avali:

There are some things that are incredible resources for artists that just need to be shared, and this is one of them. I certainly have a long, long way to go in understanding them and putting them to use, but I think they’re incredibly valuable and that they clearly and cleanly define what an artist strives for in their work. 

The full note set is here, but I’ll list a few of my favorites. 

• Drawing is describing form. The importance is not in the finish, but in its veracity (its truth, and accuracy of construction).
• Until you can learn to ignore details, you won’t learn to draw.
• Whatever the form or volume, start with the ideal. Then, compare and modify your ideal to fit the model.
• Where the figure rests on something, draw the imprint of the form first.
• Squinting is important in order to reduce the outline to its greatest simplicity. Avoid all those bumps
• Light and shadow in itself produces design.
• Light shapes create the image; dark shapes create the pattern and the design. It is light shapes that give form; the dark shapes make the pattern.
• The shadow pattern may look right, but more often than not it is the light pattern that is wrong.
• See two main tones—a light area and a shadow area. Some variation within each. If you squint, you can narrow it down to two basic tones. Separate lights from shadows. Increase the contrast. Make all areas in the light a little lighter than you see them, and all areas in the shadow a little darker than you see them. the lightest light in the shadow is darker than the darkest dark in the light. The object is to make all lighted areas hold together as one group, as should the shadow areas. Otherwise, the subject will not hold together; it will lose validity.
• Over modeling comes from incorrect values. One of the quickest ways to correct a problem is to clean up the light and dark areas, simplifying them. Reflected light should never be as light as the main lights. Draw them at least two values darker than anything in the light.
• The eye instinctively goes to the light areas in a picture. The real problem is the half-tones: which goes to the light? Which goes to the shadow? Half tones with the light should be made lighter. Those with the shadow should be made darker. Squinting helps here. When it comes to half-tones, when it doubt, leave it out. Make certain that half-tones go around the form. If you don’t, your drawing will look two-dimensional.
• If two light half-tone passages appear to be equal, squint until one is almost lost to view. Obviously, the one that’s almost lost to view is the lighter. Squinting prevents one from being engrossed in detail. It encompasses the total scene.Your drawing, viewed with eyes wide open, should look like the model does with your eyes half shut. Squinting also works with photographs.
• Make the paper more beautiful with every stroke added. Learn to ignore details, so that you can draw details. Look for the big, basic truths.
• Construction is more important than finish.
• Gross roundness is characteristic of bad modeling. The most boring thing is a sphere. It does not exist in a human figure.
• Try to determine planes that are at right angles to the light. All others will be slightly darker.
• A change in outline or contour is also a change in plane. Modeling of a surface should be set out in planes of tone, first larger ones, then smaller ones. Good modeling subtly fuses them together.
• The degree of finish is a matter of how far you continue breaking down individual planes, probing for details.
• Details are easy to see. It’s the big form that’s most difficult.

(Source: herpderpdevin)

(Source: hoontokki)

3liza:

ghostbongweedofthesamurai:

dermestidaeorphilinae:

3liza:

And here’s my photo reference composite so far, with combination DA stock photos and my own.  Gonna try the McGinnis method on this one.

…Really?
I realize the frustration of when you are unable to make the deadline. But this is a commission. From someone who likely wants your usual raw skill and finesse. And which does not even have a deadline.

What the hell.

For all the respect I have for you as an artist, this has put an extremely unpleasant stain on your work for me. I do not even know how much work of yours has been done this way, if at all. I do not preach purity as a total and utter standard, but this… Personal art, sketches and one-on-one commissions feel like something that should never see the light of tracing and such folly, they are a statement by the artist to exhibit the best of their talent and there is no reason to take shortcuts, only time.

I was going to commission you for a painting, sketches and maybe a few buttons. Now I dare not because I fear that you will do the same with those, even if I requested you not to, why should I trust you? I’ve never met you myself nor do I know anyone who is your friend.

I’d hate to sound like a preaching ignorant ass, yet I am by default ignorant to the situation thanks to the lack of information presented, but that’s what makes it look cheap and the easy way out. It’s possible they were snappy and said “One week! No less!” and it is just as possible that any of number of things could of happened, but the implication is this is someone looking for a piece of art, by you, not a stock photographer.

I should probably shut my mouth as I am not even an adult yet and you will likely out-logic and hurt me something deep (particularly since you are one of my biggest inspirations and drives to become better), and I will just sit there like the dog I am. But I feel fully inclined to speak about issues which make my innards churn. This is one of those.

allow me, a non-artist third-party observer, to jump in and address some points, because I’m pretty sure the original poster is going to be way more polite than necessary:

- we’re clearly looking at a piece which isn’t even sortof close to being finished, so gnawing on yourself going OH DEAR IT LOOKS CHEAP is ridiculous.

- photographic reference composites are an incredibly long-running artistic tradition, and are in fact mentioned as an established technical aid in the context of a specific (quite famous!) illustrator in the OP. this isn’t even in the same ballpark as “tracing”

- going OH WELL I USED TO RESPECT YOU AND I WAS *GOING* TO BUY STUFF BUT THEN I SAW THIS THING AND NOWWWW to an artist is like, massively insulting. especially when you readily admit that there’s a VERY STRONG POSSIBILITY that you don’t know what you’re talking about. shut up.

- holy shit, shut up. “blah blah, I dare not, blah blahhh verily, my inner churnings, milady.” I can practically hear your pipe and fedora. stop it, for the love of god.

if you’re as young (and presumably inexperienced?) as you say you are, you may want to sit down and actually listen to the people you respect as inspirations in the future rather than taking giant steaming shits on their stuff without the full story. maybe you will learn a new thing! THE POWER IS YOURS.

IN CONCLUSION:

gosh, did demrishtihglsihg actually read the blog entry I linked to, in which I posted Robert McGinnis’ method of making his paintings?  Because the moral of that story was: work smarter, not harder.

Allow me to blow your mind, “preaching ignorant ass”:

This is the work of famous pinup artist Gil Elvgren.  He is renowned for his aesthetically refined pinup girl paintings which idealized the It Girl of his era(s).  These are just three of his source-photo-to-finished-work side-by-sides, but there are dozens more of them here: http://ulkacurl.livejournal.com/212899.html

I don’t know if he used McGinnis’ method of projection, or other tracing, during his drawing, or if he just eyed his reference pretty hard, but I’m guessing it was a mixture of both.  The precise working methods of these illustrators is hard to research, since most laypeople don’t give a shit, so they don’t write books about it, and sometimes the artists aren’t willing to tip their hands.  Likely because the cries of “cheap!” will ring out from people who think photo reference taken in the artists’ own studios is “cheating”.

Everyone who’s interested in illustration is probably already familiar with Franz Mucha. He produced much of his work at the turn of the century, when photography was still just getting popular.  There must have been a brief period of ease and happiness for illustrators, after photographic reference suddenly became available, but before it was practical or stylish to replace illustrations in publications with photographs.  Lucky.

Anyway, in the second example you can see Mucha has overlaid the reference photo with an enlarging grid, another old-as-the-hills method that people like to shit on by calling “cheap”. 

Here’s another cheap art trick, also using a grid:

Albrecht Durer, Draughtsman Drawing a Recumbent Woman. 1525

See the date on that? 15-motherfucking-25, dude. If you’re like me, you’ve always seen this image without the accompanying title, and wondered what the fuck was going on there.  Primitive gynecology? A monk so embarrassed by his tryst with a local dairymaid that he makes her recline on the other side of a confessing screen? The mind reels.  What’s actually happening—as the title made apparent, finally—is that this dude is straight up cheating at art.  He’s drawing the intensely foreshortened form of the woman—with clinical precision—using a tool that would come to be known as the Durer Grid. As on her grid, so on his grid.  He proceeds square by square, making sure the placement of lines and forms is accurate, thereby conquering one of the most difficult subjects an artist will ever face: the foreshortened human nude.

But…that’s cheap!!!

Wait, it gets worse.

You know Johannes Vermeer, right?  Guy who did Girl With a Pearl Earring, and all those incredibly realistic, depthy, beautifully-painted pictures of interior Dutch life in the 1600s?  Yes, well.  Prepare to put “an extremely unpleasant stain” on all his work:

This is a camera obscura, one of many different designs on the same principle.  It’s essentially a backwards projector: the lens takes in whatever it’s pointed at, and then projects it on a surface where it can be traced.  There is no hard documentary evidence that Vermeer used such a thing, but he was friends with a lot of artists who did use them, and had the sort of acquaintances from which he could easily get the parts.  The intense perspective in his paintings was totally unknown at the time, and so clinically precise that the likelihood of his using an obscura is strong. The BBC says:

For more than a hundred years, it has been suggested that the great 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer made use of the camera obscura as an aid to painting. The camera obscura was the predecessor of the photographic camera, but without the light-sensitive film or plate. It is well established that in the 18th century some other famous painters employed the device, the best-known being Canaletto, whose own camera obscura survives in the Correr Museum in Venice. The English portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds owned a camera; and the device was widely used by landscape artists, both professional and amateur, up until the invention of chemical photography in the 1830s.

That’s nothing, though.  Da Vinci probably used one, too.

Let’s fast-forward to the cheap tricks of the modern day, starting with photographic retouching.

You may be familiar with Richard Avedon, the renowned art and fashion photographer. This is one of his prints, marked up for extensive dodging and burning, as well as some airbrushing. There’s a public assumption, particularly by non-artists but sometimes by artists as well, that once you become “good enough”, you stop having to use “tricks” like retouching.

That’s backwards.

What makes you “good enough” is learning those “tricks” in the first place.

In terms of “ideological purity”, this:

Joan Crawford, by Geoge Hurrell, date unknown (mid-century)

Is no different from this:

unknown photographer/model, likely early 2000s

Is no different from this:

Gil Elvgren’s reference photos again

Is no different from this:

Photograph of Young Queen Victoria vs. Idealized Painting of Young Queen Victoria (notice eyes, nose, skin, lack of jowls, etc), ~1800s (note also that young Victoria looked exactly like Jodie Foster)

Allow me to use an example from the cutting edge of modern commercial art/illustration: environmental concept art.  Particularly urban environmental art.

In this video from the Massive Black Concept Art tutorial DVDs, renowned concept artist Whit Brachna explains his working method for making haunting environmental concept art.  When I first watched this DVD I was almost angry, because Brachna did something so incredibly clever that it felt like he was “cheating”: he doesn’t painstakingly draw out his industrial environment using perspective grids and horizon lines and so on.  Nope, he builds it in Google Sketchup, then paints on top of the 3d model. And if he’s anything like the other concept artists I know, he probably didn’t build all the individual model assets himself, either.  Sketchup has a massive library of free-to-use models of everything from people and animals to tanks and guns to entire buildings, and professional illustrators use those things, buddy.

You know who else paints on top of 3d models? Lots of people.

This guy, the artist Randis, whose work you have probably already seen.  The image above really made the rounds. Which it should, because it’s quite good.

Let me tell you something else: the professionals poke a lot of fun at the smug wannabes on the various digital art forums who like to strut around crowing about nonsensical bullshit they think is important: it’s common to see art in these forums posted with notation like “this only took me 5 hours in Photoshop CS5, no ref”, as if that’s something anyone should be bragging about.  You mean you chose to do everything the hard way, sacrificing the quality of the finished product to some miscalibrated internal “ideal” of how a drawing “should be” done?  That’s not something to trumpet about, dude. And the pros are making fun of you for it.  Snickering “no ref” when talking about art was a surefire injoke amidst students and faculty.

And this is why:

Frank Gutbrod is an artist on DeviantArt, and has this to say about the example above:

This is how much impact the use of reference makes. Only two days ago i would be looking at the upper pictures hand and think stuff like ” Well, this is a pretty good hand for my standards. Pretty much one of the best i did so far from mind/imagination/memory. I like it.”

Sweet stupid me.

The lower picture shows what i was and still am working on today while using some photo reference I shoot earlier the evening.
It’s just miles and leagues beyond the other one. And this is even though there are still tons of mistakes in it.

