The Process of Relearning
As I roll into weeks 2 and 3, my mindset is unraveling. I love creating art. I never learned how to create art. That’s where things get tricky. Everything I had done until now, it was almost purely instinctual. I had no technique, no intentional practice. Now, I may have made it sound easy when I went over my art journey, but honestly, the more I learn how to learn, the more I realize how little I truly knew. The more I invest in learning art properly.
Different Learning Techniques
I’m pulling all the stops. All my stops anyway. I need to improve my basic technique and observation skills. Understanding proportions and perspective are the goal and being able to draw that on paper is quite the challenge. I can copy a face from reference, but maintaining the conceptual knowledge of how things fit on a face in different angles. I am trying anything that might work. From week 1 into week 2, I have implemented a couple different strategies to help me learn and practice.
Guidelines, guidelines, guidelines
- Anatomy proportions are so important and as I have a hard time grasping it from observation as of now, I really need to have my guidelines.
Blue Pencil for guidelines
- Using a different color for me makes it easier for the drawing to not get muddied by the guidelines or erased lines
Learning to Focus IN
My brain is messy. My thoughts and learning and drawing is all over the place. I skip around different techniques and references (which isn’t exactly good for revising and critique) that sometimes it’s hard to remember what I’m focusing on. Doing a study on one body part, like I did in my Eyes focus, bores me. I would love to be able to focus on just one thing, but if I lose interest too quickly, I’m afraid I won’t be able to gain the focus back. I don’t know if anyone else has this problem but my attention span burns out rather quickly. Not to mention, if I’m not grasping a concert quickly, I go on to the next tip or strategy to see if I understand it more.
For me, it didn’t seem like the realism study I originally watched was helping me improve. Not on a conceptual level anyway. I still reverted back to copying by reference instead of actually learning how to recreate those proportions. I didn’t want to keep trying at something that wasn’t working. If I am going to learn, I need to find something that is right for me. Making it work is only beneficial to a certain point. Sometimes it’s good to go back and think differently to find results.
Learning Art the Wrong Way
Regurgitating practices and methods is why it’s important to understand how to learn. Learning art isn’t just taking what you’re taught and applying it everywhere. While it is a guideline for practice and mastering, if there is no exploration in your art, what are you truly learning?
Draw like a Sir explains this in a follow up video I watched about the Loomis method. I recently began learning head shape through this because I liked the geometrical, almost mathematical way of dividing up a face. (I love art and creating but my computational roots still peak through sometimes). He explains that while it is a good tool, it isn’t the holy grail of drawing a face. Stylization and variation in individuals makes it just a great learning tool and reference, not an ‘end all be all.’
Personal Lesson Plan
With the help of the internet, so many resources are at the tips of our fingers. I want to take full advantage of this. Since I’ve never had any real formal training for traditional arts, I am taking it one step at a time. I have been collecting books, YouTube videos, and styles that interest me all to create a personal lesson plan for learning art properly.
My initial approach to this was too vague. I want to create concrete lessons that I understand and feel influenced by scouring long form and shorts on YouTube, as well as two of my local libraries for books. While it isn’t perfect, I’m starting to find ways and practices that are helping me grasp human faces and heads.
1. Loomis Method
While I understand that it can’t be used in all contexts, I really do like the Loomis method for learning standard proportions. From someone who has never been good at facial proportions, I think it has very good guidelines for me. As I get a better grasp at it, I will expand on it to more stylized choices.
2. Paper Method
Sinix Design offers a different approach for showing how to draw faces from different angles. I wanted to look for another method that would help make give more space for stylized faces.
By attempting to combine or juxtapose the two concepts together,
3. Watch What you Like
Some artists say doing master studies of someone when you’re new at drawing isn’t the best, but if you’re not interested in what you’re drawing, chances are you aren’t going to get better. I find that if I’m not interested at least a little bit in what I’m creating, I’m not finishing it. And chances of me retaining what I was supposed to learn from it is even lower. Expanding on the Loomis method, this artist helps show it with a more stylized lens. Since the art style is something I’m a bit more interested in, it was very helpful to see how they utilize the proportions to account for the different way of drawing.
Trust the Process
Some artists say doing master studies of someone when you’re new at drawing isn’t the best, but if you’re not interested in what you’re drawing, chances are you aren’t going to get better. I find that if I’m not interested at least a little bit in what I’m creating, I’m not finishing it. And chances of me retaining what I was supposed to learn from it is even lower.
Expanding on the Loomis method, this artist helps show it with a more stylized lens. Since the art style is something I’m a bit more interested in, it was very helpful to see how they utilize the proportions to account for the different way of drawing. Thus, I am learning art while still creating work I plan to create more of in the future.
Part of my journey with that are these blog posts and time lapses of art. I get to see where I was before and how much I’ve learned since then. It also adds as an archive of my personal work where I can reflect and improve upon as I grow.
Enjoying the Learning Experience
When things get boring, it’s easy for me to drop it. Since I have so many interests, dropping one and picking a new one up comes naturally. It’s less natural for me to find myself enjoying something for such a long period of time. This art business is becoming my longest lasting interest. And that means something to me.
It means when passion or motivation starts to die out, I still want to create. I still want to pursue it. Pushing through the boredom or enjoying the process is necessary for success. And I do my best every day to continue making art for my business and bettering my skill. When things are tough and seem bleak, I don’t want to look for something new. I do my best to try and revamp what I am already doing. As an artist, I want to be making art. It may not always be exactly my style or my focus, but creating a little something every day is better than creating nothing at all.
The End Result is the Journey
As an artist, learning art properly is my first step in becoming the artist I want to be. But the end result isn’t being a great artist. The end result is being able to learn and grow in cycle. The journey of improving and becoming a better artist every day, every year, is what the real goal is. It’s constant development and experimenting and learning more. Finishing pieces of work is satisfying, but being able to harness and grow new skills as an artist is what I really want. Being able to learn and embrace new skills and new art is the end result that I am looking for as an artist.