Eat me alive.

[Nusku]

Im terrified to post here. But I need this. Give me all you got!


My talent compared to most of the artists on here is but a grain of sand, maybe less. I wish to better myself and to do so, I need critique and tips!

These are all my BEST pieces! The zombie baby giraffe is not done yet, I just have to finish the ear.

Estimated time on the giraffe = ~4.5 hours... i know, im slow!

Have at it!

[Nusku]

After browsing the forums some more, I'm actually embarrassed to have posted these.

[Stoat]

Right. Well. If you want feedback on individual pieces, post them individually. Everyone gets brain lock with multiple images.

If you want an overall impression, here goes. Your efforts at this point shouldn't go toward creating finished, imaginative pieces. You need to spend time (a LOT of time) filling up your brain with little studies, so you have the visual tools to do imaginative work later. If at all.

That's the thing -- little studies and still lifes can be an end in themselves. They can be beautiful and worthwhile all on their own. Or not -- sometimes you learn a lot from a study that ends up looking pretty crap. But their *purpose* is to teach your eyes and your hands how to make believable images. Nobody gets to skip the first steps. It's like musicians learning scales; artists have to learn light, texture, form...a bzillion things, before they can just wing it.

Not trying to put you down; some of these show promise. But you're trying to play some pretty complicated music before you've learned your scales. It's not talent you lack, it's many hours of work.

I always point people to Bumskee's old Painting in Photoshop thread. It's a brilliant place to start. For now, ignore the text, browse the art, then go grab the nearest vegetable or piece of fruit. You will be joining a long, LONG tradition of artists who have stared at apples and wondered WTF?

[Nusku]

No words will put me down. I am motivated and dedicated to better myself as an artist and I really do appreciate your feedback. I know I need to start from the beginning but I honestly have NO real influence or guidance... I don't know where the beginning is! Is it at circles to spheres? Apples? Do I draw grapes all day? I would love to start from the very beginning and work my way up! I just don't know where!

I haven't slept yet, but the first thing I plan on doing tomorrow is getting an apple and drawing the shit out of it. Thank you so much for commenting! My heart dropped when I saw a reply!

-Nusku

[Stoat]

Heh. Good luck. You've come to an excellent place and you're starting at a splendid time (what I would have given for something like YouTube when I was starting out!). Start with the apple, check out other people's sketchbooks, look at the book recommendations in various threads. Every question you'll ask has surely been asked before, but if you can't find it...ask again.

Sweet dreams...

[Nusku]

I am so very grateful! I can't wait to see what you think.

[vineris]

You gotta start somewhere.

I'm going to tackle the first two. If you want to draw a nice rose, even a stylized one, you need to spend some time drawing roses from reference. Do it in pencil or pen so you can do it fairly quickly. (This is a good way to learn to draw anything.) At first pay attention to the contours (the outline) until you're fairly accurate copying something that's in front of you. Then try to simplify it into simple 3D shapes. With a rose, it's got a lot of flat petals wrapped around one another so that's going to be tricky. You might want to start with value studies instead -- shading the rose from reference to make it look 3D. To make it simple an cartoony, you still have to understand the shapes and proportions that make up a rose, it's just that you don't go into all the details. You can't really skip the studies, though, and try to bullshit a rose out of your head, because you're not going to remember everything correctly.

For the second one, its biggest problem is perspective. You can't really bullshit perspective either, because it's a side effect of the way we see. So if you fuck it up, it's as though we're seeing a completely different shape. For this, I'd find some tutorials on perspective, or a basic how-to-draw book that covers it, and do lots of perspective studies. Set up the horizon line, put in the vanishing points, and draw your simple 3D shapes. When you understand what's going on with perspective, you can tackle this again and it'll look better.

You don't need to be embarrassed, everyone has less-than-brilliant art in their closet. All that anyone here really asks for is that you work to improve.

[Nusku]

Thank you! I will try my best to become better. I usually get frustrated because I can see something so perfect and creative in my mind and when I try to draw it I get a sloppy version of sloth from the goonies. It is very rare that I get a picture that I'm happy with. For instance the Giraffe and Panda are my favorites...its hit or miss with me because I have no real anchor...no real techniques that I can rely on. That is why I am here! To learn from you wonderful people. Im excited to see where this community takes me and hopefully one day I can help someone just like myself! (:

Now, I'm off to bed! Thank you all for your amazing replies. I shall return!