I watched the 10-video series by Marco Bucci called "Ten Minutes to a Better Painting" over on YouTube. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. I learned something new and useful in every funny, concise, helpful video. I've learned a lot about shape and color theory. I really want to improve my drawing now. I think it'll be useful to do a lot of figure drawing in my sketchbook. I also want to work on facial expressions, because right now... I got nothing. =) 

So, I'm continuing to study. I've been learning about color theory. I've been working on values and grayscales. I made a grid drawing of an apple where I focused on putting the right value in the right square. That was cool! I've been learning about human construction - weird and delightful how much a pair of jars helps me to understand joints and poses. I've done a bazillion quick 5-minute figure sketches. I've been watching videos about using colored pencils. And I've been illustrating a ton of pictures, via Paper Demon prompts and via an app called Jazza's Arty Games. I've drawn a koala in a magical library featuring a sarcophagus, an underwater city made of metal that features kelp, a wizard with an outrageous mustache, and a futuristic castle with people cleaning the grounds and a secret passage. I started studying drawing on July 23rd and now it's August 15th. I feel like I'm in the newbie gains portion - that early quick leveling up that'll level off soon enough into a slower climb. 

Oh! Also! BIG NEWS. One of my boyfriends is giving me his old Surface Pro 4! Eeeee! That means I'll get to try digital drawing and painting. It's a princely gift. I'm stunned. I plan to keep drawing mostly in my sketchbook, but I'm going to start watching tutorials and pick art software and start leveling up those skills a bit.

I'm finding that I work best when I jump around a bit in terms of my focus. Perspective one day, values the next, figure drawing the next --and then jump back and forth, focusing on one technique at a time as I build up full illustrations or quick sketches. 

So, I'm a 40-something in California. Today it's August 8th. According to my sketchbook, on July 23rd of this year, I started aggressively studying art. On my own. Using... YouTube, CNTRLpaint, and a book called "How to Draw WIthout Talent" by Danny Gregory. I've been loving a YouTube channel called Sketchbook Skool, particularly the videos featuring the aforementioned Danny Gregory. 

I'm starting with the fundamentals. Perspective. Geometric objects. Visual measurements. Hatching. Light sources. Color studies. I'm certainly doing a lot of observational drawing, but right now the passion I have is for illustrative drawing. I enjoy drawing from life. I find it peaceful and absorbing. But the desire I've always had is to be able to draw from imagination. 

For a long time, that seemed almost like magic to me. Impossible.

But as soon as I figured out that I could learn perspective and place simple geometric forms within it to create the beginnings of a sketch. my understanding exploded. 

My hands haven't caught up yet, but they're starting to. RIght now I'm doing tons of technical exercises - gray scales, perspective studies in single point, two point, and three point perspective, and simple observational drawings while I visually measure every single angle. I'm also drawing what I see on the table in front of me, or placing my phone at different angles and positions and drawing it twenty times, each time in a different position. 

Now I'm starting to add some candy - for example, I'm learning how to color with colored pencils, which feels more like fun to me and less like work. 

I'm starting my art studies by drawing in a sketchbook. This way all my drawings stay in one place and I don't have to fish around for paper. It's also making a fun artifact - a journal of my progress from complete beginner to... wherever I get at the end of the sketchbook. And beyond, to the next sketchbook!