My 21 days of painting.

So doing this exercise was a great way to force some practice into my schedule.  I only barely found myself looking forward to it, but I think that was due to the goal of 1 image per night.  Trying to do an entire painting, especially of photorealistic scenes, is a daunting endeavour on its own; doing it in 60 minutes is stressful. 

So the two big things I took away from this are:

Fabrics are everywhere.

Rim lighting is everywhere.

I never would have guessed that I would have painted so many folds and creases.  I don't feel that I mastered the skill, but I improved.  Seeing the prevalence of rim light and thinking of why it occurs so much has given me some knowledge to experiment with when I get back to making images from imagination.  Those kind of touches of getting light and shadow right on the forms can really make a difference.

Studying paintings didn't teach me any of this.  Sitting down and painting did.  That was the true benefit of setting a goal and sticking with it.  The 21 hours of painting practice I got made a real difference in my confidence and skill AND workflow.  I'll be much more efficient going forward. 

Silhouettes are the key.  Getting the shape right is worth the time.  Very hard to mess up after that.  Even worst case scenario, can wipe the silhouette clean and paint it again. 

Have two more exercises planned.  21 days of 3d perspective drawing, then 21 days of painting studies of other paintings.  Neither of these will be 21 images.  Perspective takes time.  I'll be using each as a catalyst to actually sit down and work.  It'll be worth it.