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Thanks Deborah and yes that’s exactly what I meant. Perspective is indeed a really good example for that. For a long time I was so focused on learning everything about perspective because I thought I needed it for the way I want to draw.
But thanks to Erik Olson’s course and more recently while I started focusing more on the head I realized that there is not only a limited amount of information and principles you can soak in at once but also you don’t need everything at once.
It’s like you said, why should I learn all this technical information about how to set up and compose my drawings if I don’t even draw full illustrations yet. The same goes for anatomy in my opinion, just the anatomy of the head is so complex that it will probably take months to solidify the informations, terms and principles aswell as somewhat feeling comfortable drawing it. So why should I try to put even more anatomy knowledge in my brain that I won’t even use right now, I’ll probably not only forget most of it but also take away some space for what I’m focused on currently.
So for me it’s more about balancing out the amount of things you can learn and memorize without putting in to much and therefore loosing/forgetting alot of the learned.
In my case that means sticking to basic perspective to really solidify it since that’s what’s most useful for what I’m learning right now (general drawing, structure of the head) and really sticking to head drawing trying to internalize as much as possible before moving on to figure anatomy.
I think it’s best to really keep it simple and rather repeat the same principles in different ways over and over again to get comfortable then trying to constantly learn one thing after another without even trying to solidify/internalize it.
Day 73
Hi Marjolein,
I will but I haven’t finished the first lecture yet. From what I know about the Reilly method I assume I’ll like it since it’s supposed to be a rhythmical system based on the muscles. So once internalized and in addition to knowledge of the skull and planes of the head it’s supposed to open up the possibility to work from imagination and to play with proportions aswell as helping answering questions while working from reference.
Nice work on the skulls Christopher. I’m always impressed by how much work you put in.
Just to put things in perspective I’ve been studying anatomy for ten years and I’m still learning. And not just subtleties. There are still big mistakes I make and things I thought I understood that were just flat wrong.
Be patient with yourself. If you’re improving (and it’s clear you are) that’s enough. It will add up as the weeks, months, and years progress. Mastery is about endurance!
That being said let me drop you a few tips on the last skull!
1. Orbits look wide
2. Make sure to leave room for the transition plane between the nasal bone and the ocular orbit. It’s where the inner canthus attaches and it tends to catch light. The tendency is to run the ramp of the nose right into the orbit.
3. The muzzle is too vertical and too regular. In reality the maxilla projects forward. There’s a break at the canines (more squared than round really) and the upper teeth overhand the lower. Both the upper and lower teeth should project forward.4. Remember that the zygomatic process of the temporal bone terminates at the ear hole. It is widest about 2/3rds of the way back then it turns and moves medially. Don’t leave it hanging out in space.
5. The skull has a corner at the hairline. Even if it’s rounded it’s a plane change so it should get different values.
Patience and endurance is definitely something I’m learning right now. A few months ago I was just frustrated not improving as fast as I would have liked. Also did I jump from one topic to another thinking I would know what I need but completely ignoring what I could actually manage to memorize and execute at once.
Through this challenge I really got a more healthy and also fun view on the learning process. I still aim for efficiency and I’m still constantly analyzing my learning process but my focus shifted much more towards keeping it fun knowing it will take time, rather than forcing anything.
Especially because I know that my current view of the things I just described could be completely different next week. That’s just part of my learning process so why should I even stress about any type of mistake if it’s one of probably a few thousand more to come.
Lastly thank you Joshua for your critique. Since I got so much trouble understanding the forms of the skull your tips are exactly what I need, even if I have to look some terms up again 😅
Back to my challenge:
I thought I would try to give myself more direction through implementing some short term goals. Nothing to serious but I want to see how that goes.
So from today (day 74) to day 84 I want to keep my daily warm up which preferably should be more ellipse and perspective/form excercises since I really want to get more comfortable doing them before I try to increase complexity.
Besides that I want to do three more skulls like yesterday, focused on construction and value wise just separating the light side from the shadow side for now. Additionally I want to do lay overs of them while utilizing the Vilppu planes model.
Also I want to finish the first lecture of Mark Westermoe’s Reilly Method head course.
And lastly start working on the individual bones of the face from Ilya’s course.
Again my intention is not to necessarily achieve/finish those goals, it’s more about having a plan and direction to not get distracted to easily.
