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The Improvement Movement

Wed Mar 21, 2007, 7:26 AM
Improvement Movement - Help!

Warning, long journal. To cut a long story short, I feel I'm stuck at my current level of art and am desperate to improve a lot. For that I need people to pick apart my art and give me some brutal, honest critique. I don't want anyone to be nice about it. Tell me eactly what I can do better, what I can work on, take my art to pieces, point out mistakes. Any critique/advice/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Okay... so I've been thinking...

I've been seeing a lot of these development pictures recently on DA, where artists document their improvement over time, and I've decided I want to improve. I want to improve a lot.
I'm not completely displeased with my stuff or I'd probably be too scared to even put it up here, but I know very well that it isn't the best I can do, and that bugs me.

One big problem for me is time, as I've mentioned a couple of time to a few people here, I do a lot of stuff, on top of school.
This leaves me less time to draw stuff that I'd like to. (Of course this is no excuse, because when I do have time I often don't use it sensibly.)
On top of that I'm a horrible horrible procrastinator, and I know it.

So. After next week there's going to be holidays for two weeks or so. I'd really really like to actually get down to doing a lot more art in that time, if possible daily. Two weeks isn't that much, so my aim is to pick up again in the summer holidays.

And I need help.

Okay, a big part is of course me kicking my ass round to actually doing stuff instead of mooching about being unproductive, which I do a lot.

But, and here's where you possibly come in.

I need advice.

I know a lot of things I need/want to improve on.

But I'd also be eternally grateful if you guys could give me a few pointers. No matter how small. Be honest about my stuff, for all I care pick it apart, I want to find what I'm doing wrong, doing too much of, too little of etc.
Actually, I beg you to take it apart. Don't try to be nice about anything, I want truth.

Couple of things I'm talking about:

Backgrounds: With me, basically don't exist.
Anatomy/Proportions: I have two pretty good anatomy books, I'm planning on doing anatomy drawing exercises in
the holidays. Anatomy's not my worst point, but has loads of room for improvement. I also do way too few full body
pics, so when I do, Proportions are often a bit off. And ho my God, Hands and Feet.
Colouring: See backgrounds... Okay, not quite, I've gotten a bit better about it, but I don't colour
nearly enough of my stuff. There's also plenty of room for improvement there on shading, lighting, etc.
Perspective: To quote someone's journal I read a while ago: "Who's that?" But seriously, I suck badly at
perspective, to the point that I'm just scared of even attempting it. So I'd like to try some perspective pieces,
and overly exagerated perspective on characters.
Realism: Just something I'd like to do more. I am utterly in awe of artists who can do photo-realisic
pictures. I would love to be able to achieve that.
Movement: My pictures are way too static. I'd like to try for more dynamic poses. Also action scenes and
fight scenes.
Media: I need to get into the habit of using stuff other than a pencil.
Variety I sometimes feel I draw two much of the same stuff/similar stuff, and then shy away from doing
stuff I find difficult. Things I'd like to learn to draw include instruments, mechanical things, cars, everyday
objects, furniture, etc.
Clothes: My characters all dress boringly and very badly :)
Character Design: I want to create more individual original characters that are easily distinguishable from
each other and unique.
Hair, clothing and folds and buildings: ... Hard :XD:
Emotion: I want to broaden the range of emotions I use and be able to portray them better.
Anime: Okay, I like Manga/Anime, and I like drawing in the style I use at the moment, however, sometimes I feel I'd like to break out of it more often and try something else.

So, that's what I know about.
Now you. Feel free to elaborate on some of the points, I'd love to hear your advice, opinions, etc.

For example:

What do you like about my work?
What don't you like?
Where do you see room for improvement?
Anything I don't do at all, or suck at completely?
What needs to be improved more than other stuff?
How can I motivate myself more?
What should I do more/less?
What excercises can you suggest?

Also, feel free to give me ideas for individual pieces, characters, poses, backgrounds, buildings, anything to spark ideas and get me drawing. I'm serious about this, I don't know if I'll stick it through, but I really do want to. It means a lot to me.
I'd love to make a living off art, for that, I need to improve a lot.

