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Trying to improve
8 years ago
Anyone who knows me can confirm that I'm incredibly critical of myself and my art to an almost irritable degree. This is not because I want more praise or I'm being overzealous in humility, but because I have an innate desire to improve; every piece I create I see a thousand things I could improve on. I naturally see these areas and fixate on them. For example, if I upload a piece and see I've been coy about highlights, the next piece I do I put emphasis on highlights.
While this is fine and dandy for creating decent pieces, I've been ignorant about the one thing that has truly been holding me back: my mindset. I see the prolific nature of many other artists and feel a pang of envy -- why can't I upload more frequently instead of every few month? The truth is that my loathing of my own work ends up interfering with my desire to upload -- for every one piece that I upload, there are hundreds of sketches that will never see the light of day.
In an attempt to combat this, I've re-purposed my Twitter ( https://twitter.com/BlueWoofy ) as a bit of a WIP/Sketch showcase. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up and get over my self-doubt.
If there are any other artists watching me who have the desire to improve -- please get in touch. I'd love to have people who I could improve with -- sharing images and getting constructive feedback. Feeling alone in the desire to "get better" is another artistic burden I face.
Lastly, I just want to express my gratitude for all that support that has been given despite my unproductive nature -- comments, watches, faves. Though requiring as little as a click of a button, I cannot sufficiently express the emotional impact it has on me; knowing that people care enough about something I do to actually take the time to engage. I've also seen one or two people list me as one of their 'favourite artists' and I want to express my deepest thanks, it's truly honouring and it has definitely helped me feel more confident in myself and my abilities. It makes my day every time I see it.
I love you all.
While this is fine and dandy for creating decent pieces, I've been ignorant about the one thing that has truly been holding me back: my mindset. I see the prolific nature of many other artists and feel a pang of envy -- why can't I upload more frequently instead of every few month? The truth is that my loathing of my own work ends up interfering with my desire to upload -- for every one piece that I upload, there are hundreds of sketches that will never see the light of day.
In an attempt to combat this, I've re-purposed my Twitter ( https://twitter.com/BlueWoofy ) as a bit of a WIP/Sketch showcase. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up and get over my self-doubt.
If there are any other artists watching me who have the desire to improve -- please get in touch. I'd love to have people who I could improve with -- sharing images and getting constructive feedback. Feeling alone in the desire to "get better" is another artistic burden I face.
Lastly, I just want to express my gratitude for all that support that has been given despite my unproductive nature -- comments, watches, faves. Though requiring as little as a click of a button, I cannot sufficiently express the emotional impact it has on me; knowing that people care enough about something I do to actually take the time to engage. I've also seen one or two people list me as one of their 'favourite artists' and I want to express my deepest thanks, it's truly honouring and it has definitely helped me feel more confident in myself and my abilities. It makes my day every time I see it.
I love you all.
Still though, anatomy is something I'm dying to improve upon. Every time I upload a piece I could easily pull out probably 10 flaws. And they're normally something I'm unsure how to fix.
I'm still searching for a process that fits me and gets the results I'm after. I quite like "painterly" styles as opposed to OTT rendering -- still not sure how to get to that though. I think one of the main problems is that FA isn't really geared for improvements -- it's more about confirmation and reassurance than critique, unfortunately.
I see what you mean and somewhat understand I think. Perhaps finding artists of similar work may help?
Artists like: Alectorfencer, Caraid, Alsaresnolynx, Red-izak, Wolf-nymph, Balaa, Rhyu, Simul and Aaros.
They may not be the same style but perhaps a somewhat similar branch.
I know some people get discouraged from seeing artists of that calibur doing work, but personally I get excited from it. My work may not be great now, but the me from 5 years ago would be shocked to see I came this far. Comparing old pieces to new ones often give me a boost. After that, imagine your work in another 5 years from now, or even 10. You probably can't imagine exactly what it would look like at this current point.
I sometimes look up speed paints on youtube and end up learning a bunch of techniques there. Maybe just looking up tutorials here or there. Looking at lots of references until you really feel you got anatomy down. All that fun stuff.
FA allows so much content that others wouldn't, because of that it's more noticeable that human nature leads people to more adult content. DA has a habbit of style riding too. Where every wolf looks exactly like the last wolf, and the style is just that of some super popular artist there. I visit DA and get confused who made what these days because they all look generally the same. It's really a matter of finding the right artist for you on each place.
It's the reason I'm striving to do this though, I think too little of my art and grow reluctant to share because of that. Trying to get into the habit of just sharing anyway; success or failure.
That's not a good enough excuse, fluff.
I think it would also be beneficial because as you know, I have this terrible self loathing issue and in definitely transfers to my work, so having some positive reinforcement, especially on how to fix things within a piece would honestly be the best