When I went to pick it back up I wasn't as good. Not nearly as good. Still, I refused to "Go back to the basics!" because I had a huge ego and "didn't need" to learn to draw again! What nonsense.
So I'm starting at "Square one" .. if the sketch is bad, the painting is bad... And if you don't understand the form of what you're sketching... the sketch will be bad. So I've been on a "Sketch-like-crazy" kick to reteach myself the basics of how a pen works and also how dynamic images work.
In a "week of sketches" I think I found some improvement! Look here:
On the left my attempt at "adding life" to a drawing by making her a Banana. It didn't work. The painting for that one came out looking like an alien. On the right a more subtle but more "dynamic" picture I think. Her eyes and jaw slant contrary to her shoulders and the piece has a more relaxing, natural feeling as I was concerned more about getting the general image right, rather than adding all the detail in the world.
But even during that sketch there was some learning to be had. Initially she was basically a lower case "t" ... so I added the dynamic tilt and fixed some basic anatomy goof ups (her breasts seem to be swinging to the right in the first one... when they should hang below the collar bone like... a human...).
So I'll keep sketching and finding places to improve then go back to painting in a bit. As long as there's progress its time well spent.
