A bit of encouragement

[Noah Bradley]

There is almost exactly a three year gap between the creation of these two images.





Work hard, y'all.

[ObscureMechanism]

Thanks

[bcarman]

Which one is three years ago?

[Rayvin]

That is so cool! What a long way you have come. Hard work gets you so much! Well done!!

[hitnrun]

You went from your best work being a sketch, to your best work being a full out, well rendered illustration. Nicely done!

Assuming the 2nd is digital, even more kudos!

[I-Bomb]

F**king Motivating

[battlebattle]

That's what pisses me off the most. I've been working my ass off on ca for years and people just constantly pass me by.

As if life is saying. Oh your dream to be great was possible, you're just too shitty to achieve it.

Writing this as I take a short break having drawn for 4 hours today with the intention of going for about 12.

Anti motivation ;(. Don't have the luxury of giving up though so back to work.

[JFierce]

Some people work at it. Others immerse themselves in it like Noah.
I remember the original sketch of this drawing. Came a long way. Kudos.

[Alice Herring]

There is almost exactly a three year gap between the creation of these two images.

Work hard, y'all.

Out of curiosity, what kind of knowledge/practice did you find most helpful for improvement? Or was it just a matter of mileage for you?

[Medelo]

That's what pisses me off the most. I've been working my ass off on ca for years and people just constantly pass me by.

As if life is saying. Oh your dream to be great was possible, you're just too shitty to achieve it.

Writing this as I take a short break having drawn for 4 hours today with the intention of going for about 12.

Anti motivation ;(. Don't have the luxury of giving up though so back to work.

It's not that you're shitty. In fact, believing that mantra just makes it harder.

Blind work without analysis and insight is about as effective as trying to carve David with a toothpick. Sure, perhaps one day you'll do it, but it's much easier to attack your problems fundamentally and to figure out what's going wrong, than to steamroll ahead without any thought. Mileage is one thing, but troubleshooting, absorbing, and analyzing are just as important. Above all be humble enough to admit that maybe there is the possibility that you did just go about things the wrong way. If you're still stuck on the same problems 5 years down the road, I think it's safe to say you just re-tread your old mistakes.

There are plenty of resources out there that no one these days can say they don't have the information, they don't get to go to art school, yadda yadda. In fact I believe Noah has a handy list on his blog to start with, here: http://www.noahbradley.com/blog/2011...to-art-school/

[Farvus]

Thanks. Great progression.

I see from your sketchbook that the big thing that pushed you forward was lots of traditional life drawing and painting for school. That's probably the only thing I didn't have enough in those six years of my learning. It's a main trouble when you're self-thaught and it proves to me even more that at least one intense year of observation drawing in some atelier would be invaluable.

battlebattle - I think you rely a bit too much on photos. More precisely the brushstrokes don't really follow the form in your work beacause you take most of your knowledge about form from flat images.

[JerryActric]

its interesting that things like this always appear right at the end of the days that you need them the most, Thanks Noah

[LORD M]

Seriously. You're awesome, Noah. I would like to know a bit more of how you have been thinking these last 3 years, if that is ok with you. This is so inspiring and I want to push myself even further seeing this kind of progress so that a similar leap can happen to me one day.

[Stuart DeViva]

Thank's Noah! I'm buying your freelance vid!

[vineris]

That's what pisses me off the most. I've been working my ass off on ca for years and people just constantly pass me by.

Yeah, I've noticed that people tend to avoid people who complain a lot and put themselves down. I don't know what's up with that.

[[email protected]]

Blind work without analysis and insight is about as effective as trying to carve David with a toothpick. Sure, perhaps one day you'll do it, but it's much easier to attack your problems fundamentally and to figure out what's going wrong, than to steamroll ahead without any thought. Mileage is one thing, but troubleshooting, absorbing, and analyzing are just as important.

Agreed, this is dubbed 'deliberate practice' by Ericsson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practic...erate_practice), who researched the notion of expertise: what makes a master violin/soccer/art player a master?

I believe his findings will be useful and encouraging for those struggling with progress: "We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain"

[Noah Bradley]

Practicing != Endlessly doing the same thing

[battlebattle]

Yeah, I've noticed that people tend to avoid people who complain a lot and put themselves down. I don't know what's up with that.

