Sketchbook & Progess Log - The journey is the reward!

[Cyprinus]

@bookend: Thanks for all your input again! Values are a point I'm still struggling with a lot. I feel it has gotten a bit better recently, but yeah, much to go! I'm planning on doing a master study soon. I just need to block out enough time for it to work on it.

@Eduardo: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like this little piece, it felt like such a struggle in between.... I totally agree on "less is more". Although there are still artists with a detailed style which I admire a lot, I'm definitely more drawn to the "simpler" things recently. I think it has it's own appeal and beauty. Even when I do sketches and stuff. Why use a lot of lines if you can express what you want in a single one? I'm definitely going to play around more with gouache as well. Gonna share my results here or on my tumblr :> Thanks for stopping by!
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So yeah. Recently I've been feeling antsy and restless lately, because I can't seem to find the right balance between work, personal work and studies. I want to finish all my projects and also start new ones, but I feel bad if I don't do studies, but sometimes I just don't have enough time to do both. It leaves me in an endless frustration and I'm advancing not one bit. I need to try combining both more.

I started following Proko's Anatomy course. My more than insufficient knowledge of perspective is getting in the way more and more. Suddenly all my stuff looks wrong.





Colour Studies, 30min (nature) and one longer. First time I tried to paint such a forest scene. Also trying out
more different brushes...





Stuff on my desk. The angles came out better than usual here, I think...



And yeah, in a moment where I was totally out of my mind I decided to tackle the 30-Day RPG-Challenge. I didn't want to, at least not this month, but then suddenly I had an idea and I felt so inspired that I HAD to go for it. So my idea is about an adventure under water, which is....challenging in more than one way, because more than often I finish my sketch and realize stuff that doesn't make sense. So I'm basically searching for creative solutions all the time, like in the bar, where I happily drew bottle after bottle until I thought "Wait, do they even drink?" Or the granny with her basket and stuff that doesn't float around....because she puts it on little pins that are in the basket. I think it just shows that I'm dumb and sometimes don't put enough thought into what I'm doing before I start to draw. On the other hand, I was so happy that I felt as inspired as I hadn't in ages that I didn't want to lose this feeling, no matter what, so I started right away. GAH. So...I consider this as brainstorming sketches. Like....put every idea down at first, regardless whether it sounds stupid, illogical or whatever.

Also I can't draw environments and backgrounds, but that's not new.




Sadly I feel that my stuff for the challenge is getting worse instead of better at the moment. The inspiration magic from the beginning feels kind of gone, I think because I more and more realize how stupid some things are.
I still think that I'll take some sketches and make something more out of them, mostly the character designs.

I'll probably try to redraw the stuff that involves environment after I participated in Amit's class.