NMA Homework: Week 3 Value Practice

 Week Three focused on value, how light and dark something is, and laying down smooth swatches. The first exercise created three- and five-value scales of graphite and charcoal pencils without and with blending. You can see the difference blending makes to the same medium. In addition to graphite and charcoal, I opted to use a colored pencil for the non-black swatches. 

Week 3 exercise 1

The second exercise was creating a more accurate value scale that moved up in value proportionally. In this case, it's an eight-step scale, with an empty swatch and seven swatches up to the darkest value. I actually did it twice, the first one using the 2B pencil I used for the first exercise, but I didn't like how it turned out. The range wasn't appropriately varied, a bit too dark. So I did it again with the charcoal pencil, which is what I post below. I ran into the same problem. My reviewer pointed out that my set-up for the scale was off, so I could redo it after changing the set-up so it can have a better first, lighter first value.

Week 3 exercise 2

Exercise Three combines the first two by using the measured value scale to adjust the scales created in the first exercise. As you can see, while I was able to adjust them, the limited values meant the revised swatches are closer in value than they should be.

Week 3 exercise 3, non-blended swatches

Week 3 exercise 3, blended swatches

NMA Homework: Week 2

I decided to enroll in the New Masters Academy once again. I dunno, I took advantage of a slightly lower subscription price, and I like the idea of being part of a spring cohort. I've tried completing courses in the past, but I wasn't consistent. So, because I'm motivated as part of being part of a "class," I will be sticking with it and trying to complete as much as I can before my subscription ends next year (if I can, I'll try to continue, but we'll see about my budget then).

Right now, I'm working through the first and core module, Drawing Foundations I, which is needed for pretty much all later courses in whatever track you choose. I'm looking at following the Illustration track, with some of the Comics track, which really only differ in a couple later module course options. The first week's homework is an introduction, so I won't share the pics I submitted for feedback. What I will share is one Week Two's homework: measured drawings. Despite how long I've been drawing, I've never gotten the hang of measuring while drawing. That's an important skill for my art to be proportional. And this was the assignment that I never really got past the last time I attempted the course. It's the littlest obstacles...

Below are the drawings I submitted for review. I haven't gotten feedback yet, but I hope they're good enough for me to pass and officially work on Week Three. The first three attempts are rough, full of errors. But I think I started to improve in the later half. Making good measured drawings takes time. I know I spent 70+ minutes on Drawing 5!

I'm including the full pages because I wanted to record how off my measurements and placement are. Drawings 1 and 3 either went off the page or butted just against the edge. I think the weakest attempt was the second; it is like the source object in that it's relatively egg-shaped.

Measured drawings 1 & 2

Measured drawing 4

Measured drawings 5 & 6

Measured drawing 3

I look forward to progressing to the next lesson and sharing how I'm doing.

New Year, Restarts

 Looking back over the past handful of years, I see that I haven't been as busy and productive as I'd like to have been. After looking at my different accounts--Tumblr, Instagram, this blog--I realized I haven't posted much of anything since 2019. Since I enjoying sharing my WIPs and finished pieces of all types, that reflects how I haven't really finished anything that was share-worthy enough to post.

Understandable. Life happens. I think I started working on and managing my depression around that time. For me, I tend to express it through procrastination, which leads to a bad loop of not drawing or painting for long periods, getting frustrated at my attempts to resume the habit, not feeling motivated, and then continuing not to draw.

However, I can often break that loop with a more positive loop. Look at the marker project I did for a year! Once I get going the mental inertia keeps me going, a positive version of the negative procrastination loop. So I'm going to go into 2024 with some goals.

• Create a finished piece of some sort every week.
• Attempt a month-long challenge in March with markers.
• Complete a number of art lessons I have (online and offline).
• Create at least one short comic/zine project.

