I'm looking for new topics to feature in our blog in the coming year, and I want to know: What's your artistic challenge?
Please leave a comment on this post with suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered here. Nothing could be more rewarding than knowing I'm writing articles that are helping real people out there in the world!
Definitely colour. It's such a challenging, rich, ever-changing subject! One could paint a landscape a thousand times and still be amazed by its colours.
Kim
- Site admin
Wow, interesting that you both had the same response! I will see what I can do about finding some people to speak to us about this topic. I too would love to know more about color.
Thank you Kim :)
Lightsyde
Faces and Perspective.
Forshortening would be nice, especially with full body figures and hands. Proko.com seems to have a lot of resources on faces so feeling pretty good on that for now.
There are really very few proper hand tutorials that I've found as far as measurement/structure/position fundamentals go. The new tool will be nice, but a walkthrough article would also be useful.
The difficulty of drawing in a public setting such as a class. At home I'm comfortable alone with my work and ability, but as soon as you bring along peers and a teacher, I become so apprehensive that my art work suffers because I lose focus.
Kim
- Site admin
Is it nervousness that other people will look at your unfinished work, or are you uneasy with crowds in general?
pameladallaire
The trick to teaching is PRACTICE and knowing your subject inside, outside, and up-side down. If you are passionate about a subject, the teaching becomes easier.
Ask a few friends to sit through a class, you would be surprised how nervous you can become at first, even with your best friends. The more classes you teach, the easier, and easier it becomes.
I actually run through the class alone, talking just as I would if people were in front of me. (Do it when no one else is in the house!) I make corrections to my notes as I speak.
Also, don't try and read from the notes you give your students. Make a teachers notes page that only has the basic points you will talk about. YES, each class will be a little different but you will be talking from your heart, not reading from a book.
I hope this helps.
pameladallaire
Oops, I thought you were talking about teaching in a public setting. Drawing in public is also about PRACTICE and focus.
Finn
Great question, Kim!
Some areas that I'd love to see articles cover are foreshortening and perspective, particularly for artists who never excelled at geometry!).
Nearcyded's comment also raises a great point; I'm another 'can only draw alone, can't concentrate with others around' type, and it interferes massively with trying to take classes or draw out in the great wide world. Would love to see your take on that.
I am a beginner to gesture drawing. I am very slow in drawing, I am never able to capture the exact gesture in an expected 30 sec time. Slowly I am getting disheartened. Neither do I have any knowledge of Human anatomy. What could be the way to get through this and be better at drawing.
Cheers
Kim
- Site admin
Hi Dilpreet,
Your use of the word "exact gesture" says to me that that may be the problem. You are not expected to get anything "exact" in 30 seconds, it's just an exercise to train your brain to see overall poses rather than getting lost in the details promptly -- isolated details always end up out of proportion to one another. Try a very simple gesture technique such as this one:
1. https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/
2. https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/
3. https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-3-joints/
You should certainly be able to accomplish at least steps 1 and 2 in 30 seconds. This will help to build the skills that you need to create more detailed images.
vanshverma
thanks that was helpful :)
landscapes/environments are really frickin' hard---harder than you might think at first. Right now I use http://tarantule.tumblr.com/ for landscape inspiration/reference.
ENVIRONMENTS. Seriously, landscapes, scenery, cities. Teaching color to aspiring artists with a tool like your gesture tool won't work, you need to know values before you move on to color. Plus sites like ctrlpaint.com already deal with that. Hands & feet can be sorta tricky but boil down to the same things as all anatomy so a tool focusing on that is not terribly useful either.
But environments are practiced in exactly the same gestural way. And while it's something a lot of people struggle with, there is no handy environment tool as of now. I've checked.
Environments, dude.
Oh wait, I thought you asked about topics for the new gesture drawing tool, not about a blog post.
Well, still. I never read the blog. I do often use your tools. I'd love an environment one.
fiona
I'm terrified of foreshortening, and hands!
