/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>2122033
I started drawing every day.
My art is finally hitting maturity, but it takes a lot of practice. I filled up 2 sketchbooks in 3 months, on top of doing drawing/design assignments in college and personal work digitally.

I stopped playing videogames completely. I take a sketchbook when I go to have beers with my friends, or when I visit family. I watch lots of tutorials and streams by pro/semipro artists-- either while I am drawing, or when I am taking a break to eat. I frequent art boards and forums and try to get involved with discussions about technique and results.

Twice I've been sore from drawing too much. First in my fingers from holding a pencil or brush so much, and second in my arms from sheer exhaustion of the muscles/tendons.


I have noticed significant improvements in my ability to draw, but it is not nearly as noticeable to other people. If you can put the same amount of effort, and not care that others might not see your progress, then you can make significant improvements in about 4-6 months. Otherwise, I would settle in for the long haul

>>2122033
Yes, it's called doing it. Also if you're like me and so many other people, we tend to turn our brains off while drawing, you have to fight this, be aware of what your doing and why you're doing it at all times, question everything you do (not in a negative way) while doing it not after you already did it.

I must say Keys to drawing helped me tremendously getting in this mindset. Also some people are more visual learners while others are more technical, so find what type works best for you.

And of course, JUST DO IT.

>>2122048
>>2122049
Ok then. I'm taking a week off from work right now so I'll spend that time just drawing and reading Keys to drawing and see how things turn out. Thanks I guess. I feel like I already know that but just didn't want to do it the hard way.

>>2122054
https://youtu.be/gJscrxxl_Bg

>have to draw/paint alot to get good at drawing & painting.

What a surprise.

>>2122054
>just didn't want to do it the hard way.

There is no easy way.

>>2122060
There is for some.

>>2122088
>take 5 months vacation
>i totally never studied, i got good (average) by art osmosis, tee hee
Some will believe this.

>>2122097
Nice try, but everyone knows that you don't improve your technical ability because you'll just do it subconsciously.

>>2122033
Find a teacher. Work hard.

>>2122119
>Find a teacher
See this is the hard part

>>2122088

i neever understood this meme/joke

>>2122048
>I stopped playing videogames completely.

here's the 5 points that worked for me
1) Always consider the entirety of the page with your drawings. Construct a scene and try to create complete drawings as much as possible, at least when you are beginning.

2) Cross-hatching. You need as many lines drawn as possible to get comfortable with a pencil as quickly as possible. Do not shade in giant, gradated chunks. It looks pretty, it teaches you nothing. It's all about being comfortable with your materials.

3) Work abstractly, then evolve towards life drawing. Abstractly meaning one of two things: Reference based artwork done from your existing imagination ( Finding out how you like to draw smoke, or water, or houses), or just mark making practice, and getting more comfortable with your materials.

Then you can start working in learning to draw from life and realistically, but only after you have a firm grasp on the most minute details of how you like to draw lines, dots, circles, etc.

4) Writing. Nothing propels you forward like a good idea to base your drawings on. If you have a solid story to tell in your drawing it will make you want to perfect a drawing. It also gives you a story library to work from in the future. Having original ideas that are all your own is an important part of being an artist.

This also gives you an excuse to work from photographs and learn how to use reference materials properly

This is really the only time when you should be using reference materials and working digitally though. Pointless studies of photographs you aren't using for a story gets you nowhere. Your time is better spent life drawing. Drawing space marine #525 isn't going to get you anywhere. Stories, damnit. Stories.

>>2122130
point #5 is stop having sex and masturbating unless it's for reproduction if you were wondering. that's arguably the most important one but I understand not everyone agrees with that.

Frees up a lot of time for you.

>>2122130
I have a story I want to turn into a webcomic but I've been holding off because my art isn't where I want it to be.

>>2122126
It's based on Tehmeh's otherwise solid advice that you need to think critically while you work. He also apparently went from amateurish to...substantially better in a very VERY short time frame and mentioned how he'd literally put in thousands of additional hours of counter-strike and team fortress 2 (I can't remember the exact number but if I recall it was roughly 150 day's worth, in fact) during this same time period. Tehmeh's ok really I just felt like giving him some shit. It was just a bit of fun, nothing...personnel.

