Getting focused!

[JyonnyNovice]

Wrote up a study timetable for myself, since I've been working on a few different skill areas I don't want to neglect any of these fundamentals while I study a new thing.

Will aim to do at least one of each of the weekly goals each week, that leaves two days to play with in case I need to work late or look after the little lady or something. If I don't manage all 5 it's no big deal, I'll just start with whatever I missed the following week.

Daily goals I'll do everyday (obviously...) but the weekly goals take priority. Unless I'm dead tired in which case I'll relax with one of the daily goals.

I'll tick them off each week in my sketchbook, hopefully this will ensure I'm creating the most value with my studies.

It's just a bit of text at the end of the day though, so if I'm on a roll with one particular study area I can ignore the timetable and continue with it the next day.

WEEKLY (do one session of each of these every week)

- Anatomy
- Heads
- Perspective
- Colour / value
- Extra (anything of particular interest i.e drapery, manga, animals, etc.)

DAILY (aim to do at least one of these daily, gestures / imagination most important ones)

- Gestures
- Imagination
- Draw from life (human / non-human / organic / inorganic)
- Exercises (lines, circles / ellipse, texture, shapes / contours etc.)

[JyonnyNovice]

I'm revising this study schedule, the above one didn't work out for various reasons; I can fit in on average 1 - 3 hours of drawing time each day and doing just one session of each thing per week made progress really slow and I got pretty demotivated.

After doing this inktober challenge this month and focusing solely on inking everyday I've seen such a huge improvement in that area since October 1st. So following the challenge I'm going to designate a study area each month and focus almost exclusively on that.

October:

- Inktober inking practice

November:

- Anatomy / Figure drawing / characters:

- Daily schedule:
- 20 minutes gestures / croquis / timed quick sketches,
- 20 minutes hands or portrait
- Studying from Hampton
- Rest of the time: one longer figure drawing / figure drawing from imagination / character design

- Supplement:
- Ink at least 3 drawings each week

December:

- Perspective:

- Finish working through How to Draw
- Perspective practice - try to focus equal time on Buildings / Interiors / Boats / Vehicles / Environments
- (quick sketches from photo's / life then reconstruct from memory in perspective a la Hobitt's awesome sketchbook)

- Supplement:
- Ink at least 3 drawings each week, make time for gestures / figure practice

January:

- Rendering:
- Buy and work through How to Render by Scott Robinson

- Supplement:
- Inking, figure drawing, perspective based construction

February:

- Making Comics by Scott McCloud:
- Work through this book, pulling together previous 3 months studies to practice drawing comic panels

March:

- Colour
- Finish working through Gurney's Colour and Light
- Pull together figure drawing, perspective, rendering, comic book style composition while learning how to paint in colour

It's a six month plan, I'm pretty excited to see where I'm at come the end of March 2015! Wish me luck ^__^

[JyonnyNovice]

I got a few months behind with the above schedule, I am still sticking to it just not trying to do each thing in a month like I planned. Will finish How to Draw, at end of Feb by the latest, then will move onto How to Render or Making Comics for March - not sure which yet.

Here is my new study plan, I just post these here for me so I can see it quickly but if it's useful for anyone else then I'm glad : )

I read the text on P 105 of How to Draw and decided it's a great way to expand visual library and have good designs to pull out of your head. Basically he talks about studying a topic (in his case an architecture style) for two weeks, doing a lot of studies and imaginative stuff based on it, then after two weeks produce a finished drawing from imagination using everything you got from the study period. I've expanded that to include other things I want to develop a visual library for (read below and it'll make sense)

[NinoKitteN]

I think I like the boiled down timetable ( first one ) . I'm gonna follow that one.