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!