250 box challenge finished! Plus some figure drawings

 I feel very relieved right now. I'm finally finished with my 250 box challenge! Comparing the final pages with the Organic Perspective exercise I did, I feel very proud of my progress. My boxes feel a lot more solid and dimensional now. Onto Lesson 2 next!

 I also wanted to share a few figure drawings from Clip Studio Paint that I did this morning. I thought I would give it a try since I have been doing more traditional art lately. I downloaded a free trial and pulled out my tablet for the first time in awhile. It's a bit frustrating learning some of the new keyboard shortcuts again, but with practice I think I'll get used to it. 

Some initial thoughts about CSP is that it seems built for digital art in a way that Photoshop never was. Even though PS is the industry standard for a reason and very powerful, it always felt as though it were more geared for photo and image manipulation, rather than pure digital art. I also like that it's easy to get a lot of nice textural elements into the images quite quickly. Definitely something I want to play around with more, maybe with more color as well.

Boxes 223-240 & Sketches

 I am very close to being finished with the 250 box challenge now! I'm up to box #240. 

One of the interesting aspects of the Drawabox training program is the 50% rule. What that is is basically a rule that is saying that you should spend at least equal amounts of time on your own sketches. So I've been trying to do a few sketchbook pages alongside the boxes. Here's some recent people and a cat! Not a fan of how the cat turned out. It was a black cat photograph with low exposure, so I was having trouble reading the details. Nevertheless, I think some of the other sketches turned out okay. Here's to more practice!

Drawabox Boxes 205-222

 Did another session with the Drawabox boxes today as part of the 250 box challenge! I am now up to 222 out of 250 boxes. 28 more to go! I feel like certain aspects of this endeavor are becoming easier. If you'd asked me only a few days before, I would have said that progress has been next to none. Today I feel like my accuracy/line quality has improved, and I'm getting better at guesstimating the angles of the lines. Yay!

Figure Drawing 08/26/22

 Worked on some figure drawing today using Line of Action. It would be cool to be able to do in person figure drawing sessions again, but it's just not in the cards right now. So, photo studies are the next best thing!

Starting Fresh with the Art Blog

Hello world!

I am restarting my art blog! I wanted a spot where I could post my art progress without worrying too much about social media. It's been feeling stressful lately.

Lately I've been working on my portfolio for character design & illustration. Currently the portfolio for the character design stuff is further along than for illustration. I've also been training with Drawabox lessons. I'm currently on the 250 box challenge. It's been a long haul so far, but I'm happy that I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Some notes from the Drawabox lesson- I'm happy trouble getting the outlines of the boxes done evenly without a lot of fraying. I also find myself rushing a lot when I work on these. I need to continue to work on taking deep breaths and slowing down when necessary. I've also been finding that overthinking the individual lines isn't working so well. 

Things to remember for next time!

Marker practice

Had some fun playing with markers! I like how these turned out for the most part. I'm gonna need to get more practice though. :)

Sketchbook pages