View Full Submission View Parent Comment
3:24 PM, Saturday July 25th 2020

I think this is a really great approach, specifically for keeping yourself motivated for the long haul.

I recently tried following moderndayjames' Solo Artist Curriculum, which has you doing the first 3 lessons of Drawabox in a single month. It was really arduous, and I definitely rushed through things only to make it partially through Lesson 2. In order to "make the deadlines" I could only do the drawabox exercises each day, so I stopped drawing for myself and for fun. It was a grueling process that I was doing "just to get through it." Once I hit the texture exercises, they were VERY difficult for me, and I got so frustrated I just completely stopped for a month, feeling discouraged and frustrated that I "failed" at two things: drawabox AND the curriculum.

I'm now coming back to the exercises and taking things slower, and making sure to draw more things that I enjoy drawing as well as the exercises.

Long story short: gauge how much you are able to focus on an exercise, but also allow yourself mental "breathing room." Really take Uncomfortable's 50% rule to heart.

10:32 PM, Thursday August 27th 2020

I Know that Curriculum, I first thought that 2 months were an ok time, but seeing how much it takes to complete an exercise, wait for critique and all that jazz. There's no way you can take your time and do lesson 1-7, the challenges all in 2 months, except if you draw as sloppy as you can and ignore any critique and revisions they may ask

I'm not saying that the curriculum is bad though, but it's important to consider that some things may take more time than others ( and DBA really takes a lot of time )

I can spend a couple of days only doing DAB's exercises without really doing much of personal or fun work, but i would take days of break after a couple of exercises done, sometimes i switch places by taking breaks doing fun work and then going back to DAB

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Color and Light by James Gurney

Color and Light by James Gurney

Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.