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Thoughts of the Day
14 years ago
I find I tend to juggle things. I juggle majors in school, pictures to finish, hobbies, aspirations...
I guess that's part of me my art will always show. I can't decide on a style. One moment I might discover one that works, but drop it because it takes too long. The simple fact is, I'm not a patient person. I like change. I like the absurd. I don't want to paint like everyone else. I want to paint in my own way. But sadly, I can't seem to find that way.
But there is good news... I've come to many realizations in art. Perhaps these will be helpful to read, perhaps they may not. Perhaps simply by stating them aloud, I might solidify them in my own subconscious. And I think it's safe to say, the subconscious is a huge part of painting. Otherwise it'd just be calculated perfection.
The first realization is that light is the basis of form. This should be pretty obvious, but what does it mean in terms of painting? Well, I realized that blurriness is okay. Highlights can lift a blurry picture and make it sharp. Light tricks the eye.
My second realization is just how important highlights are. When I first started out, I used to add many many highlights. Excessively, poorly... doesn't really matter. Despite my reservations against the dreaded Shine Lines, I cannot argue that they lifted my pictures. I complained that I had shine lines, but I never once removed them. Now, I've come to be a bit more tactful with my shading. I don't have shine lines anymore, I have actual highlights and shines of various shapes. I've realized that working with highlights is important. Far more important than shadows. Perhaps some might argue with this statement, and let me clarify... The shadows of a picture make the rest of the picture pop. Maybe this isn't always true, but it's very relevant to me. It's made me realize that I need to put less emphasis on the shadows. At least in my art, shadows are to emphasize the rest... add contrast (which is beautiful to me).
My third realization is that art is about failure, in a sense. What is style? What makes a photograph different from a painting? It's the imperfections... Every artist has a unique set of imperfections that make them who they are. And maybe you might think I'm being bitter about this, but I'm really not. I've realized that imperfection is beautiful. Unique is entrancing. Every "failure" in art is another thing that makes that picture special. Without mistakes, we'd be drawing the world only as we see it. Every dragon would be a proportion-perfect reptile with added attachments. Perhaps without imperfection, those early illustrations of dragons would be just crocodiles. Maybe the eastern dragons are just snakes with wings. What I mean is that from every mistake, we learn something new. Without those mistakes, art would be nothing more than copy-and-paste.
So... yeah. Most of this should be very obvious, but I thought I'd share anyway. Who knows, maybe there's someone out there who didn't know yet, haha! So yeah... what is "better"? We're trying to be better artists, right? Maybe we should be focusing on the things that make us unique, rather than better. If every furry drew a perfect fox in the same perfect adult situation... I dunno about you, but the fandom would be a lot less appealing. The fandom is a combination of (nearly) everything. Some things you love, some things you hate. But every thing you hate makes you love what you love that much more! Every image you have to sift through that's not appealing to you makes that hidden mawshot all the more mawsome!!
o..o Wow, I can really ramble. Juggling topics, more like... <..<;;
Aaaaanywho. Just my thoughts of the day. XD
Have a good day!! Make good choices!!! <3333333
I guess that's part of me my art will always show. I can't decide on a style. One moment I might discover one that works, but drop it because it takes too long. The simple fact is, I'm not a patient person. I like change. I like the absurd. I don't want to paint like everyone else. I want to paint in my own way. But sadly, I can't seem to find that way.
But there is good news... I've come to many realizations in art. Perhaps these will be helpful to read, perhaps they may not. Perhaps simply by stating them aloud, I might solidify them in my own subconscious. And I think it's safe to say, the subconscious is a huge part of painting. Otherwise it'd just be calculated perfection.
The first realization is that light is the basis of form. This should be pretty obvious, but what does it mean in terms of painting? Well, I realized that blurriness is okay. Highlights can lift a blurry picture and make it sharp. Light tricks the eye.
My second realization is just how important highlights are. When I first started out, I used to add many many highlights. Excessively, poorly... doesn't really matter. Despite my reservations against the dreaded Shine Lines, I cannot argue that they lifted my pictures. I complained that I had shine lines, but I never once removed them. Now, I've come to be a bit more tactful with my shading. I don't have shine lines anymore, I have actual highlights and shines of various shapes. I've realized that working with highlights is important. Far more important than shadows. Perhaps some might argue with this statement, and let me clarify... The shadows of a picture make the rest of the picture pop. Maybe this isn't always true, but it's very relevant to me. It's made me realize that I need to put less emphasis on the shadows. At least in my art, shadows are to emphasize the rest... add contrast (which is beautiful to me).
My third realization is that art is about failure, in a sense. What is style? What makes a photograph different from a painting? It's the imperfections... Every artist has a unique set of imperfections that make them who they are. And maybe you might think I'm being bitter about this, but I'm really not. I've realized that imperfection is beautiful. Unique is entrancing. Every "failure" in art is another thing that makes that picture special. Without mistakes, we'd be drawing the world only as we see it. Every dragon would be a proportion-perfect reptile with added attachments. Perhaps without imperfection, those early illustrations of dragons would be just crocodiles. Maybe the eastern dragons are just snakes with wings. What I mean is that from every mistake, we learn something new. Without those mistakes, art would be nothing more than copy-and-paste.
So... yeah. Most of this should be very obvious, but I thought I'd share anyway. Who knows, maybe there's someone out there who didn't know yet, haha! So yeah... what is "better"? We're trying to be better artists, right? Maybe we should be focusing on the things that make us unique, rather than better. If every furry drew a perfect fox in the same perfect adult situation... I dunno about you, but the fandom would be a lot less appealing. The fandom is a combination of (nearly) everything. Some things you love, some things you hate. But every thing you hate makes you love what you love that much more! Every image you have to sift through that's not appealing to you makes that hidden mawshot all the more mawsome!!
o..o Wow, I can really ramble. Juggling topics, more like... <..<;;
Aaaaanywho. Just my thoughts of the day. XD
Have a good day!! Make good choices!!! <3333333
I am good at doing shading and highlights with my pencils, and I have the tools to do it. I just never feel like doing shades and highlights. I always think I will end up screwing the sketch, or I´m just too lazy to do them.
Even if I´m good using the pencil and drawing sketches, but the lack of values make them look empty.
Thank you for the journal, I´ll be working on values from now on. Of course I will make some exceptions because some of my drawings are really big and it would take me days to complete them.
But hey, if you don't like shading, nobody should force you to.
Either way, good luck! Just have fun. ^..^
I´ll have fun, more since I´ve been experimenting with posing and angles.
I don't know, painting differently for the sake of doing it differently seems rather silly. I mean, if you find the way you like to paint you should stick with it, not drop it because "oh someone else already does it that way."
As a character in the novel we had to study for English says;
'There is no such thing as perfection, only varying levels of imperfection'
Don't I wish. XD