards the next 2 weeks

1. Facial Anatomy Practice (2 Heads per week)
2. Restart that Car Comm (Continued)
3. Bucci Face Course - Mouth and Ear (Continued)
4. Cartoon fashion art study
5. Loomis Head Text Read (Chapter 1)
6. Track on hand vs mind movement (Avoid drawing too fast)

Thx for reading! And of course, I'm open to any feedback!