Just from personal experience.
1: Never try to draw on an empty stomach. You’ll make mistakes and be uncomfortable. (But don’t stuff yourself till you’re sick either.)
2: If you have to go to the bathroom, go. A full bladder or otherwise does serious damage to the attention and patience spans. Plus it gives you time to stretch your legs.
3: Before you ink it, leave it alone. Come back later (a few hours, a day?) and check for major anatomy mistakes. Work on something else while you’re waiting.
4: Stay hydrated! The brain and fine motor skills work better when properly circulated.
5: Do not have an excessive amount of sugar before sitting down to work. You’ll get jittery and impatient. Same goes for immense amounts of caffeine.
6: If you’re stuck, take a break to stand and stretch. Walk around the room. But don’t THINK of it as a break. Just take time to really focus on your body. Loosen it up, get a goooood long stretch and some deep breaths. (but don’t pass out!) It’ll jolt the mind awake and let you really relax a moment.
7: Keep. All. Your. Old. Art. I don’t care what it is. Keep it. Date it if it’s in your computer folders. Make a suitcase filled with it. (I personally have ALL my old art in a thick work folder.)
8: Keep your sketchbooks together, used and unused. If there’s a good sale on sketchbooks, get two or three! You won’t regret it later. There’s no such thing as too many. (I currently have about ten spankin’ new sketchbooks and I know I’ll need/use every single one of them.)
9: Date your sketchbooks. Put a start and finish date on them.
10: I’m afraid I don’t practice this one: date your drawings. You’ll be happy about it later. You don’t need to SIGN every drawing, but do date them. At least date pages.
11: ART BLOCK HAPPENS. Art block is pretty much a CONSTANT state of mind for artists. You’re never out of art block totally. But sometimes you get bursts of inspiration that make it feel like you’re out. So instead of feeling like you’re ill if you suddenly have artblock, remind yourself that this happens all the time, and you get out of it eventually, every time. c:>
12: If you’re REALLY stuck on some bad art block, do what I do.
Draw a brain barf. This is where you take a blank sheet of paper, and you just LET your hand be A.D.D. Draw whatever comes to mind, as it comes to mind. in the middle of drawing a hippo in a top hat but you think of a jolly rancher riding a unicycle? Switch immediately.
Let your brain just vomit all over the page. You’ll be surprised what comes up and what art block this can get you out of. It’s gotten me out of it various times.
13: Take advice from more experienced artists. But do NOT take everything as Gospel. Some people are just wrong.
14: HAND SHYNESS/ ART ENVY/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS/ AND SKILL IMPATIENCE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE
like a Titan. Do not let yourself get shy after looking at ‘better art’, do not let yourself think your art is worthless or your skills are worthless, and do not let yourself get frustrated that you cannot be at a higher skill level RIGHT NOW. Your brain will try to do this. All the time. Keep yourself in check. If you keep going at it, and keep working, you will get better. This is why you keep your old art. Look at it to remind you how far you’ve come.15: Draw what you like. This is so important. (This does not apply for exploitative art. :l That’s just wrong. So long as you’re not targeting someone harmfully, I guess you’re fine.)
But don’t let people’s preferences dictate what you can and can’t draw. Draw whatever the heck you like. Accept that no matter WHAT there will be someone out there that hates it. Always. This is just a fact of life. But don’t let it get you down. I would have stopped being an artist at day one if I had.
16: You never. Stop. Learning. Ever. You will be old and grey and still be learning new things. That’s okay. That’s the nature of art. Even the ‘pros’ don’t know everything.
I hope these help someone out there~
Tag: important
Just read another post saying that kids shouldn’t learn algebra because they don’t need it and –
I mean, even if we pretend that the process of working your way through a mathematical proof and learning to apply seemingly abstract formulas to the actual work and going back and spotting errors and doing that kind of detail work is absolutely useless to the vast majority of us in our real lives (spoiler alert: IT NOT), you guys do realize that we are not in fact living in some kind of Brave New World dystopia where we are all put in color-coded jumpsuits once we emerge from our test tubes and only the children bred for high IQs are allowed to become scientists while the rest of us shovel shit, right? We are all the same teeming mass of potential at eleven years old, and the only way to see which direction that potential is going to go is to feed the young brain a little of everything and see what it latches on to.
And also, ALSO, ALSO:
Do you fucking get why minorities and women are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields? Do you? DO YOU? IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE OFTEN DENIED A QUALITY EDUCATION IN SUBJECTS LIKE FUCKING ALGEBRA. Because they’re not going into STEM fields anyway, so they don’t need it. Because they’re not going to college, so they don’t need it. Because they’re only going to get married and have children, because they’re only going to be blue-collar laborers, because they’re only going to go to jail. So they don’t need algebra, because they won’t use it.
Because in the absence of color-coded jumpsuits, we go with other arbitrary labels to choose who our scientists and mathematicians will be. And I don’t think I need to fucking tell you what they are.
