Post: #1

This is a personal challenge for me for June 2012.

My goals for this month are to create a minimum of 15 articles for my blog and improve my ability to draw the human figure.

A week ago I started a challenge based around drawing a comic and creating 4 articles. I have since decided that drawing comics is probably not the best use of my energy at this time and I can surely create more than just 4 articles.

Content creation for my blog is where my focus is now. I will create a new article every 2 days. I think this is something that could be a little difficult during the first half of the month but I will probably settle into a good rhythm by the end of June and things will become much simpler.

I also want to improve my ability to draw the human figure. I think the best way to do this will be to study anatomy and learn how to accurately depict it on the page. I bought a series of drawing videos called Structure Of Man a while back. I still have not completed the video course since it is about 55 hours long. I have tried in the past but it becomes very tedious and frustrating. It's a fantastic resource but I don't want to spend hours each day watching videos rather than taking action. I have decided that I will be watching 30 minutes of the course each day and doing the exercises. I think this pace will be simple enough for me to complete the course and also absorb all the information.

I be taking action on this challenge when I get home from work each day. I will begin working on articles first and then watch the Structure of Man videos later in the evening. Content creation for my blog is the primary focus of this challenge. The videos will be secondary.

There are my goals and plans for June. Keep an eye out for my first article tomorrow.

Post: #2

That's so great! Look forward to the rapid growth of content on your blog, Matt.

Have you thought about the kind of articles you will be writing? Will they be mainly tutorial articles or a mix between tutorials and other stuff? Or are you more going with the flow and writing whatever you feel like doing on the day?

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #3

Thanks, Celes. The vast majority will be tutorials. I'm not sure if that will ever change since I think many readers would want step by step instructions with drawn examples rather than a 2000 word essay with no pictures. I own several books on drawing and whenever I see more than 3 pages of solid text it's usually filler material. I usually skip all that information and I'm willing to be most others who own the same book do the same.

I do have a couple other ideas for "essay" type articles on concentration and also one tentatively titled "What To Draw When You Don't Know What to Draw: 101 Drawing Ideas." Honestly I'm not confident of my writing skills for now. That's something I will definitely need to work on in the future (maybe a challenge for July). For now my main focus is how-to articles.

Post: #4

Latest at Draw Everyday:

How To Draw A Horse

This challenge is off to a great start. I completed this article relatively quickly. I did not run into any technical hiccups so I am happy about that.

I think I may end up doing different series of the same subject. I might do another horse drawing tutorial and have it on how to draw a horse who is simply standing there facing the "camera" directly or maybe a tutorial on how to draw two horses standing together. I might to other tutorials as series as well.

I feel like I am running into problems with coming up with an opening paragraph for my articles. I'm really not sure what to say besides "This is a tutorial on how to draw X!" I think I was really reaching for something to say in the horse tutorial. Like I wrote before I know this is something that I must spend time developing.

I have noticed that when I create a tutorial I always go through the same steps:

1. Find reference material on Google image search.
2. Draw the subject several different ways until I am happy with it. Complete the final drawing I will be teaching others to draw.
3. Draw the final drawing again but this time scan the image as I put my lines down on the paper.
4. Crop, resize, and clean up the images in a image editor.
5. Upload the photos to Wordpress.
6. Write the first draft of of the instructions for my tutorial.
7. Proof read. Correct spelling and grammar.
8. Publish!
   

Since I plan on creating an article every two days I think I can stay productive b doing the first three steps on the first day, then do steps 4 through 8 on day two. I'll keep you guys updated as move along.

Post: #5

Any drawing tutorial requests?

I think I have plenty of ideas for articles for the next few weeks but if there is something you would like to see feel free to suggest it in this thread. For now most of my tutorials will focus on animals, cartoon characters (Wall-E, Spongebob), and types of people (ballerina, fisherman, cop, etc.). I'm not very good at portraits so I probably can't draw somebody famous. If you have a fun request please just let me know.

Post: #6

New at Draw Everyday:

How to Draw A Rose

At this point I am creating tutorials on what I know is already in high demand. I noticed there are many Google searches on drawing roses, horses, and dragons. I will be working on what I know people are already searching for. The thing is I know that these subjects already have a lot of competition from other sites so it will be difficult to get a high ranking on Google search results.

I have also been thinking that I should use twitter more to promote the blog. My Twitter page is here. I will be tweeting at least once a day.

Post: #7

I have been working today to create a drawing for my next tutorial but I am having a lot of trouble with it. I'm having trouble drawing a particular pose that is exciting and at the same time very appropriate for this famous character. I hoped to have a final drawing and all my scanned drawing completed today but I didn't get any of that done. I just did a bunch of sketches. I hope to catch up tomorrow.

Post: #8

Hey Matt! Who is this famous character you are planning to draw, if you don't mind me asking? You're making us curious about your next post!

Matt Wrote:For now most of my tutorials will focus on animals, cartoon characters (Wall-E, Spongebob), and types of people (ballerina, fisherman, cop, etc.)

Not really a personal request, but have you considered drawing game characters like from Final Fantasy and what not? Even South Park characters. I think these will be very popular among others and will help to gain quick traction for your blog.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #9

I will have the next tutorial up in a few hours. I'm almost done with it.

