Jul '23

Hii, I'm Natalie Viola, from Germany :smile:
I've been drawing forever on and off, I'm over 30 so at this point I don't really want to fixate too much on my age.
I'm working as a software developer but I would love to push my art further and eventually somewhat live from that. I know I'm late to the party but I've had this dream for forever and I really don't want to give up.
In the last years I kinda specialized on painting portraits, but it's gotten hard to leave my comfort zone, this is why I wanted to start Marc's Art School. I struggle with any kind of 3D space, and full-body drawings scare me to no end.

This is what I've been drawing in the last few months, before starting art school


I like the direction my art is taking, but at the same time, I feel stuck because I haven't done any kind of tutorials for a while now. So I'm very excited to be here and to see where this journey leads me :heart_eyes:

Jul '23

Term 1 - Week 1

circles are incredibly hard to draw, but that's not a big surprise :sweat_smile:
I mixed in some figure drawing exercises into the mix of week 1 because I wanted to get started with figures as soon as possible. I know that my cylinders could use some work, I'm very impatient when it comes to all those geometrical shape exercises [and I've done draw a box in the past...]
I'm very curious to see how the first 'free' figure exercises will treat me. I used to love gesture drawing but it's been a minute since I've done those.

Because of my job, I don't have that much time for art exercises, but I want to do at least 1 hour every day, whenever that's possible.

I don't know if I will post every exercise, but I want to track my progress with this course. I don't know if I will finish it though, I'm very good at finishing and abandoning all kinds of courses. But for now, I'm happy to be here!

Jul '23

Welcome Natalie! It is never too late to pursue your dreams.

I really like these pieces! Colors and gold/yellow accents

Can't wait to your progress!

Jul '23

Welcome!! Awesome looking pieces, looking forward to see your progress through the program. :smile:

Jul '23

Good to have ya, Natalie! I wouldn't sweat your age too much; you have your fair share of experience! I can't wait to see you continue to grow!

Jul '23

Reply to

natalie-viola

Welcome!
Take solace in knowing you are not the oldest person here haha.

Your circles don't look bad by any means. If I'm cleaning up a project and need really smooth curves I bump the smoothing up on my brush. As long as you don't use it all the time it shouldn't become a crutch.

Looking forward to your work!

Jul '23

welcome to the forums!! your art is really pretty! i love how it glows :smiley:

Jul '23

Welcome; your characters are excellent!

Jul '23

Thank you all for the warm welcome :heart:
It's definitely motivating to share the journey and also see the exercises and the progress of others :heart:

Term 1, Week 1 Finished

I've decided to do at least one short full-body drawing each week, to have a better feeling for the progress over time. I'm also doing those in Procreate for now, which is a software I almost never use, so I'm challenging two topics at once :sweat_smile:

So here is the first fullbody mini painting (about 30 minutes). There are many flaws and I could've spent more time on it, but I think I will try to limit those to 1 hour so I have a realistic way of comparing those paintings to each other in the end.

I also watched the Term 1 Nude Figure Drawing video again, so now I understand a little bit better how to build up the skeletons. So I hope the next exercises will look more consistent :smile: (especially with those joints)

Thanks again to everyone stopping by! Makes me really happy that I finally decided to join this course :blush: