Natrix - ART School Journey

[stratocastus]

Hey everyone, Natrix here. I just joined ART School two days ago and thought I'd participate in the forum. I've been drawing my whole life until I hit my 20s and got back into it after a decade long break. After watching Marc's video on the fastest way to improve he talks about the Dunning-Kruger effect. I feel like at this point in my life I'm experienced enough to sit comfortably at the bottom of the confidence bell curve. Anyways, I joined this program to take my skills to the next level. Any criticism is welcome. See you on the flip side.

[stratocastus]

Here's the skeleton exercise for the Nude Figure Drawing course.

And here's the cylinders exercise.

[mau.wamp]

Heyho @stratocastus!
Welcome on board, it‘s nice to meet you!
The first exercise you did looks really good!
Definitively keep us updated!
Cheers,
Mau

[stratocastus]

Here is the Male-Female Proportions exercise.

30 second gesture drawings.

60 second gesture drawings.

And finally the Full Figure assignment.

I plan on doing gesture drawings everyday from now on so expect a bunch of uploads for those exercises. As for the full figure assignment, it took me a lot longer to finish because my graphics tablet (which is only cheap but I love the thing) has some parallax to it, making the measurements a tiny bit off when I took them. I think the result turned out alright but it doesn't line up perfectly with the picture.

[stratocastus]

Cheers, Mau!

[stratocastus]

Here's some more gesture drawings.
30 seconds.

60 seconds.

[stratocastus]

Here's a short 30 second gesture drawing.

Would have done more today but the sink got clogged and I had to spend all day unplugging it. Priorities...

[stratocastus]

More gesture drawings. 30 seconds.

60 seconds.

Also drew some boxes in perspective today. Here's one-point perspective.

And here's two-point perspective.

Yesterday was a bit of a fustercluck, but I managed to get some work done today. Looking forward to starting the one-point perspective room tomorrow.

[stratocastus]

30 second gesture drawings.

60 second gesture drawings.

Started the one-point perspective room today. It wont be finished until maybe tomorrow. We'll have to see.

[stratocastus]

Here's the daily gesture drawings. 30 seconds.

60 seconds.

I also got my one-point perspective project finished. Here's a shot of my jam room.

It took me about 12 hours but I got it finished. I think I'm going to start Term 2 tomorrow.

[stratocastus]

Today was a lazy day but I still drudged up the nerve to do some gesture drawings. It's been a full seven days and I don't want to break the chain now.

30 second gesture drawings.

60 second gesture drawings.

[stratocastus]

More gesture drawings. EVERYDAY! MUST DO GESTURE DRAWINGS EVERYDAY!

30 seconds.

60 seconds.

I started watching the Visual Communications 2 video today. Pretty interesting stuff about how different lines and shapes infer different emotions. I'll have to watch it again tomorrow and take some notes when I do.

[MattD]

These gestures look really good and your commitment to doing them everyday is awesome. I've done that before and after a month or two you really start to see an improvement in your figures. Something to try when doing is to see how simple you can get the lines. Like using one long line to describe the side of the body and the thigh. You've done that in a few of your gestures and it looks really good.

Keep up the awesome work!

[stratocastus]

Thanks for the kind words, MattD. Each day I'm about to start gesture drawings I'm like, "Ugh, again." But then I crank some music, add my first scribble, and the process is fun as hell from that point on.

Yeah, I'll try making a conscious effort in simplifying the lines tomorrow. I mean, hey, it mixes things up and if the gestures look better then all the better.

[stratocastus]

More gesture drawings. Almost broke the chain today but I managed to pull through.

30 seconds.

60 seconds.

[stratocastus]

More gesture drawings. I tried using single lines like MattD suggested for contours from the torso to the ankle but old habits die hard.

30 seconds.

60 seconds.

I'm not sure how fast I can progress in my art journey for the foreseeable future. My father isn't well and I have to be there for him. I'll try to get gestures done when I can because I like them and they take as little as a half-an-hour. But it's difficult at this point sitting down for a three hour video and then doing the exercise. I want to but it's not in the cards right now. I'll still be surfing the forums, some of the work I see here is way too humbling and inspiring for me not to. But as for the course, I'll be going at a rabbit's pace.