So recently i have been thinking about where i want to go and how I want to get better at art. I know there is so many different ways to create art and there are lots of skills or techniques i have yet to learn. This is mostly just going to be a mental dump of my thought process but here it is. I'm finding that when it comes to be excited for passionate about certain style of art or creative things in general, it encourages me to try and mimic those aspects of art, because they are something i admire or find worth while in art. Trouble is overcoming the difficulties of swapping previously learned styling or design and altering it in a way that is new. This often leaves artists (including myself) in a mental struggle for not being able to achieve what you are looking effectively. I know the more i work on perfecting my craft will speed things along and refine the style i am aiming to achieve, but it leaves me wondering if it is even worth going through to begin with. Each person has a preference in art and has a spectrum styles they find truly exceptional. Maybe i should be asking myself, "Do i find my own work exceptional by my standards of art?" If that doesn't seem to be the case, then some form of refining or improving may be worth adventuring into. Now I know that an artist is their worst critic when it comes to their work, but I feel it still needs to be said that sometimes it might be best to enjoy what you are doing and focus less on trying to be something else. This doesn't mean i don't want to improve as an artist...I really do want to get better as a whole, but reminding myself that its just another piece of work and I should be proud in the end.

Gosh, now looking back at all the different things I have learned as an artist it is hard to think about all the other things I haven't learned or refined as a whole. I sure there are so many more things out there that I haven't worked on that I could improve. Let's just take a single aspect of something I have been thinking about and delve more into my mental thinking pit. Ok so I know i have mentioned this before somewhere, but the "weight of line" is constant struggle i run into when working on any picture I create. Lines don't normally exist in nature and we draw them as a form of separation of objects or shapes to allow our brains to parse information easier. Often a line will occur with darkened areas of light and things like that, but "Outlines" have been something I have thought about so much when it comes to art. Choosing to not include outlines means the forms of the figures must be made with the shapes of color. Dimension of these shapes typically are achieved through shading of regions to show light direction and reflection of surfaces.

I feel like I'm losing myself in this mind dump...Oh yea! Outlines.
So for me choosing an outline on my characters is an artistic choice. If i wanted to not include them, I could, but it would bring a whole different set of issues i would need to tackle. Some artists have a minimalistic lining of their characters and scenery, which i find VERY powerful. It almost seems like the golden medium between both worlds (This is a personal preference of course) and I know that since I appreciate this styling so much, it encourages me to try and do it myself....with varying degrees of success. Art should be a passion project for me. Improving your abilities through the difficulties can take a blow to my confidence after so long. It's like shooting a basketball over and over, but never making a basket. It's a tough thing to push past until you meet your mark. It's even harder doing this without proper instruction. Self learning is always a harder path to walk and it is all too easy to be lazy. Gotta stop being lazy if I want to improve. I want to look back at my work and say "I've made some pretty good things haven't I?"

So bottom line is this. Let's see if I can mess with my linework and find my own happy medium. And I need to do more backgrounds....I have been struggling with those. Gotta step it up!