(This post is doubled up from my GameDev journal)

For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be doing a bit of self-directed study as a sort of crash course in creative arts, with a bit of programming thrown in. It’s a sort of wake-up call to shake the rust off my brain and get innovative again.

To start with, I’m doing a few learner exercises in pencil drawing. Eventually I’d like to focus on cartooning and vector art, but I never got around to nailing the basics. Every art book I’ve read tells me that you need to learn how to draw reality before you can abstract, so I’m starting with real-life drawing. However in deference to the fact that everything I do is digital, I’m mostly using ArtRage instead of pencil and paper. It’s a chance to learn computer art and tablet skills at the same time as the basics.

I’ll be posting a few scrapbook pieces here as a sort of public marker of my progress. To start, here’s an image of my hand, drawn with virtual pencil, chalk and paint roller. Admittedly the outline of my hand was effectively traced; tracing is dead easy to do on computer but I’m not sure if copying by eye is better practice.