NesteaDrinker

1st March: - reached 500 hours! Link to celebration thread:

Celebration time! One year ago I introduced myself here and took up the challenge to deliberate practice art fundamentals for 800 hours in a year. Looking back the amount of hours I set for myself was quite unrealistic but here I am proud of myself announcing that I hit 500 hours mark! What I've learned about planning: - it is quite possible to plan out how many hours I'm going to put in a month... - ... but it is hard to predict your whole year - focusing on time spent of learning instead of 'I will finish project x by xyz' gives me better results overall and keeps me from burnout... - ... because the hard truth is when you are lnovice it is almost impossible to plan out when you are about to finish a project/chapter/ whatever - it is important to include some free time especially for your significant other when planning What I've finished this year: - finished drawabox (lesson7) - finished love life drawing begginer series - finished my first figuary - finished the head playlist (basics) - finished chapter 1 of the "Understanding and Painting the Head" course - finished drawing 20 asaro heads - finished drawing 20 simple lay ins - finished drawing 15 break downs using asaro method - finished the planes of the head chapter - finished drawing faces using Rheilly method - finished the advanced perspective chapter - finished half of the book 'How to draw' by Scott Roberston (including sketching and studying what I've learned) - finished half of the book 'How to render' by Scott Roberston (including sketching and studies) - finished Introduction to composition chapter - finished most of the Proko Figure Fundamentals (premium course) Plans for the future: - I'm going to plan my hours month by month - I really want to finish figure fundamentals and animal drawing fundamentals before moving on to shading and colour - hope to do really cool stuff in 2 yours from now ... and that's it! Thank you Cam for creating gamequitters! Thank you people for being part of the community, wish you all well! Link to my journal:

23rd October: - reached the 400 hours mark! - I finished also the perspective chapter I mentioned in previous post - I'm studying figure drawing now, it will take a lot of time! - I will do my best to reach at least 600 hours of my challenge Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 - propably impossible at this point I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 11 Practice counter: 400 hours

23rd September: - sorry for being inactive for such a long time - we took a vacation to Turkey - it was a blast! - decided to learn less and spend more time with my fiancee - even tho I'm learning less the habit is there and I'm doing something every day - finished portraits for now! - also finishing up another chapter of perspective! (I have started it at the start of the month) Goals: I will finish another perspective chapter from the curriculum by 07.10.2023 I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (DONE!) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 - propably impossible at this point but whatever I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 10 Practice counter: 373 hours

8th August: - another face drawn and more knowledge from the book - this week is going to be busy, we have a lot of meetings with friends Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (24/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 346 hours

up to 5th August: - finished front views! - it's time to practice profiles! - also doing progress on how to draw book by Scott Robertson Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (23/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 343 hours

up to 2nd August: - 13 hours of practice - front view faces are hard - doing my best to get better Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (20/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 334 hours

up to 27th July: - more practice - still focusing mostly on proportions and giving myself a feedback loop using photoshop to check how I did - practicing front view faces for now Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (17/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 321 hours

18th-22th July: - since I was doing my best + I was doing more things at the same time I'm giving myself more time to finish the assignment - finished my eye placement studies - I think I'm going to count them too - decided to do longer more accurate drawings to practice measuring proportions - 10 hours of learning since my last post here Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 20.08.2022 (15/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 314 hours

13th - 15th July: - in total 8 hours of practice - making progress in exercises from the how to render book - trying to do quick studies focusing on eye placement and drawing + general proportions of the face - the eyes are getting better but mixed results with proportions Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (9/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 304 hours

I'm glad I could help! 12th July: - today mostly focused on constructing cast shadows - at the end of the day I tried to finished one sketch but failed miserably- should have worked with the layin I did instead of trying to fix the mistakes only to make more of them - I think in order to progress I should focus more on correct proportions and then try to speed things up Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (8/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 296 hours

