My art, a few years and now

In the last months of 2017 I finally got as close to the result I always imagined for my drawings. I finally start to get things done that really are how I wish they were. The ideas, the composition, the colors, the drawing and the painting. I am fully aware that this is not the end of my studies in drawing - since it is impossible for us to stop studying something in which we want to improve forever - but it is the beginning of a stage in which I dreamed my whole life to achieve: my own artistic style .

Yes, the very dreamed style itself . Now that I really know what I'm doing, I no longer feel that absurd fear of blank paper, nor that constant dread of not being able to trace what I'm imagining, or, even worse, having the perfect reference and not being able to use it (this is awful, anyone who has gone through this tastes very well), I can finally work to shape the style of my art . But this post is not about that.

I want to share, in this first post of the year, my evolution in drawing and painting. Many people admire things I do, and some sometimes (unfortunately it happens a lot) feel bad to see works that they consider very good, mine or even of other artists, usually summarizing the situation with phrases like "I will never get there". My goal in showing what comes next is that there is no magic gift , there is no novena, astral map, request to shooting star to accomplish this. The right word is dedication , hard work , persistence - I think the latter fits perfectly. Persistence.

Artists who are better, more experienced, more creative than we should be a source of inspiration, not frustration ! Because everyone drew ill one day, and persisting we can improve noticeably . And this post will prove it! LET'S GO.

When I thought I already knew how to draw (2010)

This drawing I did in second year of college. We should do human figure sketches or something, so I chose Alissa White-Gluz. All in graphite 2b, 6b, something else darker and crayons in some parts.

So I decided that I SHOULD know how to draw, once and for all (2013)

It was my senior year of college, and I had some free time because I had quit my job. I decided I would draw something every day, every day, and who knows, I would learn to draw better and faster. I still had a hard time with a human figure, and I could not always reproduce the reference images. This project was inspiring at first, but in the end it became a complete frustration . I left before the end of the year.

I resumed drawing courses (2014 until 2016)

I was still pretty frustrated with my slow or non-existent design development. The college was over, and now I would have time to spend my evenings on some course. It was by indicating a friend that I arrived at the course of Micael (my current teacher) . I really thought I knew all the principles of good design, but I thought that taking the course from the most basic level would not hurt anyone. And that's what I did.

At the end of 2014 I managed to reproduce perfectly, without suffering, this Emilie here, and this motivated meto continue drawing 

From then on, I began to work with new references, but always trying to modify or create something over the images that I drew to study. My favorites of 2015 and 2016 are the first 3 "bird women" (this series has never been given a decent name). I also made an illustration that would be the first of my series of signs; I tell you, in my first review on watercolor papers , why I take so long to continue this series. In the meantime, my way of drawing and painting also evolved, so I rephrased what I intended for this series, and that Pisces image will also be redone later.

NOW GOING (2017 and 2018)

In 2017, I produced 7 Sailor Moon character arts for the Sailor Moon Drops project with Gabi Xavier . From the first to the last Sailor I drew, I think I've had a remarkable improvement, although my favorite art so far is, without any comparison, the Aries painting.

I am positive that in 2018 I will be able to solve small things in which I still have difficulties, such as certain positions of face and hands, I want to lose the fear of adding contrast in the paintings, and who knows how to learn a new painting technique! But for this post, is the final summary of my evolution:

I hope, with this post, to have inspired new artists in the arts of persistence while learning drawing. I hope my next post on this topic is how I learned human figure to the point of drawing any hand pose without needing reference (!). And feel free to ask and comment on any stage of these learning years: D