Art advice you'd give to a younger self/younger artists
Drawing:
Pure black doesn't exist in nature. Use dark purple for shadows. Works like dark brown on skiney tones, likebbrownnon red hair.
Perfectionism got you art blocked? Draw porn. Want it perfect? Who cares, it's porn. Not feeling like drawing it from scratch? Find a challenging pose and reference it. Or trace it and use it to practice a ne2 colouring technique. What if the experiment fails? Or you get proportions wrong? You guessed it. Who cares.
ART DOESN'T HAVE TO BE REALISTIC TO BE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING.
It's better to have one good or great drawing you put your best effort (matching your current skillset) into than a hundred mediocre quickies. Guess which one will have your pride-induced dopamin soaring every time you go back to look at it?
The art you do will always look worse than you imagined but better than you feared it would turn out.
Do watch video tutorials but never think you got it by just watching it. Follow it. Draw along to it. The effect will be the ultimate test to the teacher's teaching abilities. Michael Jordan said geniuses make things look easy. Not all who can do it can teach how to do it. Avoid tuts which tell you "I am now drawing a leg" instead of showing you how to do it. Or give you too much freedom in picking the shape of a face or eye. The result will invariably vary.
Humans stupidly pick the best looking ed results in tuts first. And fail at replicating the end result because the lack tge basic skills or the teacher is the master who can't teach. IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE when I specifically typed "fast/simple/easy/" in front of the query when looking for tutorials and picked the most pleasing thumbnail showing the result of this easy method.
Never break the chain. Draw everyday even if it's a stupid sketch or doodle. Never be fussy about the ideas you get. Once you get too lazy to put it down in a sketchbook it'll either dissap from your memory or block fresh ideas because the mind will spend too much effort on remembering it and pestering you about drawing it.
Don't overwhelm yourself with thinking how much you have to learn. Decide to try a small new thing, pose, tech, etc. In each subsequent drawing. Just one per drawing. Push yourself. I learned Sony Vegas 9 this way within a few weeks. Go to Youtube tutorials every time you're stuck. NEVER WAIT TO START DRAWING UNTIL YOU MAGICALLY GET BETTER. I did and wasted years on stupid perfectionist art block.
The book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron literally saved m6 life and my art by defeating perf3ctionism amongbither things. It's a must read.
Pure black doesn't exist in nature. Use dark purple for shadows. Works like dark brown on skiney tones, likebbrownnon red hair.
Perfectionism got you art blocked? Draw porn. Want it perfect? Who cares, it's porn. Not feeling like drawing it from scratch? Find a challenging pose and reference it. Or trace it and use it to practice a ne2 colouring technique. What if the experiment fails? Or you get proportions wrong? You guessed it. Who cares.
ART DOESN'T HAVE TO BE REALISTIC TO BE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING.
It's better to have one good or great drawing you put your best effort (matching your current skillset) into than a hundred mediocre quickies. Guess which one will have your pride-induced dopamin soaring every time you go back to look at it?
The art you do will always look worse than you imagined but better than you feared it would turn out.
Do watch video tutorials but never think you got it by just watching it. Follow it. Draw along to it. The effect will be the ultimate test to the teacher's teaching abilities. Michael Jordan said geniuses make things look easy. Not all who can do it can teach how to do it. Avoid tuts which tell you "I am now drawing a leg" instead of showing you how to do it. Or give you too much freedom in picking the shape of a face or eye. The result will invariably vary.
Humans stupidly pick the best looking ed results in tuts first. And fail at replicating the end result because the lack tge basic skills or the teacher is the master who can't teach. IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE when I specifically typed "fast/simple/easy/" in front of the query when looking for tutorials and picked the most pleasing thumbnail showing the result of this easy method.
Never break the chain. Draw everyday even if it's a stupid sketch or doodle. Never be fussy about the ideas you get. Once you get too lazy to put it down in a sketchbook it'll either dissap from your memory or block fresh ideas because the mind will spend too much effort on remembering it and pestering you about drawing it.
Don't overwhelm yourself with thinking how much you have to learn. Decide to try a small new thing, pose, tech, etc. In each subsequent drawing. Just one per drawing. Push yourself. I learned Sony Vegas 9 this way within a few weeks. Go to Youtube tutorials every time you're stuck. NEVER WAIT TO START DRAWING UNTIL YOU MAGICALLY GET BETTER. I did and wasted years on stupid perfectionist art block.
The book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron literally saved m6 life and my art by defeating perf3ctionism amongbither things. It's a must read.
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1. As most other artists here mentioned, I'd tell my younger self not to take a break from art. Keep drawing, even when you don't feel motivated, just sit yourself down, because when you do, your creative juices will flow naturally.
2. Don't lag on creating a portfolio, because as you get older you'll just get busier and busier with life. Do it while you're young.
3. Be so unafraid to do art shows, you'll enjoy them, and you'll shine and meet amazing people. Look for festivals and art events that you can be a part of, and use that as a motivation to create more, grow your collection, and your craft.
2. Don't lag on creating a portfolio, because as you get older you'll just get busier and busier with life. Do it while you're young.
3. Be so unafraid to do art shows, you'll enjoy them, and you'll shine and meet amazing people. Look for festivals and art events that you can be a part of, and use that as a motivation to create more, grow your collection, and your craft.
