I know the black and white isn’t quite as interesting as something with color.  But I am having fun practicing value with light and shadow.  It feels like I am starting to get a better hold on it all.
I spent about a half hour on this, with no reference.

Also I have been playing around with the whole left brain right brain thing.  And I am seeing if I can quickly jump into a right brain mode and notice when I do so.  I have been running through the chapters  in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  Just the chapters on how and why children draw the way they do.  Its a good read to see if I still have some bad habits from my adolescents.
Its interesting to realize how much I have lost the ability to not worry about how “good” my drawings are, and just draw.  For the sake of drawing.  The book says I am rediscovering the childhood artist within me.  We’ll see.

I would like to make some suggestions to anyone who is trying to become an artist.

First one is the book that I mentioned above.  It seems that this book has almost become a cliche art education, just because it is a book that we have all seen before.  There is a reason why teachers use it.  But a little warning for this book.  The book presents some useful techniques, such as understanding negative and positive space and some of the contour line exercises.  But unfortunately the author uses this left-brain and right-brain “science” to say that the reason why you can’t draw is because you aren’t using your right brain enough.  So everything is about forcing you into this right-brain mode.  There is no real instruction on perspective (which is a vital foundational skill for representing anything accurately on paper, and is a left-brain activity, supposedly).  There is no instruction on composition and stylization, which are important as well (and are left-brain activities).  Basically this book teaches you how to draw what you see.  And that is a good thing, and a skill that every artist should have.  But remember, when reading this book,  it is not the end all of your progression as an artist.  And that there is still much to learn in becoming an authoritative artist.  you can get it for about 2 dollars at this link  here .
I don’t think I have ever read it straight through, but instead pick at the parts that I feel I am struggling with at the moment.

Another suggestion, are the two 10 Top Tips To Becoming a Better Artist on the cgsociety forums.  I read these regularly and it helps me to focus on what is important to do in relation to becoming a better artist.  The first one is at the top of the forum, and the next one is a little down the page.  both are written by great artists, who have been spending years helping other artists improve their skills on cgsociety.org.


I hope that some of you will take a peak at these suggestions,  I know that they have really helped me to improve my artistic skill.