Improvement is something that's always on my mind. Images and ideas are always popping into my head, but getting them onto a page takes a lot of skill, and time. It isn't always easy to do - sometimes is is seemingly impossible. Although time is often limited, what I can do with some of that time is hone my skills. That's where Drawabox comes in. I've had Drawabox on my list of things to try for a while now, and I'm finally getting to it.
I'm going to post about my journey through this free online course. I'll give my thoughts, takeaways, and post my work. I've already started making my way through the course, but I'll try to keep updating this blog as I go a long. The emphasis of the course is that you want to learn to draw in such a way that you are not wasting time or struggling with the "how" and focusing more on the "what" you want to draw. It really promotes getting an understanding of our subjects in a 3D space and being able to draw it on the 2D page.
The first thing I'll say is this program is not short. It is long and it is going to demand a lot of my time. I've clicked through many of the lessons just to get a glimpse of what's to come. It's big. Along with the reading, which is the shortest part, there are homework exercises. These exercises, which at first glance I've thought "that shouldn't take too long," can actually take quite a bit longer - especially because I'm trying to do them to the best of my ability. Along with the exercises is the 50% rule which basically says I should also be doing my own drawings of whatever I want about half of the time. This has been fun so far, but definitely increases the time demand.
Something I'm doing a little bit differently, and which the program recommends not doing is to do it digitally. However, I am. BUT! I am also doing it with pen and paper traditionally in the real world. Yes, this drastically increases the time demand, but I want to apply what I'm learning digitally as well. I'm not completely new to the digital world, so I think I will manage. If you're pretty new to this drawing thing, and digital drawing especially, than I totally agree with the program's recommendation to stick to the real world.
I've gone through Lesson 0, but I won't talk too much about it here. It's about mindset, materials, and how to properly follow this course. Pick up some nice basic fine liners and printer paper!
Lesson 1/2, Lesson 1/3, & Lesson 1/4
Here we go! These lessons focus on making those lines where we want them smoothly and consistently. My biggest takeaway is that the key is to use your whole arm! I've been doing this, sort of. I'm trying to be more conscious of this and make sure I'm using my whole arm all the time. This is also also where ghosting lines is introduced. Ghosting lines first is also important for building up muscle memory and dexterity. There were three homework exercises - superimposed lines, ghosted lines, & ghosted planes.
Here are the "50% rule" drawings I did of whatever!
Thanks for checking this out - I'll try to keep on top of this and keep going!
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