Hey everyone!

[Pedro Barbachan]

Hello! My name's Pedro, I'm a 19-year-old guy who lives in Brazil and I've been drawing as a hobby since I was 14.

 Two years ago, I made the decision that I wanted to live my life as a professional Concept Artist/Illustrator, because art is one of the things in my life that I honestly can't see myself without. I love creating concepts and working on drawings/paintings that can tell a story without a single word. Only last year I started taking it seriously by studying and practicing the fundamentals at a local traditional drawing course in my city, but because I was barely getting any sleep the whole semester, I got burned out, and stopped drawing kind of as soon as I completed the course. 

Last year, in november, I started drawing and painting again and also started reading Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain to try and improve my observational skills (I used to be really bad at it and I still am, but I've improved a bit), and I haven't finished it because of some later exercises that require specific materials that I haven't got yet, but I'm working on that and definitely will finish the book this year.

I've first heard about the forums through one of Dave Rapoza's interviews, but after seeing a blog post about Mike Azevedo some days ago on Brushwork Atelier, I decided to make an account to constantly keep myself motivated! 

This week I've just made a schedule for myself after days of research about how to do it most effectively, aiming to sleep early and wake up at 5:30am every day, studying 6 hours a day (followed by 3 additional hours of working on my own personal projects), and I also gave myself a good kick in the ass and started practicing Peter Han's dynamic sketching exercises to better my linework before April starts, where I'll begin taking Watts Atelier's online classes and continue to work my way up, giving my best in becoming the Illustrator/Concept Artist I aspire to become! 

Thanks for taking the time to read!


I hope we can all get along and get to work on our dreams, see you guys around!!

[Orange Pekoe]

Hello Pedro, nice to see you around.

That schedule looks like it will be pretty tough at first! If you need any help or have any questions/frustrations, feel free to give a holler. ^_^

What exercises in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain are you referring to? Somebody might be able  to throw you some exercises with the same principles but using the tools you have.

Observational skills are very hard to train. Even if you've drawn for years, the exercises in that book can still be challenging and can push you to improve more. Keep practicing! :D  Peter's dynamic sketching exercises are great, but I find the way they are designed requires that you share everything. In a way, many exercises are designed to be hard and make you mess up, thus exposing your weaknesses and telling an instructor what you need to work on. Without any feedback, doing his exercises can be depressing as everything suuuuuucks. :p

Cheers! ( > ◡ < )

[Artloader]

Hey welcome to the forum Pedro :).

I think you'll be off to a very good start if you're focussing on fundamentals - I've recently gone back to doing Peter Han style exercises and I feel that it is really giving me a boost. Understanding 3D forms has so many benefits - I'm finding that my lighting is really improving for example. I think Peter Han even gets you to sketch in core shadows and stuff like that.

Good luck with your schedule - don't forget to make time to enjoy the art you do - best way to avoid burn out in my experience.

[Pedro Barbachan]

Hello Pedro, nice to see you around.

That schedule looks like it will be pretty tough at first! If you need any help or have any questions/frustrations, feel free to give a holler. ^_^

What exercises in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain are you referring to? Somebody might be able  to throw you some exercises with the same principles but using the tools you have.

Observational skills are very hard to train. Even if you've drawn for years, the exercises in that book can still be challenging and can push you to improve more. Keep practicing! :D  Peter's dynamic sketching exercises are great, but I find the way they are designed requires that you share everything. In a way, many exercises are designed to be hard and make you mess up, thus exposing your weaknesses and telling an instructor what you need to work on. Without any feedback, doing his exercises can be depressing as everything suuuuuucks. :p

Cheers! ( > ◡ < )

Hi Pekoe, what's up!

The thoughest part is going to sleep early actually, because if I don't sleep early for some reason and get too little sleep, the whole rest of the schedule falls apart because I can't focus properly enough to study, it's the hardest part. 

I actually already got the materials that I needed to continue reading the book and soon I'll be studying the book again!! Thanks for trying to help though. :D

They sure are and I really need to sharpen my observational skills, the book helped me with a lot of stuff but I still gotta improve! Also, I agree with you on the exercises being depressing, I'm always paying attention to what I'm doing wrong and how I can fix my mistakes while doing the exercises, but sometimes it feels likes I'm doing everything wrong, hahaha.

If you ever need any help or have any questions and/or frustrations, feel free to contact me too! :D

Good luck to the both of us!

[Pedro Barbachan]

Hey welcome to the forum Pedro :).

I think you'll be off to a very good start if you're focussing on fundamentals - I've recently gone back to doing Peter Han style exercises and I feel that it is really giving me a boost.  Understanding 3D forms has so many benefits - I'm finding that my lighting is really improving for example.  I think Peter Han even gets you to sketch in core shadows and stuff like that.

Good luck with your schedule - don't forget to make time to enjoy the art you do - best way to avoid burn out in my experience.

Hello Artloader, and thank you! 

I've been drawing for quite some time as I mentioned, but I really lack the fundamentals, which ends up making my artwork rely more on happy accidents than anything else. My lines are not that good and I always used to draw with my wrist making short lines, which sure isn't helping me, Peter Han's exercises are helping me a lot on that aspect.

Good luck on your exercises, they sure help a lot!! Always try to remember to pay attention to your mistakes while practicing though, otherwise you'll keep repeating the same mistakes over and over! 

I'm doing his dynamic sketching class' line and ellipse exercises, I haven't seen those exercises you mentioned yet.

Thank you! I'll always be keeping an eye on myself to avoid that, thank you for the tip! The regret after not taking advantage of months and months of practice after getting burned out is indescriptible.

Good luck to the both of us on our art!