In my last post I wrote about deliberate practice and how I wanted to apply that to drawing panthers. Well during those practice sessions I noticed that I should go even a step further back and practice on my fundamentals. Even though I got a few decent sketches, I wasn’t able to simplify the form into simple boxes while still maintaining a coherent structure. This showed me I should take the fundamentals more seriously. I’ve watched numerous videos talking about the importance of fundamentals, but I haven’t acted on that advice so far.

Reflecting further on this brings me to the conclusion that the underlying issue isn’t my lack of practice drawing animals or my lack of fundamentals, but rather my overall lack of structured learning. My approach so far has mostly been rather aimless. Watching countless youtube videos without ever really applying the knowledge and starting online courses without finishing them. Basically taking in too much input, so that I couldn’t process it any more. Still I did progress, but I feel there is much more potential If I take this more seriously.

Marshall and Stan did a series on their Draftsmen Podcast, about creating your DIY art school. Based on their information I am going to create a more structured approach to my art journey. I’ll listen to the episodes again, while taking notes this time and document the process on this blog.

Before diving into my art education I want to remind myself of what got me into this in the first place. I remember very fondly how I used to go to second hand bookstores with my father when I was growing up to search for any marvel comics we could find. Comics aren’t a very popular medium in switzerland (except “Lustiges Taschenbuch”, which exists in every household), although it got better with the rise of the MCU. Naturally I started to draw marvel characters and after a while created my own, with the intention to create my own comics one day. The desire to create comics morphed into the desire to create video games and thus started my career as a software engineer.

I’ve added two of the marvel characters I drew back then, based on a book “How to draw the marvel way”. I’ve since lost the book sadly. The other two drawings were drawn from imagination. I remember wanting to create a comic with this character wearing a gas mask.

Doctor Doom, ca. 2009
Doctor Doom, ca. 2009
I really struggled drawing the eyes, in the end I simply left them blank, ca. 2009
I really struggled drawing the eyes, in the end I simply left them blank, ca. 2009
A couple of voodoo puppets which I often drew in school (OC), ca. 2009
A couple of voodoo puppets which I often drew in school (OC), ca. 2009
'Gasmask Guy' fights a demon (OC), ca. 2009
'Gasmask Guy' fights a demon (OC), ca. 2009

Now many years later my revived passion for art also reignited my passion for comics. Experiencing graphic novels such as The Incal, East of West, Monstress and many more really gave me an appreciation for the depth of the medium. So why did I start this journey? To create new worlds and make stories come alive through my illustrations.