Looking at the other thing I dont really think it is good work anymore. I only feel the urgent wish to rework it and bring it on level with the new work.

Will you always NEED to use ref, for every picture?  No, of course not.  And oddly enough, the more you use ref to start with (particularly drawing from living models), the less you’ll have to, later on.  You draw enough real bodies and eventually they form a sort of visual library in your head that can be called upon at any time, meaning that picture-making in general becomes much easier. 

Do I know of any working professional artists or illustrators who work totally without reference at all times? No.  All of them use it, for various things, at various times, for their own reasons, to get the best image they can get.  Robert McGinnis could draw, paint and sketch plenty good without his projection method, which is why his stuff doesn’t look stilted or unsure.  He uses his “cheap tricks” to make his shit flawless, adjusting the reference as he goes to suit the picture he’s trying to make.  If you think there’s anything wrong with that, you’re an idiot.

Okay so, where do I draw the line?  When are paintovers and tracing and reference actually a bad thing?  I say, use your own photography or photography that has been specifically donated for the purpose.  And if your reference is not your own photography, make sure you’re using it in such a way as the original photograph is not recognizable, but becomes part of a continuous gestalt within the image. 

For the OP image, I set up my model and took dozens of photos of him based on the thumbnail the client had chosen.  That’s what they fucking hired me for: to give them the best painting it was in my abilities to give, in a reasonable timeframe, that adhered to their aesthetic wishes. Photographing models for reference is a tool, and it’s a tool you better learn to embrace if you really want to move past the “terrible art” you claim to create in your Tumblr bio.

I’m going to close with a series of further examples from your own blog.

This is a digital paintover of a TF2 screenshot, probably from Gmod.  It’s still a good image!  The irony of you having posted this with the words “Oh my yes.” not long before you freaked out about my reference photos is not lost on you, I hope.

Desolee is one talented painter and consistently turns out good fan art, particularly of Spy.  But they posted a step-by-step recently that demonstrated their consistent use of photo reference (which is obvious, just looking at their work), and that reference is how they get this realism.  You should take a look at it. You might learn something.

Then there’s this thing, which is clearly a very basic vectorization of three photographs: meat, tank and naked woman.  However, you seem to have approved of it when you posted it.

Your blog only started recently so that’s all I’ve got so far.  But you also called my batmans “crappy” which was pretty rude!

In conclusion, professional artists use reference.  They use Photoshop, projectors, tracing, Liquify, Google Sketchup, Gmod, and whatever the h*ck else they need to use in order to make the goddamn picture.  You do them, and yourself, a disservice by thinking otherwise.

kowareta:

Art Link Megapost

ArtsyPoses - Relatively new, but very cool. The 30 second drawing tool seems to be glitching a little but that could be my computer being a dumb. Lots of unique poses and they’re looking to expand to other body types (if you read the FAQ they even said there are too many fit models).

PoseManiacs - Everybody knows this one! Great poses, you can interact with them (rotation, etc) and has a very cool 30 second drawing tool. Also I belieeeve this is available on iOS.

Pixelovey - Another fantastic drawing tool - I prefer it over PoseManiacs’ but I can NEVER FIND THE LINK :( Lots of options here, too.

CedarSeed - The drawings here aren’t great but there is so much information here.

Color Is Value - Handy coloring tips and things!

Ctrl+Paint - So many digital painting tutorials. SO MANY. Ridiculously helpful in everything ever, and constantly updated.

The Angry Animator - Because come on, all sorts of handy animation tips. I linked directly to the walk cycle because I found it to be most useful but there are other things floatin’ around there if that’s your thing~

Constructing the Head/Face - Done by Stanislav Prokopenko, an instructor. Also really seems to know what he’s talking about. Saving images off of Tumblr seems to be hit-or-miss so keep this link handy as it may not save correctly.

Drawing Muscles - Some of you may remember this from all of James Phegan’s classes ever! Super handy, and this is a printable version of the giant jpg he used to e-mail us.

Drawing more Muscles - The same artist; she’s really damn good at drawing beefy dudes.

