Hey everyone, it's the end of another month, and that means it's time for a review. I mentioned yesterday this wouldn't really be a top ten list like I've done in the past, what I'll be doing is going over each mini lesson and talking about what I feel like I learned from them. Let's get started!

JULY 1st - JULY 4th

This lesson was all about creating muscle memory, and learning how to draw using your whole arm - which isn't really all that easy to do if you don't practice. I've always been someone that has drawn almost microscopically tiny things with an immense amount of detail and never moved outside of that scale due to fear of getting sloppy. The reason for that fear was because it was a skill I'd never practiced, so these exercises forced me (in the best way) to step out of my comfort zone and do just that. Take a look again at my first post.

JULY 1st

As you can probably tell, these lines look rather shaky, messy, and they lack a lot of confidence. Now let's see how I did just a few days later.

JULY 4th

These lines look appreciably better, the page looks much neater overall, there are a few blips and bumps, but nowhere near as many compared to when I first started. My one concession about the quality of this page versus the first is the curvy lines at the top aren't quite so great looking, and that's because I rushed. That's another lesson I learned in this process, there's no cutting corners or rushing through this, these exercises are going to take as long as they take.

JULY 5th - JULY 8th

This is where the training wheels came off, at this point it was up to me to create a line that connected two plotted points on a page. In the exercises prior to these I was tracing over lines I had made with a ruler, now it was time for me to create those lines free hand. Here's my first attempt.

JULY 5th

Most of the lines here look alright, save for the wiggly one in the bottom right corner, but there still rather small. You can tell I'm testing the waters to see how I'll do. Let's see how I did a few days later.

JULY 8th

These lines aren't perfect, but I can definitely say I was a lot more confident after a few days of practicing. The line segments are longer, they fill up the page, and I even tried to squeeze in a couple of extra little lines in there at a different angle. I really got a chance to apply what I learned about how my whole arm comes into play when drawing (from the last lesson) in these exercises, and it really helped me to get these lines looking good!

JULY 9th - JULY 12th

After creating lines it was time to connect several of them together to form a basic shape, a plane. Although it might not look like much planes are incredibly useful when it comes to helping ground a subject you're drawing, and keep that subject in proper perspective. Let's see how I did.

JULY 9th

These turned out alright, again they're a little small, but they're pretty neatly drawn overall. Not too bad for a first day, let's see what happened after a few days of practice.

JULY 12th

I have to say that after looking at these again, I'm a little disappointed. I remember now that this was another instance where I rushed, and because I rushed I made some mistakes. I honestly think the best work I did on this particular exercise was done the day before, you can check that one out here if you like. I've got to keep reminding myself that I'm not going to get anywhere cutting corners, and each time I bring that fact up it's serving to further drive that point home.

JULY 13th - JULY 16th

Since I'd already done a lot with lines, it was time to touch on something that I hadn't yet worked with, ellipses! I must say that though these started out as fun, they ended up being a bit tedious, I don't think I've ever drawn that many ellipsis at one time in my whole life!

JULY 13th

I think these were pretty good, some of the larger ellipsis were a bit sketchy, but they all fit nicely in their little boxes. I tried to vary the sizes a lot, that way I could squeeze in as many as possible. Let's see what these looked like after a couple of days worth of practice.

JULY 16th

Now these look great! There's a whole bunch of variation in size and angle, on top of that the ellipsis look much more solid in construction, and I think it's also pretty visually interesting. I feel like I redeemed myself a little bit here, I didn't rush, and I worked through the whole exercise and tried my hardest. I really think that shows, hooray for progress!

JULY 17th - JULY 20th

Having used lines and ellipsis at this point in these exercises, it was time to work with them both. These drawings were kinda cool to work on because I was establishing a framework, and then working within it to create a shape. It reminded me of some assignments I had in my drafting class in high school, but this time there was no ruler or compass - I was all on my own!

