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Gabriel Arazas 9e956dc085 Update journal for learning to draw
2022-07-29 23:45:47 +08:00

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Journals: Learning how to draw

This is my journey documenting my process of learning Illustration from the very beginning. This is to practice my Writing and self-documenting to make an interesting future reference for any things that I will do at some point.

But let's get the Professional narcissism out of the way, shall we?

To put things into perspective, I have no experience drawing things. The most I've done is to doodle while in school waiting for the class to end. I draw but not in the sense of actively pursuing it nor caring about it. I don't have an eye for details so that's absolutely great for observational skills. :)

I've attempted learning how to draw before but all of them quickly drawn out because time and study goes first. All of my attempts are just one day attempts at a drawing and nothing else so I consider them not an attempt at all, more like a casual stroll. Now with time, I could make some "real" uninterrupted attempt this time. Being an ignorant casual means I should have an easy time learning from scratch, yes? That's just one way to found out.

Goals and expectations

Out of this journey, I hope to reach the following solid goals:

  • First and foremost, draw things from imagination accurately. At times, my imagination runs so actively but I cannot manifest those images in reality for those potentially cool (or bad, Failed ideas can be repurposed after all) ideas I want to tell. Having those ideas out would be nice, yeah?
  • Draw some good pixel art. It's one of my favorite form of digital art, after all. After seeing games like Brave Frontier (RIP), FF Brave Exvius, Battle for Wesnoth, and Blasphemous made with designs that felt like it was handcrafted, I want to craft some designs for it. Or even create some mods for Wesnoth…
  • I want to draw animals, also accurately. I'm an outsider interested in some roam:Zoology and it is interesting to sketch different animals. Something like how scientific illustrators like Danielle Dufault from Animalogic does it. Or Ali Bahabadi who is mastering animal portraits. It is especially interesting to branch out into creating monster designs like in Monster Hunter art style. I CAN FINALLY DRAW THOSE ORIGINAL MONSTERS I HAVE IN MIND FOR YEARS!
  • I want to draw anything… accurately. This is getting vague but what I mean is I want to draw nice things. I'm open to drawing things in various styles whether a nice life-like images, fictional biology of an alien planet, a dark medieval fantasy, or cartoonish styles like in anime or Western cartoons.
  • I want to get paid drawing stuff. Why not? It's another skill I want to get good at so why not sell yourself out to get paid, yes? It's a big bonus!

I want to attain as much of those in 6-12 months starting 2022-07-21. Yes, quite a goal.

If I get paid for this, I can buy more powerful computers and branch out into 3D modelling or roam:Animation. At that point, it could be a nice opportunity to learn about roam:Game development. Opportunities with money is a good thing!

Hurrah! Now what challenges would I expect from attaining those goals? I've done some cursory research and here's what I would encounter.

  • Failures. Lots of failures. A lot of retries, a lot of ugly drawings, ugly designs, a lot of failed drawings, in general. I'm pretty sure a lot of great artists I look up to sit on top of a mountain of failed attempts. I'm not a progidy or anything so I won't expect some miracle that I will smoothly sail across the cruising.
  • Papers. Lots of papers. I want to get into digital art but I find paper to be easier to deal with so that's what I will be using for now. As for digital tablets, I'll just look for an affordable one to get started with.
  • Drawing one illustration for hours. Yeah, this is apparently how some illustration goes. I thought digital art is a process of applying your brush and the image will magically appear.
  • Various fights against Perfectionism. I know perfection is a fruitless task so I probably would have an easier attempt to fight it back but I wouldn't count myself doing that. From what I can tell, as you progress being more attentive, you can have more tendencies of being one. Though, I would have to have an eye for detail in order to do that.

Resources, preparations, and planning for the execution

Some more cursory research over what's to come. Not all plans will go smoothly but it's better to have one than nothing. Preparation is key, Create roadmaps to stay on track, so I've created just that alongside the following list of resources to keep in touch.

  • Various logs from artists. Whether it is a YouTube video of a speedpaint, live streams from Picarto.TV, or simply posting to Deviantart. In other words, just simply Follow the experts in the field.
  • Drawabox course. It's a course that emphasizes on practicing certain skills to make your illustrations feel solid and reasonable. This is done by repeatedly smacking you with exercises that emphasizes spatial reasoning, a perfect resource for a spatial-reasonably challenged person like me. This is to first thing I've encountered and I've looked into and got the impression that it is great. It's a community of learning artists so it is a nice starting point to meet your peers so that's nice!
  • Ctrl+Paint is a nice entryway for sketching and digital art which I will do at some point. It has a nice navigation in nice structure.