Also, I'm hoping to re-enrol on my art degree this year. :)
Hoping to become an illustrator of comics one day.
timcat
While I have been drawing for several years now with good success I took up working with color and painting in oils about 7 months ago . My main challenge is to translate color into its proper tone value and to be more creative in my brushwork. Luckily I am currently studying with an artist who is a master of both.
Kim
- Site admin
Can you share the name of your master artist? :)
timcat
Sure, her name is Lani Vlaanderen
http://lanivlaanderen.info/home.html.
Proportions of the figure such as the stomach. I tend to make the rig cage either too far from the pelvis or make the waist to small. Also with the legs, sometimes i make them much to short.
David Stephens
Proportions of the figure such as the stomach. I tend to make the rig cage either too far from the pelvis or make the waist to small. Also with the legs, sometimes i make them much to short...
Kim
- Site admin
Thank you for these great suggestions, everyone!
My artistic challenge is to take what I know and just draw it already. I've spent so long studying, and being afraid I'd do something wrong that I haven't just drawn my comic and learned from that experience. I've gotten six out of I don't even know how many, so far... Wish me luck?
I've been using this website frequently for the last few years, so I'll be putting what I've learned to the test!
Hello, I face challenges in areas that I once found easy....I now especially struggle with body proportions and face drawing...whereas before I used to find them easy. I had suffered from a stroke that occurred last year...I am 19, almost 20. I was supposed to attend college for animation this year but because of my therapies (and the fact that I wasn't released from the hospital until the end of September)...if you could please give me some tips on the areas that I had mentioned above it would be greatly appreciated.
Kim
- Site admin
I have written some messages to talented artists that I know of or that were recommended by people who use the site, asking if they have advice on these topics. Hopefully, we will have another crop of articles from people who really know their stuff on the way soon!
blackmage2004
I would have to say poses, perspective, hands, color, lighting. As you can obviously tell, i have a lot to learn still.
inpursuitofknowledge
My challenge, for the next month or so is gesture drawing.
Ive been drawing for quite a while, but the whole time its been without a clear understanding of the fundamentals. Im aspiring to be a comic book artist that will some day in the near future land a gig with Marvel, and i know the artist there are by no means slackers or push overs. They know what goes into dishing out quality work on a weekly basis, and i want to be on that level too. NOT just for Marvels sake, but for the betterment of my craft. I want to be better, and naturally, it starts with the fundamentals.
I would say emotion. I've been life drawing for years and I'm competent at a lot of the technical stuff (always room for improvement!) but would I'd love to move onto is creating drawings which convey a mood as much as a pose.
Everything that is new. I've been stuck at artist's block for way too long. That changes now, starting with color. Then I plan to move on to landscapes and anatomy. I found that the best way to do so is to launch myself into sink or swim situations with artists who are much more skilled/creative than I am. I'm sooo ready for this.
vanshverma
Hi Kim,
I am a beginner so basically everything is a challenge to me :P, but shortlisting it, i may say i find it challenging to draw live people. They are never still. I don't know how others do it but i so damn want to learn that also. But I would like to add your references of the models have helped me alot to draw still people.
And add something for still life study if you can, sorry that's a lot of too ask :P
and hope you are well?
I'd love to see more categories on this tool, specifically for objects and plants. I know that I'm surrounded be both, but being handed something to draw without having to think about it would help. Faces, hands, feet, rooms, and landscapes would also help.
My drawing challenge is just to pick up the stylus and draw much more often.
I wish to learnn to draw heroes but realistic ones and in order to do so I need help with anayomy a poses
namratapanjre
Any type of drawings in consideration with animation. I am an animation student and sometimes have a low phase while drawing, when nothing in my sketches seem right. please help!
Chris breen (unregistered visitor)
Colour. strait up I have no artistic value when I am asked to add colour to a artwork. I`d love to see a topic based around this.
thank you
-Christopher Breen