Maggot's sketchbook

[maggotjuicebox]

ok ok ok so basically I have been bullshitting my way around art and procrastinating on practicing the fundamentals for pretty much the last 10 years. This extreme fear of failure has gotten my pretty much nowhere.
  It's only in the last couple of years I've come to terms with the fact that one has to create absolute shit, embrace it and learn from it, in order to get better. So that's why I'm here! To create a bunch of shit, evaluate and learn from it to hopefully improve my craft as a result.


Here are some random bits and pieces to show approximately where I'm starting from:

Spoiler

I am not gonna set any grandiose goals for myself, I just wanna do it, stay consistent and see where it goes! I shall try to update this thread as often as I can.

Any critique, feedback or nudges in the right direction are of course more than welcome and much appreciated!

Thank you for stopping by!

[Tank Rat]

As someone that really struggles with the fear of failure, I can definitely say that over time it gets much easier to manage. The worst thing you can do is be hard on yourself. Try to set small goals with no expectations and do your best. If you stay consistent, you'll start gaining confidence. Taking chances by trying new things will seem less daunting. What you make at that time might not look as good as you hoped, but the tiny successes along the way should be enough to keep you going. I wish you the best and welcome to Crimson Daggers.

[darktiste]

I don't totally agree with not setting expectation visualizing your path is necessary failure is necessary the biggest failure is actually no failing at anything and making circle.But i want to highlight something you need to sometime fail small and sometime fail big for example let say you fail a test and than you fail and exam.Now let make a art example you draw a small black and white sketch vs a fully colored drawing.

Failure contain information if your scared of knowing more than you did previous it must be a really tough life.Information is suppose to make life easier not harder but with information come responsabiliy and with responsability come courage and discipline.

Here an exercise to be fearlessly courageous it called automatic draw basically you do random shape and you try to visualize something out of those line and if you don't see anything well you just try to draw whatever even if it random but you try to give it volume.You can also draw over people face in magazine it help making drawing fun you can than try to turn them into caricature afterward if that your thing.You should probably also look at the automatism artist movement .In art, automatism refers to creating art without conscious thought this lift the pressure of expectation atleast at the begin but you don't follow exactly this but rather going from conscious to inconsicous decision making a different stage of the drawing.Anyways that can be useful if you have what generally refer to as the blank page syndrome.

Here a great video by proko and marshall vanduff on how to fail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV_qJ-3qNZM

[maggotjuicebox]

Tank Rat
Thank you so much for the encouraging words, I really appreciate it! I will definitely be keeping those things in mind! Learning that making a mistake is , in fact, not the end of the world has been life changing for me hahaha Making mistakes is not only unavoidable, but a necessary part of the process!

darktiste
Hey, thank you for your insight and taking the time to leave a comment!
I might be misinterpreting what you wrote, and I apologize if that is the case!  But I think we're basically talking about the same thing. Essentially, one has to make mistakes to learn from in order to improve. Like you said, failure contains information! (Which I think is a beautiful way to put it, btw!)


I will definitely check out the draftsmen video and automatism!! 

--

So for the sake of starting somewhere I've decided to work my way through the CtrlPaint unplugged videos! The first homework assignment was to fill 5 pages with ovals, drawing from your shoulder. Sorry for the crappy phone pic ;-; Only photograped one of them since they were lightly drawn and didn't really wanna show up on camera rip



I am not finished with the second assignment yet, but I thought I would post my progress anyway. These are my attempts at measuring angles of a rectangular object (I used my tarot deck packaging) and getting them as accurate as possible. Observational drawing, and drawing from life is something I really gotta start doing more! Perspective is wonky and proportions a bit inconsistent but I'm trying my best!
 

[darktiste]

The beauty of working in small frame like thumbnail like that is you can easly refer to your frame to compare horizontal and verticale.The most tricky is getting the right angle of a diagonal but that can be practiced.

Well since your doing ctrl+paint you already have a solid basis to draw from i doubt you will need much else but critic beside what your doing and perhaps a few pointing to avoid the repetive grind but some as to be done to get to the fun part so better if it done seriously at first so you don't have to work in the dark.

There also a great supplement to ctrl+paint that offer what i would refer as the strict fundamental which mean a more condensed serie of exercise that deal a bit less with the art theory and alot more with the practical aspect that is necessary to create a 3d object.

found at https://drawabox.com/lesson/1

[maggotjuicebox]

Supplementing ctrl with drawabox actually sounds like a great idea! The drawabox stuff can be good for warming up, if i remember correctly.

[maggotjuicebox]

Finished all 20 boxes!

This was really difficult, but I tried my best! Something I've always struggled with is knowing when something is "done/finished". Do I spend x amount of time on a single box, obsessing over it not being perfect thus not getting anywhere, or do I do it "good enough" and risk making sloppy studies? It's a tough line to balance, at least for me.

All those things aside, I'm very happy I did this! I picked up on a few things that will definitely help me in the future :)

Spoiler

'aight bois let the roasting begin!

[darktiste]

Don't worry about stuff like ''is it done yet'' go as far as you to can to set standard for yourself it ok if it not like professional right away it take time ....You don't have to obess over perfection that would make your drawing feel stiff.It basic primitive form drawing it not a master piece you will hang on the wall but that doesn't mean you get a free pass that it sloppy drawing.What a sloppy drawing?In short term something that wasn't well though and excuted to a level that make the progression of that drawing go smoothly.To avoid sloppy drawing the first minute of drawing something are really important because they set the basis of the direction and ''solidity'' of that work.Get perspective wrong and you can be sure your ending toward something that will feel sloppy and wocky.It more than just perspective that can lead to sloppy drawing but that a big one.