Ola - Art School Journey

[olashamala]

Hi everyone, My name is Ola. I'm 29 yo. Always loved drawing but never actually put the work in to learn the basics and commit to it.

I bought this program back in October and unfortunately, I have some character flaws like fear of failure and procrastination (in major ways!)... you can imagine how bad that would be for anyone who wants to learn a new skill. I've made no progress in the past 6 months because I wasn't doing the assignments enough. I was passively receiving the information in the lessons without actually trying to apply them and practice what I'm learning... I don't recommend it, because now I'm restarting from Term 1, especially after the new study Marc put out...

I've avoided the forum because of that same fear of failure But I think I need the community to help me push myself and to allow myself to be bad at it! Fresh Start Wish me luck...

[mitsuki-youko]

hii welcome to the forum

[patrycja.lerch]

Welcome Ola!

[olashamala]

Thank you!

[olashamala]

Thanks @patrycja.lerch

[Gibson]

Hi Ola! Welcome!

I'm in the same situation that you are. I have had anxiety for over 20+ years and it's affected a ton of things in my life and made me not do things that I would normally love to be able to do.
I too feel the same way and I am afraid to fail, but over the years of dealing with this, at this point in my life I'm 45 now I'm just sick of letting my (bad) mind ruin me.
Don't let that happen to you, you are only 29. Just do what you love to do and don't let your (bad) mind stop you.

You can do it! I have done things since I started the school that I never thought I could do. We are here to give you support and we will be here everyday to keep you going!

[olashamala]

Thank you Ken for the encouraging words! Just checked your thread and wow great work and progress you're making (I especially love your moonlight illustration!)

I will try to take your words to heart and ignore my negative tendencies and just keep showing up and doing the work..

Thanks again

[olashamala]

Pen control - Day 1 .. Here we go again! Not my favorite thing to do but I'll keep at it for a week and I'll post the 7th trial to see the progress.

Can someone help me with the pressure practice? with the first two lines, what kind of brush do I need to use (I tried so many and none of them are giving the same result as the guidelines) Sorry for the stupid question, 0 knowledge with Photoshop

[Gibson]

Just a hard round brush around size 70 or 80, but at the top toolbar when you pick the brush you will see the 3 pen adjustments. The buttons look like an pen making ripples in water. Or an arrow hitting a target. One is for Opacity, one for flow, and the third for pen pressure on and off.

So from left to right
1. Turn on Opacity and pen pressure
2 Same settings
3 Turn off Opacity
4 Turn on Opacity and go to brush settings should be on the right side panel and set spacing to like 30 to get the circle effect

Hard to remember, I switched to Clip Studio Paint. Just preference I like it more for doing comic art.

[olashamala]

Thanks a lot for the help! really appreciate it.. I'll try it when I do the practice again.

I only got Photoshop so I don't get confused when following Marc in the lessons, but generally speaking, I'm lost with everything "digital art programs."

[Gibson]

Clip Studio Paint is pretty much the exact same as Photoshop except it focuses more to illustrations and comics. It also has built in 3D models / lighting and animation tools.

[olashamala]

Thanks @Gibson it worked! I still suck at it though.. the same goes for tracing the circles. I'm more comfortable drawing them free-handed.

[olashamala]

I did the shapes exercise, trying to move it in different directions... Not sure how well I did (the cylinder was the most difficult for me, and I think it's the worst out of the 3 shapes as a result). Also, something is wrong with number 7 but not sure what is it!

I drew something for fun as well, I focused on the lines only (still didn't get to the shading lesson) and my goal was to see her resemblance from the reference picture.

[leo.glt95]

I did this for you, i hope it helps even if its a little
Hope u can read my handwriting lmao

[olashamala]

@leo.glt95 Oh wow Thank you so much! Super helpful.. Apparently I messed up more than I thought I did it's okay, I'll practice what you said.

[chomper2010]

Hi Ola, wow you weren't kidding. We do have a lot in common. I've always had a fear of failure and that made my procrastination worse, as if I never did it, I would never fail. It's hard but I'm really happy you're here! It is definitely nerve wracking joining the forums, I avoided it for a while too.

I love the attitude your adopting, yes it is 100% fine to not be perfect. If we were perfect we wouldn't be here and the only way to improve is to allow yourself to try and fail, and then try again. You will get better! Like I said in my response on my page, restarting from Term 1 has been the best thing I could've done for myself and I hope you'll find the same results in your own studies!

Your portrait study is awesome and I love your notes! They look similar to some of mine that I have in my sketchbook (albeit yours a better hahah). Can't wait to see how much you improve on this journey!

[olashamala]

Thanks Alex! Those words give me some comfort that I'm not alone in this.. and it's pushing me to keep going.. I hope you don't mind if I'm taking some info from your practices (like the size of the page you're drawing on and how it's organized) I just get lost in the smallest of details so it helps to follow someone's steps, so that I don't worry too much about trivial things and focus on the practice.

[chomper2010]

Oh no, never worry about that, whatever helps you is what matters! I'm happy that some of my work can even help you with that, so power to you.

Keep up the good work and yea, its nice to not be alone on this journey. If I can ever help with something, please feel free to reach out whenever!

[olashamala]

Appreciate it!

[olashamala]

Pen control practice for today. Circles are better, and I just discovered with the pressure practice, it should be drawn from top to bottom, I have been doing the opposite I think that's why I was having a hard time with it hehe.

And I did the image adjustment practice. I still can't figure out what the curves and levels represent so I keep trying till it's close enough, but I don't think that's helpful... I need to understand it. And my ignorance was especially obvious with the last image