Slipped but got back on my feet

Sorry for the slow update.  I've made some progress, but I've also struggled with consistency in my work schedule.  It takes the discipline of a monk to sit down and draw on a daily basis.  I fell off the wagon a bit but tonight I managed to redeem myself.  I also worked on some pen lines from Peter Han's sketching class (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDNDOKnArk) which I am woefully too poor to afford at the moment but definitely will consider once I save up some cash from teaching abroad.

I'm slowly adding armor and hair to my figures.  It looks sloppy, I know, but godammit it's progress!

Movement, wolves and perspective

I had a super productive sketch session today.  I tried the Pomodoro Method, which is where you are productive in bursts of 25 minutes, with 5 minute breaks in between.  After four 25 minute sessions, you may take a 20-30 minute break, and go back to it.  The more pomodoros you do, the longer your breaks may become.  I find it very conducive to getting work done as it breaks it down into bite sized chunks.  Knowing I don't have to work longer than 25 minutes at a time makes my ADD less likely to fire off and distract me.

Today was a potluck with some figures in motion, which made me extremely excited because I felt like it was a huge milestone for me to pass to finally bring my creations to life, albeit awkwardly.  Andrew Loomis states it's better to draw with motion and expression than accuracy, so I decided to just throw caution to the wind and let it go.

I have a book about wolves and I decided to try something different and draw from some photographs.  The results were mixed.  The smaller wolves look pretty good, but I'm not pleased with the big portrait.  I decided to scan in the reference of the big wolf so you can see just how mangled my interpretation was.  Ah well, gotta try right?

Also did a perspective with some failed lighting.  Bah.  I gotta really work on that.

Overall though, today was a fantastic day and I feel like I'm improving!

Misc Manly and Cartooning

Sorry for the slow update.  Been dealing with my job teaching English in Korea.  My attention span has been lacking lately.  I haven't been able to focus, but I did my best today.  My inner critic is starting to whisper at me, and I just gotta ignore it.

Mall Excursions part 2

Sorry for the slow update since last time, but I got a LOT of work done!  Today the Art Ninjas went to Lenox mall again to our familiar spots.  I also did some more rote learning repetition work yesterday at a friend's house.  I actually have more pages than what I uploaded, but I just wanted to show you guys more progress.  I tried to even do some perspective work!  Gotta work dat one point, two point and three point perspective - that's a whole other can of worms I'm afraid of opening, but I know I must to further forge the sword of art.

3/4 grindathon

Worked on the 3/4 view and some Andrew Loomis styled animated skeletons today.  I had a rough day today.  I really did not feel like drawing and I started to get discouraged because I realize I have months, even years to go before I can put on paper what I see in my head.  But I will persevere, I know every artist has bad days.  Apologies for the fast scans, I'm about to go hang out with friends and I wanted to get these in to show my progress.  I'm almost done with this current sketchbook which is simply too large for this printer.  I'll switch to a smaller one soon!

I also experimented with a mechanical pencil.  It's definitely refreshing to not have to sharpen it every five minutes!  Just a few clicks and you're set!

More

Trying to make the front view more animated.  Still grasping the side view.  Hope to go on another excursion soon.  It's such a great way to capture the animated figure.

Also tumblr is fucking lame.  You can't upload multiple images at once.  Fuck that I say.  I know all the cool kids use it but I already started a base here.

MOVING.

I've decided to jump ship to tumblr due to more of my friends using that particular blog sphere.  This will make it easier for them to follow me and make sure I don't slack off.

http://roberrant.tumblr.com/

Mall Excursions

For the afternoon on New Year's Eve, some friends of mine decided to go on a drawing excursion at Lenox Mall.  Considering the place is a hub of consumerism during a time of post-Christmas sales, it's a great place to sketch humans in motion.  We would perch our sketch pads on the railings of balconies and gaze upon the pedestrians below.  Some people, curious, would gaze over our shoulders while we drew.  I received more tips on how to improve my ability, most notably when drawing someone try to capture their action - are they holding a phone?  Are they fidgeting?  Are the scratching their head?  Little idiosyncrasies like this are what make compelling art.

I felt overwhelmed at first but my brain started to get the gist of what was going on after an hour or so.  Even though these are speed sketches, (relatively speaking) it requires an immense amount of concentration to sit down and do this.  The idea isn't for details, but for the action and "gist" of the figure.  I'm trying to animate the skeletons and give 'em some zazz.

Afterwards we went to see Django Unchianed which was a brilliant flick.  Highly recommended, though it was a bit too long!  The theater had full recliner seats which was quite comfortable though.  What a great way to end the year!