I mentioned a few Pubskis back that I wished to write and illustrate a little children's book for my newborn nephew. Well, I've now started the process of learning to draw so I can realise that. I found a great course on Udemy. Seeing as though 6 days ago the extent of my drawing skills was dumb cartoon faces, I'm really pleased with the results so far. I'm looking forward exploring it more. Other than that, not much has changed. I'm going to be doing a 'Foundation Safety Rescue Training' kayak course sometime soon. It's a requirement if you want to become a coach. And even though I'm some way off being able to be a coach, I though I may as well take the presented oppertunity. I'll hopefully be on the river again tomorrow, but it might be cancelled for water quality reasons due to some impending storms causing water run off from the roads.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Yesterday I tried to draw Vladimir Putin with no reference and ended up with an OK caricature of Steve Jobs. I'm not much of an illustrator or cartoonist so if I try to do that kind of thing I just do a shitload of sketches to suss out what works and what doesn't. But that's me when I try to cartoon.
For sure. The course emphasises the same attitude, going as far as to suggest not using an eraser. Instead, it concentrates on starting off drawing basic shapes as light as possible and using any mistakes and less accurate markings as a framework to mould a better representation with increasingly darker lines. I never though of drawing as being done in this way and what's cool is that it's somewhat analogous to my music composition process. Though I must confess that I have used an eraser a few times. Mainly when I commit to a dark line too early on.
Thanks! I would like to introduce colour eventually, but I'm definitely just focussing on the basics right now. I remember when I was younger that I used to draw these jungle-scapes that I thought were dope and then I'd attempt to colour them in and ruin them. In some ways I think that put me off drawing back then. So I feel like it's an area that I need to work up to rather than going in all guns blazing. Here's another bird I did today:
I have a similar ambition. #childrenspoemsbytng I’m an awful illustrator though. You’ll see my illustrations in a few of those poems.
It's a cool ambition to have! If you have a desire to improve your illustrations, I can wholeheartedly recommend the tutor I found on Udemy. Here's a link to the first course in his series.