My goal: become a professional in 730 days (or less).
Day 1/730: Not much for the first day, but it's a start. I'm having trouble with sitting down and drawing all day long. Not enough stamina I guess.. Tried to do a quick digi portrait from a photo for the first time in my life. It looks like crap.
Nice studies dude. A great start to learn anatomy is the Andrew Loomis books (which you can download for free online) as well as Michael Hampton, Hogarth, Vilppu and loads others. Be sure to drop by the resources section too to find loads of good links also ;)
Keep it up dude.
(10-05-2012, 07:23 AM)Warburton Wrote: Nice studies dude. A great start to learn anatomy is the Andrew Loomis books (which you can download for free online) as well as Michael Hampton, Hogarth, Vilppu and loads others. Be sure to drop by the resources section too to find loads of good links also ;)
Keep it up dude.
Thanks for the comment man, and yeah I'll be sure to check those out.
Day 3/730: Today life got in the way.. Only did a couple of scribbles at work, and then when I got home I was way too tired to study. Ahh, excuses, excuses..
Good start! Painting from reference is all about blocking in major shapes first and modelling the big masses. No small details! Just a long, careful buildup. Think about where you place your values, don't just splatter around. it's tough at the beginning, but later its a piece of cake. Welcome.
P.S. When studying anatomy and dynamic human form - try Bridgman.
Hello friends.. I dissappeared so suddenly, and only after 3 days.. Like I've written in my last post, life got in the way.. I just could not commit to drawing every single day. Hell, there were times where I didn't draw anything for months..
A whole lot of new stuff happened and changed in my non-art related life. So I only drew from time to time, like a freakin hobbyist. But, that doesn't mean the journey is over. It's far from over, I'm back, and this time for good!
So here's some of the stuff I've done in the last period, starting from older to most recent. You can also see I started messing in 3d a little.. Anyways, it's all still child's play, but that's why I'm here on this forum :)
Well, this is kind of embarrassing... 7 years later.
I never followed through with this sketchbook, or with any meaningful practice and studies.. I don't think I've made any visible progress during these past 7 years actually.
Well, I did technically become a "professional" since I'm currently working full time as a freelance illustrator, working mostly on children's books. I've also worked for a couple of local art studios during these years and I have my very own website: aleksejkostovski.art. Lol.
But I'm still winging it and I never really got to an "industry standard" level, which was my goal at the time and still is. So I consider that a failure from my part. I literally wasted these past 7-8 years when I feel I could've achieved so much more.
What inspired me to get back here was Dave's recent tweet about his past paintings when he said he had used to do a lot of realistic rendering but later had decided to change his approach a bit.
He referred to those paintings as from a long time ago. To me it feels like that was yesterday. I was following his sketchbook on conceptart.org and I remember being so inspired watching him grow as an artist. I literally watched his amazing progress as it was happening, while I stayed at the same level and still to this day I can't even dream to paint like he did back then. That's crazy to me, like I got stuck in time.
I don't think I will ever be at his level though. That's not the point. The point is that I failed myself and I didn't give it my all, I never went all in and I'm always starting and then stopping. I'd give everything to go back in 2013 again and never stop. To anyone reading this that's just starting out, remember to never, ever stop once you set your mind on something. Never procrastinate. You'll only waste time you'll never be able to get back.
So I'm back on the forum and I'll try to stick with a daily studying/drawing/practicing schedule. I'm currently going through "Fun With a Pencil" by Loomis. So here are the last few pages of that. And the last illustration I did. Thanks for reading and I'll see you around
Welcome back, brother! It's so cool to see an "old-school Dagger" find his way back to the forums.
Time is a cruel mistress indeed. It will pass no matter what we do, so we must ensure that we make the most of it! I still remember watching Daves streams back in 2012 and thinking "By 2013-14 I will be a full-time professional for sure" ... However, it just never happened. It takes a LOT of work, and a LOT of luck to make it in this industry, but by working smart and hard, we can increase the chances! :)
Your latest picture is cool (no pun intended) but it lacks professionalism. The shapes are not solid, and the perspective seems quite off. I suggest you go back to the basics for a bit (which it seems you are already doing) and learn how to set up proper perspective grids and how to compose an image. After that, you can begin a process of project-based learning to fill in your knowledge-gaps and create better and better images.
Don't worry about that i am here for 7 years and i didn't even tried to apply for a art job yet.Even if i was here for so long it still something hard to focus on the right stuff.Atleast your on the right track by wanting to see thing change.What gonna be the hardest is to get rid of some old habit you might have pick up from those years and shed a new skin.Don't look back to much just learn from your mistake there is no use in trying to go back in time.
Welcome back buddy, i know what it feels to waste time, i felt off the bandwagon and only recently started again ! if i could go back 10 years ago and start again, i'd have chased drawing instead of pussy ... It takes courage to put ego aside and come back seven years later buddy, now it's time to go crazy and make great art !
learn from your past self without being held back by it, push forward like you are and get it done now.
if you want to raise the level of your rendering, I recommend you sit with a piece and push it as hard as you can even if it takes 200 hours. You need to push your standard to the next level once before you can do it consistently, and knowing you've done it once can be empowering for the next image.
good luck to you, reflect on the self deceit that we are all guilty of, and check yourself regularly best you can.. and of course you can achieve your goals
I'm glad to hear's you're back at it nE0n1nja! I myself quite art for about a year or so due to becoming demotivated. Now that I'm back at it I'm just trying not to focus on what I should have done and blah, blah, blah, but just trying to put one foot in front of the other and focus on what is the next step I should take in order to make an improvement. Wish you all the best in your journey! And keep posting!
Also, if you're a Bobby Chiu fan take a look at this video, it super inspirational and talks about his journey as an artist and all the setbacks he had to face for years to make it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fmjZAbVPbA
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