My Creative Journey 18 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 01

Every journey begins with a step...and continues with countless more. There is no end to the creative path. Only progress. To get better you have to do. Your skills, your mind, your art will not get better unless you try. And trying means you will fail a lot. But, if you keep at it, eventually you will triumph, break through, and be where you want to be. Here is another step on my journey.

First, just wanna say trying to create with a hangover really sucks, hehe. I'd recommend that you don't do it. But, since I'm doing my damnedest to create something every day, I still gave it a try. What's coming up isn't my best work, but it also isn't my worst. And, either way, I still created, which was what I wanted to do :) The cool thing is today I'm not hungover...tired from a day of monotonous office work (part time job came through, yeah!), but not hungover. So, tonight should be better. I also learned a lot from yesterday's practice.

This was my first drawing for the evening. I just jumped right into my 11x18 permanent marker drawings, probably because I was half falling asleep and wanted to at least get one done.

Looking at this picture I'm both excited and disappointed. I know I've mentioned my issue with details before, but, I almost feel like I'm getting lazy...or it might have just been the hangover. My outlines and basic form is getting much better, but how I deal with filling it in definitely needs to improve. I think it may be because I loose focus easily and instead of paying attention and keeping the image in my mind as I draw it, I find myself just making lines I think will be right...which usually leads to the sloppiness you see. I also need to get some new pens...which I'll hopefully be able to do soon. Fresh ink always looks so pretty. Funny fact...I can now tell if my markers are full or not by their weights, lol.

Let me go into several things I like about this drawing real quick

...because it's always good to pay attention to what you liked as well. The way the back piece flows...the lines are bold and strong and easy to recognize. How the hand reaches back and almost under it also is pretty cool. I messed up on where the lines between the back piece and her hand meet, but...soooooo close :) You do kinda feel like theres a spacial difference between her hand and the underlying cloth, right? And, the last thing I really like was the bottom hem of her kimono. I'm getting better at how material drapes onto surfaces. My shadowing might be rough, but it's starting to get the point across properly.

Keep the faith, that's what I say. Keep on it, look at what worked, what didn't and move from there.

And, guess what? I did my first episode of Watch me Draw!. :) So if you want to watch, here ya go!

Music: Computer music Allstars