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Some of you might recognize who I am. I was on the forum for a bit under the name Zearthus, then left. Kind of lost my way (well still am) and my attitude with talking to others peoples was just terrible, haha. It's a work in progress. But look forward to see where I go.
I started drawing on and off since childhood, and around 2014 June I started practicing seriously, by downloading resources online like ebooks, videos etc.
The only tools I currently have is a pencil, paper and the internet. I will be buying a tablet soon. Then around November 13, 2015 I stopped drawing, until February 13, 2016. So yeah.
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Tumblr
www.bnhermelijn.tumblr.com
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-5lBp9...eU6WU8v7Pg
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Hey dude welcome back! All you need is a pencil to learn ^^ so just keep them coming and the progress will come along.
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Welcome back mate! Nice sketches!
"Kind of lost my way (well still am) and my attitude with talking to others peoples was just terrible, haha"
I feel like maybe i can help give a bit of direction for what you should be studying, but im just curious as to what you mean with this? Do you have trouble taking on external feedback and implementing it, is it that you just don't show anyone your art?
Drawing out of perspective is like singing out of tune. I'll throw a shoe at you if you do it.
Sketch Book
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(05-11-2016, 03:29 PM)OtherMuzz Wrote: Welcome back mate! Nice sketches!
"Kind of lost my way (well still am) and my attitude with talking to others peoples was just terrible, haha"
I feel like maybe i can help give a bit of direction for what you should be studying, but im just curious as to what you mean with this? Do you have trouble taking on external feedback and implementing it, is it that you just don't show anyone your art?
With attitude I meant like been immature from time to time, but I guess that's something that sometimes get out of hand in all of us.
As for losing my way, I would say it's related to I do not know what I want to do with the skill, or I just haven't experimented with all of the areas yet.
The artworks/area I like the most is illustration, art works like (Loish, Rhads. Walent/Vladghenelli, sylar113, cushart) one thing they all have in common is they experiment a lot in a way.
In my case, due that I am mainly doing things I do not get the experience like digital painting, even though the medium shouldn't dictate that.. but yeah.
Probably I have been stuck with this kind of mindset of "I do not know which direction to take, but illustration is what I want to do" even though I am writing the answer it self... "illustration" so yeah. Not sure if all of this blabbering is making sense, but I am trying to figure out this month where to take this journey, since I have been practicing for quite some time with no sense of direction.
Any ideas/insights on how I can take this is always appreciated. Current tools is pencil and paper.
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Been there aswell tbh, doing studies just random and hoping for the best. If you don't know where to go try stuff out. You're leaning towards illustration. Then give it a go, join the crimson crucible and check out if you like that process of working. It lets you study with a purpose.
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I agree with @Brush, you could try Crucible! There's still time to join the current CC3, and you can absolutely use pencil as a tool.
I think trying different stuff is ok and even helpful in finding what you like to do most of all.
Hope to see more art stuff here!
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Hey Zearthus and now Hermidraws,
Ive always wondered where you have gone off to, Its weird to say that but I really do feel some connection with people here in the CD forums that I have conversed with to the point where I started wondering where did people go when they begin their inactivity.
anyways, ha, thats just cool man, We all have that kind of attitude at some point, the first step in fixing that is realizing ones own faults.
You have asked for help in getting stuck and without any clear direction. well, I have something good for you. It comes from our friendly neighborhood CD dude, by the name of Amit Dutta, He has put together something that I have never ever thought of before so here enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7wJoRo5MdE
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@KurtJeremy
I did indeed tried goal settings/dumb goals/smart goals/routine/system etc. but I figured it out after thinking about realistically for what I am doing wrong, which I will share below.
@neopatogen @BrushNoir
That's exactly it.
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Yeah so as @Brushnoir stated, you see, I am doing UI Design and also gonna be working as a UI Designer, and one thing I am always doing is real world application. Like doing projects that lets me apply the skills and not copy UI for the sake of copying.
So in terms of drawing/art, what's the purpose behind my learning? I am just learning for the sake of learning. But now if I compare to what I am doing with UI and Art, I am missing the real world application for Art.
