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I’ve been drawing on and off since I was in high school. I have always loved drawing, and I have always had a dream of mastering it. I’ve been an NMA subscriber since April 2021.
I want to learn to draw creatures from imagination, so I went all the way through Glenn Vilppu’s Animal Drawing course, however I feel like I have a very, very long way to go. I think I’ll gain the skills I want by continuing to work on gesture and describing form. I’m 31 hours into Glenn’s Dynamic Gesture Drawing course.
I want to set this 100 day challenge to give myself a daily commitment to improving. My current drawing push has been for 6 months, however while I’ve drawn a lot, I think I could be more consistent. So doing 100 days of figure drawing is something I’d love to try! I will probably be using the Daily Life Drawing Sessions as my references, however I would like to draw something from imagination each day too. I might throw in a couple of animals too, as that’s my stronger area of interest. Hopefully, improving at figure drawing will make it easier to draw animals too.
I have a fear in my mind that I might go through this 100 days and make hardly any progress (that’s how it always seems to feel when I try to draw), however I don’t think I’ll be doing myself a disservice by trying. I’m really keen to complete the challenge!
So my specific task is: Draw at least one page of figure drawings a day for 100 days.
I aim to draw for about an hour each day, although 30 minutes will probably be okay if I’m pressed for time. If I can do 2-4 hours each evening, I think I’ll make even more progress.
I hope to look back after 100 days and see some progress! Some more masterful drawings would be great.
Day 1: Mimicking Glenn Vilppu’s lines on the left, and then attempting the same drawings on the right from photo reference, but without copying Glenn’s lines.
I feel like I’m still not quite grasping the concepts Glenn has been teaching me for months, but I understand it takes time. I’ll keep trying!
(The references are Daria from Daily Life Drawing)
Here is my day 1 attempt at a figure from imagination. I can hardly bear to upload it because it’s so rough, but maybe after 100 days, I’ll be able to come up with something far better.
Here is day 2! I didn’t quite get as much done today. I tried drawing a pose from Daily Figure Drawing, first from reference (not pictured) then two attempts by of copying Glenn Vilppu’s lines, then two attempts on my own.
Here are my figure drawings from today. These are referencing Ryan from Daily Figure Drawing Sessions. I think the best from today is page 2, centre top.
I’d like to work on making my lines a lot more smooth. I’ve seen other artists following the Vilppu method do this well, but my lines are still pretty rough. I’d like to be able to express the essence of the gesture with only a few important lines, rather than trying many lines in the attempt to get a sense of the gesture.
Hi Composite, good luck with the challenge. I think you’ve made a great start and I like that you are keeping your focus very specific. It’s bound to yield results. Regarding the quality of your lines and your ability to summarise forms economically, I can absolutely empathise as it’s something I also strive for. The former will start to come with practise, so just keep going. I can also highly recommend idle doodling as a way to improve your control with a pen or pencil. Doodle cubes, pyramids, spheres and other shapes while you’re watching TV or otherwise chilling out. It will have a noticable effect on your technique over time. As far as summarising form goes, I think that comes with knowledge of the form more than anything – a deeper understanding of structure will allow you to better determine which elements are most important to express the form efficiently. I can do this pretty well with heads, but I struggle with the whole figure – which is why I’m here!
It’s a long journey, so just keep in mind always that hard work is more important than inate talent and the road to success is littered with many failed efforts. Keep it up!
Thank you, Lewis! I feel like I have such a long way to go, but I will keep at it every day. Hopefully that, at least, will improve my line quality. Thanks for the suggestion about idle doodling! Perhaps it can help over time. I think I will eventually look at anatomy and so on (and probably perspective too), as I’m sure that knowledge won’t hurt to know. And Glenn Vilppu says that they’re important if you don’t know them.
My drawings feel like failed effort after failed effort, but I reason that every artist who’s mastered drawing has failed many, many more times than me. So while failure is frustrating, I think it’s just a necessary step on the road. Thanks again for your comments, Lewis!
Here are my drawings for day 4. This was a difficult and frustrating session for me as it felt like nothing was going right. I’ve also been pretty tired today, so I don’t think that really helps.
