3 Months later...
Time still crawls for me, guess that's for the better eh?
Not a whole lot to show, things have picked up exponentially with getting a 2nd job and working 7 days a week now. I'm moving my hours around though so it won't be like that forever.
Here's the arts I've done and might still be doing:
Sketchbook
"An Experiment" and rightly so, after I got the base shapes down. Saw a nice ref on Pinterest, copied down the important shapes, then experimented. Ended up looking like a familiar raptor meme image...
Figure with some anatomical shapes. Done in quick bursts when I had free time. I don't really do a whole lot of figure drawing now but I should probably at least one sometime this month to stay sharp.
Trains sketches. You can tell by how rough and loose the lines are. Though I've found that even on a train I can get fairly nice smooth lines, assuming the train carriage doesn't shake too much (or the conductor slams the brakes).
Experimenting with gradients and graphite shading. Actually went very well, and for a couple weeks I setup a mini-atelier in the living room to sketch and draw. Don't got the time for that nowadays, maybe one day?
So I remembered there was a mod for a game called Hearts of Iron 4, and had a period of obsession with it. I wanted to draw some fanart so I decided to draw some WWII vehicles to prepare. Passion has worn out though after working 7-day weeks and having minimal time. I also fudged the proportions, which is why I left it alone.
Random train sketches. You might recognize the art-style in the top right. Yup, that's MLP:FiM. The mod mentioned previously puts ponies into Hearts of Iron 4. Very well done mod I gotta say, and a strong community has built around that. Guess that's the magic of friendship eh?
Copying an Inspiring artist's work. Copying feels wrong and I stopped because of that. But only because I was blindly copying without any goal. Now I properly define my goals before jumping in to copy. Also experimenting with graphite techniques, shading, line weight, etc.
HOMSE. But yeah, I saw a pic on pinterest and had a burst of inspiration. Once again I fudged the proportions and at this point I started making a conscious effort to improve my proportions and ability to eye-ball proportions.
The fruit of my labor. Carefully measuring everything and making sure things are in the right place. Started it on the train, developed it during a
LOUD birthday party (that I was dragged into) and finished it at work during break. Also went ahead and shaded and rendered it using all the knowledge I pooled on shape, form and graphite drawing techniques.
Its called "power-leveling", sweetie.
Inspired piece by my favorite artist. Ref from pinterest, get the main idea down and get to work. Sketch, render, sketch... After getting the figure down and the main idea, I put my own spin on it. The drapery in the back is pure imagination and the additional figure on the right is also mostly imagination. Some refs for stuff I couldn't completely imagine but otherwise I'm pretty pleased, except for the torso proportions (yikes!).
Same inspiration as before. Found a nice dramatic ref on pinterest and practiced careful measuring. Cloth from imagination is kinda hard though, I get the principles but the overall shapes might not be correct.
Quick skull study with alcohol marker experimentation. I stopped doing the studies early as I realized that dragon heads are a mish-mash of different animals, and not one particular animal. Basically, it wasn't doing me much good copying animal skulls when I should be combining them.
Latest piece, started only 2-3 days ago (I should really be dating these). Copying my favorite artist and putting those expensive copic markers to use.
Digital
So yeah, that little mod for HoI4 got me into MLP. At least for a little while anyway. Dunno who this guy is but he sure looks... ominous. Smug too by the looks of it.
Spontaneous sketch! I love when these happen because I don't even think and my hand moves on its own. Some draconid from the unwritten universe I have planned. He doesn't like humans very much...
So what else has been happening? Surprisingly, I now have a student that I am teaching. Well not officially, basically someone who has a passion for art and is looking for guidance. In a month I did more teaching that I did in my whole life. Guides, assignments, critiques and even recording a lecture with voice-over. And its been a joy to do it as well since I learn some stuff myself.
I really gotta thank @Brohawx for this, your prompt and detailed critiques inspired my own. Albeit they're not posted here.
I feel like I've graduated from beginner to intermediate artist, and I can go out and do whatever I want. Still have room for improvement, but I can now guide others who were once beginners like me.
The joy of making mistakes and failing is that I always learn from them and do better next time. Get out there, make a mess, and learn from it.
Next post won't be for another couple months. As mentioned previously things have rapidly picked up, but even so I'll have a slew of things to share here in this diary.
'til then.
S (aka Strelok).
