What's wrong with my art?
7 years ago
Hey, everyone. This is a topic I've been... kind of skeptical about broaching publicly, but I think I've hit the limit of my ability to ferret out greater nuance on the subject on my own, and between the group of close friends that I use as beta-viewers for most of my art before I post it.
Suffice to say that I frequently struggle with my art. Not in any... physical sense, I can sit down and draw all day, and frequently do, but in a psychological sense. I have this persistent case of impostor syndrome, or something similar to it, when I post my art here or elsewhere. In my own mind, I feel that I'm really not that good of an artist, or illustrator, or whatever term you care to use, and that there's some sort of insanely obvious flaw or flaws in my art that's the cause of my shortcoming, but which I remain obstinately unaware of, which brings me to the point of this journal.
What the hell is wrong with my art?
Please, tell me. Critique my recent work, compare me to other artists, whatever, because this issue has been slowly driving me crazy over the course of the past several months xD I feel like I'm trying to roll a cube, here. Why is it that I'm so far behind the curb, compared to other babyfur artists on FA? This is me inviting everyone to point out my weaknesses, no matter how obvious, because I really am just that clueless. Maybe with all of your help, I can finally start improving, and move from being a mediocre babyfur artist, to being a genuinely adequate one :)
Cheers
Kodi
Suffice to say that I frequently struggle with my art. Not in any... physical sense, I can sit down and draw all day, and frequently do, but in a psychological sense. I have this persistent case of impostor syndrome, or something similar to it, when I post my art here or elsewhere. In my own mind, I feel that I'm really not that good of an artist, or illustrator, or whatever term you care to use, and that there's some sort of insanely obvious flaw or flaws in my art that's the cause of my shortcoming, but which I remain obstinately unaware of, which brings me to the point of this journal.
What the hell is wrong with my art?
Please, tell me. Critique my recent work, compare me to other artists, whatever, because this issue has been slowly driving me crazy over the course of the past several months xD I feel like I'm trying to roll a cube, here. Why is it that I'm so far behind the curb, compared to other babyfur artists on FA? This is me inviting everyone to point out my weaknesses, no matter how obvious, because I really am just that clueless. Maybe with all of your help, I can finally start improving, and move from being a mediocre babyfur artist, to being a genuinely adequate one :)
Cheers
Kodi
Aside form that, the only the only thing missing is being able to see the highres of every single image you upload, which I'm sure plenty of people would enjoy.
My advice is to find someone whose art you consider to be better than yours. Because "better" is very subjective. But, if you decide that you want to know what the difference is between your art at someone else's - that's a lot easier to quantify. Showing what you wish your art looked more like is a way to show people what you are trying to achieve, and might spur on a discussion on how you can get there.
If I had to give an advice it would be to favour quality over quantity. Most of your drawings take up 2 hours (as stated in their descs), even less for pastel drawings. Just no :v put more time, a lot more time into each drawing, rushing every pic to be able to draw more will both not help you improve at all and will dry you up if ideas. Same goes for traditional pictures, drawing in new ways is always fun and helps a lot when it comes to learning new things, obviously, but if you rush it you'll never have enough time to actually try new stuff. So in short quality>quantity
Sorry if I seem a little rude or sour, but I don't intend to be, just trying to help xp
Take this Umbreon picture for example: http://d.facdn.net/art/kodikins/153.....5_piddleon.jpg
Compare it to the official artwork: https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/.....197Umbreon.png
Note the circle design on its legs; it appears on the side and upper half. Yours however has the circle going past the top of the foreleg and onto the body. The hind leg is a little more subtle, but it's full-on facing the viewer when it should be on the side of the leg and therefore should only be partially visible to the viewer.
I'm also not really sure what's happening with the pose; are they lifting their leg up to pee? It looks like it's also against that rock, but having your character interact with a background element that's distinctly different in art style (it's out of focus and lacking detail compared to the Umbreon, while also having the outline border creating even more of a contrast between the two) makes it difficult to tell whether they just happen to line up (in which case the elements should be visually removed from each other to prevent accidental association) or if they're supposed to actually be touching it. The angle of their lean also makes them look off-balance, like they're about to tumble onto their right side (viewer's left).
You're trying to go for an embarrassed look, but the paw placement looks like it'd be poking their eye. I honestly didn't notice that until a few closer viewings so it's probably not something people would actually pay attention to, but regardless it doesn't look very comfortable.
Another picture would be your recent Ninetails one: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/28511517/
Compare to: https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/.....8Ninetales.png
Mainly it's the tails; they're just appearing from behind the diaper, as if it's just a character dressup simulator prop (best example I can think of). The diaper should have a hole in a fitting place for the tails to pop out of and, as a result, they should be bunched up together from that point rather than spreading out as if there's nothing in their way. You also made them vertically orientated, I presume because you wanted all nine tails to be clearly seen, but Ninetails has more of a peacock-like design.
Posing and taking notice of how angles skew perspective are your main issues right now. Faces and shading have also been off at times but you've improved in those areas by yourself more than you have with posing and perspective, so I'd suggest putting them on the backburner for now.
Oh and also, dont compare yourself to other artists. Its surprisingly not good for your health if you end up taking it too far xP
Of course though criticism isn't just stating everything that is bad, stuff you are good at includes but not limited to how you draw diapers, poses and in some cases even scenarios (once again your issue is just having the subject look more natural in these scenarios, the scenarios themselves are completely fine most of the time), personally be loving the simple background as it give a in-a-daze effect which work wonderfully here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/28344473/ but can make things also look super out of place when the character is more realistic such as here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/28534599/ (which why I recommend trying to go for more chibi-like styles and see if that works better in such cases) though no offense to D.A.O.T but his character is a little too real for such a simple background, at least imo. Like as you noticed while all of that is meant to be good criticism I can't help but remind you what make them seem off. It only thing one thing to make something look off but take many things to make something look off into something that look right. I feel as an artist you are amazing but also have amazing potential that you simply don't know how to tap into yet. I want to see you become better because I truly and honestly believe you are on CuddleHooves level you just don't know how to apply it yet. Also for the love of God I mean that in the best way possible but don't start comparing yourself to other artists as you should only compare your own progress to your own work. Comparing you should be inspiring you but I know for many artists it can also lead them to wanting to quit. I mean what I say but I also don't want you to fail before you even get to reach that point due to you discouraging yourself. Your art is amazing and you should feel amazing and the fact you want to improve even more beyond that is proof that you are on the right track of becoming even better.
Regardless of what happens I do look forward to seeing what you create next. You've got a fan on your hands that no matter the art or the message is going to want to see it.