Hey Guys,
Today were talking about Saturday's (06/07/2024) Twitch stream.

Going in to this one I had the mindset that I would focus on some building blocks that I'm comfortable with when exploring a pose. The key block being the "bean". I've used this a lot since studying Proko's videos (I'd advise you to pick them up if you can - lots of good tricks) and it basically centres around you placing the torso and pelvis regions as defined by two oblongs, which converge to make a bean shape. I have to adjust this slightly to consider a stomach region and to be honest my proportions always go out of whack but it just helps me make sense of things initially. I have never found head size to be a good guide, I like to see the body to define the diameter of the head (I like being difficult okay?).

I'm sure everyone is sick of my incessant need to constantly do sketches but It feels kind of freeing in a way and they always feel like they have "more life". The more I refine things the more rigid they feel. When sketching I tried not to pay too much attention to the reference (sometimes shutting them off after I had some initial shapes down (I believe that happened with RSK1, RSK2 and RSK4). Others I left on but paid little attention to and with RSK7 I was constantly comparing (but that's my least favourite). I'm trying to strike a balance between using reference and repurpose poses so I'm not just using a guide (too heavily) but not going off the walls crazy with random imagination. Of these I probably love RSK4 the most.

Experience this week's stream in timelapse form:

I've spoken in the past of my dread when a stream is on its way (especially art). I'm always anxious until the pencil hits the digital pad and then I lose myself and wonder why I was scared in the first place. Hell, I even lose myself for hours because I enjoy figuring out why something doesn't work visually (especially a pose). I think my poses have come on a bunch I just need to do more practicing around using reference but not too strictly. One of the reasons I (on occasion) try to move away from reference is because at that point I feel I'm just copying a pose when I really want to make it "mine". I will get there I'm sure, don't write me off just yet. At least my eye is getting better :)

See you guys in the next post!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

It's me, I'm back again!
Figured I would get another post out before the next is due.

Been thinking ahead a little (it doesn't happen that often) and it makes more sense that I post my art sessions here when they are fresh (like I do when I do my gaming streams). This means I will be doing another one promptly today after I get off stream over on Twitch (5PM GMT FYI) and will try to every Saturday. Putting these off usually mean's my thoughts are not on point and sometimes (probably most of the time) come across a bit jumbled. I omitted one pose from last weeks sesh (an imaginative one) but it's because I couldn't find a place on the page and well I didn't feel it was worth going through the effort to show it (I've done ones that are similar). I tend default to what I'm comfortable with when challenged.

Last week's session was using reference for the most part, something I try to challenge on occasion by doing imaginative poses. Alas, I was not feeling too confident so I thought I'd play it safe and try to get my mind back in the game. My issue with using reference poses is I tend to try to copy it EXACTLY and I dunno I want to be able to bring my own spin on it. For this reason I tend to turn the refence off or ignore it to see how I get on, I don't believe I did it too much here. Then the hands (REF3/RSK3) omg, reference was going to stay on there, they are my weakness for a reason. I suppose from the poses I really liked RSK4. RSK1 was probably the hardest one to draw, lots of variables there and foreshortening.

Experience this week's stream in timelapse form:

I'm spoiled really when it comes to my art (not that I haven't indulged in the classic pencil on paper) - the digital medium makes things so easy to tweak/fix. One of my regular Twitch viewers does everything in a sketchbook and it looks tantalisingly good, that said we are all on our own artistic journeys and I love the freedom the digital medium provides. When I was digging through a load of old junk the other day I found my old sketchbooks and that's when you REALLY see how far you have come as an artist. My biggest issue is my failure to sit down and continue when I get a moment... I was on it in my old job (every lunch time) but I've become complacent. Hmmmm...

See you soon!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hey Guys,
Back at it again!

