Do or die (this year)

[Tygerson]

Goals for this year:

(DONE) Work through a book on perspective ("Perspective without pain")
(DONE) Work through "Human Anatomy for Artists" by Szunyoghy and Feher
(In progress) Work through "Figure Drawing for all it's worth" by Loomis

From May 30 - December 31, log AT LEAST 125 hours of art practice (5 hours per week).

This is the first page of my current sketchbook. It's where I log hours spent, starting with the cumulative from before. A dot is 15 minutes, a line is 1 hour. Watching a tutorial does NOT count as practice, unless I'm drawing along with it.




I also put inspirational quotes, music to work to, wishlists for art instruction books/classes (Crimson Dagger mentoring/class is on there!), etc. It gets super messy by the end of the book's life. I counted the 1,400 hours of photomanipulation I've done as "art time," so sadly the 1,700 is not all drawing. But I don't chop anymore, so it's all drawing now.

[Tygerson]

One month update.

I'm on track for the 125 hours in 6 months. (28 hours this month, where a minimum of 21 was needed to be on track.) It's not a lot, but it's something. It warms my heart to see all those little tally marks.

I made it through page 65 of Loomis figure drawing book, but am taking a break to do the "In yo face" portrait assignments, which look really cool. (6 months of mostly the human figure starts to get a little old.)

[Tygerson]

End of July update:

To be on track for my hours, I needed 42 logged at this point. I currently have 69 hours since end of May.
Loomis is on hold for now. I deleted my digital copies, since they are back in print.
I'm working on "In yo face" assignment #4.

Still tallying those precious hours...
At 250 hours a year, it will take another 9 years to hit 4000 hours (proficient), and a whole lot more to reach the fabled 10,000 (amazing). The goal is to surpass that hour/year rate, but at least maintain it as a minimum standard.

[Tygerson]

End of August, 100 hours since start of June, which is way better than I thought I'd do. I'm still working through helmighs "In yo face" assignments.

As you can see, my two year old got into the sketchbook with a set of crayons. Couldn't blame her--she was so excited to draw.

[Tygerson]

Made it to 128 hours.

Met the 125 hour by end of year goal already, fell short of unofficial 134 hours by the end of sept goal.

[Wolkenfels]

congratz on reaching your practise goal! I think counting the time may be a good measurement.
Keep your pace!

[Zachary McLean]

Awesome. Love seeing people's goals. Remember, "quality over quantity" as for the hours you spend on your art, but I'm not saying your not making quality work, because I haven't seen any! (I'd be interested if you could, post some work ever so often) anyways, Keep it up and I like how you keep track of the time.

[Tygerson]

@Wolkenfels: Thanks! Concrete, easy to measure goals are the best!

@Zachary: Thanks also! The quality is still lacking, but I do post some practice in my sketchbook. Although I don't post a lot of tutorial practice (e.g. Proko or Sycra tutorials).

[jeremygordon89]

Good goal! It looks like you're putting in good effort. Also, I have to agree with Mclean. Number of hours is important, but only if it's spent in an efficient manner. Keep it up!

[vytalia]

I like counting hours too! It's nice to have a concrete way to quantify effort.

[Tygerson]

Thanks guys!

I ended the 6 months with 185 hours, spent mostly on anatomy studies, the In yo face portrait class, a bit of painting, and lots and lots of figure drawings. Mostly I'm just keeping up a slow but consistent pace until there's more time in my life for art.




On to 2014! Gotta think of some new goals, maybe involving more color work.

[devinn]

Fantastic job! This commitment and desire to keep art in your life and the ability to achieve the goals you set out for yourself....it really gets my allergies going, man; eyes are getting a bit watery.