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03-26-2014, 07:01 PM
Hello all,
I've finally decided to create a sketchbook! Long story short:
I've always wanted to draw... but I just never really did it. I have drawn in the past, but I never actually sat down and studied hard. I never spent hours trying to hone my skills. I guess I just never felt like I could do it.
I want to prove to myself that YES, yes I can do it! I've had an extreme wave of motivation wash over me and I'm tired of wasting time.
Will you guys and gals join me in my adventure of rising from the ranks of a total noob? I plan on drawing every day and posting (at minimum) once a week.
Updates will follow later today!
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How to improve general and art focus
The first step part
Make sure you're mentally and physically ready.(make all the necessary to boost you're self esteem )
The social part
Talk to someone who is doing what you want to do ― One of the biggest timesavers (and confidence boosters) when setting out to learn something new is to talk to someone who has already mastered what you want to do.
Take art class to meet local artist
The time management part
Do Checklist of thing to do
The most important part
Draw until you die(as much as possible)this is the main key to improve drawing skill
Be smart part
Accept the risks arising from a decision.
See mistake as a way to improve something.(you don't need to be perfect )
Simplify you're working method.(shortcut)
Do not copy someone be yourself.(we are what we are)
Avoid distraction.
Avoid focusing to much on detail.
Learn to say no.
Be aware of the time.
Avoid being lonely for to long.
Avoid negativity.
Avoid unsupportative or negative people.
Do not expect people to approve all the choose you make.
Do not expect people to make you feel good but be good to yourself.
Face you're fear
You mustn't rest on your laurels.
Remember to avoid old mistake and take note(note are important is not like a flow of idea that you need to remember it on paper so you just need to make a clear name for each category of thing you want ro remember)
Find someone who will give you honest feedback in the same field you try to improve(do not take anything they say personal )
Measure your progress ― Keep an accurate journal of the progress you make. This will keep you on track to meet the learning timetable you've set for yourself. Follow this schedule religiously. Don't turn on the television or go to bed at night until you have completed each day's task.
Stay hydrated.
Stay healthy.
Sleep 8 hour.
Get resource part
Get useful tool to speed up learning curve
(book,tutorial,image bank,time management tool,use forum feedback)
The study part
Study the material more than once ― Often, when people take a course or read a book, they only go through it once. Yet, to really master the information, you need to go through it multiple times. You'll find you always learn something new and come away with a better understanding of your subject matter. Plus, make a note to go through the material again six or twelve months down the road or as need be.
Don't try to learn it all in one session ― studies was shown that learning is more effective when it is spread out over time rather than jammed into a grueling study session. (Picture a college student pulling an all-nighter.) This insight has been confirmed by other researchers since this discovery. So instead of reading a new program or "how-to" book over the weekend, you might want to pace yourself and set up scheduled study times over a number of days or weeks. Chances are, you'll wind up reducing your learning curve by taking a more measured approach.
Challenge yourself part
The Race is On
Compete against yourself to see how much you can get done of high value each day. Make it a game. Set schedules and deadlines for yourself and race against the deadlines. See if you can get more and more done in less time and improve your learning curve.
Develop a clear vision for yourself as a highly productive person. Think about the times in your life when you were most productive, effective and efficient. Think about those situations when you were doing the right things and you were doing them in the right way. You were getting a lot done in a short period of time. You felt terrific about yourself and your performance. You were in that magical state of “flow,” when you felt happy and exhilarated.
Work hard part
Work Harder to Increase Productivity
work harder at what you do. When you work, work all the time you work. Don’t waste time. Don’t look upon the workplace as an extension of school or university where you spend most of your time socializing with your friends. Instead, when you come into work, put your head down and work full blast for the entire day. This practice alone will enable you to increase productivity.
The work faster and better part
Work Faster with a Clear Vision
work faster. Develop a sense of urgency. Get on with the job. Don’t waste time. Develop and maintain a clear vision and a fast tempo in your work activities. Deliberately move faster from task to task. You’ll be amazed at how much more you’ll get done just by deciding to pick up the pace in everything you do.Understanding fast, think fast, act fast.Learn how to use keyboardshort cut .
Value what you do part
Chose High Value Projects
work on higher value activities(example:weakness or something you have interest in) Remember that it is not the number of hours you work that matters. Rather, it is the value of the tasks that you complete that counts. It is the quality and quantity of results that you achieve. The more time you spend on higher value tasks, the greater results you will obtain from every hour you put in.
The reward part
Showcase Your art so you feel proud of yourself(avoid being to proud it only to boost self esteem or else you will not improve as much as you can as i said in the smart part You mustn't rest on your laurels.)