JULY 17th

I think these were passable, some of them definitely got a little sketchy, and there are a few wiggly lines in there too. I had to go over some of the ellipsis a few times because I'm not quite used to working with a felt tip pen, I'm always using either a ball point or a pencil. The way the ink flows from a felt tip pen is completely different from other drawing tools I'm familiar with, and since I hold my pen at an angle, the ink doesn't seem to like to come out when it's held that way. I actually had to adapt my drawing style a little bit to overcome that. Let's see what came of a few days practicing.

JULY 20th

I'm not gonna lie, these look pretty hilarious, especially that giant one at the top that's taking up more than half of the page. I definitely think these are a pretty extreme example of what this exercise was about, but it was kinda fun to do for just that reason. As you can tell they're a bit sketchy 'cause it was really strange to be drawing so large, but I'm glad I did it. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

JULY 21st - JULY 23rd

I actually had a lot of fun with these exercises, I love drawing curved lines, so creating the funnel shapes in these drawings was a good time. I also got to see how drawing all those straight lines before impacted my ability to draw them in a situation like this, and that impact was overwhelmingly positive! I drew those lines with a ton of confidence, and I really think it shows.

JULY 21st

Not too shabby, though the ellipsis are spaced a little far apart, I knew after I finished this drawing that they could definitely use to be a bit closer together. Let's see how that turned out.

JULY 23rd

There we go! That's what I was looking for. The ellipsis are really neat and tidy looking, they fit nicely within the funnels, and they've got a nice bit of depth to them. I didn't rush through these either and it really paid off!

JULY 24th - JULY 25th

I mentioned in my original post on the 24th that this was probably the thing I dreaded most about these exercises, the fact that I'd have to work a bit with perspective. Even with all of that dread I still managed to make something that I was reasonably proud of in the end.

JULY 24th

I think these actually came out perfectly (thanks ruler)! I feel like the skill involved in exercises like this isn't so much artistic as it is just a matter of patience. Which I learned is something that I struggle a bit with, haha!

JULY 25th

The ruler moved (thanks ruler), and I forever marred the surface of one of my cubes. Nah, it was my fault really, I'm not mad about it though. I can say with no ego that these are the nicest representations of perspective I've ever produced, so even with that little stumble I'm still proud of these.

JULY 26th - JULY 27th

I was actually a lot less worried about this freehand perspective stuff after working with those last exercises, which was good! These turned out pretty neat looking, check it out.

JULY 26th

I was really happy with all but the bottom right hand corner of this drawing, the boxes in that area looked a bit worse for wear, let's see how I did the next day.

JULY 27th

These are awesome! I really think I nailed this one, all of the forms look really good, the depth is there, and I can definitely see how mastering something simple like this can really help the way I draw overall. Being able to draw boxes like that mean I've got the tools to create an inorganic object imaginable, and that's pretty cool!

JULY 28th - JULY 31st

Now it's time for the last drawings of the month, after being restricted to one point perspective it was time for a free for all! This was all cubes, various angles, and depth. Here's how it went!

JULY 28th

This one was super sparse, and pretty boring to boot. Nothing looks terribly bad, well, except for that right hand corner. However I think I outdid myself with the final post of the month, what do you think?

JULY 31st

If this is the culmination of all that I learned this month then I'm really happy with my progress. I think this shows a great amount of confidence, a good amount of skill, and an overall improvement.

It was a whole lot of fun working on these this month, and I'm excited to say I've got some really cool stuff to share coming up, so check back tomorrow to see what it's all about! Thanks for reading, see you next month!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here is my free perspective exercise for today.

Today I tried to experiment a bit with stacking a whole bunch of cubes on top of one another to see how they'd look, and I think they look rather neat! I started by drawing the smaller cubes on top, then added the larger ones behind those, then some more behind the second layer. It was kinda challenging to imagine where all of the lines were behind all of the other forms, but it was definitely good practice.

That's all for tonight! Check back tomorrow for my last free perspective piece, and my review of all the stuff I've worked on this month. It won't be a top ten list, but I definitely want to touch on what each of these exercises has taught me, so don't miss it!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here's my free perspective exercise for today.

