Jan. 31, 2015 - 200 FIGURE SKETCHES!!!

Holy jeeze, talk about ending the month strong.  It's really great to have been able to do so many of these.  Another minor accomplishment I suppose, and new record!  I started I couldnt seen to get things right.  But the more I went on, the more I kinda got my groove back.  I even feel that Im starting to understand form just a little bit better.  There were a few poses that were really hard but trying the sphere form method I was able to see them a bit better.  However, doing each of these at 1 min each didn't really give me much time to fully analyze it.  Anyway, It's late, I'm tired here's the 200 figure sketches bringing my total up to 625 out of 1000.  Not sure if i'll be able to hit 200 tomorrow, but heck I didnt think i'd be able to do it today.  So time will tell!!

MORE TRAINING!

Jan. 30, 2015 - 100 figure sketches

100!!  I did it!!

But again it's late and im tired.  But I got 100!!  I'm not sure if i'll make the 1000 in a single week.  But hey man...  Im currently at 425 in the last 6 days.  Instead of limiting myself to a single week I think I'll just see how many I can do to reach 1000.  That's what my new challenge will be.  1000 of these little buggers.  MORE TOMORROW!!  Can I do 125 tomorrow!?  Let's find out.

Jan. 29, 2015 - 75 figure sketches Building a habit

Wanted to get 75 done today... SO I DID!

Pretty good day.  But tired so no long post here.  Just wrote building a habit in the title so i can remember to talk about that tomorrow.

MORE TRAINING!!
Let's go for 100 tomorrow if I can!

Jan. 28, 2015 - 50 figure sketches, Monster Girl Finale

 Today I had the main focus to try to stay positive.
Any time a bad thought crept in I just changed my train of thought before it went into that crazy cycle of nonsense.  I think I did a good job on that.  As well as these sketches.

Along with staying positive, I tried to stay in that "focused" state of  mind.  Towards the end of this one I did start getting a bit stressed but I refused to let that bring me down.  So I cut off the sketches at 50 and went over to finish the Monster Girl Challenge!

Final day of the monster girl challenge "Day 30" was to celebrate monster girls.  What better way to celebrate than to have one of them jump out of cake?  eh!?  These are 3 that I had originally planned to be part of the group monster girl picture but wasn't able to work out the composition.

And there it is!! First challenge completed!!  I should repost them all in a blog to compare them all.  But not this time... I'm way to tired right now (it's really late xD)

I'm not exactly sure which challenge I will take up this time, I've debated the pokemon girl challenge but there are so many pokemon it would make this one look like a cake walk.  Maybe I'll look into something to do with animation.  Get some animation practice in.

Either way.  MORE TRAINING!!!   I'll talk more when im not tired.

Jan. 27, 2015 - 50 figure sketches, Studies, and Different Focus??

Day started out alright, then things just got a bit crazy.  It was a bit hard to focus on these but I did notice something interesting about my focus.  A different kind of focus??  More on that after the pictures.

Studies

During the first set of 25 images I noticed that I wasn't drawing "as good as I could"  There is a very particular feel that I know that I'm looking for but sometimes it just feels as though it is either not there or I cant reach it.  There is a word for it but I just cant remember at the moment.  I know I talked a bit about it a past blog.  But it's a different type of focus.  There's the focus where I'm able to get myself to sit down and work on tasks.  Then there is the other focus that allows me to get "in the zone" and see things in a different way.  It's like a way of speaking through my drawings.  Shutting out something in my brain, or letting something in that lets me achieve this "zen like" state.  I need to make note to remember this thing exists and figure out what triggers it and how to keep it.  I have noticed that the more I do, the easier this state seems to happen.  So I guess if I continue to do these studies/drawings/anything I will learn its secrets!!! 


Today had a bit of a bump in the road but tomorrow I'll do better.
Anything is better than nothing, gotta keep moving forward.

Jan. 26, 2015 - 75 figure sketches, Nona

Started pretty late again today but I was able to focus a lot more on getting these drawings done.

Right off the bat I was a lot more confident than last time.  I just kept trying to focus on getting the drawings done and reminding myself of where I was some months ago.  Surprisingly I was able to go 50 gestures with no problems with only a small break between those and the last 25.  And I think the quality of them are ok.

I wanted to draw something else other than these sketches so I did a little drawing of nona in a school girl outfit because why not?

I set out with the goal of trying to do more today than yesterday.  While I don't succeeded in that area, I was at least able to do as much in far less time considering how late i started.

Let's start earlier tomorrow and see if we can beat the 75 sketches and random drawings!!

MORE TRAINING!

Jan. 25, 2015 - 75 figure sketches, Rin, Bad Sonic Fan Character

Had quite a day haha!
Actually managed to get a lot drawn.  Especially in comparison to recent months.  I've decided to take up the 1000 gestures in one week challenge again and managed to get a lot done!

Here are the pictures.
p1

p2

p3

I started doing these but for some reason I was having quite an emotional up and down when doing them.  I had to constantly remind myself that it's been a while since I've done anything like this and that I shouldnt expect them to all be perfect, or even that great.  About half way through p2 I really started to feel like I was loosening up then by the time I started p3 I think I had got some kind of groove going on.  Each page has 25 figures and they were all done in 1 min each totaling to 75.  I would go on to 100+ but it's getting late and I'm pretty sleepy.  But hey, 75?  Not bad at all.


Next my buddy shaunzy told me to draw a character named Rin from a show called "Love Live"
He said to give her cat like pose so I gave her the cat ears and tail also.

