Daily Learnings

Many of my friends have suggested me to keep journaling my journey, as I am moving forward in my career. So, in this particular post, I will maintain my daily learnings with the time stamp on them, from today onwards.

I believe that no matter how slow I go if I am learning daily then I am definitely moving closer to my goal.

(By the way, before I start, lemme just give a brief info about the learnings I have gained before this date. I opted for an art career in August 2020 through Vaanarsena studios. And with the help of Studio and personal guidance by Senapati Vivek Ram, 

- I have managed to learn decent Anatomy. I am still refining the forms and flow of human figures but so far, I have precisely gained knowledge about all the required muscles' insertions and origins. 

- I have learned the basic principles of animations like a bouncing ball, pendulum, wave motion animation, etc.

- I worked as a cleanup artist on an internal short film of the studio.

- I worked on various other client projects related to clean Up, FX animation, compositing, and color.

- I seem to have found an interest in FX animation.

- I started producing daily illustrations as well, to understand color and values.)

Now, I have moved back to online mode on 28th February 2022 after spending about 6 months in Bangalore since 16 September 2021 and learning whatever I can, through studio and self-learning. So, let's see how it goes.

LEARNINGS

18.04.22: I learned even if I do value study of human figures, I won't be getting the same result while doing the same from memory because brush control needs to be refined and the overall scale of values needs to be put down much more carefully. I did watch the full painting workshop by Christophe over the weekend but I have to practice the anatomy shading more carefully to gain the desired results. Plus, I need to stay away from using blacks as much as possible.

19.04.22/20.04.22: These two days were a mess. I just didn't have any motivation to pull myself forward. Completely drained out. This keeps on happening every once in a while. So, I took a break during these two days. But I did my speculations too, as usual, and noticed that I had been focussing on too many things at once. So, now I have filtered out the topics and will be focussing just on anatomy and shading for the next few months.

21.04.22: I did well today. Pretty happy with the muscular forms. I learned about sad facial expressions and how details of a body are important to bring appeal to them. Btw, I am close to finishing muscular figures.

22.04.22: Oh, I finished the "Muscular Figures" section today. So happy to finally get done with it. I will still need to refine it though because they are good enough to move forward but definitely not the best ones out there, so yeah. Now, I will start with Non Muscular figures coming Monday. By the way, I also learned how candle shading works.

23.04.22: Today is Saturday and on weekends, I generally end up doing nothing. Also, it's my rule that out of two days from the weekend, I will take out one day for myself. I will either stay at home or will go out and explore. I chose Saturday this time and lazed around the home. I just produced one painting in 2 hours, nothing else.

24.04.22: Studied some non-muscular figures to understand their forms.

25.04.22: Rohan said I am close to finishing non-muscular figures which makes me happy because it was my first day at it. I am glad particularly because I focussed on forms instead of rushing through the assignment.

26.04.22: From today onwards, I will push myself to the game of consistency. Even though every time I try it, I fail it within 10 days of attempting it but if I want the results I will have to try hard and do the scheduled work consistently. Plus, whenever I procrastinate, it just adds up more tension to my head rather than relaxing me a bit. So, I will keep my hands moving through the day and see what results I achieve by the end of this year (2022). By the way, I joined the gym yesterday, mainly because of health issues. I have a weak wrist, back, and knees. I will need to hit the gym if I want to draw more. Seems like these two have to go hand in hand.

27.04.22: It went as expected. I adhered to my schedule; I finished non-muscular figures, followed by daily illustration & value studies, and then started studying raw egg FX.

28.04.22: This day went crazy. I saved this day from ruining it completely. I was de-energized and defocused since the beginning of the day. So, I ended up lying down in bed till 4 PM. Around 4 PM, I pushed myself to maintain the streak of being consistent, trust me it was hard to do that. I had almost given up, but then I sat on the chair and thought of an idea for a daily illustration. From that point onwards, I decided not to waste this day, so, I finished working on my 3 value studies & daily illustration and quickly rushed to the gym (8 PM), and around 9:25 PM, I rushed back home and finished the fourth value study in half an hour. Phew! that was crazy. Post that, I attended the meeting at 10 and bathed simultaneously xD. Plus, I finished studying egg yolk FX. I am so happy that I got up and changed the complete outlook of this day. Glad I  pushed.

29.04.22 - 06.05.22: I was on an unintended break. Lots of distractions. But some good things also came my way; like winning Modern Day James Animation Challenge! It was a surprise but I was so overjoyed by seeing it. He gave his whole damn store as a prize. I also started some new FX, which I will be dropping soon. Let's keep the suspense haha. By the way, I have been consistent with the gym. That's some good news, isn't it? Excited to get back on track from tomorrow.

07.05.22: I went traditional. Just used pen and paper. Drew random scribbles, and went through tutorials. The feel of drawing on paper was so good. I was relaxed throughout the day. 

08.05.22: I went out with a friend today, and watched "Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness". The visuals were so good in this movie. I totally loved them. Apart from this joy, constant fear of the future hung around my head. The pressure is building up at a fast rate. I hope I will make it to the end of the tunnel. 

09.05.22/10.05.22: I tried keeping up with the schedule and my consistency at the gym. I produced the daily quota of 10 human figure drawings, 4 value studies, and an illustration, and worked on FX. I seem to be coming back on track, but the distractions are still in my way. I hope that everything will be fine.

11.05.22: I finished non-muscular figures and will be moving towards fat figures. 

12.05.22: Chaos is still there. It sometimes bugs my head with thoughts, but I try to keep my cool.

13.05.22: I have been trying to educate my mom about how I think and how I make decisions and it's been going great. She started to adapt to my methods and that makes me very happy. I see hope.

14.05.22: Enjoyed my Saturday. Nothing much to add today.

15.05.22: I experimented with the new FX today. Like Sparkler, magical fire, etc. The idea was simple. I just wanted to make some quick FX and it can be anything. I liked how these turned out.

16.05.22: I posted a new FX today! Sparkler 2DFX! And I followed my daily routine. I am quite happy with today's illustration. I need to do paint more human figures.

16.09.22: A lot has happened since last update. I got to work a test project for a netflix project. It was a great learning experience. And then I went on to do many personal FX shots. I took a long break of 1.5 months from drawing as well. Fast forward to now, I am beginning the new schedule handed by Senapati. I am gonna stick to it and lets see what progress it brings to my skillset.

One other thing, I wanted to mention is today's my birthday. And just like my other birthdays, no surprise was thrown at 12 AM. Its sad that I never got a friend who brought me a cake on my birthday or may be just throw a small party for me, or even a small surprise. I did get video calls two times (2020 & 2022) but that was all. This time video call didn't happen either. I am glad Kabir managed to call, it helped me in consoling myself. But anyways, lets see, in which year I will get to experience the emotions which every other individual feels from early college or school life onwards. I better focus on my skills than these stupid things. But what do I do? I am a human after all; always end up overthinking.