my ocs need a revamp someday

So this was... very hard. 🤣 I would conservatively estimate the number of hours put in to the drawings above at 30. It was probably more like 40 or even 50. I didn't keep track, but most drawings took close to an hour, start to finish, and some (like that wretched cuddle puddle on Day 21) took more like three or four hours.

I didn't finish all of them to the same degree, and NONE of them are finished to the point that I'd be happy posting them as "my art". But I did finish all of them to the standards of the challenge.

Here's an enlarged version of the cuddle puddle. You can see my many mistakes better but also I spent so freaking long on this I would like someone to appreciate the things I did well:

Here's what I learned:

if you practice, you get better (haha ha haha... this one is here to remind future me)

work big to small -- as in don't get sucked into detailing that hand when you haven't got your proportions correct on the rest, because that hand is gonna move and you'll cry because you spent so much time on it

look. for. overall. shapes.

remember you're drawing in 3d (this got me out of so many traps when i'd get stuck trying to figure out where to put a line)

the liquify tool is a trap -- use very, very sparingly

I still kinda suck at estimating proportions by eye, but I did improve

There were lots of other small technical things I learned, like how to make a keyboard shortcut in Clip Studio Paint to toggle between pen and eraser. And one specific drawing skill I know I improved on a lot is drawing faces from different angles. I can... kind of just do that now? It used to be freakishly difficult. Also, foreshortened limbs are getting easier (still rather wretched, but better).