Schoolism complete

So I finished Schoolism last Monday, and listened to the book excerpt from Bobby Chiu. It was quite insightful. I feel from doing the Painting Creatures course I've learned a lot, and also learned how to figure out quick and easier ways of doing things. I've also learned that using reference is not cheating if applied correctly, although I've learned this several times in the past few years it still comes back to give me a kick up the arse.

As such, since finishing the Schoolism course I've done no art at all. Nothing. Nada. Zip. So I did a few figure drawings this evening:

On Friday I attended my first Christmas party for my new job, and I was absolutely annihilated. I've never had a hangover so bad - I was still being sick at 8pm on Saturday! Needless to say this has inspired me to come out with quotes I'll never stick to, like 'I'm never drinking again'. I probably won't drink too much over Christmas now as I've had my blow-out for the Christmas period.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Thursday as part of my birthday celebrations (the big 3-0, eek!). Don't think I'll be drinking much while there, but I have some expeditions planned - the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, and we have a couple of shows at the Boom Chicago comedy club booked too. I can't wait! I went to Amsterdam a few years ago, and loved it so much that I've always wanted to go back. It's such a vibrant city, and we didn't do half of what we wanted to do the last time we were there. That, and the fact we were knackered from walking around on the first day didn't leave us with much energy to enjoy the city for the remainder of our time there.

Well, I hope you're all getting ready for Christmas - I managed to put my boyfriend off from putting up the Christmas tree until 3rd December, and now it looks like a festive elf has sneezed all over our living room; there's tinsel everywhere!

Well, right now I'm going to finish watching my recording of The Hunt, narrated by David Attenborough. I love everything he narrates, and the camera skills of the crew for this series are just astonishing.

I won't be posting a blog post next week due to said holiday above :)

And last but not least, my Pinterest of the Week: http://batkamal.tumblr.com/post/70928746752

A full-on week

2 days left of the Schoolism subscription, and I've done nothing since last Sunday. I watched the last video on finishing touches, but there's a book excerpt at the end I've not found time to listen to yet.

I travelled to Center Parcs at Longleat on Wednesday on a business trip, and had a wicked time :) This was the view from my apartment:

It was a couple of long days though, the traffic on the drive back was horrendous.

I've been back to Center Parcs today (this time to Sherwood Forest) with my friend's family, and had a wicked time, although I didn't feel like we did much. Totally shattered now, watching the Formula 1 before going to bed.

So I've struggled to do any art this week. I'm still keeping in touch with it though, I finished the TV series of Landscape Artist of the Year this morning while doing the week's ironing. I live such an interesting life...
I've added my colour to my dragon a la Bobby Chiu, however I cannot get it to look anything better than washed out. I don't understand his technique enough to fix it, so I'm going to figure out a different way. This is the best I have so far:

Anyway, as is the norm now here is my Pinterest of the Week: http://theultralinx.com/2012/06/art-colour-coordination-infographic/

I've also come across some more relaxing music here for anyone that's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYk9CRx0g8

Holidays are coming

Well, I've made it to the last lesson of my Schoolism subscription, although I think it's more of a watch-video than a doing-video. In the last week I've worked on scales, hands and eyes, though I'm the first to admit I've not done a very good job on these things. If I have time at the end of the course I will go back over these videos. So below is what I've been working on. Please note I haven't done the base drawing, only the faint scales, eyes and hands:

I haven't worked on my dragon this week. I'm not really much further into my writing course either.

Yesterday I went on a chocolate-making course and made 24 chocolates for an advent calendar, including a few spares. It was loads of fun!

I've been listening to more relaxing music while I study, I'm still really into classical music, although I have deviated slightly... to Disney classic on the piano, ha! The link is here for anyone that's interested: https://youtu.be/tp5hgjD_Y5g

I was listening to classical music while writing this blog post, but then someone came on singing opera, and I'm more of a fan of instrumental classical music, so now I'm listening to Planet Rock. Old habits die hard.

Last but not least it's my Pinterest of the week, and this time it's not an image, it's a podcast: the Creative Pep Talk podcast. I've only just got into them, and they seem pretty good so far, check them out: http://illustrationage.com/2015/11/17/96761/?utm_source=hootsuite

Here be dragons!

