Spring Term 2017 - 2/3 Months - May

This month's training ends a little early due to travels coming up. It will be an interesting taste of what it's like to take a complete break from my hours of drawing and painting since I've started doing 40 a week. I will be going to a Vipassana center to volunteer, where drawing (and most other activities) is not allowed for various reasons. I agree with these reasons, but also look forward to coming back and continuing my work as vigorously as I am now. The total hours I practiced this month, not including the next two days I'm still in town, is as follows:

1st week: 34

2nd week: 43.75

3rd week: 42.25

Total hours in May: 120

When I return, I have a few things I need to get through before July. In July I will start my Summer Term, and will be switching my studying schedule. I don't want to leave anything unfinished before this switch happens. Below is the list of my classes and how I have been keeping tabs on what I should do the next time I do this class. Meaning, whenever I finish a study session, I return to this word document and change the details so the next time I come to study that same class, I can read the notes and remember how to continue.

Here's what my current list looks like, which includes the details of what I need to do before July. The ones that I have to do before July are in italic with ** next to them.

SPRING TERM 2017 – APRIL/MAY/JUNE

Animation:

Complete – watch all Aaron Blaise animation videos

explore TV Paint

continue Marnie animation

**do a bi pedal walk cycle animation with only your paper sheet as reference, then look at his to compare when done

explore simplified animation of Gonzo with broken sword – anticipation and squashing

**watch final video in fundamentals – bi pedal run and animate it

play with bouncing ball and other shapes – moving simply around

watch TV paint tutorials on his youtube – play with the program more

Mark Schultz ink studies:

**Ink new picture I layed in in pencil and film it

Figure Phases – Watts Atelier:

do ovoid mannequins over or based on photo and art references

move on to spider-man mannequins – refer to athletic male photo ref to compare

Figure: Michael Hampton videos/book

**Complete video series and reflect on what matches in the book

- draw the images that Michael drew in the instruction to better understand where things are/how they are shaped – draw til you memorize them. ... will be torso front and back anatomy next term

- watch next lesson (week 6) --- **Finish all the videos

Figure Layins:

Watts student and instructor charcoal studies

(do block mannequins over top of layin reference.)

Head Phases – Watts Atelier:

move on to abstraction of the head – 3/4 version. Then front view.

go back and memory test asaro – sketch it

Schoolism – Creature Anatomy

**Complete Lessons and do as many assignments as possible

complete first lesson assignment – make gryphon human hybrid

create a bird dino hybrid – lesson 3 assignment. --**finish all the assignments

Watch fourth lesson. ---- **Finish all the videos

Go to kangaroo farm / pet store and sketch.

Drawing Fundamentals – Watts Atelier/E. Of Realism

-- set up still life – NOT plain objects, and draw it.

-- Draw statue from Cambodia in Watts construction method – do more block ins and lay ins of other selected/saved photographs – and Hardesty's references before moving on to next lesson

Majora's mask colour manipulation

Story Concept Design

**Complete All (project aspect) – move on to refining these ideas using storybeats and game-play studies

**(first part of project aspect) --- Secret stuff --- ;)

**(second part of project aspect)

study levels of video games – draw characters into them

Anatomy- Arms/Legs – Watts Atelier/Other References

**Complete illustrations of PDF images for end of June

**do posterior arm drawings – all layers and label anatomy

Study positioning of anatomy in the photos there – movement/function – difference in shape etc.

With extra time: draw from other watts pictures and other artists to study arms and legs with new knowledge, referencing your layered PSD images.

**Find out what the mislabeled muscles are in the Watts PDFs for Arms

Next are the various notes I took throughout the month, listed with the date I wrote them.

5.1.17

I've found, especially when developing original content for my personal projects, that it is best to do something in a session of three hours or so (a class) and then leave it for a week or two at least before looking at it. There's a much clearer perspective with that space to forget about it and come back fresh. With no deadlines to be met, it's definitely more beneficial to my practice.

5.11.17

I may need to do less classes next term, as some of the classes (like a Schoolism course) can be a lot to go through in only 3 months if I am only getting 3 hours of it in per week. It is good to have space for the other hours of the week to be for homework on the week's classes. (I couldn't manage to give myself less classes as far as I have planned, so I might just have to go with ten as I did this term.)

A point and shoot camera was a really wonderful investment. Great for shooting quick reference while out and about, and for documenting artwork. Since I post an update every five days on Facebook, I reset my camera's memory card every five days. So I have the previous days' worth of artwork to flip through in my display screen until I upload it. Good for checking out what I've done most recently, wherever I am, when I have my camera with me.