So basically the performance stage. The stage where you just start apply things you learned when you were not performing, regardless what level you are at and hell that's how you improve at a tremendous speed , you know.
So I am gonna aim not sure how many times a month I will do an illustration, but gonna aim to do at least 1 pencil illustration a month. Of course it has to be related to what I am also studying.
I will be dedicating between 45-90 minutes daily most likely, sometimes 5 times a week or 6 times a week. For now, I will not join the crimson cubicle challenge, but I will do a similar approach, like setting a theme/rules for the piece I want to do once a month.
What I will begin practicing right now now is combination of hampton + bridgman because it's something I always put off (anatomy/figure), so I can actually start creating figures for character illustration.
So yeah. That's the kind conclusion I came to, after examining it. Hopefully it will also give someone else whom is too analytical like myself an idea how to go with it. I will begin posting sketches tonight.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply to my thread and give me ideas to think about.
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Np, can't wait to see your upcoming works (pushing you a bit there with some indirect pressure hehehe ;))
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Firstly, welcome back - I remember you o/
(05-11-2016, 08:22 PM)Hermidraws Wrote: but I am trying to figure out this month where to take this journey, since I have been practicing for quite some time with no sense of direction.
Any ideas/insights on how I can take this is always appreciated. Current tools is pencil and paper. Secondly, I can shed some light on this because I've been through it.
When I started, I had absolutely no direction where I wanted to go with my art -- I guess I wanted to go the illustration route predominantly? I was also swayed by 3D and concept design at some point. Truth is, even now I'm not 100% sure, but, how can you be when this industry changes so rapidly? So I have a broad idea, but it could change 10years down the track.
What I'm trying to say is... you honestly figure it out along the way and be open-minded.
You kinda just gotta acknowledge these thoughts and trudge on, honing your craft (whatever it is you decide to master - could be more than one thing, just keep consistent) because you will be hit out of the blue with interesting thoughts of what you like and what you wanna make along the way.
This kind of thing is hard to explain. You need to experience it for yourself - working by yourself in a quiet place is good for the soul. Embrace the quiet thought.
(but don't stay hidden in the darkness for too long. or else the cave becomes thy enemy...Ahaha... ahahahuae.. ahueuaheueAHJHAUEA @_@
... but seriously, 10/10 would not recommend. Still have a life, but quiet study periods are the best for figuring shit out)
Anyway, all the best man
┏( ﾟωﾟ)ゝ
sketchbook | pg 52
"Not a single thing in this world isn't in the process of becoming something else."
I'll be back - it's an odyssey, after all
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@BrushNoir @Smrr,
Thank You!
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Sticking to this new plan:
Hampton + Michael Mattesi, before the month ends 1 character illustration or design. 8-10 PM EST (45-120 minutes)
And switching to 1 times a week posting format. Easier for me to notice what needs work etc.
Find what works for you.
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Next time will mark down which are from
imagination which are from reference.
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Welcome back man! The struggle will in some sense always be a struggle though it will always change form. Try not to worry too much about things like not knowing a focus or direction, so much that it actually hamstrings you into inaction. These things tend to take care of themselves.
You never really know beforehand what you "want to do" until you are doing it, and it feels right, so just trust that feeling, or conversely if it doesn't feel right in some way, you might want to examine why you are doing it.
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Sorry about the late reply, been super busy, and this is a difficult post to write coherently.
I think you are totally right that you are lacking direction. That doesn't matter at your level because you don't need a direction until you are a fair way down the road of improving as an artist.
I think the most important thing to try and understand is not what to study, but why to study specific things.
The way i see it is that there are two fundamental skills, Accuracy and Form. Accuracy being the ability to see the world for what it is, so you see how far things are apart in a 2d space as we see them, and then form which is the ability to conceptualize 3d shapes and intimately understand how to represent them on a page. I also need to point out that these skills are not just to do with drawing, they directly change how your brain can gather information about the world, so as you improve you will start to "understand" the form of objects more clearly.
