Very well said

dont forget to practice too...

Great advice!

I like number 11

Wait...that's 11 steps!!

IT'S TOO MUCH XP!!!

If you wish to file a complaint, there are three easy steps:

1.) Make a fist.

2.) Move your face towards it rapidly.

3.) Repeat until your issue is resolved.

LOL but seriously, thanks for that "not comparing yourself to other artists" one...I find that I do that to myself a lot and end up depressing myself in the process...

Oh I do too, all the time x3; My energy at the moment dictates how well I shrug it off. It was probably my worst problem starting out.

But I had a really good mentor keep me from completely self destructing (almost gave myself an ulcer once, was that bad). And then I figured out that there's a great difference between 'bad' artists and 'inexperienced' artists. Most think they're the former when they're actually just the latter. 'Bad' artists, imo, master a formula and never grow beyond it; willfully working below their means. And possibly if someone genuinely thinks they're 'superior', but that can have a lot of context in its defense.

It's just something I think away from xD;

Never enough practice!

gonna link to this journal if anyone ever asks this again.

yessssssss

add '12.) Try again'

I think #12 would actually be something along the lines of "Only you can teach yourself art" or "You will never become 'better' than those you admire".

coolio. you add it then? :D

Well lots of things I wanted to put in I left out because they actually fall under 'becoming wiser' xD; You'll learn these things eventually if you try.

|( bah, i don't care. ADD IT!! THATS ALL WHAT I DEMAND YOU!

Ok fine, you big baby :P

"This one goes to 11!"

Good advice! :o

I love it! Nice advice!

Artist aaaaaaaangst! *emo emo emo emo emo* Practice practice practice! Maybe you should add "Don't be a douche to people when they critique your art" There's nothing like giving your honest opinion and subsequently being ripped apart by angry artist hulk.

It's not angst. It's the truth. It's the only thing you can do to get better, literally. Everything else is just a detail that leads into this. Even art schools are long sessions of guided practice with instruction in medium techniques. Aside from the BFA, you can google for tutorials and get just about the same thing art students get. Just fewer student loans.

I thought about including openness to critique but I left it out for a simple reason: art is hard, and not everyone approaches it the same way. It means different things to everyone and even helpful, constructive critique can feel offending. Sensitive people can't always help being sensitive. Optimally it's best if you try, but it can't be universal since not everyone has the same social aptitudes.

Oh yes, artist "angst" is very important. Without it, none of us would even think about getting better.

'Angst' is a more spiteful concept, a reaction to being afflicted with something. Which yeah, some artists might use. I think it more as 'staying hungry'. You need to keep on keeping on because stagnation can kill your work. Pros never stop running tests, even those with company design jobs.

Also, freshness can get you work. Staleness can get you fired.

I can't draw off the top of my head! I won't be able to see what I'm drawing then! XP

Yup, seems I'm following most of the advice already.

PRACTICE, DERP.

Hold on just a darn-tootin' minute, you're shamelessly reprising "How To Get Better At Writing In Ten Steps"!

In seriousness: excellent advice for all of us. Cheers.

Actually just wrote this off by thinking on what needed to be said xD; The decision to go '10' count was made halfway through to help underline the most important attribute ironically.

I've not needed much help in writing though x3; It's always been extremely easy for me. Though I am VERY rusty from lack of regular use. Too much art focus in the past 3 years.

Which yeah, it's taken me three years to get to this level x3 I mean, I've been drawing forever but I've only sharpened my focus in this past short while. And it's been an intense focus too, at times at the cost of my health. More or less the attribute of what it really takes.

I am very much joking, in order to point out how similar the process of getting better at visual art is to the process of getting better at writing.


Have you read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell? I'm a big fan.

Fair enough :P

Actually I've not read any novels or text-based writing in quite a while. Again I've been very focused on visuals. I think the last book I read was HP and the Deathly Hollows the day after it was out. I've got stuff to read that I've just not bothered to get to x3 With the training in writing and editing plus the focus on visual direction I've drifted more towards graphic novels above anything else.

I also have some aversions to reading novels, silly little things from when I was a kid. Nothing that stops me from reading but can at times make getting started more difficult.

Outliers is nonfiction - it's about what makes success. The short answer is "ten thousand hours of practice," which is why this conversation brought it to mind.

