Jac’s 100 days of skies and trees

[Jack]

Day xx 27/12/2022

Okay, Christmas is starting to wind down. Time to get back to work…

• I spent a couple hours on figure drawing, mostly reviewing chapter 1 in the Villpu Drawing Manual on Gesture, and tying this with Intro To The Figure – which I think cover similar ground.

• I also finished up the assignment for week 9 of Fundamental of Drawing and Perspective. This could probably use another 30 minutes, and I know Im being impatient, but this got really boring all of a sudden. I’m keen to move on.

 

Practice Time: drips and drabs

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Jack.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Jack.

[Jack]

Day xx 28/12/2022

• I finished up week 2 of Intro To The Figure, seated and prone poses. I did more than the assignment said, doing a drawing for each of the reference photos provided. But I don’t feel like I really ‘got’ week 1/2. Something tells me I’ll need to return to it a few more times.

• I copied more of the gesture drawings from Villpu’s Drawing Manual.

• I also got started on week 10 – both watching the demo and the assignment. Hopefully complete it tomorrow to keep the course momentum. My goal is to complete it in January.

  Practice Time: 4h

[Jack]

Day 97 29/12/2022

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. After almost three weeks of nothing tree or sky related, I finally spent just a little time on the actual challenge… albeit just a few quick sketches.

Despite my lack of consistency in sticking to the challenge, my interest in trees has only grown. I’ve picked up a few older books that I’m excited to make use of in the upcoming year (Cole’s British Trees, Step’s Wayside And Woodland Trees, Trees and Groom’s Their Life Histories). 

I finished Artist Anatomy of Trees. The last section on “details” was perhaps a bit too detailed for my current use. But will undoubtedly turn to it again in the future for reference. I’m now reading the introduction to Collins Complete Guide to British Trees , which I received for Christmas.

The reason I’ve been neglecting the challenge is simply because I haven’t been doing any personal work. For whatever reason, I just haven’t had the energy for it. But I do have the energy to follow NMA courses, so that’s what I’m doing.  Here’s a work-in-progress for Fundamentals of Drawing and Perspective. It probably has another 2-3 hours in it.

My hope is to finish this challenge off in the new few days and start next year afresh.

Practice Time: 4h

[Jack]

Day 98 30/12/2022

 

• I finished week 10 assignment for Fundamentals of Drawing and Perspective. I’m rushing a bit… but admittedly I’m finding these assignments a tad boring. It’s fine for 3-4 hours, but eventually I’m finding my stamina isn’t lasting much longer. I’m not particularly satisfied with this one, and I’m tempted to do a second assignment… I’ll see how it looks tomorrow.

• I attempted a small postcard size master study in charcoal on a panel, with the idea that I might attempt an underpainting too… but it was soon clear that my panels have way too much tooth for a charcoal drawing. I made them up a while ago and intentionally made them toothy because I found the smoothness a problem painting plein air…. I will need to get sand paper to sand ’em down tomorrow.

• I did a little figure drawing.

 

Practice Time: 3h 30m

[Jack]

Day 99 31/12/2022

 

• I started a new notebook. My hope is to use it for outdoor sketches and small studies I can use in the studio to assemble pieces. Let’s see aye! I have a bad track record with sketchbooks. I got started with a thumbnail study of Daubigny’s Banks of the Oise at Auvers.

• I also did a little figure drawing for Intro To Figure assignment for week 3. I feel like my drawings are getting stiffer 🙁

 

Practice Time: 2h

[Jack]

Day 100 02/01/2022

A bit of a weak finish to the challenge, but here’s a little thumbnail sketch of a Ruisdael painting (Two lark oaks at the edge of a pond).

This challenge was… all over the place. I spent way more time not doing the challenge than in any previous one. It took me near on 5-6 months to finish the 100 days. My interest in skies and atmosphere is undiminished – but I’ve just pivoted to focusing on drawing and commiting to following Course Guide. My hope is to put in the training now, so that once the better weather rolls around I’ll be in a better position to tackle subject matter that interests me (e.g. trees). We’ll see!

I won’t be doing any more 100 day challenges on the NMA forum, migrating everything I do to Discord instead -> https://discord.com/channels/699135570491867138/1059123356760276992/1059123356760276992

See you there!

[Author]

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