I feel I've been getting a little rusty in the pose department (as I tend to get rusty at anything the longer I stay away from it) so for my big "100" art stream over on Twitch I got back into some more studies. Suffice to say the rust has built up, I've been getting too lost in the "gaming" side of things lately, when I should always invest that little bit of time back into my art. I need to make a mental note going forward. My poses always feel more expressive when they are from my imagination. I guess references just make me feel a little like I'm tethered and I try to copy them "exactly" without understanding the bits I can tweak without issue. Not that my imaginative ones don't have their drawbacks as I have no idea generally what I'm drawing when I slap the shapes down on the canvas, its a total crap shoot.

I've been making a conscious effort to try to get more poses out during my weekly 2 hour stream. I say 2 hours but sometimes people come by and chat so it's not always the case. I find that I am better at drawing reference poses with more dynamic shapes (like RSK2), the space is easier to read I think. RSK1 feels much more rigid and clothed figures still stump me in terms of the anatomy underneath... my guesses are usually wrong. My imagined bunch (IM1-5) feel even more dynamic then the referenced 2. That said, they are poses I tend to be more comfortable with - no overlapping, little foreshortening. I often worry that I don't push myself enough and keep opting for poses I'm comfortable drawing... Of these I really like IM4/5 but they tend to be "safe-ish" to me.

Experience this week's stream in timelapse form:

My artistic journey as ever is like a boat that often hits patches of turbulence but we at the very least have a destination in mind. It would be nice to know what I was drawing and not to feel too intimidated when trying something "out of the box". I guess despite my ramblings I still fear that everything will result in failure but that's my struggle to bear. Failure is not really a bad thing if anything it helps you root out how to do things better next time. I will try to consider that more going forward although I'm sure as always with me it's something I'll forget when I'm back in the thick of it, why do I always forget? 

See you guys in the next post, stay frosty!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hello guys!
I hope you didn't miss me too much!

It's been a crazy few weeks but I've not been complacent, I just figured it was better to post a few faces (after a few weeks) rather then knocking up 1/4 and dumping them on here. Thing's have been slow going with this character (working name "Amika") and the guy I'm working with on the brief has a habit of getting bored of projects (and moving on). Still, I will see this character through to some form of completion... even if nothing happens with her now. I'm interested in her and the creative journey so... let's see how it goes shall we? Not everything is polished and I have not spent much time off stream doing refinement so you are seeing everything quite unvarnished... good thing this is a blog post :)

I've had to fight off my natural tendences to draw young (conventionally attractive) women as "Amika" is a grieving mother. These samples show that age somewhat. I really fell in love with "21" which felt like a careful blend of intrigue and cynicism... to that degree I tried a front on approach too. I think this is the new direction I will go. The other variants in the 20 range were more for my desire to explore sadder faces/expressions (not very successful). On another note there is something about "19" that I like (perhaps the manga leanings?) I guess I'll leave that one as "food for thought". "13" was where this (more senior) line started initially but I wanted some beauty... a balance I believe I'm happy with now.

Experience HA streams 96-99 in timelapse form:

I was going to leave out posting another blog post until I had 70 or so variants of Amika's face but last week I really wanted to draw some more figures on the stream (so I dropped Amika's face) and I don't want to become complacent with this Blog. It's good to get my thoughts down on my journey with this character, so I can understand the decisions I'm making... maybe read 'em back if/when I forget. There is still that initial doubt when I sit to draw anything... nothing seems to intimidate me more then a blank canvas. I just always wonder if there is some angle or stratagem I'm missing that will suddenly snap me into that mythical "eureka" moment. Maybe, that's the doubt talking, I don't know.

See you guys in the next post! I'll lob it up today at some point!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Good afternoon guys!
Coming in with last weeks Art Sesh!