Deathly Hallows was ... a good conclusion to the series, I thought. Graphic novels - I keep rereading Scott McCloud's books, someday I'll go back to reading actual comics.

I heard something along those lines once, something along the lines of in order to be considered an 'expert' in any profession it takes around 10,000 hours, and working standard 40-hour work weeks it takes around 5 years to achieve it.

Though "success" is a very relative concept. Not to mention it's also still somewhat up to chance. Though admittedly the more you 'roll the die', the more chances you have of achieving "success" as however you define it :P

I was reading a few mangas (more or less GN format) for years via Dark Horse: Shadow Star, Seraphic Feather, Blade of the Immortal, and XXX Holic (via Del Ray). Sadly DH suspended Shadow Star and Seraphic Feather with no evident intentions of getting back to them (died with their Super Manga Blast Shonen Jump-like monthly serial). Holic's taken a very hard campy turn (which is not surprising of CLAMP), so it's pretty much Blade atm. Which is amazing in itself.

Shadow Star I REALLY liked because it was such a sucker punch -- it started out cute with little star creatures that bonded minds with children and could fly and turn into things and stuff was happy-Pokémon-ish. And as the bond grows the creature grows into the shape of the child's mind.

Except some of the kids are really fucked up. Then people start dying, horribly. Implied rape occurs, and in fashions guro/vore-lovers might really enjoy. Things start getting very ugly and ethnic cleansing starts being tossed around. The moral fabric of the always-cheerful young heroine starts to be tested. And that was the last they'd made.

Really need to find some translations of it online >.>

Right now I guess the only 'literature' I'm absorbing is from TV and movies (yes, they are literature -- screenplays). And it works well because I can take them in and draw at the same time. I've got a couple of years to stew and after that... well things stand a potential to get interesting. Got a while to plan it all out anyway :P But more importantly, time to improve and network.

I wish you the best of luck with all of that.

1 and 8, especially.

well said.

I can't tell you how many times I have told artists and beginning artists things similar to these given steps. I always say that people become extremely judgmental about the beauty of art. When we all were kids we had art class and no one critiqued it because, sure, it's kid stuff, right? WRONG. Art is art, and practice is what makes it BETTER. That is what people have lost when growing up in a very opinionated world.

Thank you for the well thought out steps and showing them to the large world/fandom we have here. :3

The difference between the way we are now and how we were then is that somewhere in development we become scared to screw, risk ridicule, or even defy injury. Like how kids sing randomly, or draw a firetruck with wings, or jump out of the swing sets. Somewhere along the line we're told these things are wrong, or embarrassing, or that it's 'just not what people do'. Then we start getting graded on our performances. And then puberty hits and we oh-so desperately want to fit in, and possibly get laid.

I think the most important part of art, adulthood, or anything in general, is to start learning how to UNMAKE these things. And it doesn't mean you're going to start skipping and singing down the street, or give and elephant wheels or legs, or even go bungee jumping, all after the age of 30. Just make it so that if you EVER need to do these things you can, without any hesitation or fear of reprisal.

Basically, chillax!

*scared to screw up. Eep if you're scared to 'screw' xD;

I couldn't agree with you more. Why can't people realize this? :/ I think I love you. ^___^ xD But in all seriousness, you hit every word. I respect you beyond belief and hope that this way of thinking. :3

Anti-judgmental.
Re-instituting creativity.
Art.

ARA. :3

Repeat step 1 an 6 until you hands start to bleeding.

Don't forget "Take no shit from no one, if a troll starts to slander you over your style, tell them *Love you too* and move on"

Again that falls under 'becoming wiser' :p I fell for trolls all the time in my early internet days until I figured out what they were really trying to do. And since then it's only been when they've managed to catch me at a vulnerable moment xD; Rare enough as it is.

yeah join the club they did that to me in the past, now I learned to have a defense up

Fortunately my experiences were all pre-art. I think I can smell out any blatant dickery pretty well :p

Mine were early in my furry art

Sadly I lived under an art-rock and had no idea people did art stuff online until around, oh... 2007-ish. But I'd been moderating a forum for a few years and had my fair share of troll-fun. Not got many yet fortunately, nothing so hostile either. And if so, eh. I shout shit back. I'm crazier than they are.

me I got into furry when I was 16 when I convince my friend's mom to buy me Genus. Just to say my friend was pissed of how I was able to get his mom to buy adult material.

