Escape From The Land Of The Suck

[MT-Mystic]

So I've been lurking around for many years now, and I feel that at this point, if I want to really start doing better, I need to start one of these threads.

I'm a pretty strange person to find here; I'm a writer at heart, yet I've sort of fallen into the visual arts over the course of many years. But it's only in the past year or two that I've really come to start understanding things better.

I feel the Internet is an astounding tool that we of this generation have come to take for granted, and this place, though it certainly has its flaws, is part of a global revolution that will change things forever.

Yes I am here to become a better artist. Yes I am here to increase my professional viability. Yes I am here so I can learn to draw cool things. But I'm really here to develop patience, resolve, understanding, appreciation, and imagination, all of which is necessary in order to become a better visual artist. As silly as it may sound, I'm actually here to become a better person.

P.S. No I am not a stodgy old coot, though I certainly may sound like one (I learned to write by reading the work of old white men - this is what happens). I'm actually a 20 year old college student.

We'll see how this goes...

[The7Artist7]

Lol - nice sketchbook title - now lets see some pics

[MT-Mystic]

So to get things up to speed...

Me a couple years ago:


Me a few months ago:



Decent progress, certainly. But much, much farther to go. I've generally been pretty frustrated with myself for a long time, but I think I'm beginning to see what I need to do to start progressing again. Back to basics, so to speak - though the basics are actually anything but.

I'm going to do my best to make sure I write and draw every day. Again, we'll see how this goes...

[The7Artist7]

This is a really good start - keep up the anatomy, watch out for the jelly effect and rubber-joints with your figures and practice anything you find difficult (hands, feet and joints). Overall your figures are looking pretty cool though!

[MT-Mystic]

The7Artist7 - You're right, my joints are definitely pretty wobbly. I guess I've been more focused on getting the masses down that I've neglected parts that connect them together!

Hands, heads, feet, joints, definitely all on my to-do list... in addition to pretty much everything else, of course.

Couple pages from today - sorry about the cut off scans, I'll try to rectify that in the future. Feel free to go to town; all criticisms are appreciated and savored.

[MT-Mystic]

Nother page. Too much white space for my liking. I'll try to fill it up more with my future pages. I just need to make sure I'm at least doing a full page a day, bare bones minimum. Hopefully I can keep that pace up over the course of weeks and months.

[wilkerson]

You dont actually need to know the names of all the muscles. It's more important to know what they do and how they overlap one another. Keep at it.

[MT-Mystic]

wilkerson - I knew somebody would say that. I know most artists take that sort of a stance, and it does make sense - just know the surface anatomy, why waste time learning nomenclature? Leave that for medical professionals. And I felt the same way for a long time.

But as I actually started exploring real anatomy, not just "artistic" anatomy, I found that it was actually pretty helpful knowing the muscle names as it helped me identify them. The nomenclature actually makes a lot of sense, and once you start learning muscle origin and insertion, it really gives you a sense of the action of these muscles in relation to bone. And I find it a lot of fun, helps me find a nice connection between science and art. I don't know the muscles well at all right now, but I will after enough studying.

Anyway - another day, another page. I'm doing poses from pose maniacs and a lot of those poses and camera angles are ridiculous, but it's definitely good training.

[Eon]

I love your futuristic post-apocalyptic thread title! I can relate to it as I'm digging my escape tunnel as well. It's not too strange that you're a writer interested in drawing and painting as so much of writing is visualizing and then communicating it with words. Writing skills should translate very well to illustration.

You're certainly already on the right path. It's all about maintaining the effort! Best of luck!

[MT-Mystic]

Eon - Yeah, I definitely find it interesting relating written communication to visual communication. Actually, I find that if you're willing to make the connections, improving your drawing can help improve your writing, and learning to write better can give you more meaningful things to draw. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I've been on this path for a while now, but it's only until recently that I've managed to maintain my efforts somewhat more.

