day 177

Another Week goes by,
here are the things I've done these past 6 Days, minus another Cover in progress, I'll post next week.
Still want to work on it a few more days.
So far so good.
I think its time to sit down and decide on a technique to push, so i finish more work faster...
A few of my instructors still confuse me, but i'll just keep doing what i do. Their critique is usually useful once i understand what they mean and how to implement it into my approach.
The Time is getting close where I have to start sketching for my diploma or it wont turn out as planned.
I feel my work benefits greatly from the new schedule(I get up at 6am, go to bed at about 10:30pm), plus I'm feeling more happy and healthy with it, too.
So here they come, four studies, done right in the Morning.

#1

#2

#3

#4

The ref for them is all taken from mjranum-stock. On the Third one I failed, because I overslept a bit. There are shortcomings within all of them though. I see some of them too. Personally i favor #4 and #2 but i think i learned more from using the kind of crosshatching with the form of #1. And, yes I used a fancy adjustment layer to push some color contrast in. :)
What do you think? Which technique should I stick too?

Well here goes the rest of them sketches done this week.

Have a great one guys!

until next week ;)

Day 171 Them nifty Color Brushes!

You may find the 'blabla' part below :)

2h doodling in class while teachers babble about stuff ( well i drew this more on the side ;) ).

huh?

damn these random awesome parts

1h oil on acryliced canvas

2hrs

Yea so there it is.
The holidays are finally over and so that powerful oppression of loneliness got finally wiped away...
All the doubts, that put u down, when you shut yourself out of everything else to force yourself to work...
That doesn't work somehow.
When I came back to one of my illustration teachers the first thing he said was.
"Oh... You got better again." That was kind of nice, because that killed some of the doubts.
Well now they just seem like a positiv aspect to help me grow.
I know that I have to change some things to improve further and because I hate my stuff a lot right now, that just means, that i have to terminate the things that bug me about my work. It's also a good thing because I know I'm doing something wrong, even in my better pieces or maybe especially within them.

In order to enhance my improvement and the progression of my goals I now get up at 6am and go to bed at around 10:30pm.
 In the Morning I do a quick workout from about 10-30 minutes depending on which muscles i train. Then right after the shower and a protein shake, I pick up the pencil and draw something about 30-60 minutes. Right after that I'm heading out for Art-school.

Sketching and drawing has become something i want and need more of. There are many nice bits and pieces here and there I just have to figure out how to put them together better.
And man, I got problems with this stupid anatomy... all female faces i draw tend to suck very bad...
I'm probably doing the construction wrong somewhere but then again to much construction makes them look freaking old. I've actually drawn some more, they don't suck much worse then the ones i've uploaded.
My greatest strength right now seems to be a painterly approach, but thats where i just paint over my mistakes... I want to keep mistakes from happening within the drawing phase.
Well, I'll keep at it for this month. Lets see what comes around. Some of the effects i scored with the ColorBrushes are pretty neat. These Brushes feel really nice as a tool for sketching, and they're so versatile in execution. Until recently I didn't even know u could mix them with water, with that the possibilities seem endless and their price cheap.

Keep workin guys!

Have a great one!

regards, Mitch

Ranting about focusing time Day 166

Here are some thoughts about focusing time.

"Yea this really is a great topic!

Personally I believe that many more people could make a living of art, but are to afraid to compete with the pros.

Fear is the path to the dark side, fellas! Rise and shine in the glory of hard work and your pursuit of happiness.

hrr hrrm :D

I don't know if I'm the only one but I couldn't draw and paint 16+ hours a day, at least I can't right now. Yes those guys who do are the Rockstars of the industry, but that does not mean you need to be one of them to be happy.

Yes If you want to be very good you have to do a lot of hard work, but I believe you have to have some kind of balance too. 

I learned this the hard way... RSI ... learned to live and work with it.

I believe it is very good to be an enthusiastic person, with passion for many things that come across you on your life's journey. There are so many beautiful things...

How much work is it f.e. to read NationalGeographic once in a while? Or how bad is it for your art to read cool inspiring books? Put the games aside, they don't help enough, in fact most of them just get you addicted.

I love reading, because through reading you fill your mind with beautiful ideas, knowledge and fiction. Same goes for watching Movies, tutorials, clips or the discovery channel...

I'm not saying you should take in everything, but the things you're interested in and the things you can develop some kind of passion for. :)

For example for a short period, I was kind of obsessed with the human brain. How we learn, or why Savons (handicapped persons with extraordinary abilities) are able to perform the most extraordinary tasks like remembering hundreds of books word for word. These guys could f.e. tell you any word or sentence within a specific book, but have severe difficulties in other fields.

Understanding how the brain works was very interesting and could be taken into account  when thinking about a training-schedule, to improve your arts...

ALSO this might give you something else to talk about, and socialize with people, who are not that deep into this art thing as you are.  ;)

Be observant of this beautiful world and live in it.

I'm still studying graphic and communication -design, which keeps me away from concentrating most of my energies on my concept-art-related  study-work. But I do my best to reach my short-term goals.

For example I changed my daily schedule. Now I get up very early, do some sports and after a little drawing warm up i start working on assignments or my skills. I don't think you need 16 hours a day to improve, 10-12 will do fine, as long as a part of your brain is still running the "art maniac program" the next day. Sometimes it takes months for me to realize that I have improved but I somehow always do eventually. ^^

Ouff that's a bit much. Hope anyone reads it.

If you did, Thanks.

Have a great one!"