I am proud to say that this entry marks 1 month of consistent weekly uploads in this series! I set out creating these articles with the dual purpose of documenting my workflow/processes and to help keep me accountable in the pursuit of turning visual arts into a consistent habit.

I think I can quite honestly say that I have started to see drawing as a necessary part of my routine. My day rarely feels right if I haven't at least sketched out some gestures. Mission success.

This week wasn't as prolific in terms of sheer output. I was focusing more on putting more time into my pieces and getting into the feel of a more painterly style with my values. The two-value studies have really helped me get a better understanding of light and shadow.

Study of a very suspicious cat

Of course, I still find figure analysis one of the most constructive exercises for my drawing muscles. To that end, I found a couple of references off of Pinterest that caught my eye and did my best to recreate them accurately - especially the proportions.

Figure sketch of a man mid-step

To be frank, I don't think the proportions came out all that well on the fellow above. Something about his legs feels... off to me. But I was still satisfied with the final outcome and didn't feel like revisiting it.

Figure sketch of a woman standing

This one was a quicker, looser sketch, keeping with the jodhpur pants theme. Actually, it's the shoes that I think I like the most with this one.

10 minute gesture study

Don't think I forgot about gesture. It remains one of my favorite ways to practice figure construction, and each week I think my strokes get a little less rigid and a little more expressive. Still having trouble getting all of the limbs in, but it's certainly an improvement.

Yes, the heading is meant to be a James Joyce reference. No, I haven't read the novel. It's on my list.

Two-value portrait of an old man

When I first started digital art in high school, I loved to create portraits. I made a lot of portraits of my friends, which I hope they liked (I know one of them was quite disappointed to learn how I viewed them in my mind's eye). They were always lacking something, and it's only now that I'm able to reflect on what that lack was: range. My values were all in a very careful range. I was afraid of shadows.

Self portrait from several years ago

As you can probably see, there are basically no shadows in the above portrait. The values have very limited variance. Perhaps it'll be easier to tell when the image is grayscaled:

Self portrait with color removed

Yeah. Yikes. The darkest shades I'm using are for the areas around the eyes. That could've been an interesting technique had I done it with intention and really emphasized the shadows, but in this amateurish attempt it just ends up looking very washed out and uninteresting.

So I wanted to give portraits another try, leveraging what I've learned so far from my value studies and other practice.

First pass of the Veiled Queen's portrait

This is the first point at which I took a break from painting. I was honestly pretty frustrated. It looked wrong, it felt wrong. I sent it to my wife and left it for a little while. When I returned, looking at the tiny thumbnail in my messages, I could see a lot of places to improve. I got back to it.

Second pass

I was feeling a lot better about it at this point. This was about the 1-hour mark for this portrait, and I felt like I could definitely keep going. But it was pretty late, so I hit the hay and resolved to clean it up the next day.

Finished! Kind of.

And this is where I left off. It's complete enough for me to consider it finished, although no piece is ever really finished. This is simply where I felt comfortable enough abandoning it. Even now, I can see how much I could improve upon it if I spent more time adjusting the blending and the values and the proportions and then go back for another pass to correct the the blending and the values and the proportions...(ad infinitum).

One month! I'm truly very proud. I feel like I'm improving constantly, and looking back at my older work, I can really see how much I've grown. There is so much joy to be reaped from the self-expression of artistic creation. I am seeing everything I do through an artistic lens; it's created a positive feedback loop of bringing art into my other pursuits and bringing the skills gained there back into my art.

Have a magnificent week!