Since yesterday's post was a little sparse, I decided add a bit more cubes to the mix to see how it would look, and I think it looks pretty good! I think the spiral shape that the cubes are arranged in really adds something interesting to the image too!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Tonight marks the start of a new mini theme, check it out!

Tonight I tried to emulate the feeling of a Windows 98 screensaver, wait, no - that wasn't really the goal. Actually tonight's exercise was all about perspective, except instead of having one or two specific points that the objects within the paper would be aligned with, it was a total free-for-all! I tried to space everything out a bit so that I could understand it all a little more easily, and I'm pretty happy with it overall, but there's a giant cube on the right that I'd love to obliterate. It just kinda looks like three random lines that don't have anything to do with anything else. Oh well, something I know not to do tomorrow.

Well, that's all for tonight! Check back tomorrow to see something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here's the last of my freehand one point perspective exercises!

I'm really happy with the way these turned out, I feel like most of the wiggly bits that were found in yesterday's piece didn't really work their way into this one. This sort of exercise really does wonders for your confidence, I used to look at images like this and be intimidated by them, but know I understand how they're created and they aren't so scary anymore!

Well that's all for today, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for something new!

Today's the start of a new mini theme, have a look.

This was my first attempt at drawing one point perspective freehand, I think it turned out alright! The last panel on the right's a little off, but other than that everything else looks really good. I really think all of the exercises prior to this helped a lot to make the results here successful, I'm really excited to apply all of the things I learn to my own art, but I'm gonna focus on being studious for now!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

This mini theme was a little short, I only did two of these pieces, here's the final one!

I like the way these turned out, everything's looking pretty good, except for one little mistake in the bottom left. As you can see, that little cube's a skosh disturbed because one of its sides is a bit caddywhompus. Can't forget to pay attention when you're using a ruler, otherwise adorable little cubes suffer.

Well that's all for tonight, tomorrows update's gonna be really interesting! I'll be working on the same thing, but it'll all be freehand! Check back to see how it turns out.

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Tonight marks the start of a new mini theme, take a look!

Let me just start off by saying that I have actively avoided doing anything perspective related for an immense amount of time, there's a simple reason for this - I hate it! I hate it so much that I could shout it from the rooftops, spray paint it on the side of my car, or do both of those things! It mostly comes from a lack of understanding of perspective, which is why this exercise was really useful. I just had to take my time, keep a ruler in place (I've always had trouble with that), and draw some lines. Thanks to doing all that this was the result, and it's a result I'm pretty happy with!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here's the last of my funnel ellipse exercises.

I tried to really add a whole bunch of ellipses in there, and I also keep them much closer together, I think these turned out really well! My one critique would be the lines in the center of the funnel shapes are a little bit crooked, I kept putting my hand on the spiral side of the notebook for some reason, so that caused a bit of wiggling. Oops.

Well that's all for these exercises, and this post, check back tomorrow for a new mini theme!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my funnel ellipse exercises!

I think these turned out nicely, there a lot tighter than yesterday's, and that was really how they were supposed to look. I also forgot to denote the center point with a line, so I corrected that error today.

Well that's all for today, check back tomorrow for something new! 

Hey everyone, it's time for a new update!

Today marks the start of another new mini theme, take a look.

The task here was to start by drawing a line, then two curved lines on either side, once that was done it had to fill in the middle of this funnel shape with ellipses! I think these came out looking pretty good. I'm especially happy with how those lines turned out, they were drawn freehand and they're really quite straight! The curves turned out pretty well too, I really feel like all this practice has helped my mechanical drawing ability a lot, and I'm not even done with all of these exercises yet!

Well that's all for today, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update.

Here are my ellipses in plane exercises for today!

I wanted to end this mini theme with a bang, and I think I did just that with that huge ellipse at the top. It's kinda messy, and I went a bit out of bounds, but it was a great exercise in controlling my arm movement. I think the rest of the ellipses turned out okay, I think this might be something I want to practice off and on, just to keep my skills sharp.

Well, that's all for today, check back tomorrow for a new mini theme!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my ellipses in plane exercises for today.

I kind of did a double take when I was uploading this, the layout of the planes is almost identical to what I posted yesterday! These look pretty good, the bottom middle ellipse is a little wonky, it went out of bounds a bit.

