I’m still going! It’s not the exact day after the last one, but I’m still going to keep up with this challenge, even if I’m slow to get each challenge done. I’m going to be the tortoise that will beat the imaginary hare of my…self? I’m not sure where I was going with that.

Regardless, let’s get on with the art challenge. This one was another figure study, but it had to be an action pose! A particular challenge for me.

Honestly, that’s probably why it took me a bit longer to get started on this one, because I find action poses intimidating to try and draw. My art tends to not be very dynamic as a result of this though, so it would be very good to push myself to practice action poses more often.

And so without further ado, here is the sketch I made, along side the reference image I used.

As usual, I found the reference on Pinterest.

I don’t feel satisfied with just doing one of this particular challenge, however. Because it’s a weak point for me, I think I need to do a couple more.

That was actually a lot of fun once I got going! I’m starting to really enjoy this so-called “improvement hell”. I shouldn’t get too cocky though, this is only the third prompt out of thirty total.

For the one with the red background, I started by blocking in the shadows and lights with a rough paintbrush, only going back over it with lines after hiding my reference so I could only go off of my own shading for reference. I thought that would be a cool practice in seeing how well I could figure out my own underpainting.

For the one with the hoop, I stuck with my sketching pencil for the whole thing, which I think gave it more energy. I really liked this reference image, because it has a lot of energy but also foreshortening. It’s also just a fun composition with the hoop.

So that’s what I did tonight!

Next time, I’ll be drawing a part of the human anatomy that I have trouble with, and at least five of those need to be muscular/skeletal studies. I don’t know off the top of my head what body part to practice, but I’m thinking either noses or hands. Whatever I end up doing (which might end up being both, knowing me!) will be another fun challenge, that will continue to grow my art skills.

Check back in next time for more self improvement art!