List of drawing prompts for curing art block

 

Part 1: Memes and drawing prompts

1. Almost kissing meme

2. Battle status

3. Blushing face

4. Essential expressions

5. Gender bender shipping meme

6. Guess my fav characters

7. Kiss meme

8. Personality swap

9. Six fanarts (maybe go with a theme)

Part 2: Studies

1. Make your own anime screenshot

2. Redraw an old artwork

3. Draw from a photograph

4. Redraw a famous artwork 

5. Draw 20 sketches of a body part you struggle with. At least 5 should be skeletal and musculature studies

6. Study the skull

7. Take two art styles and combine them. Maybe the art by Artist A but using the style of Artist B

8. Cinematography color studies

9. Mugshots

10. 30 day photo study challenge

11. Follow a tutorial

12. Color someone else’s lineart

Part 3: Prompts

1. Draw a portrait with emphasis on a body part NOT the head/face

2. Illustrate a local crime report- the wackier the better. Get dramatic

3. Draw OCs taking inspiration from fanart that reminds you of them

4. Design a toy from multiple angles- pretend it’s going to be made into a real object

5. Design a historical figure

6. Tic Tac Toe with 9 elements

7. FML stories with OCs or fanart characters

8. Redraw memes with OCs/fanart (e.g. Redraw Reigen)

Part 4: Challenges and limitations

1. Draw with your left hand

2. Draw upside down

3. Extreme values - no lines, color, or midtones

4. Inverted colors

5. Art style challenge

6. Toon Me

7. 3 marker challenge

8. Huevember

9. Draw subject in 10 min, 1 min, 10 seconds

10. Draw the same picture before and after incorporating target style

11. Pick an art style to copy, then pick a pose to copy. Combine them

12. Do a small animation

13. Draw over an old picture 

Part 5: Curations

1. Art progress meme

2. OC style/design evolution

Important note about post dates and the archive

I'm uploading my favorite artworks from throughout the years. This blog site makes it ridiculously easy to fudge the dates. So it looks like I posted it 5 years ago, but really I'm posting all of this in June/July 2022. Honestly, I like it that, it's so much easier to organize stuff by year. 

Value studies: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

 I did these about a month ago. Cinematography value studies from the movie The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. This movie is very special to me and it also has some beautiful cinematography.

I swear up and down that certain shots were references to certain historical paintings but I haven't seen anything specific. Maybe they just nailed the aesthetic that well, which in that case, all the more kudos to them. I just wish I could get more screencaps from the film and not just the ones they showed in the trailer. Do I have to watch this movie for a fourth time?

Value studies: Gothic churches

 Based off some photos from around the web. 

Sources:

• Lyon Cathedral
• St. Vitus Cathedral - I couldn't track down original image but it has been well-circulated because it's such a cool photo.
• St. Giles Cathedral
• Notre Dame Cathedral (couldn't track down picture)
• Notre Dame shortly before the roof collapsed - apparently this photo is edited but it still looks cool. That looked expensive.
• Saint Chappelle - I did this one both in SAI2 and Procreate.

Moloka'i from Maui

 

A quick experimental photo study from yesterday. I used the grayscale thumbnail I drew up last week (or whenever that was) and colored on top of it. 

Value studies: Italy

 

The goal is to keep the forms and values as simple as possible. I want everything to be easily distinguishable when I color under/over them. (still working on the best method for that, though)

Colored photo studies

Some small colored photo studies. I didn't spend a super long time on these. The goal is to find the best way to color from a grayscale picture.

 

Value studies: Silent Hill 3 screencaps

 

Pyramid

 

The other day I drew up a hierarchy pyramid showing the various stages of the process. I’ve only visited a microscopic fraction of all the ideas that excite me.

From top to bottom:

○ Completed

○ Started

○ Sketched

○ Brainstormed

○ Ideas I want to visit

Prom (Self portrait)

 

Baseball night

I'm in the process of posting other value studies like this to the blog, so the posts are out of order. But I just did these over the weekend.

