| In February 2011, my mom gave me a large collection of charcoal sticks as a present, so I immediately went out and bought myself some large charcoal paper and have been teaching myself how to use it ever since. |
| In February 2011, my mom gave me a large collection of charcoal sticks as a present, so I immediately went out and bought myself some large charcoal paper and have been teaching myself how to use it ever since. |
| For Christmas 2010, my big gift was a Intuos Wacom pen and tablet, and Corel Painter 11. I've never done digital drawing before, so I'm excited to learn this new medium. I get the feeling that it will be even harder to learn than pencil and charcoal, which I just started for the first time a few months before. |
| August 2010 I picked up a sketchbook for the first time in my adult life. I've been trying to do at least one sketch per week ever since. Everything in my sketchbook is "practice". I usually try to use my imagination to create a scene that I find interesting, or funny, or profound; but beyond that, I also have a technical goal for each sketch that I do--something I am trying to work on or get better at. I am still very much a junior varsity artist, and my sketchbook is my training field. |
| One of my faults is being overly perfectionist with my work. So, to over come this, I have what I call my "10-second faces" exercise: I sit in front of the television, find a face with an expression and angle that I like, and I give myself 10 seconds to sketch it. Usually the image itself is off the screen after only a couple of seconds (I don't pause the show that I'm watching), but I allow myself 10 seconds to finish the sketch. After 10 seconds, I move on: no additions, no corrections. |
| I'm just a beginning artist, both with traditional media and with digital media. I feel like I've learned a lot from other people, so I feel like I want to give back. As I discover things, as I learn what works and what doesn't, and as I come across exercised that are especially helpful to me, I like to share them so that other beginners can benefit from my experiences. |