drawesome | Community Check-In for May 2019

goss posting in

Drawesome Monthly Check-In Post

Today's the last day of May, and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you this past month?

Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities in May, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

minoanmiss

I am contemplating drawing for a Challenge of Explicitness that I've signed up for and am madly writing for (too many ideas!)

From:

amberdreams

Sounds like fun!

From:

mific

Interesting! Is it all types of explicitness - in terms of more than just E-rated sexual content?

From:

minoanmiss

... no, it's a porn fest. ;)

From:

mific

Yay! :D

From:

oldtoadwoman

I've done almost no art this year at all. I was really productive last year and up to maybe about January and then suddenly every bit of motivation I had fizzled up. I'm trying to get myself psyched up to getting back in the doodle-every-day habit. (If I call it doodling, I don't get mad at myself if I don't like the finished product.)

From:

amberdreams

I've been like that with writing - I think sometimes our brains just get tired or something, and need a break. Hope your doodling gives you the kick start you need!

From:

mific

I'm a bit blocked too, and was thinking of trying smaller works similarly.

From:

olivermoss

Outside of MerMay things, I made some isometric rooms.

This is the first one I made:

and the third one:

The second one was just me turning the basic design of these rooms into a finished drawing. I'm drawing the living spaces from an 80s cult classic called The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. The core team live together so all the rooms will be on the same template or a mirror image of it. I am collecting the drawings here. The complete rooms are for Rawhide and Buckaroo Banzai. I am working on Perfect Tommy's room. I have the basic layouts or ideas for a bunch more rooms and plan to do several more.

While I am considering the line art completed pieces on their own, I am painting them as well:

That is why I am doing them on rough paper, which is making the line work much harder.

Edited Date: 2019-05-31 06:41 pm (UTC)

From:

ruuger

Oooh, those are very cool.

From:

olivermoss

Thanks!

From:

amberdreams

I love these! All the little details...so lovely!

From:

olivermoss

Thank you! This type of drawing is great for lots of details and stuff, which suits this canon.

From:

yhlee

I adore these. They're so restful and I love the details.

From:

olivermoss

Thank you!

From:

mific

Love the perspective. And yeah, the perennial dilemma of lineart on watercolour paper, unless you use hot press which is harder to paint on I think.

From:

olivermoss

Thanks!

From:

syntheid

These are cool, hope you'll share the final painted pieces!

From:

olivermoss

Thanks!

My painting is not going well so far. I may have to redo them.

From:

ruuger

This has been a very artsy month for me. For the 1,5 years I've been studying fine art in open university and last week was the final portfolio presentation for the basic studies (you can see some of my class assignments etc on my instagram), but besides that in the last month I've also become addicted to Youtube art videos that have inspired me to try new techniques (they also get me painting more, because I'll just put a YT-video playing on my laptop and listen to it while I paint).

From:

amberdreams

There are so many inspiring videos on Youtube! And so many new techniques and ideas to try...

From:

mific

Yes I agree, I like watching youtube art vids as well. Skillshare is great too for new techniques.

From:

yhlee

I'm slowly attempting to go through Riven Phoenix's The Structure of Man constructive figure drawing course on Udemy. I like his approach and quite honestly, it can't hurt.

I've also started a piece (a woman in a modern hanbok with epaulets and a bonus peacock!fox) on Procreate because I want to acclimate to my iPad sooner rather than later, but I'm still getting used to how to do the most basic things like "how do I lock a layer in this app" that I knew how to do in Photoshop or Clip Studio but have to Google help for because I suck at iOS. I entertain delusions of adding color to it eventually, but I have to fix the pencils.

From:

mific

Yeah, I am stuck only doing very basic things in Procreate due to not taking the time to go over a detailed tutorial about using it. Typical for me! I like the peacock!fox a lot!

From:

yhlee

Oh man, you and me both.

The two things I discovered today by Googling (although I bet you know them already!) are:

(a) you can alpha-lock a layer in Procreate by tapping on the layer in the drop-down and selecting "alpha-lock." However, there is no way to, like, lock lock a layer. D: As someone who is prone to drawing on the wrong layer, I find this...unfortunate.

(b) to draw a straight line, draw a regular old wobbly line, then hold the endpoint with your Pencil or whatever, and the line will "snap" straight. I just tried this tonight and it's pretty cool. The place I found this information from claims there's no automatic way to draw a circle or ellipse, though.

And thank you!

From:

mific

A bit of a slow month for me, and feeling pretty blocked with writing and art. Maybe due to colder weather and shorter days, as autumn sets in fully. I just did the Aquatic creature challenge art here, and one of Teyla and Jen Keller from SGA for the Wayback Exchange - Girlfriends. Writing challenge deadlines hanging over me aren't helping, so I need to get the main one done then I think I'll feel more free to do other works.

Edited Date: 2019-06-01 03:02 am (UTC)

From:

amberdreams

I totally missed MerMay (again) but I've been stupidly busy finishing painting my gorilla and two elephants (all gone to their respective city trails) and I have a fresh blank elephant arriving on Monday to paint for a different trail in Newcastle. The rest of May was taken up with JIB convention (Supernatural for those who don't know) in Rome, a well in Perugia and Assisi doing none of the travel sketchbooking I'd planned, but lots of sightseeing and photos instead, and getting my art posts ready for the CapRBB posting dates. Two down and two to go!
CapRBB #1 https://amberdreams.dreamwidth.org/889467.html
CapRBB #2 https://amberdreams.dreamwidth.org/889638.html
At some point I need to do a post about my Italian holiday, the convention, and all my sculpture painting stuff!
Here's one of my elephants - she's called Compass Rosie :D

From:

mific

Aw, Compass Rosie's very cute!

From:

undergrounding

I'm doing artslam this summer (once I figure out where to post). At least, as much as I'm able around work and life commitments, which are many.

It's mostly a way to get back into drawing daily, maybe experimenting with media and formal stuff too.