#artjourney

So... Now comes the time when I realize that my pages, even though people like 'em from what I understand, are really turds to my eyes, I have to dive into skills training and some study. The results are probably considered boring and for this reason aren't shared, I'll try to make this a thread/journal of how one's drawing skills improve. It'll most probably include boxes, and thoughts, and figures, (and bold attempts at copying legends of manga making) but when the time feels right, I'll try to make a new page of #Antumbra and see how these things have helped. Feel free to follow me on this journey of self-artistic-exploration! #comicsinthemaking #mangainthemaking #artjourney

As a first post I'll share two exercises that I did 1 month ago or so for drawabox. It supposedly helps with better line control and quality, getting used to doing ellipses and circles. Tried to do a cylinder exercise though 2 weeks ago, and ellipses that are a cylinders "ends" were tremendously hard to do... #artjourney

Another exercise... Again with ellipses. Again a few months ago... I _think_ this one gets someone's eye to figure out the minor and major axis of an ellipse, while still training the brain/muscles to do nice ellipses. These freaking ellipses are a pain in the butt... BUT I had good line quality, and good the ellipses weren't far off from being good. The major issue I'm having now is with the current one. I'll share this when it's over... But it is SUCH A HEADACHE!!! #artjourney

As promised this is my current headache... 20 boxes in 3 point-perspective with no Vanishing Points, no ruler allowed and all sharing only the same horizon (in other words, each one having it's own VPs...). I had no issue with 2 point perspective, but this is a completely different beast... Doing the second time the same exercise I'm feeling I'm getting my mojo back and get more comfortable with it, but still it takes time and focus to actually do it right. The crazy thing is that these boxes are SO SO damn important when it comes to making rooms, environments, bodies, movements, everything, because all bodies (humans, animals, aliens) end up breaking in these things... Or you even put bodies and cars inside these things to figure out their depth (all hail master Kim Jung Gi)... Meanwhile while looking at my own manga pages and comparing them with others' I see what is off with my style, technique, etc. Gradually I'll end up studying the beasts themselves... (I shiver to the idea from fear and excitement). But that will come later... For now... Boxes T_T #artjourney #mastoart

Sometimes things happen on the spot. Inspiration comes from the moment. These times every cell in your body just wants you to grab the pencil and just do what you know must be done. I just lived a moment like that. Real time. 😃 It's part of the journey of learning art. It's a small study because it's from real life. And you depict not only what you see, but you feel. I think the result was good. (Tbh I have been flirting with gestures and figure drawing for a few days now so what happened was divine :P) #MastoArt #artjourney #sketch #dog #figuredrawing #gesture #pencil #TraditionalArt

And after excruciating pain, and lots of headache and even more delay (it took me a month jfc...) I managed to finish the second exercise of 3 point perspective with boxes! This time I kept the boxes with one edge on the 3rd vanishing point line, to have less tilting and be able to work on less exaggerated shapes. I also tried to experiment a bit by trying to have the same box rotated under a specific far away point. It was interesting :) 1000 more boxes and I think I'll get hang of it!! Jokes aside in the last 2-3 boxes I didn't bother too much with finding the 2 horizon VPs very precisely and added some intuition to it and I _think_ that helps a LOT with the process without losing too much of having realistic and decently oriented boxes!! #artjourney #mastoart

Having moved onward a bit with the page of the 3-page comic I decided to get a bit used to my new tool, g-pen nib! Followed the guidelines of one of the people I admire most and consider god-tier (https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=KbmgayX7rrM) and did what he gets his interns to do for 1 month from what I understand :P It's quite relaxing and when you manage to do it well, you fill good and ALSO get to know your tool much better! Apart from boxes, line quality and tools are extremely important as it seems :) #artjourney #mastoart

This time I went a bit further ahead with the 3 point perspective with boxes and did 10 "clusters" or 3 boxes each in their own environment so to say. I didn't expect that but it was quite fun to do and relaxing. Required concentration but it was relaxing. I guess I'm getting used to 3pp :) This was done with on my fraking new sketchbook (definitely no need to try to make it as awesome as pro artists xD) and with a #fountainpen too! Which was great for the weight in lines :3 (still needs getting used to though) #artjourney #mastoart

Onwards to the next step of improving my skills by exercises... This time I try to do again 3 point perspective no ruler, no visible horizon line, no visible VPs 10 clusters of 3 boxes and cylinders that all three share the same VPs, horizon line, but different for each cluster. Turns out, even though boxes pose no difficulty, cylinders are a REAL and royal pain in the butt! Sooooo, it's what I'll try focusing on for bit! If anyone has ANY recommendations on how to actually get better at cylinders please do share :) #artjourney #mastoart

