Need more mana!

[DomSinkevic]

After being a little bit more than a year with the daggers (though joining the forums later) I have finally decided on making a deathline! My deathline span will be one year long and will start at January 1st.
So here we go:

1)Art/Productivity
The biggest part of this is changing working gears, last year I spent too much time doing unnecessary activity, procrastinating too much. So first and most important is to spend less time on distractions and more time on consuming knowledge and practice. 1st goal of the year is to finish my portfolio till the end of the winter. I was putting it for too long and it is time to just end it! After finishing the folio I need to take up the guns and study anatomy, it is one of my biggest flaws , other than than I am determined on expanding my visual library. Help is always welcome, so I welcomed a software. Cold Turkey it is called, it helps you concentrate on the task by blocking "procrastination websites". Oh yeah! Almost forgot! Being more active on the forums, starting with this post!

2)Physical/Mental Health
Well I'll be following all listed above, that's great, but I'm a human not a machine, doing those things needs a lot of concentration, self discipline and sitting in one place for hours. To prevent me from rotting I need to exercise! Yep, each day! Other thing I need to fix is my weight problem, and no it is not that I am overweight, but on the contrary I need to gain some (And I'm not planning adding fat by eating junk food). Being underweight been problem for a long time and it needs to stop. Also taking more serious care of my skin, I have acne, not horrible one, but still annoying, it needs to stop. And the last but not the least on the list is expanding my vocabulary, reading books, speech development.

tl;dr

-Be more productive
-Finish my portfolio till the end of winter
-Learning anatomy fundamentals
-Expanding my visual library (to create better concept)
-Less distraction time
-Exercise each day
-Gain some mass
-Deal with acne
-Enhance my vocabulary

Some of them maybe won't make sense for you and I apologize for that (in my head they do). I might add some more goals overtime, but for starters it's ok! I'll be updating this thread every 2 months on my ups and downs.
Good luck for everyone else!

[bemota]

Awesome things here! Also, quite inspirational.

We believe in you!

[DomSinkevic]

Thanks Bemota, a lot of appreciation!

As 2 months passed, it is time to update my progress, compare past to the present, and see the ups and downs. The battle between productivity and laziness is still not at the dawn, I'm fighting the urge just to lie down and watch a movie. But the struggle just began! And I'm ready to fight!

1)Nevertheless my productivity is better than ever before, and I'm happy to say it- I finally finished a decent portfolio, here it is: portfolio ! Even though it is only 4 artworks, more coming soon! I remembered first time stumbling upon Crimson Daggers, when they were doing a contest called Bloodsports! ( Bloodsports 3) Nostalgic feeling came upon me and I always regretted not doing the bloodsports, so here's a chance! I decided to come back to the contest and do them all! As it comes to anatomy studies, I started doing more figure drawing and face studies. Visual library wise I started to gain some more understanding what I want to achieve in my concepts, sketching in the tube, museums, streets, thinking what makes a particular piece appealing to me has helped me tons!!

2) My face is gradually getting better, acne is disappearing. Mass gain is something to be expected! :( And the exercise isn't daily but steadily it became from once a month to once a week to once every 3 days! - though I still need to come close as once per day. Enhancing my vocabulary is something I must work on the most, work for university and evil procrastination had made me busy, so I need to take a grip of myself and go reading books!

Overall my deathline is coming to fruition, not entirely, but steadily improving.
Here's a motivational video to spice up the ending of the post!

Bye!

P.S.
Trying to be more active on the forum! Posting something in my sb soon!

[dave]

Just for note, don't exercise when you're sore.

For weight gain I suggest cutting down on the pasta/bread/wheat type and avoid vegetable, canola, and soybean oils. Those either make you overweight or make underweight, and the latter happened to me. I began gaining to a healthy weight once I stopped eating so much of those. It also helps with energy because I wasn't so hungry all the time, and perhaps skin too. For acne, I can confidently recommend the aztec clay: http://shop.walgreens.com/store/c/aztec-...09-product
You can probably find it in any drugstore. No one has to know you do face masks lol. Good luck with your goals.

[anzhou]

Awaiting your post in your sketchbook!

Keep the fire burning man

I used to have terible acne until I started drinking a glass of bittergourd juice every morning. Just the raw stuff chuck the veg into the blender and chug it down. Not a pretty sight but it worked for me :)



All the best with your Deathline!

