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Day 25. I feel like I’m going through “100 days of how NOT to draw figures”. I feel like my progress is very incremental, but that’s to be expected. I hope to learn from each mistake and gradually filter those away so I’m left with better and better drawings.
Day 24. Today I spent my entire session trying to improve on the top left figure from day 23.
Joshua Jacobo offered the following feedback on Discord for my day 23:
“Improvement. Remember to avoid the Michelin Man problem. The front of the thigh should not look the same as the back. The outside of the lower leg should be different from the inside.”
So today’s session, I attempted that figure I thought gave me the most problems last time, focusing on the leg area. I tried 18 more times in total. It’s hard to say whether it’s an improvement. I tend to draw the calf too fat. I’m trying to get that characteristic calf shape, but it’s still eluding me.
I was hoping I would improve more today, but I feel like just made more bad drawings. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Day 23. I tried my best to draw the gesture and describe the forms in 3D space. I haven’t quite got the shapes and patterns down yet, but I am learning to tilt my pencil to draw in its direction, which makes a nice gliding motion on the paper.
Also, each time I make a noticeable error, I try and identify it as an area for improvement next time I draw. That’s essentially every part of the body, but I will do my best to take those errors and learn from them so I can do better next time.
Day 22. I started today with some still life to warm up, but I scratched it out because I found that despite taking the utmost care possible when drawing, the result was not in uniform perspective.
I’m finding pencil or pen control very difficult too. I want clean, confident lines, but they go in the wrong direction when I draw from the shoulder, which messes up what I’m trying to do. I’m not sure how to improve on that without just continuing to draw and maybe I’ll get better with time.
I’ve been trying my best to “lead the eye” with the initial gesture drawing, but I’m struggling to understand how to do that. I try and draw lines in the direction my eye moves over the model, but they’re often not quite that fluid. I’m also finding I’m not sure how to do arms if not for two curved lines. If I try to break it into more lines to try and follow the flow, it ends up looking a bit weird.
Occasionally I come out with something approaching half-decent, but the next drawing won’t have that same fluidity.
There’s a lot I can see wrong with my results, so I’m trying to see if I can improve on that. I’m determined to do this every day and try to improve one bit at a time.
If I can identify very specific things to focus my attention on and improve, I think I can make more progress than if I just go “oh well, maybe the next one will look better.” I’m afraid of spending all this time and effort just practicing making bad drawings, so I want to make sure I use my drawing time as effectively as possible to learn and improve.
Day 21. Today I focused really hard on capturing the essence of the gesture, trying to find the right lines to describe the flow of the form. Glenn Vilppu makes it look straightforward, but it’s so much harder to find those best lines than it looks.
I also tried to slow down a bit and focus on accuracy, which is a challenge because I just want to get the drawing down.
I also tried to think about where my cross-contour lines should go. I think I can see the difference when I try to approach it this way. I will try my best to continue finding the best way to capture the form like this.
Day 20. Today I tried really slowing down. I paused the Daily Life Drawing session in various places to find poses, and really took my time to draw as carefully as I possibly could.
I really want to be able to capture the gesture as best I can, because that’s the basis for everything that follows. Without getting that crucial step right, it’s difficult to make a convincing drawing. So I will keep trying my best.
Day 19. My focus today was to try and slow down, stop rushing, and draw more carefully. I still feel like my lines are very rough, and I don’t really know how and where to draw them properly to best represent the figure.
I feel like I’m in a rut where my skill is so low, I don’t know what to do when I have 10 minutes to draw my last figure. The initial lay-in is so bad that additional time won’t improve it, because I’ve already put down bad fundamental lines. I don’t understand how to do the initial process well enough that extra time will produce a better drawing.
I am worried that because I am not on top of the process, I’m just practicing drawing badly every day and will just be stuck at this low skill level.
I wish I still had the “I can do this” feeling that came from imitating Vilppu’s lines. Perhaps it will come with far more mileage.
