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Styrbjörn Andersson
added comment inProject - Organizing Line Weight
3d
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I picked the level 1 for this one, as I had limited time today. Might do level 2 as well some time.
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I might have deviated a bit from the project goal here, but at least I had fun doing it :)
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This was a fun exercise. I did the penguin and hand first, and tried to loosen up more when drawing the girl.
6d
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Here is Level 2 - Skellie. Time to watch the demos!
7d
Other than drawing a camel (for the first time in my life!) I spent the day doing some line art and masking of a visual novel character I am working on. I hope that counts as being part of the "draw every day" challenge, in which case I am now on day three :) (I do not count course projects towards the daily drawing, as I try to follow the Draw a Box "rule" of spending 50% of my time on personal stuff),
7d
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I tried going a bit faster this time around, and to simplify more. Just Skellie left now!
8d
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I am not sure if I approached this one correctly, but I felt that compared to the snail this image was several degrees harder to approach. I have not watched Stan's demo yet, so it will be very interesting to see how he did it.
While my drawing is passable, I think I failed quite hard with the CSI approach - the amount of detail was simply too overwhelming for me, so I found it hard to simplify. It will be interesting to watch the demo video, to hopefully get an idea about how to think in cases like this.
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9d
During today's drawing I learned something that helped explaining why many of my drawings end up feeling stiff - especially when clothes are involved. I realized that often even when I got a decent, dynamic pose, I end up ruining the gesture by drawing clothes that do not conform to the motion that I want to convey. In this case I was on the verge of doing the same thing, but luckily caught myself in the sketch stage. In the attached image is the before and after version of Little Red Hood. The idea was to make her body twisting, with her head continuing the motion (as shown with the rough shapes to the right).
However, when I added her skirt I just left it hanging straight down with her legs standing straight together (left image). This killed the motion, and something felt really off because of it. Normally I just shrug and move on to refined line art and shading, but this time something clicked. I corrected the skirt so that it followed the pose more closely, and I feel that the new result (middle one) works much better.
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10d
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Level 1, part 1 of the CSI assignment. I'll do the shoes next. Feedback greatly appreciated!
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10d
Daily random sketching. I suppose it might be a good idea to get some none course related drawing in every day as well.
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10d
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Having recently moved from traditional drawing to digital, I have to say that this was quite a lot harder on my screenless tablet that it was doing it on paper. I think this will be a very useful exercise to get used to the tablet, though, so I'll definitely do it again :)
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Here is level 2 of the first assignment. Quite a lot more difficult, and I definitely strayed a bit from the "rules" this time around, but I tried my best to stick to distinct values, avoiding blending too much. Please feel free to provide feedback/critique!
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I kind of messed up my first submission for this assignment, as I had not properly read the part that says we should limit ourselves to five values. I decided to redo this one, and will move on to Level 2 next. Please feel free to provide feedback/critique!
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14d
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I'm not sure i did this assignment correctly :( Can someone help explain the shapes and the values? how do you get sharp edges with light areas?
Thanks in advance
Styrbjörn Andersson
14d
Great job with the rendering! As for your question, think of the assignment like this - the shape of the pear is the line forming the silhouette of the form. This line, in your case, is following the shape of the original image quite well, making it smooth and rounded. However, in the assignment description we are told to use only straight lines. This means that we need to make decisions on how to simplify the shape. You could start out with the simplest polygon there is (a triangle), and start adding edges until you get the likeness that you are comfortable with. I attached an image showing how you can gradually experiment with the shape until you arrive at a pear shape. When I did this assignment, I missed the part where we should limit ourselves to 5 values, but the same principle applies here. Try to divide the shadow shapes into simpler versions. I think Proko shows this pretty well in his demo of the assignment.
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Here is my take on the first project (Level 1). I will likely attempt level 2 as well tomorrow. Please feel free to provide feedback!
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23d
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My first steps into this course. These are some 30 second gestures to start out. The goal was to have decent line economy, but I am wondering if I am losing out on important information by using so few lines per pose. Also, I am wondering if it is even possible (for me) to add more detail in such limited time, while still keeping the proportions at least somewhat decent. Several of the poses already have quite questionable measurements, but I guess that will improve with more practice.
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2yr
Having a schedule is going to make you level up way faste, if you are focused on being technically proficient it’s a great idea. There’s potential in your gesture drawings that needs attention. I always recommend the Walt Stanchfeld books drawn to life. There is a ton of information in those two volumes about what a gesture is and how economy of line can get you to an optimal place we’re you don’t need too much detail to convey a clear pose.
The second suggestion I’d like to add is to make sure you have a goal in mind, why do you want to study like this? And how long do you think you can manage to work in order to be proficient at what you want to do?
Make time for exercise, rest and fun. This mentality of drawing fr the sake of drawing is NOT healthy in the long run.
Thanks for the nice advice! I'm trying to find a balance of drawing/rest-of-life, although it has always been a struggle to get it right.
My goal right now is to get to a point where I can draw reliably at a level that is professionally viable. I can at the moment produce things that are portfolio worthy, but it's a hit or miss affair, and I believe my lacking fundamentals are to blame for this. As for long time goals, I would love to make art into a living somehow, but I am not sure in what way yet.
About gesture, you are absolutely right about me needing to develop more in that area. I understand the concept of line economy in theory, but more often than not I end up treating gestures as figure drawings in a hurry. I'm always on the lookout for more resources, and the book you suggested looks really interesting.
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Is this the right place for me?2yr
I've managed to create an art schedule that works for me, that includes things like figure drawing, gestures, hands/feet etc. I have done this for 1-2 hours a day for five weeks, and it seems sustainable. Weekends are spent doing "long draws" of up to 10 hours over the entire weekend, where I create a finished drawing or painting. This, to me, feels like I've got that important "draw every day" up and running, at least for the time being.
As for art studies and learning (as opposed to practice), I have bought but not completed the figure drawing and anatomy courses by Proko - they seem really good, and I should probably continue doing them.
I've also procured all the courses by Scott Harris on Udemy. They are all collected under the "Art School of Imagination" (ASI for short), of which I am currently an "Official Community Ambassador". Being an ambassador there pretty much means I volunteer to give feedback to their students on their assignments.
Lastly, I am subscribed to the New Master's Academy, which seems really nice so far.
What I lack at the moment is proper feedback. I can of course post in the ASI community, but it is very beginner focused (most students post "my first manga character ever" as their first assignment), so it kind of feels like I am outgrowing it. I get a lot of likes on practice pieces and artworks, but likes won't help me improve :)
This got me to think about this community, which I have not participated at all in so far. Looking at what's posted, I feel that people are generally at a higher level here, and there seems to be quite a bit of nice feedback being given as well. So, my question is, could this community be a good place to migrate for someone who is not a complete beginner anymore, that looks for people that can give more professional feedback and critique? I would of course be happy to provide feedback of my own as well, to the degree I am able to!
I've attached last month's practice, so you have an idea of what level I am currently at.