As it turns out I did do the first Schoolism video wrong, so I've had to go back and redo it. This week I had to do a 3-tone sketch of my design, and it still has to look recognisable:

I'm going to watch the next video once the Formula 1 is done with, although I got wasted last night, and as a result today has been wholly unproductive, and this blog post will be fairly short. Although we did go and watch the fireworks show at my place of work, the fireworks were pretty spectacular. The even has to be called Guy Fawkes night, they can't call it Bonfire night as they can't have a bonfire in the middle of the forest.

On the walk to the pub yesterday I did manage to get some nice autumnal shots on my phone of our local park:

I've completed week 2 of my writing course, I had to listen to a line from a radio station and build a story on that. The line I had was 'Once you come out of a situation like that, it's like coming up from the sea-bed'. Week 3 starts tomorrow.

I've not watched any interesting videos this week, however I do have a Pin on Pinterest, hope you like: http://www.zeutch.com/graphik/moleskine-doodles-50270#

Becoming a recluse!

I finally knuckled down to do some homework this weekend, and have literally not left the house all weekend. I've completed video 2 and assignment 2 of the Schoolism workshop I'm doing, and just about completed week 2 of the Start Writing Fiction course I'm doing with FutureLearn.

I've just finished watching video 3 of the Schoolism course, and realised I've just been drawing animals, not creatures, as the title of the course suggests 'Painting Creatures', duh! So now I need to go back and create some creatures. That'll be in next week's blog entry. However from video 2 I've been learning all about drapery, and had to sketch a couple of things to learn different drapes:

With hindsight the rhino didn't have that many folds in its skin to study, I should've picked something more wrinkly...

Video 3 is going back to my original creature sketches, but I now need to draw some creatures, not animals that already exist.
Also, for week 2 of my Start Writing Fiction course I need to write the start of (or complete) story, no more than 500 words. I'm finding the course quite interesting, and it's harder than I thought it would be, but I'm getting some good feedback from other people on the course.

I've seen this video before but thought I'd share it, as I particularly like the part about showing up to do your part of something, even if some other part of you struggles: https://youtu.be/86x-u-tz0MA

And, as promised I would do a Pinterest of the week. I spent a fair bit of time yesterday trying to find something, then I happened across something which I knew would be right, as it's so cute. Hope you enjoy! http://www.duitang.com/people/mblog/50764978/detail/

More of the same Schoolism

I've been working on the same ideas as last week, and I've come up with a few more too. I've sketched the ones I thought were better ideas:

Chimp Selfie

Hungry Worm

I quite liked the concept for Chimp Selfie. Children learn to copy their parents behvaiour, it's part of their learning cycle, and it's quite scary how a two year old knows how to work a mobile phone or tablet. I bet chimps would learn from the hoardes of people that go to visit them in the zoo or wildlife parks every day, so I wonder if the zoo keeper gave a chimp a camera on a selfie stick if they would copy the behaviour of the people observing it? Just a thought.
I'm really conscious that we're more than halfway through October now and I still haven't watched any more of the videos I've subscribed to on Schoolism. I've not developed my current ideas too far, as I'm intrigued to see what the next video will bring, and I want to get a move on with the course.

I've also signed up to another course: Start Writing Fiction with FutureLearn in collaboration with the Open University. Talk about burning the candle at both ends! I figured that I struggle to come up with good ideas for my art, so if I do a course on writing it may help. It's free anyway, so I have nothing to lose.

A new feature that I'm going to do on my blog every week is Pinterest of the Week. This will be where I've pinned something on Pinterest that was of interest to me. I have a few boards on Pinterest, fitness and baking to name a few, but I also have a board for Art and another board for Inspiration. So this week's Pinterest of the Week is:

http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1003285/25-pinterest-myths-debunked/page:3

I love the idea of melting crayons onto paper to make ink splats, I have an idea for this so I will revisit this project.

That's it for this week, let's see what the next part of my Schoolism subscription brings!


