Sanni - Art School Journey

Hi! I'm Sanni and I work as a communication specialist, illustrator, and graphic design freelancer in Finland. I've also earned a Master of Arts degree, with my major in graphic design. However, my studies didn't delve deeply into actual art and I believe there's still a whole new world ahead of me, starting from the fundamental levels.

I recently got into digital art and ordered my first drawing display. The gap in my education and the new tools motivate me to embark on this journey. It's an opportunity to brush up on what I know and to explore new techniques and perspectives.

I've mainly focused on vector artwork on Adobe Illustrator, but I want to learn how to paint with Photoshop.

I also enjoy traditional methods, like watercolors.

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/sanni_harju-nikula
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harjunikula/

I'm here with an open mind, ready to learn and grow as an artist. Can't wait to see what this course has in store!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I started the first term yesterday, and I'll try to contain myself and follow the weekly schedule, not jumping forwards. It might take a few weeks until I get my drawing display so I'll start the daily assignments traditionally with pen and paper. I'll probably have to keep doing the pen control excercises after I get my new display to get used to it too.

I did the image adjustment assignment and I was pleasantly surprised how close I got to the originals. I've actually worked with Photoshop and colors quite a bit in this manner (I've worked around 5 years in an advertising agency, so did lots of photo editing there), but I still tried to really dive into what I was doing and study the values and tools.

Even so, I'm actually pretty terrified of colors and color theory is something I want to learn more about. But It was nice to notice that I could see what I had to tweak to get it right, like "oh, this needs more yellow" or "this tone needs to be a bit more saturated, cooler, warmer" etc. So I guess it's really true that practice trains your eye to notice this stuff.

The numbers behind the color spheres aren't 100% the same, but I'm trying to avoid nitpicking and focus on grasping the general idea of the assignments.

The one I really had trouble with was the last one. I'm quite happy with the outcome, but there are still some differences, for example in the knee area. The blue tank thingy is also a bit more saturated in the original.

I'll start the pen excercises today, and post some results later in the upcoming week!

Thanks for the awesome feedback! While waiting for the new display (estimated to arrive next Monday) I've tackled some of the stuff I can do without. I've also been doing the daily assignments by traditional methods, but it will probably feel like starting all over when the parcel arrives.

For the combination assignment I went with "abandoned villa in the middle of the forest". I guess the outcome could be a bit more refined, but I think I captioned the idea and concept I wanted to portray anyways. I found the photos from Unsplash, I recommend checking it out for references and other things!

Here are the images I used:

I'm going to do the 4th assignment this week aswell, so I can focus more on the new display and pen control next week

20240416_101016.jpg3699x2774 1.63 MB

Okay so I got the drawing display almost two weeks ago and it did make me pause my progress in my studies. I was just too excited and wanted to jump right into painting! I picked one of my earlier sketches and painted a custom portrait for Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.

I'm very happy with it! Although there is lots of room for improvement too. I should have probably started with a more simple image, as this took me a very long time to finish. I noticed that the lack of skills and techniques in digital painting really slowed me down. I originally had this idea of very rough concept art -look with brush strokes showing and all that, but the only part I managed to make that happen is in the background.

But now I'm getting back on track in week 2 ART School content! I've done the pen dailies and the photo manipulation assignments, and next it's time for the nude figure drawing.