Game characters are not something I have considered yet actually. It's a good idea though. I didn't think of it because I very rarely play games myself. I have owned PS3 for 3 years but have only bought 2 games for it! I haven't played any of the recent Final Fantasies but I could make a tutorial on how to draw that pink haired girl I have seen in all the commercials. I'm not sure how popular the characters from older Final Fantasies could be but I guess I could do those too. Did anybody else here like Final Fantasy IX as much as I did?

*cricket chirps*

Video game characters are definitely something I should do though. I could focus on creating tutorials on characters like Mario, Master Chief, Cloud, Aeris, Rinoa, Solid Snake. It also wouldn't take much to find the most popular games and then create drawing tutorials for the characters from them. South Park characters would be a good idea too and would probably be pretty easy to make. Thanks for the idea!

Post: #10

How To Draw The Amazing Spider-Man

This one took a while since it was hard for me to choose a pose that was exciting but also looks typical for the character. I'm pretty happy with how this one came out.

I have been thinking more and more about getting a Wacom tablet to draw my tutorials on. For now I draw on paper and scan the picture again and again as I draw the picture. This is tedious. Also I then spend a long time cleaning up the pictures Sometimes I have to erase a lot of stray pencil marks that won't be erased or I leave eraser remnants on the page that are scanned into the picture. A Wacom tablet would probably eliminate problems like that. The only thing that is holding me back is the learning curve that I would be faced with. It might take a week or two to get used to drawing on the tablet.

I didn't get as much done last week as I hoped. For a few days I was felt discouraged about my current path and was paralyzed by analysis. For now I think I will continue with my current strategy but I may be making major changes later on. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated as always.

Post: #11

How to Draw Cartman From South Park


I decided to take Celes's suggestion to draw a South Park character so I drew my favorite character Cartman. This drawing was relatively easy to do compared to others I have drawn and I think it looks very close to how the character appears in the series.

Part of my goal for this month was to watch Structure of Man videos so I learn anatomy. I am falling behind though. I think I have only watched about 4 or 5 hours so far. Drawing articles has taken time. I think that in June I may have a two week challenge where I focus solely on watching and studying these videos. I think that learning human anatomy is one of the highest leverage things I could do for my drawing skills at this points so I must make it a priority to learn as much as I can about it.

Post: #12

I worked on a new article today. I should have it done by tomorrow.

That means I have completed will have completed 5 tutorials in 15 days. My goal is to create 15 articles by the end of the month so I have 10 more to go. I'm sure I can do this with relative ease if I just focus.

Like I mentioned before I haven't been watching nearly as many of the anatomy drawing videos as I would like to. I really want to finish that series since I think it's one of the best ways to learn to draw human anatomy accurately. That's extremely important to me as an artist and would open a lot of new opportunities for me.

Just today I wanted to draw a tutorial for Aeris from Final Fantasy but I wasn't able to draw the character the way I wanted because of my limited figure drawing skills. Even my tutorial of Spider-Man was very difficult to make. If I go at my current rate of studying anatomy it will take me several months to learn everything I need to. I think it might be better if I focus solely on learning anatomy for a period.

I didn't want to do this but I may need to create a new challenge for myself based on studying anatomy. I was hesitant about this since focusing more on this would mean that my blog would need to move to the back burner. I am thinking of taking all of July to studying human anatomy for several hours each night. That would definitely leave little time for my blog. After learning what I need I can then get back to focusing on my blog and I will be able to create all kinds of new material that I am currently not able to. I may end up choosing a different strategy for next month but for now studying anatomy seems like it would be the smartest choice. As always I will keep you guys posted.

Post: #13

How To Draw SpongeBob Squarepants

I made this article mostly because I know the character is popular. I must admit I have never actually watched an entire episode of the series. From what I have seen it seems a lot like Ren and Stimpy.

To make sure I meet my goal of 15 articles I think I will be focusing primarily on cartoon and animal tutorials for the rest of the month.

Post: #14

How to Draw A Kitten


Finished this one today.

I have been thinking more and more about creating tutorials with fewer steps. When I stretch things out I might be over explaining things.

My recent Cartman tutorial has 15 steps. Spider-Man has the record with 21 steps. This cat tutorial has 9.

Post: #15

How to Draw a Humming Bird

How to Draw A Bulldog





I have been putting less text in each tutorial lately. I have wondered if maybe it's better to just use the bare minimum for the instructions. Most people will only use the pictures anyway to learn and too much text could over complicate things. I think this may come off as lazy though.

I have become more and more frustrated that I have not been able to create more content over the past few days. I have really wanted to do more than just animal drawing tutorials. I wanted to do more drawings of people but I have found this very difficult. I want to be able to draw people accurately. My next personal challenge will center around studying human anatomy. I hate to take the time off from blog entries but I think it really is necessary. I will still make blog entries but probably not as many over the next month. The upside is that after studying anatomy I will be able to create articles at a faster rate than I can currently.

I have been frustrated not only that I have not been able to draw more tutorials featuring people but I have also felt like I am currently working on the wrong project. My blog is where I want to put a lot of focus but I feel like there are others things I must learn first. I might begin my anatomy studying challenge this weekend.