I’ve been taking a bunch of online courses from Conceptart.org and think I’ve learned a great deal about composition, color theory, freelancing, portfolio reviewing etc. A lot of this stuff I’ve picked up from school and on the job the last 10 years; however, it was nice to have some of these tangential theories in my head vocalized and organized by professionals several years (or more) ahead of me. In summary, I’m way better than I was 3 months ago but can barely grasp of the advanced theories that the classic masters, such as Rembrandt and Doré, or modern masters like Frazetta and Djuredjevic, apply to their work.

Watching Marko Djurdjevic draw for 9 hours this Sunday was pretty inspiring and awe inducing. The man’s ability to confidently place lines and color makes me feel like a kid scribbling with crayon (not far from the truth). I don’t think the man had to hit ctrl-z once during the lecture. I guess that’s what years of diligent studying and practice will bring. On his Character Ideation DVD he did mention slowing down, thinking, and focusing on what you’re next move is. That’s probably something I should consider more while drawing, or talking, or blogging…

One exercise that has come up a lot on their forums is to draw 100 heads. I think I’m suppose to only spend 2 minutes on them, but I spend anywhere between 5 and 45 at the moment. On  this post Jason Manly suggests the student also do 100 skull sketches. Maybe I need to bust out the old Bridgman books and get on that too.

Progress:
15/100 heads, 0/100 Skulls.

Tools:
iPhone: Colors!, Brushes, Sketchbook Mobile
Nintendo DS: Colors!
PC: Photoshop and Wacom
Comment from Frank: “What you’re too good for pencil and paper?”