It's been a rather hectic week, had to go back into the Cinema 4D package to produce a 3D logo for work (a package I don't frequent often nowadays) but I got some time to improve my knowledge of Shaders (which is piss weak). Got carried away with rendering (did thousands - picked out 11) and then today got some kind of bug. Feeling positively shit but I can tap this out on my Phone while laying in my pyjamas in bed (sorry for that image). Last week I got stuck back into a character I'm designing for a small indie games project - I'm just working on heads (trying to find "Her" so to speak). I got a bit carried away cleaning things up rather then quick sketching but, its the process I'm comfortable with, so... moving on!

I did a poultry 5 on stream but got absolutely carried away adapting a framework for Head "8" which I used to combine features from my prior bunch here - those being "E" & "G" respectively. I made her eyes smaller with a bigger mouth and smaller jaw... kinda took the hair style too. I wanted to try a few angles, styles and expressions which was a bit of a challenge in itself (I really cannot stand a messy sketch). I'm not sure what I was going for with "9" (I really have no idea). "!0" felt a bit more grounded - gave me dark souls vibes I think due to the misery lol. "8" is much more mysterious now which I like (my favourite so far). "11" feels much more "manga" orientated... "12" I'll explore a little more, I never like to throw in the towel but it seems as directionless as "9" just opting for a angle for the sake of it. We will see though!

Experience this stream in timelapse form:

Been doing a lot of soul searching this week... most notably about how I want to showcase my work/content. My art is and always will be about the things I want to draw/study just like my experience with gaming and my job as a whole. You put forward the work you are proud of or study what you want and damn the haters - be your best self. To think I used to feel bad when posting inferior sketches and work, all the time feeling like I had to apologise for simply doing what I could. Now that I can look back at that silly idea (it really was not that long ago) I realise that I like what I see I do my best and the improvement is still there... slowly but surely. 

Anyway, I will continue exploring heads for a bit so expect more

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hey Peeps!
Back again with a lil' update!

Following on from last weeks post revolving around a "Cartoon Dood" Commission where I drew & inked a character ready for final colour work, this week is that colour work (surprise, surprise). Although it would be remiss of any client not to throw a little wrench into the gears giving yours truly a little extra thing to do because... well, that's how they are. The fact they APPROVED the character design (including the pose) didn't factor in to their thinking at all but I had some time this morning so I figured "fuck it, would be nice to see this go off with no issues". I'm pleased to say after this additional amend its there ("200% there" to quote the client).

The colour work is what we got done in last Saturdays stream (13/04/2024) along with the background which I kept kind of basic. To be honest I have no idea if they are even going to use a background for this but I gave them the option I guess. I'm still not great at shading (I mean I do my best). I like to inject a bit of the environmental colour onto the character (which is where the "Illumination" version comes from - abbreviated from the Global Illumination - a 3D term). I just kind of dusted it on there with a large soft brush with some overlayed blues on the colder portions. Of course when I sent this over that's when the additional request got fired my way - to adjust the pose to have him... "pointing at something". 

Of course I fired back a rather pointed email expressing how it would have "been handy to have known this before colour work had started" (when I sent the outline over for approval) but alas we are where we are. The client told me it would work fine anyway but like I said I kind of wanted to see this one sail through rather then those annoying "what if's or "if only's" so I made the correction this morning in the most simplest way I could. The idle arm now points and the eyes look in the same direction. I probably could have done something more dynamic with a ground up rebuild but I felt this worked as did the client. 

Experience last weeks stream in timelapse form:

Hard to be mad at a client for simply being a client so despite a bit of kerfuffle I did overall have a good time with this character. The final amend also came at a time when I'm being yanked about on some game buttons for work (managerial types with too much time on their hands wasting other peoples time for the sake of it). This client thankfully hasn't been anywhere near that bad nor did their request take as long. As an aside I need to get into a habit of finishing more pieces, I get so lost in the sketching phase trying to push things further or fix broken poses. I say these sentiments now but you can bet in another 10 posts its well and truly forgotten haha.

See you guys in the next Hell Arts stream tomorrow over on Twitch!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hello again!
Post #2 I'm a man of my word!