Take note, this is not exhaustive. I could just refer to some random YouTube video on more detailed aspects of it.

The plan? Pretty simple.

  • Progress through Drawabox course. It is said that Drawabox is not the end-all-be-all point for learning to draw, the point is to be a nice starting point for you to eventually learn the other resources without getting lost too much in the process.

  • Fill 1-2 pages in a sketchbook every night from this point. This is a non-exhaustive list of things I want to sketch a lot:

    • Figure drawing.
    • Monsters.
    • Items and things.
    • Random logos.
  • Get some other things from following other artists.

In other words, we're going to follow the first few advice from the course (which I skimmed a little bit before writing this journal). It is a simple (and a surprisingly difficult) one to take but it is the most effective in my opinion.

2022-07-28

I've started learning with consistency a week later because I want to be consistent at this point and it's a slightly busy week. Anyways, I've started the Drawabox course. I initially skimmed Lesson 0 beforehand and reviewed it since it is important to get into the intended purpose of the course which is basically a complimentary starting point for learning Illustration.

I've finished the Lines part of the course in 4 pomodoro sessions so that's at least 2 hours. Note that I did finished the course before until the Boxes part of Lesson 1 but it is done hastily, in disconnected sessions, and without practice so it is way less effective in retaining what I've learned. While it feels daunting to restart, it is nice for me to Learn how to forget sometimes. Otherwise, I might find myself too entrenched in my previous experiences and that could be problematic throughout the course.

As for the exercises, I could comment on it:

  • The "Superimposed lines" is surprisingly hard with the intent of accuracy. However, being an introductory exercise and it is highly encouraged to not grind, it is not too bad. This is the point that I don't get the rhythm yet. The only obstacle so far is my own anxiety.
  • "Ghosted lines" is surprisingly easy once I got the rhythm. The approach of confident strokes but without the rushing is getting into my mind. Some mistakes are made but it is not too bad either relative to my experience (which is absolute zero). This is where I discovered I can draw straight lines even with a shaky hand. :)
  • "Ghosted planes", same comment. Once you got the rhythm, it is easy. It is a matter of patience with the amount of things to do. Get used to this as it is will be the norm for later exercises even in Lesson 1.

I'll apply the 50% rule cited from this course. For this, I'll be drawing a parrot both with a single and multiple references. Both are done with a purpose which will be explained tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I did not fulfilled my 2 pages of sketchbook for this day since I started this in the evening. It should be done at roam:2022-07-30.

2022-07-29

Hey, look! I made a sketch of the parrot though with a single reference image complete with shading. I don't know how to draw from imagination so this is a Deliberate practice to getting used to sketching in general. Not exactly good shading as I expected such this bird sketch or this sketch of a bluejay but it is surprisingly good for a first-time sketch.

Next time, it'll be a parrot but with multiple references.

Total time spent: 4 pomodoro sessions (~2 hours) which is not bad.

The sketch is simpler than I expected but the thing that took me the most is making sure it is accurate. How its tail look like, what about its feet, etc.

There's a lot of things I would like improve here.

  • The texture look flat. I didn't made it look feathery and instead made it look like a smooth-looking parrot (which sounds good but not the intention I'm trying to make).
  • Picking values is harder than I thought. While it did come out as recognizable, some of the values I've picked are not really that great in the bigger picture. Thankfully, this is solvable by adjusting your sketch.
  • Make it realistic like the previously linked sketches. I would really like to make it look realistic like Ali Bahabadi's work or any scientific illustrations, really.

Down the line, I've discovered online encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia of Life, Wikispecies, and Discover life project. These are some nice references for future animal sketches.

I've also watched some speedpaints of animal portraits using Krita from Ali Bahabadi. Now, I'm tempted to try out digital painting early on. Unfortunately, I don't have my digital tablet with me so ehhh…

I've also looking more into learning how to draw from imagination. There's seem to be a thread with a nicely summarized discussion on this exact topic so I'll be using those starting with [cite:@loomisFunPencilHow2013]. Basically, mainly focus on roam:Constructive drawing and roam:Drawing perspective.