Drawing People in Perspective

Nude models and drapery

Nude models in all sorts of poses

Clothing Styles

Amazing hands

Coelasquid’s “manbucket”

Haaands

HAAANDS

Color Scheme Designer - Allows you to quickly and easily create specific color schemes for a wide variety of purposes! If you’re like me and terrible with color, this will help.

Things to keep in mind while gesture drawing

Super Obvious Secrets I Wish They’d Teach In Art School

The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck

How to Steal Like an Artist

Ten art books that we should all own already

(Source: addark)

shockblanketsarecool:

A guide to understanding the references.

Read More

(Source: jaylocked)

assporn:

sprite37:

Not something I’d get asked as often as one might think, but I do get asked this nevertheless. Every other artist that maybe skilled, talented, experienced, etc. get asked this all too often from what I see. The best me or any other artist that isn’t a teacher can give you is just advice. Here’s some ideas on how to improve in drawing in general.

FIGURE OUT WHY YOU WANNA DRAW

Why do you wanna draw? Do you want to make a living off of it? Do you have a story you wanna create? Do you wanna be apart of the community? Or do you just find it fun?

DRAW FROM YOUR INFLUENCES

What inspires you? What is something you like? Do you like video games, anime, cartoons, comics, food, toys? There are so many things that inspire us to draw and influence us, draw your inspiration from that and make it your fuel on how you draw!

STUDY LIFE DRAWING

This is a common tip, if you wanna get good at drawing whatever you want then learning the construction of real life people, objects, physics, and envorinments is absolutely key. Take life drawing classes, buy anatomy books on figure drawing, look up references and tutorials online, stock pile on pictures of people that can do what you’re trying to do. When you get this down then you can practicially draw however you want and then exaggerate it to no end. Many famous animators and manga artists do this, this is basically a requirement if you wanna improve at a more efficient pace.

REFERENCE ANIME AND MANGA LIKE YOU WOULD REFERENCE DISNEY AND CLASSIC ANIMATION

TOO often is this regarded as a HORRIBLE thing to do, but I’m here to tell you that anyone that says you shouldn’t reference anime or manga is a goddamn idiot. Your professor of however many years he’s been teaching says “Don’t go to Anime as a Guide to drawing, you won’t learn anything” yet says “Reference Disney movies and classic cartoons” doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is being hypocritical at the same time. Anime/Manga is NOT a drawing style but a MEDIUM, any SMART artist/animator will tell you that (Maximo V. Lorenzo is a perfect example). There’s good Anime and there’s bad anime, just like there’s good and bad western and european cartoons. It’s up to you to know what is quality to reference and know if what you’re referencing is informative, some animes might be good at portraying action but lack in anatomy and vise versa, same goes for cartoons and western comics. It’s also good to reference bad Anime/Manga and Comics/Cartoons so you don’t end up with your stuff looking like Kanon or Johnny Test (It’s just my opinion on what’s bad mind you)

ART SCHOOLS

The Million Dollar Question: “Should I go art school?” 

Speaking from experience and graduating from a horrible HORRIBLE school, I say if you INSIST on going to an art school only go if you’ve done your research on the school of your choice. Art Schools do have benefits to them I won’t lie, but truth be told the negative HEAVILY outweighs the positive in this day and age with more useless art schools that look nice but don’t have the quality info you need. Most of the teachers I’ve met discourage some of the techniques and learning methods because they’re “by the books” folk and teach us using info we could look up on google, AND YOU’RE PAYING PEOPLE FOR THIS?! Plus you also have to factor in the other half of the courses that you’re forced to take that’s basically useless information when you could be spending time working on improving in what you were set out to do in the first place.(And people wonder why I bad mouth my school) If you must take college courses then PLEASE do research and don’t make the same mistake I made by diving into debt and neglecting to look for other schools that have better information. Don’t be fooled by schools that say “THIS FAMOUS ANIMATOR WENT HERE!” because chances are the quality in the classes have dwindled since then. 1 Step forward and 2 steps back and falling down a flight of stairs. Unless you’re loaded then go for whatever school you want, I guess. If you wanna do research, ask people who went to art schools, you’ll get your answers there.