Reflecting back on last Saturday's stream we had a few new visitors on the Twitch stream and I kind of got carried away talking about drawing methods... most notably "the Bean". The Bean is a drawing technique the Artist "Proko" uses in one of his courses to train artists to understand the main masses of the form and to familiarise them with the twists and overlaps of the human form. I use it on occasion to mock up a reference sketch I'm unsure of or an imaginative pose. You can find numerous posts about it down in my blog (the last one being in 2020, check it out here) back when I was doing tonnes of speed sketches and quick form tests. it's handy in a pinch but on occasion it doesn't work out... as that's how my art tends to go haha.

This weeks art stream was based on mocking up the full body pose of a guy I have tentatively named "Cartoon Dood" he is a graphic to be set on the side of an arcade unit. This commission is something I've been putting off for a while but this now has design approval by the client so now I can get to adding colorwork. I cleaned up the head at the beginning of the stream (flipped it a few times, as it looked off) and then used a bean to construct the central body elements. I used Procreates transform tools to distort and exaggerate his shoes and hands (originally he was taller). In my next stream I will set to colorwork and maybe add in a slight BG to give it some range.

This "Cartoon Dood" character was built from an icon mockup that I made and then placed in a promotional video with some slight motion elements - notably puppet warp and simple single frame blinks for the eyes on a delay. The full body variant was asked for after the fact to be used as a decorator on the machine the video will be playing on. Maybe you will see it out there, who knows. I will post the full video up on here at some point after it has released... I like to hold off on portfolio pieces on my site until the client has had a chance to launch it themselves. This video will be done entirely in After Effects as was the motion of this icon.

Experience last weeks stream in timelapse form:

This was a fun character to make although I'm still lacking in the foreshortening department (I keep putting studies off). I can't entirely put my finger on it but something is off with the characters thumbs up... or maybe not I don't know. It was still a good exercise to get into if only for this guy at present. My poses do lack depth on occasion and understanding foreshortening would help a lot. If I get more adventurous with the poses maybe it will help. Final thoughts - it was fun talking about art to likeminded people on my stream... its been a while since I felt relevant on Twitch. It also helped me sort out a few things in my head with regard to my process. I guess we will see if it takes in tomorrows session.

See you guys in the next stream and in the next post (coming soon).

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hey Guys,
Miss me?

Originally I had planned to make a triple post and really put some time down for poses and facial exploration for a character I'm working on. Unfortunately, I had to cut it off at 2 (as another project pushed its way to the front) this has thrown my posts off a little but I will catch up fully with tomorrows post. I am currently working on a couple of character projects on the backend. One of them is an interactive fiction with a few like minded friends, I had/have a commission that I've been putting off for a while (got design approval today) and a potential paid project for a client (pending). I'm a little more in demand then I'm used to but its good to be busy!

My initial plans with my first stream (91) was to clean up a few poses (Poses 1/2) I had done in stream 90 but in explaining my process, I didn't get too far which made me want to double bill it with the next stream. In the interim I managed to bash out a rough Pose 3 from reference and Pose 4 from my imagination. These poses need to be explored in more detail (very rough) but at that point I wanted to have some facial samples of our female character for a group catchup over discord (one of my projects). Head E was the the clear favourite but I cannot get past G... something about it. I intend to do many more so I can say I explored the character further before committing.

Experience this stream in timelapse form:

My anatomy skill still has its ups and downs but to feel more confident is something that I never take lightly. As I gain in confidence the more I make huge leaps with my art which benefits me in the long run. In all my creative endeavours the reason many of them never get off the ground is because I never have confidence in them. The more I work on these silly sketches the more characters are starting to feel like a place I go to to just relax and I never used to feel that with drawing at all. If anything I was always on edge because I thought I'd do something wrong... now I've made that the point of my art, do something "wrong" and maybe you learn/draw something "right".

Anyway keep this space warm another post incoming tomorrow/today.

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hey Guys,
Back at it but late again, apologies!

