TinyBird's sketches - only critiques please, no compliments

[self-epidemic]

Lazy is something we all fight with! I wouldn't worry. Maybe make a to-do list to get something done even on your laziest of days! Thats how I do it!

Good luck dude, you'll get there <:

[TinyBird]

Also I was doing a Worldbuilding Wednesday during work breaks and somehow it ended up with a gregor dog

[TinyBird]

Trying to paint materials is so intimidating I feel like I'm sitting in the dentist's office every time I try it. Anyway, block of brushed steel.

[TinyBird]

[JFierce]

The only thing I can think of for the steel is there isn't a lot of contrast to give it that metallic feeling (at least on my monitor lol). Also within the areas that have strong shadows the 'material' feeling would probably be dull to nonexistant. Same for the highlightish areas with really strong light.



Just a random google image search of brushed steel block. But most I saw were similar.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beesbargains/5739213796/

[TinyBird]

Colour work from school with acrylics.
They don't really follow the given task and they don't look like what I was painting, they pretty much failed miserably.

[Falchion]

Your acrylics are still a sight better than what I can do. That said, if you want to increase control over them, you really shouldn't be watering them down so much.

Your practice piece with the block of brushed steel, I feel could do with a bit more solidity and more importantly, finish. Yeah, meant it in the literal sense. Brushed metal has a very distinctive look that is actually somewhat easy to replicate given the use of the rotate tool and the shift key to get straight lines.

[TinyBird]

Your acrylics are still a sight better than what I can do. That said, if you want to increase control over them, you really shouldn't be watering them down so much.

Well, to this I have to excuse myself that watery liquid acrylics (that were so potent that they had to be watered down significantly to get any lighter hues) with the use of wet on wet techniques (without any preliminary drawing) was the thing we had to use in these, and I go against the given tasks too much already, heh.

And yes, I'll have to work on the look of the steel block!

[TinyBird]

I added the ref and adjusted my painting, it doesn't look any better though. I just can't manage to get the proper feel and finish for it.

[Star Eater]

I think with your metal tile, you are going to have to become more daring when it comes to the contrasts between light and shadow.
Metallic surfaces are often defined by their very strong contrasts/reflections.

[TinyBird]

If you know it's good and there's no crits, be happy.

But the problem is that I can never be sure if it's actually good or not (I'm known to have an extremely bad taste in almost everything), and neither can other people. I mean even in here I have to occasionally practically hassle for people to give crits when they have them but don't tell them (like with p_sage who had been here for a while) out of various reasons and there's tons of awful art that the artist loves and no one crits but it's still no less awful.
I guess I just really fear that I'm doing crap without noticing it which is why I'm highly paranoid about it, especially with my comics. (Especially since I had this run-down with this artist who's comic made no sense and was overall flawed in every aspect but I assume hadn't heard much critique about it.)

If you don't like your work, if you know it's bad, it might be helpful to say it and why. Or to improve on it before you post. Take care this whole "I don't like my work" is not fake modesty (you really like it but think you can't) that kind of attitude leads to +20 years of depression. True story.

Well, I tried that saying what's wrong with my art thing back in the day, but in the ended it was just so depressing and ended up just being more bashing of my own art that I'm pretty sure it made everyone else depressed too. I totally could write a paragraph or two about what I don't like in every single of my drawings, especially since most of them are just stupid 20 minute doodles I do at 1AM or that one hour I have before I leave to work (or during work when I think no one's looking) and that I do just to get them out of my head. WHat is there to like if you know drawing has been a waste of time that could have been used to draw something productive? If I were to post what I like I wouldn't post anything and if I were to improve everything I'd never finish anything and in the end I wouldn't have the skill to actually fix them. It's quantity over quality.
Or then I'm just using that as an excuse for being lazy again.

I don't know, in the end a big problem might be that I don't do art that I'd like. As in, if I saw my drawings done by someone else I probably wouldn't give two craps about them because they wouldn't appeal to me, but at the same time I'm not sure how to really fix this problem either or what would be the kind of art that I like. Because maybe in the end I do the kind of art that I'd like... if it were just done properly.

Speaking of doing too much crap, I farted these out for various people.

Though now i feel guilty for doing these because I should have used this time to work out on improving my inking.

[TinyBird]

Oh and I did these too..

[Star Eater]

I need to learn how to manage time as well as you do.

[Candra H]

Damn, I'm going to have to cut my comments in half in here now. No compliments on those figure studies above. None at all.

That metal slab you were working on though could use a different approach on how you created the surface texture. The original has a kind of rough stippled effect on the top so maybe if you changed your brush type or strokes and tried to recreate that texture, it would be more successful.

