Raven’s 100 Day Foundations Challenge

[Tanya Boya]

Hi Raven, I like these figures. I read your “Intro” and I feel the same, I think I am much older than most of the people here, but I guess it is never too late…

[Raven Kushner]

Hi, Tanya,

Thank you! No, it’s definitely never too late. It’s less about age and more about honing your skills and voice, and finding your target audience. Plus, the median age is getting older, not younger. Art never ages. And there are more opportunities to connect directly with an audience than ever before in history. Let’s get after it! 🙂

[Shravan]

Wow Raven, these drawing are amazing. I am looking forward for the upcoming days. Keep it up! 🙂

[Raven Kushner]

Thank you, Ram!!

[Raven Kushner]

Day 16

Today I took the whole day and watched lessons and did sketch-book work. I’m trying to figure out my plan of attack for study. I think I’m going to finish Level 3 of Glenn’s gesture class, then go back to the Russian drawing class. The Russian class goes through each feature of the face individually, which I’ve never done before. I’ve been procrastinating on it because it seems like it will be tedious to draw cast sculptures of eyes and noses. But it feels important to get that kind of practice in. Today I just worked on gesture drawing, which I’m not great at, but I’m becoming a little less freaked out by them. Time pressure makes me panic! These are 2 minutes.

 

[Raven Kushner]

Day 17

Today I realized I’m in an important spot in my development. I’m becoming very aware of my own failings and what I don’t know. It’s definitely tempting to feel frustrated or think of what I “should” be able to do. This has come up specifically with gesture drawing. I’m pretty sure I’ve developed the habit of “copying” whatever I’m drawing, and I’ve gotten fairly good at that. But I’m aware that that can only go so far. That’s why I can’t draw out of my imagination. Gesture drawing frustrates me to death because I hate making ugly stuff. But I have to tolerate the ugly until I can get to the good. Today I did some gesture and worked on my contest drawing.

[Raven Kushner]

Day 18

My previous post disappeared, but I wrote this morning that I’m determined to master gesture. I posted other comments, but can’t remember what I wrote. And I posted one of my gesture drawings (5 min) and my ongoing project for the October contest.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Raven Kushner.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Raven Kushner.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hi Raven.

I will relay the message that Glenn told me and his students: Don’t copy the contour. Draw what the figure is doing.

I would recommend practicing the simple forms (box, cylinder, sphere) along with line-making (rhythms specifically). Well, warm up with that then go into figure gesture.

I watched Glenn and Steve’s timed-sessions RELIGIOUSLY. How are they doing their lines? How are they describing form? Look at the Old Masters as well. Don’t fret. Just keep going. The more you do and absorb, the more you will learn and see.

 

Cheers

[Raven Kushner]

Hi, Marcolino,

Thanks for that advice and encouragement! I will definitely keep going. I know I will get it someday, but the encouragement helps a lot! 🙂

[Raven Kushner]

Day 19

Today I listened to more of Glenn’s class, practiced some gesture and worked on my drawing for the contest. I think I’m finally ready to move on to the next skull. Now I’m afraid I won’t even finish, so I’m going to need to pick up the pace!

[Raven Kushner]

Day 20

Wow, day 20! I’m already 1/5 of the way through the 100 day challenge. My focus for the next few days will be finishing my contest drawing. I definitely bit off more than I can chew, but it’s been fun and interesting. Gesture drawing continues to haunt me and make me depressed. I feel like I’m getting worse every day. When I nail the gesture, the body parts are not where they’re supposed to be. When I focus on construction, I get neither gesture nor construction because construction takes me longer to work out. Each day I study it, and in my head I feel like “Oh, I get it! These next figures will be great!” And then I draw chicken scratchy blobby messes with no gesture or blobby blocks of semi-constructed stiff things on paper.  Whatever. One day I’ll get it. And if not, I’ll lie and say I meant to draw them that way. They symbolize mankind’s struggle against the system of capitalist oppression. Or some drivel like that…

 

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Skull on the top-left turned out good.

Don’t beat yourself up too much on gesture. It’s difficult to get. Take a break if you need. Practice form/line making for the time being. Spend a day looking at Da Vinci/Raphael sketchbook drawings.

[Raven Kushner]

Marcolino,

Yes, you’re right. It’s a bad habit that I recognized later – the habit of trashing myself when I get frustrated. I did some mindset work later that day! 🙂

[Raven Kushner]

Day 21

Today, with gesture, I focused on slowing down and committing more with my strokes, instead of putting down wavy chicken-scratch. I’m happier with these results. And I’m getting closer to finishing my skull drawings. The end result is supposed to be a Warhol-like drawing with colored backgrounds. I have to experiment, though. I don’t want the colored pencil background to take away from the drawing itself. So, that’s still in the air.

[Christopher]

Hi Raven,

I think you are doing a great job until this point. I can totally relate to the feeling of getting worse instead of better. It’s like one day you think you are totally aware of what you need to do to improve and are confident that you are on the right track but after a few days without any satisfying results you start to question every decision you made.

But I also think it’s a good step if you are at least conscious of that.

Just keep going and I whish you luck for the monthly challenge. My email about the challenge ended up in the spam filter so that I sadly have seen it a bit late 😅👋

[Author]

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