Helloo! My name is Hansen or Ben. I am a fresh highschool graduate going into university study very soon. For years I have wanted to draw but never realised the dream because I thought I was too busy with school and had a misconception that it was 'too late'. But, of course, we all know that's wrong!! In the past few months I have been drawing now, but I thought an art program wouldn't hurt to get a boost in the right direction! Here I will post my progress regularly. Critique me on whatever you feel like!

Nice! Wish I started this course at your age 🥲

Welcome aboard!

Cheers

Wow! Thanks so much for the warm welcome, you three! :smile:

Alrighty, nothing too crazy just yet, but I'm learning quite a bit! I got Photoshops 7 day free trial just for these,. I usually use Krita but if Photoshop meshes well with me then I may just go ahead and get it. But that's something for the future. I am going to try to adopt a teaching tone in my posts so I have a need to learn the content correctly. However, if you spot something wrong, absolutely tell me! :smiley:

My 5 minute observation are proving fruitful. There is so much more nuance to everyday things I never really paid attention to. Here are some things I've started to notice:

  • Materials and textures of objects are mostly seen/defined by light. Most textures are barely seen in shadows or further-away areas. This makes sense when thinking more dramatically. Think of a splintering wooden plank; you can only see the individual cracks and wooden splinters because of the small dark shadows giving it form.
  • Most things can be broken up into cylinders, cuboids, and cylinders.
  • Light is more complicated than just 1 light source. There is; Reflection from nearby bright objects (Bounce light I think it's called), other light source that may not be as bright or coloured differently, ambient light.
  • Highly reflective objects like mirrors and phones will cast a sort of "shadow" of light. They will project a light the same shape as the reflective surface. Like a watch for example, when sometimes the light hits it at a certain angle and leaves a circular projection of light on the wall.
  • Perspective deformation is incredibly important in describing the form of an object. A simple object like a pen changes dramatically when viewing the cap up close then horizontally far away. Similarly, a long horizontal object, like a ruler, when held up incredibly close, will shrink at the sides. I'm still getting used to viewing objects like this. I find it helpful to close one eye sometimes when I want to focus on the actual "2d" outline or shape of a 3d object!

I have also completed my first set of daily exercises included in the Photoshop video. The photo editing tools are extremely powerful and I feel like I have a good, basic understanding of how to use them.
I can change shadows, mid tones, and highlights and the values between them using curves.
Color balance can be used to correct color, bring more liveliness to human skin, or even completely change the atmosphere of a piece. There were many times were Mei (Bless her) was either sunburnt or completely freezing in a cold blue beach. :laughing: Tone/Saturation seem extremely helpful for mixing up and quickly viewing different color palettes. With the use of masks, these seem like strong tools.

I am excited to start the image adjustment class, I can see this being incredibly helpful for making custom references by mix and matching images. These are also be incredibly powerful tools to use in digital art itself.

Woop Woop!

Good work so far, just in case, I feel it really helps to prop up your drawing surface/tablet and draw with the shoulder, easing the grip on the fingers to avoid wrist pain and get better more flowy lines. Also to ghost your lines before making the mark, especially helpful for ellipses and circles to avoid microcorrections and sudden changes of direction like in the small circles on the top right and the left ellipse, respectively. Though your circles overall are kinda square and that's a good thing

lol reading what I'm saying at this abstract stage sounds more and more like rubbish as I go, not to mention I'm kind of a beginner still, but yeah!

keep at it!

cheers

No no, I understand what you are saying. I did the beginning part of this other course called drawabox and they say the same thing. To be honest, I think I forgot about ghosting halfway through haha, but now I know to keep it more conscious in my head. I draw with my should but I should definitely look into propping up my tablet, it's just flat and moves around everywhere most of the time (the grips are really old) :sweat: Thanks for the words! Woop Woop!

One accessory that helped me with propping it up is a Parblo Stand that came with a glove, I put my tablet there and it can be adjusted, doesn't move at all and works perfect

Got it on amazon, totally worth it if you are on a normal tablet

cheers

Sorry, haven't uploaded as frequently as I'd liked. Had super busy week and struggling to finish everything as I planned. I watched the first parts of the nude figure drawing video and just trying to do the assignments (1-3) like the weekly planner suggests.

Here are some notes:
The Line of action is super important in placing the rest of the figure or skelly properly. It's better to take a moment to think and truly understand where the line of action is.
The torso, pelvis, and head give more clarity to the line of action and overall gesture
The joints add that bit of nuance to the rest of the figure.
Gesture is really interesting and I am excited to learn more and practice it more.
I am a little scared to tackle anatomy later but I'll have to do it eventually, right? :laughing:

I felt a little stressed doing all of these assignments, even though it shouldn't be that much. I think I need to pace myself. Either way, I'm glad I got these done even when I didn't feel super enthusiastic today. I feel a little silly having trouble making simple skeletons like this in all honesty. :dizzy_face:
If anyone has any words, I'm all ears!
Here are the first few skeletons. I think I did these correctly according to the instructions but if you spot anything, do say!

Looking good, having the references to compare would help

Cheers

Definetly pace yourself and don't worry about it as long as you keep progressing along. Eventually you will come to some assignments that seem daunting, like, draw 10 heads. When I saw some of these I was taken back a bit since one head took me very long already.

However, it's one of those things where practicing the same thing many times helps you get better at doing it.