Tracking my Progress

I wasn't really feeling it today, but I still managed to get some lines in. I wanted to go over Elipses and maybe even Boxes, but hopefully I will manage it tomorrow.

For now here are my lines for today.

It has been a good while since I last drew or did and drawing exercises, but I am planing to get back into things. I shouldn't be as busy but I am realising that doing it daily might not be the best thing for me for th elong term, so I am trying to draw daily but it's fine if I happen to be busy with something on a couple of days, to not beat myself too much about it. Sometimes things are simply out of our controll.

Today I did some more lines and shapes while watching some videos for beginner artists. I am also trying to be mindful of my grip and what part of the arm I am using which is why some of the lines and shapes might seem inconsistent or wonky.

I found out about Drawbox and I am going to try following their guides. They seem good for a beginner like me and a nice guide to learn the foundation. I don't want to simply get into drawing and realise that all I have been doing is just simply copying with no real substance behind it.

But simply just drawing shapes and lines won't be fun in th elong run and the difference between now and the future might not be as stark so I decided to make a little drawing, or doodle would be more appopriate for it.

I decided to draw a character that I quickly started to adore which is Simo from the game Star Sailors. She is simply adorable and I really like her design. It is simplistic and yet really nice!

I also wanted to avoid just copying her sprite as is so I decided to pick out a relatively simple pose for now.

There is clearly a LOT to improve on - to my defence I was in a rush, if I had given it some more time then it might have looked better. But then again I could have spend 60 hours on it and it probably still wouldn't be perfect because I still don't know how exactly to draw.

Some more lines - I am trying to learn how to hold a pencil right and it is hard to remind myself to do so. I managed to make some, although still wonky, circles with only one stroke. The Shapes still look wonky, especially in certain perspectives and such. I also still have a bit of a hard time trying to connect dots that are farther apart.

I didn't give up, that isn't why I didn't draw the couple of days of my absence. I just was busy and not at home so it was hard to find time to do some drawing exercises. But even though it isn't much and I wanted to do more after such a long break I am proud that even though I wasn't all that motivated I went through with it, instead of watiting 'till tomorrow like the me from the past would do.

So, I tried my hand at perspective some more. As you can tell - still struggling a lot. I still find it hard to get it right, but I am sure that with time I will manage to do better.

I also tried to do cubes from different perspective, which proved itself to be a bigger challenge than expected.

I managed to do something amazing - aka. last until the second day! I am so glad that I managed to sit down today and go through with some simple excercises. I hope that they will help me out in the future.

I am trying my best to try my best and build good habits, which is why I am worried that I might be doing something wrong. But with research I think I won't do too much mistakes. Hopefuly.

I think that today I had an easier time doing the dot and line connects. Still room for improvement, but I think I managed to connect more, but that may be due to them being closer together.

I did some more shapes, I am noticing that when I draw circles I tend to draw over them a couple of times, I think I should try to stick to like one or two times and call it a day because by then I won't be able to draw a circle without basically just drawing a ball of yarn.

I struggle a bit with drawing ribbon esque shapes. I also struggle a bit with simplifying things into their basic form.

I also tried my hand at proper perspective! It went as well as you can imagine for a beginner.

At least two of the rectangles I drew was sorta pointing to the view point. I am actually impressed that I managed to do that.

I didn't do any attempts at actual drawings, stuck to just the basics. I think I will try to nail at least maybe trying to draw shapes in two perspective before I will actually try to draw. But who knows. I don't think I will set myself too many hard goals because I don't want to disappoint myself or, even worse, lose motivation.

The first decision I made regarding learning how to draw is picking which medium I want to start with and although I am fortunate enough to have the choice between digital and traditional, I decided to go with the later. Partially because I have accumulated a lot of blocks and pens and it would be a shame to just throw them away, but it also feels easier to just pick up a pen and just start than having to learn how a drawing program works.

I am aware that you can just simply use a pen feature and call it a day, but in the end I just felt like keeping it as simple as possible was the best way for me.

I went over a couple of youtube videos from different artist, specifically looking up stuff for beginners and about the fundamentals. I didn't want to spend too much time on them in one sitting, as to not burn myself out too quickly - after all, we want to make it a habit to draw and not just see it as another chore.

This are the results so far (sorry for the poor quality of the pictures):

Positives: - The excercises didn't require a lot of looking for refrences - They are relatively easy to do (of course it is another thing to master them, but you know what I mean) - Easily able to set a daily goal of how much I want to practice - Low pressure regarding trying things out - eg.: drawing from the shoulder, drawing from the wrist etc. - By using a ballpoint pen I wasn't even thinking about erassing and just going with the flow instead of getting rid of mistakes

Negatives: - I found it a bit hard to keep a steady hand - Especially the excercise with drawing two dots and trying to conect them was hard, but I think that is the best way for me to improve drawing more random shapes and blobs more easily - Perspective is still a bit wonky

Here is a benchmark of my skill when it comes to the human body (which is the first thing I want to master) - A full body, hand, foot and side profile with the most basic of proportions

I am aware that the proportions are off and that it isn't anywhere near perfect, but even though I can see what is off I do not yet have the skillset to fix it or make it look the way I want.

Hello, feel free to call me W or Marlo and all pronouns and terms are fine by me.

After many years of wanting to learn how to draw, or at least not cringe away at every time I lift the pen of the page, I decided that enough is enough and I decided to finally take matters into my own hands. Because if I don't take the first step, no one is going to do it for me.

My overarching goal is to be able to draw in a more anime/cartoon style, not necessarily realistic art.

But to be able to do that I need to do the following: - make a habit of drawing a little bit daily - understand and master fundamentals (shapes, lines, flow)

For now this is what I have limited myself to mostly to not overwhelm myself and have clear small goals.

This blog is just something I can track progress as well as hold myself accountable. I feel like by being "forced to" post every day, or at least as often as possible, I will keep at it more.