Josue - Art School Journey

Hello everyone,

My name is Josue (Ho-sway) from the U.S. and I just started art school this week, although, I bought it almost a year ago. I just came back from deployment (reserves) and bought it before I left with the idea to semi-progress through it while away, however, I was one of the individuals moved around the most and realized it was just better to use a sketchbook and pencil/pen with some books. I told myself that I would start art school shortly after returning and push myself to post on the forums too.

I'm 31 years old and always had the dream of being an artist in the back of my head. Anytime I play games or watch anime, I think how fantastic it would be to work on one or have my own world to build. However, I came from a family that steered my away from it and pursue a "stable" career. I tried to take drawing seriously in the past while active military and it was always a rough time due to my old MOS (11B for those who know what it is.) However, while on this deployment I finally realized that an artistic career is what will make me truly happy in life and that I wasn't too old (I used to tell myself that to justify it all.)

My long-term goal is to be able to do be freelance and design my own world similar to RossDraws.

Here is a random sketch from the anime "Gangsta" that I did while on deployment.

Here are the first two assignments from Term 1:

I struggled with assignment 2, especially the level corrections and would gladly accept any advice.

@nodiern @Lockenheim, I appreciate the warm welcomes and advice! I've actually watched your thread for a while @Lockenheim before deployment, just rarely posted if ever.

As for now, I've decided that I'm going to do a "weekly round-up" sort of deal each Sunday to outline what I've attempted, practiced, and accomplished each week to hold myself accountable. For now, on-top of the first two term 1 assignments I've done some action lines, cylinders, cylinders over photos, and attempted a color study. I've learned from each one and plan to apply that knowledge going forward.

Example Work:

For this week's update, I've practiced cylinders, cylinders over photos, cylinders next to photos, gestures, and the 8-head proportion grid. Additionally, I've completed 3 out of 4 videos in term one and will take a two-week break just focusing on practice before moving to the next term.

My main goal was the 8-head proportion grid and I wanted to show my first 3 attempts. While they're all far from perfect, I was happy about the progress from 9/8 to 9/10. The first try on 9/8 was watching the video and trying to go along (took forever with constant pausing). The 2nd attempt on 9/9 was watching the video for X amount of time, pausing, then drawing to catch up. The final attempt for this week on 9/10 was based off imagination and attempting to remember the information.

I learned a lot this week about proportions and the rough idea of where certain parts land and that's always been a major weakness of mine. I always unconsciously end up trying to do a 1-for-1 in line size when trying to do a study in the past (like the sketchbook drawing), which causes the study to be incorrectly sized or for it to take forever. My plan going into week 3 is to organize my daily exercises and reduce certain exercises like cylinders and cylinders over photos. I've done about 100 cylinders and 100 cylinders next to photos (10 each time) and feel comfortable with the shape and how to read basic muscle flow. It's time to rotate them out and do them about once or twice a week to keep it fresh and make room for other exercises. My focus this upcoming week will probably be perspective, 8-head proportion grid, the full reference, and gestures.

Cheers and as usual, any and all criticism will be highly appreciated.

@prinzmoana thank you for the compliment! and thank you for your advice in your own thread about gestures, I tried to actively try being looser with my gestures and starting with the shoulders after the line of action helped me out a bit as you'll see below. Nothing to write home about, but definitely progress for me.

@Lockenheim thank you! you too! as I'm always keeping an eye on your thread for motivation. I've done a bunch of cylinders at this point, so I put them on the back burner and started moving to other exercises.

Now, good morning everyone! (8:30 AM for me) it's time for my weekly update after studying for some certifications early in the morning. This week (week 3), saw a lot of perspective practice! I finished the last video for term 1 back on Thursday (I watch them Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1 HR 30 MIN to 2 HR) and will take this entire week off from videos and fill in that space with extra practice time from term 1 subjects and will kick off term 2 next Monday.

I set a bunch of small goals for myself practice-wise in my notion page and use it as a way to get a ton of practice in while moving through them and doing them once in a while after they're completed to keep the skill sharpened. That can be seen below:

Otherwise, here is a bunch of things I did this week for practice!

I can't upload the convergence lines, vanishing points, and horizon exercises I did as I just googled photos and used them at full resolution. However, I did about 10 of them this week.

Hope everyone is making progress in their own art journey!