Weekly Art Practice - Week 21
I didn’t complete my WAP exercises last week. It’s my first time not getting through all 5 exercises but it was an anatomy week which often feel a little weird on the last two days. I hadn’t even found any stylistic waltz references to use for day 4.
But it’s not a lack of references that kept me away. I had a piece that, initially, was going to be rather simple but had turned into one of my most ambitious pieces yet (will share progress later in this post). One of the reasons I have such a structured practice schedule is that I haven’t had many ideas for projects and these focused weeks help me to keep practising and creating even when my head is empty. So the idea that I’m so taken with a new piece feels like my creativity is starting to stir again (it only took 1.5 years). So I’m pretty happy to put weekly practice to the side if it means completing a full piece that I’m excited about.
Besides the new piece getting most of my creative attention, I’ve been dealing with some pretty back upper back/neck pain. So while I want to spend multiple hours a day working on art I’m having to take many breaks and also just limit the amount of time I spend with my head bent in hopes of not making the pain worse. And don’t even get me started on how the current heat wave is completely sapping all my energy.
Day 1 - Drawing from imagination
One of the reasons I chose waltz as a reference is that it’s a fairly structured dance, almost stiff as dances go. But I also wanted to get into practising pieces with multiple characters where they are touching. Along with the challenge of having most of the pose hidden by a dress. Day 1 poses were rather simple from my brain.
Day 2 - Figure sketching
I still think I should be doing this exercise faster than I usually do. Especially with anatomy weeks as I should be trying to capture the movement flow or dynamics of a pose instead of trying to get it exactly right.
Day 3 - Reference studies
Only did 2 pieces as I felt like since there are 2 people in each it’s like doing 4 practices. This is where I really tried to problem solve the pose of the figure I can’t see clearly. The nice part of waltz is that the two people are often moving in tandem so it means copying the more visible pose and applying it to the partner.
New Elden Ring Piece
So I shared a version of my Elden Ring character last week. Ever since the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC came out we’ve been playing for at least 2 hours every day. It’s a lot of Elden Ring. Because this was our main activity after our wedding we’ve been joking that we honeymooned in the Shadow Realm (the new Elden Ring region). We have a collection of video game screenshots as a couple, Animal Crossing, Pokemon Sw/Sh, but we can’t co-op in Elden Ring, so if I wanted our characters together I would have to do it myself.
I’ll keep working on this for a few more days. I feel like I’m in the final stages but the background is giving me a pretty hard time. I’m struggling to balance the colours and details in a way that the background doesn’t take away too much from the characters in the foreground, while also trying to not introduce too many colours to keep things balanced. But I keep finding a new thing about the image I don’t love and then re-working it lol.
I’m hoping to focus on the last bit of lighting and shadows and then push the background “further back” so it doesn’t steal attention. All while trying to not make the image too dark or muddied.
Conclusion
Going to spend a few more days on the Elden Ring Honeymoon piece and then try to get into my new WAP subject. But I also have a whole other Elden Ring piece idea which I know is going to try to claim all my attention.
Pinterest board for waltz references.