Weekly Art Dispatch, No. 10 🎨
Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue ten.
RL was quite busy this week, but somehow I managed to make progress on that Big Art Project, more-or-less keep up with Figuary 2021, and even draw a bunch of other stuff!
Study art & Figuary 2021
Lovelifedrawing's Figuary challenge has been great, even though I was playing catch-up from the start and still haven't caught up! I've already learned a new gesture drawing technique -- the block-in method, from the Figuary tutorial playlist on YouTube. I used to begin figures with the head and the line of action, but the block-in technique begins with the torso. It's a good paradigm shift: I think it's helping me improve on my proportions, and build more 3-D form into the whole body.
I'm doing the Figuary practice poses in batches of about 2-3 videos, the sustained practice helps me consolidate the techniques better than doing one video every day.
Some Figuary gestures. I like doing them in pen, but might switch between pen and pencil to get the hang of the different tools.
I also did some outdoors life drawing with another arty friend. We sat on a park bench in front of a local library, and just drew what we saw.
Trees are tricky, but I'm happy with how this one turned out.
Big Art Project
I finished Art Piece #2 this week. It was challenging at first, and I didn't think I could pull it off... but I pushed through the discomfort, and it ended up being quite fun to do.
2 down for the Big Art Project, 2 more to go. Halfway through!
Conceptualizing and thumbnailing the piece.
Some previews! That F hardness pencil got a great workout in the drawing.
Fun Art
Right now, my fun art is definitely the inside-my-comfort-zone, decompressing-from-focused-project kind of fun. And nothing is more fun and easy to draw than my characters.
A bunch of original and fan characters. I'm getting better at making heads and faces distinct from each other.
The Art Life
On Dispatch issue #6, I gave myself a goal of finishing two art pieces a week, one of them a full illustration. So far I've met that goal every week without fail. That's a good sign: my drawing stamina is increasing! With everything else going on in life, this is probably the maximum pace that I can sustain, but I'm pleased that it's become a routine pace.
Big Art Project and its deadline is also great practice at producing work under (mild) pressure. Currently, the most nerve-wracking part on both Pieces #1 and #2 is moving out of initial block-in/sketching pass and into the first round of detailing and hardening outlines. This was when I experienced the most uncertainty and insecurity: Is this idea good? Can I do it justice? Will I be able to finish it well? And this uncertainty arises with every new iteration on the work (hardening linework, detailing, texturing, values/lighting balance). But every time I push through and dive into the next iteration, it turns out better than I expect.
I was more adventurous in Piece #2 than #1, and I ended up quite happy with it. Win!
Next week’s topics: more Big Art Project (I must finish Piece #3 by then), more Figuary.
Thanks for reading Vega’s Art Dispatch this week.