P.S. I get the feeling you do a lot of overthinking about your art. What about just treating the doodles as time killers and not worrying about how shitty, or not, they look? Keep your analytical side for the projects that matter - like work you do for pay or for others, or crits you give etc. Otherwise, I think you might run the risk of driving yourself mad.

[Raymond Luk]

I looked at your title, and laughed, legendary

I sorta checked from page 1 then skipped here, and it looks like you had and still have strong 2d designs that are quite clean.
But haven't noticed any digital paint studies, just mainly gestures and anatomy + your sketch creations
What are you tryna improve? Realism? Anatomy? Coloring? Everything overall?
And what are you working towards? Illustration? Animation? Comics?

Your metal slab values look pretty close, although the bottom parts could up the values a bit. Honestly, at this point, all you have to do is slap a texture on

[phatbuddha]

Hmmm. So much to cover here. I can't tell if you are really bummed out or just ranting a little bit. From the tone it sounds like you are bummed.

First, artists are always critical of their own work (or at least they should be). This is just my personal opinion, but I think it is ok to just doodle sometimes. It all depends on your intent. Not every piece has to be a finished production quality drawing or painting. Sometimes you are just doodling. Sometimes you are working out ideas. Sometimes you are studying (color, anatomy, perspective, line quality, etc.). Sometimes you are creating a finished composition. Just as you reminded me, intent is determined with each individual piece you start.

I think enjoyment is important too. If you get to the point where you don't enjoy creating...something is wrong. Do you have a set of definitive goals in mind? Why do you do this stuff? What's your end game? It's different for everyone. Mine are posted in my sketchbook (and I have a loooong way to go to achieve them). Some people are trying to break into the entertainment, gaming or comics industry. Some folks want to be a fine artist. Some folks are just doing it for personal enjoyment. All of these are ok. It's something extremely personal. So again I ask you, why are you doing it? Once you figure out what that is (if you haven't already), it will be easier to realistically measure your progress and carve out milestones within that journey.

Perfection is a goal that we continuously strive for but never attain. But in the process hopefully we grow and get better along the way. Keep making progress. Every day/month/year we should be better than we were the day/month/year before. Analyzing and learning from every piece we create. When that stops...that's when you have a problem.

So keep your head up and just keep drawing every damn day.

[TinyBird]

I need to learn how to manage time as well as you do.

The secret is having no life and drawing fast. Share this secret with no one!

Oh yeah it also seems this comic is getting published by my pal's little indie self-publishing team, yaaaaynnngh.

[TinyBird]

[lionheartGFX]

wow really awesome stuff lately! i see alot of improvement in your way of handling shading and overall your line is getting so much more cofident, keep going and work on the stuff you cant do so the stuff you can gets better, wish you the best man i cant wait for more updates!!! *subscribes*

[TinyBird]

Rgh somany things to reply to but these are kinda the similar so I'll reply to these both.

What are you tryna improve? Realism? Anatomy? Coloring? Everything overall?
And what are you working towards? Illustration? Animation? Comics?

I'm trying to improve everything, and since it's very hard in here to work towards only one thing and have that as a viable career, I'm working towards everything too, if for nothing else then because I get so easily bored by doing one thing.

So again I ask you, why are you doing it? Once you figure out what that is (if you haven't already), it will be easier to realistically measure your progress and carve out milestones within that journey.

Well the really simple and awkward answer is that I'm doing this because I want to be a Mike Mignola and do art that I like. That's probably a something that's hard to really measure because I need to improve everything. When I first found about the Hellboy movie in 2003, my mind was almost blown because I had never known that you could actually do a comic and actually achieve that, so that people actually know your comic and that it exists. However that's not how things work here, you can't really pay the bills by doing comics, which is why I'm not really doing comics, but yeah...
I guess that could be my goal, doing things I like (as in, like both doing it and the end product), and that people know and remember me for them and have a chance of doing those things as a living. And have a movie done about them, but that's optional. Maybe.
But well, then again I have this feeling that none of that really matters at all. (I wrote this bit earlier)

It’s weird how I remember having lots of things that I wanted to achieve in life, but when I did, I realized none of them really mattered at all after that.
It’s bit like the quote “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”, any achievement that someone like me can do can’t be worth much or something to be proud of.
And thus far, it doesn’t really feel like I’ve achieved anything. This was painfully apparent when I was asked to talk about imaginary monster anatomy in local comic festival with Papermonkey and the host introduced us to the audience telling how people knew the other person from her webcomic and me from… nowhere. I’ve been doing comics and publishing illustrations on and off for the past five years but I have done nothing that the host could mention to the audience and expect them to recognize.
How embarrassing was that?

