More studies. Summer mode for a few more weeks, meaning less updates, but still working on it. Gotta recharge some - and remember how to draw. :o)

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Asaro head studies. Yearning for the summer already, with some more time for art practice. And SUN. And books. Just these three and I’m set, for real.

Refs from here. 

Some studies from April for something in the works. A bit of Dvorak, Mucha and Leyendecker, some photo studies and my own little scribbles of form-finding.

10 day-challenge: Surface anatomy

Continued on some already-done Vanderpoel studies, added some while doing the 21 days challenge, and finished thing up so I can stay up-to-date with my 10 day-challenges. Some of these I like more than others, but I tried to focus on planes primarily and start using some references to test how much I actually observe (noses).

Adding some restriction to which medium you use helps a lot to be more aware of which line you place, at what angle and so on. With that comes another kind of frustration at the beginning, but in the end you just embrace the mistakes and try to be more careful next time.

So, the 21 days challenge came to an end this week, and this is an overview of all the studies I managed to complete, with days 14 and 15 being the same NC Wyeth master study.

I tried to do both traditional and digital studies, but was quite happy to work more on some digital ones, too, since a) I had deserted master studies for quite some time because of the ever-present fear of imperfection and, b) I’m still struggling with finding a way that works for me, and generally using the right tools for for a specific outcome.

The most difficult part is knowing and seeing what is off, but still not getting discouraged by it, and just being persistent enough to come back and do more. And I think that’s exactly what I got better at during these 21 days. For the rest, I think it needs tons of more practice, learning, and careful observation.. and better fundamentals’ knowledge/application.

I cannot recommend this to anyone wanting to make art practice a habit, or just a daily part of their lives. It really helps, you just need to push through it. Imagine if you just tried this 5 times a year. Immediately you’d have around one third of the year being all about art practice. And in my book, that amounts to experience, learning and mileage. So, if you read this by any chance, start today. Start now. 

- Studies of Bargue plates (Days 1-3, 7, 10 & 12), Value study after a photo by Edward Eston (Day 4), master studies after: Frank Duveneck (Day 5),  Anders Zorn (Days 6 & 8), John Singer Sargent (Day 9), Franz Dvorak (Day 11, which I also forgot to flip back), Aleksander Gierymski (Day 13), NC Wyeth (Days 14 & 15), Maxfield Parrish (Day 16), Abram Arkhipov (Day 17), Jean-Jacques Henner (Day 18), Diego Velásquez (Day 19), Philip Leslie Hale (Day 21) and a sketch study of a portrait drawing by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (Day 20).

The 21-days challenge is on-going, but so are my own 10-day challenges. So this one is Perspective revisited, with 6 studies from life, focusing on line-work and hitting the correct angles, proportions and measurements. I borrowed the cross-hair that appears ever so often in most Bargue plates and applied it to my approach with these, and it definitely helps a lot with not losing (entirely) track with what’s going on with your form’s structure.

Felt so good going back to life-studies, something I never thought I’d say, but I came to appreciate them tons. Definitely heaps to learn and then some, but at least I got better at being consistent.

Next challenge is already two days in, and it sort of goes hand in hand with the 21-days one, so that’s something I am thankful for, since I got non-art-uni-stuff to do that is quite pressing at the moment, and my free time is basically zero.

- About 1 - 1.5 hrs each, from observation.

Day 5: after F. Duveneck - first master study done in color. Plenty to work on: edges, color evaluation, proportions, brush economy.. and the list goes on and on.

Day 4 of 21 - Switching it up a bit: a value study of a photo by Edward Weston. And always noticing things that are off right at the very last minute. 

In case you don’t know what this is all about.. head here and find out :o)

10-day challenge: Values.

I am starting to enjoy the process a lot more. The last two I like most, because I feel like I’m slowly getting to see the form as a whole, and not just parts of the form. Also, for these two I tried to look a lot more at the negative space, since my sense of proportion is far from good enough.

There is something really beautiful in greyscale work - I just love it when the values are crisp and give that sense of depth. Need to do a lot more of these and get better at it, so it will be a recurring theme, definitely.

Let’s see what I manage to improve on in the next 10-day challenge that has already started, so, until then. :o)

- All done from reference.

Another 10-day challenge half-finished due to lack of time. Will be repeating this, because I really like the theme and I need to learn tons more.

Batch post - again. Some color studies I did in December and my second 10-day challenge - not exactly as I had planned, but better than nothing.

This time the theme was Landscapes. The bottom row was mostly to study some rice paddies and waterfalls, so I can fix an oil painting I did this summer (perspective is the word). I hope after doing these some things have been engraved in my vis.lib., and I can work on it when I get some free time from uni to breathe this semester. :o)

Tried to not to spend ages on them, so they were fairly quick. Also, judging from the very first time I started doing these studies, I feel like I’m getting closer to better color evaluation and mindful brushwork. We’ll see, too early to tell.

I think that was it for January. On to February stuff it is!

 - The last five from the bottom row were made with noahbradley’s chalky brushes - check his website to get inspired by some of his amazing new paintings and to check out his brushes if you wanna try them out.  

Not sure I’ll find the time today to do something else other than this, so, I guess last quick study for this year? :o) Better than nothing - something I tried to stay true to, compared to last year, and I’m really happy about that. I got better at finding that little bit of time, which I think does make a difference, however small that may be. I got more confident and started finishing things and it has finally become more clear to me what I want, and how I could eventually accomplish it. Still have to work on being impatient though, and work on all the weaknesses I have noticed so far.

What resolutions did you manage to fulfill this year? How did it work out for you, and what do you think you could have done better? I’d love to hear!

And finally…

Happy 2015! May it be full of wonderful and amazing new discoveries, a lot of positive outcomes and a tremendous amount of improvement in any area you wish to improve in. Most importantly, make every single day count! :o) 

- About 1-1.5 hrs, from reference.

Some cloud studies to practice color analysis, brushwork and rendering. The last one started off better than it ended, and I think at some point I was way to focused on the reference-resemblance than the actual interpretation that I was going for. “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” - should have reminded myself of that.

- Done from reference.

Hope everyone’s enjoying the holidays! :o)