[DomSinkevic]

Thank you guys! Your suggestions helped I gained some weight! All is good exercising regularly, eating healthy and acne is less of a problem now! I've been somewhat productive, doing a lot of sketches in my sketchbook, my laptop broke down so I can't paint digitally till I got back to my hometown and get it fixed. Vanderpoel has a great book on anatomy I recommend everyone to check it out! Other than that sorry for the short post. When I'll get my laptop fixed I'll post some stuff :)

[aks9]

Hey DomSinkevic! I just wanted to say thanks for posting that inspirational video, it got me out of a rut today. Great to hear about your progress and efforts with your Deathline : )

[DomSinkevic]

Hello guys again! Glad to be of service aks9 :)
Yay! Update!
I just realized today that 2 months have passed since the last update! A lot happened pass this months; I finished my 2nd year at uni (aw yeah) and went back to my country. Drawings goes slow, studying too. But now I am getting back to it, after going St. Petersburg in Russia and visiting The State Hermitage Museum, my mind has restarted. That trip gave me so much motivation! These last days I got done more that I did in few weeks time. So yeah! Feeling reincarnated to a better person! My body mass going up and steady, exercise is going not as I intended, but it's getting there :). Acne treatment is going really well! Apart from that I got into habit to write an idea for a story every night and it's going great! I am planning on doing a short story with illustration for my last year of uni, so getting ready for that! Alright then, my vocabulary did not improve as much as I perceived, but nevertheless the deathline is coming along nicely.
Enough about me.
I wanted to show you this short film, it's really cool:


Keep on drawing, have fun and stay healthy!
-Dom

[DomSinkevic]

Well, well, well... Posting 1 day late... Shame!

Another 2 months have passed and things didn't change much. Getting ready to go back to London, looking for a room to rent, packing things etc. I stopped writing stories every evening, after 40 days straight of writing stories I had a lot to choose from. I only started writing those to help me choose some A story for my uni project and I did! For the past 2 month I've been doing research on that. Drawing goes pretty well, considering my stagnation during the previous months. To keep this brief I made a list:

Productivity - meh
Anatomy- so so
Visual library improvement- pretty good actually
Less distractions- going badly
Exercising - going well
Gaining wanted mass - going really good!
Deal with acne - medicine doing things properly!
Enhanced vocabulary- you tell me? lol

Hmmm a video....


Keep on drawing ppl!
Dom

[DomSinkevic]

Here we go!

This post will contain the summary of the whole year.
Less than one hour left till 2014 here in UK, oh boy can't wait! Although as much I wait for the next year to come, I cannot leave my former behind without being honest with myself and writing down the overall 2013-progress. Get set, ready, GO!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let us start with the downers, the productivity I wanted to achieve was not achieved. That is the biggest hit, it was my most desirable determinations to get. Here in the forums, I did not post frequently and I am positive that there are a lot of new amazing peeps with amazing works! I will definitely after wrapping up with this will go and check the progress, you, daggers, made. Exercise did not go so well, I failed miserably, nothing to add to that. Learning to draw the human figure did not go as bad, but I perceived my skills to be better by the end of the year and they did not. My Underweight problem has gotten less of a problem gradually. Acne problem did not went away, but it did not became a bigger problem, using my meds, they keep it stable, my doctor said it will continue till I will be 30+, so fight on!

Now for the ups, my vocabulary improved a lot, read more books, spoke to a lot of people and am in a process of writing my own story, so hurray! Visual Library definitely improved, discovered so many great artists, sketched in various places, saw things, new things! I could tell you that this was the biggest success of them all. With health still in mind I did a good job on cutting off junk food out of my diet. Before, I occasionally went to buy my dose of fast food (6 wings and chips/french-fries), now I rarely even look at that direction, staying hydrated eating a lot of fruit and vegetables.

In conclusion I would like to congratulate everyone who did better than me, and for those who did worse - I hope you'll step up your game as I do with in my next years resolution.

Let me get a glass of water and start on the next post.

---

Let us continue.

This post is all about 2014 and my imaginative fireplace.