But it’s weird, years ago I would have died from the chance to illustrate a book, but now that I have, I can’t help but feel that if I were actually good at art, I would have illustrated more of them at this point and that I somehow ruined my chances by not being good enough (though personally I still like the images I did). It’s like a dead end where on one end I can’t get anything of my own done and on other end my art isn’t good enough for anything real. (I guess this is because lots of my previous goals have come to me accidentally and I have seized that opportunity that presented itself, but you can’t go through life like that, without putting serious effort into creating yourself those opportunities.)
But because of this I also end up being extra harsh to people because I unconsciously consider myself to be the lowest standard you can have for this specific skill-level and then do faux pas and get weirded out when I notice that people actually have their personal mindsets and aren’t carbon copies of me in that aspect.

Not every piece has to be a finished production quality drawing or painting. Sometimes you are just doodling. Sometimes you are working out ideas. Sometimes you are studying (color, anatomy, perspective, line quality, etc.). Sometimes you are creating a finished composition.

Well, the problem's here that lately there's nothing else here except doodling... Speaking of those...

[TinyBird]

[TinyBird]

[TinyBird]

[TinyBird]

[phatbuddha]

However that's not how things work here, you can't really pay the bills by doing comics, which is why I'm not really doing comics...

While it is really challenging to do, you can in fact make a career and pay bills by doing comics. Look at Jim Lee, Neal Adams, Whilce Portacio, Mark Brooks, Phil Noto, etc. I agree that it is very tough to break into the industry, but it is not impossible. You just have to work your butt off and not take no for an answer. So ultimately, you are the only person standing in your way of achieving your goals. Just depends on how bad you want it.

[TinyBird]

While it is really challenging to do, you can in fact make a career and pay bills by doing comics. Look at Jim Lee, Neal Adams, Whilce Portacio, Mark Brooks, Phil Noto, etc.

Well, you have to admit that those people do not live in Finland... Really, only couple guys in here might live by doing comics. And those are funny paper strips which have more or less confined those artists to continue them indefinitely. There are no real popular Finnish comic things in here aside comics that are made for little kids (and maybe western or war comics), and I don't want to do those.
Of course moving to America, France etc is a possibility but not one I'm exactly comfortable thinking considering everything the USA is (though I have thought about it) and the fact that I don't speak french. (Okay I am also afraid of traveling to be honest, I've never done it.)
Nor does really running to other country ever going to change Finland's comic situation...

[Odd Berry Creations]

I appreciate and admire your work. You have inspired me to go back and work on gesture drawings. You are crazy good!

[TinyBird]

I just... can't get over that hawk thing. Not 100% sure of the armor yet tho. Unlike Gore he actually has all the appropriate armor parts on the armpits, elbows and knees.

[TinyBird]

It's been rare for me to see you simply take a point, and agree with it. (and I've been quietly following your work for a while... because I like your message).

You are more than likely right, even if it's not something I consciously notice doing. I have a tendency to take things... personally, the only difference is that with critiques I don't search for negative connotations, I just get straight defensive with the "well i did this because".

The lines in most of your work have an abrasive, "scratchy" quality to them... which applies kind of a tense emotional mood to the work. If all of your work is intended to have a tense mood to it... maybe that's fine.

That is actually something I haven't considered at all to be honest. I think this might relate to my other problem that arose in the oil painting course, when I noticed only using one brush (of the five I brought with me) and when the teacher suggested I'd do something (a specific brush thing or highlight etc) I'd go onto this weird mechanic "do the same thing for everything" mode and instead of adding the highlight or colour to the one thing the teacher meant, I'd start adding it all over the image.
It's like lines are a "means to an end" thing (or something) that just is there and I don't consider the end product, just mechanically repeat the motions with whatever I have in hand, meaning that though I think I'm doing the same lines, I'm being affected by the medium (because obviously I hold a wacom differently than a brush and so on).
I'll have to start putting more concentration to what the end image looks like, instead of going just into a "lineart mode".

This has given me lots of things to consider. Though it's likely that the wacom will always affect a bit my digital inking, it's very hard for me to get good lines without using much speed on a A5 Wacom which affect the rushed look of the lines, so I'll have to work on increasing my control on that too.

Apologies if what I say isn't articulated precisely every time.

Well, that was more to the previous critiques, less to your mention about the lines... ANYWAY thanks for putting the time and effort into helping me, it's much more appreciated than you think.

LINES: You can experiment with taking size dynamics off the brush, and use just opacity dynamics for a while.[/QUOTE]
Do you mean something like... this?

[TinyBird]

I swear, every time I try to paint water it never looks like water. Also what are lightsources whoops.