Liked this post? You may also like: http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-start-of-my-schoolism-subscription.html

The start of my Schoolism subscription

Still back in the old habits I'm afraid, but it's not for lack of trying this week. I've watched the first lesson by Bobby Chui, and whilst there wasn't much visually in the video there was a lot said which has given me stuff to think about. He talks about the virality of art, and what makes art viral. So my assignment was to think up 10 creatures. I've thought of 3, and drawn 2. I don't know how far we're supposed to take the drawings, so I've done it quickly in a cartoon style. What feelings do the following inspire, and would you share them to friends or just move on with whatever you were doing at the time?

Something I know I need to work on is perspective, particularly in the top drawing.

The cool thing about signing up to Schoolism is that (if you sign up for the full course) your work is critiqued, but as I've done mine through Kickstarter I don't get that option. However I see feedback videos that Bobby Chiu has recorded, so I'm still learning a lot from those.

Anyway, I've not done, or seen, much else in the art world this week. I've kind of enjoyed the downtime of not having pressure to draw something every day, however trying to think up 10 ideas for creatures that could go viral has been so difficult. I'm thinking maybe the Tea Dogs idea could be one, however it would need a witty quote to go with it to make it truly humorous. I think I'm just going to go for 5 creatures rather than beat myself up over the fact I can't think of 10, otherwise I will probably spend the rest of October trying to think of good creature ideas. I only have until the end of November on my subscription, so I need to get a move on!

Drawing-a-day is done for now

Howdy doody people! It's Sunday and I've only done half a week of drawing... and here it is:

29. Somewhere you'd like to go - space! Apologies for my very quick, crappy drawing of our galaxy...

30. Imaginary friend. Well, I didn't have one as a kid, but I pretended I had a barn owl, as I think these are beautiful birds. I tried to paint with the biggest brush possible to not get lost in the details... and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it :) Quite happy with the effort to quality ratio of this

31. Latest dream. Just to put this out there I regularly eat cheese before bed. As I did on this night. I was pretty upset I didn't manage to get tickets to the latest Muse gig. So in my dream I dreamt that Muse had gone to shit, and Matt Bellamy was hiding out in a camper van at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, and I was there consoling him. Weird.

So, I only managed 3 drawings this week before my Schoolism subscription started... and I fell right back into my old bad habits. There has been nothing stopping me from drawing the rest of the week, as I should've done, because I didn't watch the first Schoolism video I subscribed to until tonight. My last drawing was on Wednesday, so that's been 4 days of drawing I haven't done.

Anyway, moving on from the negativity, the first video has given me a lot to think over, and quite a big assignment at the end! I'm not sure how much of the video I can give away, but I think it's safe to say we'll see how my future drawings go, and how much interest they generate based on my learning from this course. I can tell you the course I signed up to was Painting Creatures. I normally come up with ideas in my sleep (as long as they're not cheese dreams like the above...), as in I like to sleep on ideas, and then the next day, or the next few days once my subconscious has had time to process the information I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. I have 10 things to draw, which is more than what I draw in a week, but this is something I want to work on properly, not just bang out a drawing a day.

I'm already intrigued as to what my next blog entry will bring (hopefully not a big empty space!) and I hope you can join me next week to see what ideas my crazy cheese-addicted brain comes up with!

Quick mid-week update

Just a quickie, my Schoolism subscription starts tomorrow!! So I might not be doing my daily drawing for a couple of months, but I should defo be producing something, even if it's not daily.

Also I've signed up to a free course called Start Writing Fiction with FutureLearn (through Open University). Whilst I love drawing I often struggle to think of a back story for my drawings, which can make them seem a bit pointless. So hopefully this will help me think up new ideas, which will then help me think of things to draw!

I've still been doing my daily drawings this week, and will share with you all on Sunday :)

30 day challenge, logo completion and an annoucement!

Hey all, I've done a little more art this week, although I've had a headache pretty much all week.
I've watched a random video on Photoshop on how to draw smooth lines, and it pretty much boils down to doing it quick, and drawing from the elbow, not the wrist. I knew this before (the wrist thing), but never really applied it, so I've been practising with the motion today and guess what? My lines are better :)

The kickstarter campaign for Schoolism has finished, I think I'm starting mine in October. I've been watching a few of Bobby Chiu's vids on youtube this week, so talented!!

