Day 0 / Research & Set-up

Written By Gilfred

1,000 days of art creation!!

A 1,000 day challenge sounds crazy! But calling it a challenge is just to make it sound exciting. It won’t be 1,000 days in a row, just 1,000 days blogged in total. So I’m betting this’ll take 3 and a half to 4 years. Anyways…..

“Day 0?? That doesn’t make any sense?!?” I can imagine you might be thinking. Well, this post will be focused on my preparation for this challenge and not the art, so I didn’t want to count it as it’s own entry. Starting from ‘Day 1,’ every entry will be centered around actual art progression. So, if you’d like to hop straight into the art feel free to skip this one!

Right then! Where does one even begin? Art is such a vague term, so what do I actually want to create? To be honest, I’m not 100% sure. I thought about comics… and trading card games… and even animation. There’s so much cool stuff I like and want to try! But one thing is for sure, drawing fundamentals will be necessary for any of that.

So, there are a couple of things that I need:

1) Art tools
2) A path forward

ART TOOLS

I decided to pursue digital art as my medium. Luckily I already have a windows laptop and an ‘XP-pen Artist 13.3 Pro’ drawing tablet. I bought the tablet a couple of years ago when I wanted to pick up art, then it just sat collecting dust. As for the software, I’ll be using ‘Clip Studio Paint.’ A lot of irresponsible spending got me to a great starting point in terms of my work station. So I intend on making the most of it.

A PATH FORWARD

The biggest roadblock is where to begin. With no experience I have no idea where to even start. So I began browsing the internet for answers and ended up on reddit. That’s when I ran into a very helpful string. Someone had been going through the same struggle as me and found help from lots of generous reddit users. In this thread contained a message from user ‘Kaidomac’

I decided to follow this Kaidomac’s advice and start with the “Draw a Box” program. I’m not sure how long it’ll take and what all it entails, but if it’ll teach me the very basics for free than I think it’s a great place to start.

I also liked the 1,000 days of practice idea as a form of accountablility. Unfortunately, that subreddit was closed down a few years ago. So, here I am writing this blog. This.. will be my accountablity.

With my tools set-up and my path forward set, I’ll march forward! Till next time! -Gilfred



Gilfred https://gilfredsdreamdiary.com