hair with style

 

Been studying more Michael Hampton, but I thought it was time to put my hair skills to the test and see if I understood the principles and tried to design some hair. I have problems with hair gravity and "falling off" points, but hopefully I did it similarly to how the figure drawing legend himself would do it.

Dream check cont.

 

So, if it has a 100% success rate, how does my blog not have 100% as well? Or my art goals? The hardest part isn't actually following up, the hardest part is saying that sentence to yourself. My first ever blog post I missed was because I passed out before the time I usually make them, in fact almost 80% of missed posts are because of that. But something even more than just not being conscious, it's about not knowing if you'll pass that dream check. Usually I use it for mileage drawing, assignments, and sometimes to help get myself out of bed in the morning, all things I can do and have done before.

But what about that illustration? What about those consistent target hours? What about that art goal? Those things aren't necessarily things I have done before, so a part of me has always been afraid to do them out of fear of doing it poorly (especially with illustration) or burning myself out. Burnout I've learned is a very real thing as I am going through it at the moment but something I will chug through.

What I have realized however is that, if I had the chance to try, and I didn't, it would hinder my growth a lot more than it would than doing something poorly/bad. Better to try and fail than not try at all, and that's what got me to start dream checking myself a lot more versus before, so hopefully that could help you as well.

Dream check

 

 

No progress today. Well, maybe not no progress, but only a little compared to the last two days. I'll be real I haven't been really feeling anything lately, and no not in the depressed/need help sort of way. I've never thought of myself as depressed before, but recently I have this mental shift compared to last month where as I don't get excited or worried about anything. I'm just kind of going through the flow and taking it by stride, my brain is in a "don't care" sort of state right now, weird. I felt like it happened really suddenly.

But trust me I am doing good, just upset with myself for not focusing on my art more recently. Basically I'm just being undisciplined and lazy right now compared to the rest of the year. I'll tell myself that this is all part of the journey to becoming the artist I want to be, and maybe that thought alone will give me the motivation to discipline myself tomorrow, as it is too late for today. The problem is that I think that a lot people think just that, and end up lowering the bar for themself to compensate, so instead I'll double down tomorrow.

Whenever I don't feel like doing something, usually related to me progressing in my art, I say to myself, "If I cannot do X by Y, I will not become an artist". It's kinda like that meme where kids think to themselves if they don't past the leaf before it falls they will die, basically same thing. Now this might come off edgy or extreme to some people, but I say too bad because I have never once in my life failed what I call a dream check, I always follow up out of fear of losing that check.

The second half of this uhh... "essay", will be on tomorrow's post.

I think it got a little better

 Welp, been drawing with a big focus on hair the past 2 days. I think I learned a little so far, but it was more about good ideas I already knew, but didn't have the discipline before to integrate it properly and/or consistently. Ideas like drawing and thinking about it in "bundles", shapes, hairstyle variety, and gravity in general. I still have a lot to learn, but for 2 days worth of progress I don't think it's too bad.

the ends of her hair look like daggers

 

First day of the hair improvement studies, I think I learned a lot about what I'm doing wrong. Now I think it's a matter of discipline of integrating the good habits/process and throwing out the bad. I think tomorrow I will have a way better image to show for myself, and a lot more volume of work too.

my ability to pass out is unmatched

 

I didn't post last night because I fell asleep a lot earlier than I usually do. I've been tired a lot lately and I think it's because of my diet, so I'm gonna cook more often. 

Anyways, I drew this and thought to my self "alright, that's enough", so for the next 7 days I will be drawing/painting hair for 3 hours a day. If I can get good at this then my faces will get a lot more appealing I think. Those quick n' easy drawing tutorials aren't really my thing... mostly because they often rely on methods that make quick results but are limited to certain angles, conditions, etc. So I will be mostly looking at other artists' work and try to dissect how they approach it. Looking at drawings will be good, especially if I can see them drawing it like on a video or stream. And of course, I will be also going for mileage, as that is the most valuable thing for a visual library.

 I didn't even know I drew that bun as I was drawing the hair, it just happened mid-way through... the crutch is real...

How did I forget to save

 

The previous post's PSD didn't get saved somehow... so the file still just has my line drawing and no paint, an I don't feel like starting over. RIP. Also haven't been in the groove lately, will try to get back.

OFF

 

Ok... maybe not so "interesting", but it is different, and it has color. It's the best I had to show for today. I'll render this one out I think.

Just finished watching a walk-through of a series called OFF, some 2D rpg story game made back in 2008 or so. The art isn't technically speaking good, but the style is consistent and fit's with the game I'd say. Really heartbreaking the story behind it.

Time for an ego check

 These head portrait sketches might need a temporary ban from this blog I don't want to make it too boring lol. Promise tomorrow will be more interesting and/or with color.

Today was one of my unproductive days, I spent it watching anime and messing around. I thought I was generally a productive person but this happens too frequently for me lately to call myself that. 

I don't know how I should organize my schedule, should I say no to anything fun until I get all of my work done? Or take small breaks in between working doing something fun. My typical schedule lately is 1hour work and 20 minutes break. But I kinda slip in the break time so maybe I should do 2 hours work and a 1 hour break. Or just do the 8 hours and save the fun for the end, but I can just imagine the burnout...

Irony

 A sort of continuation from the last post's talk.

Some good news though, I have trained my body to wake up at 5:00AM without an alarm. I still don't trust myself enough to wake up without it though.