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Sova Fanart 8: Final Day(s)

Byjack

Today is the final day that I can devote a lot of time to the Sova competition. I might have some time tomorrow as well, but I will only have until 11:59 PM GMT which is basically 6:59 PM CST.

I want to create a syllabus just for today because I feel so overwhelmed.

UNIT ONE: Finish drawings that are close

UNIT TWO: Create a unique drawing

UNIT THREE: Pick an old drawing to revitalize

I’m worried about colors so I found this tutorial:

And I also watched a few others for linework and color:

I thinking more about this challenge. I would like to focus on very small goals working through the endgame of the challenge because anything other than very specific goals will overwhelm me.

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Sova Fanart 7: Class Unit 2 Day 3

Byjack

UNIT TWO: Dynamic Figure Drawing | Day 3 – Animate

Unit 1: Shooting from Vandal

Stick figures
Gesture sketch
Final sketch

Unit 2: Shooting from Bow

Rough sketch
Structural sketch
final sketch

Unit 3: Camera movement (Sova Drone)

Rough gesture
Structural sketch
Final Sketch
  • I noticed in all of my animation attempts that I didn’t really need stick figures.
  • It was nice going back and refining each step before moving onto the next.
  • The structural step was really helpful, I liked marking where the limbs attached to the body with an X.
  • For the structural step I like to make the torso a tapering box and the pelvis a triangular prism.
  • I really didn’t like the final output compared to the structural sketch it looked super awkward.
  • To transform the manikin structural step into the final you need to focus on adding muscles.

I decided to explore the final sketch a little more by doing another drawing:

rough drawing
structural sketch

After getting the basics down, I played with many iterations of the final sketch.

first iteration
final iteration

I realized I don’t really like the linework on the final and it makes the form look very 2d. I decided to really focus on forms instead of lines when drawing. After all, I’m mostly interested in painting not drawing. The forms will help me figure out where the light hits.

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Sova Fanart 6: Class Unit 2 Day 3

Byjack

UNIT TWO: Dynamic Figure Drawing | Day 3 – Animate

Today it is too late and I’m too tired to work on this, but I can create the mini syllabus for this day and maybe even get some preliminary work done.

Est time: 90 mins (30 mins per unit 10 mins per part).

Unit 1: Shooting from Vandal

  • Part 1: Stickfigure thumbnails
  • Part 2: Main keyframes
  • Part 3: In betweens

Unit 2: Shooting from Bow

  • Part 1: Stickfigure thumbnails
  • Part 2: Main keyframes
  • Part 3: In betweens

Unit 3: Camera movement

  • Part 1: Stickfigure thumbnails
  • Part 2: Main keyframes
  • Part 3: In betweens

Sova Fanart 5: Class Unit 2 Day 2

Byjack

UNIT TWO: Dynamic Figure Drawing | Day 2 – Copy a pose from memory, trace, and correct original

I am going to interpret this as just using real life references.

Again, since we had so much success last night we are going to break things down again.

Suggested time: 90 minutes (30 minutes per unit, 10 minutes per part)

Unit 1: Gather images

  • Part 1: Look for reference photo sources
  • Part 2: Brainstorm action poses
  • Part 3: Brainstorm perspective poses

Unit 2: From memory

  • Part 1: Pose 1
  • Part 2: Pose 2
  • Part 3: Pose 3

Unit 3: From life

  • Part 1: Pose 1
  • Part 2: Pose 2
  • Part 3: Pose 3

Unit 1: Gather images

Part 1: Look for reference photo sources

Artist Reference – Ultra High Resolution Photo References (artist-reference.com)

10 Best Free Pose Reference Sites For Figure Drawing – Improveyourdrawings.com

Part 2&3: Brainstorm action and perspective poses

Human Anatomy for Artist – ShowSet Photos – Ultra-high resolution human photo references – Human-Anatomy-for-Artist.com

Human Anatomy for Artist – ShowSet Photos – Ultra-high resolution human photo references – Human-Anatomy-for-Artist.com

