Talking about Sketching

My art-level-up experiment has gone well. I dunno if this will be interesting to anyone else, but I feel like talking about about what it's been like learning and re-learning stuff.

I think I can illustrate things a bit with this sketch, the first one I did starting out. It was just for fun but I couldn't seem to bring it to a finished product. I tried with pencils, inks, markers and photoshop but was just too rusty at everything and too frustrated to take the time to do things right.

I spent the first few weeks bouncing back and forth between learning different things. I was impatient to get better at everything at once. The moment I started to feel at all competent I'd switch to something else, never getting really comfortable with anything. I think a part of me needed to do this, so i don't mind that it happened. It got me jump-started and taught me some lessons about patience and planning.

I spent 2 days sketching alternating between photos and sketches from an artist with a style compatible with mine trying to break down what kind of lines I should be using.

Over time I split my attention between projects for myself and friends, started to learn CS6, and eventually got myself on a regular schedule.

For a while I did 1 hour of drawing from the tv every day to keep working on comic style. When I could start drawing cleanly without reference I bumped this off the schedule and into after-hours doodling, so now I just do it for fun and warmups.

Also figured out some ways to make sketches more presentable. 

Btw, this one of my beau's avatars, a test image for a gift. I wanted to get his opinion on the likeness without spoiling the surprise.

In the end I think the main thing I've had to learn was to let go of the idea of perfection and just commit to my lines, be dedicated to seeing an image through to what it needs to be. That I'll keep working on every day.