The Skull from memory

 So to test what I wrote about yesterday, I challenged myself to drawing a page of skulls with no reference. I have drawn a few pages of skulls (not actually that many), and I wondered if I can draw it from memory.

And I as actually very surprised that I was able to! I mean, they are probably very inaccurate..but considering I've never really been able to draw skulls, I was happy with this :)

(HEADS LVL 5 EXP 10)

Studying The Figure (Video by David Finch)

 So this video was recommended to me by the YouTube algorithm, and as I was watching it, it realised his approach to learning is what I've been doing in my ARTacademy journey. But this is from an actual great artist, so check it out!  And if you need motivation to keep doing your studies, then start counting each page you fill as EXP! I think it's a great motivation to track your progress! 

In his video he is telling you how he studies from Bridgman. And the approach is :

1) first you start with the basic shapes / gesture. So in my own mapped out journey, this is the Loomis Mannikin by Loomis (but you can find this in many other places like How to Draw comics the Marvel way, FORCE drawing by Mattesi, etc..). 

2) You now start copying the poses in the figure drawing book that you are using, in his video it's Bridgman. In my mapped journey I had chosen Andrew Loomis, but also my chosen comic artist to study from. 

3) Now you also start copying the anatomy drawings from your figure drawing book. These are usually broken up into segments (arms, neck, torso, feet, etc..) So that's why I have different parts of the anatomy as their own challenges, for me the most expressive parts of the body are the hands and the head, at least for acting in storyboards / comics (The camera is rarely focussing on the lower part of the body :P )

And the most important step that he shows is to first copy the drawing, THEN draw it from memory. And do this over and over until you have made it yours. (my suggestion is 50 pages => LVL 5, but at least 10 pages => LVL 2)

ARTacademy : Report Card

Still continuing this strange experiment on myself, to level up my drawing skills. I've completed 3 badges in total now, and each badge represents 50 sketchbook pages of studies in a subject (Hands, Mannikin and Heads in this case). My studies are on my other blog here.

Here are the challenges broken down with the material I have been studying:

 

Below are the books that I referenced:

Below are the comics I am using for my artist studies of Buscema:

Head doodles

Sketched out some bad head structures, and then used them to draw some random faces on top. 

I think it shows that if you could master drawing those head shapes from Loomis or How to Draw the Marvel way, you will be able to draw your own characters from any angle. It is however not that easy to master, if you are like me: a disciple of the school of the ungifted. 😅

(HEADS LVL 3 EXP 70)

On that note, here are my updated stats. I have completed 50 pages of hand studies, next week focussing on doing the same for head studies and the mannikin.

Also a bad Dani Moonstar drawing :P

ARTacademy: Report Card

 I'll probably just start doing this once a month in the future, just to track my progress here of my fictional Art School for the Ungifted Training Program :P 

Still, it helps to keep track of your goals. This week my aim will be to complete my "hands" training to LVL5, which will earn me a badge :P Then I will probably switch to a different body part (feet perhaps since it's something I'm not very good at). 

Also going to fill out more pages of Loomis Mannikin drawings, as for me it's the very basis for quick and dynamic figure drawing.

More pages of J. Buscema studies

 Wanted to complete LVL2 of my artist studies by finishing 20 pages of studies from the artist J. Buscema. These are from the pages of Savage Sword of Conan.Another 30 pages of studies to go to earn an artist badge 😅

ARTacademy: Report Card

 So I have been busy again lately, and juggling extra drawing on top of a job can be quite challenging. But every little bit helps. At the moment filling up some pages of artist studies when I get a chance. So my current mentor : Conan :P

ARTacademy: Report Card

 So continuing my self education through my new ARTacademy : School for the ungifted! (the things we do to entertain ourselves :P)

Here's a placeholder report card (an ugly looking one) of my progress :P 

Remember every page of a sketchbook filled = 10XP and 100XP to level up. 

A skill badge is earned once you reach level 5 of any subject.

=

ARTacademy: Level Up

So I've been playing with this idea of coming up with a system to track and motivate my drawing progress. 

In short,  I've broken down certain areas into skills to practice like : Loomis Mannikin, Hands, Heads, Composition, etc... So for every skill if you fill a page of study or practice in your sketchbook , it earns 10 EXP, and you level up that skill after 10 pages (100 EXP).  You get a proficiency badge in a skill at level 5 (meaning you would've drawn 50 pages for that skill. 

Then you also can earn artist badges by studying (copying) an artist you admire, currently I am studying John Buscema.

Silly I know, but gotta keep things fun :D

So far I have tracked the following ones (I post these studies on my life drawing blog ) :

Loomis Mannikin : LVL3 / 0 EXP

Heads : LVL1 / 40 EXP

Hands : LVL 4 / 10 EXP

Buscema : LVL1/ 20 EXP

When I beat a level, I'll try and draw a victory sketch. This is beating the Loomis Mannikin LVL 2 :P