Work ramped up again all of a sudden so I've been dealing with a bit of a backlog but I have not forgotten my love of my practice drawings! It does feel a lot like I'm covering the same topic over and over (Pose this, box that etc) but It's because its not a simple topic and it's one you have to get good at. How do you get good at it? You practice it, ALOT... and then you practice some more. I used to clean up my sketches a little after a stream but now I'm mostly letting them stand for themselves without tweaks as I feel I've gotten to the stage where I can own my mistakes and (at least try) to learn from them. It's not time wasted, I couldn't draw to this standard in 10 hours back in the day now I'm getting a few legible poses in 2... I feel that's something worth celebrating!

I decided to focus a bit more on reference this week as I find them more challenging. Especially looking at them and then hiding them, it means I tend to make mistakes notably with the bodies flow, bends and tilts. The torso in Pose 1 is not pushing forwards enough to extend the abdomen, the waist in Pose 2 is not twisting to accommodate the weight on the right leg. Pose 4 was probably the only pretty good attempt and as a lil extra I'm actually proud of the characters arms in that one (I hate arms generally lol). As far as my imagined poses (3/5) go, they are starting to feel like my comfort go-to poses but I remember having issues drawing a Pose like Pose 5 in the past. I think the upper body just needs to angle a bit more there.

Experience this weeks stream in timelapse form:

Still finding my groove a little with my new stream going on over on YouTube with my drawing/posting schedule. I'm committing too little time to drawing and I should be doing it lots more. Just a little worried about my wrist I don't want to be getting carpel tunnel or weakening the joints in my fingers/thumbs too much. My sisters all suffer with their hands so I'm trying to give mine a bit of consideration - without my hands I'm fucked as a creative and yeah I need them for my work in animation too lol! I'm sure I'll find the right balance, the good thing about my practice art - there are no rules or demands. I just want to keep getting better because I feel I'm getting a stronger understanding and I don't want to lose the thread. The challenges of an artist am I right? :P

See you guys on Saturday for another sesh!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx

Hey Peeps,
I'm BAAAAACK!

Hope you didn't miss me too much... I didn't mention it on here but I've been giving my wrist a bit of a rest after a bit of strain that's been giving me a bit of jip. I took a few weeks to rest up and with this week gone I'm back at it. The big change here is I'm doing 2 hour streams across the board just to not wear myself down too much. It means I have to do more in a shorter time but with the additional downtime I can focus on other projects not just streaming. Last Saturday I got an animation I'd been holding off on for example and I have a little games project on the go with a few friends too. Things are all go over here but I will still be doing my regular practice sessions just Saturday at 5PM GMT for 2 hours on Twitch join me if you can!

This week I was trying to explain my process a bit more rather then getting lost into the drawing side. Plus losing the extra hour has meant my output is a little more on the light side. That said I managed to get 1 reference drawing done (Pose 3) which turned out okay(ish). Pose 5 I managed to do in seconds at the end of the stream which was to drag a point home (DIMENSION FIRST). My most favourite is Pose 2 as I like the slants that are going down the body. I built everything showcasing the central structures being made from cubes which I then pulled the limbs from considering the tilt and angle of the shoulders/hips. Dimension is the key to realistic poses, anything without them is flat... that was the point across the exercise.

Experience this weeks stream in timelapse form:

While my output this week has been a little on the lower side I am chuffed that I managed to fall back into the groove without much issue. The cube dimension exercises really do help simplify the understanding of the central bodies. Then when you consider tapered cylinders for the legs and arms you are pretty much there. The combo of a Sphere and a cut cube for the head/jaw then its about getting the details right (which isn't easy I'll grant you that). There is also that issue of talking while focusing on art which is still something I have yet to master. It tends to be the more I talk the less zoned in I feel, hopefully that's something that goes away the more I do it... wish me luck!

I hope to see you guys at 5PM on Sat, its gonna be fun!

Over & Out,
xXStItChXx