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Tips: Artistic journey
9 years ago
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I decided to write down a few of those tips I've received over my life a few days ago, the ones that have helped me the most on my personal journey in creating drawings/paintings/other creative stuff. Maybe it'll be useful for others too - so I thought I'd post.
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1. Learn to use mistakes as advantage, instead of erasing continue something new out of them or paint on top. That's creativity.
This is what my mom told me when I was little and frustrated that paint or ink dropped accidentally on the paper.
2. Dinosaurs were not necessarily brown or whatever you see already illustrated, take freedom in uncertain things, don't do exactly what someone expects you to, have fun instead!
What the teacher said when I asked about the colour of dinosaurs in grade school for our painting dinosaurs task.
3. Out there there are actual studies about how different shapes and colour affect human feelings, they can be used as an assistant when planning a picture.
Much later in grade school, it's what our art teacher told us - was actually a part of a lesson.
4. Don't be afraid to add lots of shading, it's like the second lineart that adds more definition of shapes into your figure.
The teacher in a comic & animation club told me when I was unsure if I had shaded something too much (it had too little shading).
5. Other artists often try to put you down by saying mean things, in order to make their work seem better. Learn to ignore and don't be an ass yourself.
I learned this while doing artbased highschool and hearing a lot of crap about "real artists don't draw animals" or "real artists don't love drawing commissioned work" - nobody can tell you what you love to draw and what path is the right one for YOU.
8. Art schools don't always provide or give the right information, don't blindly listen to what someone of a higher status sais, their opinions may be biased or past the due date - all humans make mistakes. Do your personal research aswell, test and try what works the best for your needs.
Just another thing I realized in the artbased highschool.
9. It's often plenty more useful to study all kinds of aspects in life instead of art courses. Knowing history, psychology, physics, crafting, fashion, architecture...etc. boosts your abilities to draw better. I realized this after going to a vocational school for cloth design and having improved much more with my drawing skills during than than anytime previously - and realizing that my past improvements was mostly thanks to the other courses in highschool aside from art itself.
10. Learning to draw is not only about actually drawing more, it's important to keep an artistic eye open to the real world aswell, inspect everything that is around you where ever you go! (It's still important to draw everyday).
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Have you ever received tips that helped you improve your artistic journey significantly? Share if you have!
-Neotheta
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1. Learn to use mistakes as advantage, instead of erasing continue something new out of them or paint on top. That's creativity.
This is what my mom told me when I was little and frustrated that paint or ink dropped accidentally on the paper.
2. Dinosaurs were not necessarily brown or whatever you see already illustrated, take freedom in uncertain things, don't do exactly what someone expects you to, have fun instead!
What the teacher said when I asked about the colour of dinosaurs in grade school for our painting dinosaurs task.
3. Out there there are actual studies about how different shapes and colour affect human feelings, they can be used as an assistant when planning a picture.
Much later in grade school, it's what our art teacher told us - was actually a part of a lesson.
4. Don't be afraid to add lots of shading, it's like the second lineart that adds more definition of shapes into your figure.
The teacher in a comic & animation club told me when I was unsure if I had shaded something too much (it had too little shading).
5. Other artists often try to put you down by saying mean things, in order to make their work seem better. Learn to ignore and don't be an ass yourself.
I learned this while doing artbased highschool and hearing a lot of crap about "real artists don't draw animals" or "real artists don't love drawing commissioned work" - nobody can tell you what you love to draw and what path is the right one for YOU.
8. Art schools don't always provide or give the right information, don't blindly listen to what someone of a higher status sais, their opinions may be biased or past the due date - all humans make mistakes. Do your personal research aswell, test and try what works the best for your needs.
Just another thing I realized in the artbased highschool.
9. It's often plenty more useful to study all kinds of aspects in life instead of art courses. Knowing history, psychology, physics, crafting, fashion, architecture...etc. boosts your abilities to draw better. I realized this after going to a vocational school for cloth design and having improved much more with my drawing skills during than than anytime previously - and realizing that my past improvements was mostly thanks to the other courses in highschool aside from art itself.
10. Learning to draw is not only about actually drawing more, it's important to keep an artistic eye open to the real world aswell, inspect everything that is around you where ever you go! (It's still important to draw everyday).
-
Have you ever received tips that helped you improve your artistic journey significantly? Share if you have!
-Neotheta
I'd like to expand on this one if I could with my own experiences:
8. Art schools don't always provide or give the right information, don't blindly listen to what someone of a higher status sais, their opinions may be biased or past the due date - all humans make mistakes. Do your personal research aswell, test and try what works the best for your needs.
I feel this applies to normal crit as well. I feel that most crit, whether it be from a fellow artist, a random viewer or from some professor, deserves at least a little consideration - and then after that, you do what you want. I've had many people get angry that someone's giving them crit that they don't agree with, not realising that since art is so subjective at its core, that opposing opinions are perfectly fine and neither one is right. And hell, even if you do agree, it doesn't mean you have to start redrawing the picture in question - just means you have a mistake to learn from next time!
In short, consider all crit you get, but remember that it's all subjective and you don't have to act or even agree with it!
Counterpoint - "It's my style!" is rarely a valid argument for drawing something inherently wrong (I was once a perpetrator of this and I apologise for my sins). Then again, since art is so subjective and art styles are so varied this can be hard to mesh with what was previously said, and this is an FA comment, not some Art PhD thesis. Use your discretion and thank people who give honest, constructive critique, basically!
Also sometimes you purposely want to draw something wrong because you 'dig the style', there's nothing wrong with that (but don't freak out when others point it out) x3
If I could add anything, I'd say it's quite important to understand the difference between "work" art and "play" art; Mostly that they have different approaches and head-spaces associated with them. Both should be balanced well to promote growth as an artist and personal expression.
"Draw it ass first!"
It was my watercolor teacher back when I attended college. He was always willing to show the class anything that anyone asks help with. So when a few students came to him about a sitting pose, he went up to the board and gave a lesson on "drawing it ass first" so to say.
At the time it was all about if the person is sitting when why the heck are you drawing their head first? That's not what sets them into the scene. Their head is adjustable based on pose. Their butt however? Always in the same place. Start there with your sketch and it will look more natural because you didn't have to squish anything to fit. I always felt like the lesson really shows how you should be willing to break what you normally do (head, spine, chest, hips) in order to get the result you want. Whenever I have a sketch that isn't working out, I always ask "am I doing this is the best order I can?"
Then I draw it ass first.
And belief in yourself, stand by your work, don't let others take you down.
Art allows anything, even the unbelievable or impossible.