Human Anatomy for Artist – ShowSet Photos – Ultra-high resolution human photo references – Human-Anatomy-for-Artist.com

Human Anatomy for Artist – ShowSet Photos – Ultra-high resolution human photo references – Human-Anatomy-for-Artist.com

023 Male Action Pose — Characterdesigns.com

011 Gun Action Pose Male Model — Characterdesigns.com

*Not a pose, but a really cool course I might want to check out

(155) The 6 Types of Joints – Human Anatomy for Artists – YouTube

Now I need to decide on the specific poses I want to try:

Pose 1
Pose 4
Pose 7
Pose 2
Pose 5
Pose 8
Pose 3
Pose 6

Unit 2 & 3: From memory & life

So the poses I most want to choose in order of precedence are:

  1. Pose 7
  2. Pose 3
  3. Pose 1
  4. Pose 2
  5. Pose 6
  6. Pose 8
  7. Pose 5

I’m going to try the first four (7, 3, 1, 2).

Part 1: Pose 7

Pose 7

Part 2: Pose 3

Pose 3

Part 3: Pose 1

Pose 1

Part 4: Pose 2

Pose 2

Overall Takeaways

Rough Sketch

  • Recreate the pose as itself instead of memorizing the image
  • Visualize the twist of the torso
  • Try to visualize the space they are holding with their arms (like a beach ball) and space with their feet (like a pyramid)

Refined Sketch

  • Focus on the different sides of body parts, what side is facing where
  • Mark the attachment point of the neck

Sova Fanart 4: Class Unit 2 Day 1

Byjack

UNIT TWO: Dynamic Figure Drawing | Day 1 – Explore figure sketching techniques/simplification

I’ve been actively avoiding working on this challenge all day. I feel like it is because it is so damn overwhelming. It took so much for me to even just sit down and start working on this.

But now that I have sat down and am working on this, I want to create a mini lesson plan for today.

Since today is about exploring figure sketching techniques and simplification, I shall design a lesson plan to make it impossible not to get good at those things. As I’ve said before, lesson plans let me connect to the present moment, on one task at a time. This in turn helps me work through the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Mini syllabus for: explore figure sketching techniques/simplification

Total time: 90 minutes (est 30 min per unit, 10 min per part)

Mini unit 1: Research

  • Part 1: OpenAI and Bing
  • Part 2: Google
  • Part 3: Youtube

Mini unit 2: Experiment

  • Part 1: School of thought 1
  • Part 2: School of thought 2
  • Part 3: School of thought 3

Mini unit 3: Practice

  • Part 1: Simple poses
  • Part 2: Dynamic poses
  • Part 3: Foreshortened and perspective poses

Mini unit 1: Research

Part 1: OpenAI and Bing

Part 2: Google

Why You Should Start with Armatures When Learning to Draw Figures (artistsnetwork.com)

How to draw figures without a model – Artists & Illustrators (artistsandillustrators.co.uk)

Draw Heads On Any Angle, From Your Imagination (howtodrawcomics.net)

Part 3: Youtube

Main school of thought to try out:

  • Basic armature
    • Circle head, half for nose line, half of that for mouth line
    • line for neck
    • line for spine
    • line for hips perpendicular to spine
    • line for shoulders perpendicular to spine
  • Head shapes
    • circle with lopped side for skull
    • cut cube for face
  • Sketchy woodwork for finding pose
    • Keep scratching until a form emerges
    • Erase or lighten then refine
  • Advanced shapes
    • triangle tricep
    • triangle forearm
    • teardrop thighs
    • diamond calf
    • box pecs
    • triangle delts
    • pen tip torso

Mini unit 2: Experiment

Part 1: School of thought 1

I practiced basic armature and it looked pretty bad. I think I started to improve when I moved the hips a little higher.


Part 2: School of thought 2

Things started to improve a little here. I really like the method of simple shapes for the head. I felt like I understood the geometry much better.


