A Break, Not Broken

Hey everyone, I don't have any art for you this evening but I do want to discuss my plans for the future of this blog.

I've posted a lot of artwork here, I've made a ton of discoveries through the work I've done, and it has been really fun! I also feel like that it has become a habit that's starting to be unproductive. Instead of focusing on the work I need to be doing to get better, I've condemned myself to throwing up a post here each day and calling it progress.

I know I mentioned before that I wanted to start doing something different, and I think that "something different" is going to be taking a step back for a bit. I'm not giving up on this blog, but I need to reevaluate my approach to improving as an artist.

This might be my last post for awhile, or it might be my last post for the next few days. I just want to make sure that I really start putting more work in so that I can get better, and if I've got something to share you'll be able to find it here!

Thanks for sticking with me, I'm sure I'll see you all soon!

Rats, er, mice!

Last night I decided I was going to do something different, and tonight I did just that! While these aren't the most impressive things I've ever drawn, they were fun! Check it out.

I drew the sketch at the top right first, but I couldn't quite use my tablet to create lines that looked the way I wanted, so I decided to switch it up. The next mouse I drew was the one on the center-left. Instead of working from a line drawing I decided to block in the mouses' shape first with a medium grey. I then added in some darker tones to help define its body a bit better, at that point I decided to start again because its pose wasn't really working for me. My final doodle was the largest mouse in the image. I followed the same steps that I used on the second mouse, but added more in the way of value and detail. This was a fun little exercise that helped me to develop a plan of attack for digital studies. It also made me realize my digital sketching technique could use some work. Guess I'll have to figure out some drills I can do to improve!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

A Beautiful Failure

Last evening I started the painting I'll be sharing with you now, but about halfway into the process I began listening to something titled "Why Your Drawings Suck" on YouTube. Let me just say that it was more than illuminating. Before I get into the details though, I'm going to let you see the image I was working on. Check it out!

In the interest of full disclosure I did kind of give up on this about three quarters of the way through, but there's a reason behind that! And that reason is; this sucks. It sucks. This is sucky art. I don't expect everyone that might be reading this also has the time to watch a twenty six minute long video, so let me summarize it to qualify my previous statement. The artist that created that video listed several factors that contribute to "art that sucks," I'm gonna put those below.

• Line Dependency
• Lack of References
• Technique
• Confidence
• Not Drawing Enough
• Community

Now, let me go ahead and use these bullet points to tell you why this piece sucks. I didn't use any references, I haven't been drawing enough, and I have no real community around me to critique my work. I think I can say with confidence that I have some confidence in my ability (technique), and I've never used lines as a crutch, so that checks three out of six off that list. I feel like I'd be in a much worse situation if I were struggling in other areas, so if these are the problems I have, I'm not to bummed about it.

It's really kind of crazy but I included this in my blog yesterday, and this was before I started listening to that video, "It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you". That's my problem in a nutshell, and listening to Istebrak (the creator of that video) confirmed that for me. I really need to start doing more studies, use references when I have a solid concept that I want to realize, and get involved with more artists.

I find it easy for me to forget that when you're at a computer you have access to almost all of the information in the world, along with the people that share it. I so frequently use it to browse the same websites, talk to the same people through social media, and do the same stuff! For that reason I think it's time to do something different, to start being really serious about turning my passion into a career. So that's what I intend to do.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Study, study, study

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from drawing imaginatively and draw from life! That's just what I did today, take a look!

To be fair, only one of these things was actually drawn from life (the sketch on the left), but it was a fun exercise! The drawing on the right side of the page was done from a picture I found of a pomegranate online. They're really a very beautiful fruit, I can see why they wound up in old masters' paintings. I used to think drawings like these were pointless, but now I realize the value of them. It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

どうもありがとう!

I was lucky enough to have some down-time at work today so I thought I'd use that to my advantage and start on my post for tonight. Here's how it turned out!

It's some kind of robot! Neat, right? I created this on my iPad in about an hour and had a lot of fun doing so! I must admit that I've been feeling a bit burnt-out lately, so I haven't been able to put a ton of effort into my art. I'll still be posting every day though, I'd be crazy to ruin a more than year long streak!

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Daren't Disparage Doodles

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Triple D! No, wait, that's not right. I drew something, you should totally look at it.

So I just started scribbling in some orange on a grey background and out popped this! It kind of looks like a Jawa from Star Wars which is totally cool with me. Last night's piece got me interested in playing around with color a bit, so that's why I went with some warmer tones here.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Blue

I didn't get around to painting today, but I did create a fun portrait in Photoshop, check it out!

I wanted to use some analogous colors in this piece and I think doing so made it a little more interesting. I don't draw a lot of faces, so I thought this might be some good practice!

That's all for this post, stop by tomorrow for something new!