Digital Art Bootcamp Journey
April 12, 2024 -
Anandya Dewi Saputra
Digital Art Bootcamp Journey
Journey / Final Compilation & Reflection
JOURNEY:
I was scrolling through my Instagram when I noticed most of my friend improved their drawing skills like crazy. Some even work professionally and I remember how I used to have the same drawing skill or even better than them. I realized for 4 years I had left drawing because of the thought that "I can already draw" even if my skills are way below professional work. I'm left way behind people but I wouldn't even blame it since it was my choice to abundant drawing rather than taking those 4 years to improve. I started to draw again and this time I bought a graphic display from XP-Pen in the series Artist Pro 15.6 and it became one of my best investments this year. I began drawing one of my favorite character named Skye from the game Valorant. The company Riot Games has always been my biggest motivation to draw since their art style is just so pleasing to look at. I began sketching in Photoshop since I heard most professional artists work through Photoshop.
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Fig 1.0 Skye drawing in progress |
It was definitely a challenge for me to transition from ProCreate to Photoshop but since I already have some of the basics I feel like it's hard but is still manageable. I like how it turns out so I proceed to render it.
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Fig 1.1 Skye drawing in progress |
I like quite how it turns out but I am completely lost is the colors and shadings. Also without background or environment, it felt very dull. I began adding backgrounds finishing it to be a final piece.
Topic 1 | Concept Illustration from Reference
Class 1.1 (Concept Illustration from Reference - Portraits):
In this class, we learn how to draw from references and focus on the skill of copying and eye-to-eye coordination. Not just that, we also are briefed on how to choose a good reference for drawing. I began scrolling through references and was suggested to pick one reference from Rachel Bradley. One picture stood out for me so I chose this one.
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Fig 2.0 Drawing reference Regal - Portrait Pose Reference for Artists (gumroad.com) |
I began sketching in Photoshop following what the class told me. I came up with this for the first half of the class.
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Fig 2.1 Drawing progress |
I like how it turns out, this exercise definitely taught me that drawing from a reference can help us improve proportions and lightning/shadings. Most of the time I draw from memory and what I notice since I'm not an expert yet sometimes I make mistakes that I don't know how to fix, but if we draw from reference we can identify the mistake we made and fix it. I then proceed with half of the class to color.
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Fig 2.2 Class 1.1 Final Drawing |
I don't like how it turns out at all. I feel like the cool tones I chose are not working since my sketch was done with warm tones. I also was lost in adding my own flare so I made it simple which turns out bad. But this 1.1 Class focuses on getting the eye to eye coordination I succeeded in captioning the pose reference, but I don't wanna look down on myself too much I should be proud that I succeeded in the first lesson and what its goals were, and that this was just the beginning phase.
Class 1.1 (Concept Illustration from Reference - Costume and Characters):
In this class, we have to pick another reference that has a strong clothing/costume, we are also suggested to pick the reference from Art Station, I chose this medieval character for my reference.
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Fig 2.3 Character references ArtStation - Peasants vol.3 Photo Reference Pack For Artists 361 JPEGs | Resources |
I really like the first pose to draw, the second one has a harder angle and the third one feels awkward to draw. I began to crop it half-body since it was a portrait study and began sketching in Photoshop.
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Fig 2.4 Drawing progress |
I like how it turns out, I feel like I get most of the values right even if it's not 100% accurate, before this class I could never draw clothes or folds but now that I use reference I feel like my brain is proceeding to learn where the folds suppose to be and how to shade it. I noticed that the face needs a bit of adjustment now that I see it from a bigger picture, so I proceeded with the correction and color, I also tried adding just a bit of texture to the clothes.
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Fig 2.5 Drawing progress |
I added blood and a bow for my own flare since I wanted the person to look like it was plucking the feather out to make the arrow. I always struggle to put more tones in paintings but this is how I learned; to avoid shading with black as it makes the painting look muddy, and use more saturation from the tones instead. I can definitely see the improvement from class 1.1 to class 1.2 however, I noticed I didn't get some values right after I put the colors so I corrected some of the values in the face and the bird.
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Fig 2.6 Class 1.2 Final Drawing |
Topic 2 | Figures and Anatomy
Class 2.1 (Figures and Anatomy - Flow and Gestures)
In this class, we are given some exercises to do. The first one was 2 minutes, then 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and lastly 20 minutes.
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Fig 3.0 Class exercises |
What I learned from this drawing is that due to the limited time given our brain captures the essence of the reference and forgets all about the details, this exercise was also challenging because I can't use an eraser like usual and just go along drawing on top of the incorrect line I made. The 2 Minute challenge was absolutely hard but then we proceeded with the 5-minute one.
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Fig 3.1 Class exercise |
I can see the shape constructed way better than the 2-minute figure drawing, I like how it's simple yet people can capture what pose I drew. The next one is 4 poses with 15 minutes time limit and this time I wanted to use a different brush with hard edges.
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Fig 3.2 Class exercise |
It was very hard for me to use a brush with hard edges since I couldn't blend it well, I constructed the 20-minute pose bigger than the rest since I feel like it's the one rendered the most. To be honest this was a fun exercise, not my best one but it definitely challenged my brain to train to capture what a reference was trying to communicate through the essence. It was my first time drawing with limited time too but I'm glad I can still finish it.
Class 2.2 (Figures and Anatomy - Quick Anatomy)
In this class, we are given a folder containing several male and female references. Our goal for this class is to draw and render one of each male and female figure. I have never fully rendered a male figure, I also rarely draw males and need help keeping the composition right. This was truly a challenge for me. I chose one reference and began rendering it.
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Fig 3.3 Male figure rendered |
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