art-hmm - Tumblr blog

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My first sketch of 2024. I took a few months break to handle a class in my master's degree program. I love school, but the school I'm going to sucks. So I'm dropping out of the program. I've got a job in software and don't plan to do management. It was just a way to continue learning computer science. With the level of resources my school was providing, though, (which was just a bunch of links to articles) I can study better on my own.

So I'm going to start drawing again. It's really tough to progress, but I'm determined to give myself some creative outlet. Life is so busy. I'm wrapping up my mother's estate and planning to buy a house this year. A few hours of drawing a week should be manageable.

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The final drawing of 2023! Ending strong with the most accurate depiction of my OC Marco to date. Happy new year, all.

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I've only done a handful of these, but it's already helping. The black lines are me blocking in the pose shapes and guidelines. The red lines are traced over the reference image as well as some critique drawn over my sketch. Doing this lets me compare my accuracy and highlight key mistakes.

Comparing my sketch vs the trace over... not bad? I'm hitting a few nice points like the angle of shoulders/hips, proportions, which way head/torso/hips are facing. The poses are passably accurate. Some of the limb positioning is off, but not by too too much. If anything, this is helping me refine some stuff that I'm doing a decent job at.

I'll do a few more of these and then move on to some more detailed attempts. I want to critique my anatomy this way. I think I know a few things I need to practice once I'm done there, but these foundational critiques will go a long way.

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I'm on year three of learning how to draw. January 1st will be the official 3 year mark, starting year four.

I hit a block in the past couple months where I'm struggling to improve. I've gained a lot of knowledge and experience, but I still have a sizable gap to fill before I reach a point where I don't feel like every drawing session is a frustrating mess. I wouldn't be surprised if year four is all about overcoming that barrier. Going from mildly confident to actual confidence that I've moved beyond amateur.

But I want to appreciate how far I've come. This blog goes back three years to when I bought my first drawing tablet. I am going to super crush this barrier eventually. In three more years, just imagine. Imagine a decade of learning to draw. That goal is real.

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The drive in my laptop died over the weekend and I lost all my art files from this year... Luckily I posted almost all of it here, so at least I have the pngs. Still a real bummer. Back up your files more than once a year, folks.

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Two things are happening here that I really like. I'm starting to reach a point where I can represent these characters that I have in a way that I'm happy with. Also, I'm starting to nail down the concept of my number one fight boy, Marco.