On twitter I noticed in my feed a behance page called The Pocketbook of 120 tips from featured creative from the design world. I'm not far into it but there's a pretty decent 30 day drawing challenge. So day 1 is to tell you I've started. Let's call that yesterday. Day 2 is today, and although I kind of started it yesterday I've done most of the work today:

Make a logo of your face with your name which describes your personality - smiley and bright! I did want to use bright purple text, but it was lost in my brown hair

So for the week ahead (it'll be interesting to see if I do all of these!)
Day 3: Make an illustration of your favourite number
Day 4: Choose 3 awesome graphic designers and try to make a new design mixing their styles.
Day 5: Redesign the logo of the nearest shop.
Day 6: Choose 2 objects. Mix them.
Day 7: Make a logo for an astronaut's umbrella shop.
Day 8: Draw something with your left hand.

The link for The Pocketbook can be found here:
www.behance.net/gallery/24768773/The-Pocketbook
And it's on a Creative Commons license :)

Oh, and I think I've finally finalised a design for my logo!! Although I'm torn between 2, so please see both below, let me know if you prefer one over the other!

I was eating dinner yesterday and heard something fall over in our bedroom. My canvas I've been working on had fallen over. There's no damage to the canvas or the frame, but I've now put the canvas away as I have no motivation to finish it right now.

The London MCM Comic Con was last weekend, and I really wish I had gone. I've not been to the one in London, but I've been to the Birmingham one, and Collectormania in Milton Keynes. Both have not been great. There's a really good convention on when I'm on holiday, there are so many Game of Thrones stars there, and we'll be nowhere close to go :( I've even looked into getting a little flight from where we're holidaying to London, but there only do 2 flights a day, one there and one back, so it's not worth it. Oh well, there will be more cons in the future.

The trailer tent is coming on nicely, we picked up a bottle of gas from our town, hooked it up to the little oven that came with the trailer tent and it works fine! The lights don't work though, I think we'll need to buy a light board to make the trailer road-legal. While I was at the shop buying gas they also sell a small range of tools, so I managed to get a drill bit for drilling a 30mm hole for my brewing buckets so I can get a bitter and a lager kit brewing. Although to be honest since I started Slimming World in Feb I haven't been drunk since then, so 2 beer kits will probably last us into next year!! We're supposed to be having a heatwave next weekend, I've asked the other half to get the summer clothes out of the loft, I wonder what clothes will be too big on me now?! That's the nice thing about losing weight (I've been overweight for 10 years), I can buy clothes that actually look good now rather than fit for funtionality, and I get a massive confidence boost to boot!

Anyway, I have an announcement to make (which I can't make until tomorrow, all will become clear). It's probably not a big deal for anyone reading this blog, but it's a huge deal for me. I don't know who reads this blog from my twitter feed, as I have friends and colleagues on there, so I need to keep it secret until tomorrow. And for anyone wondering (and for the people that know me), I'm not pregnant!!

Starting my landscape piece & Schoolism

Well, what a wonderful week of weather we've had here in Blight! (That isn't sarcasm) We've been going for a walk every single evening, so I've not had any time to do art or research going freelance this week! That and the fact I committed to spring cleaning the house the next weekend we have crappy weather (which is this weekend).

I did however start my new painting on Sunday last week, as we didn't get the internet back until Monday. I bought a new easel from our local stationery shop, and now I have something to rest my canvas on.

I've had an idea for painting a bigger picture for a while, and last Sunday I had this dilemma with my spare time in the evening; play South Park's The Stick Of Truth, or start my painting, so I did the latter, and I'm glad I did:



Believe it or not that's supposed to be a sunrise!

I've spent 2 hours on that piece so far, acrylic on canvas, and I'm hoping to work on in some more today. I did do another piece before this, on a tiny canvas, it was a Formula 1 car, but I forgot to take a photo of it (I'm writing this at the in-laws so no option to take a photo either), and it's rubbish, I could not get the cockpit to look right! I'll post the picture next week.

I've also signed up to Schoolism's Kickstarter campaign, where I get 2 months' of access to one of their online courses. I've been interested in Bobby Chiu's stuff for a while, so it's great he's making his courses so affordable.