Reward yourself
In order to motivate yourself, add in a reward for yourself at key achievement milestones. For instance, if the program you're learning is broken down into nine chapters, after completing the third, sixth, and ninth chapters, treat yourself to something special. It doesn't have to be big. It could be something like going out to dinner at your favorite restaurant or going to the theatre to see a movie.
Teach it to someone else part
Teach it to someone else ― A good way to test exactly how well you understand something is to try and teach it to someone else. There are two benefits to this. You will have to study more in order to put together the course material to teach it to someone else. And by actually teaching it to someone, you'll find you better understand and retain what you learn longer.
My Sketchbook
Perfection is unmeasurable therefor it impossible to reach it.
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Well I can't top what Darktiste wrote, but yeah, you just need to go for it, if you put in the effort you can cover alot of ground very quickly.
It's important to find a few artists you like and set them as a standard for improvement.
But be careful not to compare yourself too harshly to other people ahead of you, remember they
may have a decade or more over you in experience.
Even the best artists in the world started from nothing, I know I have to keep reminding myself this.
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Darktiste and Phil RT, thank you both very much! I wasn't expecting responses so soon.
I followed a tutorial for lips that used a grid. I feel a little happy with this one. I know it's not the best. I can see the mistakes, but I suppose it could always be a lot worse.
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Hm well you are clearly a beginner but you are better than me (also a beginner), I think you have talent, more talent than some people anyway!
Maybe learn anatomy?
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I will learn anatomy! :D I picked up quite a few art books to practice with!
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Hey ninemeltedfiction, thanks for stopping by. On your sketchbook darktiste pretty much nailed it. All I can add is work hard, every day, have patience and with that you'll succeed. Blast some 3 hour tunes and keep studying, that's what I do even today.
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Rafa Zanchetin: I need to make more time for myself to draw. I tend to give friends and family a lot of my time...
Speaking of that, I spent most of the day with my grandmother, so I didn't draw much. I know I need to draw more! I will draw for three hours tomorrow (day off)!
I have Dynamic Anatomy from Burne Hogarth. The back and torso are from that. The pod with bad glasses and the anime face is from my mind.
I really like Dynamic Anatomy. I want to spend my time tomorrow going through that book.
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Thanks for dropping by my sketchbook. Glad to see you start on fundamentals.
I'd suggest you start working on form (shape) rather the contour (lines). Rather than skipping to doing detailed anatomies, try drawing their basic shapes first.
A lot of the veteran daggers here have posted some good videos on youtube about anatomy. Sorry I can't remember the links at the top of my head and can't dig through the links at the moment; but try going through anatomy videos by Sycra and proko(?) before jumping immediately into Hogarth, Loomis, or Bridgman.
Sycra Yasin Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra
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Pictomancer: Thanks for the recommendations! I found myself getting really frustrated today and ripping pages out of my sketchbook while I was going through Dynamic Anatomy. I will check out Proko and Sycra tonight.
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I've been slacking over the past few days. Kinda been feeling unmotivated because it feels like I'm just grasping at straws at the moment. But I suppose it takes a bit of time for things to fall into place. Anyway, I've started Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I've seen both good and bad opinions on the book, but I've decided to see what it does for me.
From the book:
My horrid attempt at a self portrait. I honestly didn't want to post this. Looking at it makes me want to die. Looks nothing like me.
Had to draw a person from my mind.
Then my hand.
Looks like he's recovering from a stroke...
And here's my last attempt at something anatomical.
SONG OF THE DAY!
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It sure is not looking like a self portrait let me explain you why you still suffer from premade image you choose to draw from your imagination some aspect of that drawing rather then choosing to draw what you see.Exemple look at the eye the eye do not look like that.Also unless you have some weird ass nose the nose nostril do not show this much when the head is in this position.So my advice don't rush to get a result take pause if you feel frustrated and come back and the most important take time to look at the mirror and draw look at the mirror then draw and dont draw from mental image when drawing from life.Also adding construction line would help and pratice doing confident line because for the moment it needed.Don't be stress by all those thing i just said we all had this phase.
My Sketchbook
Perfection is unmeasurable therefor it impossible to reach it.
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Hey man, cool to see you start down on your path. Keep cranking out tons of drawings.
When I started out a book called "Keys do drawing" helped me out.
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Thanks guys!
Long story short, I've been drawing, not as much as I should have been, but I have been doing it. I hit a wall because I was pushing so hard with studies, I started to lose interest because I wasn't doing anything in tune with my own personal tastes. And I was nearly homeless, that added to it.
But now, here I am again. Home situation is good, I'm feeling good, it's all good.
Here's something I did tonight, just for fun. To kick off the reopening of this thread:
My first time using charcoal. I tried drawing one of the main characters from Saga as he appears on the Vol. 1 cover. I had a lot of fun doing this. (: I know it's not perfect, but I was trying to keep myself from focusing too much on getting things exact. Didn't turn out as bad as I was expecting!
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