Good day to you!
This Journal is the first to be written at my new home near university. Study life has started and I hope, for now the stress I had in the past couple of weeks has settled. And it is very fine here, some things could be better like some things lacking in the infra structure and my living quarters are rather on the lower standard side. But it’s fine, it could’ve been a lot worse and I am very happy and proud of myself to be sitting here where I am now.
The quantity of lectures I have isn’t as big as I expected, it is the preparing for the next lesson, the overarching weight of exams and projects and general management that is still a bit tricky to balance with a healthy sleep cycle, a good diet and time for personal work.
So all in all, things will be managed through balancing these things. That means, sometimes I will have more time for personal stuff, other times, it will be study work that takes the upper hand. So I think I pretty much broke the break and will step back from uploading an artwork at the last day of the month. Same goes for replying to your comments and checking your stuff out. These things are reserved for the weekend though, if I can’t help it, I’ll also peek in once in a while.
Now, let’s discuss the arting:
I tried to keep up my daily sketching but I had some really rough days so I couldn’t do more than 20 of 31 sketch groups. Most of the time when it didn’t work, it was connected with a lack of motivation. Though I should know how to help it: There shouldn’t be a too long time that is spent on a warm-up layer. A timer or looking at the clock should help with spending too much time, just doodling and loosing interest. Then I should either do some simple copies, either of poses or a speedpainting and then get into the thoughtful process. This tended to help previously, and I should make it a rule in the future.
Anyway, I still did a variety of things, from multiple designs, poses, studies and character-driven artwork. What was lacking here, was some actual landscape or environment sketches, but maybe I can compensate for that next month.
In regards to painting, I did a couple of copies, but went a little more into advanced territory with more elaborate scenes and detailed environments. The focus here was to stick to a hard brush and experiment with the colours where I allowed myself to and the result was mostly very stimulating, but at the moment, there is a lot more to improve on. I should take into account, adding in some superficial elements to give the scenes some sort of originality. Also, increasing the number of fully original paintings is desirable, though probably a little too early yet.
The one finished project I did this month, emerged out of a study on short fur and the previously neglected topic of the function of jaw bones >v> After finishing this, I realized how much some hard-brushed painting can add to the workflow. I want to experiment with this moreso in the future and work on more versatile colour placement and appealing shapes.
With more finished studies, polished and refined for public showcase, maybe that might also increase my motivation to work on more elaborate things.
Speaking of elaborate things, I did scrap my month-old project because working on it just took too much time already and I just couldn’t find a sketch concept that I found good enough to be worth so much time. More smaller, character-oriented pieces is what I’m currently most comfortable with. Doing some interesting scenes to accompany those concepts is still an idea I am very fond of, I just need a nice idea and the will to execute it.
Did I just speak about my plans for the future before I introduced them?
Uhhh, alright what’s there left to say?
Ah yes. My current Module tasks me to be working on an animated short film over the course of this year, so this will definitely something I’m having in the back- or rather front burner. I already chose a neat idea for conceptual design and preplanning the storyboard, which will be the first to tackle to get as much out of professional feedback in terms of cutting and potential changes to the storyline. Story concepts, designs and locations will be probably exclusive to my sketch pages BUT the character designs and finished backdrops will definitely be suitable material to be shared here over the course of the first semester.
I’m also getting into new software like Affinity, Blender and even Maya. But working myself into these softwares and familiarizing their features takes time and effort, so expect no results anytime soon…
Alright, that about settles it I think.
I wish you all a lovely April and enjoy your time. Happy Easter if you celebrate it and make most of your time count!
~Souvillaine