Zelda 64 cinematography studies

 

Value study: Virginia and outer banks

 

Value studies: Japan

 

The old tree

Did this about a month ago. Love this shot from The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and I really want to  do more paintings based off this movie's amazing cinematography!

Value studies: Germany

 

• Timed at 10 minutes each

• Pre-selected a set of 6 images that share a common theme.

• Done on ipad with reference photo displayed on computer monitor

Value studies: Frederic Edwin Church

 I did these last weekend. I chose six paintings by the 19th century artist Frederic Edwin Church. Each value study was limited to about 10 to 20 minutes. 

Top: Rainy season in the tropics

Bottom: Al Ayn

Top: Syria by the sea

Bottom: The Parthenon

Top: Coast Scene, Mount Desert
Bottom: Cotopaxi 

Writing about media (movies, tv, video games...)

 Questions to ask myself after watching a tv show/film, reading a book, or playing a video game. And more! I will be using the term “Subject” to refer to whatever I’m reading/watching/playing.

This is just a list of suggested questions. I am only going to answer the basic questions and any that feel specific to the subject I’m writing about.

• Pre-impressions

• How did I come across this subject?

• What about this piqued my interest?

• What do I think this is going to be about? 

• What do I already know about it? 

• What kind of expectations do I have?

• General impressions

• General synopsis

• Things that stood out to me

• What did this remind me of?

• How did it do things differently?

• How did it surprise me?

• What makes the work so [adjective]?

• Post impressions

• What does this work mean to me?

• Was there anything I could personally relate to?

• If you liked it, imagine someone hating it for justifiable reasons. 

• If you hated it, imagine someone liking it for justifiable reasons.

• What is my single most lasting impression?

• What kind of person would I recommend this to?

• Things I liked

• Was there anything that delighted me?

• Who was my favorite character and why?

• Interesting creative decisions

• Things I disliked

• Was there anything that disappointed me?

• How would I have done things differently?

• Who was the worst character and why?

• Anything that bothered me?

• What would I have liked to see?

• Meta

• How are the creator’s experiences different from my own?

• How have the creator’s own life experiences manifested in the work?

• What is the work’s creative lineage? (i.e. who/what inspired it?)

• The story / message

• What message was the subject trying to say?

• How did it convey the message?

• Was it successful in conveying its message?

• What interesting things did I learn from this?

• What questions do I still have?

• How is this subject relevant to its time?

• Is it a product of its time, or is it timeless?

• Do you think the subject will have any lasting significance? 

• Or, how has it stayed significant?

• Discuss the symbolism

• What would it be like without a particular essential element?

• How does it use the genre to its advantage?

• What tropes did it employ?

• Score and sound design

• Thoughts on the soundtrack?

• Any particular tracks you really liked?

• Art direction

• How would you describe the visual style?

• Did you like the style? Why or why not?

• What kind of creative liberties did they take?

• Any interesting creative decisions that influenced the production?

• Any particular cinematography that stood out?

• What was the overall mood, and did it capture that well?

• Ask and answer at least 3 to 5 questions specific to the subject.

• Google “XYZ discussion questions”

• Incorporating it into my life and work

• What elements inspired me?

• What am I getting out of this and how will I use the information?

• What would I borrow from this, and how would I adapt it?

• What ideas could incorporate the ideas I borrow from this?

• What other media demonstrates the ideas I want to borrow?

Reasons to save WIPs

 

• When I do my oil paintings, I can look at the canvas any time. While waiting for my paint to dry, I can examine it and plan ahead for my next painting session. I can apply this to my digital work as well, and it’s good to have documentation of the process.

• I can look at my progress any time without having to open the file on my computer. Since I can’t work on it, all I can do is observe. I may notice things I might have not otherwise noticed when I was in Art Mode. This allows time for contemplation and planning

• I can see the last time I worked on it.

• It shows the behind-the-scenes process of how I got to the final result. There should be less wondering when I look back at it someday, years from now.

• This gives me something to look forward to. It motivates me to see the project through to the end. 

• It’s interesting to compare and contrast the final result with earlier stages. How has it changed from the initial vision? How has it stayed faithful? There are all sorts of questions to contemplate before, throughout, and after, the course of the art process.