I've grown distant from the usual grinding exercises because I had to finish a commission for Mr. @jectoons@comicscamp.club and #Fodongo zine. The result turned out more good than I initially thought I could make, so probably all the cylinders and boxes helped? Anyway. What I want to do now as part of my art journey sharing is 3 images for a panel that really loved making (panel will be included)! In the images are the initial draft of how I was thinking of going about the scene. It was very "static", as that showed some sort of powerful guy, but after doing some iterations and played with gestures the final scene actually formed they way it did, much more dynamic, much more powerful, with the guy being so much more full of bloodlust than just "empty" power. #artjourney #mastoart #makingcomics #makingmanga #comics #comic #manga #traditionalart

And what is I ask ye a sketchbook without gestures?! Nothing but an empty shell.... (Not even sure if that even makes any sense xD) Jokes aside, I now start to begin to realize why gestures are so so important... A thing I must do with no goal, no perfection in sight. Just a gradual process of fine tuning what I sense as flow and "power" and story of each pose and position of everything... #artjourney #mastoart

On trying to find the path of improvement I'm going to do small marathons of a specific set of studies. For about 2-3 weeks I'll try to study a specific fundamental set, leave it, do another fundamental and do another or get back to the previous and so on... Choices will be based on Antumbra and other comic needs at the time! Meanwhile when not studying I'll be drafting the next pages! :D Fundamentals + comic making to figure what needs improvement and put my skills to the test! So for now I'll be sharing gestures here and hopefully some drafts of Antumbra Chapter 1 continuation soon. #artjourney #mastoart

Some more gestures for tonight... What amazes me is that some are so so easy to "grasp" and express, and others are a real pain in the bum... Some poses are just full of straight lines and 0 plasticity, which makes 'em nearly impossible to do a gesture of! #artjourney #mastoart

And the journey of improvement and self-exploration continues... One hour every day. One hour of gestures every day. Funny thing is that during this hour I am sooo into it, that I don't realize that the time has passed until the 2 pages are done!! (I think that I'll just erase the things I've done so far cause otherwise I'll run out of sketchbook REALLY fast....) Models for gestures are from: https://croquis.cafe/ #artjourney #mastoart

A few more days and I'll be questioning my sanity 😵 #artjourney #mastoart

I had completely forgotten to post the previous gesture study I did in 2nd of this month 😅... So double post this time including today's work as well! I have to admit I feel more relaxed when doing them, and there is some improvement going on! I can actually see figure with flow and life instead of blobs an balloons XD #artjourney #mastoart #traditionalart #gesture

Something different today. A study but not a study... Certainly more drawing so that's always a good thing! While sitting drinking a hot chocolate at the wonderful garden of a museum, I decided to go into real life drawing and this is the result. Learned a lot of things by doing it, on composition, values, horizon, depth... But most of all it was 1h of pure fun! #artjourney #mastoart #traditionalart #scenery #sketchbook #pencil #urbansketching

After a looooong time (nearly a month) I managed to find the time and courage and energy to start a sort of study. I picked an image from the interwebs (source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/315533517645390080/) and tried to replicate it BUT by using reference from a manga whose style is god tier (and probably bad reference since I'm not sure I can understand what Inoue actually sees and knows to do the lines he does, but doesn't hurt to try learning from the gods). I still can't possible understand how I could approach to specific parts of the face, but for a first try it's not bad enough I think... (The more I look at it, the worse it becomes though) Used Sailor Ink Fude 45 #fountainpen and provided sailor black ink cartridge. #artjourney #mastoart #fediart #traditionalart #sketchbook #portrait #ink

I tried to take a step back and re-think the portrait. Re-do it back with 0 style effort and just go "fine arts" and do it as I see it with pencil. Turns out I had, eyes and proportions way wrong. I could also not depict values well. I still have issues with the eyes. It's incredible how different eyes means a different person! :O :O Edit: if anyone can think of a way to improve upon the way to depict the eyes please to share! #artjourney #mastoart #fediart #portrait #drawing #pencil #sketchbook

Yesterday I went to the olive mill to get some oil out of our olives. While there I saw the design and industrial setup and sparked my "artistic" interest since I had to wait for 30-40 mins. It does have some nice sci-fi feeling and would look great for a cyberpunk story :) Done on plain print paper with ballpoint BIC pen :P #artjourney #traditionalart #fediart #mastoart