Went for a 10k walk today with my beloved one. Tall cliffs and the oceans are good for the soul. Being tired and making myself do more this evening is a good lesson in and of itself.

It's making me shred some of the meticulous perfectionism I restarted art with as I started this course a few days ago. I don't have as much time to faff with the assignments and so I am doing them faster. I want my learning to compound and solidify like layers upon layers of rock. So ... excellence and moving forward, never petrify in perfectionism. Excelsior!

The odd thing about this one is the age difference. I think the methods in the video are really tough to get such a young-looking man into such a mature one. I am very tired though so I'll hit the other one fresh tomorrow. Should have stopped after the apples ... another lesson learned. Non-tired eyes are better eyes.

Do you believe in life out there?

The alien face took a few attempts. I learned a couple of things worth noting for myself and others.

• Tackling one side then the other left my image unsymmetrical and grotesque. So when working on the large shapes of the face, such as the contours I did right then left and repeated in all areas until the big areas were fairly same-same.

• Only then did I tackle small details and even then mostly by clicking on and off the human layer occasionally going back to having it transparent. Flicking between the two. I found that otherwise, I was warping the alien layer too much.

I'l settle my attempt there unless anyone gives me feedback to the contrary as I feel I have the gist of the tool and I believe that is the point of this exercise.

On a personal note, I'm pleased with being back into photoshop every day and only having minor pain in my arm and back which seems to be dissipating by morning. So onward to the figure drawing. Very Very excited.

Catch you all in the morrow, and as always - much love.

Thanks. I'm glad I took the time to ease back in and it has fed the flame - I'm excited to make something everyday!

I hit the first figure drawing lesson today, I love the human form, it's a beautiful machine, wonderfully made.

Feel very much as if I've been training my eye to observe which feels satisfying and I'm expecting to sharpen that eye the more I dig into practice.

I feel pretty good about what I did today, I think the Pelvis box and hip joints could be more on target. That will come with practice.
The cylinders became smoother and easier as I did them and once I enter a flow, and stop overthinking the prominent angle comes easier.

Another good day with a pen. Much love.

Thank you kindly, I really enjoyed these - about to start some more. Hope you're good mate.

I hit the nude forms again today. I want to get myself familiarised with the lesson before I move on to the next part.

Pelvis boxes still elude me slightly. I have a lack of confidence in my ability to identify them clearly and know precisely what I am creating a box around. I think some study into the anatomy of that area will help a lot.

I've been thinking a lot about when one should move on to the next session.

Highly creative people seem to have two demons that whisper in their ears constantly when trying to progress and express themselves.

The first whispers "But is this one tiny part PERFECT though?" and the other whispers "Be FREE from form and structure! The rigid world contains your creative whims of genius! Spontaneity! Chaos! Follow these winds and divine inspiration!"

I think to truly harness the creative spark within us that begs to be expressed in manifest form (be it painting or some other form of consumable media) we need to know when to tell the one to shut the hell up and to demonstrate to the other that the chaos of the unsaid needs a word, pen, and page to harness it.

If we fixate on a perfect step then we'll never take the next one to learn the skills to express ourselves.
If we run in the wilderness with no boundaries to contain us then we'll have no road to direct us to our dreams.

Be encouraged at every step you take and don't pitch a tent too long in any one place in case you never start moving again. The road you are on is a structure to a dream you have. Go get it.

Decided to go further and deeper into the rabbit hole today.

I watched the male proportions part of the tutorial and then tried it with Marcs finished product next to me for reference.

It was okay and I was eager to move on (getting the dopamine hits from learning new skills) so I attempted to do it from memory right away.

I wanted to highlight the gaps in my memory so afterward, I did a paint-over with Marc's reference again and made some notes of what I needed to solidify in my grey matter.

I distilled that into what I considered lynchpins; 3 easily triggered things that would have a knock-on effect and would mean I didn't have to remember all the orange notes (just the green ones.)

The next two pics were again from memory.

I'm pleased with them, and I'm hoping it all gets filed into the long-term stacks in my archive (won't be letting any redheads with a candle in there ... wondering who gets that reference

)

When operating from memory I felt so loose and free. It was very much a pleasure to be drawing. I think I just got a taste of what working from a visual library feels like, the sense of flow and freedom was both relaxing and fulfilling.

And to make sure the previous part of the lesson is refined I got in some lines of action, head, shoulders, hips, and then cylinders.

I figured I'd push myself a little and tackle some overlapping bodies. I liked having to push my observance and think about them both in a 3D space.

Having understood the Pelvis in relation to the rest of the anatomy after the proportions exercise I tried circles instead of boxes. It clicked so much better.

One lesson compounds on another and it feels goooooooood.