ARTBOOKS

There’s a lot of drawing books that’ll help, go to a bookstore and flip through a few and see if they have any useful information. Books on Anatomy are a great place to start, even artbooks from movies and comic books provide useful info as well. Try reading “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” that’s a buffet of information. However bypass most of the “How to Draw Manga Books” there’s only a select few where they have people who know what they’re talking about, the rest seem like they’ve watched a couple of episodes of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and suddenly think they’re experts, does that make me a Master or something?

LOOK UP DRAWING TUTORIALS ONLINE

There’s a lot more information online than people realize. Many people create and upload their own tutorials on their methods for drawing and even techniques, they have tutorials on just about anything. Some even upload PDF files of books. Lurk and stockpile on these.

WATCH HOW PEOPLE DRAW

Look up drawing videos online, demo reels, watch livestreams, even watch other artists and how they draw (Just don’t loom over their shoulder like a creeper) watch how it’s done, you might learn something from it.

ASK QUESTIONS

If there’s something you wanna know then just ask. People with the level of experience you’re aspiring to achieve are your best bets, just be sure to ask the right questions. A stupid question would be “WILL YOU TEACH ME HOW TO DRAW?!” you’ll be out right ignored. A better question would be “What’s a good art book that you’d recommend to help with drawing hands better?” Remember, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Keep in mind that people that don’t answer might either be busy or don’t check their messages, so ask more than ONE person. 

DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES

This is something that prohibits people from improving SO much. Infact, this prohibits people from doing a lot of things in general. It’s a common fact that people are afraid they’ll make mistakes so they give up before they start and if anything that’s incredibly counter productive. Making mistakes is a GOOD thing in life, because you can learn from them. The drawing you do today might not be good, but the next drawing you do will more than likely be better as long as you learn from it. Making mistakes is all apart of life, cause we’ll know what to do and not to do next time. As Ms Frizzle once said, “TAKE CHANCES! MAKE MISTAKES! GET MESSY!” (Yes I quoted a cartoon, so sue me. Magic School Bus was awesome)

DRAW EVERYDAY

This is pretty basic. No matter WHAT you draw or the quality of the drawing, draw something at least once a day. You can either spend the entire day drawing or just doodle something random, either way you’re drawing something and making sure you can still draw without any problems.

CARRY A SKETCHBOOK WITH YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO

A sketchbook’s purpose is to be portable. It’s not something you just let sit. Back in college I had 8 empty sketchbooks just sitting there collecting dust, it wasn’t until that I took’em everywhere when I was away from my workstation, and now I not only filled them up, but I’m currently filling up more and pocket sketchbooks as well. So instead of bringing your DS, PSP or iPad, grab your sketchbook and draw where ever you go. It’s a lot more soothing and you’ll feel much more productive than you would getting a high score on Angry Birds or catching a legendary Pokemon.

DRAW IN PEN

I know that sounds pretty crazy, but drawing with pen is EXTREMELY productive on improving. Drawing in Pen does mean you don’t have an eraser and are prone to making more mistakes, but if anything that’s a good thing. As I’ve said, making mistakes means you can learn from them. When you draw with pen you’ll force yourself to make less mistakes cause you won’t have the luxury of correcting them, it’s a great mental way of improving.

EXERCISE

I’m not saying be a health nut and go work out, just move around once in a while, stretch your limbs, go for a walk, get the blood in your body flowing. It’s very productive to exercise a little so you won’t feel sluggish when you draw and not procrastinate so much, going for a walk also helps you come up with ideas a lot easier instead of sitting trying to think.

TRACE 

This is heavily regarded as taboo by countless people and for good reason. Many people do trace or draw from sight pictures and try to pass them off as their own, many of us have done it when we were younger (don’t try to deny it) and that in itself is a big problem. But did anyone ever stop to think of the benefits of tracing? Tracing’s actually more of a physical technique of drawing as it’ll train the hand in drawing certain things. Many famous animators do this if they have to style match character designs before animating them, some Korean animators even do this before they start working, it’s also a good way to increase the rate of your drawing speed as well. The best way to trace is with a lightbox so you get the full feel than you would tracing digitally, you can usually find them at art stores for about $40 so they’re pretty inexpensive unlike a professional animator’s lightbox. However, any traced work of someone else’s drawing should NEVER be passed off as your own, as far as tracing goes it’s usually strictly for practicing and scrapped warm-ups, just remember that tracing isn’t entirely bad as people claim it is.

