Progress made over 18 months/inktober52

[mamadraw]

Well, the prompt “flight” from the inktober52 project spawned this one. Obviously it isn’t a proper inktober image as I didn’t just focus on the line work (probably a mistake!) The concept was that of a small child imagining the flight of a butterfly, going from being dwarfed by tiny flowers to soaring up into the sky and making everything around you small. I found my realisation of this concept deeply frustrating so given the similarity of the central figures I decided to do a side by side comparison of an invitation I made for my daughter 18 months ago with this one. So, there is progress...just slowly, slowly!

Gesture drawing for me next!

[Roxane Ferreira]

Amazing progress dear! The first drawing uses a lot of drawings shortcuts used by beginners and the second image is creative in composition, textures and also you improved a lot on characters. Really insoiring keep going !

[mamadraw]

@Roxane-Ferreira thank you for the kind words ️ On a down day I have to imagine what my work might look like in another 18 months if I keep chipping away at it!

[KaraDaniel]

Wonderful progress! Thanks for sharing!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@mamadraw great work!

[mamadraw]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz @KaraDaniel Thank you! I was starting to drag myself down a bit, being able to "see" flaws but still struggling to correct them effectively. It's good to take stock sometimes!

[sisimite.azul]

Wow, you have improved a lot. Is that digital?

[mamadraw]

@sisimite-azul yes, so to be fair, there is a switch in medium here too and I have found going digital has really improved my ability to get more work done. I have two little girls and being able to continue in traditional media was almost impossible as we have no dedicated "art space" so I had to set up and close down every time. With the iPad I can work in little slivers of time in a way that would have been unthinkable before. I am hoping if I master the fundamentals in terms of line work, light and shadow, values, composition etc I will be able to switch back to traditional at some point when parenting is a little less intensive or we have a bit more space. The iPad (pro with pencil) was a hefty investment and I had to go second hand to afford it but I remains one of the best things I have ever given myself!

[sisimite.azul]

@mamadraw Oh, that is incredible. I usually work in traditional medium. Have experimented with digital, but I find it very challenging. Guess I must practice more often.

[mamadraw]

@sisimite-azul The apple pencil and procreate were a game changer for me. I did do some digital work before that using the drawing tablet and a monitor on Photoshop and the results were ok (given my level of ability - see attached) but it took me so much longer and I found I still had to do all my preliminary sketching on paper and scan it in as my brain/hand/screen connection wasn't quite perfect. The iPad is just like drawing on paper. If you're time starved I can't recommend it enough!

[mamadraw]

@sisimite-azul As a comparison the recent top image took me five days I guess, doing an hour or so a day (so still quite a long time) and the one done in Photoshop took closer to two months and probably...twenty hours. I think the Photoshop one is better in some ways actually so being prompted to relook at another old piece has been really useful!