To develop accuracy the best thing to do is to learn how to copy perfectly, because you need to train the brain to do a lot of complex things automatically, such as checking angles, comparing distances. Also it is one of the best tools we have of training our perception to have less distortion. How most people perceive the world is so far from reality it is startling, I would almost describe it as a distortion filter on the world that you are trying to straighten. For this I would recommend Dorien Itens guide on Accuracy, and just copying photos with line and trying to match up the proportions so exactly you can overlay the drawing on the photo. http://www.dorian-iten.com/accuracy/
Form would cover ideas such as construction and linear perspective, these are about inventing form, and drawing things without a reference. Linear perspective is the tool we use to design and teach how form recedes in space, but it's not practical to do this for organics, so you need to learn how to draw perspective by feel, but you develop that by focusing on drawing simple constructions perfectly to teach yourself what looks correct. For this i would recommend drawabox.com as a really nice introduction to construction, though stop at the end of part two because his section on the human figure sucks, instead move onto maybe Hampton as you've been using, or guys like Ron Lemen or Proko. http://drawabox.com/lesson/1
I would specifically not recommend starting with anatomy construction to begin with, because to represent the human figure on the page is probably one of the most complicated forms in the universe, and even if it wasn't we are intimately wired to respond to it, so our brains actually work against us. Drawing a form incorrectly, but slightly more correctly than the last time is one of the least efficient ways i can imagine learning, so it baffles me that this is what the majority of untutored students do.
Once you learn how to construct with line, the next step is to learn how planes directly relate to light direction.... but that's for another day.
I would also impart a few different mantras to tell yourself:
* Discipline is the key to improvement: Challenging yourself to draw things to a level beyond your capabilities takes a hell of a lot of effort, i personally feel anxiety about drawing specific things, but you need discipline to focus on these things and push through.
* hold yourself accountable to quality: Drawing simple objects perfectly is far more beneficial to drawing complex objects badly. Focus on drawing the basic things to a high quality, and move on as soon as you feel it not stretching your brain anymore. If you are copying something, you'll be getting all these little devilish thoughts like "it doesn't need to be that good, I'm just a student", or "who cares if it doesn't match".
* If you practice making mistakes, they become habits: Pretty self explanatory really.
Don't feel like this stuff is just a temporary thing btw.... you'll be studying this stuff for however long you are an artist. Art is a complex dance of very simple things all done really well.
Anyhow that should be enough... not sure. Trying to impart advice to a beginner is really difficult as sending you down the wrong path now can be really harmful later. So... good luck!
Drawing out of perspective is like singing out of tune. I'll throw a shoe at you if you do it.
Sketch Book
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@Amit Dutta
You're totally correct. And that's the conclusion I came to as well. Let the journey unfold on its own.
@OtherMuzz
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Will see how I can incorporate both practices in my tight schedule right now.
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I think instead of once a week, I will go for twice a week posting format. Recent gesture drawings and warm up sketches.
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Alright, so I am reaching to the conclusion that gesture drawing is more of like a base sketch.
So what I am thinking about right now is to do gesture more like a loose drawing approach,
and few times a week do figures lay-in like the atelier kind of approach, so I can compare the two
and see which one fits the direction I am aiming for.
The direction I am taking this is to do things loosely while continuously adding
construction on top, but still make the figures feel lively/has its rhythm and eventually
be able to draw the loose sketch into a believable figure/character I can use for
illustration.
So yeah, I am not too sure how long I should be spending on the gesture section for Hampton, but
I will start getting into construction in this upcoming week.
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Late night sketch, and tried out a different idea for drawing the figure. And I like this a lot.
Loose Drawing> Erase until light > Add defined Gesture > Erase > Construction > Eventually Anatomy
And random drawings.
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Construction/gesture sketch from imagination and Bridgman Figure sketch. Some of the
figure from bridgman I manipulated them a bit to my own liking.
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Looks like you are starting to push the form stuff :)! which is good.
Keep going man.
Drawing out of perspective is like singing out of tune. I'll throw a shoe at you if you do it.
Sketch Book
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