It’s certainly my intention to keep drawing every day, and just push through this rut. There’s absolutely no way I will ever improve if I simply give up.
Day 18. I’m disappointed with how I went today. Apart from getting a little mileage down, I’m not very happy.
I am tired from staying up late to keep drawing last night, so that’s probably made me draw carelessly today. Maybe I am rushing things a bit, but tiredness is probably a big factor here today. Maybe I’m also trying to work on too many aspects here at once. Perhaps I need to revisit basic 3D forms again. Today’s drawings I’m not very happy with.
Day 17. I spent all day drawing today, and it was great! I filled eight pages of my sketchbook (not all are shown). A lot of it was following along with Glenn Vilppu for the final chapter in the Dynamic Figure Drawing course.
I think I will need to work a bit more on consolidating the skills I learned in Dynamic Figure Drawing before I move onto Advanced Dynamic Figure Drawing or Renaissance Figure Drawing. All these pictures are imitations of Glenn Vilppu’s work, so I need to be able to do it on my own before I will feel ready for the next course.
My ultimate aim is to draw animals and fantasy creatures from imagination, but I view figure drawing as a way to learn the skills that I can apply to animal drawing.
Day 16. Today was all following Glenn Vilppu as he drew. I’d already attempted these poses on my own previously. At this stage, I want to keep trying and narrowing down my process so I can draw more cleanly.
I think I put down far too many lines, because I’m not finding the best line for the situation. Instead, I’m drawing about five lines to try and get the feeling that should be captured with one. Sometimes the lines go in the wrong direction and I try to fix it, but my second attempt goes too far the other way, so I try to fix it again, etc, etc.
I’m nearing the end of the Dynamic Figure Drawing course, but I think I will require a lot more practise before I feel like I’ve properly assimilated what I’ve learned. So I will keep going! It’s really enjoyable when I feel like I’m getting somewhere like this. I reckon I’m starting to see some results, which is exciting! I am well aware that I have a very, very long way to go, but I am determined to continue on with my best effort every day!
Day 15. I think I get my best results with a pen, and I enjoy using one. I continued the daily drawing session from yesterday and did a bit of the next one. I think I’m beginning to grasp some of the concepts of gesture, and I can get some of the mood and feeling of the figure. I’m still not there in terms of accuracy, but I intend to keep practicing!
I think it’s particularly helpful to have this daily commitment, otherwise there’s been so many days where I wouldn’t have bothered to draw because it’s late and I’m tired, or I didn’t have the time. This way, I’m -making- the time to do it, so I am definitely putting the hours into this. Even if it’s only 30 minutes a day, that’s 3.5 hours a week. So much better than 1-2 hours once a week. I’m sure it’s more helpful to do smaller, daily drawing sessions than longer, less frequent sessions.
Tomorrow I’ll have limited time too, but I want to see if I can spend a bit more time!
Day 14. I used the easel again today. First I copied Vilppu’s lines for the same session I tried on my own yesterday, then I tried a new set of figures until I ran out of energy for the day.
I feel like my lines are chaotic and sometimes they all meld into a mess that obscures the figure. I’d like to try and be a bit more purposeful with my lines.
Day 13. This is what I managed today. I’ve tried drawing on an easel and it feels very awkward. A flat surface is much more comfortable. I think I can maybe do a bit better than this, but this is what I came out with. At least I put some lines down today.
Day 12. It’s been another very, very busy day for me, leaving me tired when it was time to begin my drawing session. However I got through a 25-minute figure drawing session (Lilias from Daily Life Drawing Sessions). There’s not really that much to say about it, other than that I’m consolidating the skills I’ve been practicing. Those are: Describing the gesture and describing forms in 3D space.
I feel like I’m getting more accurate drawing with the pen from the shoulder, which surprised me! My lines are going where I intend a lot more of the time, so I’m really happy about that! Maybe I would get better results if I were to slow down a bit, as the lines of these drawings were put down very quickly.
I’ll see how I go tomorrow!
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