Hi Christopher! I just wanted to say that I’m impressed with both your dedication and your drawings! I’m going through the same learning process and much of the same courses, and I can totally relate. Your realization that you can only soak in so much information and that you don’t need everything at once is something I just came to terms with. As far as your question about reference photos of individual bones, you might want to look at the Anatomy Standard website. I’ve found it be quite helpful. Keep up the great work!
You’re doing an amazing job. You get so much done each day! Keep going 🙂! I just looked up the Anatomy Standard that Jan mentioned – it looks fabulous and really helpful. Thanks Jan!
The anatomy standard site looks pretty good, thank you Jan!
And thank you for your kind words. It’s nice to hear that you can relate. Even if I kind of found my peace with how I approach my learning in the moment, I sometimes still find myself feeling unsure if comparing my way with other people’s approaches on this forum.
I know I should only “compete” with myself but my slowed down approach that is more focused on solidifying what I’m learning seems to be really unusual compared to others who seem to focus much more on moving through more courses and topics.
I feel confident that I won’t regret my way in the long run but it’s still kind of unsettling if most people do basically the complete opposite of what I do 😅
Thank you Deborah, even if I still feel like not doing enough 😛😅
Oh and because I forgot to answer last time: My hand is still not fully recovered. Like I said it will probably take some time but don’t worry I won’t “ignore” the pain. If I would (which I did in the past) I probably would have to stop drawing and doing basically anything with my right hand for at least more than a month. But because it wouldn’t be much faster if I would stop now, I’m rather really careful than doing nothing 😅
Day 75
I’m still trying to get a understanding of the forms of the maxilla and zygomatic area. At least it’s kind of interesting how I now, after achieving some basic anatomical knowledge, start to disagree with some of the simplifications I was referencing a few weeks ago.
Some of them I still find to be beautiful as art but not accurate or true enough to use them as simplification to build up on.
Day 76
I’m not necessarily searching for a way to simplify the skull, neither am I focused on being 100% accurate. I’m using these simplifications much more as excercise to get a better understanding of the forms of the maxilla, zygomatic and nasal area. It’s like searching and sculpting on page so that observed shapes maybe make more sense to me.
Hi Christopher,
I will try to chime in with some of my thoughts, hopefully that will help in some way.
I think you are doing just fine with understanding of basic shapes. Instead of drawing another 100 of cylinders, cubes or ellipses perhaps you should try to pick simple subjects, say still life that involves simple shapes. I think that you would get more out of it, both in terms of building confidence and better understanding the forms.
Simple exercises are ok, but can become boring and one can easily tune out and just do them without much thinking. To me that is a dead end street. For example I used to draw Loomis ball head structure (side, front straight and looking up an down, 3/4 straight and looking up and down) daily with intent to master it and understanding it better. I sat the goal do draw all positions every day for a month. After about a week I noticed I was doing them mindlessly just for sake of filling the page for the day. I stopped and instead started doing simple portraits with primary focus on basic head structure, much better, much more useful and productive.
I often struggle myself with choosing a proper learning path, but as Joshua pointed out in one of his comments that is unavoidable. You have to pick something and only later you will find out if you were right or wrong.
I suppose you have to pick right level of challenge for your level of development. The level of challenge at which you will fail frequently, because you are learning, yet not so complex that will crush you, if you know what I mean. It is fine line between the two.
Keep up good work!
Thank you Gordon,
I know what you mean and I have to admit that I often don’t feel ready to tackle the next step.
But I have to disagree if it looks like I’m at a level there I’m doing this form and perspective excercises mindlessly. If it’s just about the knowledge about how simple shapes work and are constructed you are definitely right but I struggle really hard trying to execute them nicely and clean.
But since that’s a more technical/pencil handling thing, I get that’s not what you mean.
I’ll definitely try to incorporate some simple object drawings as warm ups, I just have to find some fitting objects. It might be stupid to say but if it’s about choosing objects to draw from, I often struggle because I find the objects I got in my appartment either to easy or way to difficult, additionally I don’t have a good way to light them yet.
But I get it, no excuses or procrastinating just starting somewhere 😅👍
This time I used a black polychromo colored pencil instead of graphite.
Christopher I did not say that you are working mindlessly, I just made a general statement and used my own example of getting trapped in making such errors. You are the only one that can know how much you get out of what you do. My apologies if i came across differently. My internet was to try helping and giving you my own angle on the subject. All the best.
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