Part 3: School of thought 3

This is when I used the sketchy woodwork carving out a pose and when I refined it, I used the advanced shaped coupled with everything else I learned. I really really like this method. Gives me dynamic poses without losing the anatomy.

I didn’t get to Unit 3 because I feel complete and it is 2AM and I want to go to bed.

Very happy with today’s progress. I feel like I killed it at the figure drawings and I feel much more confident drawing figures.

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Knee Mobility Challenge 3: Fasting

Byjack

Today I fasted and I had mixed results. Fasting seems to create more inflammation as my stomach felt irritated and painful and my body felt hot. The left side of my body felt blocked right where my spleen is. It sort of feels like I have an enlarged spleen. The only thing that sort of helps with this is doing meditation. I’ve been having sweats. My lips are cracking from the dryness.

But I decided not to give up. I am going to address the problems at their root, which is certainly the stomach and the spleen. Digestion issues are not new to me. I started using dance therapy techniques and feeling the discomfort in the spleen as sensual and my body started to move. I started to feel pain inside the spleen area. It feels cold. The pressure relieves a little and I feel a trickle.

I wonder if the stress of the drawing challenge and traveling soon are making my stomach clench. It is certainly possible.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Dance therapy is like magic. I don’t know why I stopped using it. There is this interplay between feeling the feelings and finding comfort. I guess that might be why I left this technique behind. I left it behind to feel pain. To feel without judgement or plan.

Sova Fanart 3: Class Unit 1 Day 3

Byjack

It’s been a full week since I last drew for this drawing competition. I’ve been feeling a lot of dread because there are so many details in drawing Sova and I don’t feel any closer to getting better at him because it takes so long to draw a full figure.

I drew for a full hour but didn’t get very far.

Here was the reference:

Here is my rough sketch:

And here is my lineart:

The lines don’t feel that confident and don’t seem to be creating forms, more just tracing lines.

I feel that I need to slow down. I like the idea of the exercises but I feel that they need to be broken down further into smaller syllabi. Since I don’t have much time to draw every day and each task every day feels a bit daunting and overwhelming, I need to break them down further to learn at a fast rate.

I also wish I could draw from the live model, but the issue is that you can’t hold an active shot (like shooting or doing the ultimate).

At the same time, I said I would embrace failure and I did. I still believe in my overall plan and I believe when I look back, this will actually be helpful even though its painful right now.

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Two Important Questions

Byjack

I was thinking about the concept of how Alex Hormzi approaches learning. The idea that you purpose things in a way expecting to fail at first, but you pursue them in such a way that you make it hard for you to fail. That the chances that you will fail is lower than the chances of success.

I was thinking about what made emotional or spiritual success. And that brought me to a few different ideas. They all centered around one thing, the relationship with oneself. I believe that the relationship that you have with yourself dictates the freedom and happiness you have in life. Some ways in which I am not a kind or loving friend or parent to myself are:

  • Thinking my needs are not important, especially if they make it less convenient for other people
  • Shaming myself and comparing myself to other people
  • Lashing out at myself when I’m not the best or successful
  • Yelling at myself for making mistakes
  • Putting on the pressure that if I’m not stressed I will not perform
  • Being disgusted by my weakness

What if I took this idea from Alex Hormzi? What if I accepted I am going to be a shit friend and parent to myself but I am going to ask myself what I need to do to make it harder to be unkind and unloving toward myself than it is to be kind and loving?

Well, what would the most loving parent do for me?

  1. Value my emotions and encourage me to explore them
  2. Hold me close when I’m upset or feeling weak and vulnerable
  3. I am the most important person in their life, they will drop everything if I need them
  4. Be interested in hearing about new adventures and failures and lessons
  5. Does not see me as a static person but as a sum of everything I’ve been, where I’m now, and where I’m headed
  6. Guide me when I’m feeling lost or need to defend myself

I want to know how I can make it impossible for me to not do that for myself.

