Dmotym's 10,000 hours [Now over 100 Hours!]

[Demotyme]

3/11/11: Added Thread image

Without boring you with my life story, know that I've recently recommitted to improving my art and drawing everyday. Drawing Everyday. I've read somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours a practice to master something, that's my goal. I'm about 33 hours in, I've got pencils, ink, and a little watercolor tin, which I'll be working in for awhile. I'm keeping this forum to keep me honest.














Mostly studies, some sketches next time.

[Demotyme]

Moar studies, trying to get the Reilly figure down.

[ThomasM]

great start. And the 10,000 hours is a reference from Malcolm Gladwell I think?

Its funny you wrote that at the start of your sketchbook because that it exactly what goes through my mind every day when I wake up: "time to put in the hours towards that 10,000 mark"

I also see that you have some good loomis faces going on here, thats a great place to start - nothing to criticise except watch the feet. I read that the best way to get feet to draw realistic is to draw the footprint in perspective first then build up from that. You will be able to tell if the footprint looks wrong more easily than the whole foot.

Anyway good luck!

[Demotyme]

Thank you, yes hand and feet are pretty difficult, I'll try your trick.

More studies, and a WIP!


I tried doing some 30 sec posemaniacs, didn't work out, any tips for fast gestures?





Now the WIP



Any issues to iron out?

[.empyrean.]

Looks great so far! Human anatomy is a great thing to begin with.
Just one advice: Try to draw with fewer lines, arty, hatchy lines are not the way to go.
To get more precise lines try thicker pencils, markers or ink pens (they are unmerciful...).

[Demotyme]

@empy thanks, padding my lines is a bad habit. I actually like a 6b pencil, but it would have been too dark for underdrawing.

I may just leave this incomplete...


Arm studies!

[vanaga]

Hey Demotime!
That's very interesting idea to count down those 10 000
Cool studies, you are going the right direction. Try Lomis book at first ("Figure drawing for all it's worth"), it heped me a lot to kick off those studies

[Demotyme]

@vanaga I actually did! It's all around helpful, not just with the figure!


I'll be away from computers all this weekend, so no posts until monday, at which point I will take a massive dump in my thread. (Hopefully anyway) Expect life drawings!

Copy of figure drawing in Loomis anatomy book.

[SigonWulf]

Find someone to model for you. I'd like to see a drawing of a person. Just sketch a family member who is watching tv.

[HolsterDraw]

Very impressed so far, you are doing great with your anatomy. Keep that practice up and you'll be a master in no time

[ErikHolfelder]

Good start man, just do more more more! If you haven't, I'd suggest getting bridgman's books (free pdfs online) in addition to loomis.

Keep up the life drawing and anatomy study, it's going to really pay off. For gestures, let go of your expectations. They don't have to look good, especially when you're just starting out. Try not lifting your pencil much (or at all!) and let the lines flow through and around the figure. 15 or 30 second gestures are largely about nailing the motion and balance, and you'll get a lot better at structure and getting them to look better over time. You could also get some thicker charcoal or graphite sticks and use them on their side to just fill in where you see masses. Just experiment, you'll learn a lot!

Good luck man, don't stop!

[Demotyme]

@ Everyone, thanks for the feed back, I'll start to incorporate gesture drawing into an everyday thing.

Spent the weekend in Venice, spectacular. Met some grad students in a bar where I was sketching, one of them bought two! I'll be telling that story forever.



Some proportion and me messing with construction. I'm feeling somewhat aimless in these studies, anything I should cover?

[HolsterDraw]

Anatomy studies! Good job, keep up with that. Maybe more gestures and dynamic poses if you think you've got figures down to a place where you are comfortable doing those kinds of poses. But just keep drawing! And since no one replied in my thread, lol, are you in the SSG now?

[.empyrean.]

Agree with HolsterDraw. If you want to draw humans from imagination you should know every twisting, shifting of the body masses. Proportions is the first step, but then you should work on poses.
Bridgeman helps alot with that!

Max

[Nick Cato]

your very good at figure drawing! i really get the feel of volume and mass on the anatomy figures you drawed.Keep up the good work!

[Demotyme]

Thanks for the advice all. I'm going try to structure my work from now on, working smart, and balance between studies and play. Experiment, see what works.

Warm up gestures


Female anatomy



Cool down gestures

[ismo]

Hah, I too was thinking about that 10,000 h thing when I started studying today. Figured it would take me about 6 hours of drawing every day if I wanted to become a "master" before I turn 30.

So far I'm seeing lots of great studies from you. Just remember to double check the proportions. Especially when you're doing longer studies of those statues and stuff. And keep this thing going. I really want to see you hit that 10,000 h mark in this sketchbook and witness how monstrously good you became.