Anyway, another page. Even though they might not look it, I actually spend a decent amount of time on the poses. Hopefully I will begin to see some improvement.

[MT-Mystic]

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[MT-Mystic]

Drawing from life as opposed to photos is actually pretty liberating. Also more annoying though.

[MT-Mystic]

Been a while. No excuses.

[MT-Mystic]

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[MT-Mystic]

It has taken me two months to let go of fear, frustration, resentment, and entitlement. I guess that's something

Still need to work on purposelessness, stamina, innovation, design, and other things though.

[MT-Mystic]

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[p sage]

Holy smokes! Massive improvement in three months. I think you're escaping that land of suck pretty convincingly.

Still doing the posemaniacs stuff?

It's funny how we all know after a very short time who's drawing from Loomins, from Bridgman, from posemaniacs, lol, cuz we all do the same.

Great job. Keep rockin

[Rolo]

I don't think you were ever in the land of suck. Great stuff!!!

[MT-Mystic]

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[Pepperminta]

Wow, that dragon/wolf thing is really nice. You definitely put a lot of work into that. I can't wait to get to my longer projects. First I need to do a lot of gestures, study anatomy more intentionally and learn how to do digital painting.

At any rate, good luck! *clink* Here's to the adventure ahead.

[MT-Mystic]

I've been drawing for about a decade now. It's been a brutal journey. I'm about out of hope.

[MT-Mystic]

Couple things from a while ago.

[NeonDuck]

you got some nice variety from traditional to digital

i think one of the things that's holding you back tho is your tendency to scribble. you can see it in the posemaniacs you've done. rather than do a simple, strong confident line for an arm you scribble all over the place until it sort of looks right. you need to look at each line and think about it before you draw, and if it doesn't look right then think about why its not working

I reckon it shows less in the digital ones because you can cover up mistakes a lot easier (undo), so they end up looking better. it just shows that your foundations are a bit wobbly, I'd focus on that rather than shading and lighting etc

[jNeumann]

Love the sculptures, and that last digital figure study is great. Keep it up!

[MT-Mystic]

NeonDuck - Yeah, those sketches were from last year - I think I've improved, but you're right. I've been drawing for 12 years, but I don't think I've ever really learned to draw. I don't make confident marks because I have nothing to be confident about. I actually tried oil painting seriously for several months, and it was terrible; I can only work digitally now as it's the only way I can cover up my mistakes.

In any case, some stuff from a game production. Didn't turn out so hot.

[MT-Mystic]

Damn you LINRAN!

Some day before I die, I will do something half as good as you.

[MT-Mystic]

So have I improved over the last 2 years? Not sure. Feels like a lost cause. But there's nothing left to do but keep fighting.

[MT-Mystic]

Finally doing what I should've done long, long ago: copying all of Bridgeman's anatomy (Hey, it worked for Frazetta, it can work for me). After that, it'll be Loomis, then Bammes. Assuming I don't die first.

[Ifat Glassman]

So have I improved over the last 2 years? Not sure. Feels like a lost cause. But there's nothing left to do but keep fighting.

I love love love love love your devil dude.

[MT-Mystic]

kimozabbi: Yeah, it's sort of a myth, but supposedly he copied the whole book in a day. Considering the kind of person Frazetta was, it's believable.

Sporus: Yeah, it's not hard to do replicas of Bridgman if you just pay attention to the strokes - the hard part is learning anything from it, which is where I feel I really failed. I appreciate your enthusiasm - I wish I could share it. I actually haven't been producing much art in the last 6 months, mostly because of my own insecurities and steadily waning interest. I have a lot of half finished projects that I can't seem to complete. But thanks for the encouragement.

Aondê: Thanks.

Ifat Glassman: Thanks. That painting is highly problematic - there's so much I didn't fix as I got sick of it. Sometimes it ends up feeling like a painting is a lost cause and it's better to just dump it and cut your losses. But I'm glad you like it.

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Some characters that took me far too long and are still problematic.