@Paul A. Depending on your goals you can take different roads. If you want to get good then just practicing is not enough. You definitely need knowledge that you can apply in your drawings. I have started with drawabox course and then switched to Alex Huneycutt's curriculum for solo artist. The curriculum itself is like a school but uses youtube playlists and gives you an assignment. It also recommends doing drawabox course in different chapters so there is no way to skip it. Drawabox is all about 3d feel when drawing and a bit of perspective and line quality lessons. Also when you are total beginner there is only one rule - trust the proccess and complete all the tasks you are asked to do. Art is all about fundamentals and there are many of them to learn: form, light and shadow, color, anatomy, figures, drawing heads, drawing animals, composition and maybe many more. It is important to have proper guidance on these that's why Alex Huneycutt curriculum is your best bet to hold you hand. Hobbyist route: Start with anything you want to do. Watch tutorials that subject and every time you want to get better at fundamental knowledge head on to curriculum. Spend on learning as much as you want. I want to git gut or/and get job: Do your best to not to waste time on unnecessary things. I personally try to hit 15 hours of deliberate practice a week but pros advise even up to 30! Set realistic goal for yourself - time oriented like my practice counter. The problem with action oriented goals like I will do x by yy.zz.aaaa is that you can easly dissapoint yourself. Doing 15 hours of something a week is straightforward but you can't guess how much time it will take to finish one chapter of a curriculum or drawabox lesson. Time oriented goals also don't promote rushing, if you tell yourself to finish one lesson of drawabox a day then you are very likely to rush it and learn nothing from it. Also spoiler alert - drawabox alone can take months to finish (7 big lesssons and few challenges). If you are going to set action oriented goal then give yourself a lot of time like one month and even if you don't succeed but you met the expectations of your time oriented ones then you know you did your best and just give yourself another week or two. Few additional notes on learning art in general: - one thing at a time - don't binge watching tons of different youtubers only to get confused - everytime you watch tutorials and skipping practice you are giving yourself a learning dept and it may become quickly overwhelming - it is okay to watch one playlist from the curriculum before you start practicing everything but don't go to another chapter before you are ready (unless you prefer to do 2 chapters at the same time but you get the idea) - for time oriented goals you can count both drawing and watching tutiorals but only if they are from curriculum or specific course or necessary to understand something - it is okay or even unavoidable to rewatch important videos - if you can afford premium resources then definitely go for them example: curriculum wants you to do drawabox lessons then you can support the author on patreon to get critiques of your work or when there is recommended drawing heads course and you can afford it then go for it. Money spent that way is never wasted - be patient because it is lifelong journey - take photos of your drawings so you can clearly see the progress overtime - watching them will be motivating - the medium you are using to draw doesn't matter because fundamentals are universal for all of them - it is about hard work - not talent

11th July: - another 3 hours of practice - finished another 2 portraits - broke them down in photoshop to look for mistakes (and there are many proportional mistakes) - even though quick sketching help me shut down my overanalitycal mind and get quicker I think I need to learn how to measure proportions quickly and get the best of two worlds - I have started simple rendering exercises Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (8/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 293 hours

I do! Some are better than others but doing my best everyday 😄

8th July: - watched the shading playlist - there is no assigmnent for this unit but I'm going to practice anyway the things I've learned - have started 4 new portraits using rheilly but the one I tried to finished took to long and I went out of time (had to go to work) - one of the new expansions for the mansions of madness (boardgame) is great! We have won the first scenario but with bad ending Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (6/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 290 hours

7th July: - 2 more heads using rheilly done - today we went swimming - it was relaxing - the expansions for a boardgame (mansions of madness) came today - can't wait to play tommorow! Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (6/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 287 hours

6th July: - slowly progressing with Rheilly method - almost finished the composition chapter - want to take sketchbook with me tommorow to work to draw in my free time Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (4/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 284 hours

5th July: - busy day - did 1 portrait study and watched videos about composition Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (3/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 281 hours

4th July: - another day another practice - finished 2 portraits studies using reilly rhythms - I have started also the composition section Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (2/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 278 hours

1st July: - gathered all the references for future drawings - practiced Rheilly method by breaking down faces in photoshop Goals: I will draw 30 faces using Rheilly method by 22.07.2022 (0/30) I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 275 hours

29th June and 30th June: - 4 hours of study in total - finished soaking the knowledge from the playlist - did studies of generic faces using Reilly method (front, side and 3/4) - tommorow I'm going to breakdown faces in photoshop using this method and look for references Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 272 hours

28th June: - another 4 hours on videos from the playlist - almost done with the playlist and the notes from it Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 268 hours

27th June: - 4 hours of watching playlist from another chapter - still a lot to watch - doing notes of what to learn next Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 264 hours

24th June: - did two last breakdowns of the head using asaro head - first one took me an hour and the second one only 30 minutes! - officially finished the asaro head chapter - I have started the next chapter of drawing heads - the reilly method - can't wait to become real good! Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 9 Practice counter: 260 hours

23th June: - felt tired today - did my practice session anyway - the sketches went quite ok but my effectiveness was lower - I'm going to sleep longer tommorow Goals: I will have 800 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2023 I will have 3000 hours on my practice counter by 01.03.2027 Goals met: 8 Practice counter: 257 hours