Things you hate about your art process


Pedigri's avatar
With the style in the Darkwing Duck fanart linked in my sig I always experience a rollercoaster of emotions. If I do a rough sketch, I hate it. If I reference the details and lineart it, I love it. When I put down the first values I love it but the next day it looks too flat so I hate it. I put another layer of colour and love it. But then it still looks flat so I hate it and eventually add black only to find I have ruined the whole damn thing forever and I want to crumble it. The next day I add a skintone layer on top of the black and suddenly it's the best thing ever.

I can't learn how to tablet. The notion that it mirrors natural hand movements and the flow of traditionally drawn lines sounds like bollocks to me.

I recently learned to draw more realistic faces with guidelines but found the new faces went from randomly pleasing to 100% japanese robot sex doll uncanny valley. And I hate it.

I want to draw profound, deep, symbollic things and yet what I most enjoy drawing are ample chests, portraits and fanart or monstergirls. Not quite much of a legacy to leave behind.

Perfectionism. If I break the chain of drawing every day it's easier and easier to givw up drawing altogether with each passing day. And it often takes months to go back to it. The sketch of the pic I finished recently was done in 2015.

Even though I know about volume, muscles and skull structure I am better off tracing a pic of a face I really like from a magazine than to draw it by hand ( bc some art teacher said Photoshop distorts values and blurs features).

I hate the fact that the reason I hate linearts I used to love is because I've grown and I can't move on until I redraw them (with my perfectionism commonly referred to as art block it can take years).

And you?
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PhantasmaStriker's avatar
Just trying to finish a piece :/  I have a pile of concept sketches that I need to ink (traditional method) but when I do, I get about like 30-45% on it and then run outta steam.  Oh and also coloring my pieces which I should do more, but I'm just...not motivated -_-
Pedigri's avatar
Sounds like me. I won't finish a fanart if I don't remember the hairstyle or clothing details and I can't be bothered to look them up. So I go through my binder and ink only the parts of sketches I like despite the time that passed since I drew them and that I know I won't change. The hesitation is akways a symptom of a problem my subconscious knows about but that hasn't been defined by my consciousness yet. I prefer not to ink lines I'm not fond of because I know I'll hate them later. So I wait until I get a better idea. Usually it happens when I work on the things I ink after deciding I'm going to keep them.

If I run out of lines to ink I move on to another piece and return to it the next day to see if something changed.
THlCC's avatar
I can't actually get someting properly started, I have to go through 27272772635262881982366363663 doodles to find something that passably works and get mad at it later
Pedigri's avatar
Pro designers working with clients also do pose and angle variants though not as many.
TheCynicalViet's avatar
No experience with digital coloring. Feels bad, meng.
Pedigri's avatar
Yeah, especially since digital art is a required standard in the industry.

Just like with translations. You have to be able to work with TRADOS or a program that works with TRADOS files. At least in Poland. The soft is expensive as all hell, buggy, can eat your progress and sold in a weird way through a translator's forum or something.

If you dream of doing video game translations you'll probably get it in an excel file which are annoying as all f uck because you can't automate the translation with CAT soft like Trados. You have to doi it by hand. It can also contain so called strings every translator hates.

"When most of us think of translation, we immediately picture the translation of documents—legal papers, brochures, flyers—where all the text to be translated is presented in context. Modern day source texts, however, come in various forms, such as HTML-coded websites, marketing designs, and user interface (UI) strings from all kinds of mobile and online apps. The latter can be especially challenging for translators. Think about an online survey. Each part of the survey is a separate component from a development perspective. Each drop-down list must be translated individually. Many of the strings have blanks that must be filled in with variable text that could depend on the previous response. Without any context, a translator may not understand the relationship between one component and the next.

The same issue arises when we look at localizing an e-learning module or translating any online or mobile app or video game. Often, the translator is handed a list of strings with little or no context. The translator may not be able to interact with the actual app, module, or game if it is still in development."
jengajangle's avatar
lineart on a digital medium. i relate to the tablet thing.
oh and human face proportions can go to hell :stare:
Pedigri's avatar
The Loomis method is somewhat useful but I forgot about some guidelines and put the eyes where the brows should be and always got a horse face. Unless I did it by instict. But then I had a 30% chance of getting the face right and 70% of summoning Cthulhu.

I also found that when I tried to replicate someone's style to make it look true to the original I achieved the same effect as when I tried to draw realistic proportions using the proper guidelines. The faces looked like japanese robot sex dolls uncannt valley.

I find even adding a hint of the eyesocket lines under the eyes ages my chars by 50 years.
Neiot's avatar
I wish it would just be done the moment I start. :shrug:
Pedigri's avatar
I feel your pain. While I don't think I have AD(H)D I tend to go into similar associations escapades when daydreaming. Plus I have a fire in the pan kind of motivation and quickly lose interest.

The way I dealt with this is by working in small portions each day. And on only a few works. I also put the works I felt like finishing and believed I could finish in a binder. I ordered them by the speed with which I could finish them. Putting the ones with simplest colouring techniques or polished linearts first. I put the ones that require looking up the clothing or hairstyle details last because even if it takes only a second to look it up, the very decisionmaking process to look it up is draining.

