Mid-November Artwork & Updates!

Hey everyone, I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far! I wanted to update you all on what I have been working on this month so far! I think doing two updates per month going forward will be more reasonable after looking at how things are going and also with some of the changes I'll talk about in a second. Also, stay tuned tonight for the next Artist Breakdown series dropping! This month is Lois Van Baarle, aka, Loish!

This month marks the 1 year anniversary of my decision to get serious about improving my skills. I started out doing about 350 figure drawings, doing lots of master studies of various artists and stealing some of their techniques, studying value and color from artists like Ahmed Aldoori, Stephen Zapata, and SamdoesArts. 

Now, although I improved alot, I have to say I feel quite burnt out. I am taking a big 180 and now focusing on just making cool stuff with the skills I have. The only learning I think I will do this next year is within specific courses that I take, and what I will brush up on to share with you all- no intense months of just nonstop studies without making any art to show for it. I basically have not listened to the advice that I keep giving you all which is to spend half your time studying and half your time creating at the minimum lol. As you can see by my drawings in the photos, I am much more focused on exploring my personal voice as and artist and working more linearly from start to finish. Less worrying about planning how things go. I think the best artists out there simply got good at doing what they loved, without trying so hard to manufacture their success. 

The second and the last images you see are WIPS of some more paintings I am looking forward to completing soon, hopefully within the month. The last one in particular is something I am filming the process of in order to have a great video for the tutorial that everyone in the Training Tier voted for (basically a breakdown of my entire process) 

If you are interested in following the same path, or find yourself in the same boat as me, spend some time reflecting on the artwork you made as a child/teen. I got into listening to the music I was always drawn to at a young age and creating from the emotions that I felt most intensely in life. I think I'll talk more about that when I finish the pink one, as its pretty related and want to get into some more of the personal details. 

My current goals are however, are to continue on the current path I am going but take care to maintain design and stylization in my workflow. Since I am allowing more heavy use of reference to make these paintings, I want to continue to curb my tendency to stick too close to the reference (too realistic) and end up not enjoying the final result. My other goals are related to just that - use reference so that I can get a better sense of lighting and values in my work moving forward. Sometimes I get lucky imagining the right lighting, but I want it to become muchhh easier. 

Anyways, thats all I have to say tonight, make sure to stay tuned for the Breakdown later on this evening for Loish's work! We will be taking a special look at her hair and I'll have some footage for you to follow along & also watch sped up.

Have a great day,

~Josh