[Demotyme]

Ismo Thanks, words like that every once and a while remind me of what I'm doing.

I'm starting to incorporate more personal/free stuff in my daily routine

Warm up gestures


Getting further into loomis anatomy book, the mannequins can actually be pretty evocative while being easy to construct.


Now for the good stuff. I'm a pretty huge fan of Adventure Time, and I got pretty jazzed up about doing fan art when I was thinking of some non study stuff to do.


I did a couple of thumbnails for it because I wanted it to be this huge pin up thing, but eventually I found myself doodling on the side of the paper. Turns out there's my little sketch, and I don't know if you can see it, but snippets of of all the little thumbnails ended up in the final sketch which I found the most satisfying. Suddenly, I put 2 and 2 together, that's why you do thumbnails! Before it was just a route step I was forced to do in school, now it means something.



I'm working on a comic project, three pages thumb'd so far, I finally have he confidence to get these ideas down from out my head and on to paper. For now I'm winging it, and we'll se what happens. Oh, and any crits on the thumbs would be appreciated before I move on.

Finally, some, cool down gestures. Applying the loomis mannequin actually made the gestures more fluid, space and perspective are easier too.

[Demotyme]

Funny thing, I just saw my first attempt at a sketch thread, with this post I've already doubled the amount in the other one.

No studies today, taking a break to just draw what I want, and what I want is to start a comic!

Please, any and all critique you can offer. The name is Isolation, a Sci-fi story exploring the vastness of space and to be lost in it. Length is indeterminate. This page itself is not complete.



Warm up, cool down gestures.

[Demotyme]

Today's stuff

[Jiri92]

Haha, such a coincidence!

That 10,000 hour thing is the exact same thing I live by. Trying to get a few hours of every discipline in my life in every day, working great so far!

Also nice stuff here man, some of the muscle studies look really nice!

[Demotyme]

Jiri Thanks.

Loomis studies and gestures.

[Demotyme]

With this post I'm 50 hours into my goal.

[Demotyme]

Gestures and some plates from Harold Speed's book.

[ErikHolfelder]

Hey man, glad you're still chugging away. Here's a suggestion if you're feeling aimless: try drawing some figures from your mind. Then pick a focus area that you found particularly hard - say you sort of just drew in a smudge or oval for a hand rather than indicating the structure there. Then for a few days, focus on hand studies. Read bridgman and draw notes from his hand pages for example, draw your own hands on several pages, do a few from mind and analyze problem areas. This can be applied to anything and everything, not just the figure.

For the comic cover, the main issues I see are that you can't read the whole title and that the anatomy and clarity could be improved. The title could be Isolate, Isolation or even something else. The actual scene confuses me a bit as well. I think I see a steel girder there, and what looks like a wound in the person's side. Maybe that's what you were going for though, because these elements combined do add up to a sort of mystery and solemnity, which follows with your premise.

Anyway, if you want to increase clarity, I'd try doing several thumbnails of the same thing to see which makes the most sense. Working on your anatomy will definitely help out with comics, and anything with humans, in the long run. Really, at this stage it's a great start. Just keep going with your studies while doing the comic and you'll be hitting everything you need to improve in all areas.

Keep it up man, you're on your way!

[.empyrean.]

Wow! That is effort, I call. Your linework improves day by day as well as your anatomy skills.
Very good, mate.

[Demotyme]

eekolite Thanks for the encouraging words. As for focus, That's not a bad idea, I try it for the next update.

You're right that the initial image in the comic cover is not to make sense on it's own, but it sets the tone for the story, it's part of a sequence where the "camera" pans out and you see the wreckage of a ship. As for the rest, no excuse . I'll chalk it up to a first draft and redesign the pages at my leisure.

.empyrean. Thank you as well, the daily stuff does help.

I'm beginning to viscerally hate my gestures, even without the 30 second thing, there's this stiffness that I can't seem to shake lately. I want to suggest form instead of stick figures, though right now it's cumbersome. And perspective, ugh. If any kind, loving lurkers has advice, please share.



Plate study

[Demotyme]

Experimenting with different techniques for quick gestures, hit or miss. I've just decided it's an ongoing progress. Also, a character design that I've been kicking around in my head, was pleasantly surprised by how close it was to my mental image. Need to work on hands/feet.

[Demotyme]

Bleh, couldn't concentrate today.

[Demotyme]

I find that more than when I started I need to manage my concentration, It's forcing me to try new things.

Warm ups as usual.


Getting back to basic mark making which actually preoccupied me for a while.