Mathematics is the language of the universe. It is literally everything we are. It is how we find our place in the spinning galaxy, our relationship to the sun and the moon and our fellow planets. It is the smallest chemical reaction in the infinite cells of your body. It is music, it is architecture. It is how you know that if you set the cruise control to 80, you’ll be home in two hours (barring traffic). It is the precise curve of your shirt collar and the humming electronics that allow us to speak to one another no matter where we are.
And you need this. You do. Because if you don’t have it, your ability to converse with the whole of creation is limited to “Hello,” “Thank you,” and “Bathroom?”
STOP LETTING PEOPLE TAKE THIS FROM YOU. This is your birthright as much as it is anyone’s. Seize that shit with both hands.
Every student deserves a quality mathematical education that will take them as far as they can go. We shouldn’t be eliminating algebra. We should be expanding it! We need to make sure every kid out there is getting the best damn math classes we can give them. To teach them not to be afraid of numbers. To teach them to be excited about it. To show them the beauty! Because what algebra can do, and where it can take you? That’s the stars, man. That’s the fucking future.
Better algebra. More passionate algebra. More enjoyable algebra.
Not less algebra, and definitely not no algebra.
Also like…this argument is great, I’m not refuting it.
But algebra introduces methods of thinking that are different. You may not solve for x in your regular life, but you may have a problem to solve and you think ‘if these are the parameters by which we are limited, what is the optimum solution’ AND THAT IS ALSO ALGEBRA.
Miraculously, things we learn do not exist in a vacuum.
GASP.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to ignore you when you want to talk to him.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to shove you when he’s angry.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to call you a dumbass or a bitch when you’re in an argument.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to threaten to leave the relationship every time you defend yourself.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to invalidate your feelings.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to not tell you who he’s with or where he’s going.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to keep making the same detrimental mistake over and over.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to use your insecurities against you.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to make you feel guilty for having desires and needs.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to tell you that you’re stupid when you cry.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to cheat on you because he’s “just a stupid guy.”
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to rely on you when he doesn’t do a thing for himself.
it’s not normal for your boyfriend to hurt you intentionally.
please stop normalizing toxic romantic relationships. it’s not healthy for your partner to upset you and behave recklessly as long as he apologizes later. apologies mean nothing after he has repeatedly disrespected you. kisses and hugs mean nothing after he has repeatedly disrespected you. public displays of affection mean nothing after he has repeatedly disrespected you. promises mean nothing after he has repeatedly disrespected you. it is not okay for him to hurt you physically or emotionally because he said he’ll change. he hasn’t. he won’t. get out now because THIS! IS! NOT! NORMAL! other couples do not go through this. other couples did NOT have to go through this to be in a happy, wholesome place.
he is manipulative and selfish and he is making you weak every time you agree to stay. even when you feel like “maybe this time, things will be okay,” they won’t – that’s what he wants you to think so you never slip from his grasp. you know as well as i do you’re 50 times overdue for “this is his last chance.” this is not normal.
Before You Hate Your Art Or Stop Drawing
Remember that all those people you think are classic artists and amazing? Yeah a bunch of them did that same shit.
This is prevalent among the people many of use would consider to be the best of us. Even people like Monet suffer from the idea that their work isn’t good enough or that their work doesn’t meet their expectations.
Do the work anyway. Bad art, art you hate, art you’re not satisfied with? It’s still art. It’s still worth making. And even if you hate it you DO get something out of it.
Trust me, I have gigabytes of sketches on my pc that are never going to see the light of day but they were worth doing.
Everything you do doesn’t have to be perfect. Statistically everything you do simply won’t be perfect.
That doesn’t mean it’s not worth making or that it’s not valuable.
‘Everything’s A-Okay’ — Celebrating Asexual Awareness Week
Asexuality is an often invisible and delegitimized way of identifying, with many asexual individuals claiming that the world frames their lack of sexual attraction as a characteristic of being “broken.”
(Source: Everything’s A-Okay)
Asexuality is normal, don’t get mad at us for not wanting to do the do with you. We’re literally doing NOTHING wrong… BC we’re doing nothing at all.
dont get mad at your friends for having other friends or being closer to their other friends for fucks sake they’re different people with different lives and they dont exist to cater exclusively to you or to anyone
Hi! My question is how do you get into the online entertainment field? It doesn’t have to be directly producing content I just want to be involved in the process of it all.
You need to be passionate; but above all else, you need to be a team player. Always support your peers and learn from any critiques they give you. Be a genuine friend – don’t suck up to someone because you think their friendship with give you status.
Always be aware of public relations and public perception.
If you want to be involved in the management side, reach out to others and show them what you can offer. You really need to care about the people you’re managing and you need to take it seriously. These people are putting their art in your hands. You also have to be likable and put the contributors at ease that they made the right decision in allowing you to manage their work.
If you want to be a content creator, come up with a concept that you can devoted to as well as proud. Develop your content not with the intention of instantly hosting it on any site; but use it to build your own portfolio. Ask for feedback and listen. Once you feel like you’ve built a body of work that you’re comfortable with, begin to submit it around. Don’t be discouraged if you’re rejected or given a list of things that need to be tweaked. Take the critique, continue to work, then reapply when you feel ready. You need to have a thick skin and not take things personally. You also can’t give up due to a failure. Everything worth doing takes work and persistence.
How… what process do you go through for human drawings? I admit to drawing a humanoid maybe once or twice a year on average, but it’s like ??????? I know the key is to draw them more often, but how do you start out your drawings? Do you have any pointers that help you?
Tbh…I didn’t start getting better at people until I was in a position where I had to haha. Like. Basically when I started taking figuring drawing courses and was drawing them every single day. If it wasn’t during class, I had homework that involved figures of some kind. (Not to say, weLL OBVIOUSLY THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET BETTER. But that’s how it happened to me. I know plenty of people who just…get better by always drawing people and using good reference)
When my anime renaissance of sorts came along when I hit like..20?? That alone fueled me to get better because I wanted to indulge in fanart and stuff. So I guess one thing I would definitely suggest is finding something that will push you and inspire you to get better. My Hetalia phase got me started forever ago.
As for the process? It’s no different than the process for drawing something non-human. It’s just different anatomy you’re dealing with is all. I start off with a gesture of some kind and hop to it. Sometimes I’ll just wing it from the beginning, often time I’ll go through my heaping pile of references before I do any drawing to get some ideas if I don’t have any.
When I’m doing full body stuff this is how I usually start off before I go in for a clean up job.
Right now I’m kinda indulging in FMA at the moment, so I used good old Edward.
Hope that kinda…helps. At least a little.
Reblogging this here because I think this is very important. Having something to motivate you to get better is, I think, essential. Be that your own internal fire, wanting to get into college, wanting to draw fanart, whatever.
Just whatever it takes to get you to practice, and practice a lot.
Also look at that full-figure sketch before going in for the details! A++
KILL YOUR EGO and how it applies to webcomics.
I have a background in classical animation, and on the first day of my first class in my first year, my professor, who was also the program administrator, sat us down and told us the most important thing that we would learn in the years to come: KILL YOUR EGO. This sage advice made enough of an impression that, even though I don’t work in the industry, it still sticks with me a decade later.This sentiment isn’t exclusive to animation, and I have met many professional illustrators and designers and even graphic designers that use it as some sort of secret password to an actually not existing underground club. We wink at each other as it leaves our lips while we watch someone else have a public melt-down, and walk away shuddering as we remember those first days of college or university where our assignments were taped up on the white board while the entire class huddled around them and picked them to shreds. It stung at the time, but it laid the foundation for the tone that I feel every aspiring comic artist should take.
The idea behind KILL YOUR EGO is this:
Whatever sense of self entitlement you had growing up, being that one kid in class who was the best at drawing, getting compliments and validation from every adult in your young life and admiration and envy from your peers—this is what causes you to lash out, to feel hurt or insulted every time someone looks at your work and says “Meh, it could be better.”
This is what causes you to lose your mind every time you receive unsolicited critique, and you NEED to get rid of it; that one public outburst could become a big internet joke, and it could cost you jobs or freelance work. That one kid that you decided to take down a peg to feed your own ego? Won’t YOU be surprised when you sit down for a job interview and he’s the one flipping through your portfolio five years down the line—it’s the same on the net. That one kid that you tore down on SmackJeeves could be that weird overnight internet sensation who starts rubbing elbows with other internet famous people, and they might love to tell all their new friends about how much of a dick you were to them. Letting your ego run free and rampant burns bridges. You don’t need it, and you can bet that your peers won’t need you if the first thing they do every time your name comes up is giggle and recount that one time you totally lost it on someone who tried to give you advice.
Art is hard work. Getting good at it is even harder. Most of the people who continue to do it today had endless encouragement as children and got the full special snowflake treatment from others that other kids were getting for sports or grades. I get it, it was your thing—it was my thing, too. The issue with this is that when you enter a field like animation or illustration or even webcomics, everyone around you, every single one of your peers, is that kid. They were the YOU of their school yard. Their friends were in awe, their teachers were gushing, their parents proud. We all go from being that one special kid who is good at drawing to just one more face in a sea of people who are trying to do the exact same thing as we are, and many of whom are doing it better.
While you may argue that no one is giving out webcomic jobs, people like Ryan North and Ryan Estrada and Spike Trotman might beg to differ. As the years pass and with the event of the creation of websites like Kickstarter, projects like theirs that require many artists and offer paid work are becoming more common and more viable as sources of income and notoriety. Now is the time to make sure that whatever notoriety follows you is nothing but glowing, positive anecdotes and references on what a great person you are to work with.
Go forth and be nothing but awesome, at least in public!
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- Young Justice
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- Batman: Under the Red Hood
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- Young Justice
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- Son of Batman
this is really important guys