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update.

Here are my ellipses in plane exercises for today!

These are okay, they're a bit sketchier than the ones I posted yesterday, but they're also a little bit bigger. Bigger stuff tends to get a bit messier because that means I'm not only using my wrist, but also my elbow and possibly my shoulder to create those shapes or lines. I keep trying to push myself to work with larger subjects so I can better control my movement.

Well, that's all for tonight. Check back for tomorrow for something new.

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Tonight marks the start of a new mini theme, check it out!

So these exercises are again about ellipses, but the goal is to draw those ellipses within the boundaries of those hand drawn planes. I think these came out pretty nice looking. One of the lines in the largest plane is a little wiggly, but my main goal was getting those ellipses right, and I think I did a pretty good job of that!

Well, that's all for tonight. Check back tomorrow for more!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Tonight's my final ellipse exercise sheet, let's see how I did.

These turned out nicely! I didn't have too much trouble with these, mostly because I use a lot of circular or elliptical motions when I draw anyway, so I think I had a bit of an edge in this department.

Well, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow will mark the start of a new mini theme, check back then!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my ellipse exercises for the day.

These look pretty good, I'm just about as satisfied with these as I am with yesterday's work. The large ellipse on the bottom left's a little wonky, but everything else is alright.

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my ellipse exercises for the day.

I'm pretty happy with how these guys turned out, tried to mix it up a bit more and do some different patterns. I also made some of the sections a bit bigger so I could work with larger ellipses. They turned out pretty nice. Another thing I did, which I didn't mention yesterday, was breaking up some of those sections with lines. It's not anything terribly amazing, but I did do it without a ruler, and I think those lines turned out pretty straight! Seems like all that practice is already paying off.

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Today marks the start of something new as far as exercises go, so take a look!

My next few exercises are going to be all about ellipses, I divided this page into sections, then divided some of those sections into sections, and filled them all with ellipses. Drawing a circle or something circular is kinda really hard to do, so this is a great way to improve your ability to do so! The larger the circle the harder it is to draw, 'cause it involves a bit more of your arm the bigger you go. I tried to vary the sizes again to up the difficulty, and I think that's something I'm going to continue to do from here on out.

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my plane exercises for today.

I wanted to focus a bit more on working on larger drawings, since they're a little more difficult, these got a bit wonky though. Most of the lines aren't completely straight, and I made a few mistakes as far as where the lines are placed. I'm not terribly proud of these, but the learning experience here was not to rush. I won't be making that mistake again.

Well, that's the last of my plane exercises, tomorrow will be something new, check back to see what it is!

Hey everyone, time for a new update!

Here are my plane exercises for today.

Tried to vary the sizes a bit more, I missed the mark on one of them, but they're pretty okay. Got more to do tomorrow!

Check back again for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new update!

Here are my plane exercises for today.

These are alright, had a few wiggles here and there, but they're mostly okay. I wanted to make sure that I tried to draw something on the bigger side for an extra challenge, that's why that one on the right is dominating most of the page.

Well, that's all for today. Check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone it's time for a new post!

So since I've had some practice with lines, it's time to work on something a little more complex, planes! Take a look.

These came out pretty nice, honestly I don't really have any more to say about it, haha!

Check back tomorrow for more new stuff!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Here are my line exercises for today.

I think these turned out a bit better than yesterday's, there's a whole lot less wiggling going on. Most of the lines are pretty straight, so that's good!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Here are my line exercises for today!

These came out okay, save for a few wiggly bits, I tried to vary the lengths a little bit more to get used to the feeling. I'm pretty satisfied with them though!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Here are my line exercises for today.

These look alright, I had a couple of mistakes due to pad movement, but they're okay overall. I was so focused on getting the lines straight I forgot to keep the pad in place!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

What I've got for you today is a little different than what I've posted the last few nights. Take a look!

