(10-28-2015, 03:10 PM)DQ_Nick Wrote: Keep up the hard work man. I'm definitely guilty of the too much research problem. Something I've been trying to do more of lately are memory studies. For example, I'll spend 20 minutes drawing a page from Loomis, then put it away and draw everything I remember from memory as precise as possible for another 20 minutes, then comparing my memory drawings to the reference and making careful note of mistakes. Rinse and repeat, for at least a couple hours a day. It can be frustrating but seems be the most effective for internalizing visual information, especially with the figure.
These form and value studies look great though. Those are key fundamentals for giving your drawings a sense of depth.
That is actually a really great way to practice I never thought of that. I will definitely incorporate that into my practices, thanks man.
Been doing a lot of learning, bought the matt kohr rendering series, I have only gone through 1 and 2 so far and it cleared up a lot of questions for me. Biggest one was understanding light and a drawing process, a way to think and break down a drawing.
This image was just a straight observational drawing to apply what I learnt. From here I can continue to do more still lifes from observation and imagination.
Woah, this still life study looks great to me!
As far as my skills go, you rendered it brilliantly! (I know those kind of comments do not give any help, I'm sorry).
Though I'm glad to hear someone bought Matt Kohr's tutorial, I'm still waiting to save up something and buy the starter kit myself! How are you liking it?
I found it very informative well explained to a beginner like me who doesn't know what is what you know. He gives you a great place to start at how to go about thinking in your drawings and what to look for also his explanations on light are very easy to understand. I feel I can look at objects and understand the light. I also have the confidence to look at a still life and change the lighting situation and alter the forms with the knowledge given. I will certainly be attempting this later on and I will post my results.
I have not gone on to watch 3 and 4 just yet, until I get the hang of what he taught in 1 and 2.
Hey Matthew, had a quick look through your sketchbook from the start. It can be really frustrating having gaps in your knowledge that you don't know how to fill (you mentioned it as the reason you took a break). Great to see that you went back to it though. Your focused study from those courses and instructors is really paying off! Your sense of form seems to be really sharp.
I'd love to see you going back to gestures again, those really really help to make things like proportion and weight / balance instinctive and will give stuff real energy (you can use it in still life too). If you show what you're like now maybe I can give you some pointers.
Thanks, the advice will be great. I actually have not done any gestures or any figure drawing since I took a break. Reason being is that I figured I never knew anything about the fundamentals of drawing, so in my logic going in and practicing it well enough on still lifes first would prepare me for all that.
Maybe my logic is off target, do you think I should be incorporating both still lifes and figure drawing in my weekly practice? Maybe set out certain days for figures and still lifes?
I think the logic is sound, from still life I had a real fast boost in my skill when I made dedicated efforts towards them (I should do them more).
You've got so many different areas that come under fundamentals, they all need attention and are all hard in the beginning, depending on what direction you want to take you have:
1) perspective
2) form
3) lighting
4) design and shapes
5) drawing from observation - getting your eye and hand communicating well so you can draw what you see
6) gesture
7) anatomy (which can include everything from the skull / eyeballs / skeleton / superficial muscles to clothing and drapery which rely on the anatomy beneath it)
Probably loads more could be added. You do strengthen a lot of those doing still life, and I can see your form, perspective, lighting and observation drawing has really shot up from doing that.
8) Underlying all of these though is dexterity and skill with your pencil, which makes things so frustrating when you know what you want to draw but just can't do it how you'd like, or when you have to fight and struggle to wrestle a drawing and it takes so long to do something that ends up looking quite simple - it's so tiring! After every drawing you feel drained...
The first 7 need specific practice, the 8th one will just happen on it's own - it's a real grind until it does, but then you're world will explode and you'll be flying! (try different mediums, draw from the shoulder, do line / abstract shapes warm ups to increase this skill more)
So to answer your question, definitely it's beneficial to study multiple things at once.
You've got options to approach your study: for me, while I was getting to grips with all that stuff I'd spend maybe a month or two at a time on one specific area; be it drawing heads and learning the skull / planes of the face, or studying perspective in line only, or going hard at Hampton anatomy. That way can be good as you get really immersed but it's important to set yourself a time limit (a week / a month / however is best for you) and then move on. At the end of that time I'd feel I wasn't ready to move on yet, I hadn't learned it all and wasn't where I wanted to be and sometimes I'd just keep hammering at that one area. That was a mistake as time would go on and I'd lose sight of why I was doing it and would feel a bit aimless and get miserable that I still wasn't where I wanted to be.
The other way is to write yourself some kind of study programme and switch things up and do different things on different days.
With both ways though, it's really important to set yourself goals and give yourself a time limit - doesn't mean you need to complete that goal in that time but it keeps yourself fresh and motivated, and you always have something to look forward to.
This is starting to get long! I apologise : ) Long story short: yes I think you should do some kind of figure based stuff - not necessarily figure drawing from a model, as sometimes that is pretty academic - but gesture practice / anatomy studies / head & skull studies.
All that said - it's about having fun too, if you're getting a buzz off still life it's good to ride out that buzz and keep doing them. When it drops off then switch it up.
Sorry for this long scattered reply XD hope there's something useful in there!
Wow thanks a lot this is absolute Gold, this is definitely going to make me go and revise my practice schedules and level of planning. I have felt the aimless hollow and I definitely do not want to go there again.
I will be posting the revised schedule when I do it. I feel excited about this, thanks a lot.