I'd like to draw up some sort of daily plan I can work on in the holidays, pointers here would be appreciated too.
e.g.:
- 1 sheet anatomy exercises
- 1 perspective drawing
- 1 shading exercise
- 1 sheet everyday object
- Copic doodles
- draw a garden
- choose a character and draw him with 10 different emotions/outfits

You get the gist.

I was thinking of possibly even making a diary of sorts documenting exercises and progress, maybe a journal, I don't know.
Something where people can come round and kick my ass into working :)
(This is not definite, just an idea.)

Maybe some of you would like to join in, we could motivate each other. That would be really awesome.

Also, I'm hoping that because I've made this public I'll be more inclined to actually work on this, just incase somebody might be watching.

I will be eternally grateful for any comment, any speck of advice or critique anyone has to offer. Thanks for reading this.

I'll keep you posted on progress.

PS: I'd also like to raise the standard of my gallery, so I mean to move a lot of stuff to
scraps or possibly delete it completely, we'll see. What do you think?

  • Listening to: The Exies - Head for the Door
  • Reading: Moon Palace - Paul Auster
  • Eating: Too Much.

Devious Comments

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:iconfenixwings:
Your art is already pretty amazing but I think this plan for improving is a really great idea:) I'll try to be helpful but I encounter many of the same problems (backgrounds, poses, hands/feet) so I probably won't be much help in areas like that.XD

Here's some things I've done that have sort of improved my stuff(although they're still in need of much more>_<;):

For folds and stuff: grabbing a piece of cloth and just drawing it. Tying it is some places or just crumpling it on the table and doodling little sketches of it. Maybe if you get one of those little poseable mannequins and put the cloth on it to see how the folds and lighting work. (Haven't actually tried it yet but didn't think of it till just nowXD)

For hands: I've just been using my own handXD I put it in the pose I want and attempt to mimic it while trying to remember that the characters I draw aren't as skinny as I am. My sister actually took a picture of her hands in the pose she wanted.

Hope some of that was at least a little helpful and I look forward to seeing the progress you make:D

--
~Fenixwings

"I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright."
:iconffufi:
But, you DO backgrounds :XD: I don't. Which is the main reason I'm no good at them.

Heh, what's most annoying is that it's not the best I could do and I'm very much aware of that fact. I know my art isn't too bad, but it could be miles better.

Yeah, I'll do that with the cloth... maybe look at clothes catalogs and draw from those too... tying fabric is a good idea.
Heh, I wouldn't mind getting one of those mannequins actually, I'll keep an eye out, thanks for the reminder.

Yeah, my hand frequently poses as a model too :D But it's a bit of a pain holding it that way for too long, so I'm going to try and draw more from comics/photos/anatomy books.

Thanks for the pointers :D :hug:
:iconfenixwings:
You're welcome! Glad to be of help:)

--
~Fenixwings

"I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright."
:icongamefrk07:
Self portrait! It's the ultimate challenge...well for me it is :P lol
We should draw each other? Ok I don't know. I'm just making up stuff. I think your really good at drawing, I mean look at my drawings. They suck! lol
:iconffufi:
:XD: I hate selfportraits... but you're right, I should try that...
I'm gonna have to do one for art anyway over the weekend :P

Your drawings do not suck :disbelief: And also, I think you've been improving :nod:

Whereas I feel that I'm kinda stuck. I don't feel I've been moving on at all much recently... so that's the main thing that's bought this on... If I felt I was improving it wouldn't be so bad.
:icongamefrk07:
See I knew you needed to do a self portrait :P
You really think I'm improving? I don't really see an improvement. Maybe you should try a different style of drawing? Like me I decided to use more color lol
:iconffufi:
Looking at your older stuff and seeing your new stuff every now and again I do feel I'm seeing an improvement.
E.g. this [link] to me looks quite a bit better than some of your older works, the face I find especially good.
I would like to try to perhaps develop a more individual style of drawing, but at the moment I'm more interested in generally getting some good strong basics down. Then I can work on style :) But thanks for the idea! Colour I definitely need to do more...
:icongamefrk07:
No not the self portrait *covers eyes* lol
Don't be afraid of the color for it is your friend *hands over set of crayons* I know it's not the best thing to color with but hey! :P lol
:iconffufi:
*hugs Copics* Noes, these are much better for colouring :XD:
But crayons are quite nice too.

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