Regardless, I will keep doing my best to persevere. I expect I will need to try (and fail) many more times before my work begins to resemble anything halfway convincing. Anyway, that’s what this 100 day challenge is about.
And here’s an attempt at a drawing from imagination. I can hardly believe I’m actually posting this, because it’s so horrendous. There’s so much anatomy and details of the body that I’ve seen before but I can’t recall how to work it into the drawing. I couldn’t figure out how to get his ribcage to look like a ribcage.
I tried going for an action pose, full of potential energy, something that looked full of life, like he’s about to throw the shot as hard possible, but I still ended up with a stiff-looking pose. His left calf to. Foot also looks like it’s going straight down, even though I tried to use lines going around the form to foreshorten it.
Anyway, it’s an indication of what I can draw from imagination with my best effort at this point in time.
Day 5. Honestly, these feel so horrendous, I wonder if there’s any hope for me at all. My lines look garbage, proportions are not great, and I can’t make the line go where I want it to consistently, resulting in a distorted and amateurish result. I wish I could draw more precisely. I’m not having the greatest time.
I think my frustration and feeling of hopelessness is making me draw carelessly too, like, “this is going to suck anyway, so why bother”.
Being tired at the end of the day probably doesn’t help with this either. Maybe I’ll do slightly better tomorrow.
Day 6. After some encouraging mindset tips from the NMA Discord chat, I tried to change my mindset today, and stop beating myself up so much.
As a result, I focused on enjoying the process, and I took it easy if things weren’t turning out right. I told myself that it was alright if a line didn’t go the right way, or if something was out of proportion, I simply adjusted.
So I think I enjoyed drawing a lot more this evening than yesterday evening, and I feel a lot happier. I’m not so bothered if things aren’t turning out beautiful, because I’m going in with the understanding that drawing skill will only come very gradually with a huge amount of time dedicated to it. I am very determined to become a convincing artist who can draw from imagination, and I’m willing to do what it takes even if it takes ten years of drawing every day.
I’m really happy to be doing the 100 day challenge, as it’s really given me something to aspire to! If I can put the full 100 days into doing my best, it will mean I gave it a really good shot. Maybe I’ll improve along the way. But I think I need to reframe my focus from “UGH, this drawing looks like garbage” to “I will work on improving my line quality with an overhand group, and I will also focus on drawing more accurate forms”.
So those things were my focus today. I think that because I relaxed, my lines came out a little more smoother and went more in the direction I wanted them to.
Day 7. I enjoyed my drawing session today! I feel like I am getting somewhere. I’ve been having a lot more fun since I stopped beating myself up and started just trying to focus on improving the process. I’m particularly happy with my second last pose went today. It started off as a five-minute pose but I wanted to work on it for longer.
Day 8. I had limited time today, but I spent about 20 minutes and put down some quick gesture sketches.
I am starting to gain slightly more control with an overhand grip (not that you can probably tell…), but I think I need a lot more dexterity with this grip to draw convincingly. At the moment, my lines often go in the wrong direction.
I’m also drawing in a sketchbook on a flat desk. It’s all I’ve got, but maybe that’s hindering me compared to a “proper” drawing setup. Maybe if anyone has any comments on that, let me know.
I’m still a long, long way from being where I want to be, but at least I have made an attempt today.
Hola Composite! What are your current learning resources?
I would HIGHLY advise you to get a folding mini table-top, masonite board, table-top easel for desk work. Hip-hinge so you don’t strain your spine and future pain later.
More here:https://www.jerrysartarama.com/easels or check out your local art store! They have many options too!
Not sure if you’re in the States or somewhere else in the world.
Day 9. I was extremely short on time today, but my commitment to this 100-day challenge is very, very important to me. So today, I just made my best attempt at a single drawing (Kwas, second last pose from Daily Life Drawing Sessions). I like the results more when don’t limit my time. Timed poses always make me panic, because I put down about ten careful lines and time’s up. I feel so rushed for those. Untimed poses are much more comfortable. I hope to be able to spend a bit longer drawing tomorrow.
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