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Day 11. I started a new sketchbook today! I also bought a little easel yesterday, so I can tilt my paper towards me, which should enable me to use more “proper” pencil techniques. I also tried sharpening my pencil with a blade and then sandpaper, rather than a pencil sharpener. I’m still a noob at this, but I want to use the proper materials and techniques. I would have liked to spend more time today, but I got busy doing other stuff and I had to press through end-of-evening tiredness to get my drawings done. I’m really keen to keep up my commitment to this challenge! No day shall go without putting pencil to paper!

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Day 10. I picked up a water brush today and I’ve only used it a tiny bit, but I love it! It was so fun to try out using it like I’ve seen in Glenn Vilppu’s demonstrations. I also showed my sketchbook to a professional artist friend of mine and she had nice things to say about my gesture sketches, which gave me a lot of confidence.

I have to say, I’m really enjoying drawing right now! Since I let go of beating myself up for drawing badly, I feel like I’ve improved faster than before. Ironically, letting go of my expectations has produced far better results than when I was super-focused on the end product and being so frustrated about it.

I think I’m gradually getting a feel for gesture and describing 3D form, but my lines need to become more accurate. I think more practise will help with that. These drawings were done pretty quickly as I was previously copying Glenn Vilppu at his pace, so I carried on the momentum.

I’m a bit too tired to draw any more today, but I really look forward to more drawing tomorrow! It’s making me really happy to pursue this hobby that I’ve been keen about for so many years, but never committed to quite like this.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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You have so much control over your values! Everything looks so precise, very nice!

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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.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Composite.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Composite.
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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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