>>2122133
it's probably crap. 99% of every joke I write or story I want to tell is crap. you just need to write a lot and bring things to completion to get you ready for when the 1% of good stuff comes.

>>2122131
I am a low-test loser with a limp dick and autism I think I'll be fine in that regard.

>yearn for romantic love and sex, preferably with a 6.3+/10 qt grill
>terrified of both

JUST

>>2122137
>tfw girls and guys hit on my all the time but all I want is to be the cute petboi of some 7 ft tall amazon

this is a strange feel

>>2122130
>thinking you're good enough to give advice

>>2122137
ew. im a perfectly functional adult with a below-average sized penis and a decent face. i just don't want to have sex cause im not a retard. added benefit of getting to draw my 10/10 big tittied friends for free cause im hell of platonic.

>>2122141
>being good enough to give advice

another piece of advice is to just take it seriously your whole life and not take shit from people like that guy

>>2122140
Funny you should say that, I actually met a tall woman on craigslist the other day because I was buying a printer from her. I kind of inadvertently spazzed when I saw her lol (hope she didn't notice), I'll never know that feel bruh, she was nice tho.

>>2122142
My penis is about average (not that it matters), I'm in decent shape and I look damn good, I'm just a mental case with a shitty retarded dick.

Shit sucks man, I wanted kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T0hJ001qBc

>hell of platonic.

Sure you aren't just afraid of showing these supposed lady friends of yours your less-than-stellar wing ding? Look deep inside my man, if that's the case I just want you to know that the dinger on the inside counts more than you might think, maybe not as much as the dinger on the outside but it def counts for something mane.

>>2122148
>Funny you should say that, I actually met a tall woman on craigslist the other day because I was buying a printer from her.
I need to start using craigslist.

>>2122146
>posting your memetier progress
>being this full of yourself
what even is >>2122117? anime? fuck me if anyone considers this good.

>this shit art
>supposedly taking it seriously
Please don't give advice

>>2122154
then don't take my advice? offer your own? post your work? so many places we could go from here

>>2122157
Its not about me here, but you're out of line giving anecdotal advice to anyone. I only pointed it out before anyone starts to follow what your advice.

>>2122033
>Like some sort of special practice
Google deliberate practice.

>>2122174
This.

>>2122134

and you're sure you're not tehmeh?

>>2122174
>>2122188
this was my figure drawing 4 years ago. it probably isn't impactful showing paintings i did 4 years ago that were good but you can't tell me I don't have some idea of what I'm doing when it comes to practicing.

>>2122033
Suicide and hope you're asian in the next life.

>>2122188
>>2122174
he's seems good enough to talk about it, you don't have to be crab mullets to give advice to someone like OP.
he's good enough, but i wonder if the same thing can be said about you.

from the looks of it you aren't even qualified enough to judge other peoples advice. please never post again

>>2122174

>>2122130
Seems like pretty solid advice to me, and I would appreciate it even if it came from a beginner. Some parts are debatable, such as the usefulness of photo studies, but unless you are completely clueless you could make those decisions for yourself and disregard the parts that don't apply to you.

>>2122129
I did egulate my playtime too. it was hard, but i really pick my games nowadays (No multiplayer tho)

>>2122130
Fucking ridiculous

>but only after you have a firm grasp on the most minute details of how you like to draw lines, dots, circles, etc.

instead of wasting 100 hours drawing shit from imagination, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDNDOKnArk&list=PLY87GPNHRZzThGePdE-29CqAMTonoSOqa a watch peter han on lines and shapes. You can actually train yourself to make marks differently instead of limiting yourself to muh style. Mark making practice I agree with, but "reference based artwork done from your existing imagination" fuck off with that.

>4) Writing. Nothing propels you forward like a good idea to base your drawings on. If you have a solid story to tell in your drawing it will make you want to perfect a drawing. It also gives you a story library to work from in the future.

yeah it's nice to have creative ideas and you can write those down separately if you want for the future but getting into story telling when your basics aren't even semi-decent is fucking ridiculous. Ever been on deviantart you deluded shit. Also, " it will make you want to perfect a drawing" yeah cause polishing at turd is going to be so helpful. Fuck off your stupid nigger. You wanna make a perfect drawing you do a bunch studies to understand exactly why and what you are fucking up, and maybe then you can start your ideal "piece" all over again (which is a moronic idea if you're in OP's situation trying to git gud fast).