I translated a study on that. Shows people remember less from a text they read if it had hyperlinks in it and they allowed to read the linked texts out of order. The very decision to click a link drained their mental capacity and some people have a really low mental capacity for such decisions. Their attention span dwindles although they barely started reading.
ShuQxx's avatar
1. I have OCPD (so I have quite extreme perfectionism, esp when it comes to art, and even more for lineart). That it actually inadverdantly created a 'style' of how I lineart and colour. (I draw and weight my lines in a particular/angular way, and the way I colour/shade is also done in an angular way.)
...it's INCREDIBLY time consuming.
Lines2 by used-rugs   Lines1 by used-rugs   re by used-rugs   RRH+BBW-2di-WIP2 by used-rugs  

Mature Content

commission: Dante+Keigo by used-rugs
  Chaotic cadence by used-rugs

2. I really like drawing,.. most things in any style.. I've never had artblock or been short on ideas/things/styles I want to draw. The problem is that I'll get distracted from a piece, and/or I just won't be able to draw anything else if I don't get a particular piece "out of my system".

But then I usually drop them.. there are linearts / half coloured things I've done from 8yrs ago (that I do definitely plan on finishing eventually). I have an excel to keep track of them (there are about 165WIPs)
Howl - before we fly... by used-rugs   TwhWIP3 by used-rugs   wip by used-rugs   Glissade - Hanyu Yuzuru by used-rugs   WIP Girl1b by used-rugs   Test1a by used-rugs   nickdiaz1di by used rugs WIP1 by used-rugs   Mode1 Final4 by used-rugs   18mode1 by used-rugs   7-3-colour by used-rugs   ACMHK dummy small by used-rugs   CARD BACK - fake by used-rugs    Mpd Faceless Brain Spinal Cord1ciii By Used Rugs-d by used-rugs   Redmayne3c By Used Rugs3ci by used-rugs   One-line drawing - Hakuei by used-rugs   Tsukikage1 by used-rugs Natediaz Represent Ambigram by used-rugs   Shini Shoudo2 by used-rugs  

3. I generally have a fairly clear idea/image in my mind of what I want to draw... and I know I can draw anything I want to...
This means that the actual process of getting that idea/image from my head out and materialised is very tedious since I already know what it looks/feels like and that I can do it.

For example... Imagine you had to write the 3 timestable up to 3x123456789 in a rainbow gradient. You know you can do it and how it's going to look like.. but doing it is fucking annoying.
Pedigri's avatar
Your art looks great. It's worth the time and effort you put into it.
It also gives you a style of your own.

I have the same problem with getting it out of the system.

I also get the dropping. I figured out its because the emotions and will to draw it came from a single element like a dynamic pose or unique angle that lost its appeal once I put it on paper. I have a binder with 145 works ordered by how likely and quick they're to finish. There are works from many years ago in there too.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I pray I don't get an idea with scales because I know I will have to draw each single one of them.
Orgunis's avatar
Doing the lines and realizing one hand/limb/foot/eye/whatever is slightly smaller than the other way too late.
Pedigri's avatar
Humans aren't totally symmetric. Esp. faces. If I remember correctly the right eye tends to be smaller/eyelid droops more than in the left.
The right female breast is usually smaller than the left one too.

I suggest using a ruler resting against the edge of the paper with the short end. Mark a guideline or just measure the level. Photoshop allows you to put guidelines on screen too.

With arms and feet it's sometimes possible to blame it on forshortening. Thet it's shorter because it's slightly raised towards the POV.
Un-Lucky-Fennec's avatar
My lineart. It's always wobbly for some reason.
Pedigri's avatar
Handdrawn or digi?
Pedigri's avatar
Do you drink coffee or energy drinks? The wash out megnesium of of your body which affects the nervous system. If your eyelid twitches its a clear sign your mag levels are depleted. It can also cause your hand to shake.

Magnesium can also be washed out it you sweat too much without hydrating enough.
Un-Lucky-Fennec's avatar
I don't drink coffee nor energy drinks but I do drink soda sometimes which has caffeine in it so would that count?
Pedigri's avatar
If its coke or pepsi, then yes. Our biology teacher warned us about it and I found it to be true.

Alcohol is the worst culprit though. Hence the hangover.
Un-Lucky-Fennec's avatar
Ah, I really don't drink those two alot but I have sometimes. 
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Fulgur-Draconis's avatar
Lineart-ing my sketch, and then applying the masks for the coloring. It takes so long!
Pedigri's avatar
Remember those posters that came out when Final Fantasy Advent Children was released?

icon2.kisspng.com/20180423/fdq…

This is a vector art. Done with a mouse. With selections. Very tightly placed selections. Guy never learned to get used to a tablet. It takes him MONTHS to finish a single piece.
Fulgur-Draconis's avatar
My lord. That's some dedication. I use a mouse as well, but that's a whole another level of mouse skills AND patience.