Dammit man! How long was that? Three weeks!? There's roughly five weeks in this month!
My studying didn't go to plan at all but I did study, and study hard I did!! My friend coaxed me into splitting time for jap and art
which is better in the long run. I just can't cram as much jap in day now.

Something serious now; Being away, I had a lot of time to think about exactly how do you improve your skill as an artist, I was having doubts that
it couldn't just be draw draw draw..and to a certain extent, I have come to the conclusion that I am right.

hear me out and take what I am about to say with a pinch of salt as I could be wrong

For me, the secret to improving (myself) is actually to draw... repeatedly. You've heard it time and time again "practice makes perfect".
However what I failed to realise to it's full extent for myself is that it's not just any kind of drawing you can do straight from your head.
you have to draw repeatedly from life. I wholly believe that drawing from life for a year, would improve your skills more than drawing from your head for a year.
despite this I still had my doubts as I didn't really understand how to actually go about drawing from life.
my discoveries came from experience.

originally what I had been doing during my ventures outside to draw was that I would rapidly "etch a sketch" I would try and jot down that information quickly into my sketchbook. I would also draw from comics to get those crazy dynamic angles that always inspire me, again I would focus on quickly sketching them out. This would be like a 2 minute quick drawing that you would get in life drawing classes "Gesture drawings"

These were good, and they did help me improve, but for me, for someone in my situation where I have no excuse not to be drawing 24/7
this was not the best approach.
reasons are because
for one: When you do gesture drawings, you are capturing exactly that! the 'gesture'
what you better off doing at times is drawing the image far more slowly, and carefully. not only do you capture the gesture but your brain makes careful
measurements about proportion, distance, and takes notes subconsciously about lighting and shading and the detail of what the subject is wearing. the best saying I could say to sum this up
is "easy come easy go" focus on only doing quick images and you get little reward depending on what you are after. Study hard/work slow, and you get in a zone where your brain gets into a dialogue about what it is your exactly doing and remembers more better. though, a quick drawing is better than no drawing. Whatever suits the situation.

for two: drawing landscapes with pencil alone is fine..to capture form and render the subject in grayscale. however when I would get home and try and digi paint from my head in Photoshop I realized that i didn't remember the colour of what it was I was trying to do.
For that reason alone I also recommend going the traditional way for anyone serious about doing things like concept art! they also made me realise I don't know jack shit about colour theory/how light affects colour, how to mix a certain hue etc. we have it so easy when all the colours we need are there on the computer. challenge yourself.
I am currently working with watercolours! love em! they are easy to carry around.

Now here is where it gets juicy.
Upon realising that it's actually life drawing that improves your skill drastically compared to drawing from your mind constantly, I must admit that I wasn't particularly fond of life drawing, heck I hardly ever did any life drawing until the beginning of this year when I started getting really serious!
That made me think how the hell am I drawing the way I am today then, instead of stick men?
I had to think back to my childhood and think what was it that I was doing.
I realised that when I was younger, I was 'copying' other artists work! I remember sitting down drawing dragonball z over and over and over. I remember when Legend of zelda: ocarina of time and majora's mask's hand manuals came with illustrations inside them of link swinging his sword around like a badass and I would get hyped to copy them.
I remember sitting down once and copied the whole of the street fighter the animated movie into comic form! yes! even the famous chun li shower scene (fret not for young me, for by then I had already witnessed far more sexual things. My elder brothers did a terrible job shielding me and instead brought me into the fray  U__U sitting wide eyed wondering why that man suddenly turned into a demon with tentacles...another story for another day)

My realisation is copying other artists work is a completely valid way of improving your skill alongside genuine life drawing!
drawing from your head is still MAHOOSIVELY important though, It's where you get to apply and experiment what you have learned with your
imagination.

-draw slow and carefully
-use traditional media to help get a better understanding of colour theory
-copy other artists digi paintings/illustrations
-if you are horny for improvement, draw as a job for yourself! work on yourself like a job, 9 to 5 because the pros actually work 9 to 5.

as I said before Take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt, this is just MY conclusion thus far that i feel will work for ME.


to those of you that have managed to not fall asleep to my insane ramblings let me know your thoughts on such

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OH all my studies will be going here from now [link]
Only concepts and finished pieces will be going up on deviant