Getting Back in the Game

I haven't drawn anywhere near as much as I'd like to these past few years.

I want to change that!

I'd love to grasp a better understanding of constructing with shapes (whether that be humans, animals, or otherwise), and I'd love for my work to feel less stiff. And so... here we go!

Aug28 - Sep02

Sep03 - Sep09

Sep10 - Sep14

Any feedback is welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing where I am six months from now. Cheers! o/

Hello! Your work is lovely. : ) Your anatomy work looks pretty solid already so I think just keep going and I'm sure it will get even better. Some of your figures do look a little stiff compared to others, but I'm not sure why. I actually have a problem where my sketches are lively, but when I go to refine them I lose some of the motion and they become stiff. I think I needed quicker movements during the refining processes to keep the motions in the sketches. Using a brush pen helped me too because it wasn't as static as a fine tip marker. I think if you pushed the poses on the figures that feel stiff that would help too.

Hey Windmillkey! I love it! you're practicing supereffectively! :3 One thing you should keep in mind is that if you draw the same size you can get stuck drawing that size - so vary the sizes of your drawings. These small figures are also hard to critique, just a thought. anyways keep it going

@madammallow ~ thank you! I've been trying these past couple days to have a second look at certain poses that feel like they could have been pushed more and giving them a second shot... it's still so difficult to think, 'no, no, you can change this! you don't have to draw it exactly as you see it!' But trying to consciously push more poses will prove a useful exercise, methinks ovo~! (I may have to give a brush pen a shot once I've got more disposable income too~ we'll see! experimenting is fun)

@line ~ Thanks! I had/have no idea what counted as practising effectively, but I knew i wanted to try and switch things up more frequently than not s: and size is definitely a part of that! A good point. I struggle to give the figures room to breathe - I'll try and keep a better on that in the future. (I think... part of that is I'm cheap and want to conserve paper but really it's a cheap newsprint book I got on sale so I'm sure I can afford a bit more space ahahah). I'll see about more visible sizes for potential future crits~

Aaaand a new batch for Sep 15 - Sep19 ;; started using pen today and yesterday and it's felt refreshing and fun~

The 15th-17th were, on the other hand, increasingly frustrating. It feels like I'm focusing by far too much on negative space and the relation between where things are, whereas I wanna learn more how the shapes work and connect,,, hrm. anyway, just some musing aloud~ Onward!

Mmmn. Trying to draw bigger is a harder habit to ease into than I anticipated, it keeps creeping smaller haha. I'll see what i can manage for this next week. In any case... blergh. Some stuff I like about this past week, and some stuff I'm really bleh about... Feels like I've been floundering about in a lot of hesitation;;

That aside, it's been a month straight since I've gotten back into drawing \o/ on to the next!

Sep 20, Sep 22-26

Sep 21

I’m focusing on the late September sketches...

My art teacher in high school was super mean. We had to carry a huge half sheet size sketchbook and work on figures at full size. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It was hard, and it felt weird. But I learned a lot by drilling big movements. It also drove me batshit as a kid because my art supplies came out of my own money, which was... not much. If you can swing $5-$10 for a ream (500 sheets) of copy paper that should help with the feeling of not having enough paper so you can face doing one figure to a sheet. If you need something sturdier than copy paper but still cheap, Canson XL mixed media tends to be the cheapest stuff I know that can handle being hit with watercolor. It’s not great watercolor paper, but it’s sturdy enough to handle stuff like a Pentel Pocket Brush, and you can get up to around half sheet sizes.

The other option to fight the tinies is to work digital. Give yourself a big canvas, and treat each layer as a fresh sheet of paper.

I think a lot of the stiffness you’re feeling is that you’re trying to fit your ideas in a small space. Your ideas are not small ok? They deserve space.

Thank you Torrilin!
I tried to take your advice to heart and fought my way up to working bigger over the past week-ish @v@;;
which did include in part going back to digital (... pardon the rust though, hadn't touched the ol' tablet much over the past year, and especially not much since starting these art studies) -- the digital pictures were drawn much bigger than they are in the linked pics, given their own canvas space and room to breathe (: then I shrank n compiled em together~

anyway;;

Sep 27-Oct 01

Oct 02-Oct 06

Cheers~ hope everyone's day treats them well.