Happy as a hippo with how this guy turned out!

Not going to lie, I can see the difference of spending nearly 6 months on lines with the Proko course!

I'm doing the 250 box challenge right now. It's the namesake for the website drawabox.com.

The gist: You draw lots of boxes in 3 point perspective. In pen. And you extend your lines at the end to check that the points converge towards a vanishing point.

Brutal.

The exercise looks like this:

The point is to get familiar with perspective. And every now and then I stop and ask "am I doing this wrong? Are there any tips? Am I just not looking at it the wrong way. Maybe if I find another guide..." It's a question I've had for most art. If I find the right strategy, I'll just know how to do the thing.

But, in my experience so far, there is just some intuition that comes from repetition. There's no real strategy aside from "do it again, but try another approach."

On a practical level, what helps me is to plot a dot for where I think a line will go and then ghost it like crazy. I'll intentionally plot one that I know is parallel as a reference if I'm really unsure.

But, for the most part, it's like learning a sport or an instrument: the more you do it, the more your brain will learn the fine-motor control of what you're trying to do.

That's what really struck me! Just like I have to practice scales, I have to warm up on drawing lines.

I kind of wish the challenge was called "Draw 250 boxes (mostly badly!)" since that's the intention behind it!

All this to say: Art, especially at the beginning, is just as much a physical skill as it is a design skill.

Study after Bill Watterson.

I've been reading Calvin and Hobbes. I grew up collecting lots of Garfield, but man, these comics are just so dynamic for a newspaper strip! 🐯

"Draw everyday," I said! "It will be a great way to enrich your memories!"

Yet, I couldn't tell you why I sketched a wedding cake with a turkey groom last week. 🦃

Line study after the amazing Tillie Walden from her book "Are You Listening." So wildly beautiful, you gotta go see the colors!

Also, a peak from Toad on the next page! 🐸

🦥 Animal sketches from a recent visit to the Dallas Aquarium... none of them fish, though!

Thinking of my childhood home 🏡

The stack is growing!

This one was filled with more studies as part of the Proko courses I'm taking.

Lots of bean studies as part of the figure drawing course:

On to the next one!

Mmmh, Apples! 🍎

A little late, but here are some quick little easter sketches!

Barley and Board in Denton is pretty yummy, y'all!

My favorite studies on animal construction! Lots of sturdy looking body with noodley legs! 🍜

All part of the Drawabox module on animals.

Another one down!! This one I picked up so I could have more room to explore compared to my little moleskin.

It started out with figure drawing dissections:

And ended with animal construction studies:

Miranda and I drew camels and snails while listening to Arooj Aftab this week! 🐌 🐫

Another sketchbook down!!

This go-round, I alternated pages with two kinds of drawing. One page of drawing from imagination (visual journaling, as I've thought of it.) The other pages studies, largely older pieces by Louie Zong. What can I say, I love his work!

Here's where I started:

And where I'm leaving this book:

The left page is a study on this painting by Louie Zong.

Big change!! I'm taking less time to get many ideas out at once, and am trying more to methodically get out a detailed character on the page. That tracks for this book!

Here's my favorite page, following Miranda and I's trip to Denver:

On to the next one!