And a number of other things. I just want to do so much that I'm able to see improvement for myself and grow more confident. I really want to move my rusty art skills beyond this quick and dirty piece I did a few weeks ago:

Lines, Ellipses, and Boxes: DrawABox Homework 1

Sometimes you have to go back to the basics. I'm working on improving the mechanical control, greatly helped by DrawABox, a website of drawing lessons created by artist and YouTube channel Uncomfortable. His approach is more about mechanics and muscle memory, at least when getting started. Then a student moves on to perspective before moving on to the more complex subjects of later lessons.

Whoo, boy! Those exercises take time, especially if you're conscious of what you're doing. I've taken around an hour to complete some of the ellipse and box exercises. But, I think it's worth it. You can see the results so far of my homework below.

Exercise: lines

 Exercise: planes

Exercise: ellipses (I hate ellipses, they always give me trouble. So these are perfect for me)

Exercise: perspective

June 1-10

Mermay has passed, and I decided to pretty much go freeform for the remainder of my art challenge year. Partly due to an upcoming trip, I decided that if I am going to follow a theme, it would be some Disney animation fanart.

I started June following that pattern, generally following the chronological appearances of the Classic Five (or Six if you count Daisy Duck as I did). Part of the reason I chose to start with the classic shorts characters is because I would be out of town and not have access to my whole collection. Since most of the classic group and a predecessor came from the black and white era, that worked out great. Eventually, I did get to color.

 I started with the first star for Walt Disney, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I've come to really like the character since I heard his history, and I was able to get a DVD collection of the found Disney 12. Oswald really is pretty endearing. So, first honors go to him.

 Next would be Mickey Mouse. For the rest of the group I was able to follow a pattern of their chronological appearances and drew upon the shorts they starred in. Mickey's picture draws upon his first cartoon, which is actually "Plane Crazy," not "Steamboat Willie," at least production wise. Here is the Mouse in his plane from the short.

 Next is Minnie Mouse. I could have drawn from "Plane Crazy" like I did for Mickey, but I decided to play with the pattern a bit and go with one of the next ones, which is "Steamboat Willie."

 I also skipped a short for Pluto; he first technically appeared as one of the bloodhounds from "Chain Gang," but I didn't much care for how the dogs looked in that one, and it was hard to find a good pose to reference that captured Pluto for me. I opted to go with his next appearance, which is "The Picnic," where is he Minne's dog "Rover," but he has already started to look more like the Pluto the Dog we're familiar with.

 Next up is probably my fave of the Classic Five/Six, Goofy. Well, this is his first appearance from "Mickey's Revue" where he was called "Dippy Dawg." You may know that he doesn't become the Goof we know until later shorts. Here he is beginning his infamous laugh at the show, to the annoyance of the rest of the audience.

 Our penultimate character is the duck with a temper, Donald Duck from "The Wise Little Hen." And it's the first one that is in color!

 And the last character for the list is Daisy Duck from the short "Don Donald." I love her already apparent sass in the short. I kinda had to go with one her first poses from the start of the short.

While I intended to go straight to some of the feature films, I got a bit intimidating. I was planning to draw Snow White and the Evil Queen/Hag from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (separate drawings), but I have been feeling rusty with drawing more accurately human characters. That is something I will need to work on as I go forward over the next couple of months if I want to resume the theme. So, the next two are simpler images.

And the last image of this batch comes back to the start. By chance I'd found a video on YouTube from the Disney Parks channel on how to draw Oswald. I pretty much did the rough sketch along with the video before filling in the lines and darks with a black Copic.

Mermay Days 29-31

May comes to a close, and with it Mermay. Another successful challenge month completed!

Mermay Days 1-28

Mermay is a monthly drawing theme created by artist/animator Tom Bancroft. It first got started last year, and it has become an annual thing. I knew that Mermay was one themed month I wanted to participate in (the other would be Inktober).

I didn't scan these until recently partly because the first two weeks were the end of the semester, which is already a crunch time. And I never made it the time to scan until now. So, here are all the Mermay pics up to now. I opted to go with a single marker color for this month to help keep things relatively simple.