Here I will post my daily exercises and any other work I produce. Expect lots of boring (to look at) fundamentals work!
I will post daily, even if it's just a few pages of basic stuff. Critique, tips, and pointers to improve my routine are very very welcome.
== Day 1 ==
I have just completed DrawABox's 250 box and 250 cylinder challenges, so it's time to incorporate boxes and cylinders into my permanent routine. Daily lines is #8 rather than #1 because I started doing it when I finished lesson 1. The red pen is my own comments when I catch myself screwing up.
I was having trouble with lines today, so curves had to go on their own page. I also had problems putting ellipses inside boxes for my cylinders (4 points of contact, rather than 2 points for a "free" cylinder), so I slowed my ellipses way down and added a Planes exercise to get more practice with that.
Didn't have time for insects today, which is terrible and sucks extra bad because I'm only two away from being done with the lesson. This is due to work (ughhhh... can't bring my sketchbook to meetings I have to lead) and my twice-a-week Krav Maga class (where I perform many actual punches to stay in shape).
All the dailies are still done. That is non-negotiable. I'm especially happy with my perspective boxes, as I've finally managed to reduce the spread to under 1"... and tomorrow, we shall see if this was dumb luck or I'm actually starting to get it.
It appears that Tuesdays and Thursdays are just going to be those kinds of days - I didn't get a chance to do anything today! I was so ready to lay in some animals...
My perspective boxes are holding up to scrutiny. A few more days like that and it will be time to up the challenge. I'm still having problems with long lines, though.
Your boxes are improving! I can see your line confidence growing.
Practice arcs/curves/ellipses more!
Your rendering in the focal areas on insects look great, esp. the June beetle! Keep punchingggg
You're doing great, your lines are looking very precise and well-defined. Your arthropods in particular look brilliant. If there's anything I would have to suggest, it's that you could perhaps do some personal pieces where you directly apply what you've learnt from doing these studies. Doing that will really help what you've learnt stick.
Thanks for all the encouragement, guys! I really appreciate it!
== Day 7 ==
I did not expect it to be this hard to get sketches in on weekdays. I think I'm going to change my routine to do a sketch before dailies (i.e. before I get dragged off to meetings). Tomorrow's Saturday, though; I should have plenty of time to draw.
All of my boxes in the perspective exercise were slanted with respect to the frame at a consistent angle. Here I go using other boxes for points of reference again. At least the perspective is still pretty good, with only a few stray lines.
I took StardustLarva's advice and started randomly mashing forms together in my sketchbook while riding the train today. I ended up with some sort of eldritch abomination... It's half-done right now, but here's some texture ideas I had for it.
That also made me realize I should do more organic form practice. I think I will replace the box-stream exercise with the organic form pile starting next week.
Today, a valuable lesson was learned. Never mash a bunch of organic forms together and then apply textures to them for fun. You will end up with something that will haunt your dreams.
Also, I absentmindedly did two pages of planes today. The more the merrier, I suppose!
Good to see that you have discipline to practice, but I feel that you could start to pay more attention to your lines. They feel almost like you were afraid to fuck up, mainly on the cilinders. People say that it's better to work with your whole arm and not only with the wrist/fingers. At first they will most likely trespass the planes that you drew, but with time you will start to get them right more often than not, and they will look more confident.
![[Image: 9HifZ85.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/9HifZ85.gif)