>This also gives you an excuse to work from photographs and learn how to use reference materials properly
>excuse
wow bro

>This is really the only time when you should be using reference materials and working digitally though. Pointless studies of photographs you aren't using for a story gets you nowhere.

Getting a large mental library of references and knowledge is a waste of time?

>>2123037

i'll add onto my post for op: the quickest way to git gud is to do studies as much as possible, you want to have a good mental reference. library for yourself both in terms of remembering what shit looks like and understand its construction. >>2122049 is onto something good here with awareness. question everything and why it behaves in the way you see it. it's like math, learn the formulas (eg break shit down, look at construction) and then solve your own equations (what would this construction look like at a different angle? what if i modified this construction in this or that way?). obviously start off with making sure you can draw what you see, at least to a moderate extent, but people here have already mentioned that. also watch other artists' (good artists lmao) process videos to see how they take in information and how they structure it to end up with their finished pieces, think about why and what they're doing all the time and how you can apply these methods for your own stuff.

>>2122033
>there a way to improve your art really quickly?

one bit of advice I have always loved was to ignore absolutely everybody else and make your art away from other contemporary influences.

forget for as long as you can if your good or bad but that it's your art, your bit of the art world and make it as good as you think it should be.

all these drawers on here are way better than me, but I mourn when I see dedicated anime master classes.


go mental with it.

>>2123037
>Getting a large mental library of references and knowledge is a waste of time?

i think most of your post is just arguing. I offered advice. The best way to learn to draw is to go back in time and spend your entire childhood drawing because those first 10 years are more important than anything. But how to get good at 20 is totally up to the person.

But as for building a large mental library of knowledge, I think that is incredibly important. But it is more important that what you draw is personal to you. I spent a lot of my time as a kid building a mental library based solely on my imagination and it benefited me greatly. I didn't need to see a picture of trees to know what a tree was. You don't have to see a picture of smoke to understand the concept of smoke.

Knowing what you know is extremely important. More important than copying photos and trying to parse out of a photorealistic image what you think the "smokiness" of some smoke in a picture was. Most people already know how they like to draw most things, they just haven't practiced them enough.

That's why I think writing is important. If you don't have a story to tell about smoke, why not just spend that time learning how you personally like to draw it. When push comes to shove and you need to draw smoke realistically for an illustration your doing then go ahead and look up references, but it's secondary to your imagination.

People forget too quickly that Basquiat already lived and worked drawing whatever the hell he wanted how he wanted, and nobody should be discouraged from doing that just because some people on /ic/ prefer Kim Jung Gi's imagination to theirs.

But in the end the most important thing is just drawing. If you draw 9 hours a day for the rest of your life you are going to get better at it. You will get better in spite of yourself, and all of your insecurities. And it will never feel like you are good enough at what you do, but you will be better than other people.

>>2122033

There's no practice regimen that works for everyone. You gotta figure out what works for you.

#1 way to improve art quickly: Draw as much as possible.

Everyone hears this, everyone says it, and it's true. To get good, you gotta do it. A lot. But how? That's the tricky part. It's about commitment and discipline. If you can't commit, you can't get gud. So train your self-discipline by making art a habit. How? Start with easy, obtainable, measurable goals.

Something like spending XX minutes drawing every day. Start SMALL AND EASY. As you get comfortable with it, you increase it. For instance, commit to spending at least 15 minutes drawing every single day. Don't stop just because you don't feel like it, or think you're drawing crap. IT DOESN'T MATTER. It can just be scribbles, but if you have to spend 15 minutes doing it. When it starts to feel easy/natural, then up it to 20min. Make it slightly challenging, but be gentle with yourself. Think couch-to-5k, but for drawing.

Gettin gud is about devoting yourself to it. Best way to devote yourself to a hobby is by making that hobby a part of your daily life. Best way to do that? Making it a habit. That shit builds up yo. If you start small and slowly increase the challenge as you go, you'll be blown away by how much you end up doing. The hard part is starting, so make it easy af to start.

>>2122131
This is the hardest step.
>Tfw when porn addict
I want to draw porn, not be wanking to it nonstop.