Feeling like I need to study even more. I imagine this sense that I think people have when they are at University and studying all the time for whatever they're taking. Maybe I am doing as much as these people I imagine, but don't feel that way still. I just wonder when I'll produce artwork I'm really proud of, I guess. I appreciated what J.A.W. Cooper said in her Schoolism interview about what resonates for you from another artist's work is not the work itself, but the essence. It's true and I knew that, but the words for it were good and I think somehow I need to play with how that can be captured more in all my studies, not just specifically master studies.

I did some writing the other day and that was a nice change. Hadn't written in some time and I think it's part of the whole. A necessary aspect of expressing that will only add strength to my visual artistry. Words are symbols after all.

I do feel connections happening with the various principles and lessons I'm studying. I think I get what Erik Gist talked about in a Friday Night Live when he said something like: you have to be kind of dumb to learn how to draw, because you just have to do it over and over again til things click. I think I need more conscious practice, which I will get as I keep going, but some clicking is happening and it is my only evidence that I'm actually getting somewhere with all these hours of drawing. Sneaky, invisible, mental evidence.

5.12.17

The biggest change I've found in my drawing is the amount I think about what I'm doing. I never used to do that. It was just about drawing what I saw and intuitively playing and doodling on the paper. Now I'm beginning to have a knowledge base on things like anatomy, lighting, construction, values, edges, proportion, colour, calligraphy, composition and many more concepts to pull from. So the more you know, the more you are thinking. Certain concepts will begin to be second nature, but there will always be more things to think about that I'm not intuitive with yet, I imagine. I also see that the more I learn these techniques, the more I will be able to explore the subject matter I want to express directly and have less concern about whether or not I can approach it with my skill set. With the skills in place, I can speak. These skills will always be refining, but there are thresholds to reach that will change the way the refining is approached and explored.

It's hard to judge one's own work. Sometimes my old paintings look really good and other times I see what could be better, or think I do. Can't really tell what perspective is accurate, if one is. The paradox of striving to be better, but also being content with the feeling that everything is perfect as is right now.

5.13.17

What is true is that I am using my time much more wisely. When I have a day of no work, it is a day of full study in art. It feels good to do this much work and I feel like I'm improving, plus I'm enjoying it. Watching an occasional anime show or animation is good, because the story-telling of it reminds me what I'm learning academically for and what I can do with my skills.

I feel that I'm getting a better handle on how I can teach myself with these online resources. I am thankful for these incredible resources that I have today to learn on my own. I am seeing the path clearer and how I can walk it. Sometime in the future I will sign up for some critiqued versions of the online schools and get some additional, personal reviews on my art practice, rather than just my own perception of it. Mostly thinking that I'll go with the 'Watts trained professional' monthly critique version of their online school, or also go to a Schoolism work shop to meet some artists again there and get some feedback on things.

I think these notes will be great in times when the going gets tough and I feel like giving up on continuing my art. Who knows when that might be, but I can look back at these notes and remind myself of all the waves I went through to get to where I am, and how and why I continued. Writings are similar to artwork, as an art form, in that it is good to come back weeks later and get a fresh look at what you've just expressed on paper.

It's nice to have a book of something, like Figure Invention by Michael Hampton, but also have videos to go along with it. You get a better sense of how you are supposed to go about learning and extracting the information that's in the book. When you hear the teacher in audio/video, it becomes easier to digest their approach so you can understand what it is that got them to the point where they were confident to make a book on the subject. You get to know the material and the author better. Nice to have both to bounce off each other. It's similar to having gone to Watts Atelier and also taking the online school. Going there helped me understand how they intended their lessons to be approached and learned.

5.20.17

I like to imagine that there will be amazing opportunities with the skill set I am developping. Things that are so good I can't even imagine them being true. Hayao Miyazaki is hiring animators and background designers to work on his next film. I would highly consider going to Japan to work on that if I had the skills developed. It makes me want to be ready for whatever else may be that 'inspiring of a thought' for me to take action on in the future.

I feel I am developing and am excited to move on to my next term of classes and continue working on my story concepts and my skills. Still noticing ways I can live better while practicing lots too. It's definitely a new thing to approach drawing in this way, and I'm adjusting constantly as I move forward on this changing course of learning.

~~~ Stay tuned for more.
On Facebook I share pictures of my practice sessions every 5 days.

On Twitter I share a piece of art by another artist that inspires me every 5 days.

On Youtube I share a video on the 1st and 15th of each month that shows my practice in action.

My next video will be on the 15th.

Thanks for reading,
- Anthony R.