Some ideas come to mind:

  1. Create a meditative time to watch my own content (read my journals, watch my videos, listen to my recordings). It feels like 1,4 and especially 5. As a side effect, this can create GREAT opportunities for understanding what kinds of videos I can make.
  2. Write down and read my thoughts when I feel lost, scared, angry, ashamed or frustrated. Create a place to feel hurt. This can hit at 1,3, and 4, and maybe 6 if I write responses to things I write.
  3. Work on dance therapy especially the following elements: allowing the world to hold you, inward closing comfort, sensual movement and touch, outward releasing movement

I don’t know how to come up with a strategy on how to mix this in with my life yet but some of my ideas includes:

  • Using therapists as a safe space to practice
  • Using people who are close as a way to practice
  • Using camera off meetings as a way to practice
  • Using youtube videos and coaching as a way to practice

Knee Mobility Challenge 3: Inflammation and Depletion

Byjack

After trying out the first two AGT (ATHLETIC TRUTH GROUP) Zero workouts from the Knees Over Toes guy, I’m feeling very hopeful. The kinds of exercises we are doing legitimately make the knee feel stronger and more flexible and like it was worked out in the right ways.

The main issue is inflammation. After a few days of non-stop traveling, weeks of stress and sleep deprivation, and a workout that left my knees shaking, it’s no wonder I felt extremely inflamed and depleted afterward, the thing I always worry about when I work out.

Luckily, I talked to my coach today about feeling like I shouldn’t work during depletion even though work sometimes makes me feel stronger and more energetic. I finally have a sort of solution to depletion and inflammation. It’s a version of self-soothing that I like to call self-cuddling. I thought of it because sometimes I just wish my girlfriend was here so I could cuddle with her, but I can actually hold myself and freeze in soft comfy positions that I can then move and change. There are elements of stillness and comfort and delicious movement.

There is a sort of feeling that work is similar. That interesting and powerful work can be delicious movement and calmness can be holding myself and cuddling with myself.

All this is very similar to the dance practice I used to do all the time. Some self-massage, holding myself in comforting poses, and fast spinning clearing movements.

A short test of this yields amazing results. I felt the inflammation moving and melting. My system fluid and de-stagnated.

Knee Mobility Challenge 2: Redirection

Byjack

Today in looking into how to increase strength and mobility into the tendons and ligaments, I made an exciting discovery and change in direction.

I’ve heard of the Knees Over Toes Guy ever since I went to Thai Massage and the massage therapist told me that he helped a lot with his knee injuries from doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

I know this challenge was to make my knee stronger just for going to Zion National Park, but this changes things completely.

The Knees Over Toes Guy has a program that costs about $50 per month. I decided to try it out as part of this challenge…but also as part of a bigger effort to regain my life. For the longest time, I have been searching for something that would let me be active again in life. Specifically, I want to get back into martial arts and work on Jiu Jitsu, wrestling and striking. I know that is completely impossible right now since I can’t even sleep on my side without pain in my knee.

This guy has renewed hope in me because apparently he was struggling with knee pain for 10 years and has had 6 surgeries and now is able to play basketball with zero pain even though he is pushing his body farther than ever (now dunks the ball).

This of course, changes my approach to the challenge and I need to rewrite my syllabus. I didn’t want to get rid of the syllabus because that is what has created such happiness and progress in all my challenges, but this is an excellent opportunity to improve the process. I have always felt that rigidly following something even when it isn’t the best path anymore is inefficient and wastes time. Being able to adapt the syllabus when you feel a major shift (not just all the time for no reason) makes a lot of sense.

There is a major shift that needs to happen because I realized that the current syllabus is not perfect due to the fact that even day 1 I realized that all exercises involve muscles, fascia and ligaments and tendons, yet they are all spread out over days in the syllabus and that makes no sense.

So here is my revised syllabus:

Days until Zion: 8

UNIT 2: Testing Knees Over Toes

Day 1 – Surface Tissues

UNIT 2: Testing Knees Over Toes

Day 1 – Day 5 – ATG workouts (Zero Program)

UNIT 3: Recovery

Day 1 – Cooling and antioxidation
Day 2 – Cleansing and Fasting
Day 3 – Fortifying and Nutrition