scariari hates art

[scariari]

i'm ari, and i figured it was about time i started posting here.

i'm really terrible about practicing and at the time of writing i probably could not possibly be worse about doing studies and whatnot. my roots in anime/cartoons/etc are likely pretty obvious. i'm aware of a lot of the problems in my work (though i'm sure there are plenty more!), but i'm usually at a loss for how to improve. that's why i'm here!

please try to bear with my inexperience and uh, forgive all the homestuck which will almost certainly appear. i have a problem.

**i do not currently have access to a scanner or computer of my own, and am using a friends!!** updates will be slow and far between for a while.

[scariari]

okay so i just scanned fucking everything and oh man there is some embarassing stuff in here!! this is very nearly everything i've drawn since february this year.

things i need to improve on, off the top of my head:

• confident lines
• media other than mechanical pencils
• basic form - i just can't seem to grasp this. help me, loomis....
• anything resembling shading???
• things that aren't characters. scenery, animals, plants, food, etc
• colour
• anatomy
• realism of any sort
• DRAWING FROM LIFE.............

where do i even begin! (answer: right now i'm going through "fun with a pencil again")

[Axelga2112]

Welcome! seems like you pretty much avoid hands completely. So that's something to try to learn if you wish to be able to draw full and expressive figures. The thing with hands is that when you get good at them (which is going to happen faster then you may think at first) you'll find that they are one of the most enjoyable things to draw, and also they give more character and expression to the figures than any other part together with the obvious face and maybe the spine. Another thing: Why you would seek inspiration from homestuck is beyond me. You are clearly way better than those originals already ;d Real life always wins. anyways, good luck

[scariari]

you're completely right! i'm usually drawing not to improve, but to get an idea out of my head or kill time. i'm obviously here 'cause i want to change that. well, more like do the same, but improve as well :U expression is very important to my goals regarding art. i've done a study today, and i will work on it more tomorrow! no excuses.

as for homestuck, well. of taste, there is no dispute to be very, very pretentious: the old masters always drew inspiration from the literature and fairy tales of their day. to be less so, and more accurate: i really enjoy the characters in the series and i like drawing them, and it gives me a preexisting design so i can be lazy.

howeverrrrr i do agree real life is best! first hand experience gives me the best ideas, and it's obviously the best place to learn from. when i'm drawing fanart, i'm usually combining inspiration from real life with another artist's creations, i guess??

anyway thank you for taking the time to respond

[Naidy]

Hey, mate! I see you're already allright at analysing your own weaknesses. The natural next step is to create exercises for yourself that work on these areas. I'll chuck in a few of my own, if it helps any.

confident lines - Ever heard of continual line drawing? You don't let your pencil/pen leave the paper. At first, it can be unbearably frustrating to ignore your urges to scratch-scratch-scratch along a given path, but you get into it. If you want any examples I'll be happy to find some. But really, just draw anything, but don't let pen leave paper. It doesn't matter if the end product is a mess(which it will be 90% of the time) it's about losing that habit to scratch a billion times when one movement would suffice.

media other than mechanical pencils: Hahaha, well. I'm sure you can sort this one out for yourself. Mind you, I find if you're using anything like paints, try getting a large peice of paper, A3, or something, and drawing loads of shapes on it. Then, picking three/4 different colours to use and making a small picture in each shape. It's essentially thumbnailing, but it's a quick stress free way of fiddling with a medium you're not used to, rather than feeling you have to make MASSIVE MASTER PEICES when you've never used watercolours before.

basic form - Ah, now. Don't just look towards loomis for this! Focus on plane studies, Bridgeman and This could also help. *oh god I hope that's not ILLEGAL TO RECOMEND But basically you got to focus on breaking things you SEE down into SHAPES. Take your own face, for example and try to break it down as these head planes do. Trace over your own photos first, just so you can SEE for yourself how it can work, then try drawing such things.

anything resembling shading???: Haha in your style this might be difficult. It's a very symbolic, illustrative style, they tend to be flat and look almost creepy with accurate shading. Try focusing on real objects and people first, along with your plane studies. That added understanding on how shade effects REAL things will help you understand how to shade your stylised images effectively.

things that aren't characters. scenery, animals, plants, food, etc: Ever thought of just tearing up a peice of paper, writing all these options (including characters, just for a hope of something 'fun') and picking them out at random? Makes studying less daunting. If you pick the character card, you pick a second card and study the second thing first, THEN combine it with a character, i.e Food and character, meaning you sketch your dinner and then draw your character eating.

colour: Same as my medium exercise. Make lots of shapes. Put three marks of colour underneath, paint from that colour combo. It's more fun than it sounds, trust me.

anatomy: Take some peices of paper with different areas to study on? Also combine it with gesture studies (Check here, if you're not TERRIFIED OF RANDOM NUDES) ALSO: don't just draw from photos. It's important to draw what ever you can from what's around you. Your hands and feet, for example.

realism of any sort: Haha, I'm sure you'll get round to that.
DRAWING FROM LIFE: Self portraits, sleeping people you know, even drawing what's around you as you're sat. Even if you think it's the most boring thing in the world. ALL BUILDING UP YOUR SKILLS.

Oh, am I done? I think I am! Anyways. Great seeing someone starting up. I get all excited when I see beginners and I don't even know why. Good luck on the progress!