DRAW WHAT’S AROUND YOU

The coffee cup on your desk. Your cat. The tree outside your house. Pictures on the internet. Anything you can physically see is a reference and potencial reference for you to draw.

DO NOT HARSHLY CRITIQUE YOURSELF

This is a habit I’m still guilty of but I’m trying so very hard to break. Don’t judge yourself harshly, don’t say you suck at drawing, don’t put yourself down when someone compliments you. While this is a quality that makes you sound like you wanna improve and get better, many people’ll think you have low self-esteem. Just have faith in yourself, you might not be as good as you wanna be, but you’ll get there in time! But don’t become overconfident and think you’re the greatest artist in the world either.

DO NOT LIE TO YOURSELF

You might be wondering what I mean by that, but let me explain. Let’s say you drew anime but people started knocking on your drawings cause that’s what they always see, how would you feel about that? It’d kinda depress you wouldn’t it? Now let’s say you wanted to stand out so you draw entirely different and break your back over doing so and only a select few people go “Ooo, that looks pretty sweet.” now honestly, do you feel better drawing in this new style? Is it comfortable than what you’re used to drawing? Do you still get the same satisfaction drawing this way than you were before? Chances are you’re not. I think it’s a phase everyone goes through like in school, everyone wants to fit in and in the process end up hiding what they really love. For example: I love reading and watching Shonen series and I love wacky cartoons. While many people knocked on them for being predictable and stupid it was at least something I enjoyed. While I admit a majority are pure nonsense, they’re at least entertaining and they leave me with a good feeling, so it’s no mystery as to why that influences the way I draw, it’s the reason I still draw the way I do. Remember, we’re not gonna be able to please everyone, but if you’re not true to yourself then what’s the point? 

DRAW WHAT YOU WANT AND HAVE FUN

If you wanna draw anime then draw anime, if you wanna draw fanart then draw fanart, if you wanna put boobs on an anthropomorphic wolf then by God you put boobs on that wolf! Have fun with what you draw! If you’re not having fun then you’re in the wrong place.

DRAW WHAT YOU’RE BAD AT DRAWING

While I say draw what you want, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to broaden your skills. If you have problems drawing something, say backgrounds for instance, the best way to get good at drawing them is to just flat out DO IT. Is it time consuming? Hell yeah it is, but it’s VERY beneficial in the long run.

SEEK CRITIQUE 

The best way to tell what you can do to improve on drawing is to seek a second opinion. Go to places to get a portfolio review or ask people who are experienced on what they think and how they can improve. Remember, critique does NOT mean they hate the way you draw, people wanna make sure you’ll get better so don’t go “IT’S MY STYLE!” when they comment on how much the anatomy needs work and give you advice on what you can do to improve it.

DRAW AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

In other words: PRACTICE!

It’s something so MANY people hate to hear, I mean I hated hearing it too, but that’s all it really boils down to. Someone once said “Everyone has about 100,000 bad drawings in them, and the best thing to do is to work on getting them out of you by drawing them.” that man was Chuck Jones.

I hope this helps you out or at least points you in the right direction on pursuing your dream of drawing and drawing well. Keep at it and sooner or later you’ll not only be great at what you do but you’ll enjoy it to the full extent, it’ll be a tough road ahead but never give up.

pandatreats:

apriki:

NON DISNEY POST

Feel the love, ladies and gentlemen. Even if it doesn’t come with Mickey Mouse ears.

Anastasia

The Swan Princess // 2 // 3

The Prince Of Egypt

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Space Jam

James and the Giant Peach

The Little Rascals

Shrek // Shrek 2 // Shrek the Third // Shrek: Forever After

The Iron Giant

Edward Scissorhands

Fern Gully

Grease

The Princess Bride

Charlotte’s Web

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Spirit: Stallion of the Snore

Antz

The Road to El Dorado

The Land Before Time

The Goonies

Thumbelina

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