After I drew the picture I didnt think it was that bad.  In fact i rather like the way it turned out.  Although I wanted to try redrawing it only with an attempt to "push the pose" a little more.  To make it a bit more dynamic.  Here is the result.

I actually really like the way this one turned out haha.  A bit more lively!!  Pushing the pose is a popular exercise to help strengthen your understanding of the pose and anatomy.  I need to do more of these.

Then later my buddy melly and I did an art trade where we drew terrible sonic fan characters with out non dominant hands.  (mine being the left)

These are so dumb, but it was silly haha.
Deathslayer-the-hedgehog

and
Metal Slayer the Avenger

they're dumb, and deliberately so.


Overall this was the most productive day/week/month I have had in a very long time.  I'm feeling the drive return!!! IM FEELING IT!!!

MORE TRAINING!

Jan. 24, 2015 - Monster Girl Day 29, Hands, and week plans

Had a bit of a long day again but I did manage to get some decent drawings in.
First up Monster girl Day 28:
"monster girl and her significant other"

While I wouldn't really consider these two a couple.  I felt like drawing these two because they have the deepest and most fleshed out story out of any of my characters.  They may not be each other's "significant other" but they are quite significant to each other.


Then some hands.

Drew hands and Nona.

Again, long day, but I did something at least.

This coming week, I really want to give the 1000 figure sketch thing a shot.  I attempted several times in the past but was never able to finish it for silly reasons.  If there is one thing I was able to take away from those attempts, it was that it was a great way to really move forward to break out of an art block, which i still feel i have.  Slowly chiseling it down, but I think a 1000 figure attempt can work wonders for me right now.

Jan. 23, 2015 - Bad Studies

Had a long day.  but I did get a few pretty tired sketches done.

Jan. 21, 2015 - RE: Vilppu Chapter 5. and Monster Girl Group

So...  I started doing the Vilppu videos again...  It took a bit longer than I wanted, but holy boots i finally got it done.  Then turns out I already did chapter 5?  WHAT!?

Ah well, whatever, it was a good refresher haha.

Here is chapter 5 again.

Monster Girls are back!!
Day 28 Group of Monster Girls

Robot Girl, Slime Girl, then Naga
I'm actually very pleased with how this one turned out.  I was able to put this one together without any reference and I think it turned out pretty freakin fantastic!  Not perfect, but very good.  I usually dont draw characters interacting like this so it was a nice challenge.  I had actually been stumped on this image for the longest time but wasnt able to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Here was the original.

I dont know exactly when I started this one, or when I had quit working on it.  But for the life of me I didnt know exactly where I wanted it to go and it held me up for months.  Every time I opened it I simply could not figure out what I wanted to do.  So I ended up just dumping the whole thing and just started over.  Pretty glad I did.

Jan. 16, 2015 - Brush sizes

Played a bit around with brush sizes.

I remember a long time ago hearing that drawing with marker or a sponge was good practice.  So i tried a bigger brush size.  pretty cool XD

The two poses were nice.  Didnt use any reference on them and they didnt turn out half bad.

Jan. 14, 2015 - Studies

Continuing what I started on the previous entry.  I really liked this new form of study.
Same as last time, picture on the left was the original image, next is traced while trying to understand the form and structure of the image, next one is done by looking at the image and not tracing, then last is done by removing all reference and doing from the mind.

These are really pleasing to do and I don't know why.  I can genuinely see how i can get a lot out of these and will continue doing these.  I surprised even myself with how "not absolutely terrible" some of these are.  I still have a lot to learn as far as structure and forms and such go, but when i get that going again i will better be able to apply that to these studies.

Jan. 12, 2015 - Return of the Dailies and new Study Method

Before the post I'd just like to say that I'm changing up the terminology a bit in 2015.  I used to throw terms around a bit with the blog but i want to redefine a few of these. 

Studies are now more focused studying of the figure or other principles or styles done.  No time is set for these.

Dailies are now the quick 30 sec to 2 min+ drawings I do.

Sketches are now drawings of my characters or other characters.

Doodles forgettable aimless sketches that are done with no direction but for some reason I saved it anyway.

and something for "completed" things.



With that out of the way, here are today's dailies!

Then today's studies.
I heard this method of studying in a random art stream a long while back.  The concept was to draw the picture 3 times in a row.  First time is tracing the image, trying to get a feel for the figure and understand the form.  Second time is to look at the image and draw it  (the way i usually do) Lastly, clear all reference and draw the image from memory. 

(I likely will not include the original image in future studies.  I dont have a problem with nudity personally (and i imagine most artists following this blog dont mind either), I'd like to keep this blog as PG 13 as possible.  Not to mention I'd rather not get in trouble with any photographers or models.  I understand this is why these images were created to be used for but I'd just rather not risk it.

This was a really interesting study.  I learned a lot from these.  1.  You can actually learn a lot from tracing an image.  So long as it is with the intention on learning the forms, lines, and just trying to figure things out.  2.  My ability to look at something and draw it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was and that I need to do longer studies like this to really put the body together in my mind.  3.  While it is a notch worse than the previous 2 images, they aren't awful.  Its nice.


The biggest thing I think I put together from ALL this is what I have been saying for ages...  I NEEEED to get back to vilppu studies and follow him and other masters!  They are so full of wisdom and not doing so is only hindering my progress.  This month GET BACK INTO VILPPU!  It's time.

Jan. 10, 2015 - Nona & Gigs

Started out as a random pose study but turned into Gigs and Nona.
Probably catching up on old times.

Really need to start working on the Lore and backstory of my characters.  :P
Every time I draw them my brain rushes with ideas