Day 142: Holy crap I need to draw more.

So I have quite a few studies on here and I don't have what any of them were actually studies for on here, I'll show that in a couple of days when I finish it. Some of the studies were for a Wonder Woman portrait I'm working on, some is for my own personal project, and the rest is for a client.

So after taking a look at my studies and seeing how terrible they are I feel like I have to explain myself. If I were a person on the outside of my head and I saw my studies I'd think, "hmm, this guy isn't all too great at getting the likeness of people and doesn't spend much time on his studies." Which, you'd be right about one of those things, I don't spend much time on my studies, I spend just enough time in order to learn what I sought out to learn.

A lot of people look at studies as a landmark, or a sort of checkpoint to see how far you've progressed, which in some cases that's great; you can now copy an image better than you could copy one a year ago. But you have to see that it's more then that, the things you study don't need to be pretty, they don't need to be perfect, they are there for us as artists to learn while painting.

Take the image below for example... They look nothing alike. Now if I'd spent another hour or so on the image I know I'd be able to get my painting to look at least a little more like the actor on the left, but I'm not studying how to paint that actor, or how to make a photo realistic portrait. I went in to photoshop knowing that all I wanted to get out of that study was how I should go about painting black skin and what features are more exaggerated in the facial structure. Once I felt I had a good understanding I closed the image and opened the illustration I applied the study to, the face I had no problem doing and the technique and colors of the skin came naturally since it was still fresh in my mind. I can't stress this enough people, get the most out of your studies. You can study a shit load of anatomy, you can draw 100 arms if you want, but if you only end up drawing a couple arms after that and then call that good what have you really learned?

I'm not trying to say that the way I study is the right way, there is no right way to study, people learn in their own unique ways. I'm just informing whoever is reading this that you should think and consider what exactly you are drawing more. Ask yourself questions constantly while drawing. Why are the feathers on this bird so unruly? Why are the feathers on THIS bird so organized? Why is this that color and why is that this color? Be curious, it's part of the job.

Anyway, hope I helped someone with that. I thought I was gonna show my Wonder Woman illustration tonight but got some last minute crits which are always welcome so I'm going to make some changes and then show it which makes me happy :) I haven't posted in awhile, I'll try to leave less gaps between posts but my studies are rare and rough so I feel like I need to show more in each post ha :P