So this might just look like a bunch of line segments, and it kind of is just a bunch of line segments, but it is also a means of improving my mechanical drawing ability! The task I had to complete was to draw two points and connect them, but before connecting each point I had to move my pen above the paper, teaching my muscles the motion before I made it. Kinda neat, right? I've never had a hard time with drawing organic free-flowing lines, but straight lines have always been kind of tough, so this coupled with my last exercises has vastly improved my confidence in drawing them. I'm going to be doing a couple more of these over the next few days, so that I can continue to get a feel for what goes into the motion of a line.

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my line exercises for today.

Today's lines are a bit of a mixed bag, I think that's due to my own fatigue however, this was one long week! I'm very happy with the smallest lines, they're definitely the best of the bunch. I also think the lines underneath those look pretty good too. I feel like I made quite a few strokes that matched the original line perfectly, but it's hard to appreciate that fact because all you can see in the end are my mistakes. The longest lines are alright, but my squiggly lines are kinda all over the place. Guess that's what happens when you're tired, haha!

I think this is about enough of these exercises, time to move onto something new tomorrow, check back to see how it goes!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my line exercises for today.

These look even better than the ones I did yesterday! I'm pretty happy about that. The smallest lines are still the straightest, but there were quite a few strokes in the middle and bottom that I laid right on top of the guidelines. They just ended up getting concealed by the sloppier strokes! Well, that's all for tonight. I'm not sure how many more days I'll be doing these, there are a few other exercises for me to complete in lesson one, so I can't spend forever on this. I think this is important enough to spend a good amount of time on though, so I'll probably stop once I stop seeing any appreciable differences. Hopefully that doesn't take too long!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Here are my line exercises for today.

Seems like these turned out slightly better than the ones I did yesterday. Or maybe they just don't look as bad because there's a little more space in between the lines? Haha! Oh well, that's all for tonight. Got more of these to do tomorrow, so yeah, fun stuff!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new month, and that means a new theme!

I started this year with the intention to post one finished piece of art on my blog each day, and though my daily updates won't be changing, I want to do some things a little differently. I'd like to use this space to showcase things I'm learning, everything I've done up to this point has been me fumbling around in the dark. Speaking of fumbling, I was doing just that around the internet and found a link to this really cool site, it's called drawabox. There are a whole bunch of neat lessons on there that are based on instruction from an artist I wanted to take an online class with! I think this will be a good way for me to learn more, and get better, instead of just working toward some vague goal that I won't really know if I've achieved. So for the next however long this takes I'm going to be working on the lessons and homework assignments assigned on that site, and post my work here.

Alright, now that I got that giant disclaimer out of the way, let's see what I did! I'm going through each and every one of these lessons, so I'm starting at the start with lesson 1. It's all about lines, ellipses and boxes.

My homework for the first part of the lesson is to draw several 2" lines (I did 10), several lines that were half a page in width (10 again), and some lines that stretched the full width of the page (I think you know how many I did by now). All of these lines were drawn with a ruler. Once that was finished, I went over each line by hand 8 times, to test and improve my mechanical drawing ability. I also added some squiggly lines to trace over as well. Let's see how it turned out!

I think these came out pretty good, it might seem kind of easy at first, but it's pretty hard to go over everything exactly right 8 times! As you can probably tell I had a little trouble. The first set of lines (the short ones on top) were made by moving my hand from the wrist. Those were definitely my cleanest lines, mostly because I tend to draw small and you don't need to involve a whole lot of the arm to do so. My next set of lines were drawn by me moving my forearm from the elbow, those came out pretty sloppy, but I also think they were scrunched a little too close together. Finally the last lines were made by me moving my arm from the shoulder, that way I could move across the page and keep my lines straight. Trying to do that from the wrist or elbow would have created a lot of sketchy lines.

I'm gonna keep doing these for the rest of the week, so I'm sorry if these next few posts won't be terribly exciting, haha! I know this is going to benefit me and my art in the long run, but it might not be super fun to look at right now. The next lesson's gonna be pretty neat though, it's on organic forms, and those are kinda my favorite things! But there might be a month of squiggly lines and boxes before that, so yeah.

Check back tomorrow if you want to see my progress! Thanks for stopping by tonight!