Again from Goldman. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Posts published in “Sketchworks”
A couple of conceptual sketches for a planned illustration for my story "Shadows of Titanium Rain." Not very intelligible at this stage, but this is a stage I need to get comfortable at so I am not simply drawing and hoping it turns out, but planning my drawing for it to become a success.
Drawing at a rate of once daily, posting every day.
-the Centaur
Recreating front matter sketches from "Wizard: How to Draw". I like the inking technique they used on the toothy monkey-zombie dude in the bottom left, though it's hard to recreate with my portable art kit.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Geez, hands are complicated, man. More Goldman studies.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More from the Wizard Basic Training How to Draw book. It surprises me how much I got out of doing the stick-man and outline sketches - they showed me limits of my existing practice (and conversely, how much I've progressed in other areas, like hand shape and arm length). Still, a lot of work to do.
Also, some superhero costumes REALLY look like lingerie in disguise. Just sayin'.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
For years I've been carrying about the book The Best of Wizard Basic Training: How to Draw: Getting Started, trying to make progress in it, and failing. But, my new methodical approach based on Goldman's book seems to be working, so I'm going to add the Wizzes into my drawing rotation. Let's see how it goes.
Frankly speaking, if I was to do it all over again, I'd start with the hands and feet, as they're the hardest part, and when you start trying to draw a person but can't finish it due to the hands and feet, it's hard to really feel that the drawing is done. I don't really feel that anymore, though I know I have a long ways to go.
Drawing every day, methodically, through a set of exercises.
-the Centaur
Fun fact: I've just about finished a whole notebook of Drawing Every Day sketches!
Onward!
-the Centaur
Trying a continued focus on the shape of faces and position of eyes. I think it's getting better, though the tilt of the face is off a bit; at least it is decently proportioned and the eyes aren't all over the place.
This is the last of the Porsche character sheets in this series, and I'm going to dive in to finishing the hands and feet Goldman book before switching gears to faces. Still, this exercise turned out not too bad ... and I am now seven days ahead on drawing every day AND scheduling them for posting.
Drawing every day, on average, posting as far ahead as I can.
Next up: editing work on SPECTRAL IRON, Dakota Frost #7!
-the Centaur
In theory I should be writing tonight, but I'm so close to being a week ahead on drawing (meaning, tomorrow I can fully coast if I want to) that I feel like I should just power on through. More Goldman studies of how the hand flexes towards the radius or ulna.
Drawing every day, with a buffer; posting in advance when I can.
-the Centaur
Another study of a Midjourney-generated character sheet for Porsche the Centaur. (All of these similar-looking ones were generated using variations of a similar prompt; they never got much better, but they're good variations on a theme). Overall, getting better on the eye placement, now that I'm focusing on it; also the head to hair ratio is better but not great; also the shoulderpads are high or the chin is low ...
Drawing more or less every day; posting as regularly as I can.
-the Centaur
More hand practice after Goldman, this time on how the hand extends away and towards the body.
Drawing every day.
Again from Goldman. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Reviewing my past art, I noticed that mis-aligned and mis-spaced eyes, and generally poorly placed and scaled faces, were a problem. So I tried to focus on that problem this time, and ... it didn't turn out bad.
As usual, it's Porsche the Centaur, via a Midjourney character sheet, again. Though her hair is WAY too huge ... I guess I really do romanticize big hair.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies, putting the hand back together from the bones, tendons, muscles and skin.
This methodical process really seems to be helping me build confidence in my art. Yay!
Drawing every day, more or less.
-the Centaur
More Goldman studies, featuring an early prototype of the One Ring that just made the wearer's flesh invisible, an effect Sauron is reported to have described as "too creepy, even for me."
Drawing on average every day, posting every day that I can.
-the Centaur
Again showing how they radiate from the wrist.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Breakdown of the metacarpals; the finger ones radiate from a point at the base of the carpals.
Drawing (more or less) every day, posting every day that I can.
-the Centaur
So, the root bones of the hand - the carpals - are mostly stuck together and can be thought of as a half-moon shape. But it is the act of dis-assembling the hand, breaking it into its component parts, identifying them, and grouping them, that really enables this act of re-integration. From 2 days ago:
It's all starting to come together. Drawing (on average) every day.
-the Centaur
Another drawing of Porsche from a generative AI character sheet (I think this one was from ChatGPT+DALL-E, which seems to be a bit better than Midjourney at taking art direction and creating centaurs). I modified the face to more closely match Porsche, whose ears are located more closely to a normal human's ears.
I've started to build up a buffer, like I am for the Blogging Every Day series, by trying to do two drawings at every sitting. I can't manage to draw for an hour and a half every single day, but if I do it most days, then I slowly creep ahead, and can put more effort and thought into each drawing.
According to my spreadsheet, I'm now about six drawings ahead, drawing-wise, and two posts ahead, posting-wise. Maybe I can take some time to, you know, write about these characters now.
Drawing (more or less) every day.
-the Centaur