Krafts - Art School Journey

[Nekotator]

Hey all!

I go by Krafts these days (yes, original I know).

Bear with me because I am challenged when it comes to forums (hopefully I am doing this correctly). Also I decided that after three months on term 1, I should start posting something (the thing I conveniently ignore on Marc's suggested study schedule).

Not much for intros, but put simply: I am your doodling/hobbyist artist that decided to level up from the horror stick figures and occasionally well-drawn art she has to hopefully make enough progress on a professional level.
I dropped art for a VERY long time due to personal reasons and well, after learning a tough lesson, I am now deciding to focus on it 100% now.

I also have these panel scripts for an amerimanga/stylized comic that I have been jolting down for about 2ish years or so and am looking to create something out of it (even if it just concepts or illustrations for fun).

So overall:
- I am challenged on social media updates and forums so....hopefully I am going to cure that habit.
- I am going to go as intense as I physically can on the art studies because I would like to reach a self-taught pro level (cartoon/stylized ideals mostly). With hard work and determination, one can hope, right?
- I have some wips and the lot but I am also very shy and anxious about posting them online and am very very slow in drawing.

Now that the block of text is done: onto the assignments!

Looking forward to chatting with you all!

[Nekotator]

Okay so I believe replying is the correct way to work this...Right? Right (she says).

Anyways...
I am going to post the pen control first and the rest of the Photoshop assignments I did. I have yet to touch the Liquify ones yet.

[Nekotator]

Next is the Photoshop Pictures Mix assignment.
And yes that is a "dream house" to me: being a witch in the middle of nowhere with cats, magic, and a passion to bore travelers with tea, cookies, and mundane tales about dragons stealing plushies.

And the Apples Assignment

I have never used Photoshop before so this took a while but never again will I underestimate the power of this program.

Finally the adjustment assignment.

Which I think I can do better on but unsure how yet.

Also I figured that I can post multiple pictures in one forum post .
That's it for Photoshop (for now).

I'll add the anatomy term 1 assignments later in the day, because sleep is needed.

[mau.wamp]

Heyho and welcome, Krafts!
Thanks for sharing your introduction and first assignement with us!
Really excited to see another motivated new forum member around!
Cheers,
Mau

[Nekotator]

Thanks Mau !
Looking forward to the rest of the process and hope I can contribute somehow.

[Nekotator]

Allrighty so posting my anatomy Term 1 assignments (ranges from beginning of May to beginning of August). I am only posting the works where I think progress is happening over time. The rest I usually erase because hard drive space is limited and papers will be everywhere.

So for start, this is how I did (pre-artschool) my tracings over reference so Marc's method wasn't unfamiliar.

Then I followed his "simplified" forms traced over references with the cylinder practice (not included).
After about 1-2 weeks of this and cylinders, I felt comfortable moving along to the "routine" practice : trace, reference, full figure study, with gestures implemented as much as possible.

[Nekotator]

So the TRF (trace, reference, figure) routine from May to today (August 12th):

Here is my progress for tracing and referenced figures daily exercises (about one week interval between each 2 pictures starting from the top)

And here are my full figure studies . I was playing around with smudging around June since it felt a lot like pencil sketching and I also wanted to incorporate light studies but I heard that that should be avoided?
I was also relying on the grid method before dropping it for only measurement in June.


End of July Progress Figure study (at this point I use construction lines and measurements only).

And this one is the latest I chose in week 1 of August for progress assessment.

So that's the whole shabang on the full figure studies over a 3 months span.

[Nekotator]

Also my proportions exercises and gesture studies:

For proportion: it went from no confidence, keep everything as similar to Marc's video as possible (it's not like I don't know where stuff goes in general but anatomy scares me) to okay do this your way, via memory and your simplified skeleton.

Therefore how it went:
Versus how it is going:
Now I can spot a lot of mistakes still (like the poor dude's legs for example) but I am going to say that I am happy that I could do this from memory and "accept" the risks of mistakes. I don't have much confidence and am my own worst harsh critic when it comes to my learning process so this was a huge boost in confidence.

Finally Gesture Drawings:
I needed a min and panicked constantly all while resisting the strong urge to erase (the urge won several times).

June's work got lost because it was on paper...so July it is. I know I wrote 1min but I was fluctuating between 1min and 45 secs. Much more comfortable.
I am now in August and decreasing the time. So these are at 45secs and 30secs respectively. Always trying to focus on the flow and action more than the rest.

