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Battling a Problem With Drawing; Maybe You Have Ideas?
8 years ago
General
Its well known among my friends but may come as quite a surprise to other people...
I confess. Drawing is very boring to me, especially shading and coloring.
I know shading and coloring is very important to why people like my work (such as paw pad textures). I do love the end product but not the process of making it.
Drawing this month has been a terrible struggle. I'm at work typing this, bored out of my mind. So I stopped to ask myself, "Why am I so bored?" "Why am I almost always so bored doing any of my jobs."
Compare that to something like Minecraft modding. That could be considered work. I absolutely loved it. I had to stop modding because it consumed me so much to the point of neglecting drawing, which DOES make me money.
It came to me why I get so bored. Its not just because I've done this stuff hundreds of times over the course of 6-8 years. Its because the work is not intellectually challenging; There is no problem solving involved. And not just any problem solving, but no problem solving with numbers and equations. (I know if I didn't clarify that, people would simply suggest trying to learn new things or find ways to improve my speed) To do the animation quality I did in Minecraft modding required excellent skill in math.
The closest I've come to motivating myself to draw is listening to business and motivational podcasts. It kinda works but I'm still restless.
(Yesterday, though, I had rather bad experience with what I was listening to. The podcasts I listen to are about people getting help to find purpose in their work and to find ways to get a better job or starting a business. And one guy in the one podcast I listen to yesterday wanted to open a gun shop. I try to avoid politics in the public eye but you can probably guess that set me off because of things I keep seeing on Twitter [I am very sure the host of the show was not too thrilled with the timing of that topic coming up either].)
Does anyone perhaps have a suggestion to make the drawing process more interesting to me?
Part of this journal is also just thinking aloud, to impress on me things to listen/watch for that may help.
~Eclipsis
I confess. Drawing is very boring to me, especially shading and coloring.
I know shading and coloring is very important to why people like my work (such as paw pad textures). I do love the end product but not the process of making it.
Drawing this month has been a terrible struggle. I'm at work typing this, bored out of my mind. So I stopped to ask myself, "Why am I so bored?" "Why am I almost always so bored doing any of my jobs."
Compare that to something like Minecraft modding. That could be considered work. I absolutely loved it. I had to stop modding because it consumed me so much to the point of neglecting drawing, which DOES make me money.
It came to me why I get so bored. Its not just because I've done this stuff hundreds of times over the course of 6-8 years. Its because the work is not intellectually challenging; There is no problem solving involved. And not just any problem solving, but no problem solving with numbers and equations. (I know if I didn't clarify that, people would simply suggest trying to learn new things or find ways to improve my speed) To do the animation quality I did in Minecraft modding required excellent skill in math.
The closest I've come to motivating myself to draw is listening to business and motivational podcasts. It kinda works but I'm still restless.
(Yesterday, though, I had rather bad experience with what I was listening to. The podcasts I listen to are about people getting help to find purpose in their work and to find ways to get a better job or starting a business. And one guy in the one podcast I listen to yesterday wanted to open a gun shop. I try to avoid politics in the public eye but you can probably guess that set me off because of things I keep seeing on Twitter [I am very sure the host of the show was not too thrilled with the timing of that topic coming up either].)
Does anyone perhaps have a suggestion to make the drawing process more interesting to me?
Part of this journal is also just thinking aloud, to impress on me things to listen/watch for that may help.
~Eclipsis
I guess if I was to use your suggestion, it might be look something like manually numbering pencils on a list and then using a random number generator to pick stuff out for me and then finding a way to make them work.
While that does sound cool, it doesn't really do much for the procession of coloring. I appreciate the thought though. ^^
Is it for expressing yourelf? relax? do technical stuff to occupy your hands and your mind? money? make others happy? make yourself satisfied? accomplish something? for others? for you? something else? all of that? etc
Forcing yourself doesn't help though, and could increase your disgust of continuing, sometimes getting a break helps you come back stronger
Hmm, it 's surely tough to do math while drawing (hopefully for me xD), but maybe playing with graphic functions and stuff? 3D and 2D models? or doing with multiple lines like a printer, programming forms, textures, props, physics , and stuff? I don't really know, maths are absolutely not my domain -w-'
That's curious you say you're especially bored by shadowing and coloring, while I see they're very well taken care of in every detail, giving your drawings a nice impression of high technical level.
Maybe trying to color differently or with different tools could stimulate you? since i guess you will want to master it like you master your current style ;p
With the modeling and physics, I am increasingly thinking about trying game development. The real stuff, not Minecraft modding. Cause at least with game development, there is a slim chance of actually making money off of that, unlike modding where its basically impossible. ^^
Thanks for taking the time to write these ideas. I appreciate them! :D
I'm glad those ideas can possibly help you~
Yeah, I thought it could be mathematically interesting for you heheh ^^
If it's the problem-solving you want, and drawing is unavoidable, then you should swap out the podcasts for a physics documentary or even a recorded college lecture.
If it's actual math, then your ultimate goal should be to find something in that area that earns you money. If you wanted to stick with furry stuff, I'm sure you'd be able to find some clients who'd want a 3d animation of their characters. You could see if there are any pre-rigged models out there for you to animate as well. And if you want to get away from furry stuff in general, there are plenty of real-world uses for equations when it comes to modeling business data.
But I do feel I need to be actually doing the problem solving myself to really get the enjoyment. Since I posted this, I've been increasingly looking at boldly trying Indie Game development which can potentially have all of what I could need to enjoy work. It was so long ago when I last considered it, it was probably around the time we were still doing stuff on Pokedorks with Peachiekee and gang that I may have been talking about it back then! xD
I ain't a naive kid making this game dev decision though. I appreciate all the difficulties behind it. I know three people rather well who all majored in game dev and none of them have jobs in it.
Once you find something you like, make it a rule that you can only listen to it while drawing.
I'm looking into app dev myself (among other enterprenurial things lol). I've been sitting on some app ideas for a while now, and I'm itching to get them out already. It's still a bit of a slog right now, but this whole framework thing is actually turning out to be pretty fun. I'm hoping it'll lead somewhere for me because I'm soooo tired of graphic design using up every last shred of my art energy.