M2M Day 39: I can’t believe I drew this
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For December, my goal is to draw a realistic self-portrait with only pencil and paper.
Nine days ago, I began my 30-day quest to learn how to draw photorealistic portraits. Since then, I’ve watched the entire 10 hours of the Vitruvian Studio drawing course, as well as spent 14.5 hours working on my first portrait.
Here’s the result…
And here’s a video documenting the progression.
Considering where I started only nine days ago (see the before portrait), it’s hard for me to believe that I actually drew this. It’s not perfect, but I’m definitely excited about the outcome.
Part of me lacks the motivation to continue drawing, as I feel like I’ve already accomplished my goal. The other (more overpowering) part of me realizes that I have another 21 days to improve even further, so that’s what I plan to do.
In particular, I’m going try to reduce the amount of time necessary to complete a portrait like this. With some practice, I think I can reduce my time down from 14.5 hours to 4–5 hours.
Tomorrow, I’m going to go through my previous posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and write up a “Portrait Drawing Cheat Sheet”. Then, I’m going to break down the cheat sheet into isolated, practicable skills and drills, work on those individual skills for 1–2 weeks, and then start working on my self-portrait to finish off the month.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
