Here’s the final three that I think represent my progression and my growth as I worked through this last project. It really helped me refine my skills more, to the point where I can see myself keeping up with this creative habit and getting better from it.
Week 3: More Monkeys and Posing
Here are the drawings that stuck out this week of the creative habit. I picked these particular pictures because I can see my improvement. I’m not completely lost when I go to draw an animal anymore, this has really helped. Not just monkeys, but just about every kind of animal that I go to draw I can draw easier than I ever could before.
With the way I’m drawing for the human figures it has really helped me get the pose out quickly through the gestures, changing the pose a little bit each time I drew it, until I got to the final pose. Human anatomy is getting easier for me also. Still, the one thing that eludes me in my drawings in perspective and foreshortening, but I’m working at it, or at least trying to.
Weekend Drawings: 4/24/14 – 4/28/14
Over this weekend I got some good sketches out I believe, but also some bad ones. I went to the zoo on friday so I decided that I wanted to include some baboons in with my monkey drawings. The quality of the pictures of the drawings are kind of bad, and It’s probably time for a new phone.
I ran out of space in one sketchbook already. So I went and bought a fresh one today, so I can work out of that one now. These are the last drawings in my old notebook.
I feel like drawing the monkeys is making it easier for my to characterize them. So almost every monkey I try to add a bit of personality to them (even though it doesn’t always work.)
The poses are easy to draw with the way that I build up to the final pose. It helps me figure out how to push the pose the right way to make it to look better.
I feel like the pace that I go with the drawings help me work the form out a bit as I go.
Workday 4/29/14
This week during my workday I decided to work on small groups for monkeys in the most part. I think I was pretty successful with that. I was trying to use the space between them to get the poses right. I also tried to add a bit of character to some of them at least.
With the posing, I feel like working the way I am helps at least a bit, it helps me get the pose down more and lets me push that pose a little bit before getting to the final pose. It helps me figure out ways to make the pose look better itself.
Week 2: More Progress, and Narrowing My Vision
These are my favorites of the week. I picked these because I can see a bit more character coming out of them. I’m starting to get the proportions together more, and everything is started to become easier. The reason I picked the certain animal pictures I did, is because on some of them it seemed like I brought a bit more personality to certain animals. That’s sort of why I decided to go with monkeys when I chose an animal to focus on more.
Drawings: 4/23/14
I’ve decided to narrow my animal drawings down to monkey, not just a specific type of monkey, but just monkeys. I like the choice because they are playful and whimsical in a lot of ways. They’ve got a lot of flexibility so they can pull off things other animals can’t do. As for the human poses I’ve decided to first go with sort of a panicky pose. I played around with it a bit to find different little ways to express it or push the pose just a little bit more. Also, I stumbled upon a way that I like to draw the faces and expressions, which makes it a little bit more fun for me.
Workday: 4/22/14
 
So after doing these today, I’m going to narrow my focus. Possible to monkeys or maybe bears, I’m not sure yet. As for humans I may just go a lot heavier on the gesture and mostly do that, and work on just a few poses. I’m going to work on pushing those poses heavily because as an animator that is what I should do anyways.
Weekend Drawings: 4-18-14 – 4-21-14
Here are drawings from over Easter weekend. A new discovery I’ve made is that drawing people that don’t know you’re drawing them is a pain. Plus trying to find more new and fresh sources for poses of the human figure is annoying. I’m thinking about going more specific with them, maybe focusing on a certain piece of the anatomy each day.
Week 1: Progress, I can see it!
These turned out to be my favorites for the week. It shows that I have improved over the week that we’ve been doing this project. I can tell I’m getting better with how I don’t need as many bits of underdrawings to get the forms and it’s starting to take me less and less time as I go along. For the human figures since I decided to go with more detailed pictures to challenge myself a bit, it’s taking me a little longer than it did at first, but I’m starting to shave down the time to a reasonable time frame for this project.
Drawings 4/16/14
I ran out of the red marker so I started to use a purple pen that I had for any underdrawing that I had to do. But, then I ran out of the black marker too. So I’m going to try to get more soon. Maybe a whole pack of different colors. But, on some you can tell I’m improving still, on others I’m just starting to rush myself. I need to get past that bad habit so I can keep growing. I need to keep telling myself that it’s not a race.
Zach Gray 