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For my 100 Day Challenge I’ve decided to stream on Twitch for at least 1 hour a day while drawing on my Cintiq. By simply drawing everyday while posting here and streaming I hope to get in the habit of daily drawing again. This mole hill of a task is quite mountainous to me as I haven’t drawn seriously or academically in about 5 years.
I had a bad experience with art school(The Art Institutes), and honestly I never really got back into drawing until I came to NMA. I’m all kinds of pumped for this 100 Day Challenge because this is probably the most effort I’ve put into drawing since college and I can’t wait to see what that effort yields.
DAY 001
Hi,
I have two pieces of advice. The first is general: don’t just draw on your cintiq. You can easily develop bad habits just working digitally. You want to get used to drawing with an overhand grip using your shoulder to draw from and not your wrist or your fingers. If you ever want to paint, this is the way you paint so that all of your drawing skill transfers directly to painting. Also, you can develop carpal tunnel problems really quickly when overusing your wrist and fingers which is what people tend to do who work digitally. I worked with a college art student recently who was already developing problems. I told her to wear a wrist brace at night, gave her exercises to do to strengthen her hands, and helped her develop better drawing habits.
The second is specific. The major axis of an ellipse is a little in front of the perspective center of a square. It is the actual half way point between the front and back of the square. Erik Olson does a little trick in his lesson on ellipses where he takes a piece of paper, marks the front and back edge of the square, and then folds the paper in half to get the midpoint for his major axis.
Keep drawing, and keep up the good work!
Day 002 for me. I ended up sketching skulls because I wanted practice something fun from multiple angles. I noticed I really struggled with measuring/proportions and grasping the shape of the mandible(expressing depth) so I may bust myself back down to basic form studies. On a positive note, streaming while drawing has encouraged me to work through my mistakes and make corrections to drawings I would otherwise abandon. Moving forward I think I want to double my drawing time to 2 hours and segment my time into 1/2 studying, 1/2 making corrections.
@erikdennes I hear you, but my focus is definitely digital art. I’m not ignoring traditional but digital art is where I want to improve ATM. I’ll also check out that ellipse trick.
Great challenge. Very brave! We have a 3d model do a skull which is in the reference tab of Iliya Mirochnik’s course. It was designed so that you can do an exercise just like the one you’re doing. Did you use that ?
I actually used this really neat Windows/iOS app called Handy. It’s got planar heads, heads, skulls, and some really cool pose ready hand and foot models. I’m pretty new here so to be honest I forgot there was reference here too.
Day 3. I’m definitely going to double my time to 2 hours for the rest of this challenge. Today I didn’t draw at all except for the hour I carved out to stream and it really showed. I really felt off as opposed to feeling on yesterday. In comparison I had a lot of trouble focusing on and finishing ideas. On the positive side though I found some nifty brushes that I want to experiment emulating traditional shading with.
Day 4, and it was another struggle. I am starting to see progression but I feel a bit aimless as I draw. I think in addition to upping my drawing time to 2 hours I need to pick a simple subject matter or theme to study. My greatest hurdle in drawing right now is that when I sit down I just don’t know what to draw. Hopefully as I progress in the Beginners Guide course I can hone in on stuff to study. Some positive take aways are that drawing on my Cintiq is starting to feel natural again. Also streaming everyday and archiving what I do digitally really makes me feel like I’m doing something substantial even though I’m just sketching loosey goosey.
My end goal is to get into portraiture, but my current goal is to finish the 2 beginner’s drawing course here before I dive into any of the head stuff. Moving forward I think I may incorporate watching some lessons before my draw time so I can repeat exercises and have something a bit more substantial to draw.
Day 5. Getting it in right under the gun. Increased my drawing time and tried to focus on some form studies. I ended up with 2 that I really liked and then I got distracted by trying to better describe foreshortening in a cube. I know my drawings ain’t much to look at but I’m starting to “feel” the progress so I’m a wee bit proud of myself.
Day 6. I felt a lot better about drawing today, but I still found myself getting a little distracted as I went on. I think I’ll progress a lot smoother once I start watching lessons again, I’ve been neglecting them. I do still want to hone in on a drawing routine though, like some nice simple shapes to warm up, a solid chunk of rendered form studies and then like some free doodling for fun. All in all I’m feeling good about this challenge and I feel myself getting more excited as I go on.
hey James, these studies of yours look great
i especially like your insight and can relate
cool stuff
Day 7, and it completely kicked my posterior. I got to the part in the Beginner’s course where you draw along to some gesture studies and OH BOY, am I rusty at the figure. I put a pin(pen, :D) in things at around an hour and a half because I kept stumbling as I got down to the hips and legs. I didn’t quit in frustration but rather because I felt it would be more valuable to stop, assess where I’m at and cull some leg references to exercise with.
I know I’m not producing anything astounding yet but I really like where this challenge is taking me. Yes I’m running into more problems than solutions, but I’m really enjoying the challenge of working through my mistakes rather than around them. I also have to stop and remember that my goal isn’t to be amazing right away or at all, but to simply draw everyday and let those drawings live out in the open. I have a very bad habit of not keeping art because I don’t want evidence around of how not great I am LOL.
Are you taking any other courses besides the beginner’s course? If you’re looking to get into portraiture that’s a great place to start. Also Head Drawing for Beginners and the Observational Drawing Fundamentals.
I’m only taking the one course right now. Huston’s intro head lecture was what brought me to the sight originally, but I’m trying to hold off on it until I get a solid handle on the foundations.
Day 8 + 9 are coming in late and lacking.
Up first is day 8. I tried to spend a little more time on each sketch and as a result didn’t get a lot of drawing done. I do feel like I’ve started hitting a little stride though. Looking back the thing that jumps out at me right away is that I’d do so much better if I spent more time drawing. At first I set a simple goal of an hour which I upped to two but I really want to experiment with like a four hour chunk of time. Looking back I think my original goal was a little modest because of my past experience at an art trade school, having pursed art and having “failed” at it really haunts me. This challenge is really helping to pull me out of that mindset though so I’m more than willing to put in the time and approach drawing in a more dedicated fashion.
DAY 8
Day 9 busted my butt. I tried to go into it with the same energy as day 8 keeping up my habit of not deleting stuff but I got rid of a ton of stuff I didn’t like. It’s a habit that I really need to break as I feel junking mistakes is a lot less valuable than letting the mistake live and figuring out how to correct it. On the positive side I’m starting to figure out where I mentally check out when drawing and why. It feels like equal parts frustration and distraction; like I’ll get distracted and noodle, and then I’ll get mad that my non-referenced non-plotted doodle doesn’t look great. It’s another counter productive habit I want to prune from my skill tree.
DAY 9
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