"Draw more, never stop practicing, don't be afraid to fill out sketchbooks even with silly sketches"
Make friends, be nice, work hard and don't take so much personally.
Don't expect to become noticed just because your art looks nice.
Yes. I've seen "you have a great technique" used as an insult between artists on "Bones". It was never explicitly said but I think they meant that if you neglect the content/message you try to make it up with form. Also going for a realistic, safe tech means you don't have confidence in your art. Instead of experimenting you just try to please people.
I have no idea what you mean
Don’t get caught up in views and favourites; it will come naturally with improvement + some marketing. Challenge yourself and enjoy the process; focus on improvement but don’t be too hard on yourself.
also, don’t be afraid to use plenty of references. Anatomy is important no matter what style of characters you draw. Some of the most fun times I have drawing is practicing drawing off pictures of good looking men...
also, don’t be afraid to use plenty of references. Anatomy is important no matter what style of characters you draw. Some of the most fun times I have drawing is practicing drawing off pictures of good looking men...
Don't take yourself too seriously: Although I know that nothing I do will be perfect, I still got stuck on each individual stroke I'd lay down. This would result in scrapping a drawing before it was ever developed properly.
Ugly practice is still good practice: It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to have all of your time put into it to be worthwhile. It just has to be a good representation of whatever I was attempting to do. Be it perspective or forms. Ugly drawings serve a purpose.
Patience, patience, patience.
Ugly practice is still good practice: It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to have all of your time put into it to be worthwhile. It just has to be a good representation of whatever I was attempting to do. Be it perspective or forms. Ugly drawings serve a purpose.
Patience, patience, patience.
Yeah. I got super important advice from a YT tutorial. Don't get attached to your drawings, treat them as a work in progress because if you do get attached you'll be afraid to work on it further so as not to ruin it.
Exactly!
don't copy completely from tutorials, only take bits and pieces to improve. also don't steal, its bad.
Heard something similar about music. Don't start from the beginning when you make an error playing a song. Practice only the parts you have difficulties with or you get discouraged.
yeah so true
Don't crave the fame, and don't be afraid to copy other people's style to learn.
Like the song Eye of the Tiger said: "you change your passion for glory".
This is great. I love the porn part. Never thought of that.
Drawing huge chestpieces was the only thing that kept me motivated to draw hundreds of fanart portraits/busts.
Plus what other excuse do you have to draw chars in wild poses and from wild angles and not fear fvcking the whole pic up?
Plus what other excuse do you have to draw chars in wild poses and from wild angles and not fear fvcking the whole pic up?
Hahaha very true.
And if you like it enough to post it to dA, just give them clothes and swords before inking and pretend they're fighting in close combat 
Put emphasis on effect.
Ehm... Younger me! Start by drawing from real world and references first and not straight from your unexpieriend imagination... Couse you need to know how things look first in order to draw them later.
Keep expenses down to a minimum, and don't buy the most expensive brands of art supplies yet. For the first year or two, don't think about earning anything from your art. Instead, focus on developing a style you can uniquely call your own. Work on getting better and better each day.
Carve out blocks of time here and there over the week and dedicate it solely to art-related activities. Give up that 30-minute TV show, bring out your sketchbook during lunch hour, or go to a cafe or coffee shop once or twice a week to render the finishing touches for a drawing.
Keep yourself healthy. Get enough sleep, eat nutritious meals and snacks, and exercise on most days of the week.
Carve out blocks of time here and there over the week and dedicate it solely to art-related activities. Give up that 30-minute TV show, bring out your sketchbook during lunch hour, or go to a cafe or coffee shop once or twice a week to render the finishing touches for a drawing.
Keep yourself healthy. Get enough sleep, eat nutritious meals and snacks, and exercise on most days of the week.
Don't be an artist.
Younger Luminaara.... be glad you don't know how long it takes to become somewhat decent at drawing and how much it goes into science.
I mean it, if I knew that I would have stopped or not even begun. Buuuut now here I am, almost 9 years later and I did not regret a bit that I keep and kept going
Also younger Luminaara, learn to take constructive critique. NOW. Don't think you are good, just don't! You are an apprentice, not a master. Lower your ridiculous pride and you will improve fast, very fast. Stop being so stubborn!
I had a big improvement plateau at age 13-14 which I could have avoided if I would have already had an artists mindset back then.
Also younger Luminaara.... WHERE IS THE SECOND EYE? Oh hidden by a hair strand? Are you aware that you will never learn how to draw the second eye like this? And hands? You hide them or draw them like tiny flesh-coloured gloves? Nah, nah, naaaaaaaaah thanks to you I still have BIG STRUGGLES when it comes to hands.
I mean it, if I knew that I would have stopped or not even begun. Buuuut now here I am, almost 9 years later and I did not regret a bit that I keep and kept going
Also younger Luminaara, learn to take constructive critique. NOW. Don't think you are good, just don't! You are an apprentice, not a master. Lower your ridiculous pride and you will improve fast, very fast. Stop being so stubborn!
I had a big improvement plateau at age 13-14 which I could have avoided if I would have already had an artists mindset back then.
Also younger Luminaara.... WHERE IS THE SECOND EYE? Oh hidden by a hair strand? Are you aware that you will never learn how to draw the second eye like this? And hands? You hide them or draw them like tiny flesh-coloured gloves? Nah, nah, naaaaaaaaah thanks to you I still have BIG STRUGGLES when it comes to hands.