Weekly Art Practice - Week 12
As mentioned in my last WAP, I’ve made a return to creature drawing to have some easier WAP weeks. I’m not sure how I got the idea for anteaters, possibly Pinterest simply showed me an image of one and I went “whoa strange dog.”
I also tried out a new practice method that I learned from a YouTube video this week. It… didn’t go great.
Day 1 - Drawing from imagination
I had just put together my Pinterest board the day before so giant anteaters were fresh on my mind when I went into day 1.
Day 2 - Figure sketching
Day 1 here felt like one of my best day ones so far. At least for accuracy. The main error being how I did the ears. Day two saw some improvements for anatomy. But it was also here that I started to notice that there aren’t that many different images of giant anteaters. Like, I couldn’t find more than one or two of them lying down. None just sitting.
Day 3 - Reference studies
Spending more time on day 3 meant paying a little more attention to their colouration patterns. Which is mostly that big black triangle.
Day 4 - Style studies
Style studies are still my favourite for animal weeks. I tried to move from more realistic to more simplistic.
Reference: By Shaun Bryant
Reference: Zoe Persico
Reference: By Eloise Narrigan
Day 5 - Drawing from imagination
Remembering my problem with movement from previous animal challenges, I spent some time before doing my day 5 test watching videos of giant anteaters. YouTube didn’t have a great collection of these. But enough that I finally got to see their front feet in action. It wasn’t until day 5 that I learnt that giant anteaters walk on their knuckles (like gorillas) to protect their very sharp and huge front claws.
Also learned that they fight back against jaguars by using those large claws and standing up on their back legs, using their huge tail as a kind of tripod support to stay upright. So I tried drawing this upright position even though I never saw an image of them taking this pose.
Blind study method
Every now and then YouTube will recommend a decent art tutorial video. I’m always on the hunt for things like guided practice and different ways to study so this one got my attention.
I liked the sound of this approach because it’s similar to how I would practise for exams. Making flash cards, going through the movements of questions and answers. I also liked the idea of giving yourself just an hour to do it.
My study subject for my first attempt is this drow piece by Anna Siwoń. I like the grumpy expression so that’s what I wanted to focus on.
The idea is to first draw the image while looking at it. Then take the reference away and try to do it again. Make corrections, spot where you went wrong. Then hide the reference again and try again.
I honestly felt like I was getting worse and worse as the attempts went on. So I’m not sure how I feel about this just yet. I should probably try with either a smaller focus or on something more generic. I’m not sure yet.
Conclusion
I felt like I got a decent amount of practice time in this week. The anteaters didn’t take very long each day. Finally feels like getting back in the grove after Renpy month. Main downside being that anteaters are so unique and weird I’m not sure when learning their shape is going to be helpful again. Maybe in monster creation or something like that.
I hope to try to blind practice method again but I’m having my doubts. There are other approaches for learning other artists styles which I might try out instead. Compare the methods and see which one works best for me.