AlCo's Sketchbook

[AlCo]

Hey man, thanks for the comments in my sketchbook. I really feel you, it's quite a struggle trying to learn how to draw with a job on the go ^^; I went through the same thing. Most important is consistency in your practice, which it sounds like you are - even if it's just an hour a day, as long as you maintain that you will improve.

With regards what / how to practice and study plans and stuff. Look at what you want to get better at, and figure out what you need to do to get better at it and steadily go through obtaining that knowledge (a lot of this stuff is learning how all the specific bits and pieces look and fit together, which is a visual memory and problem solving thing).

For drawing the human figure you need to learn: gesture, body masses (head, pelvis, ribcage + arms + legs), skeleton (just a simplified one) and the superficial muscles. So I'd say do around 10 minutes of your line exercises, 10 - 20 minutes of gestures, then spend the rest of your drawing time focusing on something specific (e.g. the skeleton, muscles of the torso, posing a simplified figure with good proportions etc.). Be clear in your mind what you want to get out of any practice / drawing session, have a goal what you want to learn from it.

What I do, is I have a doodling sketchbook that I keep around for whenever I have some short, free time and doodle around in it drawing stuff from memory, posing characters from imagination and practising anything I've recently studied. It helps consolidate what you've learned, and more importantly, exposes the weak areas you need to look at more. You can carry that with you in the day and doodle in it whenever you get free time at lunch or on the bus or whenever.

Hope that helps! Any more specific questions please ask anytime.

Wow, thanks for the time you took to write this, I appreciate it a lot! You practically wrote me the sort of drawing routine I was looking for :) you made one for yourself am I wrong? 

I think I need to break down things in small argument and focus on that for X period of time; like you said, tackling for example one part of the human body and really try to discern it and understand how it works!

A brute force will is required, I'll try and do:

1 - Warm ups (ellipses, boxes, lines, circles) for about 10 minutes as you suggested
2 - Gesture drawings for about 20-30 minutes (with reference)
3 - Head? Should I focus on the overall shape of the head before thinking about every single element? (nose, eyes, mouth, chin, forehead, ecc). 
4 - Drawing from imagination the things I just drew? In order to solidify and check if I understood, drawing without any references? Does it help me? I fear it will be a hell of a mess xD

Wow, that's overwhelming but I feel kinda excited! Hope this isn't some sort of initial sprint that will transform into frustration right when I start xD

Thanks again though man, I really needed a group people to confront with, I want to improve, I want it!