Become Pretty Good At Drawing And Rendering The Human Figure

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Monthly Review - July 2016

What Worked Well

1. Carrying around a small sketchbook and some coloured fine-liner pens allowed me to fit in some extra sketching throughout the day.
   
2. Downloading a load of reference images to my phone allowed me to fit in extra figure sketching from reference here and there.
   
3. Starting the drawabox exercises has given me more confidence when doing line drawings.
   
4. Joining in with various streams had no tangible benefit but I found them to be highly motivational.
   
5. Doing the values studies has given me a bit more confidence when handling light and form.
   
6. Studying the pelvis by doing a 3D model really helped me understand it's 3D form.
   

What Didn't Work Well

1. Failed to get to bed by 11:30pm.  I will mitigate this by allowing myself to split tasks up over several nights instead of trying to finish each one all in one sitting and also aiming to finish by 11:15pm.
   
2. I seemed to underestimate tasks involving values.  I will add another 30% onto my values tasks estimates.
   
3. I've been neglecting my warm-ups so I will make sure I do 10mins of drawabox exercises at the start of each study session.
   
4. Obviously I tried to squeeze in too much for this month so I will only put in 15 hours worth of tasks for next month.
   
5. I don't feel like I am doing enough art from imagination to apply my learnings and also highlight remaining gaps in my learnings.  I will mitigate this by doing at least one full body figure sketch from imagination every day and also completing one full illustration from imagination each month.
   
6. I really underestimated how long it would take me to do a 3D model of the pelvis - some of this is because I'm a bit rusty with 3D modelling but nevertheless I will add more time to my estimates involving 3D.
   

Tasks Completed This Month (July 2016)
Complete Perspective Grid Imagination Drawing 2 - Front Three Quarter [1.5 hours estimated] [1.5 hours actual].
Study Proko's Shading Light and Form - Basics video [1 hour estimated] [0.5 hours actual].
Study the "Learning To See Light And Shadow" tutorial at design.tutsplus.com [0.5 hours estimated] [0.5 hours actual].
Values Exercise from CGCookie Exercise 29: Back to Basics [1 hour estimated] [2.5 hours actual].
Study Hampton: Landmarks - Weight Distribution section [1 hour estimated] [0.5 hours actual].
Complete Perspective Grid Referenced Drawing 2 - Front Three Quarter [1.5 hours estimated] [2 hours actual].
Study Hampton: Landmarks - Connections section [1 hour estimated] [0.5 hours actual].
Do Drawabox Lesson 1: Lines [1 hour estimated] [0.5 hours so far].
Complete Perspective Grid Referenced Drawing 3 - Bird's Eye View [1 hour estimated] [not started].
Do a diagram of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus origins and insertion [0.5 hours estimated] [6.0 hours actual - due to extra 3D modelling].
Do a diagram of coracobrachialis muscle Origin And Insertion and memorize [0.5 hours estimated] [not started].
Do Drawabox Lesson 1: Ellipses [1 hour estimated] [not started].
Complete Perspective Grid Imagination Drawing 3 - Bird's Eye View [1.5 hours estimated] [not started].
Study Hampton: Landmarks - Arms and Legs section [1 hour estimated] [1 hour actual].
Do Drawabox Lesson 1: Boxes [1 hour estimated] [not started].
Carry an A5 sketchbook and do some sketches for fun whenever I get the chance [4 hours estimated] [3 hours actual].
Warm-ups: Referenced Figure Sketches (to be done each study session) [4 hours estimated] [3.5 hours actual].

Metrics For This Month (July 2016)
Estimated Hours = 23.5 hours
Actual Hours = 21 hours
Actual Monthly Work Velocity = 21 hours/month.

Priorities For Next Month

1. Broaden visual library of figure poses by doing more sketches and gestures from reference.
   
2. Continue studying Values.
   
3. Continue studying Perspective.
   
4. Continue studying Anatomy.