Yeah dude. I bet.

Sorry we can't all be 100% optimistic 100% of time. In life it's ok from time to time to experience something between 0 and 100.

But I'm happy you're so happy. Lucky you.

[TinyBird]

Sorry we can't all be 100% optimistic 100% of time. In life it's ok from time to time to experience something between 0 and 100.

There's a difference between feeling down and whining about it. The latter is a choice you make and which you can avoid. If whining makes you feel better, then go ahead but like said, people tend to avoid those people.
Because people generally don't feel like putting lots of time to help or compliment someone who'll just go "BAWWWW I learned nothing I suck and all my art sucks" no matter whether they improved or not.

With strangers you just jump straight to stage five.

EDIT: Also I notice you have about zero Critique threads. Having those might help you get some feedback.

[madbot]

Bloody brilliant Noah, very motivating. Also it's my new favorite of yours. Hope I can get it as a print eventually.

[vineris]

Sorry we can't all be 100% optimistic 100% of time. In life it's ok from time to time to experience something between 0 and 100.

We can't be 100% clothed 100% of the time either but most of us manage to get some pants on before we go out in public.

If you have some close friends, Internet or otherwise, talk to them about it. Otherwise you are running a PR campaign to convince the world that you suck, and that just ain't gonna end well because eventually everybody is going to believe you. This is pretty much the shittiest way to convince people to pay positive attention to you.

[Shorinji_Knight]

That's what pisses me off the most. I've been working my ass off on ca for years and people just constantly pass me by.

As if life is saying. Oh your dream to be great was possible, you're just too shitty to achieve it.

Writing this as I take a short break having drawn for 4 hours today with the intention of going for about 12.

Anti motivation ;(. Don't have the luxury of giving up though so back to work.

If you tell people that your work isn't good they will believe you... even if it is good. What is worse is that if you tell yourself your work isn't good, it never will be. You are making self-fulfilling prophecies here. Don't sabotage yourself, there are enough people who will do it for you, so you don't have to help. Build yourself up first. Find something you do well, then find another...
Your art will improve if you improve your mindset. If you plan for failure you will succeed at failure.

[QueenGwenevere]

@TinyBird: Oh man, that's so spot-on, I've been through the exact same cycle with a few people I've followed... After a while you don't want to have anything to do with them because they're so damned depressing.

Speaking of which, this rant is pretty apropos to the whole excessively-self-demeaning attitude: http://ramblingheartwood.tumblr.com/...burnout-part-2

I mean... the occasional bout of uncertainty or discouragement or lack of confidence? Sure, everyone has those sometimes. We can relate. But a constant litany of "I suck I suck I suck"...? That gets everybody down after a while, including the person doing the whining.

[Whirly]

Dont want to derail the thread anymore but thanks Tinybird and QueenGwen .. I realise just how self depracting I have been on my sketchbook and it really isn't doing me any good. I hadn't even realized!

Thank you both for comments!

Back to the thread ...

BLOODY AWESOME! Thanks Noah, I wish more people would do stuff like this!

[Noah Bradley]

Fake it till ya make it.

[zx52hg]

Hit the back button and lost my effing reply. I feel the same way as battlebattle sometimes, thinking it's a race and always feeling like people are passing me by. I get kind of jealous looking at other people's artwork and seeing how quickly they progress. I was throwing some old junk out from my room the other day, though, and I found every drawing I had made from a certain period about five years ago. I've never felt so good about my current stuff. I was making drawings that were on par with scribbles made by five year olds. Admittedly, I can't really claim my current stuff looks on par with stuff made by the serious students on here, but it is a very encouraging feeling when you're down on your luck.

[Jazz]

I really appreciate your encouragement, Noah!! Over the years I progressed a little, but I did progress! I have some awesome support too, so I'm feeling better about the next progress that I make.

[kinjark]

I like Noah's Positive one liners. Well timed.

[Eva K]

Encouragement indeed, thanks for the mental kick

[Previsha]

Thanks Noah... Inspirational indeed.