And that is it for now ! Hopefully it wasn't too much of a drag.
I may (or may not) be posting Perspective Term 1 (which has been and still is a challenge for me , ...drawabox helps...I think.).

Otherwise I am considering moving to Term 2 on the anatomy part. Let me know what you all think.

[mau.wamp]

Those all look very good!
But as you said, its a lot of stuff and I cant really look through everything to provide feedback. You might want to also post the practises where you have a particular question or really need feedback for, so we can concentrate on 1-2 things in order to help you out!
Thats especially the case for challenging topics (like perspective 1! ) and yes, drawabox is super helpful for this module
keep up the good work, Krafts!

[yaigrie]

For me perspective is the biggest problem as well. I also think about delaying that one until I'm confident with the things I actually want to learn (i.e. character and animal drawing), buuut as Marc said in one of his streams (I believe), you need a bit of perspective for that as well.

I love your squares of family friendliness :'D
And it's impressive that you did that 3 month grind!
very inspiring patience! Thank you for sharing!

[Nekotator]

Allright today is perspective according to the schedule (me thinks).

And after doing cubes and more cubes and boxes (drawabox) and more boxes...so many boxes. I got fed up with boxes.

So I am shooting for the room and mama the pain is visible.

Also unsure why my brain thought it would be a great idea to start with the back of the room, instead of the front.....Even on different layers, this is going to be a pain.

Oh well. Keep pushing, I will.

[Nekotator]

And just cause I needed a break from this (heh the excuse), here are some WIPs.

Too many details on the corals. Took forever. I really needed to simplify more.

Which hopefully won't end up in the never-ending WIPs pile...Hold me to it guys: I am not allowed to forgo these now that they are posted.

[Nekotator]

Thank you for the post!
And yes, perspective is...perspective. It's like my brain gets the rules, the lines, and the whole lecture, but my eyes are just "cross-eyed".
I am guessing it will get better with practice.
And I love that I inspired you with "patience" because to be frank I am the entire opposite...
Thanks again!

[Nekotator]

Thanks for the feedback on the posting! And the encouragement!
I'll stick to 1-2 posts a day on what challenges me most or what I finish instead of a "list" if it makes it easier for others.
I am doing drawabox at the same time than Art School so I am glad to see you also think it will be helpful for term 1 and concurrent terms.
Box 201 here I come.

[Nekotator]

Some progress on the perspective room but I am so slow at it.

I know that practice increases speed but I am wondering what else could help as well. More simplification probably.

Let me know what you guys think.

[Nekotator]

It's late and I couldn't sleep so I did some anatomy.

It's not my best but it was good practice. I went faster on it too (2 hours instead of 4 hours) since I wanted to increase speed and see if I would lose too much.
One thing for sure: I am practicing hands and feet.

Also thinking of attacking term 2 in anatomy for certain now, so first thing in the morning.

[Nekotator]

Been feeling under the weather which got the best of me these past few days but back to practice.
Been listening to lectures in the meantime and practiced as much as I physically could.

Perspective room is still going along but still so slow....have no idea where I am going to put the second chair for that desk or how, yet....

WIP, but I am using it for color theory practice... still a lot of work on shading and it's uhm, yeah, that background would make a 5 year old probably happy, maybe? ... let's go to the next set of assignments.

Going to keep practicing those forms, but it's something.

Back to the perspective room I go.

[Nekotator]

So life, and health royally kicked my butt in the last three months, and while the idea and motivation was to draw everyday, the physical reality was that I barely managed to get up and eat or drink everyday so art was under the rug for a bit. I feel like I blinked in August and next thing I know I am close to November.
Back after that, taking the advice on the Discord to finish unfinished works and get back in the grind/continue where I left off. Hopefully, I haven't lost all the progress I had originally made.

Anyways...

Some selected exercises from the digital sketchbook: portraits, (part of) the 100 heads, feet /hands, and imagination gestures.

The room (I inflicted this horror on myself, I will see it through):

One character concept I am working on.

I just would like to know if the guy looks like he is the same person side view and facing forward?

My completed lineart of a Bottled Chibi:

Clothes folding are a challenge.

That's all for now.

[Kosmonaut]

Glad to hear that your feeling better, and health is more important than art. great studies and practices for the character I would say they look the same in both side facing and front-facing. keep up the good work and progress!

[Nekotator]

I can't "like" posts for some reason now (getting a "500 internal server error") and just wanted to say thank you for the encouragements and feedback on the character.