Ha ha ha, epic. Ahh yes, I remember the days of pre-18-ness. Though I discovered hentai long before that, around 13 or so. Started reading Blade of the Immortal and was cruising around the Studio Proteus blogs (was the group that was localizing mangas for Dark Horse at the time, I think they've since been absorbed by it). But they were also translating things at the time such as Spunky Knight and Bondage Fairies. A few clicks later led me to Eros Comics, which led me to an 800 number for their catalog xD And this was while I was stuck at a quasi-military summer camp.

By the end of the summer I'd started an underground porn comic ring. My friends told their friends, apparently LOTS of catalogs were getting shipped in.

But all this led me to the comics mentioned above plus the hilarious sex in Phil Foglio's xXxenophile series. I'd say between that, Bondage Fairies, Hiroyuki Utatane, Satoshi Urushihara via Plastic Little and Chirality, and Jyuubaori Mashumaro's Alice in Sexland... my mind was forever warped xD; I wanted to draw porn, but had no viable outlets.

Until I discovered all this :P

Ah yes I remember my mom when she wanted to see why Outlanders was NC-17 "Its not real its only animated flesh!" she yelled back at my dad

Ha ha, Outlanders was my first manga, still one of my faves.. Movie was weird though. Horrible dubbing.

gawd so true, talking pickel monsters, then I hunted down more of Johji Manabe's work I was like DAMN.

Damn indeed. I had no idea. I asked my Japanese penpal if she could find some of his stuff for me... I didn't learn until way later too. Always hoped I never freaked her out x3;

yeah used to have a japanese exchange student/friend help translate some in exchange he wanted vhs tapes of porn

soooooooooooooooooooooo


how do you feel about practicing

If you really have to ask, you've probably never tried x3

I like the "You've not practiced enough" point. XD

I don't even get how to begin....I put my pencil on paper and the only thing I can think of are scribbles....

It really is hard to tell sometimes, but not everyone can coordinate enough to do art. It's a problem sometimes myself: a blank canvas holds infinite possibilities. You've got to decided on one, what you WANT to see. Then use lines and shapes to form together to make that image as best as possible. Practice improves your coordination with your medium to better evoke the image in your mind's eye. Art isn't just skill with your hands and with different materials, it's also the skill to focus your mind into something solid, but flexible. Things can change easily in-progress that are actually good! And on top of that. it's all about problem solving too. And it's also about changing the way you truly see things everywhere.

It's a trade, but it's also a discipline. And also a life-long commitment.

Ugh that first sentence makes me wanna cry ;-;

The trick is to not defeat yourself. Visualize, focus, get a firm idea in your head. Draw a little miniature thumbnail that might be little more than a stick-figure, but will look like what you might want to draw.

Or take someone else's art and copy it by eye (do NOT trace). Change it however you can to make it your own, if possible. If just completely copying, don't post it. Keep trying and don't give up. Saying 'I Can't' will only make it come true.

Didn't mean to scare you >.<; Again, it's the discipline aspect. You've got to make yourself do it. But try to enjoy it all the while! Draw at least 45 minutes every day, you'll help train your hands and mind and get in the habit of being able to do it regularly.

okay >< *pouts a little* I'll try...Like if you gad a choice where would be a good place to start >.>

Find something you like, art from FA, video game art, comics, what have you. Whatever inspires you to want to draw.

Remember the rules here. Also be sure you're doing for yourself, not to win others' approval. The longer it takes to get it, the more it pains you. And you're never guaranteed to get it anyway.

Good luck!

Ugh... How hard is it NOT to compare yourself to anyone else? I look at my style and I know I'll never be anything like my artistic heroes (Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby, illustrators for Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and Dark Natasha, Kacey Miyagami, etc for furry) but nevertheless I strive to improve because, as you said, if you don't change, it gets stale.

I think there are some 'bad' artists who are exceptionally gifted but never move out of a style, hinking thei fans will keep them buoyed up. On the other hand, I've seen 'good' artists who constantly improve and don't let themselves get stagnant. I certainly doodle everyday, take paper in with me to work and doodle there too when I can. It helps massively to improve my technique since I simply redraw th pictures I seriously love with proper time later on.

All in all good advice :)