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May 2020

Another busy day at work and I was not able to get as much done as I would like but I was about to practice my colour theory. I have painted watercolour swatches of a yellow and a red trying to study and learn more about my paints.

What I learn was moleskine watercolour paper is extremely convenient and cost effective but it does not seem to absorb water as well as cotton paper. I am currently only using student grade paints so I should consider upgrading to more professional grade paints to help with precision painting. And much more :sweat_smile: I'm even contemplating recording myself paint to watch the playback and see what I do well and where I can improve :grin:

Until then, here is a study of the space police cruiser from lilo and stitch, designed and drawn by chris sanders.

I also include one of my stages when it comes to studying other art pieces.



@nathanKmcwilliams I'm really enjoying the dynamic perspectives! And that is a massive collect of sketches just sitting in a box at work :joy: but it's amazing you have so many well stored somewhere. I heard a saying once that you should always keep your old drawings because there's a chance they will become your 401k if you become a popular artist :grin:

@SoulShark if that's the case...I have a plastic tub in my home office filled with all my signed sketches going back to 2008 and even a few from the 90s when I was a kid xD if I do get famous, I'll be set for life, lol.
Also that ship from Lilo and Stitch looks really good! I love the alien tech designs from that movie.

Studies from yesterday and today~ Just discovered that quickposes has an app you can use your own images with, so been playing around with that.






@LCT_m_a_d liking the skin folds on the hands, adds a feeling of realism~

@SoulShark lol and those swatches of paint are cool to look at! Yeah I've heard that it's usually worth it to upgrade when it comes to paint. The video idea is interesting, hmm never thought of that.

@nathanKmcwilliams oohh that's why the color of the paper is always different! I was wondering about that lol.

Thank you!
By the way, when you do all these studies, is it like 50% of your total drawing time is studies and 50% other stuff,
or do you designate certain days to only studies and other days to other stuff?

Ah well if I had to sort of layout my average day it'd be ~2 hours of studies and then other stuff (comics, illustration, random sketching . . ., etc.) for several hours, so not quite 50/50. Though I might spend more time on studies if there's something specific I need to work on, or spend less time on studies if I'm busy with other stuff/deadline approaching.

But there was a time in which I'd spend all day doing only studies and then another day only doing other stuff(or nothing at all . . .). Whatever works y'know~

@SoulShark I've done a few. I feel like I'd have a better grasp on it now, it's just a matter of finding time to do it. I've got a lot of ongoing projects and only about 20 hours a week to work on them xD

@nathanKmcwilliams
The fact that you find the time to create content for your webtoon is amazing :heart_eyes: that is the dream goal! :grin:

Then you also have time to practice your fundamentals AND that's pretty cool, even if you dont have the time to do everything :sunglasses:

I wasnt able to complete as much as I would like bit ideas able to practice my inking:

I also received the new watercolour paper that I ordered through the post! This means that I will be able to start experimenting with actually 100% cotton paper :fearful:

But I'm saving for the time being because I'm still using my winsor & newton cotman brand watercolours which are student grade. After that, I'll move to Arteza, they also sent professional but they are transition to professional watercolour paints :heart_eyes:

@Hodge Thank you, it means a lot knowing that my art is improving. :grin: I would like my anatomy to really shine, so that I can start manipulating it. My goal is to lean towards horror webcomics (I obviously still have a long way to go :joy:). Your thumbnail exercises are always impressive especially now that you've started incorporating colour theory into them. I especially enjoy your panel studies of other webcomics, it's got me motivated to try and study the works of Jinjo Ito and how he organises his panels as well as how I could translate it into a scrolling webcomic.

@nathanKmcwilliams variety is always important, I look forward to seeing how you approach hair :grinning: designing afro hair is something I particularly enjoy :grin:

Your art supplies are so nice! I get nervous using any professional product for traditional art, like if I mess up, that's it, I wasted my money. Which is why I either buy bulk copier paper or scavenge the free scraps at work xD
It's a combination of being cheap, and paranoid. :sweat_smile:

I have no idea what's up with me this week, progress has been awfully slow for me. I feel that it is because the UK is lifting the lockdown and I need to go into work more often l, then I'mto exhausted to draw as much at home :disappointed_relieved:

Today was just a basic practice of skull close ups. There is actually 8 references I am using. I was only able to compete 4 and start the 5th one. I'll complete the set tomorrow. I also have to restart memorizing the bones. So I have started recording myself saying all the bones so that I can play it back to myself :joy:

I also did some watercolouring and practiced my skin tones and hair.

But I have to say, that a statue I commissioned to make arrived today. It is figurine taking inspiration from the film lilo and stitch with heavy inspiration from Nani, Lilo's older sister. I'll be using it in the future as a reference for designing characters and practicing drawing shadows.

[Something is wrong with my internet connection so I will have to upload the image of the statue later]

@nathanKmcwilliams the frog view pose is done well, you really captured the gesture. Great job coming out of your comfort zone, it's such an intimidating experience :clap: and your studies are good :smiley_cat:

Did a lot of studies today and ended it with a style study of Alucard from Castlevania. I tried to do something similar to what Ethan Becker suggested in his recent video, because I really love this art style and I want to know how it works!

I'll update this comment in a moment with all the other studies I did, but I need to do that via my phone because photos ahah

EDIT:
Here's the studies and stuff today!

(except the drawing on the left. That's not a study, nor was it drawn today lmao)

I would have done more studies, but I was also working on my personal comic (currently taking a break from the competition comic) and couldn't get an expression right, so that was basically a study in itself!

What photos are you referencing for the dudes in the last picture of this post?

I always struggle to
find good references of guys who look like that. I can only ever find pictures of dudes with short hair who look stereotypically hot to middle aged women xD