As my internal battles are going from previous years I will add some more wood into the fire. First block of wood, but of course - productivity, the main issue which is always haunting me is laziness. And of course the change won't be instant, but gradual (I'll chop that block into smaller pieces to let the flames spread). Adding another block - line quality. I love to sketch, I really do, but I often find myself pressing too hard the pencil onto the paper or making "chicken scratches" all over the place. To keep the fireplace flaming on throughout the year I will not throw all the wood block at once, the fire would not get enough oxygen! Blocks of anatomy studies with a lot other stuff will go into the fire too! The fire won't be stagnant, but it will fly from place to place, visit interesting areas and while doing so, it will get healthier and exercise much more! Each fireplace is each life and the more you add to it the more beautifully it burns. Alas, every fireplace ends to burn and once it is so, it better be a big pile of the most beautiful ash humanity has ever seen...

Well it took me longer than expected, 7 minutes after new year... Happy new year!

[DomSinkevic]

Hi! It has been a year!
Time flew by this year and lots of things happened, so before I’ll get into my brand sparkly new deathline I would like to recap the previous one.
The goals of 2014 were:

• Improve line quality
• Improve on anatomy
• Travel to places
• Be healthy
• Excercise

2014 was a rollercoaster, up and down all the time, it was crazy. Even though my memory is fuzzy how the first months passed by I remember panicking and writing a dissertation about Frank Frazetta for my graduation. Later on I was working on a final major project, the project consisted of me writing, illustrating and making a book. That was a success at the end, there was an exhibition and I finished the university.

Yay, right? Not really.

Graduating meant I needed to find freelance gigs fast, even thought I was preparing for it beforehand and started looking two months before actually graduating it was more difficult than I thought. At the same time my exercising and eating healthy kicked into the top gear, I started jogging and exercising every day and eating healthier. The line quality didn’t improve as much as I would like to, anatomy is on the same boat. Not getting enough freelance had me not travelling as I wanted, but hey, sometimes I need to learn things the hard way. Overall productivity was unsufficient for me to stay in London so I went back to my hometown. Right now I’m at my parents place, honing my skills and trying to get sustained with freelance. Stopped watching anime, only recently watched an anime about classical music, because classical music. I feel kind of pressured even if my parents aren’t nagging me every day, all day. Love them, supportive, but I can’t depend on them for the rest of my life.
So the time line looks like this:

January-April: Dissertation, procrastination and panicking.

April-June: Finishing my Final Major Project and other projects for graduation. Oh… and procrastination.

June-September: I finished university, worked out in a park a lot, did freelance there and here and even more procrastination

October-End of the year: Going to the pool, being cold and trying to improve my skills. Did I mention procrastination?

So that’s about it. Onto next year!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Past years I really liked to stretch and poeticize my posts. This year I’ll be brief and direct. So this year I’ll do points:
• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
• Provide evidence of improvement
• Reduce the amount of bad habits
• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
• Eat healthy
• Exercise
• Read/listen to more books
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
• Overall get better at drawing and painting
• Get sustaining at freelance
• Start learning to play on a piano
• Improve on anatomy
• Improve on colour
• Improve on line quality

This time I made it before 12.00 pm.
Happy New Year and be stronk!

[DomSinkevic]

Hello! The forum is finally up, so it's time for an update.

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Doing it now so +

• Provide evidence of improvement

Video:


• Reduce the amount of bad habits
Better, but not ideal

• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
Better, but not satisfactory

• Eat healthy
+

• Exercise
Was doing daily before hurting my wrist, last weeks couldn't put pressure on my right hand.

• Read/listen to more books
Almost finished with "Inheritance Circle" 3rd book and halfway through "Creative Illustration" by Loomis. Re-read on a bus "How to steal like an artist", halfway through the book "Digital Character Painting using Photoshop Cs3" by Don Seegmiller. Oh almost forgot, finished also "How To Double Your Power To Learn" by Eugene M. Shwartz.

• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
None yet, gotta step it up.

• Overall get better at drawing and painting
+

• Get sustaining at freelance
-

• Start learning to play on a piano
Can't get a hold of my keyboard atm, in the best scenario will get it in march.

• Improve on anatomy
Watching Hampton, leg muscles are difficult to draw.

• Improve on colour
Watched Mike Azevedo's colour tutorial, really good

• Improve on line quality
Need to get practicing that asap.

[DomSinkevic]

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Yep. Little late, sorry.

• Provide evidence of improvement
Dammit. No excuses.

