windjamm | Feb. 5th, 2024

I meant to update this more frequently this year, but every format I try to keep up with ends up being difficult to keep up with, so we're gonna keep experimenting.

For today, however, I wanted to document some progress! I've been learning to draw! It's something that's always eluded me due to all the types of learning I've done before this having bounced off of my brain. This time I've been learning with Proko's Drawing Basics course and it's hit my brain in exactly the right way. I mean, there's 4-5 main sections and the first one is just Lines. Learning to draw differing line qualities, different exercises to practice, etc. And that is far more accessible to me than people just saying, "go get a notebook and draw a lot."

Like, draw what? The amount of humility this requires without further guidance is SO staggering. Because if you go out in nature and you try to draw, say, a park scene... what do you feel when you spend twenty, thirty minutes and then look down and you've basically made a child's drawing. What do you improve from there? Well... the trees look wrong. Okay, why? How? What's wrong about them? You can then go look up a tutorial about how to draw trees, but what if those skills don't apply elsewhere, even to other trees? Do you have to look up a tutorial every time for every part until your brain and hand can create, subliminally, a ruleset and knowledgebase for you to reference?

It just felt like so much disparate, uncoordinated pieces of information. On one side, intellectually, it always felt wrong to be reinventing the wheel when people have been drawing for millenia. On the other side, physically, I always felt discouraged about what I was able to synthesize and produce.

So to have some unifying theory from someone who's very experienced and who both starts at, "okay, here's three shapes of lines that'll be useful for your entire drawing career" and ALSO has a thoughtful order of projects so everything is always achievable has just done wonders for me. I've learned more in this last month than I have my entire life trying and bouncing off of it.

I mean, the whole reason I got into photography is because drawing was always so inaccessible to me. Don't get me wrong, I love photography. I love measuring the light and finding interesting compositions and playing with exposures, but I've never went a week in my life without wishing I could draw.

Below I'm going to show some of my progress through this month on some pieces I'm happiest with. It'll be chronological, so if you just wanna scroll quickly to see the effect, I think that'll work too.

My first drawing! I think more than anything this still life focused on shading is a great entry because it makes you feel like, "WAIT is that all drawing is? I can give a drawing a good shape and depth by following an extremely minimal guideline?" Which is SO much fun. I'm still proud of this little guy.

This was a DIFFICULT second drawing. I learned so much by drawing these boots from a photo reference, but man was it rough in there for the first hour. Still, what an effect!

My first fanart! This was fun for me because I was just sitting around and suddenly went, "WAIT I CAN DRAW THAT!" And then I picked up my pen and my tablet and just drew what I saw and it CAME OUT? Just really quick lines, quick shape sketching. It was the first time in my life I felt like I could just...draw for fun. Which is so huge for me.

These were REALLY fun for me. Armed with, "Huh, I can draw that" I went and looked at some fashion references and decided to just have fun. They took me awhile since I hadn't even learned proportions yet, but I really like how they came out.

A chicken from some simple shapes. I just like how she turned out! Look at her!

This is my first face portrait! This was a measuring exercise and there's a lot I'd go and redo given the inclination, but ultimately I don't think it's bad for a first time.

Having wanted to practice portraits again, I went and drew Kirby Howell-Baptiste and I like the way she came out! My measurements feel a lot better here.

And here's some figure drawing practice! This was SO much fun. They're just quick sketches meant to show the rhythm of the body but I really enjoyed making them. I think of all the practice I've done this weas my favorite to actually DO whereas my favorite to finish was probably a good portrait? I'd want to capture the model's faces and clothes though, because that's really fun for me.

And that'll conclude our time here! This is one month of drawing, 28 days. I think I've done a pretty good job!

P.S. Oh yeah, this is what I've been using to draw. I got a remarkable 2 last year for my birthday and it's great for taking notes but it's been WONDERFUL for drawing. IT's so nice to have this little e-ink tablet, especially now that I'm at a point where I'm drawing things for fun. Just being able to take it anywhere is soo fun.