Category: 10k Art Project

These are lessons that I completed as part of my 10k hour art learning project. They say you can master a subject by spending 10,000 hours of good, focused study.

Hour 094

This card is for finished watercolor art.

This wasn’t planned at all. I just haven’t been doing much of any drawing or painting and was mad at myself, but also having a hard time grabbing supplies and starting something, so nothing was happening. I was watching a Shayda Campbell video on Storybook houses and decided to grab my watercolors and just start. This painting is a house built in Minecraft by Etat. My goal was to simplify! I feel like I get too caught up in details and trying to get everything right, instead I wanted to focus on loosening up and simplifying. So instead of going from pencil-liner-watercolor, this is pencil-watercolor-colored pencil. And I like how much looser the style is. There’s things I want to fix for sure, but I want to explore this style some more.

Next time I will keep my perspective simpler. The reference image shows the house with the horizon line in the middle, so looking down at the lower level and looking up at the roof. But I got confused by that and some of the angles are off. Instead, this is supposed to be simplified, so just look down at the house, it will be easier. Also give myself time to let things dry, I kept trying to move fast and keep up with the video, I needed to move slower.

Koi watercolors, Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook.

This took about 60 minutes to complete this image.

watercolor and pencil drawing of a house in loose playful style

Reference for the house from this video by Etat in the first few seconds of the video:

Hour 093

This card is for Daily Sketches.

Today’s subject is critters! I haven’t drawn a page of bunnies in a long time, so it was fun to try them again. And my skills have been getting better. One thing I think is helping is of course just pencil miles, but also using different materials and finding things that I like. The Fudenosuke brush pen feels like cheating it’s so good. The reality is that it’s more easily giving me line variety that I have trouble achieving with microns. It’s possible, but I have a harder time doing it, especially with this very rough paper. I can also do the same with colored pencil, but I need to sharpen my pencil to give me finer lines, that I can then go back and add depth. So, the brush pen is helping me feel better. I also looked at simple line sketches from artists that I like to have an idea of where to head with my sketches. I am very happy with these sketches, even though I’m seeing issues with proportions. But that’s something to work on. Note, I’m not adding shading or color or texture yet. Those will come. Just trying to establish a daily practice with simple pencil and ink sketches.

Next time I will do more proportion measuring to try to get better on the overall proportions. I also selected baby and adult animals, so it’s throwing some proportions off. But it’s ok, as long as I measure. But maybe stick to adult animals next time. Need to also watch some videos from JelArt to see what she uses for rough sketching.

Mechanical pencil and Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen on 5”x8” Strathmore sketch book

I did about 60 minutes to complete this image.

pencil and ink sketches of bunnies

Hour 092

This card is for Daily Sketches.

Today’s subject is cars. I really like the exercise of cars. They have a simplicity to them – they are boxy objects with similar structures. But they have a lot of little details that you can either ignore or try to fit in depending on the level of detail you are going for. They have great lessons in perspective and proportions. And wheels are so tricky! All my wheels are very wonky, but I’m getting better. I think as I get more familiar with the patterns and structures, I’ll be able to work faster. I was fairly slow on this, but wanted to get better proportions.

Next time I will focus on measuring proportions better. My first sketch was way out of proportion. But my next two were much better. I also want to work on tires. Maybe trying some out in Procreate so I can trace over them just to figure them out better.

Mechanical pencil and Micron fine liner on 5”x8” Strathmore sketch book

I did 60 minutes to complete this image.

wonky sketches of cars

Hour 091

This session is for a finished practice piece.

I have been saying for months that I should do watercolors on Sundays. I used to take an online class on Sundays, but it’s not really the subject that I want, but I should still use that time. On a whim, I opened Twitch with Chrissabug who does a live stream on Sundays, and just grabbed my watercolor sketchbook and a reference photo and just started. And it turned out great! I haven’t touched my watercolors since May, so I’m rusty, but it’s good to get them out and give them a try again. And most of all, I had fun! It was so enjoyable to just sit down, sketch, ink, and paint. I’m trying to do an ‘analog October’ and focus more on drawing on paper and staying away from screens, so it was a nice session. (even though I was watching Twitch!)

Next Sunday (if I’m available) I will watch Chrissa and do a painting again. I even have a photo from a hike that I want to do!

Koi watercolors on Canson 7×10 paper, image is about 5×6 inches

I spent about 90 minutes to complete this image.

watercolor sketch of a path in a woods

Hour 090

This card is from SVS Learn Freaky Friday Draw Along.

This session was themed ‘War of the Worlds’ and was all funny sci-fi references from Pinterest. I did this in my lesson sketchbook, so there’s some writing on the opposite side of the page. I wanted to keep things really simple and analog and just do colored pencils on paper. I haven’t been to a friday draw along in a long time, so it was good to be back. I didn’t even consider writing this up, I have dropped off of posting and lessons and everything, but this month, in October, I’m picking things up again!

Next time I will warm up a little before the session. I feel like I did ok, but could have been better with warmups.

Prismacolor pencils on 9×12 Sketch sketchbook.

This was about 60 minutes to complete this image.

sketches of scifi themed objects