• Reduce the amount of bad habits
Same as previous month.

• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
Same.

• Eat healthy
+

• Exercise
-

• Read/listen to more books
Been reading little less, need to step it up.

• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
atm 0/15

• Overall get better at drawing and painting
Won't know until I finish some pieces.

• Get sustaining at freelance
Not yet.

• Start learning to play on a piano
Just got back home. Need to find the electric piano.

• Improve on anatomy
+

• Improve on colour
No progress.

• Improve on line quality
Better

Have a nice month!

P.S. Tower broke, so only have slower laptop to work digitally. Still satisfactory. :)

[DomSinkevic]

Damn, gotten really busy, have a potential consistent commissions. Excited!
Got my tower fixed, working on a personal piece when I can will post it this month.

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Late again.

• Provide evidence of improvement
Been over cumbered with stuff I cant show.

• Reduce the amount of bad habits
Same as previous month.

• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
Same.

• Eat healthy
+

• Exercise
-

• Read/listen to more books
Haven't read in march at all. I see a pattern here by now, it seems I need to time manage better.

• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
Atm 0.5/15

• Overall get better at drawing and painting
I feel that my rendering is tad improved, happy about it.

• Get sustaining at freelance
Potential win soon.

• Start learning to play on a piano
Again, need to manage the time better.

• Improve on anatomy
+

• Improve on colour
No progress.

• Improve on line quality
The type of commissions I'm doing really help me with this actually

Overall, better time management needs to take place over the current one. Thanks for stopping by!


--

[DomSinkevic]

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Late again.

• Provide evidence of improvement
+

• Reduce the amount of bad habits
+

• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
+

• Eat healthy
+

• Exercise
-+

• Read/listen to more books
-
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year



• Overall get better at drawing and painting
+

• Get sustaining at freelance
+

• Start learning to play on a piano
-

• Improve on anatomy
-

• Improve on colour
+

• Improve on line quality
+

[DomSinkevic]

Commission taking almost all of my time, can't seem to have energy and time to do some of the stuff I want. Guess will need to make time!

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Late
• Provide evidence of improvement
-
• Reduce the amount of bad habits
+-
• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
-
• Eat healthy
++
• Exercise
+
• Read/listen to more books
-
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
1/15
• Overall get better at drawing and painting
+-
• Get sustaining at freelance
+
• Start learning to play on a piano
-
• Improve on anatomy
+
• Improve on colour
-
• Improve on line quality
++

[DomSinkevic]

Extremely late with the update with no reason for it to be so. What is new is that I had bad allergies last week, I failed to do anything of value during June. Trying to learn blender so I can make architectural structures faster.

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Late
• Provide evidence of improvement
-
• Reduce the amount of bad habits
--
• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
--
• Eat healthy
++
• Exercise
+-
• Read/listen to more books
+-
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
1/15
• Overall get better at drawing and painting
-
• Get sustaining at freelance
+-
• Start learning to play on a piano
-
• Improve on anatomy
+-
• Improve on colour
+-
• Improve on line quality
-

In conclusion I am bummed out, but I need not to delve on the mistakes and learn from them. Moving forward.

[DomSinkevic]

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
Almost on time!
• Provide evidence of improvement
-
• Reduce the amount of bad habits
+
• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
+
• Eat healthy
++
• Exercise
-
• Read/listen to more books
+-
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
1/15
• Overall get better at drawing and painting
+
• Get sustaining at freelance
+-
• Start learning to play on a piano
-
• Improve on anatomy
+-
• Improve on colour
++
• Improve on line quality
+

Overall happy with the progress in July. Doing an awesome thing for august excited!

[DomSinkevic]

• Consistently update this thread (monthly)
+
• Provide evidence of improvement



• Reduce the amount of bad habits
++
• Get rid of some addictions (Ex. YouTube)
++
• Eat healthy
++
• Exercise
-+
• Read/listen to more books
++
• Have at least 15 finished personal piece till the end of the year
2/15
• Overall get better at drawing and painting
++
• Get sustaining at freelance
+-
• Start learning to play on a piano
-
• Improve on anatomy
++
• Improve on colour
++
• Improve on line quality
++

Hell yeah!

[Punk-A-Cat]

wow.. WOW.. *cough* .. show that you are doing work.. WOW! Go you good thing!